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Star Trek Unmade: Movies & TV

 
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bulldogtrekker
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: Columbia,SC

PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:54 pm    Post subject: Star Trek Unmade: Movies & TV Reply with quote

Star Trek: The Franchise's Big Turning Points
DEN OF GEEK

Examining some of the key turning points in the Star Trek series, with the projects that never quite made it to the screen...

Star Trek has been with us for over 50 years in one form or another. It started in 1964 with the filming of the pilot episode of the original series, and it has continued to the present day, through films and subsequent TV series, along with other mediums such as books and video games.

We're principally interested in the core of the franchise here, the TV series and films, and we're going to take a look at some 'what if...' possibilities of projects that almost happened but didn't.,,,,


THE LIST
The Original Series Pilot (1964)
The TV movie/mini-series idea
The God Thing (pictured)



Starfleet Academy
Star Trek: The Planet Of The Titans
Untitled Philip Kaufman movie
Continuations (TOS, Enterprise)
Star Trek: Phase II (pictured)




Star Trek: Excelsior (Sulu project)
Star Trek: Federation
Star Trek: The Beginning

BDT:There was also Star Trek: Worf and the unmade JFK project.......

LINK for full story
http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/star-trek/263184/star-trek-the-franchises-big-turning-points


Last edited by bulldogtrekker on Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:59 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Gord Green
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Joined: 06 Oct 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the fact that there were so many ideas from so many pros and fans along with all the TREK fanfiction that caused the proliferation in Star Trek fan made films like STAR TREK CONTINUES, STAR TREK- RENEGADES and the "died in mid birth" AXANAR.

There were so many paths not taken that it is moot to consider what may have been. TREK has taken the path it did take, so any considerations of the unproduced history is as relevant as the Abrams alternate universe is.

An exercise in futility.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 9:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Forgottentrek.com

Noted science-fiction author Robert Silverberg wrote a 51-page treatment for Paramount Studio when they were seeking ideas for their proposed Star Trek feature film.

"The Billion Year Voyage" Synopsis:

The crew of the Enterprise has recently completed a mission on a world where the inhabitants are all telepathically linked to one another.

Captain Kirk laments to Mr. Spock (who is uncomfortable with this discussion) & Dr. McCoy (who notes Spock's unease) that humans are prisoners within their own individual skulls and cannot share such a wondrous sense of connections to each other. Humans have a spiritual isolation that telepathic species do not.

This scene illustrates the characters of each one. Kirk is romantic, impulsive and sensitive. Spock is logical with emotions kept in check. McCoy is wise and perceptive.

A distress signal comes in to the Enterprise from the planet Aurora V, where archaeologists are currently excavating the site of the mysterious"Great Ones."

The Great Ones were an ancient civilization that had outposts thousands of light-years apart.

The archaeologists report that they are being threatened by an invisible enemy.

Once the Enterprise arrives at Aurora V they discover a globe that uses holographic projection to reveal that the Great Ones were six-limbed humanoids with reptilian blood.

The projection further reveals one of the Great One's star ships orbiting an asteroid where they had robots carve out a vault inside the asteroid and where one robot has been left behind awaiting the return of the Great Ones. A travelogue in the projection reveals more about the Great Ones civilization.

An archaeologist is grabbed by the invisible force and drawn away from the landing party. Briefly seen they find it is a Klingon who must possess some form of cloaking ability.

Kirk now knows that the Enterprise is in a race with the Klingon Empire to locate this asteroid which may have astonishingly advanced technology left behind by the Great Ones

At the asteroid the robot there refuses to reveal the location of the Great Ones homeworld. Spock telepathically links with the robot in order to show it that the intentions of the Enterprise are honorable.

The robot agrees to show the crew the home planet's location. However, when Spock checks on the coordinates he finds that the proper star is not there.

Spock then suggests that the Enterprise journey to a nearby system where the Great One's once had a colony.

The Enterprise discovers a world with machines but no lifeforms.

The robot from the asteroid communicates with its counterparts on the planet. The Enterprise is pulled down from orbit to the planet's surface.

The robots are fascinated with the biological lifeforms on the Enterprise. They are a world where machines have created machines for eons. They have never encountered living beings in all their existence.

The robots reveal that the Great Ones perished 84-million years ago, leaving only their machines behind.
The robots inform Kirk & company that the reason Spock could not located their star was that their homeworld is a Dyson Sphere.

The robots release the Enterprise and the Federation star ship travels to the Great One's Dyson Sphere.

At the Dyson Sphere, three Klingon battle cruisers attack the Enterprise. A Klingon who has been cloaked has stowed on board the Enterprise and has disabled the ship's weaponry.

One of the Great One's robots helps the Enterprise survive the Klingon assault.

In the Dyson Sphere there is a surviving Great One that is hideously old.

The crew find a variety of artifacts, including a thought amplifier that permits communication between minds.

The battle in space resumes as it turns out the Klingons were not defeated as originally thought.

Kirk uses the mind amplifier to locate the Klingon saboteur hidden on the Enterprise so that the enemy alien is stopped from tampering with the Enterprise's weapons.

Kirk finds he can read both Spock's & McCoy's minds and it is an exhilarating experience.

Spock argues that the Dyson Sphere of the Great One's should be declared off limits to all planets. Kirk makes this recommendation to the Federation of Planets & Starfleet.

Later on Kirk reflects that after using the mind amplifier he will never be the same again.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 5:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Planet of the Titans," a proposed plot for ST:TMP by writers Chris Bryant & Allan G. Scott.

