TWOK "I'm delighted, any chance to go aboard the Enterprise..."

Sulu seems to be cut off mid sentence when on the travel pod in Wrath of Khan. I was wondering if that full scene was ever released on Bluray as a deleted scene or if the scripted scene is anywhere to read? It's pretty obvious he says something more, but they had to haphazardly cut it out for whatever reason?

 

I never got the impression that he said anything more.

 

Oh, there's more. It was edited out.

SULU
(embarrassed)
I am delighted; any chance to go
aboard Enterprise, however briefly,
is always an excuse for nostalgia.

KIRK
I cut your new orders personally. By
the end of the month, you'll have your
first command: USS EXCELSIOR.

SULU
Thank you, sir. I've looked
forward to this for a long time.

KIRK
You've earned it. But I'm still
grateful to have you at the helm
for three weeks. I don't believe
these kids can steer.​

Now, George Takei claims Shatner deliberately "sabataage"d the scene, but I have the audio from the workprint—which includes this exchange—and Shatner's line delivery is fine.

 

Oh, that's rather interesting. I had a feeling there was something...

Well, if not Shatner's ego, then I wonder why they would have cut it? Just extraneous to the story?

 

Extraneous. And, I gather Meyer wasn't keen on Takei's acting.

 

Sulu being on Excelsior after TWOK and during III sure would've reshaped III in some radical ways.

 

It sure would. I'm sure Admiral Kirk would be all too happy to order Captain Sulu to ferry him and Dr. McCoy on an urgent top-secret radio-silent mission (wink wink, nudge nudge) to the Mutara Sector.

Given Excelsior's speed, it might even have had a chance to save the Grissom from destruction.

I'd be very curious to see how they'd handle the ending of IV though. Assuming the Excelsior went back in time and picked up George and Gracie, it seems unlikely Starfleet would credit Kirk specifically with saving the planet, and equally unlikely they'd "reward" him with a new Enterprise.

I think this would have been a great setup to segue into a Captain Sulu series instead of TNG, but it makes you wonder what they'd do for the next two movies... Maybe we would have seen the Academy story that Harve Bennett had been pitching at the time.

 

Without the need to steal the Enterprise, the charges against Kirk and crew would be much less severe. Plus they wouldn't need to give him a new ship, demote him to captain and give him the Old Enterprise back, as it was never destroyed at Genesis.

 

Is this audio clip something that can be shared? I'm genuinely curious to hear it.

 

Keep in mind that the "Excelsior" mentioned in this cut scene was not the same thing as the Excelsior as seen in TSFS. At this point in time it was just a random, insignificant ship that Sulu was going to command. They just re-used the name for the new transwarp prototype for the next film, and the fact that Sulu ended up in command of it by TUC really had nothing to do with this scene, AFAIK.

 

The first scene in Star Trek 6 stars George Takei. He couldn't have hated his acting that much

 

Maybe he changed his mind in the nine years between those two movies.

 

Wasn't the same scene, anyway.

---

Regarding the purportedly possible use of Excelsior in TSFS, sounds like dullsville compared to what we got.

 

You forget that Lenny was an Executive Producer, and that they obviously wanted the whole gang back for the final mission/25th anniversary movie. In fact, by putting Sulu on the Excelsior he's absent for big chunks of the movie.

 

Could it have been something that Shatner did wrong visually which blew the scene? Standing on the wrong mark, fidgeting, looking bored and disinterested, adjusting with his toupée, etc etc. He could have read the line well enough, but his overall performance in the scene might have lacked something? If he had played it like Kirk really couldn't care less about Sulu, despite what the dialogue says, then that might've been due cause for cutting the scene.

 

The idea that Shatner would blow a scene in order to keep Takei's character from getting promoted is utterly preposterous.

 

While do I agree that Takei's claim seems a little.... implausible.... Shatner himself doesn't actually deny doing it (although *he* claims an alturistic motive for blowing the scene, in that Enterprise was the hero ship of the franchise, so in Shatner's view George was unwittingly writing himself out of future sequels.)

It's a debate that will rage on. Probably long after both actors are dust.

 

Trust me.... I haven't forgotten that Leonard Nimoy was an executive producer on the film. If it wasn't for him, the film probably would never have been made.

I have read Nicholas Meyer's book, and he is very open about the actors and their performances in it. Nowhere does he ever criticize George Takei's acting abilities. What he does say about Shatner is this:

I think this is probably where the truth lies with the Excelsior scene. The dialogue that you have heard may have sounded good to the ear, but Shatner might not have been able to sell the scene with his face and body language. With the two actors appearing in the same shot together, Takei may have been great in a few takes, but not as good in the rest. It could very much be that their timing was off with each other, and no take looked believable on film.

 

Why does it have to be some ulterior reason? Why can't it be like so many other dialog trims in the movie: because it was deemed unnecessary?

And, re Meyer's opinion of Takei's acting...