What would you have done differently if you could go back and somehow influence some of the creative decisions?
If I accept certain constraints here are some thoughts.
TMP
Going back to revisit an idea already used in TOS doesn’t necessarily have to be a deal breaker, but I find it hard to imagine they couldn’t have thought of something else. Maybe the story “Kitumba” that had originally been slated for the now aborted Phase II could have been fleshed out into a full two-hour film?
So if I go with the story we got how could I have made it better? There are only three major things that come to mind.
There are aspects of TMP that while they worked to an extent I think they could have benefited from tweaking. As much as I really enjoyed Kirk’s tour of the newly refit Enterprise I would consider tightening this up just a bit. It’s not a huge thing, but if I could save maybe a minute of screen time I could use more effectively somewhere else then so be it. The same applies yet even more so to the Vger flyover. This is a sequence that really needed to be tightened up and enhanced with a few added visual instances of seeing the Enterprise from the outside as it made its way. As it is the only shots we have of the Enterprise passing over Vger are a couple of long shots that while conveying Vger’s size they are in themselves not that dynamic.
In terms of design my only real quibble is with costuming. If TMP had been the very first thing we’d ever seen of the Star Trek universe I’d be more impressed, but given what we were already familiar with from TOS I think they could have done better. I do applaud the effort to look futuristic and distinct from contemporary wear, but it looked a bit too casual and the colours were too muted. It made the characters appear to blend in too much with the background. The uniforms needed more colour and a sharper looking design. Not brighter colour so much as richer colour. And I would have added some bits of colour into some of the sets as well. Overall I think it would have given the film an added touch of warmth. In the very least I would have promptly dropped the one-piece uniform--that was simply embarrassing.
The final thing I would have done was punch up the script. I’d have asked Robert Wise to reflect more on a film he directed some twenty years earlier, Run Silent, Run Deep. I think more could have been made of Decker’s resentment at being displaced and explored some of the friction between crew members loyal to Decker and those loyal to Kirk. Decker’s resentment might also have given us a glimpse of Earth’s “new humanity” (referenced in GR’s novelization of TMP) and possibly influenced Decker’s view of Kirk. We might also have seen a moment where Decker realizes Kirk was indeed the better man for the job after all. The whole key to this is to add more character drama amidst the process of trying to unravel what Vger is and what it wants.
TWOK
One cannot fault the energy and pacing of TWOK. But there are things about it that bug me and I wish they hadn’t done or done differently. If I accept the same idea of revisiting the character of Khan then what else could be changed?
The first thing I’d jettison is the entire business of the Enterprise being a cadet training ship. Gone. You could keep the training scenario particularly with Saavik, but it could take place in a simulator aboard ship. Or in an even more forward thinking idea it could have been a holodeck like simulator given that the holodeck idea actually goes all the way back to TOS even though it was never used (it was seen in TAS).
This leads to TWOK (a less revealing title would be nice) being more of a followup to TMP. Instead of TWOK being set about a decade after TMP it could be only two years or so and more consistent with the passage of time in the real world. This would mean the Enterprise is embarked in the midst of another voyage of exploration as was teased at the end of TMP.
There are a lot of coincidences in Trek so having the Enterprise responding to a distress call from Carol Marcus on Regula One isn’t a big deal. Kirk could also have been privy enough while at Starfleet Headquarters to know enough about Genesis to decently inform Spock and McCoy as to the nature of the project.
And from that point the story could proceed not much differently than what we saw other than a few minor tweaks to try covering some of the more naughty logic flaws.
Design wise if we assume the revamped uniform designs from a “fixed” TMP still work then we could forego the awful maroon outfits introduced in TWOK. That and toning down Nick Meyer’s heavy handed naval flavouring.
TSFS
Fixing this would depend a great deal on where things were left at the end of TWOK and how things unfolded in the real world.
If we still killed off Spock in TWOK then what happens next depends upon Leonard Nimoy. Does he or doesn’t he want to return? Originally he did want to return so if Spock were still killed off then Spock would have to be resurrected. If he didn’t want to return then you’re simply writing a completely new and unrelated story. What that could be in 1984 is anyone’s guess. The same would apply if Nimoy had opted they not kill Spock in TWOK.
