The thread about "what would you fix" in an existing movie got me thinking.
I know it seems “obvioius,” but the movie I’d most like to see re-tooled is Star Trek V- The Final Frontier.
Now, let me go on record as saying that it’s not because I don’t like Star Trek V. Quite honestly, I prefer TFF to TUC and TVH, both of which are much more highly considered than TFF. But, right or wrong, the reason that I’ve always loved TFF is that I can see what COULD have been there, and it pains me how close it was to being a great Star Trek movie. TFF arguably is the most “TOS-like” of any of the first 6 movies. It has comedy, action/adventure, character development and a sense of wonder and exploration of the galaxy all in one story. I’ve always loved it for that, and none of the other films had that balance of elements. Unfortunately, not much of that was well-executed! So the IDEAS were great, but the execution was not. A bad script, crappy visuals, and well-documented production snafus derailed the much of the hope that the film could be well-executed…and the rest is history.
There are so many things you could do to keep the same essential story in place, but (in my humble opinion) vastly improve upon the execution. I’ve posted some of this before…but I will try to get in as much as possible here again:
I think, for the most part, you can keep the other stuff “as is.” Trim the hell out of the stupid slapstick humor…keep the more sensitive, character-driven humor and moments…and add these small elements. Each suggestion I’ve made probably represents 1-3 minutes of screen time maximum (if well-written and tightly conveyed) which is easily doable if you trim the foolishness and recognize that the run time of the current film is only 106 anyway. You can probably trim 6-7 minutes of foolishness and add 15 minutes total addressing what I’ve suggested above to get to a 115 minute run time, which is completely reasonable for a Star Trek movie. I think if there had been more thought around some of these points (above are only examples of things that could have been done), you could have created a powerful, fun, imaginative Star Trek movie that may have gone down as one of the very best. At the very least, you would have retained all the good "character" stuff between Spock, Kirk and McCoy...and you would have learned more about Vulcan and Klingon society (assuming you like the thoughts I presented on beefing-up Sybok's backstory and Klaa's motivations).
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I guess sometimes, this is the movie that plays in my head when I watch TFF…which is one of the reasons maybe I like it.
I know it seems “obvioius,” but the movie I’d most like to see re-tooled is Star Trek V- The Final Frontier.
Now, let me go on record as saying that it’s not because I don’t like Star Trek V. Quite honestly, I prefer TFF to TUC and TVH, both of which are much more highly considered than TFF. But, right or wrong, the reason that I’ve always loved TFF is that I can see what COULD have been there, and it pains me how close it was to being a great Star Trek movie. TFF arguably is the most “TOS-like” of any of the first 6 movies. It has comedy, action/adventure, character development and a sense of wonder and exploration of the galaxy all in one story. I’ve always loved it for that, and none of the other films had that balance of elements. Unfortunately, not much of that was well-executed! So the IDEAS were great, but the execution was not. A bad script, crappy visuals, and well-documented production snafus derailed the much of the hope that the film could be well-executed…and the rest is history.
There are so many things you could do to keep the same essential story in place, but (in my humble opinion) vastly improve upon the execution. I’ve posted some of this before…but I will try to get in as much as possible here again:
- First, eliminate many of the “hijinks and slapstick” scenes to free-up space for what I am about to propose. On the cutting room floor would immediately go:
- Scott and Uhura flirting
- Sulu and Chekov getting lost
- Scott knocking himself out
- Uhura fan-dancing
- Broken Enterprise gags
- Kneck-pinching the blue horses
- Scott and Uhura flirting
- The first and perhaps most critical re-tool would be the need for key background on several items:
- Sybok- This was such a lost opportunity to tell us some fascinating things about Vulcan society. Why did Sybok reject emotion? What is the basis for his beliefs that “God” would be found on Sha Ka Ree (some combination of an ancient religious belief prior to the disciplines of Surak and the fact that the being found Sybok’s mind in much the same way V’Ger had touched Spock and was influencing him)? How did he develop his “share your pain” abilities out of the basic Vulcan telepathic techniques? There need not be pages and pages of dialogue associated with this…but more discussion between Kirk and Spock on this matter could have filled in several gaps (better than the silliness in the brig), as well as a small scene where Sybok explains more of his background to the officers in the observation lounge. Some of this was touched upon in the novel.
