All language subtitles for The Center Seat 55 Years of Star Trek S01E03 Trekking through the 70s - Phase II and The Motion Picture 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD+5 1 H 264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

The Star Trek
USS Enterprise gift set with command chair, console,

three tele-screen cards
and fiveStar Trek action figures.

Years after
its cancelation, the only new Star Trek characters on TV

were about six inches tall
and made of plastic.

Star Trek
action figures also sold separately.

With no new series,
Gene Roddenberry could only watch

as other people
got rich off his idea.

They sold $12 million
worth of toys the first year

on a toy line of
a television show that was off the air for half a decade.

Desperate, Gene went
cap in hand to Paramount

looking for
a piece of the action.

But instead...

They said, "for $150,000

"why don't you
just buy everything"?

A good deal
for a franchise that's now worth $4 billion dollars.

He could have been
the George Lucas of Star Trek,

but right at that time,
he couldn't come up with the cash.

But don't worry,
help is on the way.

Somebody's got to write
the goddamn script.

Sort of.

So beam aboard
and hold on tight

as we boldly go
into the depths ofStar Trek.

And you can see it all
from here

inThe Center Seat.

Unable to come up
with that cash,

Gene looked
to create another cash-cow

in the form of sci-fi pilots.

Pumping them out,
one after the other

phasers setto stun
and jumpsuits set to kill.

That thing's from your century?

Yeah, we call them automobiles.

But no matter
how fetching the jumpsuits,

nothing fit
quite like Star Trek.

Re-runs are doing gang-busters.

And when there's
an occasion,

they kept running it,
and kept running it and kept running it,

so we watched
that show all the time

because it was on.

I grew up watching
the original series

and, you know,
re-runs whenever it was on.

Come home from school,
you watch Star Trek.

It was a perfect
sales demographic,

It was a show that
appealed to 18 to 49, and they just ate it up.

The networks
were crying out for new Star Trek,

but the show had already
been consigned to history.

Because they
had destroyed the sets

they had given away
the Enterprise to the Smithsonian Institute.

But Paramount
could no longer ignore

the show's growing
legion of fans.

It's everywhere.
Fan fiction books.

It's just selling.
The merchandising is selling.

So they finally said, "Okay,
let's do a Star Trek movie."

Well, that was easy.

The idea that a dead TV series
would come back as a movie,

because the fandom demanded it.
That was revolutionary.

But for Gene,
it was an opportunity or even an answered prayer.

So he wrote
a feature film script entitledThe God Thing.

In which Kirk fights Jesus
on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Which involved
the crew of the Enterprise,

in essence, meeting
what is perceived to be a God but not the God.

But this wasn't
to be God's chosen script,

because in 1974,
The God Thing wasn't a thing.

Barry Diller, who was
running Paramount, was Catholic,

and this script dealt
with religion, and so he was bothered by it.

But Gene wasn't
the only one to pull up a pew,

and another script
had caught Paramount's eye.

Called, Star Trek,
Planet of the Titans.

A planet that the Klingons,
the Federation

and a new alien race
that was being introduced were trying to develop.

Several versions
of the script were written.

And Gene
didn't like any of them.

He just keeps having
to tell them that everything they wrote is not Star Trek.

They got...
The characters aren't right.

The Federation's not right.

The Starship's not right.

Have you seen
any of the episodes, guys?

There were about a dozen scripts

that were written,
that were never produced.

After two years
of false starts aiming for the silver screen,

Paramount gave up,
deciding it was now time to return to the small screen.

Paramount decided,
Let's do what we know how to do.

Uh, make movies?

Let Gene make another
TV series on Star Trek.

So, no movies, then?

Which isn't as odd as it sounds

because Paramount did have
big plans to make content for the small screen.

By the time
you get to 1977,

the only networks that existed
in the United States,

were CBS
NBC and ABC.

Paramount decides
it wants to try its hand at a fourth network.

Now, you know,
a decade before Fox,

here's Paramount trying
to add to the big three.

