If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...?

[Classic Fan]

If this was 1991... And Harve Bennett did his "Academy Movie"...?

Now with little under a month to go before we get our Trek back from limbo, this question popped up on the way home from work the other day, a question so mind boggingly curious i just have to ask my fellow fans...





How would they have tackled it?

Now, we know from interviews and ideas written down that Meyer wanted to do a Starfleet Academy based movie using younger actors in flashback form told from their older selves point of view. Or a straight laced academy origin story. The latter may not have worked as the TOS movies were popular at the time and ditching the actors may have had the effect of sp;itting fans down the middle.

Oh the irony 19 years later.


Now this movie has been handled in a way where they still tell an origin story in where they are invaded from the future by a hell-bent-on-killing-Kirk Romulan. Still telling an origin story but keeping the action and stuff aswell. So in essence the origin story ends up a bi-product of a revenge type fuelled asassination attempt.
So...

A) Its not as boring as a flashback based story telling fest.
B) We have good ol' time travel physyics/mechanics/logic to wrap our heads around.
C) We have a well needed fresh take on a stale and almost dead franchise by one of the leading geeks in hollywood who, apparently, has delivered something so groundbreaking that hes bigger than the figurative GOD. (Who, incedentally doesnt need a Starship to carry his wisdom)

And D) We have no FatShat gumming up the works.


Source: Wikipedia among others with the same details.

Following Star Trek V, Bennett developed an idea for a sixth Star Trek film that would take a different approach from the previous films. Titled "The Academy Years," it would have focused on the characters of Kirk and Spock when they were much younger and cadets at Starfleet Academy. It would have delved into the early relationships between these characters, and shown how they developed such a close friendship over the years. While William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy would have had cameos at the beginning and end of the film to "bookend" the story in flashback form, new actors would have portrayed most of the roles in the film, including the young Kirk and Spock.
Although Paramount was initially enthusiastic about the idea, they were ultimately leery of producing a Star Trek film without the established actors that fans had come to know and love. Also, Martin Davis who at the time was the head of Gulf & Western, wanted a film featuring the original cast to mark Star Trek's 25th anniversary in 1991. Paramount offered Bennett the opportunity to produce this film with the original cast, even offering to produce his academy film afterward, but Bennett declined, citing multiple reasons including a lack of story ideas for the requested film and the rushed time frame in which the film would have to be completed in order to coincide with Star Trek's 25th anniversary.

So, i got to wondering on the train home from work yesterday, what would it have been like in 1991 had Meyer and Bennet have done his Academy movie the way he had intended.

Would we see re-designed sets to the scale we have now in 2009, not reproductions. Would they say the sets back then wouldnt hold up now and create an entirely new look for the flasbacks just like Trek '09? Thus, dividing all the fans down the middle.

Basically, would see a similar product emerge from Bennett Trek to what we have here. Obviously not identicla, but production wise changes, updates etc etc. Without the internet, would there be similar fan angst to the film as to what were getting now?

 

[Falconfire]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

The details of the Academy movie are pretty well known right down to the ship (a pre-Enterprise Enterprise which is shockingly like the NX-01 with Orbeth nacelles based on the pre-production sketches)

The movie would have stayed in the Academy years with them ending up at their first assignments and never seeing the TOS E once.

And just the mention of it back in the day created even MORE angst than now actually. The reason is very clear though, the TOS actors where still acting, where still in decent shape and even Doohan was out and about and not as sick as he was before his death.

So it WAS a slap in the face to them in a lot of peoples minds. Now we have almost a decade and a half since the last voyage of the Enterprise. Thre cast members and the creator have passed on, and those that are still with us have mostly moved on themselves, something that was VERY hard for any of them to do when TOS was still more popular than TNG and on.

Plus you have a number of years since Trek has even been on the screen big or small, when at that time you had TNG and DS9 was spinning up.

So to answer you question simply, people where I think more pissed at the idea of a Academy movie then than they are now of a movie that incorporated some academy aspects, but is its own thing.

 

[pookha]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

see i dont see the new movie as just being an academy movie.
the idea of a primarily academy film bored me then and now.

 

[Saul]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

I had no interest in it till I read a script review and it sounded pretty damn good.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

Well, we know from the extras on the SE DVD, it featured a starship (an Enterprise?) that looked more like the NX-01 than anything in the original series or movies. Same layout, with no secondary hull. I'm sure there are a few production sketches online someplace. Screengrabs of the pencilled artwork. One showing Kirk (or McCoy) in cowboy boots and hat, lying on their bunk.

EDIT: Star Trek The First Adventure page at Memory-Alpha.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_First_Adventure

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

What's the source for Meyer's involvement?

If Bennett and company had done what they'd wanted, the Franchise would almost certainly be in the same place it is now.

"Academy" may have been a well-received, modest success. Well, "The Undiscovered Country" was a well-received, modest success.

The fact that new actors might have cost less than Shatner, Nimoy etc. means that the studio might have held off one or two more films in shifting the TV cast into the movies - or maybe not. That decision was based partly on the costs of doing TOS movies and partly on the costs of continuing with TNG. Some version of a combination cast/torch passing movie would probably have come about in the early 1990s.

