Star Trek Phase II

[finarvyn]

I’m reading an interesting book about Star Trek Phase II (written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens), which is the Star Trek TV series in the 1970’s that nearly happened until it was decided to evolve into a movie franchise instead. I remember the media hype for The Motion Picture, but don’t remember anything about a TV series at the time, but maybe I was just too young and out of touch with things Trek.

Apparently, they built sets and hired scriptwriters to put together a bunch of episodes in the hopes of being ready to go in case they got the “green light” to make the series. They hoped to bring back most of the original cast (although had issues with Nimoy) and introduce a few new characters: Xon the Vulcan, as well as Decker and Ilea from TMP. (Okay, so if I remember right Xon also appeared oh-so-briefly in TMP in a transporter mishap. I don’t recall if he had an actual speaking role or not. I’ll have to watch the DVD again.) They had planned on using the old uniforms (which I like a lot better than the pajamas in the movie) and similar-to-TOS-looking phasers, but had upgraded the Enterprise with a design more like the one seen in TMP.

Funny how this book just sat on my shelf for a decade or so pretty much unread, then this forum got me inspired to root around and look at my old Star Trek stuff. Thanks, forum people!

Here is the list of episodes planned. Foster’s “In Thy Image” is essentially the plot for TMP while “The Child” and “Devil’s Due” later became TNG episodes.
1. "In Thy Image"; series pilot (Alan Dean Foster)
2. "Tomorrow and the Stars" (Larry Alexander)
3. "Cassandra" (Theodore Sturgeon)
4. "The Child" (Jaron Summers and Jon Povill)
5. "Deadlock" (David Ambrose)
6. "Kitumba" planned as two-parts (John Meredyth Lucas)
7. "Practice in Waking" (Richard Bach)
8. "Are Unheard Melodies Sweet?" or "Home" (Worley Thorne)
9. "Devil's Due" (William Douglas Lansford)
10. "Lord Bobby's Obsession" (Shimon Wincelberg)
11. "To Attain the All" (Norman Spinrad)
12. "The War to End All Wars" (Arthur Bernard Lewis)

If anyone is interested, you can buy one here and the cover of the book looks like this:

[Ronin84]

Thought I would add this for the good of the cause.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Phase_II

[finarvyn]

Good idea. I'm always a little wary of Wikipedia, but in this case it looks pretty well foot-noted and seems to agree with the book I'm reading. :-)

[Falconer]

Jan 18, 2010 13:15:50 GMT -5 finarvyn said:

I've been watching Star Trek: TMP and reading about Phase II and it seems odd to me that they planned to use the old style uniforms for a TV series, then switched to the boring ones for a movie. Seems like bright blue, gold, and red unis would have been outstanding on screen.

Yeah, those TMP uniforms seriously suck. It really is a shame that Phase II never happened as such, and instead we got TMP on the one hand and TNG on the other. Here is an interesting quote I have found, from Franz Joseph:

Something also seems to have happened to the people who were with Gene after they went to Paramount for the movie. I first met them in 1974, there was Ralph Naveda, Matt Jefferies, [Ted] Cassidy, Bob Justman, a Chinese fellow whose name I'm sorry to say I've forgotten, and several ladies. I discovered Matt Jefferies was a pilot and was the fellow who really put together the design of the Enterprise. He was also intensely interested in antique airplanes. Since my brother also has the same interest, I put them in touch with each other. Anyway, I noticed that about eighteen months after Gene and his people went to Paramount, I no longer saw the names of the other people appearing in anything regarding the new ST movie. I've wondered if something happened and they are no longer together; but actually, it's really none of my business. But I'd like to meet those people again because we had a very pleasant time when I first met them at Burbank Studios in 1974. The last time Lou called me, he also said they were having trouble, but they still respected Gene's ideas and his theme for Star Trek, but they'd have to get on with the movie one way or another whether he liked it or not.

If I’m reading this correctly, it sounds like a lot of the people who were involved in TOS were also going to be involved in Phase II, but got shoved aside when Trek went to the big screen. That’s a pity.

[Grendelwulf]

Shudder

That is truly sad. You can just hear some studio exec:

"Yes, yes. You have done all done a great job. Yes, there is no denying the phenomenal way the public has taken to this creation. It has truly stood the test of time. We'll just take it from here. Trust us, we know best about what the people really want."

