Technically it should be “If Rod Serling had written Star Wars.” Past subjunctive means you use the past perfect tense.
Charlton Heston’s opening pre-title monologue also has a definite Serling touch.
if Rod Serling wrote Star Wars...
- Thread starter Temis the Vorta
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I have a copy (down in the garage, somewhere) of Serling's second draft of POTA (December '64, if memory serves). The plot is roughly the same -- the ending is there -- though the apes are technologically advanced. Now I don't know how many more drafts he wrote before it was taken from him and Wilson did the final drafts, but honestly, guys, Serling's lead character Thomas (Taylor, in the film) is a fairly long-winded fellow. As much as I admire Serling, his characters could whinge on and on at times. His version of the famous "Take your stinking paws off me..." is something like: "Let me go! Get back! Don't touch me, I say!" I don't recall any monologues or dialogue of any nature that survived this draft, untouched, to the final film.
Again, I don't know how much he changed before Wilson took over. So having this draft and Wilson's final (which is on the web, I think) doesn't tell me what went on in between, or who wrote what.
Sir Rhosis
Again, I don't know how much he changed before Wilson took over. So having this draft and Wilson's final (which is on the web, I think) doesn't tell me what went on in between, or who wrote what.
Sir Rhosis
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Just checked -- Serling's second draft is online as well. Just type "Serling Planet of the Apes screenplay" into Google, and some guy's site shows up (near the bottom of the first page) that has a scanned copy of it. And Serling's line is "No. Get away! Let me alone!" instead of the slightly more purple version from my memory in my first post.
Sir Rhosis
Sir Rhosis
Now that I think about it "Soylent Green" sounds like a big budget Twilight Zone episode.
I remember seeing a special where there was concept art of Apes on gyro copters
The vast majority of the movie audience wouldn't have read the books. I do recall knowing that Ian McDiarmid's character was the bad guy right away, but I don't think I'd heard the name Palpatine before. I must have just recognized the actor and somehow remembered him from the OT (even though he was pretty well disguised).
Which makes me wonder: are there people who were actually surprised by the Palps-Emperor link, even for one minute?
I can usually ID the Serling-written TZ episodes by noticing how long the speeches are that the characters deliver. TV writers are generally far more concise but Serling's characters just blather on incessently.
Quite. In some of the Serling-scripted episodes, particulary in TZ’s fifth and final season, the characters frequently sound like a bunch of Rod Serling clones talking to each other.. . . I can usually ID the Serling-written TZ episodes by noticing how long the speeches are that the characters deliver. TV writers are generally far more concise but Serling's characters just blather on incessently.
Heh, that's great.
All this talk of Serling, Planet of the Apes, and Star Wars reminds me of an image I made a long time ago for some reason or another:
Which is why prequels inherently don't work. Or rather they can work, but they take a very good writer to make them worth-while.
His alter-ego being plainly him but with a cloak is probably the tip off here. I know the characters aren't supposed to know that Palpatine is evil or that he's Darth Sidious, but I assume the audience is always meant to see that.
^Well, I knew it because the name "Emperor Palpatine" was used in the novelization of one of the original movies. (As was the word "Sith," a term that some people assume originated in the prequels.) And of course anyone who read the credits would know that Palpatine and Sidious were played by the same actor, although dual roles in film are not unprecedented.
Now we just need to see "If George Lucas made The Twilight Zone". 
Now we just need to see "If George Lucas made The Twilight Zone".
No need to go there, don't need to see JarJar Binks wishing people into the Cornfield or Ewoks climbing around on the wing of William Shatner's Plane.
"Consider if you will, a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire...
"Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, unaware that her destination lies deep within the uncharted regions of the Twilight Zone."
"Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, unaware that her destination lies deep within the uncharted regions of the Twilight Zone."
Just for the record Palpatine's name was in the novel of the first movie which came out months before the movie did. And given the horrible reviews the first Planet Of The Apes got and it's bad reception among the sci-fi community at the time I can't see Serling having much of an effect on the writing.
I have to admit I don't understand this sentence. What does the reception of a film, good or bad, have to do with the creation of a film?
Serling wrote drafts of the Planet of the Apes screenplay. This seems to be something that would exist regardless of whether or not the 'sci-fi community' liked the movie.
Leia Organa, thrust into the wilderness of the friendly ewoks. Unknown to her encounter with them would lead her and them....to the Twilight Zone.
To counter the notion that had Serling written the Star Wars prequels the reaction among the sci-fi community would've been any better than it was already is. And in reality it's only a minority of people on the internet who keep the hatred for the Star Wars prequels going.
Now we just need to see "If George Lucas made The Twilight Zone".
No need to go there, don't need to see JarJar Binks wishing people into the Cornfield or Ewoks climbing around on the wing of William Shatner's Plane.
The wilderness of the Ewoks IS the Twilight Zone.
And I'd pay large amounts of cash to see Billy wish Jar Jar to the corn field.
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