What's Keeping "The God Thing" From Being Published?

[Rush Limborg]

You actually think you're making a compelling case here, don't you?

That's so fucking precious.

*sigh*

With that in mind, let's redirect this thread back on topic, i.e. The God Thing (the project, not the poster ).

Gladly, Doc. And I agree, this religious/athiest argument has gone far enough. SO...

I must admit, the thought of an alternate ST:TMP does appeal to me. I seem to recall in Captain's Logs: The Complete Trek Adventures, brief discriptions regarding previous film ideas. One that I found particularly intriguing was an idea that had Spock (and the rest of the crew) believe that Kirk is dead. I don't remember that much else, but it did seem to have a lot of potential....

But, about God Thing. I wonder if The Bird intended to keep that title. It seems to me that "Star Trek: The God Thing" doesn't come across as a real, "movie-quality" title.

Any thoughts? Did GR have any alternate titles? What might he have come up with had Paramount given it the go-ahead?

 

[Trent Roman]

^ It's still better than Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in my opinion. I can't comment on how it came off at the time, but it seems really antiquated, like it ought to be begin with one of those "Filmed in Amazing TECHNO-COLOUR!" splashes. Not to mention imprecise; I mean, the TV show was moving pictures too...

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Steve Roby]

^ It's still better than Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in my opinion. I can't comment on how it came off at the time, but it seems really antiquated, like it ought to be begin with one of those "Filmed in Amazing TECHNO-COLOUR!" splashes. Not to mention imprecise; I mean, the TV show was moving pictures too...

"Motion picture" is considered a classier term than movie, and in 1979, the idea of making a big budget movie based on an old TV series was quite unusual. "Star Trek - The Motion Picture" meant this is not the TV show, it's new, it's big, and we're taking it seriously.

 

[Thrawn]

^ It's still better than Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in my opinion. I can't comment on how it came off at the time, but it seems really antiquated, like it ought to be begin with one of those "Filmed in Amazing TECHNO-COLOUR!" splashes. Not to mention imprecise; I mean, the TV show was moving pictures too...

"Motion picture" is considered a classier term than movie, and in 1979, the idea of making a big budget movie based on an old TV series was quite unusual. "Star Trek - The Motion Picture" meant this is not the TV show, it's new, it's big, and we're taking it seriously.

If you think about it, it's not any sillier than "The Next Generation".

 

[Trent Roman]

"Motion picture" is considered a classier term than movie, and in 1979, the idea of making a big budget movie based on an old TV series was quite unusual. "Star Trek - The Motion Picture" meant this is not the TV show, it's new, it's big, and we're taking it seriously.

"Star Trek: Bigger, Longer, Uncut"?

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Christopher]

"Motion picture" is considered a classier term than movie, and in 1979, the idea of making a big budget movie based on an old TV series was quite unusual. "Star Trek - The Motion Picture" meant this is not the TV show, it's new, it's big, and we're taking it seriously.

If you think about it, it's not any sillier than "The Next Generation".

And let's face it, Star Trek is itself an extremely strange and awkward title. I mean, seriously, "trek"?! Who uses that word outside of discussing South African history or racing bikes?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

"Motion picture" is considered a classier term than movie, and in 1979, the idea of making a big budget movie based on an old TV series was quite unusual. "Star Trek - The Motion Picture" meant this is not the TV show, it's new, it's big, and we're taking it seriously.

If you think about it, it's not any sillier than "The Next Generation".

And let's face it, Star Trek is itself an extremely strange and awkward title. I mean, seriously, "trek"?! Who uses that word outside of discussing South African history or racing bikes?

Backpackers use it (speaking as one).

 

[Surak]

Getting back on topic, someone (not me) posted an interview about Star Trek from 1976 on YouTube from Tom Snyder's old show. It is a five-part interview and here's the link to part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P32wGXbNMbo

In one of the parts, DeForest Kelley mentions The God Thing, although not by name. I don't remember which part, but the whole show is interesting, and it is worth watching the whole thing.

Enjoy,

Surak

On topic: thank you for sharing this interview. Very cool. I got into Star Trek with the end of TNG, and never really knew much about that era, so I love hearing stories like all of the hullabaloo over The God Thing and seeing interviews like this.

It's just amazing to me that they were calling it such a phenomenon back then, not having any idea the ridiculous heights that it would hit over the coming decades. They're just hoping for a second movie after this one... It's funny, in hindsight.

It is a cool interview, it is interesting that Shatner/Nimoy wern't there......likely because this was about the time Nimoy was sick of the Spock character and embroiled with Paramount over that Heineken ad, and perhaps Shatner didn't wan't to be on the air with Harlan?

 

[Surak]

Let's see if we can get this back on topic, starting with a brief side trip the relevance of which will soon become apparent.

It's well known that the movie Casablanca was based on the play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" by Murray Burnett and Joan Allison. Casablanca was a big hit in 1942, was revived for TV (briefly) in the 1950s, became a cult classic in the 1960s, was revisited for TV in the early 1980s, inspired countless pop culture references and a lot of books about the movie, including an authorized sequel novel in the 1990s. It's considered a classic film. Critics and academics argue about the many rewrites the movies went through, debating whether Howard Koch or the Epstein brothers were responsible for this line or that scene. There's a lot of interest.

So you'd think that original play would be published somewhere, right? Wrong. The only way to get a copy is to contact the Warner Brothers Archive at the University of Southern California, fill out some paperwork attesting that you need the script for noncommercial research purposes and will die before reproducing it, pay a rather hefty per-page charge for copying, and eventually it should end up in your mailbox. (See my old blog for comments on the play.)

So... if UCLA's collection of Roddenberry and Trek-related papers happened to include a God Thing manuscript (doesn't look like it, according to their database, but anyway), how many people would go to the trouble of trying to get a copy? "Everybody Comes to Rick's" cost me about $45; other, longer items I've seen in other university library special collections cost significantly more. Would this be a reasonable way to provide at least some access without going to the risk of publishing what could turn out to be a disaster of a book? Or would it turn up scanned and all over the Internet in no time flat?

Doesn't Roddenberry.com offer scripts? I haven't seen those scanned anywhere...

But you bring up some good points...I would probably shell out some money for The God Thing like that.

Oh, and thanks for the info on Everybody Comes to Rick's.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Doesn't Roddenberry.com offer scripts?

Yes, but as for "Phase II": only the Writers' Guide and "In Thy Image". They did sell the other scripts for that projected series, for a very short time, but the Screenwriters' Guild and/or Paramount stopped them - because the writers weren't getting royalties.