"He Walked Among Us"

[MikeH92467]

Considering that CBS/Paramount has the legal right to shut down Phase 2 (and any other fan production) with a simple "cease and desist" order I think they have been remarkably tolerant. A relatively polite (as such things go) request is nothing to get riled up about. Nick is quite correct that the best way to support Phase 2 is with a donation. There's nothing to be gained by railing against CBS in this case.

Maurice, while I agree that the vast majority of fan films do not meet professional standards, I think that Phase 2's "World Enough and Time" comes very close. Of course, as more professionals get involved in "fan productions" the line between "fan-made" and "Professional" gets blurrier. The LOTR "fan films" Born of Hope and The Hunt for Gollum as well as the Star Wars fan film A Light in the Darkness are excellent examples of what I'm talking about.

 

[Kelso]

Fanfilms are driven by, and reliant on, nostalgia. You need more than that to create a blockbuster.

And CBS has been extremely tolerant of fan productions. Whining about it is silly.

 

[GSchnitzer]

CBS has let us shoot the old scripts "Blood and Fire" and "the Child" and "Kitumba." They haven't indicated any concerns with us shooting other old aborted scripts should we decide to do so--just "He Walked Among Us."

Please continue to support the CBS franchise that generously allows us to create our episodes.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Given that they continue to allow all the fanfilms to continue without comment, and have every legal right to shut them down, I don't think we have reason to complain.

CBS has been extremely tolerant of fan productions. Whining about it is silly.

Actually, we heard from CBS Studios, and they were quite nice about it, giving us a very short list of "don't's" that we've complied with. In fact, all the dealings I've had with the owners of the Star Trek properties over the decades have always been quite amicable -- save for the time in 1984 that one of their licensees made me change the name of my fanzine. And it was the licensee that was the source of consternation, not Paramount/Gulf+Western.

But in all probability, someone at Star Trek (Desilu, Norway, Paramount) bought "He Walks Among Us," and the fact that it was never produced doesn't change the fact that the current owners (CBS Studios Inc) owns the script.

Like someone upstream said, I, too, am amazed that "The Child" is in production, for these exact same reasons.

CBS has let us shoot the old scripts "Blood and Fire" and "the Child" and "Kitumba." They haven't indicated any concerns with us shooting other old aborted scripts should we decide to do so--just "He Walked Among Us."

Which indicates the scripts for Phase II were purchased under a different agreement. But since TNG did "The Child," I'm surprised P2 is being allowed to do so.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Look, none of us know the ins and outs of this, and there could be any number of *good* reasons for the request.

Well, not none of us; just very few.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I'm not surprised. Technically, they probably own the story and script, depending on the writer's contract from back in the day. I was frankly surprised that this didn't happen to "The Child" as well.

This may very well be the case. Here's how Norman Spinrad puts it on his Facebook page in the comments section of his status update:

I and CBS are presently legally bound to say no more than the following:


I and CBS have agreed to resolve our disputes concerning the ownership of the Work; as part of the settlement between the Parties, the Parties have agree that there will be no further comment; and CBS is considering opportunities to offer licensed copies of the Work.

 

[fleetcaptain]

I was disappointed when I saw this on James's Facebook page but understandable.

 

[Maurice]

I'm not surprised. Technically, they probably own the story and script, depending on the writer's contract from back in the day. I was frankly surprised that this didn't happen to "The Child" as well.

This may very well be the case. Here's how Norman Spinrad puts it on his Facebook page in the comments section of his status update:

I and CBS are presently legally bound to say no more than the following:


I and CBS have agreed to resolve our disputes concerning the ownership of the Work; as part of the settlement between the Parties, the Parties have agree that there will be no further comment; and CBS is considering opportunities to offer licensed copies of the Work.

As I suspected. It's probably a contract issue and a rights issue.

