In ‘Shatner is Kirk’ news: UPI reports that William Shatner told the crowd at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival that ‘there is a part of me in him…and Kirk in me’. The original Kirk also told the Massachusetts Republican that he is not going to retire anytime soon, saying "ss I shakily take my last breath, maybe that’s when I will whisper, ‘I quit.’"…did he just paraphrase Khan’s last words?
Want to see classic Trek without all that Remastering and CGI?…well TV Land has got you covered.The home of retro TV starts airing the classic show later this month and have already started offering full episodes on their new Star Trek website (for one week only). The site offers a number of other Trek related video features and will host a live chat with Original Series stars Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei on Nov. 19th. Oh My.
Speaking of Shatner, TrekWeb’s Gustavo Leao opines that it is time to give Shatner’s ‘Star Trek V’ an upgrade. Taking a cue from Star Trek Remastered, Leao suggests "perhaps it’s time for Paramount and William Shatner to revisit Star Trek V The Final Frontier and restore many of the film’s lost sequences with the use of state-of-the-art CGI effects." TrekMovie.com has been told that this was suggested to Paramount Home Video years ago, but they didn’t bite. Can’t imagine many purists would object to monkeying with that film, and with the coming resurgence of Star Trek perhaps it is worth trying again Bill.
Variety takes a look at how Hollywood (including Paramount) is trying to revive many franchises, noting ‘Studios that haven’t been big franchise players in recent years, such as Paramount and Universal, have also been looking through their vaults for inspiration. Earlier this year, Par tasked J.J. Abrams with reviving "Star Trek" on the big screen’. In a related story Newsweek takes a look at how reboots are all the rage for franchises these days. See…Trek is trendy again.
And for Abrams there is a bit of good news and a bit of bad news for his TV empire. TV Squad reports that ‘What About Brian’ has received an order for more scripts, but ABC has yet to do the same for Abrams’ newest show ‘Six Degrees’. And even though ‘Lost’ is nowhere near being at risk of cancelation, TV Squad also notes that it continues to lose viewers and is starting to get beat up by its CBS’s ‘Criminal Minds’. Abrams could lose a show or two to make more room in his life for Trek anyway.
SciFi Wire is running a poll on ‘who do you think should play Captain Kirk’. It is an odd assortment of choices, with SciFi’s own Ben Browder beating out Matt Damon currently 48% to 27%. Not sure where they came up with the idea to add Chris Rock to the list, but he is tied for third with Heath Ledger with 10%. Pulling up the rear is poor Ben Affleck at 5%.
Actually it is said on Wikipedia, as well as at ComicCon ’06 that ALL the trek movies were being released on HD DVD in November.
This may or may not be true, especially since we have not heard anything about this since.
Six Degrees has started to grow on me. It started shakey but is getting better. Lost has started getting very shakey this season. It’s a little like Alias Season 3 all over again. Not that it can’t be pulled back from the abyss.
Star Trek V is beyond repair. You can’t polish a turd.
No, but a little air freshner can make it smell better till it dries up! ;)
Thanks for the article Anthony… was there a rumour of a “behind the scense” article resulting from your recent visit to CBS? If so… can’t wait… I love that kind of stuff!
I don’t know… I never thought that I would like “The Motion Picture”, but the Director’s cut is great…
Star Trek V is not that bad… granted, it’s not that good either! Mainly, it’s the stinky set-up plot with the lame ending… The character moments are pretty enjoyable on their own, even if they’re somewhat goofy overall. I don’t know if good CGI can save that lameo finale… yet it couldn’t hurt it much more! LOL! Perhaps change the evil alien to SHATNER! ;)
If Paramount can smell money they might do it in the future. Anything to whore out Star Trek for some green meal. Trek V can’t be saved story wise but it could be made to look better. There can’t be enough footage to change the story enough to make it a diffrent movie????
Darth “whore’s bath” Ballz
You can fix STAR TREK V.
The FX need to be replaced. “God” needs to be reconceptualized, make it once angelic and the much more ferocious at the end. I think you can tinker with the ending too, making the action more dynamic without extending it too much. Rock creatures? I don’t know about that, but if there is unused footage lying around that can be worked into a longer action sequence, use it!
I think with a slightly different edit, the movie can really shine.