Story: The Enterprise races to rescue the Federation star ship in distress, the Da Vinci.
The Enterprise arrives too late but is still able to rescue some survivors.

During the rescue efforts, Captain Kirk receives an electrochemical shock to his brain. His behavior becomes erratic and he commanders a shuttle-craft that he pilots to an invisible planet where he promptly vanishes without a trace.

Left without any other recourse and needing to get the survivors of the Da Vinci back, a reluctant Mr. Spock orders the Enterprise home.

Three years have now passed since the tragedy. The Enterprise is newly refitted and has a brand new crew.

Mr. Spock has resigned from Star Fleet in disgrace and returned home to Vulcan where he is endeavoring to purge his human half.

The Enterprise under Captain Gregory Westlake is ordered to the location where Captain Kirk disappeared.

As Mr. Spock had previously theorized: a planet (Titan) is discovered there and it promises to be the home of the mythical race, the Titans, a lost civilization with highly superior technology.

The planet is about to be destroyed by a black hole.

Whoever reaches Titan first and obtains this incredible technology could control the destiny of the Universe.

The Enterprise detours to Vulcan to pick up Spock, but he refuses to go.

Vulcan tests reveal to Spock his death and indicate that he accompany the Enterprise on its mission to Titan in order to fulfill his destiny.

When the Enterprise arrives there, Titan is partially visible and has a force shield surrounding it.

Facing destruction, the Enterprise saucer section separates from the engineering hull and crash lands onto the planet.

The crew discover a wild and inhospitable world with cities encased in walls of fire.

Spock is reunited with Kirk who has survived on this world as a wild man with other trapped beings.

The landing party reaches the rulers of this planet who are not benevolent Titans but a lower and incredibly dangerous life form called Cygnans. The Titans have long ago disappeared.

In an attempt to escape the Cygnans, who have managed to transport onto the saucer section before lift-off, Kirk plunges the Enterprise into the nearby black hole in order to save the Federation of Planets from this hostile species.

During the trip through the black hole, the Cygnans are destroyed and the Enterprise emerges back into orbit around Earth at the dawn of time.
They discover that they were the Titans all along.

I realize that plot details are missing from this synopsis I found online for this proposal for ST:TMP.

Even with that in mind this plot looks like a dumpster fire!

I doubt that William Shatner would have even signed on to this project where Kirk is M.I.A. for a lengthy part of this plot. Even if Kirk does save everyone in the finale.

The writers of this script were caught between the director Phillip Kaufman & Gene Roddenberry's conflicting visions for the feature film.

The studio was not sure at all as to what it wanted for the production.

Kaufman wanted to make a movie that was less cultish regarding the Star Trek TV show and more adult.

He wanted to fill the movie with all kinds of questions. He wanted to explore Spock's duality; explore humanity and what it is.

Nothing wrong with Kaufman's ideas here. The execution sounded horrendous to me.

Separating Kirk & Spock: big mistake.
All new crew and none of the cast from the TV series: second big mistake.

Discovering yet another evil alien race: cliche, boring, and tired.

We dodged a bullet that this story was not ever realized for the silver screen, no matter what any of our problems are with the actual movie that was made in 1979.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Given the contentious personality of acclaimed writer Harlan Ellison, along with his rocky relationship with Gene Roddenberry over his script "The City On the Edge of Forever" from ST:TOS, you'd think Harlan would be the last person to be called in to pitch a script for ST: TMP.

Wrong. Pitch he did.

Pitch: Strange events begin happening on Earth, with buildings vanishing and people morphing into reptilians. The source of these mysteries is traced to a planet on the far side of the galaxy, naturally there's only one man for the job to solve all this.

A mysterious hooded figure soon begins kidnapping key former Enterprise crew members and is revealed as James T. Kirk.

An alien intelligence from this unknown planet where snakes had become the dominant life form is found responsible for the uncanny occurrences taking place on Earth.

This snake creature intelligence has seen how its ancestors were wiped out on Earth, it has gone back far into the past eras of Earth in order to set up distortions in the time~flow so reptiles will beat out humans as the dominant species.

The Enterprise must also journey into the past to set things right. However, Captain Kirk and the crew are now confronted with the moral dilemma of whether it has the right to eliminate an entire species just to insure its own territorial imperative in the present and future.

The studio insisted that the story for ST: TMP had to be enormous in scope.

Harlan came up with one that spanned all of time and all of space, with a moral and ethical problem to it.

Then the reckoning came when Ellison met with Paramount studio executive Barry Trabulus.

BT had read Von Daniken's book and insisted that Mayans be written into the script Ellison would do.
According to BT, Von Daniken had proved that the Mayan calendar was exactly like ours, so it must have come from aliens.

Harlan told BT that there weren't any Mayans at the dawn of time. BT countered with, "Well, who's to know the difference?"
Harlan told him that he's know the difference and that it was a dumb suggestion.

BT, no very uptight, said that he liked Mayans a lot and why didn't Harlan want to do it if he wanted to write the picture?

Harlan said," I'm a writer. I don't know what the f#%* you are!" And stormed outta BT's office.

Hey, at least Harlan didn't punch the guy out.

I would love to see the entire script---if Harlan wrote one and not just an outline---to see what this story would have been.

Harlan was an incredible talent and I would guess that had they used his script for the first movie that it'd most likely be outstanding cinema.




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