All language subtitles for The.Center.Seat.55.Years.of.Star.Trek.S01E04.Trek.Goes.to.the.Movies.720p.WEB.h264-KOMPOST[eztv.re]

(narrator)
On the eve of the '80s,

a decade after cancelation,

"Star Trek" was back.

The motion picture
had successfully relaunched

the franchise, taking more than
three times its budget

at the box office.

- I could never believe that.

- Well, despite earning
$139 million worldwide,

a sequel to the original
motion picture

was anything but a certainty.

So beam aboard and hold on tight

as we boldly go into
the depths of "Star Trek".

And you can see it all from here
in "The Center Seat."

Despite having made millions
and the studio's desire to make

a follow up to "Star Trek:
The Motion Picture",

there were still issues.

- By that time,
the perception was

despite its financial success,
which you would think

would be enough, it just didn't
do what they wanted it to do.

- "They" being the studio,
and they didn't like

how the motion picture
had been made.

- The lack of discipline
during production was legendary,

(narrator)
But the studio had a solution.

- We're gonna make this picture
and it's gonna be done

out of the eyes of
the television division.

♪

Thinking being obviously
that folks in television

know how to do things cheaper.

- You didn't need to tell
"Star Trek" creator

Gene Roddenberry twice.

A TV guy through and through,

he cranked out the script
in no time.

- Which was the crew of
the Enterprise being involved

in the assassination of JFK

and sort of writing history.

- And Paramount
wrote back immediately.

- They were rejected it
with a form letter.

"Thank you for making
the submission,

it's not what
we're looking for."

And this is going
to Gene Roddenberry.

- Paramount had adopted a less
is more approach to Roddenberry.

- They didn't wanna
deal with him.

- No one did. His last writer
had only one message for him.

- Don't ever touch my script,
you bastard!

He wouldn't stop rewriting.
He was just maniacal about it.

- Years of creative interference

had burned too many bridges
with Paramount.

- When "Star Trek: The Motion
Picture" got mixed reviews,

and because the budget
went so far over,

even though that had nothing to
do with Gene Roddenberry at all,

Paramount used that as an excuse

to take "Star Trek" away
from Gene Roddenberry.

- And he was demoted.

(narrator) You could say
Gene was his own worst enemy,

but there's a theory
that explains

complicated characters like him.

- Did you ever hear of the Moses
Joshua Theory of Creation?

- It's the idea that some
creative types are like Moses.

- They bring into existence

something that wasn't
there before.

- But like Moses himself they
lack certain managerial skills,

needing organized types
like Joshua.

- As a can-do person.

- That is brilliant.

Gene led us through
the desert for 40 years.

Yeah, but he couldn't deliver.

- But Gene wasn't entirely
banished from the Promised Land.

- He was given the courtesy of
a tiny little office.

- They gave him a new contract
that said that he would be

a very well paid
script consultant.

- But in Hollywood terms...

- That meant that he had
no power, he was not in control.

(narrator)
Well, no power officially.

But Gene, a master
of the dark arts of PR,

wasn't ready to dematerialize
just yet.

Meanwhile, Paramount
had found their Joshua.

- A guy named Harve Bennett.

(John)
Incredibly popular.

He knew how to do
a science fiction show.

- Having cut his teeth
on "The Mod Squad",

the "Six Million Dollar Man"
and "The Bionic Woman",

he knew how to make
the ordinary extraordinary.

♪

And...
- He knew how to

do a show under budget.

- Harve Bennett met with
Paramount executives.

- They asked him for
his honest opinion

on "Star Trek:
The Motion Picture".

- And he said do I tell
the truth or do I, you know,

you know, give him something
he wants to hear?

(narrator)
What he said shocked no one.

- Kind of boring.

- My kids are falling
asleep during it.

- And they said, okay, can you
make us a "Star Trek" movie

for less than $45 million?

- And he very famously said,
sir, I could make three better

pictures for what you spent.

- Harve was speaking
Paramount's language

and the budget for
the sequel reflected that

to the tune of...
- $13 million.

- For that kind of money,
you could barely make

the opening titles of
most blockbuster sci-fis.

So Harve went to a producer

whose middle name
is resourceful.

- I had gone to UCLA film school
before film was fashionable

and one of my classmates
was a guy named Harve Bennett.

- And one day out of the blue,
his old friend called him.

- And he says, I'd like you to
produce the "Star Trek" thing.

And I said, sure,
why not? Okay.

- So while Harve nailed down
the story, Bob's job...

- Was to do everything else.

(narrator)
With no real ideas yet,

Harve returned to "Star Trek's"
roots for inspiration.

- Harve did screen all
the previous episodes,

and it was in doing so that
he came up with the idea

of bringing Khan back into
the picture, as it were.

- Khan was the genetically
engineered alpha male made

famous by Ricardo Montalban in
the episode "Space Seed."

- My name is Khan,
please sit and entertain me.

(narrator) And if Khan was
back, Montalban was back.

Older, wiser
and even more famous,

thanks to some truly
fantastic performances.

- Welcome to Fantasy Island.

- Montalban is
an underrated actor.