Nothing about the "Academy" movie would likely have affected modern Trek much (aside from the borrowing back and forth of costumes and models. We're still looking at TNG/DS9/Voyager/Enterprise.

I expect we'd wind up right back here with the same or worse "franchise fatigue" that we have now.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

Bennett and Meyer would theoretically, have raped my childhood as it begun, as opposed to a decade later.

 

[Classic Fan]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

I might be wrong on the Meyer involvment thing, my bad. Although, after the success of ST2 and 6, id hazzard a guess Meyer would end up directing.

and yes, it would still spyral into the stale worn out state it has been in, although, maybe not so bad.




I remember the sketch of the ship and it was eerily like the NX01 to the point its almost identical.




How they wouldve approached it etc etc.

Now as for raping my Trek memories, i was 8 in 1991, so TOS, TNG and Movies was my Trek at the time, so i liked it. So, to be honest, if the franchise went tits up earlier, it wouldnt matter cos i was growing up with it.

now im older, i look at this movie differently to as i wouldve done if iwere still 8. Yeah, i feel like a kid now seeing all the images and vids, but when it was announced, i had a daunting feeling as to how it would turn out.

After hearing about the Bennett project and how that turned out, i was worried it would fall foul to the same crap as the Bennett idea did.

But, it hasnt at the moment. Fingers crossed.


And as for it being 'primarily an academy movie', as i said in the thread, it bored me to think of it also, in flash back form at least. It was just that, an academy movie with bookended Shatner and Nimoy. Not fun at all to be honest.

Trek '09 however, isnt Just an academy movie, it has much more going on aswel. Infact, as i said above, the academy story turns out to be a bi-product of the Nero/Kirk story.

Im just curious on everyone elses opinion on the supposed movie, how much change, if any, we wouldve seen. Im not starting a heavy debate here about how the franchise wouldve turned or how it did. Just curious as to hear what everyone else thought.

 

[The Wormhole]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

I remember reading an AICN article about Bennett's Academy movie. It wasn't half bad. Mind you, I am very much glad we got TUC as the sixth movie instead, but I think Bennett's story had potential. It was much better and more credible than anything I've heard about this movie so far.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

So what would 1991 "Star Trek" have looked like? Chris O'Donnell as Kirk? Christian Slater as Spock? Holly Robinson as Uhura? Dustin Nguyen as Sulu?

 

[urbandk]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

So what would 1991 "Star Trek" have looked like? Chris O'Donnell as Kirk? Christian Slater as Spock? Holly Robinson as Uhura? Dustin Nguyen as Sulu?

Keanu Reeves as Spock.

 

[Sector 7]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

So what would 1991 "Star Trek" have looked like? Chris O'Donnell as Kirk? Christian Slater as Spock? Holly Robinson as Uhura? Dustin Nguyen as Sulu?

That's not bad actually...
For reasons I won't go into, I was competing with my own Star Trek series development at the time so I did not like the Academy movie idea.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

So what would 1991 "Star Trek" have looked like? Chris O'Donnell as Kirk? Christian Slater as Spock? Holly Robinson as Uhura? Dustin Nguyen as Sulu?

IIRC, there was an interview or something on The First Adventure that mentioned Ethan Hawke as a possible Kirk and John Cussak as a possible Spock. Of course, that could've been nothing more than a casting rumor or a wishlist by the producers, not necessarily a gurrantee.

 

[Captain Pike]

Re: If this was 1991... And Harve Bennett did his "Academy Movie"...?

I was one of the few at the time who were enthusiastic about his idea.

I still think it could have been cool, but we probably wouldn't have had Abrams version coming out now.

 

[urbandk]

Re: If this was 1991... And Harve Bennett did his "Academy Movie"...?

I was one of the few at the time who were enthusiastic about his idea.

I still think it could have been cool, but we probably wouldn't have had Abrams version coming out now.

Yeah. that gap in backstory is giving trek a new direction. there's a new in-universe future that has a lot of potential.

 

[miraclefan]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

I don't think it would have worked. It would probably had made the same amount ''or'' less at the B.O. then STV!

 

[Kelso]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

So what would 1991 "Star Trek" have looked like? Chris O'Donnell as Kirk? Christian Slater as Spock? Holly Robinson as Uhura? Dustin Nguyen as Sulu?

Keifer Sutherland/ Jeff Goldbloom/ Gary Sinise would be my picks for the big three.

I'm fairly certain those names have never been suggested by fandom.

 

[miraclefan]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

So what would 1991 "Star Trek" have looked like? Chris O'Donnell as Kirk? Christian Slater as Spock? Holly Robinson as Uhura? Dustin Nguyen as Sulu?

Keifer Sutherland/ Jeff Goldbloom/ Gary Sinise would be my picks for the big three.

I'm fairly certain those names have never been suggested by fandom.

^ With GOOD reason I'm sure! (except for Sinise. He's one of my fav actors!)

 

[Praetor]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

^Yes Kelso, I think you win the originality award.

I think it wasn't a bad idea then, and isn't a bad idea now.

 

[Samuel T. Cogley]

Re: If this was 1991... And Bennett/Meyer did Their "Academy Movie"...

I think it would have been a decent movie, done modest business, and would look really dated by now.