- Klaa- If you’re going to insist on a Klingon threat…let’s have a semi-real one. Maybe General Korrd is his estranged father, and he has some motivation to be the point man in the Nimbus “rescue” attempt (which, in the finished movie, was nothing more than an excuse to engage the Enterprise) to prove to his father that he is a worthy Klingon warrior. Klaa is motivated to continue pursuit of the Enterprise after Nimbus because he has been disgraced…the Enterprise wouldn’t even engage him in combat…and now he faces dishonor unless he can hunt Kirk down and defeat him. It also sets up a nice beat at the end of the film when the Klingons are compelled to rescue Kirk from Sha Ka Ree. It intensifies Klaa’s desire to hunt the Enterprise down and rescue Korrd, rather than just “I can defeat Kirk and be a pimp.”
- “The Planet of Galactic Peace”- Again, you could spend 2-3 additional minutes of screen time to flesh this idea out. What is the significance of this colony? Who are these ambassadors and what do they actually do (again, a good opportunity to develop the potential Korrd / Klaa connection if that’s where you wanted to go)? How does Sybok find himself here? If what Sybok really wanted was a Federation Starship…why was it necessary to attack a world owned by all three “galactic superpowers,” two of which would rather destroy you than attempt a rescue? I don’t have many creative suggestions to this one…but it seems like there was a really good “Star Trek” idea here that was just completely dropped or forgotten about that could have been integral to the set-up of the story.
- Sybok- This was such a lost opportunity to tell us some fascinating things about Vulcan society. Why did Sybok reject emotion? What is the basis for his beliefs that “God” would be found on Sha Ka Ree (some combination of an ancient religious belief prior to the disciplines of Surak and the fact that the being found Sybok’s mind in much the same way V’Ger had touched Spock and was influencing him)? How did he develop his “share your pain” abilities out of the basic Vulcan telepathic techniques? There need not be pages and pages of dialogue associated with this…but more discussion between Kirk and Spock on this matter could have filled in several gaps (better than the silliness in the brig), as well as a small scene where Sybok explains more of his background to the officers in the observation lounge. Some of this was touched upon in the novel.
- We’d need a more plausible explanation for why the Enterprise was able to reach the Galactic Center in such a relatively short amount of time, and why it was so easily able to traverse the Great Barrier.
- A considerable amount of exposition goes into the fact that Sybok is apparently brilliant, but this is never leveraged usefully, other than to try to trick the audience into being in awe of him. This fact could easily be leveraged to help with both of these elements:
- As in the JM Dillard novelization, Sybok used his considerable knowledge and technical expertise to adjust the Enterprise shields to be able to withstand the unique radiations and gravity distortions in the Barrier.
- You could take this idea one step further and indicate that Sybok had spent considerable time and energy dedicating his life to creating a formula for a controlled anti-matter imbalance that would create a wormhole allowing for travel to the galactic center region. You could quite literally solve both of these issues in less than 2-3 minutes of screen time, particularly given that it’s already been established that Sybok is a genius, even by Vulcan standards.
- A considerable amount of exposition goes into the fact that Sybok is apparently brilliant, but this is never leveraged usefully, other than to try to trick the audience into being in awe of him. This fact could easily be leveraged to help with both of these elements:
- Sha Ka Ree “begs further explanation”-
- I like the “Star Trek Maps” idea that the Great Barrier doesn’t surround the exact center of the galaxy, but the entire central region of the galaxy…making it plausible that the planet of Sha Ka Ree isn’t where a supermassive black hole should be. Again, this could be written in 20 seconds of screen time. Edit out Kirk needing to take a shower if you need to make it fit!