He's a fantastic actor who
played a great variety of roles

and always a polished,
beautiful performance.

- But as one character returned,

one very important one
was about to leave.

- Leonard Nimoy did not want
to do another "Star Trek" movie.

- He thought it'd be a good time
to retire the character.

- Spock or no Spock,
Harve Bennett and Paramount

continue to develop the script,

even turning to writers
from the original series.

- It was a revolving door,
it seemed to me, of writers.

- Taking bits and pieces
from everyone,

they were far from having one
script they were all happy with.

- The clock was ticking,
I was very concerned.

- Then it was an unexpected
break in casting that would

give the script a new direction.

Nimoy had changed his tune,
telling producers...

- I would love to do it.

- Meaning he'd love
to come back as Spock.

But under one condition.

- Leonard said write me out,
find an exit for Spock.

- That is wise.
- So Harve Bennett

called Leonard a few days later
and said...

- What no fan
would want to hear.

- We're going to kill Spock.

And Nimoy said, okay, great.

(narrator)
Nimoy loved it,

but the creator
of Mr. Spock didn't.

- Spock was supposed
to get killed

ten pages into the script.

- Gene Roddenberry
hears about this

and he feels this is
the end of "Star Trek."

- Gene was incensed at the idea.

- You don't have to kill Spock,

you can just have him
going back to Vulcan.

Unfortunately,
nobody would listen to him.

- He did not have any
responsibility for

the production or for
shaping the material.

- But that wouldn't
stop him from trying.

- Gene would send us memos.

They were, by and large,
disregarded.

- But Gene was not
going to just sit by

and watch them kill off one of
his favorite characters.

- This was personal for Gene.

- So Gene resorted to one
of his oldest tricks.

- He leaked through
Susan Sacket, his assistant,

that Spock was going to get
killed the first ten minutes.

- How do they know this?
Well, they had put sort of

a code on the scripts so they
could track the scripts back.

- But by the time they found out
who did it, it was too late.

And the fans had an uprising.

- And once again...
- Paramount was being flooded

with letters and phone calls...
(phones ringing)

- Threatening
to boycott the movie...

- Unless Spock was not
killed off.

- But some fans took it
much further than that.

And the next thing I know,
on my home telephone

answering machine,
I got a message.

- A message that
cut right to the point.

- "You kill Spock
and we'll kill you."

I've served in the Marine Corps,

and I've served
in the Air Force,

and I've never had
my life in danger.

But I'm producing
a "Star Trek" picture

and my life is being threatened?

- We were kind of
being driven up the wall

by the volume of mail,
by pressure tactics,

by certain people who, as I say,

felt over possessive
about "Star Trek".

So we simply decided on a policy
and the policy is closed set.

- But before they
could close the set,

Robert would have
to find a director.

- What I found out
is a lot of people

didn't want to do "Star Trek",

a lot of people didn't
want to do a sequel,

a lot of directors
didn't want to do sci-fi,

and a lot of directors
weren't available.

- There must be somebody
who wanted the gig.

- So I made up a list,
I must've had

30 or 40 people on my list.

(narrator)
Down a long list of names,

Bob came across this guy.

- I'm Nicholas Meyer
and I write and direct movies.

- But back in 1982,

Nick had only one film
under his belt,

meaning "Star Trek" was...

- Only the second movie
I'd ever made in my life.

- And a complete novice when it
came to the Star Trek universe.

- But we talked and he got it.

Comparing "Star Trek" to...
- "Hornblower" in outer space.

- Words almost out of
Gene Roddenberry mouth.

- So we signed him.
- Cigar and all.

- Harve and I walked out,
and Harve turned to me

and said, I don't know.
I said, what's wrong?

He said, he's going
to be trouble.

- But the trouble is
all Nicolas's for now.

He was faced with five
different scripts.

- So I read them.
- And from five scripts,

Nicholas came out with one idea.

- Why don't we make a list

of all the things we like
in these five scripts?

And then we'll try to cobble
this together and make

a new movie that incorporates
as much of this as possible?

- Which was a great idea
until Nicholas found out

he only had 12 days to write it.

- Ugh.
- They say, well,

the problem is that if we don't
have a draft of a script

in 12 days, ILM...
- That's effects house

Industrial Light and Magic...
- Say they cannot deliver

the special effects shots
in time for the June opening.

- At which point,
Nicholas asked...

- What June opening?
- Never rains, but it pours.

- And they said, you know,
we booked the thing

into 600 theaters or something.

You booked it into the theaters
and there's no movie?

(narrator)
Nonetheless, Nicholas said...

- Well, okay, I think
I can do this in 12 days.

- To which Bob replied...
- There's no argument from me.

(narrator) Paramount finally
had a writer-director

who could work with
their ridiculous schedule.

- Our concern was they're gonna

drag their feet
on this upstairs.

In the administration building.

- Although Nicholas was already
signed on as a director,

he would have to wait until
his writing deal was complete

before starting the script.

- They said, well, we couldn't
even make your deal in 12 days.

And that's when I sort
of made my mistake

and I said, well,
forget about the deal,

forget about the money,
forget about the credit.

- You know,
I was really dumbstruck.

