Lt. Marla McGivers still being alive with Khan in WOK

As above, I've never seen a script for this film that featured McGivers. Are you sure you don't mean a treatment or a summary?

 

I've got a complete draft from April, 1981 that has McGivers in it as a character. I haven't had a chance to actually read it beyond a quick skim, so I can't provide further details yet.

 

What's the title on the script?

 

Star Trek: The Genesis Project
Final Draft, April 10, 1981

 

Well of course. Anything is possible and surely his mental state is the result of everything that happened to him and his group after being left on the planet, but for me what really pushes Khan over the edge is his wife dying.

 

I find Marla's death being the nail in the coffin for Khan's sanity dramatically satisfying, and it's hard for me to imagine anything else justifying his behavior in the film as effectively.

I liked the performance Judson Scott gave, so losing him would have been unfortunate, for my money.

Having McGivers in the film would have been interesting, but I can't even really imagine how the rest of the film would have progressed at that point. Turning her evil wouldn't have worked for me, and getting her off the planet only to have her get killed shortly thereafter would have also weakened the film for me. In other words, I feel the character deserved some redemption.

The only thing I can think of is that she's accidentally killed and that's what then pushes Khan over the edge, but I'm not sure that having that occur on screen is any better than what we got.

Something which I imagine never would have happened would be if Our Heroes killed Khan at some point during the film and that pushed McGivers over the edge...but I doubt TPTB ever would have taken the story in that direction.

 

I seem to remember somebody recently suggesting having Marla in the movie just at the very beginning, on her death bed. So then we actually get to witness the source of Khan's grief and madness for vengeance.

Kor

 

That would have been nice. It's not like it would have spoiled who the villain was, plus, her death and then leading into the ominous opening second of Horner's main title, would have worked perfectly.

 

Yeah, I agree. I always felt (and Cox's "Rise and Fall of Khan..." novel helped reinforce it) that Khan just went insane with vengeance after his wife died. And that was noted in the movie, but it's hard to visualize something you haven't seen. Khan just seems blinded by his need for revenge. But at times it almost feels like blind vengeance without reason.

Had her death been dramatized on screen, that thought would be with you the entire movie, 'that's why Khan did what he did.' It doesn't absolve his actions, but it gives a clear motive that I sometimes think gets lost in TWOK.

 

I dunno, I kind of like the idea that, like so much else on Ceti Alpha V, she's dead and buried on a dead world, and Khan's the only one left to even really care.

 

Huh. Written by?

 

Jack B. Sowards and Harve Bennett

I'm gonna leaf through the first 20 or so pages to give a brief rundown of how the script begins...

The first scene in the script begins with the Reliant bridge crew viewing an old Captain's Log from Kirk, describing the marooning of Khan and company on Ceti Alpha V, better setting up how Chekov was aware of Khan. However, Terrell still intends to beam down, with this dialogue setting up his reasoning:

Next up, we have the phone-a-friend scene to Gamma Regula Four where Terrell and Chekov speak to Carol Baxter about the planet. Following the call, there's no mention of Jim Kirk by Carol. We are introduced to David's love interest, Neela, a "very attractive Asian girl of twenty."

We then have Terrell and Chekov run into Khan and company on the surface of Ceti Alpha V, where Khan introduces Marla:

The scene continues more or less as in the final film, but this time, Khan already knows about Project Genesis, asking Terrell what it is. He refuses to tell, and that's when Khan's men carry and throw Terrell and Chekov into the aforementioned tubes, where the Ceti Eels do their thing.

We then move to the Enterprise bridge simulator at Starfleet Academy, where Mr. Savik ("a dark-skinned [Vulcan] young man of mixed parentage"), Jana Insalla ("a handsome young black woman"), and Diana O'Rourke ("in her twenties, and has the look and temper of the Black Irish") take the Kobayashi Maru test. This time, Kirk and Bones arrive on the bridge at the start of the scene to observe, before the audience is tipped off to it being a test. Instead of Klingons, it's Romulans (or "Romulons," as it's misspelled in the script) that are the aggressors. It goes just as well for this Savik as it does for Saavik in the final film.

Finally, the first 20 pages closes out with Kirk, Spock, and Bones speaking in the corridor following the test. The content of the scene is fairly identical to what's in the final version. The main difference here is the tail end of the scene has Bones and Kirk having the discussion about aging and Kirk's direction in life after Spock leaves to get up to the Enterprise. It's far more truncated that what Nick Meyer would expand it out to be, but hits the same beats:

 

The Lady MacBeth thing intrigues me. Does anything come of that, or is it just a throwaway?

 

Not really. Her part in the script is pretty much what Joachim is in the final version, just more forgettable.

The biggest character problem in the script is Uhura - she's relegated to being Admiral Kirk's secretary, has maybe three scenes, and is out of the film by the time the Enterprise leaves to Gamma Regula Four around page 40. O'Rourke takes over her role for the rest of the draft.

 

That sorta makes sense if the idea was to introduce new characters and rotate out the other ones. Making Uhura into Yeoman Bland was a bad idea, though.

 

Well, that at least clarifies what Kirk's regular job in the Admiralty was intended to be.

 

The scene where Joachim tells Khan that the power has been restored.
Khan is on the bridge just like in the movie, but we only see Khan's open hand at first. In it is a small, metal disk with a tiny hologram of a standing, cloaked figure. The figure's face cannot be seen, but we notice an infant in the figure's arms.
The hologram turn slightly; we see a face of a woman with a gentle smile. It is Marla.
Camera cuts to Joachim: "Power restored, sir."
Camera moves to Khan's face. He looks powerful, yet sad; a small tear can be seen. He wipes it away quickly so no one else on the bridge will see it. A brief look of rage and utter determination crosses his face.
Khan closes the disk with a snap, ending the projection.
"Excellent. More than a match for poor Enterprise."

 

oh that's good. hopefully Meyer will read it and shoot a belated pickup scene and edit in the movie for the 40th ann blu ray. funny thing tho it reminds me of a similar scene in Batman&Robin where Freeze is looking at a little ice sculpture of his wife lol

 

I have to admit it feels a little "on the nose" to me. I just mean, by this point we know Marla's dead and that her death was probably the straw that broke the camel's back, so...do we need it punctuated?

 

I've always assumed the line 'it killed twenty of my people, including my beloved wife' was him referring to Marla. I think that's sufficient.