Nov 17 | Originally hired as co-executive producer to help with the second half of the show's first season, Kevin Murphy has now taken the reins of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel on Syfy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He now serves as an executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and oversees the day-to-day functions of the show.
Nov 12 | Star Trek star Zachary Quinto is loosely attached to star in the romantic dramedy Whirligig, reports Risky Business.Quinto would play the lead role in the independent Canadian film, which is aiming to shoot early next year. The movie centers on a man who, in a misguided attempt to woo an older woman, befriends the woman's adopted son.Chaz Thorne is directing the pic, based on a screenplay by Michael Amo, creator of the Canadian supernatural series "The Listener."
Nov 11 | The CNS Foundation, is hosting an on-line charity auction at www.charitybuzz.com. One of the items they are auctioning is a signed movie poster of the new Star Trek movie which has all the cast members and writers. The president of our organization is Carol Abrams, JJ's mother, and she arranged for the donation from Bad Robot Production Company. J.J. Abrams is also a major donor to their organization. The funds raised will go to help find a cure to neurological disorders in children. The auction link is here.
Nov 10 | Candice Bergen, Charles Lisanby, Don Pardo, Gene Roddenberry, Tom and Dick Smothers and Bob Stewart have been selected as the next inductees into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a Jan. 20 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture, changed television for the better and entertained us royally while doing so," TV Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said. More info at the Hollywood Reporter
Nov 08 | Unreality-SF.net has interviewed Star Trerk author James Swallow about some of his upcoming projects. He talks about Titan: Synthesis and Seven Deadly Sins: The Slow Knife, as well as some forthcoming Doctor Who and Stargate stories.
25 years after its original theatrical release, STAR TREK II THE WRATH OF KHAN is still widely considered the best of the Trek movie series by many fans and critics. Now TrekWeb celebrates its 25th anniversary with a look at the lost scenes, which you can download or watch online now.
When ABC aired the movie in the mid-80s, excised footage which explained Mr. Scott's relationship with midshipman Peter Preston (Ike Eisenmann) and the events of Khan's trial in 'Space Seed' were re-inserted by director Nicholas Meyer himself, along with several other small scenes and character-driven moments. A couple of years ago, this extended version was released by Paramount on DVD as 'The Director's Edition."
"I put that together" Meyer told Cinefantastique Magazine in 1992. "It's ironic as a director of a feature I may not have final cut, but as a director of the television version, no one cares. Places were I was overruled, rightly or wrongly, I get to have the last word. It's very dangerous just to put things back for the sake of putting them back. I am not persuaded that artists are the best judges of their own work."
But unfortunately, not all deteted scenes were included in the ABC extended version and the Director's Edition DVD, not even as extras. But this lost footage, which includes a scene where Lt. Saavik (Kirstie Alley) is revealed to be half-Romulan, and a scene where Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) introduces Saavik to David Marcus ( Merritt Butrick), were found in a STAR TREK II special preview featurette released by Paramount to the press before the movie's theatrical release in summer 1982. Here's the summary of these additional deleted / extended / alternate scenes found in this special preview featurette :
- One of the two most notable deleted scenes that was cut from the film is a dialogue exchange between Admiral Kirk and Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in the halls of Starfleet Academy, in which they discuss Saavik's background and heritage:
Kirk: "Your protege's first-rate."
Spock: "She's half-Romulan, Jim. The odd mixture tends to make her blood more volatile than... me, for example."
Kirk: "Than you?" (looking at Spock) "Yes, I see that."
Nowhere in the final released version of the film, in the extended television broadcasts, or in the Director's Edition DVD, is Lt. Saavik's half-Romulan heritage mentioned. The audience assumes that she is a full-blooded Vulcan. Publicity materials, the film's novelization by author Vonda N. McIntyre, and the expanded universe of comics and novels explore and promote Saavik as half-Romulan. A two-part tale published by DC Comics in 1984 entitled "Saavik's Story" explores how Spock found the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan Saavik on a distant world. (In an ironic twist, "Saavik's Story" introduced fans to Saavik's fiance', a Vulcan spy named Xon sent underground in the Romulan homeworld. This is the same Xon that was to have been a key character in the aborted "Star Trek: Phase II" TV series from the 1970's, but whose part was cut from both "Phase II" and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" when Leonard Nimoy returned to the project.) Other novels from Pocket Books have explored Saavik's heritage in further detail. In issue 2 of the Marvel Comics mini-serie STAR TREK THE UNTOLD VOYAGES, author Glenn Greenberg told the origin of Lt. Saavik as a savage, half-Romulan half-Vulcan girl, discovered by Spock on a Romulan planet, a backstory explored in the novel THE PANDORA PRINCIPLE by author Carolyn Clowes. Again, we remind that the only place that this footage has appeared has been in this 3-minute preview assembly from the film.
