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Was Takei's reason silly for not appearing in Generations?

According to Ron Moore, the first draft had all seven of the original crew. As the crisis ramped up, each of Kirk's old crew took over from an Enterprise-B crewperson.
This is absolutely correct. I own the first draft of the script and can confirm this was how it played out. The original crew was introduced all cramped together in the turbolift and they were sitting aside of the bridge when the Enterprise-B launched. I couldn’t picture how they’d get the whole cast on the bridge in this fashion so it was wisely rewritten to be just the trio.
 
This is absolutely correct. I own the first draft of the script and can confirm this was how it played out. The original crew was introduced all cramped together in the turbolift and they were sitting aside of the bridge when the Enterprise-B launched. I couldn’t picture how they’d get the whole cast on the bridge in this fashion so it was wisely rewritten to be just the trio.
can you post it?
 
Okay, guys, let's deal with this, shall we? First, I realize necro-threads are an issue, but silent_space_fart is new to our forum. If you have a problem with a thread being necro'd, just report it and let me take care of it. If you aren't a mod, talk to someone who is!
ETA: I do not want to have to warn people for piling on new people.

silent_space_fart, since you're new, you may not have been aware that we do have a rule that threads that have not had a post in over a year are considered past the expiration date. Please check the date of the last time a post was made. Then start a new thread and link to the old one for reference, okay?

Further ETA: Since we have a productive discussion about the topic at hand, however, I am leaving this thread open.
 
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If I was in the movie business, i'd of made a sequel to ST6 as ST7 and done generations as a standalone first movie for TNG but it would've been different.

I've long felt that if Rick Berman had a little more vision, he should have held the crossover film for the 30th-anniversary in 1996 and done a standalone original series film in 1994 that also set up the crossover film. But Hollywood didn't do "big picture" thinking like that at that time; that's what made Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy so surprising and so risky.

Back to the original idea in the thread, I think there are ways of making the film prologue work with Sulu that also would have dealt with Takei's concerns.

Let's suppose you have a trio of Kirk, Sulu, and Scotty, and Demora is Chekov's daughter instead.

Everything goes as we see it... until Harriman realizes he needs help and he turns to Sulu, the active duty officer, instead. Or he turns to Kirk who defers instead to Sulu, the active duty officer. From that point, Sulu has Kirk's lines and when it comes time for Sulu to go down to deflector control Kirk jumps in and says, "No, I'll do it."

It would work. It would emphasize that Kirk feels a bit useless since he's just a spectator to all of this, but we would also lose the subtle touch of Kirk almost sitting in the center seat before he decides to go to deflector control.

Would this have made Takei happy? Who can say? Does anything make Takei happy? But it would have addressed his concerns about Sulu's apparent "demotion" by making him more central in a way that also emphasized Kirk's arc.
 
I suppose it could work, but it sounds remarkably unnecessary.

Despite what George Takei seems to think, Sulu does not have a comparable fanbase with Kirk. He just doesn't. So jumping through hoops to try and make George Takei happy seems silly, especially when you can just as easily make the movie without him. (Which is exactly what they did.)

Honestly, does it make a difference to anyone besides George Takei whether or not a TOS episode features Sulu? For most episodes I'd honestly have to think for a second to remember if he was in it or not. Don't get me wrong, I like Sulu (and Takei, for the most part), but he's just not that important of a character in the overall scheme of things.
 
Yet we've seen Spock and Kirk share the same rank for three Trek films. Why would Sulu be demoted? I think it's silly.

Didn't Kirk in TMP take a step down from Admiralty to Captaincy because he wanted to be on the Enterprise?

But Sulu isn't Kirk either, so it is nice to see characters go in different directions - it's refreshing. Having his daughter follow in the proverbial footsteps would make more sense and not feel like a retread. Takei's point was a good one...

...that, and it was Riker (as with Kirk) who got so strung up with Enterprise that that'd do anything to stay on it. Save for NEM, when he goes off to become captain of the Titan.
 
I could see that. I recall in Nimoy's autobiography (the second one, the "I am Spock") he mentions a lot that he feels a good film only has scenes that are essential to the plot of the film. The Data subplot, while a nice progression of the character, is quite superfluous to the main plot of Generations.

I think TSfS felt way too focused.
 
I think the basic idea that the TOS crew had to jump in and save the Enterprise-B shows that Starfleet is completely irresponsible in assigning competent crew to their best starships. Did no one else ever fight off anomalies or giant hands in space? Or was the Enterprise-B continuing the new tradition of being a training vessel?
 
I think the basic idea that the TOS crew had to jump in and save the Enterprise-B shows that Starfleet is completely irresponsible in assigning competent crew to their best starships. Did no one else ever fight off anomalies or giant hands in space? Or was the Enterprise-B continuing the new tradition of being a training vessel?
Well, it was supposed to be a press cruise so you wanted people to smile and look nice for the camera and give lots of pizzazz, not necessarily competence.
 
As soon as Berman uploads Maurice Hurley‘s movie script.
Is there any version that has already been released onto the internet?

I think the basic idea that the TOS crew had to jump in and save the Enterprise-B shows that Starfleet is completely irresponsible in assigning competent crew to their best starships. Did no one else ever fight off anomalies or giant hands in space? Or was the Enterprise-B continuing the new tradition of being a training vessel?
If you consider it to be a training vessel with a more "green" captain, you can get away with it.
If it's meant to be the new flagship of the Federation, than having a green captain and crew really makes no sense. Kirk was absolutely not needed and should not have been anything more than a spectator, and sending a retired admiral to fix a problem that should only have been touched by a certified technician (engineer).
Lot of flaws with that movie :lol:
 
Reading between the lines, the Hurley script was written to be intentionally terrible to ensure that the Braga/Moore script was chosen.

It was only the studio's insistence on having two scripts that meant it was commissioned in the first place, so Berman asked Hurley to do him a favour.

I guess the reason it's never leaked is because Berman doesn't want it out there because it's rubbish and would make Hurley look bad.
 
I suppose it could work, but it sounds remarkably unnecessary.

Despite what George Takei seems to think, Sulu does not have a comparable fanbase with Kirk. He just doesn't.

Self-deception runs through Takei's veins, probably making him think that one day he will be the "Star" of Star Trek, with Sulu seen as the face of a franchise.

but he's just not that important of a character in the overall scheme of things.

This.
 
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