This script is like the Holy Grail -- has anyone ever seen a copy?
Why? Are you suggesting Harve Bennett is lying? If so, to what purpose?
No.
I am saying that the actual script is something that I don't think fans have gotten their hands on. There is too much evidence, other interviews besides Bennett, David Lourghy for instances, for this script to be made up. There is also the pre-production sketches from the special edition DVD of TUC.
OK, well I found this synopsis on Aintitcool.com:
STAR TREK: THE ACADEMY YEARS begins as TOS (movie) era McCoy addresses a Starfleet commencement. After his speech, several cadets corner the good doctor, who is standing alone, gazing into a reflecting pool. They nervously ask him about Kirk and Spock.
SECOND CADET: What were they like?
FIRST CADET: Were they friends?
McCOY: FRIENDS? I never met two less likely candidates for friendship in my entire life. That surprises you, doesn’t it? Well, it’s the gospel truth. They were as different as night and day. As Vulcan…and Iowa.
WOSH! We flashback to IOWA, which feels a lot like Smallville, where Sam Kirk is mortified by his brother Jim’s reckless shenanigans in a futuristic crop duster.
JIM: You worry too much!
SAM: That’s because you don’t worry at all!
Young Jim Kirk is the reckless son of a reckless father. Jim has little interested in an Earthbound existence, and yearns to attend Starfleet Academy. This doesn’t seem likely though – he’s scheduled to attend Agricultural school soon.
But he gets a message from Starfleet…he’s been accepted! One of 100 recruits. He leaves for the Academy without the blessings of his mother or brother, who are afraid Jim will get swept up in a brewing galactic conflict (more on this below), or meet with the same fate as his father (more on this below, too.) Kirk leaves Iowa, walking alone into a bigger world.
ON VULCAN: Young Spock is being confronted by an associate named Shardik, who is trying to convince him to decline his acceptance to Starfleet Academy on Earth. No Vulcan has ever gone through Starfleet. He’ll be alone. But he’s already alone…
SHARDIK: Your decision in this matter is not logical.
SPOCK: On the contrary. It is logic that tells me I do not belong here.
Kirk arrives in San Francisco (home of Starfleet Academy), and immediately gets lost. A country boy with a ruck sack on his shoulder, the big city folk dismiss him out of hand. He can’t even get directions to the Academy. He finally manages to get there, via a speeder bike ride from a fiery chick named CASSANDRA HIGHTOWER, who becomes a love interest later in the film.
Kirk makes it to the Academy, instantly gets into a dust-up with a dude named KALIBAR.
KALIBAR: We wouldn’t want to get into a fight on our first day.
KIRK: What would we have to look forward to?
This is a prophetic exchange; Kirk and Kalibar will eventually clash. Bigtime.
Kirk’s room mate in the academy is an older inductee named Leonard McCoy. Kirk hates the name Leonard, sticks him with the name “Bones”.
Also hanging around the Academy: An Engineering Officer who has been consigned to teaching, over his rather loud objections. The guy’s name is Montgomery Scott. “Scotty”. He’s been part of a Starfleet propulsion program for years – aimed at utilizing Dilithium crystals in Warp engines. Seems contemporary Warp speed takes hours to attain. Dilithium makes Warp speed instantaneous.
Scotty knew Kirk’s father.
SCOTTY: Are you any relation to George Kirk?
JIM: George Kirk was my father.
SCOTTY: I dinna know George had a family.
JIM: Neither did George.
Turns out, George Kirk was also working on the Dilithium project with Scotty – he piloted a test ship, called Bonaventure, which disappeared without a trace during its first Dilithium-fueled Warp jump. Scotty shows Kirk his stash of Dilithuim, which is sitting around unused, and useless. All of this will be important in the script’s finale.
Academy “settling in” antics ensue. Pushy drill instructors, Kirk gets busted and cleans toilets, etc. But there’s a problem at the Academy – the same problem which threatens to catapult the galaxy into civil war. Seems the “enlightenment” exalted by characters in THE ORIGINAL SERIES hasn’t come about just yet (evidence of this exists in several TOS episodes, including “Balance of Terror”, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, and “Bread and Circuses”)
Racism, bigotry, and slavery are still powerful forces across the galaxy in this time. “Red bloods”, “Green bloods”, etc. are delineations that are not only still noted, but acted upon by many. They are differences that are still feared.
Some believe it’s up to the Federation to impose more sophisticated values (opposing slavery, etc.) on worlds that haven’t “caught up”. Others believe that it’s no one’s place to push morality on anyone, and that upsetting such social constructs will cause shockwaves of socio-economic repercussions that will destabilize the galaxy. Treaties are in the works…the Federation is involved…ambassadors are in town for meetings…military intervention is in the air. What will happen is anyone’s guess.
