Maurice Hurley's unused Generations script?

[guardian]

What they should have done was forget that "Yesterday's Enterprise" ever existed and redo it as a movie.

Kirk fight fighting the Rommies (to save Klingons) in the 23rd century (big battle) entering a temporal rift emerging in the 24th century, encountering Picard during the alternate timeline Fed-Klingon war. Then after fighting together against the Klings--Kirk & co decide to go back to the 23th century to set the timeline right (the Ent-A re-emerges in the 23rd century, phasers streaking, photons firing and Kirk goes out ina blaze of glory preserving the peace of the 24th century against overwhelming odds. Lots of action, the Real Kirk/Picard having interplay, etc.

It even could have ended with Picard asking Guinan, "Tell me about your meeting with Captain Kirk" (alluding to a cameo of Guinan aboard the Ent-A that they could have written in)
Hell, it needn't even have shown Kirk's actual death--just implied--in case they wanted him back one more time.

Yes, it's a total copy of the tv episode, but so what, it would still have been better than Generations, plus lots of action would have been way better than the ridiculous 'action sequences' (saucer crash, 20 year old BOP destroying the 'D')of Generations.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I thought Berman had script approval and also comissioned both scripts; though I could be wrong. It kind of makes sense; he was one of the few people still associated with Star Trek who had been around when Hurley was.

Final approval? No. Cyrus has it right.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Holo-Khan episode?

It was Lawrence V. Conley's spec script that got him the pitch invitation that led to his writing the second Crystalline Entity episode. (Sorry, I'm blanking on the title at the moment.) He wrote an article for Starlog about the TNG scripting process. Spec scripts were written to show the production staff what a writer was capable of, not necessarily that it was something that they would buy. So I don't think that Conley's Picard-vs-Khan script was ever seriously considered, but it did get his foot in the door.

No, it wasn't Conley. It was a guy named Marc Bernardin who got an internship on the program after writing the Khan-holonovel test by Picard spec script. Not sure what spec got Conley invited. Like Conley, Bernardin did write a "Starlog" article about his experiences. I think Bernardin wound up working for "Starlog."

Sir Rhosis

 

[Gibraltar]

seriously, because this is the Generations we got - http://youtube.com/watch?v=u6bqtbNl00E&feature=related

Okay, that was... awesome! I couldn't have given a better summation myself.

 

[Philo]

I've always been really curious about this script treatment myself. I think I'm one of the few people who really likes a lot of what Hurley did for TNG so it would have been interesting to see what he would have brought to it five years hence.

However...

Assigning Hurley to write a TNG movie script sounds suspiciously like sandbagging - ie, a response to executives saying "we want to see more than one script before we make up our minds..." when someone already knew that they wanted Moore and Braga to write the movie.

Since I have no doubt that this is correct, it's very likely Hurley treated it about as seriously as Berman did. Which would also explain why so few details of this story have been released. Probably no one, including Hurley, wanted it made but he got his free paycheck out of it.

"Hey Maury, wanna do me a favor?"

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

...it's very likely Hurley treated it about as seriously as Berman did. Which would also explain why so few details of this story have been released. Probably no one, including Hurley, wanted it made but he got his free paycheck out of it.

"Hey Maury, wanna do me a favor?"

A reasonable speculation.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Fairly reasonable... ^^

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Sorry for the Bump, but look at this.

Spoiler: http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/BvvXsGvCQAAmM-D.jpg

I hope that Rick Berman, or somebody else is going to upload it...

 

[Maurice]

No bumps, man, start a new topic!!!!

 

[Tiberius]

Notice how quickly TNG improved when Michael Piller took over as the producer in charge of the writing?

Piller's writing was a joy. Have a read of his script for The Best Of Both Worlds. It's fantastic.

 

[Melakon]

Sadly, Admiral Buzzkill is long gone, perhaps never to return.

 

[Tiberius]

Bloody hell, that was a bump. :S

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

No bumps, man, start a new topic!!!!