(narrator) Nicholas agreed
to write the movie...

- For free.

- Not just that...
- Um...

- He agreed to do it
without any credit.

- I really wanted
to make this movie.

I was jonesing for
this thing by now.

- And later he told me, he says,
my agent told me I was crazy,

- Crazy or not, the movie was
now on Nicolas' shoulders.

(narrator) With just 12 days to
write the "Star Trek" movie sequel...

- As I worked, it was like
fiddling with a Rubik's Cube.

- It was Mad Libs.
- Taking bits and pieces

from previous drafts.

(Nicholas)
The Genesis project.

- Genesis is life.

- Kirk meets his son.
Lieutenant Saavik.

- I'm aware of my
responsibilities, Mister.

(Nicholas)
The simulator sequence.

- What about my performance?
- I'm not a drama critic.

- But along the way, certain
themes are jumping out at you.

- And Nicholas realized
he was writing a movie about...

- Friendship, old age and death.
- Other people have birthdays,

why are we treating yours
like a funeral?

- Bones, I don't want
to be lectured.

- And this is a cast
that is getting older,

so rather than pretending
that they're not...

- Who am I hiding from?
- Go at it head on

- From yourself, Admiral.

Give him glasses.

♪

(narrator) It sounded like the
answer to everyone's prayers.

- He saved us.
- Called "The Wrath of Khan,"

this "Star Trek" sequel
had everything.

(phone ringing)

(Nicholas)
Got a call from Harve Bennett.

He said, we have a problem.
I said, what's the problem?

And he says that Bill Shatner
hates the script.

And I went, he-- he
hates the script?

And I think, again,
only my second movie,

oh, that's it, we're done,
we're toast.

This is a disaster.

(narrator) There was
only one thing for it,

a meeting with the producers.

- All I remember about
the meeting is that

I had to keep getting up
and going to pee.

I didn't know where to put
either my embarrassment

or my rage.

- While Nicholas' bladder
took the initial hit...

- And I'm sitting there
totally finished.

(narrator)
Drawing on years of experience,

executive producer Harve Bennett
had already diagnosed

the problem.
- Correct.

- With Shatner,
not Nicolas' bladder.

- Harve basically figured out
that Bill wanted to make sure

that he was always the first man
through the door.

- Permission to
come aboard, Captain.

- Welcome, Admiral.

- He was the leading guy.

So I was learning
how to write for a star.

(narrator) And like
every screen actor ever,

Shatner was also worried
about the one number

no more important to
an actor than his fee.

- The original script
specified Kirk's age.

(narrator)
And Shatner felt Captain Kirk

should be ageless, thinking...

- You know, they don't
have to put a number on him.

- But I guess now
we'll never know.

- 49 in the scripts.
- Happy birthday.

(John) That wasn't something
that William Shatner

wanted to do, I think
also for the character,

you don't want to be
pinned down like that.

- Thank you.
- He was understandably

protective of what
he had created,

the character of Kirk.

(narrator) So Nicholas rewrote
with the star's ego in mind.

(Nicholas) I went home and I
think fixed the thing in eight hours,

and just sent it back to him.

(narrator) Shatner's response
came back at warp speed.

- Lights.
- He left a message

on my voice message machine...

(narrator) Which said
something like this...

- "You are a genius",

and something, something,
something.

- And with that, he had
his star's blessing.

- And I used to play it back
to him every now and again

when I was, you know,
having issues.

And I was like, hey, Bill,
just take a listen.

"You are a genius" and
something something something.

- Now, with the script settled,
Nicholas was free to pursue his

vision of an action adventure,
taking inspiration from

military dramas such as...

- The movie called
"The Enemy Below".

- Because for high drama
on a low budget,

nothing beats a claustrophobic
contest of wills.

- And so I went all out to
make it more like a submarine,

more like destroyers,
those things

are not built for comfort.

- That meant making
everything...

- Smaller, claustrophobic.

- No minor detail was spared.

(Nicholas) Why aren't
there blinking lights?

Let's just put
a lot of those in.

- But more than just lights,
Nicholas wanted to add...

- Blood.
- And he got it.

- Otherwise it was like
a cartoon or something.

(narrator) Meanwhile,
"Star Trek's" creator

had no problem
with blood on uniforms.

He was more concerned
with the uniforms.

- Gene Roddenberry,
I remember getting a memo,

didn't like them, he thought
they were way too militaristic.

- But having been relegated
to a small office...

- That was just the way
it was going to be.

- Because Nicholas Meyer
had drawn inspiration

from another classic film.

- "The Prisoner of Zenda"
has the high collars

and the wide flaps.

- Which not only framed
the face beautifully

It gives a color contrast.
- But it was going to take

more than fancy uniforms to make

a splash at the box office.
- How?

- They would need state of
the art special effects

from the legendary
wizards at ILM,

while obeying Paramount's
prime directive.

- Here's your budget, doesn't
change work, within that.

- A budget that was a lot less
than the other films of the era.

But director Nicholas Meyer
was undaunted.

- Art thrives on restrictions.

And also, I had a lot of
help from Robert Sallin...

