Thanks Nightowl1701!
As a huge TMP fan (in spite of its undeniable flaws), I'm still waiting for a definitive tell-all on its tortured production -- maybe a continuation of the Phase II: Lost Series book. There is still so much to be told about what went wrong and when: the sacking of Abel and Associates, the endless script rewrites (most of what we know comes from Harold Livingston -- hardly an objective source), and the studio machinations that led to Roddenberry's marginalization on the project.
The last point is mostly conjecture on my part. I am hardly a blind GR defender, but as I skim this script I'm struck by how much drama and action didn't make it to the screen. Just read the Klingon / V'ger battle scene as written in this draft by GR compared to what we ultimately got. Behind the scenes footage (Abel tests I believe) shows conventionally exploding Klingon ships, so that was obviously the intent from the beginning -- showing the Klingons being graphically and brutally defeated by an unknown force. Instead we got the visually striking -- but also abstract, antiseptic, and lifeless -- digitization and then vanishing effect.
Then there are all of the small character moments I see in this draft between Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott that were jettisoned (by Livingston with the support of the studio?) -- character moments that might have addressed many critics' complaints about the film and brought it more in line with the more character-driven Harve Bennett films that followed. I know how quickly the film was edited to make its locked-in release date, but how could they drop so much (I believe) Roddenberry-derived material such as the "Spock tears" scene -- a scene that when reinserted into the ABC telecast garnered almost unanimous praise?
My theory has always been that TMP's flaws and cost overruns were largely the result of studio waffling and second-guessing and less due to Roddenberry's incompetence. Sure GR was probably in over his head once Phase II became TMP, but I've always thought he was unfairly maligned and never really (to my knowledge) defended himself. Much was written during his declining years and after his death (by Livingston, Shatner, Nimoy, et al) but did GR ever personally address the production of TMP in an interview? Was it not the studio that brought in Robert Wise (a legend and deservedly so, but IMHO just the wrong choice for this project) whose Andromeda Strain-esque approach to the material may have led to many if not most of the "Motionless Picture" cracks over the years? I always enjoy seeing the TMP / TNG connections (e.g. the "Tasha" name for the Ilia probe, the Decker / Riker and Ilia / Troi parallels, the reuse of the TMP theme for TNG, etc.) as GR's vindication for his TMP experience and removal from the film series ("Executive Consultant"? Ouch). The heavily Roddenberry-influenced first season of TNG was much like TMP -- flawed but ultimately successful -- but in that case Roddenberry was not unceremoniously pushed aside by the studio and allowed to keep his mantle until his death.
I've always felt that TMP in any of its forms (even the IMO unjustifiably vaunted "Director's Edition") never did the In Thy Image story justice, where most believe the film was not well served by the story. It would probably never be green-lit, but I'd love to see this story revisited -- maybe not as Star Trek at all. Heck it originated as an unused treatment for GR's Genesis II; why not?
So how many of the Livingston / Roddenberry TMP drafts have been leaked over the years (supposedly there were quite a few as the two battled back and forth)? I think this is the first I've seen.
