new Inglorious podcast about this lost Trek film with the Band of Brothers scriptwriter: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-626vf-9cc4bac and RMB gives an interesting overview of the script on his Robservations channel i remember i had in my head back in 05 or thereabouts that this wouldve been that star trek movie whereby its taking the concept of Trek but in another era ('the beginning' of the UFP) with an all new movie cast/new characters, probably headlinded by a few biggish SF movie actors like Biehn, Paxton, Hendrikson, Quaid, (Walken gets mentioned in the podcast) - (like when the likes of Bana, Greenwood, Yeoh, Issacs were cast in ST09 & Discovery) in sort of a throwback to those 80s military movies: Right Stuff/Officer & Gentleman/Top Gun/Red October meets Star Trek (which was also kind of the pitch for Bennetts Academy movie) .. a Star Trek war movie to appeal to the current movie going audience but 'in canon' Trek to appeal to trekkies
I'd just seen Band of Brothers around this time and liked it a lot. So Star Trek: The Beginning actually had me interested.
In The Beginning might have been okay but i just remember reading some of the details and thinking it seemed rather small scale so I wasn't that keen on it. That's probably down to the practicalities of budget and what they felt they could do with canon and all that. My thoughts back then and from the mid-nineties was that the Earth-Romulan War was better as background detail to a series set after it when the Federation was already founded, kind of like how Babylon 5 approached the Dilgar War and the Earth-Minbari War (well, until B5 did a movie about the E-M War called....In The Beginning....hmmmm). I started thinking recently that a Trek version of The Clone Wars about the Earth-Romulan War might be cool as an animated series or film. Maybe even do In The Beginning itself or some version of it like the recent Starship Troopers animated films. I haven't listened to this podcast yet. Thanks for sharing it!
I listened to some of Burnett's video about this, but I felt he was gushing about it a bit too much so I lost interest. But the concept itself has merit and I would like to CBS All Access make this a movie or miniseries. Same with the Nicholas Meyer Khan idea, which Burnett also has championed. I did listen to more of Burnett's Khan video than the Romulan War one.
As a huge fan of Enterprise, I was offended by the sidelining of those characters to vacationing on Risa at the time. Something apparently mentioned in the script. Having just effectively saved humanity from the Xindi, and future Time-travelling agents targeting Archer for being vital to the Federation even exisiting? Get the fuck out of here! That the development of this film, had somehow all along prevented Enterprise covering the Romulan War made me doubly angry... Seriously, it would've been interesting to see and Jeffrey Comb's Shran apparently was to appear. But it needed NX involvement, and the fact by this stage even Rick Berman disrespected Enterprise in such a way, by allowing such a lame reason for getting it out of the picture, was telling. Having the lead character be an ancestor of Kirk, called Tiberius Chase sounded goofy and trying too hard to enforce the project's place in canon... when it was really a one-shot crew member called Stiles, who had a family connection to the Earth-Romulan War. His sole appearance, assuming the original Excelsior Captain in Star Trek III aren't one and the same person.
The podcast was a good interview, but I think Burnett and Altman were going overboard in their praise for the story. The trouble with Burnett especially is that he has a massive axe to grind with CBS, so anything that isn't current Star Trek gets built up to an absurd degree. Obviously I've not read the script, but what they described sounded like a fairly clichéd coming-of-age war movie. Did we need Top Gun in the Star Trek universe? Starship Troopers had basically torn to pieces those kind of tropes in sci-fi. Band of Brothers is a very good series, and I'm sure Erik Jendresen will have written a competent, professional script. I just remain sceptical it would have been the right place to go, especially so soon after Enterprise had flopped so dramatically. Perhaps it has a future as a CBSAA mini-series, but I think it's probably for the best that it didn't get produced as a film at the time.
What does that Burnett guy doesn't get??? Star Trek isn't about war, it's about preventing them. After seeing loads of violence from the JJ movies and now with the CBSAA serials, my understanding Burnett is not a fan of these installments, but HE'S CHAMPIONING A SCREENPLAY ABOUT WAR??? That man is ridiculous and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Regarding the original script idea by Jenderson I think it's important to remember all it ever got to was a 1st draft. Even Jenderson noted himself movies frequently go through many stages from 1st draft to shooting. I've read the draft summary and it had some interesting tidbits. I agree with @ChristopherPike that sidelining the Enterprise would have been a bad idea. Even if they didn't want to portray them on screen, or be the main focus of action, having them trapped on Risa during a war just seems like a bad idea (I could see them on shore leave when it starts but the war supposedly lasted 3 to 4 years so one would think they'd quickly get into the action). But again, that may have changed on revisions. It would have had some characters from Enterprise like Shran and one of the admirals at least (and probably others thrown in as well) so it certainly would have followed from Enterprise. And it sounded like the original idea was to have a trilogy of films. From what I understand Rick Berman was producer in name only and it seemed unlikely he would have had a lot to do with the films. Frankly I think he was on his way out by that point and probably would have dropped out before the film ever made it to production. He probably would have just held the reigns until a replacement was found. The Earth-Romulan War was such a pivotal event in Star Trek history. It led to the formation of the Federation and so much of the Star Trek history we know. It's amazing to think from a canon perspective we know almost nothing about it. The same really goes for World War III--another seminal event in Star Trek future history that we know little about. I was glad the novels finally decided to tackle the Romulan War. I guess S&S figured after The Beginning was cancelled that it would likely never be covered on screen. My only disappointment with the novels is they were apparently cut short after Michael Martin had already done the first book so he basically had to move things at a rapid pace in the 2nd book, leaving a lot out as a result. But you got the general outline of the war and it even explained why the original series ships 'appeared' less advanced (though they really weren't).
Is this true??? That war lead to the formation of the Federation??? Was this established in TOS "Balance of Terror" or this is another one of these wishful fan dreams? World War III, Eugenics Wars, Romulan War, Cardassian War has never presented little of. Why? Because that is not what Star Trek is about, Star Trek, its mythos, characters, and legacy is above all of that. I'm struggling to understand some Star Trek fan's hunger for that war sh*t.
I do believe that was established somewhere in canon, though I can't tell you where I recall that from. I just recall, before The Romulan Book novels came out that I already knew that it had something to do with the beginnings of the Federation and the Federation was born immediately after the conclusion of the war. And it can be inferred also from Enterprise. The Romulans want to prevent the creation of the Coalition, the precursor to the Federation. While you can argue it was never explicitly stated on screen I think you get the gist that by trying to thwart the Coalition from it's beginnings the Romulan Empire gets its worse case scenario when they get something far worse in their eyes with the Federation. WWIII is what brought Earth to it's knees. Things were as bad as bad could be, which was basically established in First Contact. Every conflict obviously brings about some change. But I see WWIII and the Romulan War as two events that led to significant changes, first for Earth as it was out of the ashes of WWIII that first contact was made, and the Romulan War, which immediately after the Federation was born. I never said it was. It's just I see those 2 events in future history that I noted, more than any other, led to the Star Trek that we know and love. "The Romulan War" novels do give some background into that conflict (granted it's not canon, but I really don't ever see it being seen in a canon production at this point). But very little about WWIII in canon or non-canon alike. Though in that case I doubt we will see anything of that sort since we are rapidly closing on the time for when that took place.