Some Planet of the Titans questions

[somebuddyX]

I've been thinking about "Planet of the Titans" and had some questions for everyone. (For those that don't know "Planet of the Titans" was a proposed Star Trek motion picture, before the other one. You can read about it here and here and here for instance.)
My questions are:
1. Ralph McQuarrie's concept art shows a quite different design for the Enterprise. Do you think that design would have really been used? If it had been, would fans have been accepting or upset?
2. Who, in 1978, would be good casting for Gregory Westlake, the captain of the Enterprise appointed after Captain Kirk goes missing?
3. I think the ending, with the crew teaching cavemen to make fire, is kind of ridiculous. Is it? Wouldn't they have come up with this on their own anyway? I mean, we did.
4. Would you like to have seen this film?

So my thoughts are.
1. No. But if it had it would not have been widely accepted like TMP design.
2. They would probably cast younger, like Will Decker, but I keep thinking an older actor to counterpoint Kirk, like Lloyd Bridges.
3. It's ridiculous.
4. Yes. I think it would have been fun to see.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Ottens]

You may also be interested in my story about Planet of the Titans at Forgotten Trek (with concept art).

1. I doubt they would have used that design. Roddenberry was still in charge of Star Trek at the time, and if IIRC he rejected a suggestion from Richard Taylor at the time of making TMP to refit the Enterprise more thoroughly.

2. I don't know.

3. It does sound a bit like an anti-climax.

4. Well, sure, it can't have been worse than Star Trek V.

 

[somebuddyX]

You may also be interested in my story about Planet of the Titans at Forgotten Trek (with concept art).

1. I doubt they would have used that design. Roddenberry was still in charge of Star Trek at the time, and if IIRC he rejected a suggestion from Richard Taylor at the time of making TMP to refit the Enterprise more thoroughly.

2. I don't know.

3. It does sound a bit like an anti-climax.

4. Well, sure, it can't have been worse than Star Trek V.

Thanks! I will!

 

[somebuddyX]

Another question, does anyone know what kind of uniform style they might have used in this film? I keep thinking TMP style.

 

[Nightowl1701]

1. Depended on how willing the studio was to risk Roddenberry publicly turning on the project. After Star Wars he would have had to agree to considerably amp up the detail/realism on the model/sets anyway. He perhaps could have compromised and have the McQuarrie design appear as a separate starship in the film.
2. Robert Redford, with Charlotte Rampling in the Dr. Riva role. That would have gotten butts in the seats in '78, if nothing else about the film did.
3: They'd already moved away from that by the Kaufman rewrite (the one Paramount rejected).
4: I dunno. Sounds like it would have been a b-movie at best.
5: (bonus) Space:1999/Logan's Run style uniforms were all the rage then, so it would have been something along those lines.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

The God Thing was the first planned movie (1975), then Planet Of The Titans (1976-1977), then later they "announced" a new TV series (Phase II).

Did they ever have a ship concept for TGT?

The (now) USS Discovery concept (both versions) was a nice enough ship, but I really think they wouldn't have gone that way for the Enterprise (at least I hope not).

I always loved the Phase II concept we saw on the TMP comic book ads, and the eventual TMP refit was a beauty as well.

Phase II was planning to use TOS style uniforms, but they wouldn't have looked great on the big screen, or even fit that well in the late 70's. Not that the TMP PJ's were the best, they had a 70's feel to them.

 

[Ottens]

Another question, does anyone know what kind of uniform style they might have used in this film? I keep thinking TMP style.

I don't think they ever got that far with Planet of the Titans. They only started designing uniforms by the time Phase II had gone into production, and as @Ar-Pharazon points out they were similar to TOS's.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Did they ever have a ship concept for TGT?

From the script excerpt I saw, and knowing they wanted to crank it out fairly fast and cheap, they'd have recycled the ship model from TOS and slapped new warp nacelles on it. In my personal head canon, I've retroactively assigned Mike Minor's Endeavour-class design (an early Phase II take, but fits what the script excerpt describes) to this Trek-that-never-was.

 

[somebuddyX]

The God Thing was the first planned movie (1975), then Planet Of The Titans (1976-1977), then later they "announced" a new TV series (Phase II).

Ha, I totally blanked on "The God Thing.' I changed it up now.
I haven't seen much of the Phase II ship but I really like the TMP design, although in my mind I often think of it as the Enterprise-A more than the Enterprise because that was the current ship when I was a kid.
That's interesting about the Phase II uniforms as well. I hadn't considered the idea of TOS style uniforms existing past 1969 or so.

2. Robert Redford, with Charlotte Rampling in the Dr. Riva role. That would have gotten butts in the seats in '78, if nothing else about the film did..

That's a great idea!