"Planet of the Titans" Revisited

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

My pleasure. I enjoy research, and I'm determiend to set the record straight(er) on this darned slippery project! If only someone had the freaking screenplay that Paramount (rightly or wrongly) rejected!

I would damn near cream my pants if I got a look at the script or even a treatment. Okay, maybe not cream but a fanboy erection might be had.

 

[RobertScorpio]

James Shigeta was very good, very good indeed, in the HAWAII FIVE 0 episode they have posted on his IMDB page..

He plays a Japanese war criminal who may OR may not be trying to kill the American soldiers who ruined his life by not 'breaking' under his pressure...its one of FIVE'0s best, and can be seen on CBS TV .com I think...

HAWAII FIVE 0 is one of my favorite shows, and far superior to Magnum PI, a good show too..but not nearly as good as FIVE 0...IMO..

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Maurice]

McQuarrie labels the corridor as Vulcan, but the curve makes me think Enterprise interior.​

But it might also represent the interior of the dome shown in the sketch just to the right.​

It could, but bear in minds that these images are not necessarily grouped together due to being related. The two images to the left are in the Art of book, the two at right are not. Since they don't appear nor are 're not captioned in the book, I can't say it's likely or impossible.


As to James Shigeta, he's a fine actor, but this thread's about Planet of the Titans and not Phase II/TMP casting minutia: I'd like to keep the focus on Titans, thanks.

 

[Jon1701]

From The Art of Star Trek : Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

From Lost Voyages of Trek and the Next Generation : Bill Planer

I'm pretty sure Shatner talks about it in Star Trek Movie memories too, but I can't seem to find the book at the moment. He mentions Sulu losing his legs and Kirk getting his "brain seared" (discussed above).

Sorry if the photo's are a bit big, biggles. I'll turn them into links if you want.

 

[trevanian]

Sulu losing his legs is from GOD THING, not TITANS. I saw a show on KTVU Channel 2 in bay area about trek fanhysteria in 75 or 76 that had GR talking about his movie idea (TGT) and he mentioned Sulu getting bionic legs.

I remembered a bit more about the titans story (again, whether it was her starlog stuff or the making of tmp book, I don't recall.) New Enterprise Capt was named Westlake and I guess he tries to recruit spock for the mission unsuccessfully. Then, Spock joins up after having this vision shown to him.

 

[Maurice]

^^^That summary is a very slightly reworded copy (plagiarized) of Susan Sackett's summary of the script from The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which he quotes at the end: but the whole paragraph above is little more than a paraphrase. That summary leaves out the details that Trevanian mentions, which are in Sackett's version, which I'll quote later.

 

[Jon1701]

^^^That summary is a very slightly reworded copy (plagiarized) of Susan Sackett's summary of the script from The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Oh, I'm sure it is

The book is about as unofficial as you can get. Only got about 20 photo's and most of those are obscure publicity shots.

 

[Procutus]

As to James Shigeta, he's a fine actor, but this thread's about Planet of the Titans and not Phase II/TMP casting minutia: I'd like to keep the focus on Titans, thanks.

My bad. I only brought it up because of the mention of Mifune as a Klingon (which, BTW, would've been awesome if that had come to pass).

Thanks again, I am really enjoying this thread. I always liked the idea behind PotT; it's a shame it never got greenlighted.

 

[trevanian]

One more source of info on TITANS that is coming soon is the new book about Ken Adam. There was a small mention with pics in the book that came out two years ago, and in the book that accompanied his exhibition in 99, but I'm guessing based on the size of the new one, that it will have more.

I think it publishes in the UK around now, and we'll get it round thanskgiving. I've been hoping that the publisher can cross promote it with the new bond movie, since Dennis Gassner is trying to make this new one look like a Ken Adam designed project.

 

[Data Holmes]

I am so loving this thread. I love all the "treks not taken" stuff. Great job DS9Sega!

James Shigeta was going to play Nogura if the Phase II series had progressed.

Where did you hear this? I know Shigeta played Nogura in a fan film called Yorktown II back in the late '80s or so; Starlog covered it, since it was apparently a pretty prominent fan film with involvement from many professionals including George Takei (with the filmmaker playing Sulu's son), Andrew Probert (who designed a Klingon scout ship for it), and composer Bill Conti. But I don't remember anything about Shigeta being slated for Phase II.

I so wish this would make it's way onto the internet already!!!

 

[Maurice]

David Hughes's book The Greatest Science Fiction Movies Never Made has a chapter about Star Trek, but spends a paltry two pages discussing Kaufman's version, which is a shame, since much of the rest of the chapter is padding about the films that ultimately were made and only one other (Starfleet Academy) that wasn't. My guess is he didn't have any luck getting his hands on any substantial materials related to the project.