- Who oversaw much of ILM's work
for the young director.

- He watched my back.
- And kept the designs

under budget with
a few clever tricks.

- The design of the Regula 1...
- Where the scientists were

working on the Genesis Project
was actually

the Orbital Office Complex.

- It was leftover from
the first film

and I just said,
turn it upside down.

And that's what they did.
- And it didn't cost a cent.

- If I could save a buck on
the models, I was gonna do it.

- But when it came
to the USS Reliant

a cheap hack wouldn't do--
- We did the same thing.

Yeah, I just flipped
the Enterprise upside down.

And so instead of having

the nacelles up here,
the nacelles are down here.

- Yep, totally different.
- Yep.

- So with
the upside down ships...

- I said, how does that look?
- Cobbled together script,

maroon uniforms,
and a green director,

they began rolling on production
on November 9th, 1981.

(man)
Rolling.

(Robert)
We started production...

(narrator)
But just three days in,

Robert sounded
the distress signal.

(Robert) At the end of
the first three days

Nick was a week behind.

So Robert did what
anyone would do.

- I panicked, pure and simple.

I didn't know where
this was going to go,

and I didn't know what to do.

- Robert soon found himself
producing a movie

whose director he couldn't
get through to.

- Nick didn't know me,
and I think he was protective

and hesitant and afraid
that I would somehow

impinge on his world
or something.

And Nick was resistant.

I couldn't put
my arm around Nick

and say, Nick, listen to me,
you're in trouble.

Now, I want to help you,
let me see if I can do that.

His attitude was always
keeping me at a distance.

- I was very busy.
- (narrator) It was like

there was a forcefield
around Nick.

So Robert made a call he thought
was the only way to save

the second "Star Trek" movie.

- I went to management.

And I said, here's
what's going on.

This could be a big problem

(narrator) With his
inexperienced director

falling behind...
- I went to management.

- And delivered a scathing
report to Paramount's top brass.

- Thinking you should
replace him.

- But Paramount
chief operating officer

Michael Eisner saw things
differently.

- He said, no,
we're not going to do that.

- Eisner was concerned about
Paramount's reputation.

- And he said because nobody
will want to work at Paramount.

I said, fair enough.

- So stuck with his
young director for now,

Robert put the pressure on.

- We were able to get
the message across to Nick,

and he was receptive.

- But being behind, he'd have
to find ways to make up time.

- I had to fly down quickly
to get on set immediately.

- On such a highly
technical shoot,

Ken's experience
would come in handy.

- I come down, I have probably
my little bit of crew, we go in.

- And waited for the young
director to get to his

special effects shots...

(crickets chirping)

And then waited some more.

- They never got to the shot.

- I'll say this for him,
he's consistent.

- The ILM effect wizards
were just sitting around

conjuring up no light nor magic.

- So I had to constantly
help him back

into the visual effects scenes.

- Beginning with storyboarding
many of the film's

special effects sequences

with the help of
art director Mike Minor.

- So I remember clearly
saying to Mike,

you know, that battle...
- "That battle" would be

the epic final showdown
between the Enterprise...

- There she is!
- And Khan's stolen Reliant.

- We can't whip
these things around

like World War I fighter planes.

You know, they're lumbering,
slow moving things.

And I said we need to have
some way to enhance the tension.

(narrator) And the clever
solution proved to be

right in front of their noses.

- How about if we hid them
in a nebula?

- The gaseous clouds proved
to be the perfect setting

for a spatial chess match.

- My logical conclusion was
to do it in a cloud tank.

- Of course, a cloud tank--
Sorry, what's a cloud tank?

- The cloud tank is basically
a large metal container

with glass panels on each side,
and it's filled with warm water

up to about three quarters
of the way up.

Then, insanely, you would lay
a piece of plastic on it

very gently.
- But they were not done yet.

- Then you would gently
pour in cold water

and you would create
an inversion layer.

- Meaning once the clear wrap
was removed,

the two layers would mix,

with lights used
to add cosmic colors.

- And it starts to give almost
a look of thunderheads

or clouds are spreading out,
and there's a nice,

fake sense of a scale
to it when you do that.

- Some of Robert's money saving
ideas for effects were so cheap

they were literally
the garden variety.

- The original script called for
a creature to attach itself

to the back of Chekov's neck.

- But Bob felt they could
do a little better.

- I was going out
to get my newspaper,

I saw a slug.

And I hate those things.
But anyway, I said, hey,

is it feasible that
a little slimy thing like that

could enter the human ear

and lodge itself maybe in
the cerebral cortex?

(narrator)
The answer was yes.

- God's sakes.
- Which was money in the bank for Robert.

- I said, great!
That's when I got so excited.

So I went up to ILM, and I told
Ken Ralston about it.

- And Ken got to work
crafting Bob's space slug.

- I took a piece of polyfoam,
cut these little--

Little segments in
this thing very delicately,

left a small little thing
in the middle,

so it was flexible,
stuck on their face

and they had
a monofilament line,

and I would just pull.

It would actually do this.
It could be that simple.

- While the slug had
no trouble burrowing

into Chekov and Terrell's heads,

director Nicholas Meyer,
was having a hard time

getting through to Shatner.