Star Trek was going to be
the flagship of that network.

They realized what
their strength is and they're gonna lead with that.

They thought they needed
TV people to make a TV show

and that's why
this man entered the fray.

I am Harold Livingston.

Harold was hired
to produce Paramount's new Star Trek TV show,

called,"Phase Two."

All I know is, Roddenberry
called me in one day.

They offered me this job.

Harold had just
one sci-fi credit, but it was a doozy.

I was the story editor
on a show called Future Cop.

But now
he'd be the writer

for this perfectly-named
secondStar Trek series, "Phase Two."

We were going to do
13 one-hour episodes.

There was just one,
rather pointy problem.

Spock was not going
to be in Phase Two.

That, sir, is illogical.

It was all
to do with differences

regarding
a chocolate breakfast cereal.

Missed a spot.

My search for something
super chocolaty has led me here.

They let Pebbles Cereal,
have Fred and Barney

wearing pointed ears
and making quasi-Vulcan jokes.

Fascinating.

There had been legal disputes
involving royalties from the series

involving the use
of the actors faces in merchandising.

Nimoy refused
to sign on until the dispute

over licensing
his image was resolved.

Ironically, the script
he passed on was called

In Thy Image.

Everyone else is,
"Yes, sign me up."

And although
the screenplay writing duties fell to Harold...

The idea of the story
came from Alan Dean Foster.

Alan Dean Foster
has been published in science fiction magazines

and he's written
science fiction books.

He also wrote in
the novelization books

based on
the animated Star Trek series.

Fascinating.

Well, hopefully, Harold
would make it so, as he began working on the script.

I went home
and locked the doors

and wrote this script.

And what a script.

There's
a supreme intelligence

on its way to Earth
to meet its creator.

The Enterpriseis sent
to intercept it.

But then,
another supreme intelligence intercepted Harold's script.

Roddenberry,
he said, "All right,

"you've done your job,
now I'll do mine."

And Gene Roddenberry
rewrote Harold's script.

It was about 40 pages longer
and very poor, just dreadful.

Possibly because Gene
had replaced his beloved Spock with an inferior facsimile.

The character of Xon
was a full Vulcan.

but wanted to be
on a mostly human ship.

because he wanted to explore
the human element more.

The man lined up
to replace Spock wasn't from Vulcan.

He was the man
from Atlantis,

Oh, not "the man"
from Atlantis, a different one.

My list of credits
other than the theater plays that I'd done

was the man fromAtlantis.

Oh, truly,
I haven't the heart.

It was just
a humble guest spot, but it led to this.

Will Decker.

How do you do, sir.

With so
little experience,

David was brought in for
a full make-up screen test.

to see if he had the chops...

Lieutenant, you are
erasing those tapes.

. ..and the ears
for the role.

Sir, if I am
to function efficiently as science officer,

I must become
intimately familiar with each circuit in this system.

Carry on.

Thank you, sir.
I will.

But just as
the new kid was about to be cast,

a new kid on the block
arrived for sci-fi,

and he had people
queuing around the block for his movie.

Mr. Roddenberry told me
that he was very wistful,

one day in 1977,

when he drove by the theater

and saw the long line
around the block forStar Wars,

wishing that, say,
it could have been for a Star Trek film.

Even if Paramount
was having second thoughts

about doing TV
instead of a movie,

it was too late
to change course.

When Star Warsbecame a hit,

they didn't want to do a movie
because they said, "Now it's been done.

"Who needs another?"

It's a one-time thing.

Well,
then a TV series it is.

Well, that's the real trick,
isn't it?

Actually, yes,

because Paramount's plan
to turn on a fourth network

was about to be turned off.

Because no one wanted

to really commit the dollars
for a fourth network.

The TV network
was faltering,

and if Paramount thought
George Lucas was a one-trick-pony...

They didn't think there'd be
sequels to Star Wars.

They didn't think
there would be Close Encounters.

I want to speak
to someone in charge.

...along came a film
whose dazzling lights

proved just
how hypnotic science fiction at the movies could be.