I'll summarize what the book says.

After being interviewed by Roddenberry, who liked their take on Captain Kirk, Chris Bryant and Allan G. Scott (who wrote the ultra-creepy Donald Sutherland vehicle Don't Look Now) wrote a treatment for a story called Planet of the Titans, which was delivered in October 1976. As they started working on the script, Kaufman was hired. Kaufman said, "I liked Star Trek because I felt it dealt with mature, adult themes..."

Bryant and Scott found themselves caught between Roddenberry and Kaufman's conflicting ideas of what the film should be, and Paramount's not really knowing what they wanted. Feeling it was "physically impossible" to produce a script that satisfied all parties, they left the project by mutual consent in April 1977. "We begged to be fired."

Kaufman took on the task of writing the script.

Kaufman said "My version was really built around Leonard Nimoy as Spock and Toshiro Mifune as his Klingon nemesis...My idea was to make it less 'cult-ish', and more of an adult movie, dealing with sexuality and wonders rather than oddness; a big science fiction movie, filled with all kinds of questions, particularly about the nature of Spock's [duality]—exploring his humanity and what humanness was. To have Spock and Mifune's character tripping out in outer space. I'm sure the fans would have been upset, but I felt it could really open up a new type of science fiction."

According to the book, on May 8th, 1977, the morning he felt he'd finally cracked the story, Jeff Katzenberg called with the bad news that Paramount had decided to pull the plug...three weeks before Star Wars came out.


Susan Sackett summarizes the plot of the submitted script in "The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture". Again, I can't speak to the accuracy of her summary, but here it is in a nutshell; prior to being lightly edited by various hacks for inclusion in various fan press books.

The Making of Star Trek- The Motion Picture, Chapter 3: Sub-Warp Speed p.32–33

Their story opens with the Enterprise racing to rescue the Da Vinci, a Federation ship in trouble. They arrive too late—the Da Vinci has vanished—but they pick up survivors. During the rescue Kirk is subjected to an electrochemical shock to his brain which brings on erratic behavior culminating in his commandeering a shuttle craft toward an invisible planet. He vanishes without a trace and Spock orders the Enterprise home.

Three years later, the Enterprise, refitted, has a new crew. Spock has resigned from Starfleet in disgrace and is on Vulcan purging himself of his human half (a recurrent theme in all scripts, it would seem). The Enterprise, under Captain Gregory Westlake, is ordered to the place where Kirk disappeared. Just as Spock theorized, a planet has been discovered, one that promises to be the mythical "planet of the Titans," the home of a lost race with super technology. The planet is about to be swallowed up into a black hole. Whoever rescues the Titans—Klingons or the Federation—will control the destiny of the universe. The Enterprise makes a detour to Vulcan to pick up Spock, who at first refuses to go, but during his tests on that planet Spock has his own death revealed to him, indicating that he must go with the Enterprise in order to fulfill his destiny. The Enterprise arrives at the now partially visible planet and is trapped by the force fields surrounding it. Facing certain destruction, the Enterprise saucer separates from the Star Drive, allowing the Star Drive to get free, while the saucer crash lands on the planet. The crew finds the surface of the planet to be a wild and inhospitable place with cities encased in walls of fire. Spock is reunited with Kirk, who has existed as a wild man on the planet with other trapped beings. When the landing party finally reaches the rulers of the planet they find they are not the benevolent Titans, but a lower and incredibly dangerous and intelligent life form—the Cygnans. The Titans have long disappeared. In the attempt to escape from the Cygnans, who have transported on board before the ship lifted off and rejoined the Star Drive, Kirk plunges the Enterprise into the black hole to save the Federation from the Cygnans. During the trip through the black hole, the Cygnans are destroyed, and the Enterprise emerges back in orbit around Earth. But it is Earth at the time of the Cro-Magnon man, the dawn of humanity. The ancient Titans, it would seem, were the men of the Enterprise!

I would hazard a guess that the invisible planet is hidden within the "shroud" in McQuarrie's renderings. I'm also guessing the Enterprise saucer might've landed on Vulcan to collect Spock and been caught within the shroud/landed on the titular planet.

 

[Jon1701]

I've never liked the fact the Kirk doesn't appear in the middle of this movie, and I don't think Shatner would either.

 

[Maurice]

^^^If this Chris Bryant quote from "The Greatest Sc-Fi Movies Never Made" is correct, Kaufman would've been happy to lose the Shat: "Roddenberry kept wanting a big extended Star Trek episode, while Kaufman kept sloping in and saying, 'Well, can't you kill off all these television actors in the first reel so we can start having a proper movie?'" I'm sure he was paraphrasing, but I suspect the sentiment was there.