Trek V rocks. It’s easily the best character driven Trek movie and plays like the 80th episode. Can’t ask for more than that. The characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy, finally, after 4 films, are comfortably in place and deliver many fine Trek moments, not to mention Deforest Kelley’s incredible performance, probably the finest acting ever in a Trek movie.
If you don’t get that Trek 5 is closest to the original spirit of the original series, then you just don’t get the original series. Too bad, so sad.
I’m all for a Director’s cut of Trek V.
I’m not sure what alternate footage is available, but I’m sure with some clever editing of existing and new footage, it could certainly be improved. Does anyone know from articles, books, etc. if there is cut footage available?
In ST5 I liked the camping scenes, the mountain climbing and of course “row, row, row your boat…” :-) That were really great moments in this movie or in generally in the movies!
sorry about the delay on the behind the scenes at CBS article. Have been running into a lot of stuff and am trying to work as fast as I can right now…although if anyone wants to make a sizable donation I can put it to the top of my to do list ;)
…anyone?
hey where did everyone go?
I liked “Row Row Row your Boat” too :) I always thought that was a fun, sweet scene. Something you could see old friends doing. As for “Remastering” Star Trek V… I think now is the right time to do it. It’s a fun film. Some scenes should be edited out (Scotty banging his head… just get rid of it!) And definitley re-do the devil scenes. In fact, I would consider using a diferrent voice to when he becomes “evil”
Guess who was part of the proposal to update Trek V… :) And yes, I think that with some judicious editing and finessing, it could have been quite an enjoyable film… now back to work and I’ll get back to doing my Tribbles Review.
And if you wanna know what I thought would have capped Trek V with a nice nod to the original? Four words: “God” is Gary Mitchell
Excellent idea Mr. Dochterman!! Gary Mitchell is one of my all-time favorite Trek bad guys. Would love to hem see him make a return in Star Trek in some capacity.
Daren, Shatner’s concept was for “God” to be “Satan”; if he wants to remain faithful to his premise, which would have Indiana Jones style scenes, who knows? Is Gary Lockwood alive?
Anyway, your producers on Director’s Editions, can’t recall the name, Sharpline arts hated the film; I e-mailed one, and he blew the concept off.
But who needs them?
Anyway, is your agent having any luck “selling” you to Abram & Co. for this film, or has ILM made them an “offer they can’t refuse”? ;)
Probably too early to call, but best of luck. Your Poseidon was a great design.
Gary Mitchell???
Uhhh! no……
The Devil should have been Shatners wig from the late 70’s or a pissed off tribble……
Darth “say it with meat” Ballz
Well, if I were to be a part of the Abrams Project, I’d want to be involved in the Concept Design area… which is my day job. There are a bunch of excellent fx companies to do Movie effects these days… and they’re welcome to it. :)
Gary Lockwood is certainly alive…
But that was just a “fanboy” idea I had one day… I don’t know if there is any way to incorporate that idea into Trek V as it exists now… would have had to be done in the script stage, I would think.
Daren, if I may…
You can work the Mitchell character in *after* Spock and Bones are beamed aboard the Enterprise. With some good editing, a couple of new lines looped in by Shatner, this could be something great. It answers Kirk’s question “What does God need with a starship?” very directly, doesn’t it? And perhaps with the Klingon ship blasting the demon, you could add a shot that shows Mitchell AND Sybok being let free. That would put a lot of meaning into the end. Have Mitchell say “Thanks, Jim.” and then disappear along with Sybok.
And it gives new meaning to Kirk’s line in the Officer’s Lounge at the end– “I lost a brother once… but I was lucky I got him back.”
Daren, that is one brilliant idea.
Gary Mitchell is dead. It would cheapen the drama of his death in the original show to have him pop up in Star Trek V, especially as an unscripted afterthought. Other than that, I’m all for trying to special-editionize Star Trek V. Perhaps Shatner could make it a condition of his Star Trek XI contract. Technology probably makes it cheaper to redo the effects every year. Surely there’s at least as big an audience for a fixed Star Trek V as for Richard Donner’s Superman II exhumation.
Star Trek V is a film I really want to be good. With the passage of time I remember it being better than it is, then I watch it again and re-disappoint myself. It would be great if it actually did get better before I watched it again.
Interested people should look for “In Thy Image,” which producer Jack Marshall did as a fan-edit of Trek V. He cuts the movie down to just an hour and frames it to be an episode of Star Trek: Phase II, set aboard the all-new Enterprise-A.