Sorry.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

No bumps, man, start a new topic!!!!

I totally heard that in Bill Paxton's voice.

 

[Lance]

Sorry for the Bump, but look at this.

Spoiler: "[url

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/BvvXsGvCQAAmM-D.jpg"][/url]

I hope that Rick Berman, or somebody else is going to upload it...

I've heard some things about this -- weren't there rumors it "united" the Captains by having Picard consult a holodeck version of Kirk? -- but I'd love to read it. The road not travelled it always an interesting conjecture, even if it turns out to be not as good as what we got.

 

[Frontier]

Sadly, the problem of aborted scripts from the olden days are, they don't likely exist as digital documents anymore. So it makes it much harder to acquire.

I have a 2nd draft copy of First Contact's script. It's almost the same film, only a handful of differences. A climb up the turboshaft with Borg chasing Picard and Lily as it rains (turboshaft is so tall the humidity from the borg environmental changes made an artificial weather system; which isn't totally nonsense they have had such happen at large enough aircraft hangar buildings once or twice), a different ending to chasing Cochrane (pushed off a cliff onto a force field) and a different deflector dish scene involving a quantum torpedo turret.

The scripting process on Insurrection was unusual. How many shifts in the idea. Piller did a manuscript for a "making of" script process book, but it didn't get published. Got out digitally though in recent years.

Anywhom, I never much liked Hurley's writing, or his handle on the characters. So I doubt his script would have been terribly good. Yes, he invented the Borg; but from rumors I've heard he was also a big-time jerk.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I've heard some things about this -- weren't there rumors it "united" the Captains by having Picard consult a holodeck version of Kirk? -- but I'd love to read it.

That's the story given in the "Making of Generations" feature in the novelization of the film. Hurley's script had the Federation under attack by an enemy from outside the universe, and because it's sort of like Interphase from "The Tholian Web" Picard consults with a holodeck Kirk to get insight. So, I guess you could say that it was a rewrite of TNG's "Booby Trap," but probably without Picard flirting his his holodeck creation.

 

[Grant]

They should have just ignored "Yesterday's Enterprise" episode and reshot it with Kirk & co.

A copy?---yes
A cheat?--yes

Better than Generations or Hurley's concept?---YES

Every beat of Yesterday's Enterprise would have been awesome with the two crews.

Talk about a proper send-off. Kirk and his crew ride into the sunset to glorious deaths to prevent a catastrophic war that claims billions of lives.

Just follow the Ent-A into the anomaly long enough to see them kicking some Romulan ass and impressing the hell out of the Klingons, thus ensuring the future alliance.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Damn. Zombie thread.

Notice how quickly TNG improved when Michael Piller took over as the producer in charge of the writing?

Assigning Hurley to write a TNG movie script sounds suspiciously like sandbagging - ie, a response to executives saying "we want to see more than one script before we make up our minds..." when someone already knew that they wanted Moore and Braga to write the movie.

Rich Berman wanted two scripts written, one by Maurice Hurley and one by Michael Piller, and the best of the two was to be produced as the first TNG film. Piller objected to the competitive nature of the assignment and declined to write a script, so Berman asked Moore and Braga instead.

 

[cardinal biggles]

They should have just ignored "Yesterday's Enterprise" episode and reshot it with Kirk & co.

A copy?---yes
A cheat?--yes

Better than Generations or Hurley's concept?---YES

Every beat of Yesterday's Enterprise would have been awesome with the two crews.

Talk about a proper send-off. Kirk and his crew ride into the sunset to glorious deaths to prevent a catastrophic war that claims billions of lives.

Just follow the Ent-A into the anomaly long enough to see them kicking some Romulan ass and impressing the hell out of the Klingons, thus ensuring the future alliance.

The big problem with your idea is that Kirk & crew "rid[ing] into the sunset to glorious deaths" would contradict Spock, McCoy, and Scotty still being alive at the time of TNG.