"Planet of the Titans": The Missing Link

[Lord Garth]

I just thought of this within the last hour or two, here, while posting elsewhere that in my head-canon, Planet of the Titans would take place between TMP and TWOK. As I began to flesh out how it would fit, I realized it would deserve a thread of its own, so here we are.

2265-2270: TOS/TAS
2270-2273: The Lost Years
2273: TMP
2274-2279: 2nd Five-Year Mission
2279-2282: Planet of the Titans (yes, the story spans three years)
2282-2284: Kirk with Antonia
2284-2285: Kirk back in Starfleet, in an apartment, and wanting command of the Enterprise again.
2285-2286: TWOK, TSFS, and TVH
2287: TFF
2287-2292: 3rd Five-Year Mission (the first and only one with the Enterprise-A)
2292: TUC (some months after the third five-year mission ended but before the E-A was decommissioned)
2293: GEN (the first 15 minutes)

Planet of the Titans believably gets Kirk away from the Enterprise. I have a hard time believing he'd ever willingly give the ship up again after trying so hard to get it back in TMP. But circumstances beyond his control, like disappearing through a black hole, and spending three years living with the Cygnans would do it.

Starfleet wouldn't give command of the Enterprise back to Kirk immediately after that, especially if someone else has been in command of it for a while, so he'd have to take a desk assignment, or some other type of assignment. Maybe this is where the "don't let them transfer you" kicks in, when he's telling Picard in GEN, "Don't [retire], don't let them promote you, don't let them transfer you, don't let them do anything to take you away from the bridge of that ship because, while you're there, you can make a difference."

After he's transferred away, and not having a say in the matter because of the circumstances, I could see him thinking "The Hell with this!" and resigning right then and there. Only to regret it a few years later if he just couldn't adapt to civilian life. So he'd want to make being an Admiral work again, and would be nearby the Enterprise, which would be a training vessel. But instead of making things better, it would make things even worse. He'd be constantly reminded of what he's not doing: commanding the Enterprise. In active duty. Perfectly leads right into The Wrath of Khan.

What do you think? Does it work? Is it crazy? Or is it so crazy that it actually works?

 

[Phoenix219]

I've always said that I want to see whatever major incident happens during the 2nd 5YM that gets the ship retired into a training vessel and puts Kirk behind a desk again - I always assumed it was possibly some event that is blamed on Kirk, and possibly antagonizes the Klingons, leading to tensions and perhaps the militarization / new uniforms. Planet of the Titans definitely could fit the bill, though, and its an actual existing story treatment..... I like it!

 

[Lord Garth]

I've always said that I want to see whatever major incident happens during the 2nd 5YM that gets the ship retired into a training vessel and puts Kirk behind a desk again

I have a feeling some of this might've been Kirk's doing. Once he was back in Starfleet, he might've pulled some strings to have the Enterprise assigned to the Academy. I wouldn't put it passed him to think since he couldn't go back to the Enterprise, he'd bring the Enterprise back to him. That's consistent with his characterization in TMP while further building the bridge to TWOK. And it would fit McCoy's line, "Admiral, wouldn't it just be easier to put an experienced crew back on the ship?," if he knows Kirk's the reason for all of this. Which could also be why McCoy presses him to get back his command and Spock tells him outright that it was a mistake for him to accept promotion in the first place. They know something is up and they finally confront him about it.

Anyway, the Klingon angle in Planet of the Titans fits like a glove too. Cutting and pasting part of the synopsis from the Wikipedia article...

• "The Klingons also want to claim the planet. Spock travels to the surface and finds Kirk, who has been living on the planet for three years. Together, they discover the planet is inhabited by the Cygnans, who destroyed the Titans. The planet and the Enterprise enter the black hole, with the Cygnans being destroyed in the process. The ship emerges in orbit of Earth during the Paleolithic era, and the crew teach early man to make fire, in effect playing the role of Prometheus the Titan themselves,"

I could see the Klingons putting the blame for the destruction of the Cygnans on Kirk, whether it's true or not, and threatening to go to war over it. Which would put Starfleet into a suitably tight bind and give them added incentive where they'd want Kirk to "take one for the team" after they find out he survived.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

A great take. I like the idea that POTT didn't necessarily have to happen instead of TMP or another storyline.

The one thing I didn't like was that version of the Enterprise. I love the design (aka: Crossfield class), just not as an all new Enterprise.

And yeah, the Klingons liked blaming everything on Kirk at that point, so not a stretch.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Just looked at the Wikipedia article on Planet of the Titans to re-familiarize myself with the plot, and I came across this tidbit in the "Pre-Production" section:

Roddenberry introduced [Philip Kaufman] to the series by showing him ten episodes, including those he felt were the most representative and popular of the series: "The City on the Edge of Forever", "The Devil in the Dark", "Amok Time", "Journey to Babel", "Shore Leave", "The Trouble with Tribbles", "The Enemy Within", "The Corbomite Maneuver", "This Side of Paradise" and "A Piece of the Action".​

That's not a bad list of good and popular TOS episodes, but I'm surprised by a couple that aren't on there. If I was trying to sell someone on the potential of Star Trek as a movie, I doubt that I'd go with a fun but rather goofy episode like "A Piece of the Action." I'd definitely show them "Mirror, Mirror" and "The Doomsday Machine", though.