If we go with Spock still dead and needing to be resurrected then we’re left basically finessing the story we got. The Enterprise pulls into a Starbase drydock in need of repair and McCoy’s strange behaviour has his friends worried. Meanwhile we become aware that Genesis has become a political hot potato and the Mutara sector is made a restricted area of space under investigation. This news comes on the heels of learning what McCoy’s problem is and what needs to be done to fix it. Kirk tries to get permission to go into the Mutura sector, but Starfleet isn’t buying any of it…so Kirk is going anyway. And the familiar group of Enterprise crew members opt to join Kirk.
Here is where we take a more drastic turn. Kirk and company defying Starfleet is one thing, but taking a full-up starship loaded with possibly quite a few unwillingly personnel is begging for trouble. If the Enterprise had been more fully manned when it encountered Kruge’s BoP then it would have been a much more one-sided affair—Kruge would have been toast. Seems to me Kirk would have had an easier time commandeering a smaller ship to go to Genesis (and later still be charged with disobeying orders and stealing Federation property). I guess I’m trying to find a way not having to destroy the Enterprise while still retaining the drama and tension of how these scenes were originally filmed.
Eventually they retrieve Spock and get him back to Vulcan for the ritual to resurrect Spock and save McCoy’s sanity. The ending of the story mightn’t be much different from what we saw originally. The question would be whether we want to end this on a cliffhanger as was done originally or do we want to set things right with our characters before the end credits?
The original ending was indeed one that made me smile and if at all possible I’d like to keep the essence of that scene. On the other hand I wouldn’t mind an ending with more finality with Sarek and/or someone else pulling strings to get Kirk and company exonerated somehow and put back on the Enterprise where they belong to finish repairing the ship and continuing their voyage in the next film.
TVH
Right off I don’t like this story. I wish they had done something else. And if they insisted on doing this I would have liked to have seen the some of the humour toned down and the whole thing given a little more weight like what we saw in “City On The Edge Of Forever.” The only thing I like about this story is the ending where Kirk and crew face the Federation Council, Spock’s closing scene with his father and the reveal of the new Enterprise.
If a way could be found to salvage those scenes in a new story or splice them onto the end of the previous film I’d be a happy guy. And instead of an Enterprise-A our heroes would be returned to the proper Enterprise (assuming we managed to not write it off in the previous film).
TFF
This is a film I consider something of a noble failure. It had its heart in the right place, but the execution leaves us wanting.
The whole ship as lemon thing would be gone along with the over-the-top humour. A lot of it wasn’t funny and it often made the characters look silly.
Set the story about a year or so after events in the previous film and the crew could indeed be on shore leave when they’re ordered to investigate a hostage crisis on Nimbus III. It would be nice if at some point it was explained why Sybok needs a starship when he had to have had one to end up on Nimbus III. As such if he can manipulate people as we eventually see then he didn’t need to go through all the nonsense on Nimbus to steal a Starfleet starship (or whoever came along first).
Yeah, this sort of thing happened in TOS, too, but the whole business of Sybok and a handful of followers managing to take the Enterprise (now supposedly fully manned) is ridiculous. As soon as Scotty sees what’s happening all he had to do was seal the flight deck and gas everyone to sleep. When Sybok wakes up he and his followers are in the brig. It would be better if a way could be found for Sybok to ingratiate himself amongst the crew in much the same way as a charismatic cult leader who also happens to have some telepathic tricks up his sleeve.
What this story reminds me of is TOS’ “The Way To Eden” and the execution of that story worked better than TFF.
What really hurts this story is a lot of sloppy writing and sloppy thinking. The essential heart of this story could have been salvaged with some smart rewriting and without losing any of the good stuff.
TUC
For me the fixes for this story would be largely in the way of tweaks. I would also tone down the "final nods" to what came before. And this final story could be set some several years after the events of the previous films.
GEN
Forget the paasing-the-baton exercise. Just do something else with TNG standing on its own and don't destroy the E-D. In fact I'd apply the same thinking to the other TNG films: do something else, please.
