Stoopid Smart Reviews "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"

[Rookie Trekkie]

Hello all! I've been really getting into the Star Trek original series as well as the films, and I've been really enjoying the experience. I figure no one knows the material better than the fans, so I figured I'd post my reviews to this site and get some feedback on how you guys agree or disagree with my opinions.

I just completed work on my Star Trek II review, found here:

http://stoopidsmartreviews.blogspot.com/2014/07/star-trekking-wrath-of-khan.html

If you're curious to see what I thought of the first film, check it out here:

http://stoopidsmartreviews.blogspot.com/2014/05/star-treking-motion-picture.html

Lastly, if you want to see what I thought of the original series, clicky click right here:

http://stoopidsmartreviews.blogspot.com/2014/03/star-treking-original-series-1966-1969.html

I'm still new to the blogging world, so critique my critiques as much as you'd like! Thanks so much.

 

[Maurice]

Nice and to the point.

However, you're wrong about the number of writers on both films.

TMP only had two screenwriters: Livingston and Roddenberry. Foster did a story treatment which Livingstone turned into a TV movie which morphed into TMP. All the other writers worked on other proposed films, like The Planet of the Titans, but those films were junked, so those writers cannot really be said to have worked on TMP. Also, you exaggerate the number of years. 10 years would have meant the started working on a movie script the year the series got cancelled.

TWOK had several scripts, and Meyer took bits from each and wrote the final script (uncredited). The WGA credit system limits the number of writers and writing teams which can be credited, so the actual screenwriters are harder to parse from the official credits, but actual screenwriters who wrote scripts were Sowards, Peeples, and Meyer, and some story elements came from Bennett (who may or may not have written a draft, I don't recall off hand).

 

[trevanian]

Dennis Lyton or Lynton Clark also wrote on TMP right after Wise came on, for 3 months according to his account. He's the guy who, like John DF Black, did not appreciate GR's practical jokes, like replacing his secretary with Grace Lee Whitney, and who supposedly spent his time avoiding Shatner and Nimoy so he wouldn't have to deal with their demands. I'm guessing he didn't solve anything plotwise either, given how desperate they were to get HL back, and that production kept allowing GR to mess with things when it was clear he wasn't making it work either. STARLOG 27 (the really great issue, the sfx one on magicam and hartland) actually reported Clark as being the final writer on the piece, so his involvement was public.

A lot of script doctoring is kept very quiet. The ONLY place I've ever seen a third writer mentioned on FIRST CONTACT is a writing magazine site that interviewed the guy who wrote RUSH HOUR. It was only a brief mention, but I recall it said he was called in to punch FC up (which I've taken to mean 'give Stewart a big speech.') I've never seen Berman or Moore or Braga or anyone else associated with trek address this, which makes me think either the guy's stuff wasn't used or it was used and very very good.

 

[Maurice]

Heres issue #27. In which article is this? I don't recall this.

 

[trevanian]

Six paragraphs in, top of the third column on the first page of the Magicam article.

He is also interviewed in one of the unauthorized n/f trek books, I think THE MAKING OF THE TREK FILMS and/or Pioneer's THE LOST YEARS.

 

[Maurice]

Oh, yeah, now I remember that. Well, given how WGA rules work it's unsurprising he'd not get credit even if he did a "final draft".

EDIT. A little Thing told me to check out Susan Sackett's blip in Future Life #27:

SCRIPT: Dennis Lynton Clark is doing
the final rewrite and polish of the script
which was written by Harold Livingston
and Gene Roddenberry, based on a
story by Alan Dean Foster and Gene
Roddenberry. Dennis recently wrote the
screenplay for United Artists' Comes A
Horseman Wild And Free, from his
own novel.

ART DIRECTOR: Joe Jennings is Art
Director on Star Trek— The Motion Pic-
ture. Joe has been with this project since
construction began last year for the then
proposed television series, and will con-
tinue to supervise all art work. Joe was
Assistant Art Director on the original
Star Trek television series.

We know how that turned out for Jennings. So, how'd it go for Clark?

 

[NewHorizon]

Also, were the returns from The Motion Picture really that disappointing? It cost something like 50+ million to make, but didn't it make around 130 million at the box office? Can't really say that's disappointing, considering the time it was released.

 

[Maurice]

40 something million, including all the dev costs for previous aborted Trek productions. A few years earlier its numbers would have been considered astronomical, but Jaws and then Star Wars redefined the scale.

 

[trevanian]

Also, were the returns from The Motion Picture really that disappointing? It cost something like 50+ million to make, but didn't it make around 130 million at the box office? Can't really say that's disappointing, considering the time it was released.

It absolutely made a profit, even taking into account the general 2.5x rule of budget vs return. Lots of sources in the early 80s had the film's worldwide at 175 mil, so I don't understand why all the sources now come in at 139 mil, especially given that paramount was lowballing everybody to avoid paying gross royalties up till about 1985 or so.

 

[Rookie Trekkie]

Thanks for the feedback, Maurice! I'll get to editing the review ASAP. In the meantime, I just finished work on Search for Spock,

http://stoopidsmartreviews.blogspot.com/2014/07/star-trekking-search-for-spock.html

Check it out and enjoy!