There was no denying it.

The big money in sci-fi
was moving into the big screen.

After seeing
Close Encounter's success, Paramount executives

called David Gautreaux
to their offices for a close encounter

of their own kind.

I'm brought right up
to Gene Roddenberry's office.

Now I'm in a big room,
lovely office and there's a lot of men in this room.

Including
Paramount's top brass.

There was Jeffrey Katzenberg

and Michael Eisner

and there's Gene,
and he's got a drink in his hand,

and he's offering me,
"What would you like, David?"

And I go,
"I happen to like bourbon."

"Pour David a bourbon."
So Gene is really the master of ceremonies for this.

And so it was two things
going on at the same time.

"David, congratulations.
You are our Xon.

"Hurrah!" A big toast.
I'm so happy, I'm standing there.

Now we have another announcement
we want to make with all of you here.

"We're going to be
a motion picture."

So not a TV show.
A movie, again.

Huzzah!

And so now,
All they had to do was repurpose Harold's pilot...

that had been repurposed
by Gene, for the big screen.

So we all go and we read it
and he's sitting there.

He had a desk
that was about two feet higher.

So he looked down on you
like Mussolini,

he had this grinner's
face expectantly.

"What do you think?"

So I said, "Gene, it's..."

And the grin fades.

We had a few words
and he got a little angry.

"Well, we'll let
the studio decide."

That gave
studio head Michael Eisner, the deciding vote

between Gene's rewrite
or Harold's original pilot.

He said, "This is
a good script, Gene,

"but it's a television script."

He says, "Harold's is a movie."

I thought Gene
was going to faint.

By the mid 1970's,
it seemed Star Trek the TV series

was suffering
an identity crisis.

What was always meant
to be a TV series became...

The movie that was a movie,
but then it was a TV show,

But then was a movie again.

Nearly everyone
had lost track of the Trek until...

The decision is made to take
In Thy Image

and turn it into
a motion picture.

The pilot that
we were commissioned to do

is being morphed into
a major motion picture.

And in more ways
than one,

Paramount was shooting
for the stars.

They were aspiring
to do 2001.

Open the pod bay doors,
please, HAL.

George Lucas had shown
sci-fi could pull a crowd.

But Paramount
didn't think movies were the way to keep them.

People think Paramount said,

"Oh, we've got to have
a movie like Star Wars."

And it's going to
cost you something extra.

The reality was,
Star Wars had very little to do with it.

Science fiction was not

by any stretch
of the imagination, a guaranteed thing

just because Star Wars
had been successful.

The concept of
a sustained, profitable,

growing science fiction
franchise had never really existed before.

So Paramount
planned to make one and one movie only.

With big money, big box office,
no reason to ever make a second one,

the fans will never come out
to watch a second Star Trekmovie.

And then we'll launch
our network, and then doing the series

off of the strength
of the movie.

But no matter how much,
Paramount said,

"May the fourth network
be with you,"

it never would be.

But in any case...

You still have
a lot of money that has been invested.

The studio's
Star Trek project resembled a real-life space program

and felt almost as costly
with sets, props and even a brand new spaceship.

An entire overhaul and update
of the Enterpriseitself.

They had a new ship
for a new production.

But who would captain
this risky mission?

Robert Wise.

Paramount thought
veteran director Robert Wise would be a safe pair of hands.

Robert Wise was the first
and only director

on the list considered.

Wise, couldn't make
a flop if he tried

not after
this song and dance.

West Side Story.

This is the guy
who made Sound of Music.

And he knew sci-fi
from way back

when it was lasers,
not phasers.

He had done
a classic science fiction movie

called The Day
the Earth Stood Still.

Which is still regarded
as one of the greatest

science fiction movies
ever made.

The pieces were falling
into place for Paramount,

but there was still something
or someone missing.

Mr. Nimoy was still not
involved in the project.

Robert Wise,
he agreed to do the film.

