Re: Hypothetical: If Paramount ponied up the cash for Shatner to fix S
^ You might not have to go with "CGI Kirk" though. It would also depend on just what footage was shot for the original ending before they discarded it and created the revised ending that we got.
It is my understanding that many of the changes were made in post-production and not during filming. For example, the shot of Kirk climbing up the mountain and then looking back over his shoulder at the floating head blob thing was originally meant to be him looking back at one of the rock monsters. When they filmed, they were still hoping that they might be able to do something in post to salvage their original ending, but it provided too complex and cost prohibitive, so they cut the scenes down to their bare minimum and added in the effect of the floating head blob.
Now, with CGI available, you could easily create whatever you wanted to be interacting with the live footage. Rock monsters galore if you wish. The rock monsters emerging from the ground after the "temple" collapses, as originally planned, could be easily created with CGI as well. In other words, as long as sufficient live action footage from the originally planned ending exists, you could reconstruct the ending completely.
Now, again, is this going to turn TFF into 2001? No, of course not. The film has several fundamental flaws that are not going to be able to be fixed 20+ years later. But the film does have alot of heart, it has some good character moments, it has some great acting - DeForest Kelley and Lawrence Luckinbill, in particular, really shine -- and it has some powerful scenes, such as the death of McCoy's father.
If you took out the big, major things that knock you out of the film, such as the jarringly bad visual effects and the way out of place comedy, and also put some effort into constructing a better ending, you could be left with a very good film. Not a great film. Not a cinematic classic. Not a film, perhaps, that's even on par with Trek's best efforts. But still a very good film.
And given the amount of debate amongst Trek fans about this film, I can't imagine that a reasonable effort at "upgrading" this film couldn't be profitable for Paramount.
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