- There is a moment in the movie

where he's supposed to give
Khan some information.

- Give me some time to recall
the data on our computers.

- I give you 60 seconds,
Admiral.

(Nicholas) And Kirk has
the line "here it comes."

And the first time Bill says it,

he goes, here it comes...

(crickets chirping)

And I say, Bill,
this guy is supersmart.

- Time is a luxury
you don't have, Admiral.

- If you say that with this,
like, sarcasm dripping off

the lens, just don't
give away the,

you know, what you got
up your sleeve.

(narrator) His star
wouldn't take the note.

- It was still laden.
- But like Captain Kirk himself,

Nick had something up
his sleeve.

- I just kept doing it.
- Time's up.

- That was no good for sound.

- Time's up.
- I'm sorry, we were soft focus.

- Time's up.
- And he got bored.

And look at the end result.

- Here it comes.

Now, Mr. Spock.

- When he became bored
and less aware

of how he was presenting,
he got really good.

- But subtlety went out
the window the day

Ricardo Montalban
arrived on the set.

- We came on, we were doing
the cargo bay sequence,

which introduces Khan.

- And Nick got to thinking about
how he could get his lead star

to really explore the space.

- Wouldn't there be a way to let
him do the whole thing in one go

so he could work up
his own head of steam?

- So Nicolas called action
and gave his star

all the time in the world.

- About nine minutes
without a break.

- He was letter perfect.

- This is Ceti Alpha V!

- I was awestruck.

- I gave him these
23 marks to hit.

He hit every one of them.

- They didn't do a second take,
they didn't have to.

But from then on, Bill and
Leonard's performances elevated.

(laughs)
It was just, just enough.

I don't think anyone else
noticed it,

but I did and it made me smile.

(narrator) But not all egos
could be managed.

Off set,
there were problems too,

where a brooding
Gene Roddenberry

saw his vision of "Star Trek"
being forgotten.

- So he was always pushing back
against things that he felt

weren't true to "Star Trek"

and true to the characters
that he had created.

(David) Harve was
extremely polite to Gene,

and Gene was extremely polite
to Harve Bennett.

(narrator)
At least publicly.

- Gene didn't have
any kind things to say

about Harve Bennett in private.

- He continued to sound off.

(narrator)
Harve was careful not to upset

Gene or his legions
of followers.

- If the two of them
had been any more polite,

there would have been
blood on the floor.

- But Gene's meddling
had already created a monster

Harve Bennett couldn't
possibly control.

The leak about Spock's fate
had fans in open revolt.

- The Spock death rumors
were out there,

and they were gonna
boycott the movie

and boycott the merchandise
and were professional marketers

who had done a professional
marketing campaign

and were spewing statistics
and numbers and dollar amounts.

(narrator) And the clamor
was spilling onto the set.

- I was shocked that
I was holding in my hand

a copy of something
that was going to be

hugely disappointing
to the massive fan base.

(Nicholas) People said,
oh, you can't kill Spock.

And I said, yeah,
you can kill him.

The only question is whether
you kill him well.

(narrator)
With fans threatening a boycott

over rumors of Spock's demise,

Paramount was in an
impossible situation.

- The bottom line was
he wanted out.

They only got him in the movie

promising him a big death scene.

- "Star Trek" was caught
in a conundrum entirely of

its creators own making.

- The only question is
whether you kill him well.

(explosion)

(narrator)
Without element of surprise,

some ingenious sleight of hand
was required.

- You have this scene
where it turns out

the Kobayashi Maru
is a simulation.

- Captain?

- Put that at the beginning,
let the audience see

that Spock dies, oh, that's
what this was all about.

Then you can catch 'em
by surprise

at the end of the picture.

- Aren't you dead?

- It's all just kind of
a setup to to throw us.

(narrator) When it came to
euthanizing his own character,

Leonard Nimoy
was suddenly uneasy.

- That was a major, major,

difficult moment for me,
very difficult.

- I think he was having sort of
jittery feelings

about do I really want to
end this after all?

- This was a big moment,
big enough so that the minute

they do it, Leonard Nimoy starts
having second thoughts.

- And I began to be concerned

that maybe I'd made a mistake.

- Then he was feeling
very sort of

jittery and testy
and nervous about it.

(narrator) But Nimoy had
no qualms about the manner

of Spock's demise.

- Maybe it's fitting that Spock
should die saving the ship

and the crew and be a hero
and go out in a blaze of glory.

(narrator)
This was potentially

the most important
"Star Trek" scene ever.

And everyone knew it--
Well, almost everyone.

- I didn't really understand the
significance to so many people

of what was going on
while we were shooting

until I turn around to see
my cinematographer is crying.

The first AD is crying.

- Don't grieve, Admiral.

- The prop guy is crying.

- The needs of
the many outweigh...

- The needs of the few.

- Or the one.

- And I was just making
the movie.

- Spock...

- Bill and Leonard really
just nailed that.

I mean, there was
sobbing on the set.

I mean, they really got into it.

- I was always very touched by
what happened in that sequence

and it really worked
in the film.

