Why was Robert Hooks Replaced with Brock Peters in TVH

^I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I never thought it as shoehorned. It seemed to me that they did an amazing job of putting the final pieces into a puzzle that was created with TWOK and TSFS, almost as if everything happened on purpose. And they were able to make it both dramatic and humorous. That's talented writing.

 

While it's not on the same scale, starting your Trek movie experience with TVH is a bit like starting LotR with Return of the King.

(BTW, my dad once asked me if he -could- watch RotK without having seen the prior films. Wow.)


I never thought TVH took a while to get going either, though I suppose that could be a minority opinion.

Regarding the cut scene, it might have worked better if it had been an admiral we'd seen before(!) or at least heard of, but I agree that having Admiral Never-Seen-Before calling Kirk his best friend would have been a bit of a WTF.

 

On the other hand, if it had been left in, writers of any stories set before that movie could have included bits to highlight that friendship and how it developed.

 

I've always wondered why we've never seen him. He's probably the most talked about canon character in Star Trek who's never actually appeared on screen.

--Sran

 

I believe he was scheduled to appear in Phase II's "In Thy Image" and was dropped. There are definitely set plans for his office. I think the production wanted to get a big name actor to play him. Perhaps this fell through, and hence he was omitted?

 

hmm - I would thought McCoy filled the role of best friend.

 

^and hence, the curse of the revolving door of admirals. None of them can get enough of a part to keep their job because there isn't enough continuity to justify it, or to justify bringing them back. Peters somehow broke this vicious cycle, but they had to "invent" a higher rank so that all of Starfleet wasn't completely tainted by his turn to EVIL.

 

I've heard this, as well. I just think it's funny that he's talked about so much (in TMP, at any rate) and never appears anywhere. Not in TSFS. Not in TVH. Not TUC, though I believe he'd retired by then and was replaced by Admiral William Smillie ("Bill").

Interestingly enough, the actor (Leon Russom) who plays Smillie is the same person who portrayed Admiral Toddman in DS9. Perhaps they're related somehow.

--Sran

 

Not Kirk's best friend---Morrow's best friend. Hadn't Kirk been a deskbound member of the 'General staff' before the events of TWOK? But it's too much of a stretch to believe he was a close friend to any other people during those years.

 

There was a fan film made back in the '80s, Yorktown II: A Time to Heal, that cast James Shigeta as Admiral Nogura (as well as featuring George Takei). The film was never released, but I've seen posts here on the BBS from people who are in the process of completing it with plans to finally release it sometime in the near future.

 

Is it too early to start the Not!Nogura! movement?

 

Joe Jennings actually BUILT his office for p2, and the set elements were recycled by Harold Michaelson into the cargo deck in TMP.

There have been tiny flutters that Toshiro Mifune was going to play Nogura, but I think that is just some confusion from the fact Phil Kaufman wanted Mifune to play a klingon Captain for the unmade PLANET OF THE TITANS feature project that was cancelled by Paramount right before they put p2 into development.

 

Any pictures of the office for Nogura anywhere?

 

I've never seen artwork or photos, and I don't know if anybody else has either. I helped Ross Plesset with an article on Joe Jennings and another on how things kinda fell out between p2 and TMP, and I know he didn't dig anything like that up. The piece ran in FILMFAX about 8 or 9 years back, and it DOES have a little picture of the Fluor building, which is what Collins was going to use to represent the outside and inside of Starfleet Command in IN THY IMAGE.

 

Fascinating... I didn't know that. And thanks for remembering Toshiro Mifune. Now that you mention the set reuse, I totally get it - the rounded cargo pod shape was totally there in the walls!

 

There seem to be a lot of different phrases used to denote the top Admiral in Starfleet, but I don't see any reason to split hairs and assume they are different positions.