On the main topic of the thread, I dunno. Planet of the Titans doesn't really sound like an interesting enough story for me to want to incorporate into my personal headcanon. Heck, I'm not even nuts about including the Antonia/Kirk retirement stuff alluded to in Star Trek: Generations. The idea of Kirk being transferred to another assignment against his will is an interesting one, though.

 

[Lord Garth]

Heck, I'm not even nuts about including the Antonia/Kirk retirement stuff alluded to in Star Trek: Generations. The idea of Kirk being transferred to another assignment against his will is an interesting one, though.

I don't know what I think of it either but the gap between TMP and TWOK is ridiculous, even though I understand the need to have a longer gap so the ages of the characters match the ages of the actors more closely. But given such a long gap, I figure and others have probably figured, might as well try to see what we can do to fill it up. Make it look a little less barren. The TMP-TWOK Gap is like the Midwest of Star Trek. (The ENT-"Cage" Gap and TUC-TNG Gap are like oceans)

 

[publiusr]

I might have Planet of the Titans occur to a captain rather than Kirk--and they become the "ancients/Titans" behind the planet falling into the black hole. If it were Earth--they'd bump into the NuBSG crew wouldn't they.

I'd have the stranded captain then be the voice of the superbrain stonehenge.

The cygnans might be what was left of the Vegan tyranny.

 

[saddestmoon]

I’d be up for any lost years era Trek!

I’d also love to see the post-TFF, pre-TNG era explored also - replete with Monster-Maroonage!

Both interesting periods for fleshing out missing link starship design, IMO.

 

[Maurice]

What everyone calls Planet of the Titans doesn't appear to have ever been officially called that. The Oct 1976 outline that got approved to go to script is simply titled Star Trek. Officially the project was titled Star Trek—The Motion Picture (much as what everyone calls "The God Thing" never had that title and was simply Star Trek II).

I've never seen whatever Scott & Bryant submitted in March 1977, but their original 1976 treatment doesn't feature "Cygnans" (the antagonists are called "Betas") and the mysterious "planet of the Titans" (which is a line Spock utters) is called Cygnus. That first treatment doesn't have Kirk doesn't disappear in the black hole and reappear later, nor does it feature the Promethean ending; quite the opposite, in fact.

The boy's father stumbles towards his child, his face twisted, his eyes strangely opaque, words slurred as if the man had suffered a stroke. The boy cries out. His mother is similarly afflicted. As are the other adults on the little colony. Only the children are unaffected, calling to their parents for understanding and comfort. But none is forthcoming.

The strange planet slips silently away.​

...that's paragraphs 3 and 4 of the so-called "Titans" treatment from Oct. 1976 by Scott and Bryant.

Yes, I'm a tease.

 

[somebuddyX]

Before Discovery I thought the POTT Enterprise could have been reworked to be the equivalent of the Protector from Galaxy Quest in that some alien race heard about the exploits of the NCC-1701 and were really enthralled except they somehow messed up all the details and built their own version in tribute, which is why the ships look wildly different. Then they met up with Kirk who borrowed it when the real NCC-1701 broke down for plot reasons and then had the adventure of "Planet of the Titans". I always put this adventure before TMP but that was mainly because I liked the idea of there being more time between TOS and TMP, around about the same time as what happened in real life, which isn't based on anything.
I think it being reworked to just be a normal adventure of Kirk and the real NCC-1701 is a cool idea!

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ In my head canon I called it the Titan-Class and had the first ship of the new line being commanded by Number One (which was why she wasn't on the Enterprise).

 

[Maurice]

[Ken] Adam class.

 

[publiusr]

Now the trippy bit with Spock and the Klingon obsessed with him could be done with Stamets on Discovery. Culver is in a very trippy place after all.

POTT (or whatever) needs its own documentary, similar to Jodo’s DUNE.

One good thing about Deep Fakes is that I can see novels and old scripts brought to life.

It is the year 2066. Would you like to see Redford as Captain Kirk... please press one...

 

[somebuddyX]

Now the trippy bit with Spock and the Klingon obsessed with him could be done with Stamets on Discovery. Culver is in a very trippy place after all.

POTT (or whatever) needs its own documentary, similar to Jodo’s DUNE.

One good thing about Deep Fakes is that I can see novels and old scripts brought to life.

It is the year 2066. Would you like to see Redford as Captain Kirk... please press one...

Neat idea! I reckon Planet of the Titans and The God Thing and Phase II and everything up to (and maybe including) pre-production of TMP would be great for a documentary! I haven't seen the Dune documentary but one I liked was The Death of Superman Lives and a cool part of that was talking to the script writers and art department guys (and maybe that would be hard here) but also they recreated a few scenes with some actor standing in for Nic Cage. That would be fun to do for POTT.