That is actually something I have heard / read very little about - what changes occurred during TSFS, and what was the original outline?
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That is actually something I have heard / read very little about - what changes occurred during TSFS, and what was the original outline?
<shrug> Different people with different storytelling goals working on different stories over the course of several decades across different mediums. It'd be weird if they didn't contradict each other.
What versions has that line been in? I swear I have heard that repeatedly.
The TV cut and the director's cut.
There is an elaborate story premise document called "Star Trek III: Return to Genesis". Its leaked story featured Romulans on a Romulan Bird of Prey, which of course was near a Romulan Neutral Zone and had a Romulan cloaking device. Spock kept returning as a vampiric, ghostly apparition in mirrors. As it became the more solid script, the enemy ship was a stolen Romulan vessel with a very pirate-like Captain Kruge. From my blog (2006):
In the so-called FIRST DRAFT script of "ST III: The Search for Spock", dated March 23, 1983 - well after the Romulan crew of "Return to Genesis" has officially morphed into a Klingon crew - Bennett has this to say about the controversial makeup change from TOS:
"Present are the 1ST LORD of the Klingons, and his command staff. The variety of Klingons will be fully explored. Elders have been seen in STAR TREK I. Forehead bumps are marks of age and wisdom, not common. What is common is that they are a dark race of large and frightening appearance."
The "elderly" Klingon idea has been nixed by the REV. FINAL DRAFT of September 13, 1983, because Valkris wears a half-veil to hide her bumps, and Kruge is described as a "handsome but frightening presence, and relative youth".
(Since those early days, of course, we've seen Alexander, Worf's son in "The Next Generation" series, as a toddler with a matching bumpy forehead to his Dad's. Then we had Worf's enigmatic comment in DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations", and a two-part explanatory episode about the origins of smooth-foreheaded Klingons in "Star Trek: Enterprise".)
The early script also specifies a flotilla of Klingon heavy cruisers, and Kruge's cloakable Romulan Bird of Prey that "Trek buffs will recognize" from its "distinctive bird & wing motif".After they watch the Bird of Prey turn visible, the script goes on:
1ST LORD: What is this? None of you knew?
3RD LORD (hastily): It is his toy, sir. A Romulan prize. He has perfected their Cloaking Device.
1ST LORD: Commander Kruge, I want you here... Now!
INT. BIRD OF PREY BRIDGE - ON KRUGE
KRUGE: Always your servant, my Lord.
(He turns and CAMERA reveals his CREW, the most awesome collection of large, cruel and piratical men since the Pittsburgh Steelers of the Seventies. We will see more of them later.)
KRUGE: Well, my jolly lads, a few more triumphs like this and we'll all be back in prison.
(then turning)
Try to behave yourselves while I'm gone.
I reckon Kruge probably should have had a Klingon parrot on his shoulder, too (but perhaps the lizard/dog from the REV. FINAL script ate it?).
A major character difference is the addition of vulcanoid (Romulan?) defector, Galt, who essentially fills the role taken by Maltz the Klingon in the final film. Galt is welcomed back to Vulcan by Sarek at the end of the movie.
Towards the end, instead of the REV. FINAL DRAFT and FINAL SHOOTING script version of Kirk saying to Kruge, "I... have had... enough... of you!" the FIRST DRAFT script has Kruge saying, "The last face you see, Kirk. The last face you ever see."
He then grabs Kirk in a choke hold, they struggle, and Kirk seems doomed - but when the zombie-like Spock grabs Kruge from behind, Kirk is able to break free, retrieve. Kirk is able to reach the Klingon dagger and throw it into Kruge's back. Then he asks Galt to beam them up, abandoning several remaining Klingons to their fate on the doomed Genesis.
Bennett also mentions: "The writer suggests to the producer and director that no acting credit be given for the role of SPOCK until the END CREDITS. (And that's what they actually did. There's a blank space in the opening credits of ST III, where Nimoy's acting screen credit should normally be.)