If they could have put a dramatic car chase into the franchise, they probably would have. Oh, wait, that's right. Nemesis had dune buggies! Aaargh!

Ciao!
Grendelwulf

[finarvyn]

As I understand it, the basic statement was something like "you did a great job ... for a TV series, but now that it's a multimillion dollar feature film we need to bring in some guys with actual film experience."

I get the impression that Roddenberry had a hard time with this mentality as well. He was used to having his own way on most issues for TV, but when it became a film "the suits" would decide a lot of the things that Gene used to have his hand in...

[Falconer]

My favorite Star Trek movie is The Menagerie ;-)

[chgowiz]

I still say, for my movie dollar, 2 and 6 are the most TOS of the bunch. 3 and 4 are OK, more fun/cheesy which I think fits TOS, but 6...

I think essentially, 6 captured all of the highlights that we wanted to see in a Trek TOS movie. The 3 in sync and the crew united to "Save the world again" (without prosecution) - and there were the great one-liners. It was simple, it was direct, it was fast paced and it was fun. They could have made Rura Penthe be shorter, but in the end, it was just damn good fun.

WoK is about the same, but it concentrated a lot less on the 3 and more on the struggle between Kirk and Kahn. I understand that and it is a damn fine movie, but that one subtle bit is what often pushes 6 to the top of my "Best TOS-successor movie" list.

[vulcanridr]

I wonder if some of those scripts will wind up making into Phase II (New Voyages)...They have had TOS writers (e.g. DC Fontana), actors and sets, so I wouldn't be surprised.

As for the movies cghowiz, I agree with you. 2,3,4 and 6. TWoK was great, and in spite of the traditional logic, I really liked 3. Stealing the Enterprise and the battle over Mutara were excellent...Even if Enterprise did die. 6 had a sort of underlying sadness, that it was the end of the line. Even the comedic parts (Scotty: I know this ship like the back of my hand..." Clang!) was sort of bittersweet. His statement about standing down "suits me fine...I just bought a boat..." was the kind of melancholy that kind of clung to the movie. And Sulu and his crew at the end... Don't get me wrong...It was a great movie. Better'n Picard's dune buggy.

--vr

[Falconer]

I believe the Phase II/New Voyages series already has used some Phase II scripts, or at least plans too.

[Ronin84]

Jan 28, 2010 18:43:35 GMT -5 Falconer said:

I believe the Phase II/New Voyages series already has used some Phase II scripts, or at least plans too.

They have, I believe he bought a few of those scripts...and some were put into the TNG.

[finarvyn]

That is correct. I believe the Wikipedia article has a detailed list of which episodes got used in which Trek series later on.

The pilot essentially "became" The Motion Picture. "The Child" basically became a TNG episode, as did "The Savage Syndrome" and "Devil's Due".

[blackbat242]

Jan 28, 2010 18:34:19 GMT -5 vulcanridr said:

6 had a sort of underlying sadness, that it was the end of the line. Even the comedic parts (Scotty: I know this ship like the back of my hand..." Clang!) was sort of bittersweet.

--vr

Ummm... I believe that scene was from "Kirk's Nightmare" (aka Shatner's Folly). You might know it as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

[vulcanridr]

Jan 29, 2010 9:20:42 GMT -5 finarvyn said:

That is correct. I believe the Wikipedia article has a detailed list of which episodes got used in which Trek series later on.

The pilot essentially "became" The Motion Picture. "The Child" basically became a TNG episode, as did "The Savage Syndrome" and "Devil's Due".

Well, apparently Cawley bought that one too. I went to download the latest release, and found a list of the next several episodes:

ENEMY: STARFLEET (S04E06)
THE CHILD (S04E07)
KITUMBA (S04E08)
ORIGINS (S04E09)
MIND SIFTER (S04E10)

...And I believe that in a rare fit of creativity (or someone had a ton of money to blow), most of these episodes will be out in 2010.

[vulcanridr]

Jan 31, 2010 0:56:18 GMT -5 blackbat242 said:

Ummm... I believe that scene was from "Kirk's Nightmare" (aka Shatner's Folly). You might know it as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Ummm...I don't believe so, since I have only seen ST:V once. The comment in question was when they were all in the Starfleet briefing room talking about standing down, and Spock comes into the room to tell them that they had been volunteered to escort Gorkon back to earth for the summit after Praxis had been blowed up.

--vr