From Star Trek Phase II for all fans of the Kobayashi Maru:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FTNxATwuM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FTNxATwuM
Blood and Fire deleted scene released
- Thread starter S'kai
- Start date
- Status
Hm, interesting. I have to agree with James Cawley's comments on his YouTube account though--the young man playing Cadet Kirk looks nothing like Cawley.
This short scene probably requires just a bit more set up....
David Gerrold's original TNG script for "Blood and Fire" was just a single parter (one hour) episode. For New Voyages/Phase II, he and Carlos Pedraza expanded the script--primarily by fleshing out (pun actually not intended) the relationship between the Lieutenant Alex Freeman character and the character "Danny Eakins"--who became Peter Kirk in our story. Also added were some scenes showing the important (probably key) dynamic between Peter Kirk and Captain Kirk. And, of course, there was this scene--a flashback of Kirk at the Academy getting dressed down for cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test. All this extra stuff makes "Blood and Fire" a two parter.
In the end, the Kobayashi Maru flashback scene was more of a distraction from the actual story, slowing down the narrative, than it was an important element that helps illuminate what's going on in the story. So, it's fun, but it's cutting room floor stuff--as much as we all loved it (especially David).
And, yes, we're aware of some of the problems with the scene from a fanboy wankery standpoint:
* The cadet doesn't look like James Cawley very much (although, like James indicated, when we shot this in June of 2007, the scuttlebut was Matt Damon was going to be cast as Kirk in the new Star Trek movie, so we got a kid who looked a bit like Matt Damon).
*The Admiral commanded the Starship Kobayashi Maru? Isn't the Kobayashi Maru a Third Class Neutronic Fuel Carrier? Or is that just in the simulation, not in "real life?"
* Does Kirk really get chewed out for this? What happened to the "Commendation for Original Thinking?"
* David Gerrold's close friend and mentor Mr. Randy Hunt played the character "Admiral Hunt." At least that was his name in the script. I don't think it's actually mentioned in dialog. But we know "Kojiro Vance" was the Master of the Kobayashi Maru in TWOK--but, again, maybe that was just in the simulation, not in "real life."
* Lieutenent Chen has an Enterprise patch rather than some Starbase patch--but we've seen Enterprise patches on a Starbase before I suppose.
* The Admiral has no braid on his sleeves.
* Shouldn't the Starfleet folks have the old "Cage" or "Where No Man Has Gone Before" uniform style?
Anway, it's a fun little scene. The notion that Kirk cheats on the test when, in fact there really was a guy who actually went through that very hellish ordeal is an interesting spin on the event.
Yes, a speedbump.
I actually prefer to think of it as a cul-de-sac. It could have maybe been an interesting little side trip which enables you to get to your final destination via an interesting meandering path. In the end, though, it was just kind of a dead end.
But I think you and I just use different metaphors to describe the same narrative problem.
Lightinspire
Lieutenant Commander
The guy chewing out Kirk could have had a haircut.
Perhaps the "situation" presented could be re-shot for a different story some time in the future. Who knows where the show will run and when it could be recycled.
Peter Kirk's jaunt at command school and a talk with his uncle? Kirk approached about accepting a position as an instructor the Command school (foreshadowing the future TWOK, when he is serving as dean of the command college), the start of the "i've never faced death" thoughts and just why he eventually accepted promotion to Chief of Operations...
Who knows what the future holds.
Peter Kirk's jaunt at command school and a talk with his uncle? Kirk approached about accepting a position as an instructor the Command school (foreshadowing the future TWOK, when he is serving as dean of the command college), the start of the "i've never faced death" thoughts and just why he eventually accepted promotion to Chief of Operations...
Who knows what the future holds.
Well, all that's true, but we also want to be careful not to let the tail wag the dog. There are Star Trek stories out there to be told, but I don't really want to go down the path too much of thinking of all the events that we know need to happen in the Star Trek universe and then trying hard to check those things off on a checklist. I think "World Enough and Time" worked well because it was this "out of the blue" story that didn't set up something that needs to happen or explain how we got from Point A to Point B in the Trek universe. I actually don't mind checking things off the checklist. I just need to remember that that stuff needs to stay in the backseat; it can't be driving our choice of scripts.