If I accept certain constraints here are some thoughts.
TMP
Going back to revisit an idea already used in TOS doesn’t necessarily have to be a deal breaker, but I find it hard to imagine they couldn’t have thought of something else. Maybe the story “Kitumba” that had originally been slated for the now aborted Phase II could have been fleshed out into a full two-hour film?
So if I go with the story we got how could I have made it better? There are only three major things that come to mind.
There are aspects of TMP that while they worked to an extent I think they could have benefited from tweaking. As much as I really enjoyed Kirk’s tour of the newly refit Enterprise I would consider tightening this up just a bit. It’s not a huge thing, but if I could save maybe a minute of screen time I could use more effectively somewhere else then so be it. The same applies yet even more so to the Vger flyover. This is a sequence that really needed to be tightened up and enhanced with a few added visual instances of seeing the Enterprise from the outside as it made its way. As it is the only shots we have of the Enterprise passing over Vger are a couple of long shots that while conveying Vger’s size they are in themselves not that dynamic.
In terms of design my only real quibble is with costuming. If TMP had been the very first thing we’d ever seen of the Star Trek universe I’d be more impressed, but given what we were already familiar with from TOS I think they could have done better. I do applaud the effort to look futuristic and distinct from contemporary wear, but it looked a bit too casual and the colours were too muted. It made the characters appear to blend in too much with the background. The uniforms needed more colour and a sharper looking design. Not brighter colour so much as richer colour. And I would have added some bits of colour into some of the sets as well. Overall I think it would have given the film an added touch of warmth. In the very least I would have promptly dropped the one-piece uniform--that was simply embarrassing.
The final thing I would have done was punch up the script. I’d have asked Robert Wise to reflect more on a film he directed some twenty years earlier, Run Silent, Run Deep. I think more could have been made of Decker’s resentment at being displaced and explored some of the friction between crew members loyal to Decker and those loyal to Kirk. Decker’s resentment might also have given us a glimpse of Earth’s “new humanity” (referenced in GR’s novelization of TMP) and possibly influenced Decker’s view of Kirk. We might also have seen a moment where Decker realizes Kirk was indeed the better man for the job after all. The whole key to this is to add more character drama amidst the process of trying to unravel what Vger is and what it wants.
TWOK
One cannot fault the energy and pacing of TWOK. But there are things about it that bug me and I wish they hadn’t done or done differently. If I accept the same idea of revisiting the character of Khan then what else could be changed?
The first thing I’d jettison is the entire business of the Enterprise being a cadet training ship. Gone. You could keep the training scenario particularly with Saavik, but it could take place in a simulator aboard ship. Or in an even more forward thinking idea it could have been a holodeck like simulator given that the holodeck idea actually goes all the way back to TOS even though it was never used (it was seen in TAS).
This leads to TWOK (a less revealing title would be nice) being more of a followup to TMP. Instead of TWOK being set about a decade after TMP it could be only two years or so and more consistent with the passage of time in the real world. This would mean the Enterprise is embarked in the midst of another voyage of exploration as was teased at the end of TMP.
There are a lot of coincidences in Trek so having the Enterprise responding to a distress call from Carol Marcus on Regula One isn’t a big deal. Kirk could also have been privy enough while at Starfleet Headquarters to know enough about Genesis to decently inform Spock and McCoy as to the nature of the project.
And from that point the story could proceed not much differently than what we saw other than a few minor tweaks to try covering some of the more naughty logic flaws.
Design wise if we assume the revamped uniform designs from a “fixed” TMP still work then we could forego the awful maroon outfits introduced in TWOK. That and toning down Nick Meyer’s heavy handed naval flavouring.
TSFS
Fixing this would depend a great deal on where things were left at the end of TWOK and how things unfolded in the real world.
If we still killed off Spock in TWOK then what happens next depends upon Leonard Nimoy. Does he or doesn’t he want to return? Originally he did want to return so if Spock were still killed off then Spock would have to be resurrected. If he didn’t want to return then you’re simply writing a completely new and unrelated story. What that could be in 1984 is anyone’s guess. The same would apply if Nimoy had opted they not kill Spock in TWOK.