His wife was a Trekker
and her son was a Trekker.

and they told him,
"It's crazy to do it without Spock,

"it would be like doing it
without Kirk."

And so Wise went
to Paramount and said,

exactly what they had told him

and said,
"There's got to be a way that we can get him."

Scheduling conflicts
and a bigger conflict

over licensing and royalties
had taken it down to the wire.

Days before the press conference

to announce Star Trek:
The Motion Picture,

all of those issues
were quickly resolved

and Leonard Nimoy
came on board.

Science officer, Spock.

Reporting as ordered, Captain.

The movie was announced
to huge fanfare,

Leonard Nimoy
was already getting into character

and when asked
why it had taken him so long to confirm...

Ah, probably the thing that took
the most time is the fact that

the mail service between here
and Vulcan is still pretty slow.

But Paramount
still had a mountain to climb.

Since Star Trek last took
to the airwaves,

science fiction
had gotten real.

Now audiences are expecting
Star Warslevel and Close Encounterslevel

quality special effects.

Aggressive pre-sales
had also painted Paramount into a corner

with a terrifyingly close
release date.

The distributors were promised
that there would be a Star Trek movie

that they could show
in their theaters on December 7th, 1979.

They had penalty contracts
where if they could not deliver

this movie by the seventh,
because these theaters

are holding open
the space for them,

they were out the wazoo
for millions of dollars.

So that only gives them
18 months, basically

to take what is
a television show and turn it into motion picture.

At least they had
a brilliantly inventive title.

This motion picture
would be called,

Star Trek:
The Motion Picture.

Huh?

The body politic
that was making the movie went,

"You better let everybody know
that this is a motion picture,"

as opposed
to an adapted TV show.

The fact was,
this was an adaptation.

You had, what was meant to be
a tele-play for a TV show

has to become
a major motion picture for large screens.

Which brings us back
to Harold.

Somebody's got to write
the goddamn script.

There was a deadline looming.
They had to start shooting.

So Roddenberry invited
Harold Livingston back.

Harold's original script

seemed to have gotten
it's DNA mixed up in the transporter.

In fact, it had gained
a whole new "Gene."

In Thy Image,
written by Gene Roddenberry,

He took all the credit,
he didn't share.

His name is on top.

Harold felt his script
was now a rewrite and a write-off.

So he decided to draw
a line in the sand

when meeting Roddenberry
and director Bob Wise.

The first thing
Wise says to me is,

"What do you think
of the script?"

I said, "What I think, Mr. Wise,
is you ought to take cyanide."

Total crap.

And I would blurt
a big laugh. Ha ha ha!

So they asked me
if I would rewrite it.

I said, I'll rewrite it
as long as it is contractually agreed

that Gene Roddenberry
does not put word on paper.

I mean, I hated him
because he couldn't keep his fingers off a script.

He had to rewrite everything.

Agreed.

And they gave me a lot of money.

Harold set about
writing a script

the whole franchise
was riding on

safe in the knowledge
that Gene Roddenberry

would not have his way with it.

I write a first draft,
which Eisner wants to see.

I give it to Gene's secretary
to send to Eisner.

Three days later,
my phone rings.

It's Eisner calling me
from Paris.

He said,
"What kind of... did you send me?"

Honest to God, I said,
"What are you talking about?"

I said, "It was a good script."
I said, "Bob liked it."

He said, "Nobody
could like this crap."

We find out what happened

was I gave the script
to Gene's secretary

and she sent Gene's rewrite
to Eisner in Paris.

You can't write
this stuff

which is why director Bob Wise
was amazed.

Wise head to me,
direct quote,

"Harold, I've been in this
business for 40 years

"and I've never had
an experience like this."

Not for the first time,

Star Trek, the fourth iteration
was back to square one.

We threw Gene's rewrite out
and went back to what I did.

The signing
of Leonard Nimoy as Spock

hadStar Trek:
The Motion Picture

headed in
the right direction...

Well, so help me,
I'm actually pleased to see you.

...and Paramount
breathing a sigh of relief.