It's very easy to rail on a corporation for being "unfair" but there are lots of complications regarding contracts and copyrights in the entertainment business. I had to deal with this when I worked at Namco. Sometimes there were business reasons for stopping an unlicensed web PAC-MAN knock-off for instance. Sometimes we felt that we needed to demonstrate that we were defending and maintaining our Trademarks so that no once could claim we had abandoned them. Intellectual property law is complicated stuff, and so it's not surprising that if there's even a whiff of a potential conflict a corporation is gonna say, "ummm, don't do that", at least until they can review it and see if there's a problem.

 

[USS Intrepid]

Look, none of us know the ins and outs of this, and there could be any number of *good* reasons for the request.

Well, not none of us; just very few.

Well obviously I was referring to those not directly involved.

 

[Therin of Andor]

CBS is considering opportunities to offer licensed copies of the Work.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Joy_Machine

Possibilities!

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

Sorry to hear the script won't be made into a Phase II episode. As far as I know, this is one of the few times that CBS has shut the door on a Trek production. Still, the suits could surely come down harder on the fan film folks, but they've mainly kept a "hands off" policy since none of these efforts make money for their producers.

I still see that several cool projects remain in production, including "The Child" and "Kitumba," and I look forward to watching those when they're released.

Keep up the good work, P2 folks! It's a pleasure to get our annual gift of another story featuring Kirk and company!

 

[lennier1]

Sorry to hear that.
Did they at least inform you early enough before many resources were invested into the script?

 

[GSchnitzer]

Sorry to hear that.
Did they at least inform you early enough before many resources were invested into the script?

We don't have many resources to invest--but yes. We have another episode to shoot in June before we were going to tackle "He Walked Among Us" later in the fall. So we had been focusing on the more pressing episode.

 

[lennier1]

Sorry to hear that.
Did they at least inform you early enough before many resources were invested into the script?

We don't have many resources to invest-

Depends on how you look at it. The time and know-how you and the other volunteers donate to all aspects of the project are just a different form of resources people invest in the episodes. Just imagine what it would have cost if you had to pay for all those hours.

-but yes. We have another episode to shoot in June before we were going to tackle "He Walked Among Us" later in the fall. So we had been focusing on the more pressing episode.

Guess there's at least that. Still sorry things turned out the way they did.

 

[Captain Atkin]

CBS has let us shoot the old scripts "Blood and Fire" and "the Child" and "Kitumba." They haven't indicated any concerns with us shooting other old aborted scripts should we decide to do so--just "He Walked Among Us."

Please continue to support the CBS franchise that generously allows us to create our episodes.

It is unfortunate that you can't turn this script into an episode, but I do understand where CBS is coming from. Blood and Fire, Kitumba, and The Child were all unproduced Phase 2 scripts. "He Walked Among Us" is an unproduced script from The Original Series, which makes it much more valuable. There are many things that CBS could do with this script. One would be to turn it into an animated feature, that could use the voices of many of the original cast. Something like that would be very exciting to see!

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Also, Paramount made its money on that Phase II book with the unproduced scripts already. Perhaps they're considering such a thing for TOS which would have its value lessened by the production of such a P2 episode.

 

[Mysterion]

Blood and Fire[/B], Kitumba, and The Child were all unproduced Phase 2 scripts.

Blood and Fire was originally written for TNG, not Phase II.

 

[Captain Atkin]

Blood and Fire[/B], Kitumba, and The Child were all unproduced Phase 2 scripts.

Blood and Fire was originally written for TNG, not Phase II.

You are right. That was an unproduced TNG script. Getting the series mixed up in my head. Still illustrates my point though. An uproduced TOS script would be worth more to CBS, based on the popularity of the original series. There is definitely some money-making potential with that script.

 

[Barbreader]

I suspect that, in the fullness of time, all will become clear.

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

Sorry to hear that.
Did they at least inform you early enough before many resources were invested into the script?

We don't have many resources to invest--but yes. We have another episode to shoot in June before we were going to tackle "He Walked Among Us" later in the fall. So we had been focusing on the more pressing episode.

Any plans for a new fall production?