Star Trek The Motion Picture: If You Could Remake It

Yeah a Victorian version of Star Trek would be an awesome reboot! Instead of a beehive, Rand could have a massive bustle and McCoy could be racist for real.

 

And where was that established?

No he was pretty much the head doctor.

 

There was quite a bit of background to TMP but I think it was the novelisation that expressly stated that she was due to be the CMO and stepped aside gratefully for McCoy.

 

Then why would he need a head nurse? There should already be one assigned to the Enterprise.

 

I don't know, I do know he also griped about possible changes to sickbay and was pretty much handling most of the medical stuff in the film.

 

There were plenty of crewmen with green medical badges on the rec deck not to mention the petty officer on the bridge. I think they had plenty of staff. However, it's probable that medical is a sub-group of life sciences so they could also have been biologists, zoologists, botanists, biophysicists, microbiologists, exobiologists, etc.

 

"I'm gonna need a good nurse, Chapels an MD now..."
And something about wanting someone who isn't going to question him.
Kirk drafted him and brought him aboard, Chapel was clearly already aboard, it's not much of an inference to assume she was bumped down by this the same way Decker was by Kirk. McCoy acts like Cmo as soon as he steps aboard, but I don't think it's ever stated he is, if anything he's technically put aboard as a First Contact specialist. Hence the whole "damnit bones I need you" speech. (he's like the Deckard of Star Trek, needed for his magic, drafted in, and then looks at the inside of a perfectly replicated human female...)

I can see how one would assume Chapel is Cmo, before becoming sonething like M'Benga, or possibly remaining Cmo while Bones is the M'Benga.

 

Also, wasn't Bones meant to be a vet now? ;p

 

That was from an earlier draft of the script, thankfully excised before filming!

 

I dunno. Next time we saw bones (geddit) with a salt and pepper shaker over a steak we wouldn't know if it was lunch or a medical miracle.
Also, he'd be able to ditch his new wrist communicator really easily.
All creatures great and small with a shuttlecraft whooshing along the countryside would be great.

 

I would not change much at all, to be honest.

I would have altered the uniforms slightly. Make them two piece uniforms in "bright" versions of the TOS colors. I have seen almost exactly what I am talking about in other threads here on TBBS. We have good artists here.

I would have left Decker as Captain, with Xon as Science Officer.

I would have had Kirk brought in as "Mission Commander", maybe with the rank of Commodore, maybe as Admiral. He would NOT have relieved Decker as Captain of the ship.

I would have had Spock brought in as "Science Consultant".

The bulk of the film would otherwise have remained largely the same. I think I would have not done the "shakedown" aspect with the film starting at the tail end of the Enterprise refit. I would have started the film with the refit being in the past and Decker already established as Captain and his mission underway.

Of course, if I had my way, this film would have been the backdoor pilot for the Phase II TV series, which would have continue with Decker, Ilia, Xon as the main trio, with Kirk, McCoy, and Spock all having moved on to "higher positions" in Star Fleet and making only semi-infrequent cameos. I like the idea of Kirk having become Commander of the Squadron / Fleet / Task Force that Enterprise belongs to, and thus being Decker's immediate superior.

 

Maybe Fleet Captain, like I believe Pike was? It definitely would have made more sense then the jump straight to Admiral. Being an Admiral in Wrath of Khan makes sense; the new refit is already obsolete, so I've already assumed another 5YM happened in the meantime. A timeline of: TOS (5ym), TMP, Phase 2 (5ym), followed by the trilogy (2-4) would have been fantastic. Then one final 5YM in the Enterprise A, before retirement. This would effectively turn the 1st and 5th movie into pilot movies for tv shows, with a fantastic movie trilogy in the middle.

 

We don't have any indication that five-year missions were the norm for Starfleet. There may have been many missions of much shorter duration between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan for the Enterprise. Probably with different command crews.

 

Using the Directors Edition as a guide, I wouldn't really change anything. I would love to see the original effects recomposited with modern equipment just like they did with TNG on bluray and of course, include all the additions from the directors cut but in HD. I think that's about it. The directors cut with a nice clean transfer like the theatrical bluray and recomposition of the original effects sources would do it for me.

 

The elements largely do not exist, so there won't be any recompositing.

 

I'd speed up the film to three times the normal rate so that that movie is over in 40 minutes.

 

I agree pacing the plot would benefit the movie. Does anyone knows if there were other scripts Roddenberry considered before using that awful one? Has anyone read Philip Kaufman's Star Trek he wanted to film titled: Star Trek: Planet of the Titans? If so, what was it about? And what did you think about the script, did it had potential?

 

I believe that GR tried to pitch his idea to the studio about a time travel story back to when JFK was assassinated. I don't have any thoughts on whether that proposed story would have been successfull.