How much interest is there in "The God Thing" being completed and released?

[Leathco]

I was watching a video on YouTube and apparently Roddenberry had a book started with elements of what would become the first move called "The God Thing". Walter Koenig also worked on the book. They went back to the idea in the 90s and even did the cover art for the book, but it was still never released (and possibly never completed).

I think this is a cool piece of "lost media" for the Trek Literary community and it would be awesome if someone got what was done already and completed the project. Does anyone have any more info on this unreleased book, and are others here interested in seeing it completed and released?

 

[Smiley]

We have a user here on TrekBBS with the name "The God Thing" who probably knows a ton about the subject. From what I have heard, it seems like it would be pretty similar to what we got with The Motion Picture. The Movies and possibly the TOS forum almost certainly still have discussions about TGT available to read.

 

[comsol]

We have a user here on TrekBBS with the name "The God Thing".

Had - past tense.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I want to read it, but what I really want probably isn't commercially viable. I want something akin to a Christopher Tolkien book. I want Roddenberry's outlines and his scripts. I want the Koenig draft. I want the David Alexander draft. I want the couple of chapters Michael Jan Friedman wrote. (There was no completed draft of that version.) I want a book that traces the evolution of the story through its different forms, with explanations of why they didn't work and/or didn't reach production/publication.

 

[ryan123450]

A friend of mine has the cover mock up from when MJF was working on a draft.

I probably wouldn’t enjoy the story, but the mythical nature the book has taken on over the decades does make the whole thing interesting. The version Allyn Gibson advocates would probably be the best way to handle it.

 

[Faldor]

A friend of mine has the cover mock up from when MJF was working on a draft..

How long ago was the MJF draft? I've only heard of the film treatment from the seventies, I had no idea it was revisited after TMP.

 

[F. King Daniel]

So long as it keeps the weird Roddenberry ultra sexualisation of the samples released over the years, I'd definitely buy this.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

How long ago was the MJF draft? I've only heard of the film treatment from the seventies, I had no idea it was revisited after TMP.

1992. Best Destiny filled the autumn hardcover slot when The God-Thing wasn't published.

I was there when Jim McCain, a fan from Louisiana, bought the dust jacket to the hardcover from Michael Jan Friedman at Shore Leave in the early aughts. Pocket had them printed up in advance... and then the book fell through.

 

[ryan123450]

Yes, Jim has a crazy amount of rare and unique Treklit memorabilia.

 

[KRAD]

If there is one truism of Lincoln Enterprises, the company that handles All Things Roddenberry, it's that they won't pass up an opportunity to make a buck. Since LE would have to sign off on any version of The God-Thing being published, and since no version of The God-Thing has been published, this leads me to think that even LE doesn't want it to see the light of day. Which means it's probably really awful....

Anyhow, the book has failed to be completed by several competent writers, from Walter Koenig to Roddenberry's official biographer to Michael Jan Friedman.

For a full chronicle of the whole sordid and lengthy saga, check out Steve Roby's God-Thing page:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150228203404/http://www.well.com/~sjroby/godthing.html

 

[Christopher]

Does Lincoln Enterprises still exist? I thought it had become Roddenberry.com or something.

 

[Therin of Andor]

How long ago was the MJF draft? I've only heard of the film treatment from the seventies, I had no idea it was revisited after TMP.

Two days after Roddenberry's death on October 24, 1991, Susan Sackett and Fred Bronson were informed that their version would not be going ahead and the project passed to MJF.

IIRC, MJF's work was more like a pitch/sample chapters of how he was going to approach it, but Majel Barrett didn't care for the addition of proposed new characters or material. I remember chatting to MJF about this at Shore Leave in 2013. I was surprised he had not actually written much before his version was quashed, knowing that the cover slicks already existed. (But otherwise, all of the Roddenberry versions, and Walter Koenig's, were also incomplete.) Majel wanted Pocket Books to let David Alexander to have a go at it, having done a Roddenberry interview for "The Humanist" and then the official GR biography, but TGT went nowhere after that. (Alexander wasn't a novelist.)

I think the sample cover slick for the intended MJF hardcover was in the old Capital/Diamond Orderpak catalogues used by comic book stores, and I definitely remember the b/w audio cover being in a 1992 "Starland" mail order catalogue.

Here is an early mention that Gene's proposed "The God Thing" storyline was intended to become a "Star Trek" novel, originally by Bantam Books. [Article in "Newsday", Feb 20, 1977, by Joseph Gelnis.]


Feb 20 1977 by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Firebird]

I've read the script. Trust me when I say it's the most Roddenberry thing I've ever read... in all of the terrible ways you could imagine. Kirk has a zero-g naked oil fight with women that have been taken over by this god entity. There's a fight with Jesus on the Bridge of the Enterprise.

Awful, awful, awful, awful. I can see why the attempts to novelize it have consistently run aground

 

[Avro Arrow]

There's a fight with Jesus on the Bridge of the Enterprise.

Wait, what?!?

Now I think I want to see it released even more than I did before!

 

[David cgc]

Wait, what?!?

Now I think I want to see it released even more than I did before!

Isn't that the first part everyone tells you about The God Thing? Robot-God appears in different forms on the bridge until he turns into Jesus and is finally recognized by the human crew, and then Robo-Jesus blasts Sulu's legs off with an energy beam when he isn't paid the correct amount or form of homage. Which would seem to be inconsistent with the New Testament (unless Sulu has secretly been a barren fig tree this whole time), though I believe something similar happened at the end of the Left Behind novel series.

 

[drt]

and are others here interested in seeing it completed and released?

I'd be interested, because I'm fascinated by all of the 70s efforts to restart Star Trek. However, at this point, it's so far removed from anything they've done over the last 45 years, I don't think it would be commercially viable, even with a "based on a original story by Gene Roddenberry!" tagline.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I've read the script. Trust me when I say it's the most Roddenberry thing I've ever read... in all of the terrible ways you could imagine. Kirk has a zero-g naked oil fight with women that have been taken over by this god entity. There's a fight with Jesus on the Bridge of the Enterprise.

Awful, awful, awful, awful. I can see why the attempts to novelize it have consistently run aground

So a live action, sexier and edgier version of "Magicks of Megas Tu"? Just take it to my veins.

 

[KRAD]

I'm now way more interested in the story of Sulu secretly being a barren fig tree this whole time...............................

 

[Christopher]

I'm now way more interested in the story of Sulu secretly being a barren fig tree this whole time...............................

So he doesn't give a fig?

 

[The Wormhole]

Isn't that the first part everyone tells you about The God Thing?

I can honestly say that's the first time I've heard that. Sounds intriguing AF. As well as really damn funny.