Star Trek II: What Might Have Been: Gene Roddenberry’s Original Story

[@harrypothead42024]

Gene had a lot of great ideas, i guess its really good he had a studio there to filter all the bad ones.

[@johntabler349]

William Shatner credits Gene Coontz with a lot of the success of the original series, Roddenbury was a genius creator and brilliant writer but often his ideas fleshed out as high minded and aloof it Coontz who infused the humor and humanity that made the characters and therefore the universe relatable.

[@harrypothead42024]

@johntabler349 I agree 100%. If it were a book or a single script I could see 1 person being, The Person, but there is just too much for a single person to do.

[@johntabler349]

@@harrypothead42024 or worse if that person has previously been successful to the point no one is willing to challenge them anymore it was evident in TMP prevalent in the early stages of TNG and the same thing happened to George Lucas with the Star Wars prequels

[@power2084]

It's* not its.

[@brianedwards7142]

TBH I hate that crash-landing the Enterprise became a trope. I'm glad they didn't start it even earlier.

[@richardb6260]

Actually, I read that this was a proposed idea pitched by Harlan Ellison for the first film. At least the part about Spock killing Kennedy was. The extra large Guardian that could accommodate the Enterprise was used in the first episode of the Star Trek: Phase II fan series "In Harm's Way".

[@Buddahmonk]

To this day WoK is still my favorite hands down.

[@cestall1]

Wow what a mess! Glad we got what we had.

[@zkeletonz001]

Time travel stories are very difficult to get right.

[@horseradishpower9947]

Assassinate Kennedy to maintain the timeline? This is reminding me of an episode of Red Dwarf...

[@shaneschluter]

I was going to say that. Kennedy assassinates himself

[@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785]

LoL, i laughed so hard when Kryten said something about the grassy knoll...had to look up the episode cuz i couldn't remember the name. Red Dwarf episode: "Tikka to Ride"

[@horseradishpower9947]

@@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785 And the title has reminded me why they borked the timeline in the first place... Lister wanted a curry...

[@JoePlett]

That idea sounds eerily familiar to the 1980s Twilight Zone episode "Profiles in Chrome" starring Lane Smith. They made the premise work with a quite different plot line. I presume that series is on Paramount Plus. (I have it on )VD) ....Although Spock on the grassy knoll is an intriguing idea. 😁

[@xander66644]

Thank God they did not go along with Roddenberry's idea for Star Trek 2. It would have sunk the franchise forever!

[@KertaDrake]

The funny thing is that the basic plot was sort of used in Red Dwarf, but they had Kennedy assassinate his past self to fix the timeline!

[@crownprincesebastianjohano7069]

Also Gene's pitch for Star Treks III-VI.

[@HocusFocusProductions]

Khan was a great film. The assassination of Kennedy to save the future was eventually used as an episode of Red Dwarf.

[@jack1701e]

This sort of reminds me of the Red Dwarf episode Tikka to Ride, but not as good.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

I can't imagine Harllan Ellison releasing his intellectual property cheaply! Did Roddenberry not remember all the strife? 😂

[@ooklathemok]

what was hilarious and rather sad about this was when they were going to do yet another film Gene would show up and say "hey guys ive got an idea for the film" and just rattle off the same pitch.

[@saucyduckglobalomnihyperme7510]

While Bennett had the idea of bringing back Khan, Meyer wrote the story and the screenplay as well as directing

[@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785]

An interesting idea, but I think I can speak for most of us when I say it's a good thing we ended up with the film we got instead. Of course, the franchise would continue to regurgitate old TOS plot ideas in later series, especially in TNG and Voyager.

[@StupidusMaximusTheFirst]

I'm not really a fan of time plots. The problem with time plots is that they are abused in sci-fi, then you could have an episode where something works this way, another where it doesn't and something else nonsensical needs to be done, you could encounter one kind of paradox, then some other episode another kind of paradox, or not at all, or all of them, whatever the writer could come up with. I don't think time plots are that popular with sci-fi fans, as this a cheap mechanic to direct the story and most times it's not well thought out at all, and just anything goes. There could be a few notable exceptions, but most times, whether in StarTrek or in films, this mechanic sucks. When it involves time plots, most times it's cheap, it is almost certain the writer couldn't be bothered, and any attempts for scientific explanations suck even harder, with the odd exceptions of brilliancy obviously.

[@user-be2dt8eg2x]

Always thought this idea was interesting, not being a huge fan of STII -- KIrk having a mid life crisis? Don't see it. Instant KIrk son? Who saw that coming? Fun movie though. Maybe Khan was the best story for the time. I don't get much out of it watching it today, but it made Trek more "mainstream" back then.

[@steveross8364]

Yeahhhhh. That would've killed off the Movie franchise and caused all the spin off shows to have never have been made. Mixed results because while all the modern shows are utter crap, some of TNG was good and Enterprise was excellent. The rest? I could easily do without any of them and only "First Contact" from the TNG movie playlist was any good.

[@Dmarcoot]

Some of TNG “good” and Enterprise “excellent” ? LOL.

[@steveross8364]

@@Dmarcoot A fair assessment. You obviously disagree. Each to their own.

[@VolkXue]

wow steve, you miss out on a lot of stuff lol

[@steveross8364]

@@VolkXue Actually, I seen a lot of it, that's how I know it's crap.

[@VolkXue]

@@steveross8364 but you think old trek is too. You know why Enterprise got that shaft ending the way it did? Look at the internet community today. People acted the same way back then. You guys always kill your own shows instead of letting them grow.

[@fjccommish]

The Klingons did what to make Earth a barren wasteland, to stop God from creating humans?

[@thegreenmanofnorwich]

It's not a totally terrible idea, but I still don't really like it.

[@John00065]

Nah, it sounds awful. You can say it.

[@onevastanus]

It was the first film I ever saw at the cinema. It is really great and still stands up today. However, First Contact is the best Star Trek film, putting The Wrath of Kahn into second place.

[@John00065]

This sounds awful.

[@trevormillar1576]

"A barren wasteland populated by primates"? Sounds like a ripoff of Planet of the Apes to me....😊