Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country…. (Backstories)

[Timofnine]

I have read an article which has a very different vision of where our heroes were during events leading up to the destruction of Praxis in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. What do you think of this concept?

Hikaru Sulu would have been living in some crowded metropolis driving a cab. Doctor McCoy would've been found drunk in a space-age bar, while Uhura would be hosting a radio call-in show. Chekov would be a grand champion in chess, while Spock would be playing Polonius in an all-Vulcan production of Hamlet. Captain Kirk would've married Carol Marcus and settled down. Only Scotty would still be involved in Starfleet, teaching engineering to cadets. Various circumstances arose to bring them out of retirement for one last mission, with some drafts even featuring the deaths of all characters but McCoy and Spock.

Perhaps this is where the characters were before Spock’s briefing at Starfleet Command? But these backstories were maybe cut out of the final movie as a result of both budgetary and time restraints?

Original article.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I have read an article which has a very different vision of where our heroes were during events leading up to the destruction of Praxis in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. What do you think of this concept?

Denny Martin Flinn had several pages of script in the ST VI shooting script that covered what was called a "last roundup". An alien with a glowing hand visited each main Enterprise crewmember and summoned them to join Kirk for an important, final mission. eg, Uhura was teaching cadets, Chekov was playing poker with a Betazoid (bad idea by Chekov), Scotty was lecturing about the SS Bounty, raised from San Francisco Bay, etc.

This sequence was dropped for time and pace and never filmed, but... when Flinn was invited to pen a "Star Trek" novel, "The Fearful Summons", he used his previously dropped material as the beginning of his novel.

 

[Tosk]

Perhaps this is where the characters were before Spock’s briefing at Starfleet Command?

Not unless Sulu drives his cab on board the Excelsior.

 

[Firebird]

Denny Martin Flinn had several pages of script in the ST VI shooting script that covered what was called a "last roundup". An alien with a glowing hand visited each main Enterprise crewmember and summoned them to join Kirk for an important, final mission. eg, Uhura was teaching cadets, Chekov was playing poker with a Betazoid (bad idea by Chekov), Scotty was lecturing about the SS Bounty, raised from San Francisco Bay, etc.

This sequence was dropped for time and pace and never filmed, but... when Flinn was invited to pen a "Star Trek" novel, "The Fearful Summons", he used his previously dropped material as the beginning of his novel.

The 12/28/1990 Fifth Draft (the basis of the final shooting script) starts out with the Sulu/Excelsior opening, nearly unchanged to what was finally shot.

Next, we have Kirk enjoying an intimate moment with Carol Marcus before the Courier arrives with the glowing red palm with "a faint green smoke that curls over the backs of his fingers." The mission to grab everyone but Sulu begins. We find out that Spock's status is "classified."

Kirk first grabs Scotty, instructing cadets in front of the partially dismembered Bounty, where apparently nobody is familiar with the cloaking device...

Next is Bones, drunk off his ass at a "posh dinner party." He passes out after insulting the other guests.

We then see Chekov (or "Chekhov" as the script continually misspells) losing a chess game against a Betazoid that's described as an "odd creature" that doesn't speak English and apparently does utilize real money.

Uhura is found hosting a radio show (WTF???) where I guess she's turned into the UFP's version of Frasier Crane. God am I glad this was never filmed.

From there, we cut to the Briefing Room at SF Command, and the script continues as we're familiar with.​

Ultimately, the sequence only lasts eight pages, so it wouldn't have been the length that worked against it. IIRC, it was more a budgetary problem. TUC was briefly cancelled by Paramount because this final draft of the script was budgeted somewhere around $40 million. By dumping this sequence and a few other trims, they knocked down $10 million from the budget.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Uhura is found hosting a radio show (WTF???) where I guess she's turned into the UFP's version of Frasier Crane. God am I glad this was never filmed.

Considering it was 1990/91, they were more likely thinking Oprah Winfrey.

 

[Shat Happens]

A sequence of 'rounding-up the old gang' could maybe be fit for a Star Trek I not VI

Denny Martin Flinn ... was invited to pen a "Star Trek" novel, "The Fearful Summons", he used his previously dropped material as the beginning of his novel.

I read the book. This chapter is very superfluous too, IIRC (I dont have the book anymore)