If we go with Spock still dead and needing to be resurrected then we’re left basically finessing the story we got. The Enterprise pulls into a Starbase drydock in need of repair and McCoy’s strange behaviour has his friends worried. Meanwhile we become aware that Genesis has become a political hot potato and the Mutara sector is made a restricted area of space under investigation. This news comes on the heels of learning what McCoy’s problem is and what needs to be done to fix it. Kirk tries to get permission to go into the Mutura sector, but Starfleet isn’t buying any of it…so Kirk is going anyway. And the familiar group of Enterprise crew members opt to join Kirk.
Here is where we take a more drastic turn. Kirk and company defying Starfleet is one thing, but taking a full-up starship loaded with possibly quite a few unwillingly personnel is begging for trouble. If the Enterprise had been more fully manned when it encountered Kruge’s BoP then it would have been a much more one-sided affair—Kruge would have been toast. Seems to me Kirk would have had an easier time commandeering a smaller ship to go to Genesis (and later still be charged with disobeying orders and stealing Federation property). I guess I’m trying to find a way not having to destroy the Enterprise while still retaining the drama and tension of how these scenes were originally filmed.
Eventually they retrieve Spock and get him back to Vulcan for the ritual to resurrect Spock and save McCoy’s sanity. The ending of the story mightn’t be much different from what we saw originally. The question would be whether we want to end this on a cliffhanger as was done originally or do we want to set things right with our characters before the end credits?
The original ending was indeed one that made me smile and if at all possible I’d like to keep the essence of that scene. On the other hand I wouldn’t mind an ending with more finality with Sarek and/or someone else pulling strings to get Kirk and company exonerated somehow and put back on the Enterprise where they belong to finish repairing the ship and continuing their voyage in the next film.
TVH
Right off I don’t like this story. I wish they had done something else. And if they insisted on doing this I would have liked to have seen the some of the humour toned down and the whole thing given a little more weight like what we saw in “City On The Edge Of Forever.” The only thing I like about this story is the ending where Kirk and crew face the Federation Council, Spock’s closing scene with his father and the reveal of the new Enterprise.
If a way could be found to salvage those scenes in a new story or splice them onto the end of the previous film I’d be a happy guy. And instead of an Enterprise-A our heroes would be returned to the proper Enterprise (assuming we managed to not write it off in the previous film).
TFF
This is a film I consider something of a noble failure. It had its heart in the right place, but the execution leaves us wanting.
The whole ship as lemon thing would be gone along with the over-the-top humour. A lot of it wasn’t funny and it often made the characters look silly.
Set the story about a year or so after events in the previous film and the crew could indeed be on shore leave when they’re ordered to investigate a hostage crisis on Nimbus III. It would be nice if at some point it was explained why Sybok needs a starship when he had to have had one to end up on Nimbus III. As such if he can manipulate people as we eventually see then he didn’t need to go through all the nonsense on Nimbus to steal a Starfleet starship (or whoever came along first).
Yeah, this sort of thing happened in TOS, too, but the whole business of Sybok and a handful of followers managing to take the Enterprise (now supposedly fully manned) is ridiculous. As soon as Scotty sees what’s happening all he had to do was seal the flight deck and gas everyone to sleep. When Sybok wakes up he and his followers are in the brig. It would be better if a way could be found for Sybok to ingratiate himself amongst the crew in much the same way as a charismatic cult leader who also happens to have some telepathic tricks up his sleeve.
What this story reminds me of is TOS’ “The Way To Eden” and the execution of that story worked better than TFF.
What really hurts this story is a lot of sloppy writing and sloppy thinking. The essential heart of this story could have been salvaged with some smart rewriting and without losing any of the good stuff.
TUC
For me the fixes for this story would be largely in the way of tweaks. I would also tone down the "final nods" to what came before. And this final story could be set some several years after the events of the previous films.
GEN
Forget the paasing-the-baton exercise. Just do something else with TNG standing on its own and don't destroy the E-D. In fact I'd apply the same thinking to the other TNG films: do something else, please.
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