Hence the question: is this footage considered canon? It was not utilized in any released version of the film, though it was filmed during the film's production, and the references to Saavik's Romulan heritage are part of the expanded Star Trek universe. This footage would likely be considered apocryphal, since technically it was not included in any version of the film.
- Another notable deleted scene was filmed as part of the ending of "Star Trek II". The scene in question features a dialogue exchange between Kirk and Saavik on the bridge of the Enterprise.
Saavik: "On course to Ceti Alpha V, sir, all is well."
Kirk: "Good. I believe you know David Marcus?"
(Saavik and David look at each other and smile.)
Kirk (stepping down): "Ah, she's learning by doing."
The scene then continues with Kirk approaching Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Carol Marcus standing at the edge of the bridge looking at the Genesis Planet. Saavik and David can be seen in the background standing next to each other.
This brief deleted scene would have added an additional story branch of a possible romantic relationship between Saavik and David, which would be touched upon in the novelization of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". When this scene was ultimately scrapped, Saavik's dialogue was transferred to Kirk and utilized as part of the captain's log entry at the end of the film.
- An alternate take of the dialogue between Carol and David Marcus on the Regula I station was also filmed and included in the preview assembly. The longest version of this sequence, seen in the extended TV broadcasts and in the Director's Cut, spotlights Carol's orders to the team to get their gear together for departure. The version used in the theatrical version omits Carol's orders to the team. The third version is more abrupt, as actress Bibi Besch attempts to pace her lines.
Carol: "We must have order in here!"
David: "Scientists have always been pawns of the military."
Carol: "Starfleet has kept the peace for... for a hundred years. I cannot and will not subscribe to your interpretation of this event."
- Another alternate take of the scene with McCoy and Spock in Kirk's quarters is also found in the preview assembly. It is an alternate version of McCoy's questioning Spock's thinking on the Genesis Project.
McCoy: "Are you by any chance... in favor of these experiments?"
DeForest Kelley's delivery of the line is more vocal in this version, whereas in the extended TV broadcasts and the Director's Cut, Kelley's delivery is quieter and more subtle.
- One of the most notable alternate takes from "Star Trek II" was the alternate version of the dialogue between Kirk and Saavik in the turbolift. This version appears only in the extended TV broadcasts and was never included in either the theatrical version or the Director's Cut DVD.
In the original version, Saavik stops the turbolift, and she and Kirk have their discussion. In this alternate take, the emphasis is on exchanging close-ups between Kirk and Saavik, while the turbolift continues on its way. As in the theatrical version, Kirk punches in his destination, but the turbolift has been in continuous movement throughout the sequence.
- A brief scene extension spotlighting Ricardo Montalban (Khan) is found in the preview assembly. Once the Enterprise returns fire on the Reliant, Khan moves across the bridge and orders, "After him! After him!" (He then moves toward Joachim and orders, "Fire!") This brief scene extension was trimmed from all cuts of the film.
- Another brief scene extension occurs during the Reliant's attack on the Enterprise. During the sequence in the engine room, Scotty (James Doohan) can be seen standing at his post and ordering everyone to remain at their posts, even during the attack. This brief extension was also trimmed from all cuts of the film.
Again we remind you that this lost scenes footage from STAR TREK II THE WRATH OF KHAN never aired on TV, and it is not available on VHS and DVD, and it was not include in Paramount's 'Director's Edition' DVD.
Now you can download those rare scenes here in the ASF format.
You can also watch those deleted scenes at YouTube.
Thanks to Bill Williams and The Captain Kirk Page for their help in the making of this article.
What about the skeletal hand from some of the early preview posters? It turned out to be a weird glove, but in one picture it looked like his hand was withered and skeletal.
Lots of things get shot during the course of filming a motion picture, not always with an intention of using it. So I think we have to rely on what is "officially released" as canon. If it was cut, esp. by the director, there was a reason. If he decides to include it later, well then I guess it becomes canon. The stuff that remains on the cutting room floor, while interesting to fans for the "what if" factor, is not canon.
So then how do you reconcile two different versions of the same scene, esp. if they have different dialogue? Like the turbolift scene. Did Kirk and Saavik take the lift twice and have the conversation again? What about all the edited stuff from the different television series? Or bloopers? Not sure how you draw the line except to say it is drawn by the creative staff and the studio in the first place.
It is not too much complicated for me. The version of the scene that is in the movie is canon, the other is not. So the I would chose the turbolift scene found in the theatrical and director's cut versions of the movie as the canon version. For deleted stuff and novels and comics is more complicated because is a matter of taste and personal choice.
All of which is fine, as long as one doesn't cry foul if it's contradicted at some later point in an official release. But my observation of my fellow fans is that they have a Star Trek in their heads that's very easy to contradict. Leaving official canon open to taste and personal choice rather than picking something concrete like what's officially released might exacerbate that problem. But hey, as someone once said, it's just a tv show.
