He is definitely in the minority. The TOS and TMP Enterprise has actually very few poor angles.
Star Trek V isn't that bad...
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I don't entirely agree but I appreciate that he was working with it and saw it in person I can't fault his opinion.
Shatner directed. David Loughery wrote.
Correct. Loughery and Bennett had cracked a story and very rough outline when the WGA went on strike in February 1988. The strike didn't end until August of 1988. That left Loughery with a month to write the shooting script so filming could begin in October '88 for the June '89 release.
Shatner wrote the original treatment for the story. He then refined it in collaboration with Loughery and Bennett. Loughery then wrote the screenplay based on the story they had come up with.
That still doesn't mean he wrote the movie. The sole name on the script is Loughery.
He did not write the screenplay, but the entire plot of the film was his idea, and he individually wrote the treatment that was sold to the studio. He then developed the story over a full year with Loughery and Harve Bennett. Loughery wrote the screenplay based on that story. Shat was still the driving force behind the plot, themes, etc. at all times. The fact that he also directed the film means that he was uniquely positioned to bring his vision to the screen as well.
There were definite story elements that changed over time as the result of the collaboration between the three writers (Sybok’s relationship with Spock, the concept of the Great Barrier, “God/Devil” becoming an alien imposter, etc)…but he was the driver.
The “making of” book he wrote with his daughter Lisabeth goes into fascinating detail around the story development and writing process. It’s worth a look!
I have it. I've read it. And much like his Memories / Movie Memories books, 90 percent of it is bullshit.
What makes you say that?
Klaa wasn't ordered to investigate. Vixis just mentioned that there was new data about a hostage situation. We don't even know if the Empire was the ones that sent the data. Klaa then just assumed Starfleet would send a ship of their own that he could engage with. He didn't give a crap about rescuing Koord.
I wouldn't go that far. The impression that was given for the Klingons in STIII and V is that they are just thugs who simply fly aimlessly through space, under no one's authority but their own, looking for reasons to get into fights. If Klaa didn't assume that the Federation was also sending a ship that he could engage with, he probably wouldn't have even bothered to try to save Koord.
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Of course. He wanted to be the Klingon that beat Kirk. But he’s also now the Klingon that saved Kirk, because he followed orders from Koord, or at least listened — and then gave his chair to Spock, because if he had accidentally shot Kirk it would have been very bad.
We don’t know he would t have bothered though.
Because much of it, like the Memories books (which, like all of Shatner's supposedly authored books, were ghostwritten), is factually incorrect.
I'd be interested in some examples of what is factually incorrect.
I hissed like a cobra when I first heard that.
A perfectly spherical attitude, to quote Fritz Zwicky
Was it he that coined the phrase “ships on sticks?”
But, then too, would pay good money to have him make a Trek ship design of his own.
The Excelsior model, though more easily handed…that can look spindly…one DS9 episode where it seemed to flip looked bad.
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The only good scene in the whole film was in the 'I need my pain' scene.
IMHO, ST V is horrible. After the greatness of movies 2-4, I have rarely if ever felt so let down and cheated when walking out of a movie theater.
I have spoken.
I have spoken.
It’s not! Not bad at all. Shatner had some severe problems, especially filming the desert scenes because sand kept on getting into the film. They had to do a kind of pan and scan to cut out the portions of the film that got wrecked by sand, which is why the composition of some of those shots doesn’t look very good. Also, he wanted to reproduce the star scene from city on the edge of forever, where the trio are having the “Marshmelon” cookout… where the camera rises up into the sky to give the starry background- that one little scene was way too expensive to create, and it caused a lot of problems. I don’t think it was ever done the way that he wanted to do it.
also, he didn’t have ILM, so some of the special effects look like scenes from old 50s movies. But I liked that, it gave a surreal look to some of the scenes of shuttlecraft flying around.
I think pretty much that was Shatner’s very first attempt at directing anything, maybe he had done a television show here and there beforehand I will have to check. As a first attempt at a feature film, though, it was pretty good.
I saw it in the theater and it basically gave me a good feeling. I liked it a lot.
oh yes and the interactions between Kirk, McCoy and Spock are some of the best, especially McCoys apoplectic reaction to Kirk trying to climb El Capitan
also, he didn’t have ILM, so some of the special effects look like scenes from old 50s movies. But I liked that, it gave a surreal look to some of the scenes of shuttlecraft flying around.
I think pretty much that was Shatner’s very first attempt at directing anything, maybe he had done a television show here and there beforehand I will have to check. As a first attempt at a feature film, though, it was pretty good.
I saw it in the theater and it basically gave me a good feeling. I liked it a lot.
oh yes and the interactions between Kirk, McCoy and Spock are some of the best, especially McCoys apoplectic reaction to Kirk trying to climb El Capitan
It certainly didn't help that Dee Kelly was very ill during the shoot.
I had not heard that, it makes sense now. I had heard the same when he was making undiscovered country, especially when the Kirks roll over him during the fight on Rura Pente.
I’ve argued this point before, but, as the resolution of the conflict depends upon the Klingon General-turned-ambassador Korrd, they should have devoted some development to this character! It's not as if the movie was too long, nor were there cringe-worthy material that could have been lost.
As it plays, The General is there for crude humor, muttering, drooling and belching, until the denouement, where he reasserts long-dormant authority out of left field to discipline the young Klingon troublemaker and save the day. (There has even resurfaced a deleted scene that makes him worse.)
Why not have some dialogue that suggested that the General wasn't discredited for military incompetence, but maybe for, oh, a misguided show of mercy to a vanquished people? Why not give him a face-to-face scene with that guy who plays Kirk, discussing his fall from grace, and having the latter guy remind him of his former glory, setting up the climax? (If such a scene couldn’t fit into the existing plot, it could have been a flashback to a much earlier meeting.) Why didn't the director, whomever it was, think of that? It wouldn't have added very much to the budget.
As it plays, The General is there for crude humor, muttering, drooling and belching, until the denouement, where he reasserts long-dormant authority out of left field to discipline the young Klingon troublemaker and save the day. (There has even resurfaced a deleted scene that makes him worse.)
Why not have some dialogue that suggested that the General wasn't discredited for military incompetence, but maybe for, oh, a misguided show of mercy to a vanquished people? Why not give him a face-to-face scene with that guy who plays Kirk, discussing his fall from grace, and having the latter guy remind him of his former glory, setting up the climax? (If such a scene couldn’t fit into the existing plot, it could have been a flashback to a much earlier meeting.) Why didn't the director, whomever it was,
think of that? It wouldn't have added very much to the budget.
I actually love 'row, row, row your boat'.
I know many disagree.
STV is a deeply flawed movie, but it has its moments and our heroes sitting around a campfire doing nothing more than sing together is one of the most beautifully human scenes in all of Star Trek.
