News Meyer: Star Trek: Discovery Is Self-Examination

Speaking of Meyer, I see that TCM is airing "The Seven-Percent Solution" tonight. That's the movie version of his best-selling Sherlock Holmes novel, which I believe he scripted as well.

I remember loving the novel back in the day, years before The Wrath of Khan, although I haven't read it in decades.

 

You are correct! He wrote the screenplay as well. The book was really nicely done, with a definite feel to the Doyle stories. Meyer also wrote two other Holmes books, The West End Horror and I think The Canary Trainer.

I got my love of Holmes from my mother, and it was through her I watched this movie and then read the book. Both were excellent.

One thing I always think of when watching this movie is an exchange in the Billy Wilder The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, where he tells Watson he will sometimes take his five percent solution. Watson says that he thought it was seven.

Holmes says that he knows Watson has been diluting it for a long time and it's only five.

Brilliant!

 

Yep! Meyer's first Holmes book is still his best, though. I was disappointed by The West End Horror, which felt rushed and kinda thin, compared to The Seven-Percent Solution, although The Canary Trainer was more fun. (Can't really go wrong with Holmes versus The Phantom of the Opera, which is what the third book is about.)

Meyer has had an interesting and far-ranging career: Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Time After Time, The Day After, etc. Kinda regret not going to see him at the Farpoint convention last weekend.

 

Greg-

Time After Time is one of my favorite movies and books! It amazed me that Meyer optioned it while reading the first 50 pages of the unfinished manuscript (as well was writing the screenplay alongside the book with the author, while communicating with each other on what they were doing!)

I think it's his style I like the best of not having an in-depth knowledge of what he's working on, not really a fan, but knows what makes for a good story and gives that freshness to something.

His instincts always hit the mark, like him telling Shatner that he would treat Trek like Hornblower in Space, and Shatner said that it was exactly what Roddenberry thought of it, too.

 

Time After Time is a genuinely wonderful movie, which I was talking up to a younger colleague just the other day. I love that it works on a lot of different levels: as a thriller, as a love story, as a fish-out-of-water comedy, as science fiction, etc. It's hard to pigeonhole,which is what makes it such a rich and engrossing experience.

And, yes, what Meyer is good at is that, regardless of the genre, he grasps that the basics of storytelling don't really change. It's about characters and conflict and emotions and dramatic turns and reversals . . .

 

FYI - "The Omega Glory" was originally a candidate script to be filmed as the second TOS pilot - so who knows how many tweaks they did to it when they finally decided to film it during the second season of TOS?

 

Thank you for this information. I had no idea that Nicholas Meyer wrote Sherlock Holmes books, nor that Time After Time was a book in addition to the movie. I just purchased all four eBooks on Amazon, looks like I have some reading to do. Time After Time is a great movie. I just hope the upcoming television show is half as good.

 

FYI: The novel, Time After Time, was written by Karl Alexander.

And, yes, Meyer first hit it big with his novel, The Seven-Percent Solution, which was a bestseller back in the day and led to him writing the screenplay for the movie version.

 

I think of Gulliver's Travels more than Jason and the Argonauts, but overall I agree with you. It's semi-anthology which is a very broad canvas upon which to work. People unfairly marginalize it when they just call it "planet of the week". It's interesting to be exposed to an all new culture every week, new characters, new dilemmas. It's a whole other kind of experience vs. the sort of serial storytelling we get today.

 

If you really want to blow your mind - watch the Horatio Hornblower miniseries (with Ioan Gruffudd in the tittle role); and picture him as Lt. Kirk and you'll see some decent Star Trek like adventures...

 

I still fail to see why various styles of Trek cannot be married up. It really hasn't been done (so far). With the exception of TOS (because I haven't seen it), I love all eras of Trek because of the different styles. But all can work in a melting pot. Why not have the action oriented approach of VOY/ENT/ABRAMS balanced with the more nuanced moments of TNG and the politics of DS9.

Whenever a new Trek project is announced, it's pitched as "return to roots" or "moving the franchise forward".

 

^^ Joel, you never saw TOS?!?

I wonder if anyone ever referred to Route 66 as "town of the week."

 

I agree. From one episode to the next, it was often "broad strokes."

Kor

 

We have two groups battling for the "soul" of Star Trek. But, at the end of the day, neither really matter, CBS has to make a show that is going to draw modern audiences.

 

I guess I'm glad Discovery is about something.

That was Enterprise's biggest flaw. It was never about anything. It was just some meaningless stuff that happened. Plot, but no story.

 

^^^ I think that was definitely true of the first three seasons. However, once Manny Coto took over the helm as show-runner in S4, things started to change considerably for the better. In fact, I remember that the fans responded so well that it pissed off Rick Berman enough for him to get hyper-defensive and publicly say something to the idiotic effect of "This is NOT the Manny Coto show!", further demonstrating how out-of-touch he and Brannon Braga had become with the franchise. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. Had Enterprise seen a 5th season, we would likely have seen the return of the Kzinti (a concept CGI model was actually made).

Sadly, was never meant to be...