I think some of the stuff never seen or heard on screen has essentially become canon because it floated around the Trek community for so long. Sulu's first name Hikaru was in novels for years before it actually made it to the screen in TUC, and because of that I've always considered Uhura's first name to be Nyota. After reading TWOK novelization and subsequent comic books dealing with Saavik's Romulan side along with the majority of fandom "knowing" she's half Rommie for a quarter century, I've considered it a "solid fact" that she is just that.
Most of Jeri Taylor's writings in the "Mosaic" and "Pathways" novels are considered canon because she co-created and produced VOY. They gave a great deal of back story to Janeway and the rest of the crew.
Sometimes the canon threads weave in and out of what is considered non-canon (TAS) and canon. In "Journey To Babel" Spock described a sehlat to McCoy, then we saw it animated in "Yesteryear", then we saw a sehlat on ENT.
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"Outer Space: The Last Frontier.
These are the trips of the Star Trek Enterprise. Its five year plan calls for us to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly fly where no man has gone in space. Live long, and be happy."
So you're saying it's more of an art than a science? I guess I could be brought over to that side a little, but I think I would have to consider myself a "conservative" in this respect. I like to draw the line at official releases because there are so few qualifications for someone who wants to author a book, for instance, and add to the canon that way. Pretty soon you've got a "Wiki"-style canon full of holes, contridictions and contrived explainations. Personally, I think leaving some of the questions unanswered is more "real" anyway. The books, the cut scenes and even the animated series can be kinda fun, but I'd be more comfortable keeping most of it in a "canon purgatory" until it's officially in a movie or tv show.
I don't subscribe to the idea that this was the best ST movie. By my taste, that one has yet to be made. They all have their good and bad points.
I believe much of the overrating of this film can be traced back to fan fear that there would never be another feature after the expensive borefest the first one turned out to be. How the same producer who did this as a TV show on a budget, could let the costs of the first movie go so out of control is a mystery to me even to this day. But at least it had the feel of adult cinematic science-fiction.
Bennet is to be praised for keeping costs under control during his regime. And for viewing all the episodes of the TV series prior to tackling ST2. And for letting the actors have more breathing room to play their characters the way they knew how to.
But Bennet also paved the way for his successors' choice to spit on continuity when it "stood in the way of a good story," with this one.
He ignored Spock's line at the end of "Space Speed" where he tells Kirk it would be interesting to return to Ceti Alpha 5 in 100 years to see what crop sprang up from the seed they planted that day.
YES! It would have! Picard should have returned to that world to find out, but he never got that option, because Bennet wanted his audience to cheer when Kirk counter attacks Reliant, and when Enterprise escapes the Genesis explosion.
And cheer they did. They cheered so much, they overlooked the myriad flaws that have since all been pointed out ad nauseum, but don't seem to phase the cheerers. This film made it okay for fans to rate a Star Trek movie with their glands instead of their heads, and I will never forgive it for that.
By the same token, however, it did make Star Trek a movie franchise, and I will never forget it for that.
Well...you're absolutely in the minority on this one. THE WRATH OF KHAN is by far the best Trek movie. You do take the 'weak' way out by not suggesting which movie you liked the best. To lump them all together is a bit...well...hollow.
Why not tell us your favorite Star Trek movie...put your chips on the table...I can't wait for this!
Like I said, my favorite ain't been made, yet.
Now, for example, if some great director was to do justice to a script based on Peter David's book "Vendetta," well, then, that would definitely be a contender!
I have to disagree with some of your points, but if I am in error, feel free to correct.
Quote: How the same producer who did this as a TV show on a budget, could let the costs of the first movie go so out of control is a mystery to me even to this day.
Gene Roddenberry produced ST:TMP. Harve Bennett executive-produced ST:TWOK. Robert Sallin was the producer. Neither Bennett nor Sallin had anything to do with ST:TMP. Granted, Bennett was a TV producer, but he did keep costs on track for ST:TWOK (using the first movie's sets and models, for example). Bennett made ST:TWOK for about 30% of what TMP cost.
Quote: But Bennet also paved the way for his successors' choice to spit on continuity when it "stood in the way of a good story," with this one.
I'm not real sure what you mean by this. At the time of TWOK (1982), there wasn't a whole lot of continuity (or "canon") out there. In addition, this movie took place 15 years after Kirk's first meeting with Khan in "Space Seed." Can you point out an issue of continuity being spat upon in TWOK (other than the obvious of Khan knowing Chekov when in fact Chekov was not in the first season at all)?
TWOK was not written with continuity in mind. Many believed at the time that it would be the last Trek movie. Plus the first one was pretty slow and plodding, so the emphasis was on action and adventure. There is a lot in this movie that doesn't jibe with today's established canon, but 25 years ago there wasn't a lot to work with.