I have people still today who
write me and say every time

I still see that picture
for the fifth,

tenth time, I still cry.

- It was
the perfect end for Spock,

performed to perfection,
except...

- We shot the scene with no film
with no film in the camera.

(laughter)
- You're kidding?

- First time it
ever happened to me

in thousands and thousands
of scenes.

- This is a story about Kirk
coming to terms with himself.

Kirk begins by saying...

- I don't believe in
a no-win scenario.

- Until he's confronted by it.

- It's a story about a man
who ultimately realizes

his fallibility and perhaps
accepts his humanity.

- Death is the no-win scenario.

(narrator) But Paramount
did not accept that.

The studio and producers
had an idea,

a highly controversial one.

- And I, and Harve too,
were very strong

about the fact that we needed
to plant in the audience's minds

the "maybe idea".

- Harve came to me
on the set and he said,

what can you give us
that might be a thread

for the future for Spock
or "Star Trek"?

- Just in case.
- And it took me a moment,

I said I can do a mind meld
on DeForest Kelley,

who's laying there unconscious.

I'm sorry, Doctor, I have no
time to discuss this logically.

And I can say something
ambiguous, like...

Remember.
- They said, okay, do that.

I went, this guy,
this is a producer.

(narrator) This touch of Vulcan logic
from the producers made Spock proud.

But for the director,
they had lost the human emotion.

- Oh, I hated it.

- Nick was adamant.

- I fought it tooth and nail.

We twist these people's
feelings into knots

and then we say,
"oh, just kidding"?

(narrator) Nonetheless, the
door was left open for Spock.

- And they decided they need
a button on the end of the movie

showing the casket
wherever it lands.

- One way or another
Spock would live on.

But not everyone
was happy about it.

- They killed Spock,
they should have left him dead

as hard as that is.

Part of the reason why that
film works is because of

the emotional impact
of Spock's death.

And then at the very end,
they give you the shot of

the coffin that kind
of winks at you

and says actually,
he's going to be back.

And it kind of takes
some of that away.

That said, it's a small quibble

in what is really the best of
the "Star Trek" films.

- Bye, everybody, thank you.

- Paramount couldn't
have been happier,

and when shooting wrapped
on January 29th, 1982,

Bob, Harve, and Nick
delivered a film on schedule.

- And we came in on budget.

- While Nicholas never got his
say on Spock's immortality,

he had at least pulled off
his own little mind meld--

Winning back the faith
of his producer.

- It was a hard thing
to pull off,

(narrator)
"Star Trek", The "Wrath of Khan"

premiered in 1982.

- This was the best "Star Trek"
that I've ever seen before.

(narrator) The death of Spock had
breathed new life into the franchise.

$95 million worth.

- I loved it.
- It was awesome.

I hated part of the ending,
but I understand

that will be remedied
in the next one, right?

- "Star Trek III"
is a possibility.

I think it's
a distinct possibility.

- When we did "Star Trek II",

up until the very final parts,
it was a standalone film.

- Standalone or not, Paramount
now had 95 million reasons

to bring Spock back.
- I am looking forward

to discussing as
soon as possible

the next "Star Trek"
motion picture

and my involvement with it.

- The movie was such a huge hit

that they came back to Nimoy
and said, what would it take

to get you to come back
and do another one?

- And I said, I would like
to direct it.

To my surprise, they didn't
throw me out of the office.

- For a would-be
first time director,

Nimoy had a Vulcan's
cool confidence.

- When we made "Star Trek II",
Nicholas Meyer was directing

and I thought,
I can do what he does.

(narrator) It seemed like
a match made in heaven,

but this was a director arriving
with serious baggage.

- Certain people might have
been a little worried

about Leonard's directing.

- Everybody was like, okay...

(narrator)
Studio head Michael Eisner

wanted Spock in front of
the camera, not behind it.

- He said, I can't have you
direct this movie.

I said, why, Michael?

He said, you hate "Star Trek".

You insisted on the Spock
character being killed

in "Star Trek II,"

you had it in your contract
that Spock had to die.

I can't have your directing
a "Star Trek" movie.

I said, Michael,
this is really crazy.

I don't hate "Star Trek".
That was not in my contract.

And I said the contract
is in a file in the building

that you're in, somebody's
given you bad information.

Take a look at it
and see if you can find

anything like that
in the contract.

It's not there, it's not true.

(narrator)
Whatever was in that contract,

Eisner came back offering Nimoy
a new one as a director.

- And he said, okay,
let's make a deal,

and we immediately made a deal
and went to work.

- With Spock returning
in some form,

Paramount had gained
one Vulcan only to lose another.

After an unhappy experience
on the "Wrath of Khan"...

She didn't seem to be very
comfortable about it.

Kirstie Alley would
not be returning.

- One day, she came
to my dressing room

and she was in absolute tears.

All of a sudden she said to me,
you know what,

if this is what
Hollywood is like,

I don't think I want anything
to do with it.

I think I'm done.

- When invited to reprise
her role as Lieutenant Saavick,

the actresses eyewatering
asking price

sent a clear message
to Paramount.

- This was always an actor's
elegant way of saying

thanks, but no thanks.

