But I thought that after the movie Wrath of Kahn that there were appromaxly 5 epesiodes that aired on tv in the 80's bridging the gap between the search for spock. I remember watching this on VHS ( i know what is a VCR?) and the end of Kahn there being a message "TO be Continued" and also something about watching on tv the epesiodes. am I missing something here? I can find no reference to these epesiodes anywhere.
You must have dreamed it.
Apart from the DC Comics' story arc, which showed Saavik filling the absent Spock's science officer role (and going through
pon farr and searching for her bondmate, Xon, in the Romulan Neutral Zone), there were also "bonus scenes" in the novelizations of ST II, III and IV, in which a romantic attraction between Saavik and David was played out, and Dr Chapel and Carol Marcus visited the human and Deltan families of the dead Genesis scientists.
The SubCommander said: This is unlikely, but MAYBE what you remember seeing is cut scenes re-added into the ABC televised version of TWOK and TSFS, but that isn't very much footage...maybe less than 10 minuted between both movies.
No bonus footage was added to the TV airing of ST III. There was publicity about the little Vulcan girl's cameo (by Katherine Blum) being shot, but that footage has never been restored.
Only the Saavik story in "Star Trek II Short Stories" is
set after ST II, IIRC. The others are set during or just after TOS; it's been a loooong time since I read them. There are also excerpts of everyone's diaries, logs and academic papers in "Star Trek II Biographies", several of which make references to the Genesis Planet forming, although author William Rotsler suggests (IIRC) the planet will be named "Spock", and that the device terraformed Ceti Alpha V.
There was also a radio stage play, "The Machiavellian Principle", written by Walter Koenig, that was seen live at a convention, "The Ultimate Fantasy"
(the convention flopped badly, and was called "The Con of Wrath" and "The Ultimate Fiasco" by fans), not long after the premiere of ST II, in which Kirstie Alley reprised her role of Saavik! It featured McCoy, Scott, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov, all played by their original actors, a new alien played by Mark Lenard, and with a walk-on at the end by "The Admiral".
at the time there were thoughts or plans to make a series on tv to span the gap?
Not to "span the gap", no, because there were no plans whatsoever for ST III while ST II was being written or filmed. Each of the six TOS movies were filmed as the "last" reunions of the TOS characters. There were definitely tenuous plans for a series of Shatner-less and Nimoy-less
telemovies focusing on the new young stars playing Saavik and David, had ST II not done as well in cinemas, but... Nimoy agreed to return Spock from the dead for ST III and, as director,
replaced the actress playing Saavik, rethinking her character as a full-Vulcan. All thoughts of telemovies (mooted after TMP and again after ST II) vanished when TOS finally found its feet in the cinemas.
