So it looks like I was wrong. Taking a closer look at the cowboy on the bed, it looks like that particular drawing is labeled "Bones," so apparently it is McCoy and not Kirk.
I picture McCoy as more of a Civil War-era country doctor who goes back to some quiet town after the war is over, to run a little medical practice that includes house calls. Kor
Ethan Hawke as possible Kirk? I would have been very interested. I don't like how much ire this concept drew.
I agree in hindsight. At the time, I think we all were in denial that these guys were getting even older. But at the same time, we felt like they had one more in them. Plus we didn’t want TFF to be Shatner and co.’s swan song. That was my big concern: they can’t end it with TFF.
I know Harve said “we could do movies with the young guys AND the classic guys”, but many fans including me for scared that the classic cast wouldn’t return.
As my college roommate put it to me at the time: "I don't want the very last footage of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to be them singing 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' badly."
The campfire scene. I wish I could enjoy it as some but it’s badly executed IMO. It only partially works. The sing along makes me cringe.
I wasn't a fan of the idea mainly for the reason I wasn't thrilled about the 2009 premise: we don't (or I guess that's "I don't") need an "origin" story of them all meeting at the academy. Kirk got command of the Enterprise. That's where he met most of them. Maybe he knew McCoy earlier (definitely Mitchell), but holy jeez, just because the series and characters were super popular doesn't mean they were mythological figures who needed these complex monumental histories together. Having said that, knowing it was written by Harve and David Lougherty, it couldn't have been too amazing. But I would have seen it none the less. I kind of felt like Kirk met everyone like Captain Crane did on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: he was given command. Period. Seeing Kirk climb the ladder to command would have been fine, but we didn't need EVERYONE there (including, stupidly - in 2009 - Chekov). Now, maybe if All Access wants to do 5 episode mini-series focing on each: Kirk gets one, Spock, McCoy, and then have them all together for one team up "first mission together" series, I'd be interested.
I would have been 100% cool with that. They're besties, and characters we've followed for decades, spending time together. What could be more fitting?
I didn't mind the bookending of the song, but I would have preferred it if played out at the party. Spock has his Lyre and is plucking at it. The dialog is identical, but EVERYONE is involved and reacting to it. It's less clumsy to me than going ALLLLLLL the way back to Earth for yet another shore leave.
If the campfire had been better executed, I would’ve been ok with that. Row, row, row your boat. I’ve never sang that even while totally blasted out of my mind. I don’t know: the song felt totally awkward.
This was pretty much my issue with the concept. It's pretty obvious from early TOS episodes that no one on the Enterprise command staff knows Spock very well; they're just getting used to him. Kirk seems to have an established camaraderie with Scotty, as well as probably a longer history with McCoy. But the little snippets of character history we have from TOS on Kirk, Spock, & McCoy never seems to indicate they were at the Academy at the same time, or that they knew each other there (quite the opposite; see "Shore Leave"), and certainly not that they had cadet adventures together. Really, it's stretching credulity a lot to have them serve together on the same ship into their dotage, but you really have to twist yourself into knots to claim that they also were together during their Academy days. That's pretty absurd (see Star Trek 2009); just let it go...
Bad. The decision was ultimately vetoed, not without reason. Even back then I wasn't fond of the notion when I first heard of it. @Khan Jr pretty much said it best but I'll still prattle anyway : After 5 motion pictures and 79 episodes and a huge cultural following for some odd reason, doing an Academy days prequel would have been jarring, and with TNG already on the air TOS definitely had to go out with a bang, not a whimper. TOS deserved better than an academy piece and noting the comedic bent the latter-era Kirk movies had, the last thing the franchise needed was "Star Trek VI: Police Academy". TOS was a big universe and these origin stories have always been a bit naff. It's always a sign they have nothing new to do except piddle around some half-baked origins where, lo and behold, almost (well, half) of everyone was together back then as well in one big surprise twist... and, lo and behold, nothing gets explained in any great way either. Prequels and such always seem to have the right intention, but they don't fit and what's wrong with characters referring to offscreen adventures, which is usually enough or more to begin with?