Star Trek The Motion Picture Script - Episode 94

70s Trek: Star Trek in the 1970s

The word “script” is defined as “the written text of a play, movie, or broadcast.” Yet is so much more that that, too. The script is also a road map that leads the actors, the production team and even the viewers through a story to a fulfilling end.

Good scripts leave you feeling satisfied. Bad scripts make you confused. And in 1978, everyone was confused about the script for the Star Trek film project.

What's Going On?

In August 1977, Paramount CEO Michael Eisner decided to move the Star Trek property away from being a TV show, Phase II, and to instead make a blockbuster film, The Motion Picture.

But it didn’t go easily.

Gene Roddenberry and the production team didn’t have the main element in place needed to make a film: A good story.

In fact, the idea for the Phase II TV pilot was still being shaped and developed when Eisner decided to make the Star Trek movie. so while there was a concept, it was not a fully developed one. But Eisner wanted to shift gears to blockbuster film anyway.

The challenge was the process that the production team was working with to develop this movie. Typically a film starts with the story idea first, then you bring in the director, the actors and the production team you think can realize that vision.

Star Trek didn’t follow that process.

It already had a team in place led by Roddenberry, and actors for the established characters. What they didn't have was the story. So Star Trek was working backwards which led to the production not proceeding smoothly.

To make matters worse, there had been so many Star Trek ideas flying around since 1975 that the production team, and Roddenberry in particular, wasn’t sure where to go with the story anymore. they were simply burnt out and needed fresh ideas.

In this episode of 70s Trek, co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto discuss the many script evolutions and how a satisfying resolution for the last act was finally reached.