Gone are the Klingons taking pot-shots at satellites. The crew no longer get lost in the woods. References to Sybok being Spock’s brother are removed.
When it’s only an hour long, it’s remarkable. It looks and feels very much like a classic Trek episode, and it actually becomes a decent storyline.
Quick Google search brings up this:
http://www.torrentportal.com/details/540391/Star+Trek+Phase+II+In+Thy+Image+(Star+Trek+5+remix)+con+subtitulos+en+espa%C3%B1ol.iso.html
Actually, the addition of the idea that the creature by the end of V being Mitchell would not cheapen his death at all, because it is never actually stated Mitchell actually died. In many ways, it could easily work as a story plotline as did TWOK where a story element is brought into the feature film arena to show how there was importance and ultimately “a reason” to follow the stories of the TOS crew.
Too bad the did not do that for the TNG films, I had my hopes up for Nemesis being the completion of the Data-Lore story arch. That would have been much more interesting than B-4
Daren, thanks for the reply; concept design would be great!
Daren, Adam, I just reflected on the idea of Gary Mitchell. It would undercut the whole purpose of the film, i.e., on passion overcoming reason and the malevolent influence to minds, such as Sybok’s, that foresake “balance”, that let “emotion” dominate.
The images, which may have been controversial to some, i.e., the “Andorian Christ” (and why not a Tellarite with stone tablets and a Klingon nomad in a desert?) was that this “entity” was reaching out for centuries to vulnerable minds. On the other hand, if it was a “devil” of a kind, it would be a liar, never speaking truth.
Although I’m not up on “Saint Augustine”, I recall that the final line, about God residing in the human heart, is a tenet of his, and perhaps all mystical traditions as well.
For those reasons, perhaps, the film is controversial, and maybe the studio, pardon the expression, wants to let “sleeping dogs lie”.
For me, it failed in depicting Spock’s “pain”, and totally neglecting Kirk’s vulnerability.
I would, if I produced a new version, have a new scene written along D.C. Fontana’s script for the animated series: Spock’s pain, as a child, called half-breed by “logical” Vulcan youths.
The concept of his father rejecting him as an infant on “human” appearance was truly idiotic, IMO, and Nimoy of course, didn’t care for it!
Kirk’s pain? Why show all the other character’s weaknesses, and not Kirk’s?
Perhaps he should have been the one suffering rejection by his father, I think, for enlisting in Star Fleet. Or maybe a rejection by a hot Deltan babe?
Anyway, a lot of the problems were explained in this book:
# Captain’s Log: William Shatner’s Personal Account of the Making of “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”, as told by Lisabeth Shatner, 1989, ISBN 0-671-68652-6
Just random thoughts, but I wonder if Anthony P. can interview Bill and get his thoughts?
I like the updated version already available via a fast net search “The God Edition.
When Kirk points out rather truthfully, “Maybe God’s not out there Bones, maybe he’s right here……”,and then points to himself,
We KNOW what The Shat is reffering to. KIRK is GOD. And Spock and Bones just happened to be in the presence of royalty.
Back to reality… God is God and if Kirk (or Shatner) was He… wouldn’t the film be perfect now…. without a director’s edition?
Anyway. If someone wants to redo the film…sure… I’d watch and likely buy it if it was good.
I like the Gary Mitchell thought from Daren Doc. It would, however, be a twist that only the fandom would understand. Still…
Michael “Psalm 23” T
Gary Mitchell…. brings up an interesting thought,
If the new movie is going back to the early days of Kirk and Spock… shouldn’t Gary Mitchell be part of it? He and Kirk were obviously best friends and had a long history.
Well, here’s my problem with the structure of Star Trek V–
The “God” that we wait 3/4 of the movie to see is a total macguffin. That’s not particularly good storytelling. It would have been helpful to see Sybok meditating en route to the God planet, communicating with the entity. At least then there would be some proper foundation for the character that eventually appears. As it stands now, about three minutes after meeting “God” Kirk finds himself at odds with the being and starts mouthing off to him. It’s a bit much to swallow, even in the Roddenberry-verse of post-religion Star Trek. And the villain is meaningless. Who is this creature? What does it want? How did it get there? It’s all swept aside as if it’s really not that important at all. That makes the ending perfunctory.