Quote: He ignored Spock's line at the end of "Space Speed" where he tells Kirk it would be interesting to return to Ceti Alpha 5 in 100 years to see what crop sprang up from the seed they planted that day.
Remember the USS Defiant was on a mission to find a lifeless planet for Genesis testing. Coincidence led them to Ceti Alpha V and Khan to Kirk. Trying to hang an entire movie on Spock's final line in "Space Seed" would have been illogical. The 100-year line was not meant as any sort of timetable, and of all the Original Series episodes, "Space Seed" was probably the one crying the loudest for a sequel. Even knowing now what we didn't know then, would it still have made any sense for Picard to be the one to meet Khan? Khan and Kirk were natural enemies.
Quote: And cheer they did. They cheered so much, they overlooked the myriad flaws that have since all been pointed out ad nauseum, but don't seem to phase the cheerers. This film made it okay for fans to rate a Star Trek movie with their glands instead of their heads, and I will never forgive it for that.
If all you want is a thinking man's adventure movie (a contradiction in terms if ever I heard one), then you wouldn't like Spider-Man 3, or the X-Men franchise, or Star Wars, or The Bourne Identity, or The Italian Job, or Pirates Of The Caribbean, or...you get my point. Adventure movies are meant to be enjoyed viscerally, meaning it impacts your emotions. Overthinking movies like those will definitely diminish your enjoyment, and after all, isn't that why you go to the movies?
IMHO, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan single-handedly saved the Trek movie franchise, and allowed Paramount to even consider a second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) series. Without that movie, the Trek franchise would have died in 1980.
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A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. -- Robert Heinlein
Continuity should ALWAYS yield if it's holding back a good story. If a writer has an idea that will make people laugh and cry and cheer and talk about for years to come - but there's a piece of dialogue that is holding him back - you cannot seriously expect any sane artist or commercialistic writer to yield to that piece of dialogue.
If that was really the way it worked, then most of the books sitting in the library and most of the movies sitting in Blockbuster would have to be gutted. Every time a character does something unexpected, every time a story makes a left turn into a new genre, every time a minor part of one story becomes a huge part of another story, you can find bits and pieces that don't mesh up completely well. I guarantee it.
However, if continuity is getting in the way of easy writing and cheap thrills, then that's a different story altogether. But don't mistake cheap thrills with thrills.
Good post. Continuity is so over-rated. It is good to a point. But too many TREK fans are way to anal over lines that were written for a 40 year old show that didn't really care much for continuity at the start.
For a 40 year old show that no one really planned for it to become a beloved worldwide phenomemnon, it holds together remarkably well.
Better than "Enterprise" ever even bothered to pretend to. Even within its own set of episodes.
What makes a fictional universe seem more "real" is cause and effect.
When Arthur Conan Doyle was taken to task in his Sherlock Holmes stories for having Dr. Watson's "Jezail bullet" wound move around all over his anatomy from story to story, it was rightly so, because that was just sloppy writing.
If wanting a great work to be the best that it can can be is anal, so be it. Just call me The Great And Powerful Rectum. I hate to keep bringing Peter David up, but that man's attention to detail, as well as his gift for telling wonderful stories proves that it is possible. And that's what makes him a living legend in my book.
I didn't discount continuity all together. I do take issue with those who blow up small details, for example...Chekov and Khan 'not' meeting during Space Seed. This caused massive quakes when WRATH OF KHAN said that they had met. Having been stationed on an Air Craft Carrier for years, I could easily have seen this happening in some small way.
But...as for big events? ENTERPRISE's moronic version as to why Klingons use to have smooth heads, and then, had bumpy heads was just...STUPID. If you think about it, and I have, this would imply, in a small way, that all Ridge-headed Klingons are actually that way because of 'faulty' genetics that could have come...from all people..Khan!!!....
Trying to conform a story to continuity can really make a small mistake a GALACTICA sized event.
I would rather have a GREAT TREK movie, with no continuity, rather than one that tried to fit square parts into round holes. If you really think that TREK's success is built upon 40 years of continuity then you are sadly mistaken. WRATH OF KHAN proves you can bend the continuity and make a great movie....
I also distinctly remember having a science fiction magazine at the time that had a black and white picture of a toddler, wrapped in desert gear, reaching up for the genesis device on the transporter platform as it gears up for detonation.
The text for the picture explained that this was the son of Khan.
Does anybody have more information on this? I have only seen this referenced this one time in this one magazine (all I remember now is that it was not Starlog).
I seem to recall the same image, but it wasn't from Star Trek II. It was from Star Trek III, implying Spock would be reborn, which he was, by the Genesis effect. It was a fan art thing of the time, and it kind of gave away the idea that Spock got reborn. Since I was 13 at the time, I didn't mind one way or the other.
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