- So with Kirstie Alley
stepping aside,

Robin was introduced to Saavick.

- And I was tickled pink,
you know,

to come in
and take over the role.

- Robin relaxed into
the character,

safe in the knowledge
that her director

was the world authority
on all things Vulcan.

- What more expert hands
to be in than Leonard Nimoy

to be directed to play a Vulcan?

He said Vulcans have 1,000 years
of wisdom behind the eyes.

How many have paid the price
for your impatience?

He had this lovely way of gently
kind of guiding me, you know,

to whatever moment it was
that Saavick was having.

- But even a thousand years
of wisdom wouldn't help

Robin work out how to
negotiate Vulcan romance.

- God, I remember the day
Stephen Manley and I

were all... all aflutter
wondering, okay,

what is Vulcan foreplay
going to be?

- Stephen Manley portrayed
a hormone-addled teenage Spock.

(Robin) Because the scene on
the page definitely read that Spock

and Saavick are about to
have this important moment.

- This was the ritual mating
of the Vulcan.

- Pon farr.

Oh, my God, what is this
going to be, you know?

What parts of our bodies are
going to be interacting?

- Luckily for them,
the director was quite familiar

with Vulcan biology.

- And Leonard Nimoy took us
very gently aside,

a very quiet part
of the sound stage

and he took our hands and
he formed them like this.

And he said, you're
just going to gently...

stroke each other like this.

(narrator)
Although it was a bit demure,

it showed just enough to
preserve a little...

- Vulcan mystique.

- My lord, the ship
appears to be deserted.

- How can that be?
- (narrator) The Klingons

may not have been known
for their mystique...

- Oh yeah!

- But with "Taxi's"
Christopher Lloyd

having swapped his furrowed brow
for a Klingon forehead,

they had some star power
in their ranks.

- Five...
- Get out!

- Four...
- Get out of there!

(narrator)
Lloyd's role as Commander Kruge

would see him have a hand
in one of "Star Trek's"

most momentous tragedies.

- We thought, well, let's create

a great death scene
like a great actor would do.

- Perhaps even more traumatic
than the death of Spock,

especially for Gene,

was the demise of
the Enterprise itself.

- He said that's a character.

Audiences love the Enterprise,

that's their home
away from home.

- That's the premise, you know?
It's not me and my friends,

it's these are the voyages of
the Starship Enterprise.

- And you're gonna blow it up?

- But if the ship was
going to go down,

it was going to go down
in a blaze of glory,

thanks to some ILM magic.

- When we got to
the final blow up,

at the last second, I remember,
hey, give me some talcum powder

and I just sprinkled it
on top of the ship.

So when it goes off-- you can
see it in the movie, too--

This interesting sort
of fine stuff comes up...

(explosion)

Which added to the scale of it.

- And made the whole thing
really, really fun to blow up.

- I personally am very hurt

by the destruction
of the Enterprise.

I feel that more deeply than
I did the death of Spock.

- And he wasn't the only one.

- The movie was coming out,
I made a point of saying, well,

I finally got to blow up
that Enterprise ship,

it's such a pain to shoot.

And I got like, death rates.

(narrator)
Welcome to the club.

- It's like, whoa, okay,
no more jokes.

- Whatever fans thought of this,

they loved the film.

"Star Trek: The Search
for Spock" raked in

in a cool $87 million,

essentially guaranteeing
another outing.

- I think this is really
the best "Star Trek" yet.

Leonard Nimoy has turned in,
I think, a magnificent job.

- That point in time felt
like the original cast

was still gonna keep
doing some features.

- Even if Kirk and crew
would need a new ride.

- Jeff Katzenberg
tells Leonard Nimoy,

we want you to make
"Star Trek IV".

(narrator)
Leonard quickly accepted.

But "Star Trek IV"
needed a script,

and Leonard got a story pitch
from an unlikely source.

- Jeffrey Katzenberg calls up
Leonard Nimoy and tells him

I either have what is
the greatest idea of all time

or the worst idea of all time.

- Which was enough to make
Leonard's ears perk up.

- And that idea is Eddie Murphy
has been mentioning how much

of a "Star Trek" fan he is.

- Yeah, I'm a Trekkie.

- Get outta here, I'm a Trekkie.

(narrator)
So a script for "Star Trek IV"

was commissioned featuring
none other than

the biggest star
on the Paramount lot.

- Eddie Murphy was going to
play an English professor

who was a little bit different.

(narrator)
A nutty English professor

who had a thing for
UFOs and whale songs.

- The crew of the Enterprise
searching for whales.

- But unfortunately...
- It just didn't work.

It was too convoluted.

How do you balance out the
comedy with the science fiction?

- But one idea that survived was
the whales, because in 1986,

whales were big.
- About 45 to 50 feet long.

- Bigger than usual.
- Now they need a script.

- And Harve Bennett
agreed to write it,

but he needed help from
an old friend.

(Nicholas) I got an emergency
call saying, help, help.

We had this script,
we threw it out.

We want to start over.
I said, what's the story?

And I remember Leonard's
first words.

He said "something nice".