I guess it was sensible to make the movie more accessible to non fans, otherwise they are searching for a dead pointy-eared Vulcan, we meet Spock's father and Spock's young female protege (both also pointy-eared aliens) - and the enemy race is identical in appearance to the Vulcan being sought.
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I thought "...because I knew something..." was a line from ST II. And I never heard anything odd or over-stressed in the word "these."
Yeah, I was confused thinking it was ST III being discussed. Already edited my post before seeing your reply. Agree re the emphasis.
Much as I love TOS, I don't think the cast took their film opportunity seriously, from the standpoint of preparing, and actually working on their craft. They took for granted that they were the beloved stars of Star Trek, at a time when they were rusty at best, and it showed. Shatner was far from the worst, but he was coasting where his craft was concerned.
When it comes to stilted, those lines have nothing on "Any chance to go aboard the Enterprise, however briefly, is always an excuse for nostalgia."
The films lost some of the magic that the TV series had in abundance I've always thought! Maybe the cast, especially Shatner didn't take the scripts seriously enough?
JB
JB
Well, again, I think Shatner was okay most of the time. But you could add that our films didn't have the best writing, either. Pre-Alzheimer's Jimmy Doohan was in such incredible form as an actor that he could make any line sound real. And if you look at some of those lines on paper, they're the worst. But putting stiff dialogue in the mouths of Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura during the film era when they were rusty, lazy, and hammy, was NOT a good idea.
Because they carried themselves like sexy spacemen, not like a dentist’s office or a Gilbert & Sullivan troupe.
Basically any claim anything about "season 4" of TOS is a bunch of crap. A show "on the bubble" ratings-wise doesn't plan ahead or do any work for a season it might not get, and not a show in as precarious a position as Trek. Sure, someone who sold a script with a character in Season X might think about pitching a script featuring that character for subsequent Season Y, but that's about as far as it goes for a lot of sensible and practical and budgetary reasons.
I don't think it was so much a problem with the scripts as it was a problem with direction. Left to his own devices, Shatner can get very hammy and over the top. Nicholas Meyer wisely realized that Shatner got better and better the more takes he did, because he got bored and started posturing less. He stopped acting and started being. Shatner's very good in the understated moments he had in TWOK and TUC, the two films that Meyer directed. (They also have the two best character arcs for Kirk, IMO.) And Meyer was obviously the guy who brought those performances out of Shatner.
Compare either II or VI with the films where Shatner's being directed by himself or his friend Nimoy. There's nothing like STIII's "I... have... HAD... ENOUGH of... YOU!" or that weird underhanded pointing thing that Shatner does on the line "I ordered you to defend your ship!" in STV. Sure, there's the "KHAAAAAAANNN!!!" shout in TWOK, but since that's a operatic moment to begin with, I think it's forgivable.
Yeah, agreed. Takei in particular gets rather hammy and cringey at times.
I always thought that Shatner's performance in TMP was very nuanced, although there are several moments that ring a bum note. Nimoy, Kelly, and Doohan are always great.
Takei was great in Heroes and in World Enough and Time. I think he was bored of being a bit part. Barrett too, she shines as Lwaxana because playing her is fun. Nichols big scene in STIII is great but otherwise she overdoes her reaction shots to try and wring something worthwhile out of being set decoration.
Takei was great in Heroes and in World Enough and Time. I think he was bored of being a bit part. Barrett too, she shines as Lwaxana because playing her is fun. Nichols big scene in STIII is great but otherwise she overdoes her reaction shots to try and wring something worthwhile out of being set decoration.
I think both Nichols and "Mr. Adventure" are way too broad in that scene. YMMV. Fortunately, Nimoy improved as a director and the performances in TVH are much better across the board.
That's right, and I'd apply it to Takei and Koenig as well, big time. All three shamelessly tried to turn every line into a Statement of Major Importance, or Major Arch Banter, or Major anything. Nothing was offhand or matter of fact. It wasn't good acting. Not that their lines were naturalistic on paper, but good actors might have pulled it off.
Tougher for Koenig since his character was always hammy.
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