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If not Space Seed...

Stemming from a discussion in another thread...

Harve Bennett claimed that they screened every episode of TOS in order to find a plot point or what not to expand on and blow up into STII. The episode they ultimately chose was Space Seed, and what blossomed out of that was The Wrath of Khan.

So say for argument's sake that the Space Seed episode never happened, and we know that TMP was basically a rehash of "The Changeling." Discounting those two episodes, which episode of TOS would YOU have chosen as a springboard for Star Trek II, and why? What sort of story would you derive from it?
Why discount "The Changeling" ?

A sequel to that could also serve as a sequel to TMP, backtracking the probe to its point of origin and linking the machines to both.
 
Reverend Jim made a pretty menacing Klingon.
Even then, you'd think they would have noticed that half his roles to date had been anything but goofy or comedic.
Lloyd established his ability to be scary, and amped it up two years later in the Amazing Stories episode "Go To The Head Of The Class" as the English teacher from Hell.
Lloyd was also a great creepy villain as Butch Cavendish in 1981's The Legend of the Lone Ranger. The movie's not very good, but he's good in it.

It's kind of a shame that Lloyd is mostly remembered today as Doc Brown, Reverend Jim, and (maybe) Judge Doom from Roger Rabbit. He's much more versatile than that.
The long-circulated story is that Leonard Nimoy never wanted Christopher Lloyd for ST III. He wanted his friend Edward Olmos. But Paramount had given Lloyd a pay-or-play contract to keep him on Taxi another year, and it was "times up." They didn't want to pay Lloyd a bunch of money for nothing, so they stuck him in ST III. It worked out well enough I guess.
Interesting. I knew from Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories that Nimoy wanted to cast Edward James Olmos, but Harve Bennett disagreed with the choice. I hadn't heard about Lloyd having a pay-or-play contract for doing another season of Taxi.
Star Trek II also needed to appeal to a general audience, not simply Star Trek fans. That really narrows down the pickings.
Yes, true. You need a good hook for the general audience to latch on to. Star Treks II-VI all had that with "Khan is back and he's out for revenge!" "We're bringing Spock back!" "The crew's traveled back in time to 1986!" "We're going to find God!" and "It's the last movie with the original cast & we're making peace with the Klingons!"
"Mirror, Mirror" -- a doppelganger invasion, a la DC Comics Star Trek run set between TSFS and TVH...
In terms of a sequel hook, "Mirror, Mirror" is probably the biggest one in TOS outside of "Space Seed." But the second movie probably would've been a bit too soon to introduce general audiences to evil counterparts to the crew. The movie series was still struggling at that point.

But a "Mirror, Mirror" follow up is something I was dying to see in the mid 1980s. I remember around 1986-87, I was making doodles of Movie Era Mirror Universe uniforms, and imagining a follow up to Star Trek IV called Star Trek V: The Other Side, a loose adaptation of Mike W. Barr's Mirror Universe Saga from the DC Comics series. I had an opening scene in mind with Mirror Spock and everything.
 
"Journey to Babel" only solved the immediate crisis and pointed a finger at the Orions as dilithium pirates. I'd have loved a follow-up where the Orion pirate cartel blockades or lays siege to Corridan to prevent them from joining the Federation, while mugging the planet for as much 'product' as possible. The Federation tries to work a diplomatic solution, while Kirk gets more and more pissed at political inaction, until some last straw happens...
 
"Journey to Babel" only solved the immediate crisis and pointed a finger at the Orions as dilithium pirates. I'd have loved a follow-up where the Orion pirate cartel blockades or lays siege to Corridan to prevent them from joining the Federation, while mugging the planet for as much 'product' as possible. The Federation tries to work a diplomatic solution, while Kirk gets more and more pissed at political inaction, until some last straw happens...
This sounds very cool, but it might be crossing the line into story idea territory. You may want to put this into SPOILER text just to be on the safe side.
 
Kang and Kor are solid adversaries but they leave on "good terms" with Kirk
So does Khan, TBH.
But I like that they would be adversaries and not villains, antagonists that could have understandable motivations that made sense but still oppose Kirk and the Feds goals.
 
The trick of course is finding a good villain with a reason to challenge Kirk.
Kang and Kor are solid adversaries but they leave on "good terms" with Kirk
Koloth is a non started for me. Can't take him seriously. His look-a-like Trelane hates Kirk, but not the type of villain needed.
The Romulan Commander has good reason to hate Kirk and Spock And even a good reason to be snooping around Genesis.
Bingo! While others here have mentioned outstanding episodes that might have made a good movie, Bennett was right to choose a human adversary who was portrayed by a dynamic, attractive actor. Further, that villain had an intense revenge motive.

Ironically, Kirk and Khan never met face-to-face in the movie, but their conflict was nevertheless very vivid and appealed to a mass audience.
 
I think that was an idea at some point. (Either as a film or as an episode of TNG/DS9.)
A return to Sigma Iotia was discussed for the 30th Anniversary episode of DS9 before they landed on "The Trouble with Tribbles." The idea was that after the Enterprise's visit and McCoy leaving his communicator behind, the Iotians were now modeling their entire planet after Starfleet.
 
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