Because we're not going
to risk Star Trek property

that doesn't have
its most recognizable

and one of
the most popular,

if not the most
popular character.

But Spock's return
was still throwing a wrench in the works.

In an essence, you have to write
Spock into the movie.

Right? He wasn't even in
In Thy Image.

What was good
for Leonard Nimoy was not so good for David Gautreaux...

Are you trying to tell me
all that work was done for nothing?

That is
the logical conclusion, sir.

...whose
Johnny-come-lately

Vulcan character Xon,
was suddenly on the chopping block.

Spock is vital to this core.

And knowing Xon wasn't,
David met with Gene for reassurance.

And he gave me
a thousand assurances.

We're definitely, definitely,
definitely... We're building this to go into series.

Executives insisted
Xon was a Vulcan

who would
live long and prosper.

Xon is key
to the future of this franchise.

Okay.

So all David
had to worry about was learning his lines.

They send me the script.

There is no Xon
in the screenplay.

And I realize,
"Oh, it's over."

Fortunately for David,
another envelope arrived,

and it contained
the next best thing an actor can hope for.

Here is your pay-off.

You're free.
All in one gesture.

And a very large check,
well above what the pilot figure was.

I felt completely liberated.

But Mr. Spock himself
was feeling anything but relief

over the Spock
versus Xon debacle.

So Nimoy summoned David
to ask him.

How did it affect you

when I...

...took that role
away from you?

For David,
Nimoy's olive branch

was compensation enough
for his loss.

But I certainly never
ever once said,

"That Nimoy guy
coming back and taking my role."

I never viewed it that way.

Because...

He's Spock.

You are correct.

And even by
the standards of a Vulcan, this was...

Very human, very humane

that he would ask
such a challenging question.

And David still got
to learn some lines for the movie.

That's within
Klingon boundaries. Who are they fighting?

Unknown, sir.

They did say, David,

we'd like you
to play Commander Branch.

So I agreed,
I played Commander Branch.

Here he is commanding,
albeit briefly.

We are under attack.

And while Xon
the new Vulcan didn't make it,

for the first time
in nearly a decade,

the original cast
was tight again, like peas in a space pod.

I appreciate
the welcome.

Including Mr. Chekov.

Aye, sir.

Walter Koenig
finally came in from the cold

after missing
the animated series.

I thought we were in
for a grand time.

When we came back
to do the first really big one that we did

after being away so long.

It was amazing,
that they're the same people.

And there were
mysterious new characters too,

smuggled in
from the original Phase Two TV pilot.

She's Deltan, Captain.

A Deltan which was
a new alien race.

Her species was bald.

They possessed the pheromone

that was something
that humans just could not steel themselves against.

Which was
especially inconvenient for humans, because...

My oath of celibacy
is on record, Captain.

Lieutenant Ilia
was played by a new face,

and not just any face.

Miss India 1965.

Persis Khambatta,
was an exceptionally beautiful woman.

It wasn't just her looks
that said Persis apart.

Unlike a lot of actors,
she was willing to part with her hair.

This was
no simple matter of a few hours of makeup

and a bald cap.

Persis was prepared
to go "baldly"

where no Star Trek actress
had gone before.

There are really
heartbreaking images

of her crying
while they were doing that,

but that's how committed
she was to playing the character

and bringing
an authenticity to the role.

Also new, the character
of Commander Decker,

but actor Stephen Collins
got to keep his locks.

But getting the part
was a bit of a close shave.

Because at this point
in his career, his biggest film role had been

as one of the many men
in All the President's Men.

Now, Stephen had a meaty role
playing a character

with deep ties to Star Trek.

He was the son of Will Decker

from theDoomsday Machine,
from the original series.

Commodore Decker,
you are relieved of command.

The cast
forThe Motion Picture was in ship-shape,

but unfortunately
the script wasn't.

It was not perfect
because it had been rushed

to convert In Thy Image
to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Ready or not,
she launches in 12 hours.

So much so,
that principal photography

began in 1978
before a script had even been finished.

