Interesting trims from Star Trek scripts

[Maurice]

I've been reading some original series scripts lately (special thanks to Sir Rhosis) and as I do I take note of little interesting bits which didn't make it to the air. Sometimes it's a trimmed line of dialog which explains something left vague in the aired episode, other times it's scene direction which makes clear something which people thought was a mistake but was intentional.

Some of this has been mentioned elsewhere, but I'm posting ones that stuck out to me and which I suspect many people don't know.

(I'm only going to note those not already covered in the Orion Press notes on the episodes. They may have gotten mentioned in the These Are the Voyages books, but I've not read those.)

Here are a few from two episodes:

ARENA Final Draft November 3, 1966
The script specifies that the Gorn ship is never inside visual range. There is nothing to indicate it should ever be shown (as was added in the TOS-R version).

Also, the "bamboo" isn't really bamboo. It's described this way:

The bamboo is perhaps three to four inches in diameter...and, as Kirk discovers, is as hard as iron. He tries to break a section loose. it does no good... it gives off a METALLIC CLINK.

The production failed to convey that detail. That'd change the Mythbusters test a bit.

Spock also rattles off the proportions of the elements of the gunpowder as Kirk mixes it. "75. 15. 10."

Orion Press article on "Arena" (link)


SPACE SEED Second Revised Final, December 13, 1966
Deleted dialog actually clarifies exactly where the Botany Bay was headed:

SPINELLI
As near as I can work out their
heading, they must have tried for
the Alpha Centauri star system.

KIRK
Makes sense. Closest to earth, has
several habitable planets.

SPINELLI
Their vessel must have gone off
course when the port control jets
took meteor damage. Other hits
deflected them even more off course.​

...and...

KIRK
Ship’s equipment inventory?

SCOTT’S VOICE
Colonization gear mainly. But
quite heavy on armaments. I suppose
that’s typical of their era.​

So, clearly the supermen had a destination and plan in mind. The "armaments" suggest a lot about their mindset as conquerors.

Finally, Bones had this howler of a line:

McCOY
(looking up to Kirk)
He’s quite a hunk of a man, Jim.
This patient’s worth fighting to save.​

Would someone less of a hunk not be worth fighting to save, Bones? Or are you swooning along with Marla?

Orion Press article on "Space Seed" (link).

 

[Christopher]

Alpha Centauri is the most reasonable destination, sure... except it's 123 degrees away from Alpha Ceti ("Ceti Alpha") in the sky. So they would've had to go enormously off course to end up over there. Tau Ceti would make more sense as the intended destination, being only a dozen light-years away from Earth and only 27 degrees off from Alpha Ceti. So it's probably just as well that line was cut.

 

[Nebusj]

Alpha Centauri is the most reasonable destination, sure... except it's 123 degrees away from Alpha Ceti ("Ceti Alpha") in the sky. So they would've had to go enormously off course to end up over there. Tau Ceti would make more sense as the intended destination, being only a dozen light-years away from Earth and only 27 degrees off from Alpha Ceti. So it's probably just as well that line was cut.

Alpha Centauri having ``several'' inhabited planets is an interesting point, though. Is there anything actually canonical about the system besides of course that Zephram Cochrane's from there?

I wonder why Alpha Ceti Alpha Ceti Alpha, being so near Earth and so apparently inhabitable, wasn't colonized by the time of ``Space Seed''. It suggests either other places were even more favorable or that perhaps it's in some politically sensitive area that Earth proper (and other local powers) didn't want to touch.

 

[Maurice]

Whether or not it makes logical sense in terms of real space doesn't interest me as much as getting a glimpse into some "original intent". YMMV.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Whether or not it makes logical sense in terms of real space doesn't interest me as much as getting a glimpse into some "original intent". YMMV.

Yeah, that's cool. For that matter, instead of dropping the Alpha Centauri reference, they could have just as well changed the destination from Ceti Alpha to something else more in line with Alpha Centauri.

 

[Robert Comsol]

Alpha Centauri having "several'' inhabited planets is an interesting point, though. Is there anything actually canonical about the system besides of course that Zephram Cochrane's from there?

In the deleted Scene Kirk mentioned "habitable" planets (i.e. ideal for colonization), not "inhabited" planets although the armament reference is quite ambiguous.

I also think that already the TOS producers considered Cochrane to be a human from Earth, otherwise he probably wouldn't feel romantic about Earth if he had been just a native of an Alpha Centauri planet:

COCHRANE: Yes. I had tools and supplies left over from my crash.
SPOCK: Not bad.
COCHRANE: Not Earth, but it's livable. I grow vegetables in the fields over that next ridge. Come on in.

But supposed that Alpha Centauri was the destination of the Botany Bay, how long would it have taken them to get there with just nuclear power as their primary energy source?

Maybe the Botany Bay got displaced by the same kind of wormhole or else that displaced Voyager 6 and possibly the Valiant?