- Explore the mythology a little deeper. I’ve ALWAYS (personal canon alert) believed that Sybok never actually believes that “God the Almighty” actually lives on this planet in the center of the Milky Way. Rather, I have believed that the mythology of Sha Ka Ree is kind of a “hero’s quest…” in that the planet represents a point where a worthy and advanced enough traveler, if he is resourceful, “pure of heart” and courageous enough to make it past the Barrier, has a chance to interact with “God,” or whatever the believed supreme omnipotent intelligence is that birthed all creation (it manifests itself physically so the “pilgrims” can best understand and relate to something otherwise unknowable). It kind of makes the quest for Sha Ka Ree something similar to finding the Ark or the Grail in the Indiana Jones movies... or to Humanity’s quest to reach the stars in “Contact.” So, while it may still be a bit goofy (no more so than protomatter, Genesis, Red Matter, etc)…it’s MUCH more plausible when you start to wonder why a brilliant Vulcan would believe “God” would be hanging out on a desert planet in the middle of our tiny galaxy amongst our vast and infinite universe.
- The creature itself probably needs a little more “fleshing-out” in terms of what it actually was and its motivations. Again, it’s been “imprisoned” in this spot beyond the Barrier, apparently unable to physically leave. But, is it powerful enough where it was able to find the very emotional but also very powerful telepathic minds of the Vulcans and plant the seeds of a “false religion” hoping that one day, someone like Sybok would come along and free it back into the universe? A simple, but effective explanation like this would have been enough. You don’t need to spell it all out (I actually prefer the mystery), but I don’t like the whole “let’s shoot it with a torpedo and go have cocktails without giving it further thought” kind of resolution.
- I like the “Star Trek Maps” idea that the Great Barrier doesn’t surround the exact center of the galaxy, but the entire central region of the galaxy…making it plausible that the planet of Sha Ka Ree isn’t where a supermassive black hole should be. Again, this could be written in 20 seconds of screen time. Edit out Kirk needing to take a shower if you need to make it fit!
- Speaking of “Resolutions,” you need a better climax.
- You need more (see point 3C above) about what this creature really is and what dangers it poses. You may not need the River Styx and 100 Rockmen, but you need more than an ill-defined blob shouting “YOOOOOOUUU!!!!” in anger. Yikes.
- Sybok sacrifices himself to buy time for Kirk and company to escape…realizing the error he has made and making peace with Spock and himself…that’s all good stuff. But, the peril needs to be ramped up after that. The Enterprise torpedo detonated deep underground and sapped the creature temporarily of its power…but it is gaining strength quickly while the trio rush to escape the planet before it recovers and can wipe them out with a single thought.
- Bones and Spock beam up to the Enterprise, and the ship is attacked, just like in the finished movie. Perhaps the battle could have been more drawn out and a little more intense, with the Enterprise crew realizing that Kirk only has minutes until the creature’s power has returned and it will be able to hunt him down and kill him, and potentially even “possess” the temporarily damaged ship.
- If you like the “Klaa as Korrd’s son” idea, you could somehow weave in an ending where Klaa realizes what is happening and decides to restore his honor and his relationship with his father by turning the BoP on the creature and sacrificing himself and his ship to save Kirk (and, potentially the galaxy). This then serves as a potentially interesting character moment for Kirk, who has now seen the “good” that Klingons are capable of…and maybe now he can slowly begin the healing process over what happened to David.
- You need more (see point 3C above) about what this creature really is and what dangers it poses. You may not need the River Styx and 100 Rockmen, but you need more than an ill-defined blob shouting “YOOOOOOUUU!!!!” in anger. Yikes.
I think, for the most part, you can keep the other stuff “as is.” Trim the hell out of the stupid slapstick humor…keep the more sensitive, character-driven humor and moments…and add these small elements. Each suggestion I’ve made probably represents 1-3 minutes of screen time maximum (if well-written and tightly conveyed) which is easily doable if you trim the foolishness and recognize that the run time of the current film is only 106 anyway. You can probably trim 6-7 minutes of foolishness and add 15 minutes total addressing what I’ve suggested above to get to a 115 minute run time, which is completely reasonable for a Star Trek movie. I think if there had been more thought around some of these points (above are only examples of things that could have been done), you could have created a powerful, fun, imaginative Star Trek movie that may have gone down as one of the very best. At the very least, you would have retained all the good "character" stuff between Spock, Kirk and McCoy...and you would have learned more about Vulcan and Klingon society (assuming you like the thoughts I presented on beefing-up Sybok's backstory and Klaa's motivations).
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I guess sometimes, this is the movie that plays in my head when I watch TFF…which is one of the reasons maybe I like it.
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