Funny, I was about to mention that in the new movie, it's referred to as the USS Kobayashi Maru. You might have swung and missed with Matt Damon (heck, I look pretty close to James Cawley), but you were pretty prescient on that note.
I agree with everything you said. I was just pointing out that these "future events" are known, so they can lead to a story where this nugget could be used...
That, and remember the prime rule of series finals... All the rules go out the window.
Over at Phase II Forum, I was told it would be included on the final BAF DVD.
This deleted scene is really cool! The staging of it looks and feels like TOS (Kirk lecturing a line of crewmen after the fight in the Tribbles episode, for example). Very enjoyable little scene, for sure!
That sounds wonderful!
But I thought STP2 was no longer creating DVDs (downloadable .ISO files) since a disrepute few have been trying to sell them online?
I think CaptainKen's comment might need a bit of clarification.
For the cast and crew of each episode, as a "lovely parting gift," we provide a DVD copy of the episode once it is finally completed--months and months after the actual shoot. These are usually nicely made, with menus and chapters and '"extras" like outtakes and deleted scenes and actors' screentests and such. Other than getting to walk around on the bridge or in the transporter room, working our shoots doesn't come with many perks, since we don't have two nickels to rub together. But one of the few things we can do to show folks how much we appreciate their unfathomably hard work with insane 20-hour days is to give them a DVD so they can see the results of their hard work.
We don't really make these available to the general public; they are for "Phase II family members" only.
Other than appearing on the "family member only" DVD, I think the only place this cutting room floor scene will ever be released is probably exactly where it is right now: on YouTube.
Nice job heading things off at the pass, Greg... I was about to point out pretty much all of the above, in my pedantic way.
(Weren't there still "The Cage" era uniforms lying about from "In Harm's Way" to use?)
My only other nitpick was the use of the term 'Cadet'. Sure, in more recent years, 'Cadet' has become the accepted term... but TOS made use of the more correct term 'Midshipman'. As a bit of a naval history buff, it always rankles me when naval terms are misused in Trek. I've learned to live with it, but it still kind of throws me out of the story a tiny bit.
Anyhow, it was kind of a neat scene, but I can completely see the decision to leave it on the cutting room floor.
--g
Thanks for clearing that up.
Though a part of me really hopes maybe you guy might change you mind and release it to your mirror sites.
There are always possibilities.....
No, we actually didn't have any old Cage-era unfiorms left over. We, perhaps naively, gave them away to the cast and crew when "In Harm's Way" was done. (Why would we *possibly* need Cage-era uniforms again?) And we only had a handful anyway, of course. It's not like we had to outfit an entire crew--just the handful of people you see in the shots at one time. And if we did have any, they would need to have been the right sizes for the actors we cast. Candidly, we often cast people based on the costumes we have on hand, rather than create costumes for the people we cast. (That's Show Business.)
Interestingly, we have a Cage-era shot in "Enemy: Starfleet"--so we needed to make a couple new Cage-era costumes for that episode.
As for using 20th century U.S. Naval jargon for a 23rd century multi-national, multi-planet futuristic "combined organization," that doesn't seem very futuristic. That seems so, well, 20th century U.S. Navy. The notion that Starfleet is a "combined organization" according to Kirk might be why the U.S. Coast Guard Academy term "cadet" is used instead of the U.S. Naval Academy term "Midshipman." The U.S. Naval traditions have some value, but adhering to them always makes me think of Emerson's quote about "foolish consistency."
Though I think it was likely an oversight on the part of the Trek XI writers.
I liked this deleted scene. Definitely more dramatically weighty than the rather silly sequence we got in Trek XI.
Yeah pretty cool scene, actually. That guy is good as cadet Kirk (somewhat Matt Damon-esque as some mentioned), but I really like the older guy. Half way through the scene he seems to catch some fire and I also like the composition which reminds me of the reprimand scene in Trouble With Tribbles. Good composition and camera angles, the only constructive criticism is the lighting is done well except there's some shadows with both characters as they interact. Nice work!
- Status
Similar threads