 

[Jon1701]

 

[Christopher]

I almost wept upon reading Kaufman's statement about wanting to take ST movies in an adult direction that dealt with big questions and wonders and sexuality, because that's what ST was supposed to be all along. I regret that the studio forced TMP to be G-rated and that the sequels ended up being more in the lowbrow action-adventure vein. I would've loved to instead have an ST film franchise that was acclaimed for its sophisticated, thought-provoking, adult-oriented storytelling.

However, there's a disconnect between Kaufman's stated ambition and the summaries of Kaufman's script. That doesn't sound particularly adult or intelligent at all -- more like a cheesy '70s B-movie.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I almost wept upon reading Kaufman's statement about wanting to take ST movies in an adult direction that dealt with big questions and wonders and sexuality, because that's what ST was supposed to be all along. I regret that the studio forced TMP to be G-rated and that the sequels ended up being more in the lowbrow action-adventure vein. I would've loved to instead have an ST film franchise that was acclaimed for its sophisticated, thought-provoking, adult-oriented storytelling.

However, there's a disconnect between Kaufman's stated ambition and the summaries of Kaufman's script. That doesn't sound particularly adult or intelligent at all -- more like a cheesy '70s B-movie.

Yep...I totally agree with both parts of your post. He had the right idea, just not the right way to do it.

Rob

 

[Starlock]

It is always nice to see more on ST:POTT around here, but I have to point out here like I did in an earlier thread that the source of the Enterprise redesign was inspired by North American Aviation's XB-70 Valkyire and not Star Wars' Star Destroyer. Hence the "McQuarrieprise" can also be thought of as the "Valkyrieprise".

 

[Maurice]

It is always nice to see more on ST:POTT around here, but I have to point out here like I did in an earlier thread that the source of the Enterprise redesign was inspired by North American Aviation's XB-70 Valkyire and not Star Wars' Star Destroyer. Hence the "McQuarrieprise" can also be thought of as the "Valkyrieprise".

I love the XB-70 Valkyrie's design, and have several books on it.

On the other hand, while there's a similarity, I have to question the veracity of the statement that the "source of the Enterprise redesign was inspired by" it. Is there factual information to back this up, or is it just logical supposition? I hate to be hard-nosed about this, but I'm trying to get the record straight here (as much as possible), and this project has enough myth and supposition around it without adding to it, so, if you've got a source, I'd love to hear it.

However, there's a disconnect between Kaufman's stated ambition and the summaries of Kaufman's script. That doesn't sound particularly adult or intelligent at all -- more like a cheesy '70s B-movie.

Which script are you referring to? The Bryant & Scott script is the one that Kaufman was hired to direct, which no one could agree on, and which was rejected. That one does sound cheesy from summaries, albeit I hate to judge their work on the basis of post facto summaries by others. Kaufman had his own take on the script—apparently focusing on Spock and the Klingon—which was apparently never completed because Paramount pulled the plug on it. The ONLY summary of Kaufman's version I've ever seen is the one I quoted from "The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made", and it doesn't give enough detail for anyone to be able to fairly judge it.

 

[trevanian]

I kind of think of the scott/bryant thing as the raw material, like what they gave Welles before he directed TOUCH OF EVIL. Kaufmann has a tendency to rewrite anyway (anybody who knows William Goldman's take on RIGHT STUFF will get that reference), and his stated intent to explore mythology, and his referring to Olaf Stapledon, both suggest that he was going to do something WITH trek (which may also mean TO it.) Lucas had the same idea when he inquired about buying ST and FLASH GORDON , I'm sure he wouldn't have kept much of the trek or Flashverse at all.

As for the influence, I hadn't heard of the jet, but that is the kind of thing that would appeal to Ken Adam. However I've never seen Adam reference that plane either. maybe when we get the new Adam book, it'll resolve itself (hope hope.)

 

[Maurice]

I kind of think of the scott/bryant thing as the raw material, like what they gave Welles before he directed TOUCH OF EVIL. Kaufmann has a tendency to rewrite anyway...

Exactly. First draft script are, almost invariably, crap.

...and his stated intent to explore mythology, and his referring to Olaf Stapledon...

To which reference are you referring?

As for the influence, I hadn't heard of the jet, but that is the kind of thing that would appeal to Ken Adam. However I've never seen Adam reference that plane either. maybe when we get the new Adam book, it'll resolve itself (hope hope.)

As to the Adam book, I have it on order! Drooooool!