Post by MS on Jul 28, 2022 6:58:18 GMT
The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek - 1 x 3 - Trekking Through the 1970s - Phase II and The Motion Picture:
The next phase (pardon the pun) of Star Trek in the 1970s now coming after the animated series was to bring back Star Trek live action series, a series that became known as Star Trek Phase II.
However the key difference between Phase II and its predecessors was that Leonard Nimoy had refused to come back as Spock full time, only willing as a concession to make occasional appearances.
Therefore a new character was created as his replacement as science officer on the Enterprise and that is Lt Xon with David Gautreaux cast to play him.
Unlike the half-Vulcan Spock, Xon was a full Vulcan.
Just as development on Phase II was underway, a significant event came that drastically altered Star Trek's and that was the arrival of Star Wars.
The critical and commercial success or Star Wars therefore convinced the folks at Paramount to make a Star Trek movie.
The pilot script for Phase II called In Thy Image therefore got turned into a movie script instead and the recruitment of The Sound of Music director Robert Wise as the movie's director.
Amusing with narrator Gates McFadden stating the prospect of the movie coming under the title In Thy Image but instead expressing the bafflement it came under the easily accepted unimaginative title of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The thinking at the time was that The Motion Picture was to be a one-off for the big screen which would then lead to a new TV series for the original crew.
However despite this thinking, Gautreaux received a huge payoff for services never rendered in playing Xon apart from a screen test.
Gautreaux however did get to be in The Motion Picture briefly as a different character.
The making of the Motion Picture as detailed here was beset with problems such as the script was incomplete with no ending whilst the filming was done and director Robert WIse not enjoying this experience of making it.
I am sure the making of the Motion Picture was a distress to all those involved but I can't avoid feeling the humour in all this of how all this unfolded behind the scenes.
Eventually The Motion Picture was completed and it reached its scheduled released date in 1979.
The Motion Picture met with commercial, if not critical success perhaps not surprising for the latter due to problems with the script.
The commercial success of The Motion Picture convinced Paramount executives to make more Star Trek movies with the original crew with Phase II abandoned.
Perhaps it could not be avoided but I was surprised that it presented Stephen Collins playing Commander Will Deckard in The Motion Picture.
This is due to the circumstances of how Collins' acting career came to an ignominious end, something I won't get into any detail.
I have a book on the development of Phase II which I had bought back in the 1990s and the assessment it gave is that if Phase II had succeeded in making it transition to the screen there would be no Star Trek today.
I don't remember the reason the authors gave for this assessment but making my own assessment after seeing this episode of Center Seat is that The Motion Picture proved to Paramount that money can be made out of Star Trek something that Phase II wouldn't have been able to do.
The next phase (pardon the pun) of Star Trek in the 1970s now coming after the animated series was to bring back Star Trek live action series, a series that became known as Star Trek Phase II.
However the key difference between Phase II and its predecessors was that Leonard Nimoy had refused to come back as Spock full time, only willing as a concession to make occasional appearances.
Therefore a new character was created as his replacement as science officer on the Enterprise and that is Lt Xon with David Gautreaux cast to play him.
Unlike the half-Vulcan Spock, Xon was a full Vulcan.
Just as development on Phase II was underway, a significant event came that drastically altered Star Trek's and that was the arrival of Star Wars.
The critical and commercial success or Star Wars therefore convinced the folks at Paramount to make a Star Trek movie.
The pilot script for Phase II called In Thy Image therefore got turned into a movie script instead and the recruitment of The Sound of Music director Robert Wise as the movie's director.
Amusing with narrator Gates McFadden stating the prospect of the movie coming under the title In Thy Image but instead expressing the bafflement it came under the easily accepted unimaginative title of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The thinking at the time was that The Motion Picture was to be a one-off for the big screen which would then lead to a new TV series for the original crew.
However despite this thinking, Gautreaux received a huge payoff for services never rendered in playing Xon apart from a screen test.
Gautreaux however did get to be in The Motion Picture briefly as a different character.
The making of the Motion Picture as detailed here was beset with problems such as the script was incomplete with no ending whilst the filming was done and director Robert WIse not enjoying this experience of making it.
I am sure the making of the Motion Picture was a distress to all those involved but I can't avoid feeling the humour in all this of how all this unfolded behind the scenes.
Eventually The Motion Picture was completed and it reached its scheduled released date in 1979.
The Motion Picture met with commercial, if not critical success perhaps not surprising for the latter due to problems with the script.
The commercial success of The Motion Picture convinced Paramount executives to make more Star Trek movies with the original crew with Phase II abandoned.
Perhaps it could not be avoided but I was surprised that it presented Stephen Collins playing Commander Will Deckard in The Motion Picture.
This is due to the circumstances of how Collins' acting career came to an ignominious end, something I won't get into any detail.
I have a book on the development of Phase II which I had bought back in the 1990s and the assessment it gave is that if Phase II had succeeded in making it transition to the screen there would be no Star Trek today.
I don't remember the reason the authors gave for this assessment but making my own assessment after seeing this episode of Center Seat is that The Motion Picture proved to Paramount that money can be made out of Star Trek something that Phase II wouldn't have been able to do.