The novel by J.M Dillard explains a lot of the backstory to Star Trek V and it makes the story a lot more rational and meaningful. But on film, it’s rushed and things don’t make sense, such as “No other ship has passed through The Great Barrier!” etc. But the Enterprise and the Klingon ship seem to have no problem. Okeydoke. (FYI, the novel explains how Sybok helped develop a new shield technology that he applied to the Enterprise. Somehow, the inventive Klingons serving Capt. Klaa were able to scan the Enterprise and copy their shield settings). Okay, that ain’t rocket science, but at least that issue is explained!
I think Sybok (comment #25) cites a theme that wasn’t really articulated well at all by the film. I am not protective of the passion v. balance issue that lingers somewhat at the end of the movie. If anything, Spock learned from his brother that passion was something special, and something Spock wants in his life now that his katra has returned to him fully and finally following the Probe and his return to Earth. And Spock from Star Trek VI is fully at peace with the balance between logic and passion.
With or without a Gary Mitchell subplot, Star Trek V is worth additional work. I like the movie as a nostalgia piece on the Big Three. It could become a good movie if they put forth an extra bit of effort and money to finish it off properly.
I was reading the latest entries and after reading Doc’s comments, I had to chime in…
I remember sitting in the theater watching Star Trek V… and getting more and more depressed by the moment… then something strange started happening… first we went through the great barrier… and discovered a god-like entity alone on a barren word…
(my heart started pounding, because I thought I had it figured out. Shatner was going to give us a great ending after all….)
Then Kirk asked: “What does God need with a Starship?” and I held my breath…. I would have bet “credits to navy beans” that Kirk was going to suddenly see who he was talking to, and isay in his very “shatnerian” way:
“My God…. Gary?”
THAT would have saved the entire movie. And I was sure that was where we were going. But alas, it did not happen. And I remember being angry a bit with the PTB at Paramount and at Shatner himself for a while… I thought: “Damn, if I could think of that ending, why didn’t anybody else?”
So I’m all for adding the Gary Mitchell element… because in my opinion, that’s how it should have gone down in the first place. :-)
Stefanbkk, you reminded me of when I saw STV too…
When the Enterprise goes through The Great Barrier, with Goldsmith’s music blaring and everyone on the Bridge looking on in wonder, for that moment I felt a sense of awe. That’s Star Trek at its best.
And then things disintegrated a bit down on the planet.
Gary Mitchell in a Directors Edition would be fantastic! I wonder if anyone has ever brought this idea up to Shatner himself? Daren… any way you could could bring this concept up to him?
The time is right for this to happen, as it is those SFX will look even worse when the Movie gets released on HD. it is simply unacceptable to have a major motion picture from 1989 with SFX below the level of the new enhanced TOS episodes. Paramount, you will make your money back.
I would also like to see this movie given a little bit more care, if for no other reason than I would like our much-loved Bill Shatner to be given the proper extra resources, and a chance to improve on his personal project in a manner that he didn’t get first time round.
Very interesting proposal regarding the Gary Mitchell character Daren, that, just perhaps, Willim Shatner might also like.. and I would personally like to see an improvement on the effects and set-piece side, along with a reconceptulization of the “GOD” effects in particular ( but which KEPT a portion of the wonderful “bearded” actor with the marvellous voice ) that could perhaps include footage of Gary Lockwood’s younger self..it would be great to see Gary ( “2001: a space odyssey”! ) Lockwood on screen again, as he was an amazingly watchable and photogenic actor.
Whatever, I agree that now is a good chance for Bill to get a final shot at it.
Gary Mitchell is a great idea, but it would require a lot of backstory for those who have no idea who Gary Mitchell is….just look at how they had to handle Khan’s history in the sencond movie. Without Kirk Spock and McCoy hashing out (for the audiences sake) a brief summation of Kirk and Mitchell’s personal history and the events of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” I just don’t see how you could incorporate Mitchell into the storyline. Would have made a great addition to the movie though, had it been written with that in mind.
CGI trek v is a great idea to me?
#10 Ambassador Fox:
Right on, man! Trek V is my all-time favorite Trek movie, followed by VI. The rest are pretty much ho-hum and dated in various ways as relics of the 1980s.
(For example, the “knock-her-up-and-leave-her” and “James ‘Tomcat’ Kirk has a poofter for a son” failed plot of anti-heroism. Puleeze. That stuff went out of the rest of Hollywood in the 1970s! It reminds me of that gawdawful Roger Moore bond film with the two creeps in the desert)
STV was the worst. Great idea but bad direction.