As such, Spock arrives at the Academy with no particular amount of acceptance. He came to find a place he belongs. Instead, he is no more at home here than he was back on Vulcan. Spock even finds himself abducted and brutally mutilated by HOODED CADETS. He is rescued by Kirk, who never really thought about issues like equality, bigotry, and freedom – but is now being forced to confront them head on. He’s being forced to grow. They all are.
Turns out, Kalibar (the guy who Kirk bumped into when he got to Starfleet) is a prince from an alien world whose economy is driven by slavery. He’s one of the guys who kidnapped and messed up Spock. As punishment, he’s expelled from the Academy, leaving in a flourish. At roughly the same time, Kalibar learns that his father, the King, was killed in an uprising back home. Everything in Kalibar’s universe is falling apart. Or, perhaps it’s going just the way he wants it to…
ELSEWHERE: KODARIS, an alien ambassador from Kalibar’s world, signs an anti-slavery proclamation! No one at Starfleet is sure how to react. But Kalibar is pissed.
STARFLEET. Kirk and Cassandra make love, silhouetted against the stars in a zero-gravity space simulator. A weightless dance. We learn that Cassandra is also a cadet, gunning for captaincy like Kirk.
“Cuts” are coming up soon. Grade and character based evaluations are being made, only 20 of the initial 100 inductees will continue to be midshipmen. And Kirk’s in trouble: His Quantum Mechanics suck and he’s close to washing out.
Quantum Mechanics being one of his better subjects, Spock mind melds with Kirk -- teaching him all he needs to know to pass the test. Kirk scores 100. So does Spock. They make the cut! Two of the 20. Cassandra get through as well.
Starfleet realizes Kirk and Spock’s essays are word-for-word identical. They confess to cheating and are confined to quarters, while Cassandra and the other new midshipmen are sent to their first training assignment.
EARTH ORBIT: Cassandra, the midshipmen, and McCoy rendezvous with their ship: “An old ship of the line, a war horse, battered and patched. Its design may not be familiar, but its name is. U.S.S. Enterprise.”
They break orbit, heading off to their training mission. But it’s not a training mission at all. In order to attract as little attention as possible, Ambassador Kodaris…the guy who signed the treaty abolishing slavery on Kalibar’s world…has been spirited aboard the currently low-profile Enterprise, commanded by CAPTAIN GEOFFREY THORPE. Their “training” is to take him home. The crew is apprehensive as hell. So many things could go wrong. And everything does.
KALIBAR ATTACKS, immediately disabling Enterprise. Cutting her off from communications with Earth. Kalibar wants to kill the Ambassador – he blames him for screwing up the way of life back home. If Enterprise gives up the Ambassador, Kalibar will let the ship go free. Thorpe tells him no way.
EARTH: Kirk is sick of being confined to quarters and is packing to leave Starfleet altogether. He’s going to join the “merchant fleet”. As he leaves, Spock is standing in the doorway.
SPOCK: This merchant fleet – does it accept Vulcans?
They’re on the way to hand in their resignations when they hear that Enterprise has dropped communications and may be under attack. She’s a sitting duck; no way to talk to her and no way to physically reach her in time.
But Kirk has an idea…
Kirk, Scotty, and Spock steal a prototype Warp ship from the Starfleet Museum. The Bonaventure II, the sequel ship to the ship Kirk’s dad disappeared in. They load it up with Scotty’s Dilithium and fly it out of the museum. They’re off to warn Enterprise she may be attacked. But to do it in time, they’ll have to make the first successful Dilithium- Warp jump. They all doubt the sanity of this undertaking , but they do it anyway.
They arrive at Enterprise! But it’s too late. Thorpe is dead, the ship is smashed, and Cassandra is in command. Things aren’t going well. Enterprise, and her crew, are dying.
Kirk, Scotty, and Spock jump into action. If Scotty can get those damn Dilithium crystals into Enterprise’s engines…they can change the ship into a fast, maneuverable vessel Kalibar won’t, and couldn’t, expect. They might have a fighting chance.
A mammoth battle ensues, as Enterprise and Kalibar clash in a high-speed fight amongst the rings of a giant world. Dodging some ice chunks, smashing into others. Kirk chances into command of Enterprise…with Scotty in engineering, Spock feeding him information, and Bones tending to the wounded in sickbay (Nurse Chapel at his side). A new era has begun!
But not for long…
The script goes through a great deal of effort to bring the “classic” characters together, but it doesn’t take the easy way out. As the flashback concludes, the “classic” guys go their separate ways…to other ships and other adventures…fated to meet again. “Jim and Spock walk way in opposite directions, headed for a common destiny.”
BACK WITH TOS (MOVIE) ERA McCoy. His communicator beeps. It’s Scotty, asking if he’s ready to beam up now. Seems the captain’s eager to move out. McCoy excuses himself, takes one last look around.
McCOY: Beam me up, Scotty.
SPACE: The TOS (movie) era Enterprise warps away to distant stars.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/22789