Bob

P.S.
Nice new avatar, Maurice, the iconic Cylon helmet designed by Andrew Probert.

 

[Melakon]

I also think that already the TOS producers considered Cochrane to be a human from Earth, otherwise he probably wouldn't feel romantic about Earth if he had been just a native of an Alpha Centauri planet. . .

I find this somewhat doubtful, since the original outline for "Metamorphosis" wasn't written until well after "Space Seed" had aired. So I don't know how they could have "already" had thoughts about who Cochrane was.

 

[Christopher]

Alpha Centauri having ``several'' inhabited planets is an interesting point, though. Is there anything actually canonical about the system besides of course that Zephram Cochrane's from there?

In addition to the mentions of an Alpha Centauri colony, Taranullus, implicitly one of Flint's past identities in "Requiem for Methuselah," was from "Centauri VII." There was also reference in Enterprise to a "Proxima Colony," presumably around Alpha Centauri C, aka Proxima Centauri.

I wonder why Alpha Ceti Alpha Ceti Alpha, being so near Earth and so apparently inhabitable, wasn't colonized by the time of ``Space Seed''. It suggests either other places were even more favorable or that perhaps it's in some politically sensitive area that Earth proper (and other local powers) didn't want to touch.

Actually it's not near Earth at all. It's about 250 light-years away -- just barely reachable by the Botany Bay in 270 years (1996 to 2266) if it had averaged at least 92.5% of lightspeed. (Of course, the BB was just somewhere close to the star, close enough that it was a good place for the Enterprise to drop them off without too great a divergence from its course. So the BB could've been going a bit slower.)

 

[Maurice]

P.S.
Nice new avatar, Maurice, the iconic Cylon helmet designed by Andrew Probert.

Thanks. My avatar is usually directly related to the quote in my signature.

 

[Maurice]

Another Space Seed trim.

As Kirk and party are in the transporter room readying to beam to the Botany Bay...

SPOCK
(filtered)
Security back-up team standing by
in the aft transporter room, Captain.​

Which suggests at least two such rooms on the ship. But since it was cut, it didn't happen.

 

[Robert Comsol]

But it gives us a good idea how the creators envisioned the ship's interiors. That's a great find, shows me that I was on the right track for my Deck 6 draft.

Bob

 

[BillJ]

Whether or not it makes logical sense in terms of real space doesn't interest me as much as getting a glimpse into some "original intent". YMMV.

This is where I'm at.

 

[Marsden]

Whether or not it makes logical sense in terms of real space doesn't interest me as much as getting a glimpse into some "original intent". YMMV.

This is where I'm at.

Me, too.

I wasn't aware of these, thank you for posting.

 

[drt]

Also, the "bamboo" isn't really bamboo. It's described this way:

The bamboo is perhaps three to four inches in diameter...and, as Kirk discovers, is as hard as iron. He tries to break a section loose. it does no good... it gives off a METALLIC CLINK.

It's been ages since I read them, but I'm pretty sure this detail made it to the Blish adaption.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Also, the "bamboo" isn't really bamboo. It's described this way:

The bamboo is perhaps three to four inches in diameter...and, as Kirk discovers, is as hard as iron. He tries to break a section loose. it does no good... it gives off a METALLIC CLINK.

It's been ages since I read them, but I'm pretty sure this detail made it to the Blish adaption.

You're right!

"He scrambled over to look at the bamboolike stuff. Each stalk was perhaps three to four inches in diameter-and, as he discovered by trying to break a section loose, it was as hard as iron. Hitting it with a rock even produced a distinctly metallic clank. Perhaps it picked up iron from the soil, as horsetails pick up calcium oxalate, or some prairie grasses pick up selinium."

 

[Sir Rhosis]

I was secretly hoping that you would do something like this, Maurice, when I shared the scripts. I look forward to more of your posts.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Maurice]

OPERATION: ANNIHILATE 2nd Revised Final draft, February 13, 1967
A new word to join "Feinberger":

McCoy moves to Spock, uses his medical glotzgadget to take some readings…

And, this has nothing to do with the topic per se, but it's funny:

By chance does the moire pattern on that lenticular background look familiar? It's either Laugh-In or the grooviest transporter room in the Federation.

 

[Robert Comsol]

"Glotzgadget"? Never heard of this one.

In German glotzen means to stare at something for a longer time, hence the derrogatory term for TV set is Glotze (those familiar with the German singer Nena, the one claiming in her 99 Red Balloons that generals acted like "Captain Kirk", may have noticed Glotze in one of her songs).

Bob

 

[Sir Rhosis]

^^^I have his outline for the episode but haven't gotten around to writing a synopsis. If Maurice likes, he could fill you in.

Some parts of the general plot (as well as Day of the Dove) are in the outline I reviewed called "For They Shall Inherit.

Sir Rhosis

 

[Maurice]

I've not looked at the outlines other than the jaw-dropping Operation: Destroy, where Kirk nukes Deneva[n].