Could Star Trek V been saved?

[Mudd]

I saw ST V at a preview screening at the Yorktown theater in Baltimore, two days before its public opening. The audience was mostly invited fans and local TV and newspaper critics.

It was an uncomfortable and rather unhappy group when the lights went up. Casual questions by the theater manager at the exit evoked several variations of "at least there's the Next Generation" - and this was not at a moment when TNG was yet all that widely loved by the fandom.

 

[Grant]

The last TNG episode to air before Trek 5 came out was "Shades of Gray" -- it was a step up from that anyway.

 

[Dukhat]

I saw ST V at a preview screening at the Yorktown theater in Baltimore, two days before its public opening. The audience was mostly invited fans and local TV and newspaper critics.

It was an uncomfortable and rather unhappy group when the lights went up. Casual questions by the theater manager at the exit evoked several variations of "at least there's the Next Generation" - and this was not at a moment when TNG was yet all that widely loved by the fandom.

Paramount’s prevailing belief at the time was that TNG would be produced for the small screen, and the TOS crew would make movies indefinitely for the large screen. What they utterly failed to take into account was that not only were these actors getting old, there was no logical reason why they would still be serving with each other on the same ship. TFF made them painfully aware of both points. It was like a mediocre TOS episode as if the last four movies never happened and they were still on their 5 year mission. And that’s not even going into the problematic nature of the story itself.

Of course, the whole ‘actors getting older and still serving together on the same ship despite no logical reason for this’ idea was recycled yet again for the four TNG films, but that’s another story.

 

[fireproof78]

Very likely. As Shat said the stunt guys in the suit could barely move, let alone climb up a mountain!

What about climbing a rock?

Did they sing "We will, we will, rock you" as they worked with the costume?

I'm sorry, but "Crystal Skull is leaps and bounds superior to STV" is simply not a sentence that should ever be permitted to be spoken in polite society.

IDIC right?

 

[Pauln6]

Paramount’s prevailing belief at the time was that TNG would be produced for the small screen, and the TOS crew would make movies indefinitely for the large screen. What they utterly failed to take into account was that not only were these actors getting old, there was no logical reason why they would still be serving with each other on the same ship. TFF made them painfully aware of both points. It was like a mediocre TOS episode as if the last four movies never happened and they were still on their 5 year mission. And that’s not even going into the problematic nature of the story itself.

Of course, the whole ‘actors getting older and still serving together on the same ship despite no logical reason for this’ idea was recycled yet again for the four TNG films, but that’s another story.

They could have made something that had the crew separate but working together. I think Uhura's contribution in STIII was a bit too minimised but it's certainly more memorable than STII or STIV. They could have leaned into that like with Chekov and Kyle in STII and Sulu and Rand in STVI. Kevin Riley on the planet of galactic peace might have been fun.

 

[Dukhat]

They could have made something that had the crew separate but working together. I think Uhura's contribution in STIII was a bit too minimised but it's certainly more memorable than STII or STIV. They could have leaned into that like with Chekov and Kyle in STII and Sulu and Rand in STVI. Kevin Riley on the planet of galactic peace might have been fun.

What they should have done was make TFF with the understanding that it would be the last film with the TOS cast, and have them go their separate ways. Not some nonsensical story about Spock’s brother’s quest to find God.

 

[Grant]

Dude don't get it.

 

[Firebird]

They could have made something that had the crew separate but working together. I think Uhura's contribution in STIII was a bit too minimised but it's certainly more memorable than STII or STIV. They could have leaned into that like with Chekov and Kyle in STII and Sulu and Rand in STVI. Kevin Riley on the planet of galactic peace might have been fun.

Riley was a non-entity as a character, so why sacrifice screen time from the main cast to shoehorn in another redshirt?