“People need to get over this rumoured intention of Spock and McCoy mutinying against Kirk in the original story. That was never the case.”

You’ll have to take that up with Shatner then, as in Star Trek Movie Memories he makes it clear the intention WAS for Bones & Spock to join Sybok against Kirk, and it was only changed after Leonard flat out refused to play it, with Dee joining him.

“Shatner’s original idea was that Kirk, Spock and McCoy fall out, disagreeing about Sybok. It was supposed to be an argument which would stretch their friendship to the limits and ultimately bring them closer together as they fight their way back across the River Styx while Satan and his fallen angels try to drag them into Hell.”

And thank god we never got that, because it very well might have been more unintentionally comical than what ended up being shot! :)

“In what’s left of the original plotline, the remark ‘I lost a brother once’ resonated to me that Kirk lost Sam and gained a new brother in Spock.”

That never came across to me. In fact, given the looks of surprise on Spock & McCoy’s faces, it seems far more likely he’s referring to Spock’s death and resurrection, not losing Sam then gaining Spock. Otherwise, they were both present when Kirk found Sam dead, and they shouldn’t have found the remark surprising in the least.

Prime, I think you’re overestimating the amount of thought necessary to see the obvious difference in intent.

“For many of us, it worked just fine.”

I hear ya’. And of course, that by itself wouldn’t be a big deal to me either. In fact, if you could only take away the Sybok issue (my pain)—-STV wouldn’t bug me half as much as it does.

That might have worked if he had said something like “Yes…I lost a brother once. I was lucky to get one back.”

But he didn’t.

What he did say was—”Yes… I lost a brother once. I was lucky I got him back.”

That’s a completely different statement. It’s quite clear that he’s talking about Spock the whole time. Either Shatner failed to recall that Kirk lost a brother in “Operation: Annihilate!”, or Shatner believed that Sam’s memory wasn’t worth much to the character at all by that point. I think it was the former.

Shatner’s original idea was that Kirk, Spock and McCoy fall out, disagreeing about Sybok. It was supposed to be an argument which would stretch their friendship to the limits and ultimately bring them closer together as they fight their way back across the River Styx while Satan and his fallen angels try to drag them into Hell.

In what’s left of the original plotline, the remark ‘I lost a brother once’ resonated to me that Kirk lost Sam and gained a new brother in Spock.

You are always free to disagree with my opinions, but the suggestion that I have ever been “dishonest” in any discussion on these threads is uncalled for. It simply hasn’t happened. And your constant sarcasm is a poor substitute for reason.

Oh, I agree that it was an unlikely scenario, which is why I pointed out that “what I expected” and what I wanted were two very different things.

Once again, my problem was never with the notion that Jim Kirk would be out climbing a rock. I just thought that the whole “rocket boots” thing and the subsequent rescue was ‘goofy’—-and that’s just an opinion.