I’m not sure there’s much you can do to fix this movie. Most of what went wrong happened during the script writing & revision phase.
(I think I’m going out of my way to give Shatner the benefit of doubt when I say that)
How much of these ‘lost sequences’ was ever actually filmed? No matter how many ‘rock men’ you add into the finale, it’s not going to have any dramatic impact if you’re restricted to wide shots of CGI Kirk running from them.
And then think of all the character scenes you’d have to delete. Campfire singing, Checkov blowing wind into a communicator, Uhura stripdancing and flirting with Scotty, etc. What are they going to fill those holes with?
I had written off ST:V long ago, but I think you guys are right – it could be salvaged by a re-edit and new effects. I don’t think you need to lose all the character moments. For me, those were the bits that worked. But it needs new effects for the last act and a better resolution. And CGI fix the stupid signage mistakes in the elevator shaft.
Dunno. Paramount might bite. They certainly are not going to sell many copies of the theatrical version on HD DVD.
#37 – An olde timey fan – I don’t think “Ishtar” was a Bond film… and although it was an agonizing film to watch… to refer to Warren Beatty & Dustin Hoffman as “the two creeps in the desert.” Well, it’s a little strong and I was hoping the threads would keep an elegant element of civility.
Yes, scott it would be nice wouldn’t it. He can also try to control his derogatory statements about Homosexuals as well.
Not to mention Old Timey fan, if u actually go back and actually pay attention to Star Trek II, kirk did not “knock-her-up and leave her”, Carol Marcus asked him to stay away. And just because an actor may be homosexual has nothing in paralleling that the character is then homosexual. That is your own social insecurities playing within your own biases.
Hey easy # 42 acb… I was just makin’ a goofy joke about another desert film.
I’m sure olde timey fan meant “poofter” with the utmost respect for the late Merritt Butrick.
Now about the notion that Star Trek V was the best of the features… I guess there are those out there that think that… “not that there’s anything wrong with it” but really?… The best?… I’m gonna have seek legal council on that one.
…like I said earlier…if one doesn’t “get” why Trek 5 is closest, of all the movies, in spirit to the original series, then one just doesn’t “get” the original series…and sadly, amid the endless complaining of 70 ship decks, bad FX and Spock having a brother…they never will.
Hey everyone… for those of you interested in seeing Shatner complete a Director’s cut of Star Trek V, please consider adding your name to the following petition. It’s old, and may not influence many, but at least we’ve got to try, right?
http://www.petitiononline.com/TrekV/petition.html
There are currently about 3800 signatures… let’s add a few more, shall we?
#45 – John N – Great info on the restoration of Star Trek V… Thanks.
I hope Paramount and Shatner agree to do it. Besides, I think everyone deserves a second chance.
Agree that the scenes with Shat, Nimoy, and Kelly are pretty good and do harken back to the days of TOS but this movie is TERRIBLE! Clearly the Klingons are written in for window dressing along with Uhura/Scotty and other crap. Let this one die! Look forward to the new movie, it’ll be here in less than two years.
Actually, i think that one can argue that all the films are like the original TOS in one way or another since the original three seasons all incorporated stories that varied from the serious, to the light hearted, to the unknown, to the political.
Now I believe in giving Star Trek V its credit where credit is due, but at the same time it is the most fault ridden in terms of story and plot of the original TOS crew films. Even with TOS episodes that dealt with a superior being of sorts, it still left the concept non-definitive so as to say “this is what is true.” The more I hear of Shatners original intended idea i feel like it was too much of a push to elements that were less trek than were trek. That’s not to say the structure of the story was not sound enough to be restructured, I just think that it needed more work and less purposful distorting by the studio.
Scott of the Morgites:
It was “Diamonds are Forever”. Sorry. I don’t have enough time to be a Trek geek and a Bond geek at the same time.
and for abc, too: As for your gay-chip-on-the-sholder … I feel very sorry for you people. Repeated Pavolovian conditioning by Big Brother & Co. has warped your sense of right and wrong, not to mention your aesthetic sensibilities. I supose the news item from last week, reporting a 1% per annum drop in testosterone levels in US males over the past 15 years at least, is now confirmed. No wonder Kirk is such a controversial character among the Slacker Generation!
Or perhaps i actually learned something from the meaning behind what things such as Trek was attempting to show its audience about the world.