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Gene Roddenberry wanted to do a time travel JFK shooting movie for STII

posted 4 years ago by Redsfan001 (6180)
14 replies | jump to latest

Because of the flop of the first movie, Roddenberry was aced out of having any say in making of the second.

Roddenberry envisioned a story where the Klingons uses the "Guardian of Forever" to change earth History and let JFK survive the shooting, this changes earth history, leaving humans technology behind the Klingons, who now rule them.

But Hollywood took a bet on Bennett, who came up with this story line and saved Star Trek.

[–] Devilman (448) 4 years ago

Well people might hate me for saying this but outside of creating the show most of what he wrote for episodes weren't that good. TOS was saved by Gene L. Coon while TNG started moving ahead when most of Gene's script control weakened and people like Michael Piller, Ron Moore and Ira Steven Behr came aboard.

The studio was right about denying him any influence in the production of the film he wasted so much money on TMP and made it into a SFX extravaganza !

[–] kwestmo (4385) 4 years ago

Valid point

[–] Redsfan001 (6180) 4 years ago

I really enjoyed "The Omega Glory". While the ending stretched sci fi plausibility, (because it is set on a remote planet) the story is incredible in forshadowing a possible future for the human race.

A WWIII with America and a "Asian nation" occurred, where the "Asiatics" (Spocks words) won. Massive amounts biological weapons were used in this war, turning generations who survived into incredibly long lived individuals (some over 1000 years old).

Sometimes sci fi can be used as a cover to write about man's fears about terrifying futures for the human race, this is just such a episode.

[–] Devilman (448) 4 years ago

You're joking right ! the episode is still considered one of the top worst episodes of TOS and just shows that Roddenberry manages for "himself" what he doesn't want to do for others. From the episode you can see how he managed to get the budget to hire a set for "his" episode while other episodes were filmed in closed cheap sets. He even sent a letter to the Emmy's to nominate "his" episode !

The more Gene was kept away from Trek the better it was for the show and films.

[–] Owlwise (1536) 4 years ago

Sad but true. Credit to Roddenberry for getting the show on the air & championing it—but pretty much all credit has to end there, as it justly belongs to all the others who took that core idea & made something richer & more complex out of it.

[–] Redsfan001 (6180) 4 years ago

I loved this episode.

I think it is the only one where Kirk is beaten in a fair one on one fight.

The interplay between Spock, Kirk and McCoy is first rate.The corrupted semi-mad Captain Tracey's character is also most compelling and well acted.

That we are now in the foothills of a cold war with China, and are becoming acutely aware of the possibility of biological warfare with the effects of Covid19 makes this most disliked episode incredibly current.

[–] Forky (1739) 4 years ago

Star Trek: The Motion Picture set a box office record for the highest opening weekend gross, making $11,926,421, sold the most tickets of any film in the franchise until Star Trek (2009), and it remains the highest-grossing film of the franchise worldwide when adjusted for inflation.

[–] Redsfan001 (6180) 4 years ago

Yes thanks for posting this, I shouldn't have used the word 'flop'.

While financially successful, Hollywood was well aware that fans were not to thrilled with this movie.

[–] Forky (1739) 4 years ago

yeah, no worries

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

And now, at long last, you can see a time travel JFK shooting story in "The Umbrella Academy" season 2.

[–] Redsfan001 (6180) 4 years ago

Sweet

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 4 years ago

The first movie made more money than Khan. It wasn't a flop.

[–] Devilman (448) 4 years ago

True but like mentioned they had to waste 35~45 million to produce the film considering they created and recreated everything from Phase 2 to TMP. Even thou they made 80+ million out of the film it was still too much money for a "go to sleep while watching" script.

Wrath of Khan costed less had a better script and made almost the same amount of money TMP did.

[–] Adam60z (3774) 4 years ago

So in other words Oswald stopped the Klingons all by himself!