(narrator)
"Star Trek VI" was still just

a twinkle in director
Leonard Nimoy's eye

but Paramount needed
more than that.

They needed a story
and someone to write it.

- They need it fast.
- Which is nothing new

for this experienced crew.

- Harve Bennett decides
he can write it.

- But he's not going
to do it alone.

He asked for help
from a familiar face.

- And Harve said, I'll write
the outer space parts

and you write the Earth parts.

(narrator)
Producer Harve Bennett and Nimoy

had already devised a story with

all the classic
"Star Trek" ingredients.

Klingons, time travel,

and large water-dwelling
mammals.

- Specifically humpback whales.

- Which are extinct in
the future, yet very necessary.

To ward off an alien probe.

- You're proposing
that we go backwards

in time to find humpback whales,
then bring them forward in time,

drop them off and hope to hell
they tell this probe

what to go do with itself.

- That's the general idea.
- Well, that's crazy.

- You got a better idea?
Now's the time.

- I thought the story
was a little out there.

Like, save the whales? Okay.

(narrator)
But in an early draft,

Spock had much bigger problems
than a whale.

- We would have learned
that Saavick was pregnant

with Spock's child.

(narrator) Which was the offspring
of this encounter with teenage Spock,

arguably modern cinema's
most romantic high-five.

But ultimately,
there was only room

for one Vulcan on this trip
back in time.

- Judging by the pollution
content of the atmosphere,

I believe we have arrived at the
latter half of the 20th century.

- Everybody remember
where we parked.

- And even though
this movie was about whales...

- It was always intended
to be, you know,

a fish out of water story.

- I'm from Iowa,
I only work in outer space.

(Catherine Hicks)
It's ecological, it's relevant.

If you do a "Star Trek" film,

that's the one to do if
you're not into sci-fi.

- It didn't take long
for newcomer Catherine Hicks

to realize she'd have to fight
not only for her whales,

but also for her space in
this crowded film.

- Your friend was messing up my
tanks and messing up my whales.

- They like you very much,

but they are not the hell
"your whales."

- Bill Shatner,
I love him, I swear to God.

But, you know, it's like he
is an annoying brother.

- Like annoying brothers,

he had a habit of
getting in the way.

- He wanted to be in my shot.
I want to single.

I go to Leonard and say
get him out of my shot, Leonard.

- Yeah, speak up.
- She was demanding.

She wanted to know
what's going on now.

As she should.
- (narrator) Once again,

it was the special effects from
ILM that took center stage.

- Got a call both from Leonard
and Harve Bennett begging me

to take the show over.

- After early effects
fell short of the mark.

- It was a 911 call.
- So Ken and his team were

brought in to save the day,
but they had to do it...

- As cheaply as possible.

- Starfleet command,
we're tracking

a probe of unknown origin.

- Ken's first task, fix
the design of the alien probe.

- All I saw was
a big water heater.

- With no time or money
to burn, Ken thought...

- I can't design another ship.

What am I going to do
to hide this thing?

- The solution had two parts.
One...

I painted it glossy black.
- Ahh, much better. And two?

- Lit it in ways where
it kind of came and went.

- Reminiscent of the monolith
in Kubrick's "2001".

- I hoped.
(laughs)

No offense to whoever
designed it.

- But there would be
no hiding the whales.

- I remember there was
a guy named Walt Conti

who had designed these whales.

He was able to
remote control them,

and they swam so properly,

I think "National Geographic"
actually called to find out

how we had photographed
real whales like that.

- But there was one scene
that couldn't be done

even with the best animatronics.

(Jay)
It was a sequence that involved

going inside of Kirk's thoughts.

There were these blobby,
liquid-y shapes.

- It turns into this surreal

Ingmar Bergman
something or other.

- And it was even more confusing
than Swedish art house cinema.

- I was trying to do something
artistic and interesting,

but what resulted was more...
- Artsy fartsy.

Oh, I hated that sequence.

- Whatever it was, this unlikely
comedic opera of whale song

and environmental messages
brought a whole new audience

to "Star Trek", raking in
$133 million worldwide.

- "Star Trek IV" is really
a crossover movie.

A lot of fans who are starting
to show their new girlfriend

or boyfriend "Star Trek",
you start with "Star Trek IV".

- It's the least "Star Trek-y"
of all the "Star Trek" movies.

- You're very perceptive.
And that's just good writing.

That's good writing
and good storytelling

on Harve Bennett's
and Nick Meyer's part.

- Thanks in part to the whales,
Nimoy went on to have

a whale of a time
directing hit comedies.

- And that run of II, III,
and IV worked so well

creatively and commercially,

it's almost like
a foregone conclusion

that this is now a franchise.

- Ironically, "Star Trek's"
greatest silver screen triumph

would lead the franchise back

to its humble origins
in television.

- 1986, "Voyage Home"
is a huge hit

and the local station's saying,

guys, can you please
do something?

We've had these same damn
little 80 one-hour episodes

we've been showing
for 15 years now.

But if you would just make
some more "Star Trek" for us

on TV, we'd all make more money.

- And it's within several months
of the film's success

that they announce,
really announced that

"Next Generation" is going
to be a reality.