TOS season 4

[RobertScorpio]

Recently I read some of the script specs for the fourth season that never was. And I have to say, for the most part, I was not impressed. Although some of the third season is watchable, some of it is not. It was clear they were either running out of ideas, or, had bad writing. In any case, I am glad they ended it when they did.

Had they brouight GR back, could it have improved? I'm not so sure, since IMO, he was starting to take his ideas of what Star Trek was about in ways that I thought were, and this is just my opinion, a little 'out there'.

And if Season one of TNG is any indicator, and some of the spec scripts for Phase Two as well, perhaps TOS's three seasons were as good as it was going to get. More and more I am of the opinion that it was Gene L Coon who helped keep GR on the straight and narrow and limited GR's progressive thoughts from over taking the show.

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Nardpuncher]

Not exactly on topic but I picked up IDW's comic book last week called Star Trek Year 4. I guess it's supposed to be after the turd season. It wasn't that good of a comic book.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Not exactly on topic but I picked up IDW's comic book last week called Star Trek Year 4. I guess it's supposed to be after the turd season. It wasn't that good of a comic book.

I agree. I actually got that comic book too and after all the hype it got, I expected better.

Rob

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Recently I read some of the script specs for the fourth season that never was. And I have to say, for the most part, I was not impressed.

What were the stories about?

 

[flux_29]

^ or at least a link.

 

[Ssosmcin]

The artwork really let me down. Too many of the stories were cartoonishly drawn, like they were doing the book for 8 year olds. Other issues used far to much reference material (like stills and so on) for the characters.

As far as any draft script idea, you have to remember that they were rough ideas. Sometimes even the best episode can be blandly described. If Gene had returned, he probably would have punched them up. As for his attitude, he didn't have the "utopian" thing going on at this point. Next Generation was 20 years later and as for Phase II, nobody knew how to approach it.

I happen to enjoy the third season, so I would have been fine with a 4th year.

 

[Therin of Andor]

^ or at least a link.

Two IDW mini-series so far:

http://startrek.wikia.com/wiki/Year_Four

http://startrek.wikia.com/wiki/Year_Four:_The_Enterprise_Experiment

I quite enjoy them.

 

[JoeD80]

More and more I am of the opinion that it was Gene L Coon who helped keep GR on the straight and narrow and limited GR's progressive thoughts from over taking the show.

Certainly Gene L. Coon was the writing machine that helped steer Star Trek on to the right track. However, "limiting GR's progressive thoughts"? What does that mean exactly?

 

[Maurice]

Given the way TV works, I have a difficult time believing the "death slotted" Star Trek was soliciting or purchasing stories for a 4th season. Seriously, the costs for purchasing stories and scripts go to the current budget (current season). As such, shows typically do not buy material for future seasons, especially when you're not confident you'll have one. You spend this year's budget on this year's episodes. What does happen is a show would often buy more stories or a few extra scripts than needed as safety in case another script didn't work out or the writer failed to deliver. In such cases, some of these might come back up in a following season, but often didn't.

 

[JoeD80]

Having stories is not the same as having scripts. Story ideas are cheap for the studio; it's the script the writers are getting paid for and those aren't commissioned until the season is a sure thing. However, "spec scripts", which come about when a writer sends the studio their own script and hopes that it will be purchased or get them hired to write a different script for the show can easily build up; the Star Trek offices probably had several spec scripts waiting for a fourth season.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Given the way TV works, I have a difficult time believing the "death slotted" Star Trek was soliciting or purchasing stories for a 4th season. Seriously, the costs for purchasing stories and scripts go to the current budget (current season). As such, shows typically do not buy material for future seasons, especially when you're not confident you'll have one.

In the latest trade omnibus reprints of the TAS adaptations ("Star Trek Logs"), Alan Dean Foster explains that the final two-thirds of "Star Trek Log Seven", about Kumara the Klingon, was actually from a two-part script he pitched, and then wrote up, during Season Three of TOS. When he submitted it, he was asked to resubmit... "if" there was a Season Four.

Sounds like he wrote up the script on spec.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

When they get done having fun with the movies, Trek XI & beyond, I'm looking forward to TOS S4. For REAL!

 

[Neopeius]

I remember being surprised by how not bad Season 3 is. It's got some stinkers, but then so does Season 1. As Trek went on, it got a lot more exploratory as fan authors started sending in scripts, some of them quite excellent.

Seeing how TAS is essentially Season 4, and there's some gold in that show, I think Trek Season 4 had a lot of potential.

On the other hand, the actors were getting tired of their roles and budgets were declining. I think they'd have to do something beyond recycling old plots and focusing on the Big 3. I'd like to see more side characters and nuanced situations.

 

[Warped9]

Recently I read some of the script specs for the fourth season that never was. And I have to say, for the most part, I was not impressed. Although some of the third season is watchable, some of it is not. It was clear they were either running out of ideas, or, had bad writing. In any case, I am glad they ended it when they did.

Had they brouight GR back, could it have improved? I'm not so sure, since IMO, he was starting to take his ideas of what Star Trek was about in ways that I thought were, and this is just my opinion, a little 'out there'.

And if Season one of TNG is any indicator, and some of the spec scripts for Phase Two as well, perhaps TOS's three seasons were as good as it was going to get. More and more I am of the opinion that it was Gene L Coon who helped keep GR on the straight and narrow and limited GR's progressive thoughts from over taking the show.

Rob
Scorpio

For a Season 4 to have worked Season 3 would have had to have been more consistent. The problem in S3 is they all pretty much knew that the show was on its last legs and wouldn't be renewed. If there had been more confidence and stability at the top then I think that would have been confidence and enthusiasm inspiring for everyone else involved. Also they really needed someone of Gene L. Coon's calibre to replace him--that would have helped immensely.

When I look at S3 I see some damn fine stories, a fair number of mediocre ones and a few stinkers. But nearly all of them could have been immeasureably better with a little rewriting, a little more focused conceptualizing and a bit more production money to show them off.

A case in point: Spock's Brain. Change the title to The Controller or something else to that effect and the thing is fifty percent better right off. A little rewriting to make the Morg women less airheads and you've taken a big step forward. Do a little more conceptual worldbuilding and spend a bit more money for sets and props and bingo you've got a winner. Because at the heart of Spock's Brain is a good science fiction story: a living mind rather than a highly advanced intelligent computer is needed to guide a stagnant society and help it survive. And there could have been a real moral issue here, too: which takes precedence, an individual's life or a society survival?

 

[Tan Ru]

Well said Warped9 concerning Spock's Brain. I've often felt the same way about that episode.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Or they could have just went with a script closer to Coon's outline. A link to the synopsis of the first outline is at the first addy in my sig. Scroll down to the Outline which became episodes section.

Sir Rhosis