Somehow I have never really believed that claim.
If not Space Seed...
- Thread starter Jedi Marso
- Start date
More likely "screened every episode" meant "we read the synopses in the Asherman Compendium/Trimble Concordance, then had interns watch the two dozen or so that were popular with fans and had a character/plot element with sequel potential" and went from there.
I can guarantee you nobody watched "Spock's Brain" or "Children Shall Lead" as part of the ST2 process.
I can guarantee you nobody watched "Spock's Brain" or "Children Shall Lead" as part of the ST2 process.
Seeing the film we got I do disbelieve it.
I'm more than willing to assume that Bennett did. He was pretty methodical. And watching a thing for research doesn't mean regarding it with any especial respect when it's bad, as so much of later TOS was.
Of course, such "guarantees" are hypothetical and therefore meaningless. I could as easily "guarantee" you that the sole real reason that they decided to feature Khan in a low-budget Trek movie was that in the early 80s he was better-known for playing Rourke in Fantasy Island than any of the Star Trek actors were at that moment in time. He was their affordable star power.
They really had the perfect storm with "Space Seed".
It's the only episode where anyone ever mentioned it would be interesting to follow up years later. Khan as a villain was intriguing, being a man out of time made him at once more relatable to the audience yet provided a bit of an Achilles heel for our heroes to exploit. The plot of "Space Seed" was simple enough that you could immediately jump into the sequel without a huge amount of exposition or background knowledge necessary for people who never saw or barely remembered the original episode. Plus, Montalban was the only original series guest who was currently the lead on a popular TV series, bringing some needed star power, while being cheap enough for the production to afford.
Edit: heh, final point ninja'd by @Serveaux
It's the only episode where anyone ever mentioned it would be interesting to follow up years later. Khan as a villain was intriguing, being a man out of time made him at once more relatable to the audience yet provided a bit of an Achilles heel for our heroes to exploit. The plot of "Space Seed" was simple enough that you could immediately jump into the sequel without a huge amount of exposition or background knowledge necessary for people who never saw or barely remembered the original episode. Plus, Montalban was the only original series guest who was currently the lead on a popular TV series, bringing some needed star power, while being cheap enough for the production to afford.
Edit: heh, final point ninja'd by @Serveaux
Well nobody said Nicky Meyer watched them all and it was his screenplay in the end.
Whether or not Bennett actually did sit down and watch all 79 episodes, I have no idea, but I tend to believe it. I think it's apparent that he did at least become familiar enough with the series to produce a bunch of movies that don't feel like something totally alien to the show. He seemed more knowledgeable about the series than, say, Michael Sloane was of The Six Million Dollar Man when he did the reunions. Or Freddie Freiberger, who only watched a handful of Space:1999 episodes before passing judgment on the first season.
Still, all things considered, I think Harve Bennett did a fine job keeping the show alive until TNG.
Why? He was looking for something and in Space Seed he found it. Not hard to believe. There might be better episodes, but for Bennett that was it.
Can confirm. As best as I can remember, I saw TWOK before I saw "Space Seed," and I never had a problem understanding it.
He did more than keep it alive until TNG came along. Star Trek thrived under his watch.
Trek sort of lurched forward from one film to the next under Bennett, with no real plan or commitment by the studio to the property beyond the film currently being produced. It sputtered after the third movie under Bennett, and he parted company with the franchise after the ST:TFF embarrassment. But he did the best he could within the framework that he had to work with.
Wouldn't that have to be a prequel? (Pioneer was launched first.)
Good point, but it wasn't even 80 hours. Each episode was around 50 minutes including credits. Skipping the opening and closing credits takes them down to around 48 minutes. With 79 episodes, that makes around 63.2 hours.
(facepalm)
Combine Where No Man Has Gone Before and the Doomsday Machine! This time Gary Mitchell heroically saves the Federation by flying another starship into the Doomsday Machine's maw, because his psychic powers allow him to resist the Machine's attack until his ship is inside it.
Have you met Lwaxana Troi?
You'd think so, but no, it got a flat tyre and had to stay on Pluto for a bit until Earth could send a replacement
True…and 1982 was just a magical year for Sci-fi in general.
Now I seem to remember a couple with great powers—maybe a transformed Decker/Ilya pairing—introducing Khan somehow…glad that was dropped.
Where TMP was broad…cold…TWOK was close to the vest.
There was a feeling in the air in 1982 I felt as a teen…a feeling that vanished in 1983 somehow.
I can’t put a finger on it.
and yet, when they filmed ST:IV TVH, they just sent the cast out with a film crew to talk to random passerby's. the best parts of that day were used to make the "which way to alemeda" sequence.
something you can't really do nowadays, but back in the 80's you could get away with a lot. (though any sequences involving special effects or prolonged scenes certainly required more paperwork and closing down places to control the foot traffic.)
one of the big things i think they were looking for was to get more action into the narrative. as TMP was rather more intellectual and viewing audiences perceived it as a bit dull. in a way, it was a repeat of the problem they had with the pilot episodes.. the first pilot was very cerebral, and the studio didn't think it would go over well. so they did their 2nd pilot with a story that had more drama and an excuse for a fistfight.
wrath of khan opened up potential for a fight, though they went with the idea of a ship on ship fight rather than a fistfight, probably to help show off their bigger SFX budget.
so any alternative choice of TOS episode would need to keep that in mind. a story that would have a good excuse for both intellectual storytelling and flashy battles.
