Post by MS on Feb 7, 2023 2:57:46 GMT
This looks at the making of Star Trek IV-VI.
It has been noted the box office success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is why Star Trek developed into a TV franchise the trend of which started with TNG featuring none other than narrator Gate McFadden as Beverly Crusher. In fact briefly at the end McFadden says to believe her that TNG is quite a story to tell. Yeah I definitely do believe you Gates.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was directed by Captain Kirk himself William Shatner.
I had known that Star Trek V was a troubled production but wasn't really prepared how troubled it was upon seeing this.
McFadden was quite blunt when she said Shatner's mismanagement of V. Hardly objective for her as a narrator. An objective wording would have been perceived mismanagement.
After all McFadden herself was working on TNG when Star Trek V was made so she can't have first hand knowledge what production on V was like.
Curious to note that Shatner himself was not interviewed for The Center Seat. Would have been fair for him to give his own account on V.
When it came to VI it was a movie that ended before it even got started as this movie got cancelled. However it got uncancelled due to a change of management over at Paramount.
A curious aspect of VI is that it would had Saavik revealed to be a traitor before the new character of Valeris (whom fans had no attachment to unlike Saavik) played by Kim Cattrall performing this very role.
It is not stated here but I read elsewhere that the ultimate reason why Saavik was not in VI was because Nicholas Meyer director of II and VI, the former of which was where Saavik made her debut, could not get Kirstie Alley to come back as VI and he hadn't liked Robin Curtis' portrayal of the character.
Sadly Alley and David Warner (Star Trek V and VI) had passed last year 2022 but way after this episode came out.
Star Trek VI came at the same time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the Klingons were the Russians of Star Trek.
It is often been cited that what contributed to the Soviet Union's collapse was the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986.
Star Trek VI kicks off with the explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis due to a mining accident and this was what led the Klingon Empire to seek peace with the Federation.
It is stated here that Praxis is Star Trek's Chernobyl and I am not sure that I didn't know that before.
Unsurprisingly not every Klingon was willing to have peace with the Federation and chief among them is the villain General Chang played by Christopher Plummer.
It is not stated here but the casting of Plummer in VI marks a bookend for the TOS movies as The Motion Picture was directed by Robert Wise, director of The Sound of Music and Plummer played Captain von Trapp in that movie.
Before Star Trek VI became The Undiscovered Country and celebrated Star Trek's 25th anniversary, Harve Bennett had a different idea for the sixth Star Trek movie to celebrate the said anniversary, that of a prequel with a young Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy.
However this idea as ultimately rejected and Bennett left Star Trek having no involvement with The Undiscovered Country.
Eventually a young Kirk and Spock was depicted starting with Star Trek (2009) but wasn't made by Bennett and and I read he wasn't impressed with that.
It has been noted the box office success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is why Star Trek developed into a TV franchise the trend of which started with TNG featuring none other than narrator Gate McFadden as Beverly Crusher. In fact briefly at the end McFadden says to believe her that TNG is quite a story to tell. Yeah I definitely do believe you Gates.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was directed by Captain Kirk himself William Shatner.
I had known that Star Trek V was a troubled production but wasn't really prepared how troubled it was upon seeing this.
McFadden was quite blunt when she said Shatner's mismanagement of V. Hardly objective for her as a narrator. An objective wording would have been perceived mismanagement.
After all McFadden herself was working on TNG when Star Trek V was made so she can't have first hand knowledge what production on V was like.
Curious to note that Shatner himself was not interviewed for The Center Seat. Would have been fair for him to give his own account on V.
When it came to VI it was a movie that ended before it even got started as this movie got cancelled. However it got uncancelled due to a change of management over at Paramount.
A curious aspect of VI is that it would had Saavik revealed to be a traitor before the new character of Valeris (whom fans had no attachment to unlike Saavik) played by Kim Cattrall performing this very role.
It is not stated here but I read elsewhere that the ultimate reason why Saavik was not in VI was because Nicholas Meyer director of II and VI, the former of which was where Saavik made her debut, could not get Kirstie Alley to come back as VI and he hadn't liked Robin Curtis' portrayal of the character.
Sadly Alley and David Warner (Star Trek V and VI) had passed last year 2022 but way after this episode came out.
Star Trek VI came at the same time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the Klingons were the Russians of Star Trek.
It is often been cited that what contributed to the Soviet Union's collapse was the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986.
Star Trek VI kicks off with the explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis due to a mining accident and this was what led the Klingon Empire to seek peace with the Federation.
It is stated here that Praxis is Star Trek's Chernobyl and I am not sure that I didn't know that before.
Unsurprisingly not every Klingon was willing to have peace with the Federation and chief among them is the villain General Chang played by Christopher Plummer.
It is not stated here but the casting of Plummer in VI marks a bookend for the TOS movies as The Motion Picture was directed by Robert Wise, director of The Sound of Music and Plummer played Captain von Trapp in that movie.
Before Star Trek VI became The Undiscovered Country and celebrated Star Trek's 25th anniversary, Harve Bennett had a different idea for the sixth Star Trek movie to celebrate the said anniversary, that of a prequel with a young Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy.
However this idea as ultimately rejected and Bennett left Star Trek having no involvement with The Undiscovered Country.
Eventually a young Kirk and Spock was depicted starting with Star Trek (2009) but wasn't made by Bennett and and I read he wasn't impressed with that.