Paramount was also behind
on commissioning special effects.

They wanted to give it
to Industrial Light & Magic,

but they weren't available.

Meaning there was
a risk their special effects might not be so special.

And so...

Paramount hired
Robert Abel & Associates.

Which in movie circles
was not an obvious choice.

Had never done a movie.

They were doing TV commercials.

Enough of this kissing
little registered mark.

Not just any
TV commercials,

but effects-heavy
extravaganzas.

And they had just gotten
a lot of attention

for a 7up TV commercial
which had a lot of effects in it.

While it was more
soda than Yoda,

it wasn't
a million light years away from sci-fi.

So Robert Abel was hired.

To do all these
mind blowing special effects

that are,
in an industry perspective,

having to compete
with Star Wars.

Desperate
for fresh ideas,

Robert Abel hired
a hot shot young designer.

I was recommended
right out of school

to work on
Star Trek: The Motion Picture

...and gave him
a suitably entry level job to start.

Build a whole new Enterprise.

Completely redesign
one of television's most iconic vehicles,

and do it fast.

The Enterprise
had already been built,

but it was too small.
It was like six feet long.

They decided on maybe
a ten foot model.

For the big screen.
Paramount needed a big ship.

So theEnterprise
was up-sized.

And they built
this beautiful model. Huge.

He rebuilt
most of miniatures

and the ones he didn't rebuild,

he had to redesign
in some way or another.

But with
the script still in flux

and with shooting underway,
who knew which of the new ships would even fly?

They were rewriting

that script
as they were filming it.

We were shooting
without pages at times.

None of this helped
Director Robert Wise,

whose vast experience
counted for little in the Star Trek universe.

He did not know Star Trek.
And he was at the mercy of people who said,

"This is the way
this should be done."

And at the mercy
of people pestering him for close ups.

Every each time
I tell this...

I hope I...
I tried to relieve myself

of the embarrassment,
the humiliation,

the guilt that I felt
at the time.

A shocking burden
that Walter carries with him to this day.

We were shooting
very early in the shoot,

and I...

I went up to this,
I called Mr. Wise

from start to finish.

"Mr. Wise, are we
going to come back

"and do a...
a close up of Chekov?"

I can't.

He said to me,

"Please don't...
Please don't talk about those actor things to me."

It destroyed me. I mean,
he was absolutely right.

Absolutely right.

I was thinking of me.
Me, me, me, me!

-You can't
-"Me, me, me."

But under the circumstances,
Robert Wise had much bigger issues,

monopolizing
all of his attention.

There were changes
coming down by the hour.

We had to do
all kinds of scenes.

Soon,
the movie's right hand

was no longer talking
to his left.

Script pages were
coming down to the set

after the scenes
had already been shot.

And any kind of script revision
that you have, causes problems.

You may need to
set up that scene in a different location.

Do the camera movement
in a different way.

That's all time.
That's all money.

Both of which
the film didn't have enough of.

The writer
and producer were barely talking either.

Gene would
continually rewrite.

Somebody would
sneak it back to me and I'd rewrite him.

The rewrite
of the rewrite of the rewrite would get rewritten.

And it became script wars.

He wouldn't stop.

He was just
maniacal about it.

I guess that was
a trademark of Gene's.

He had to rewrite
everybody's work,

And he was a bad writer.

Ironically,
some of the best dialogue in the most electrifying scenes

were playing out
between Harold and Gene.

We sit there,
insulting each other,

calling each other stupid
and a piece of...

and, "You don't know
what the hell you're doing.

"Get out of my sight."

We are at each other's throats.

Emergency Alert!

-But
-The Motion Picture

now had a problem
money alone couldn't solve.

I'm not gonna put up with this,
and I don't care. And I quit.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was now months into shooting

but fast running out of script.

They gave us
an unfinished script.

And the only thing
worse than not having a script,

is not having a writer
to fix that.

So I get a call
from Katzenberg...

Writer
Harold Livingston had... - Quit.

...and
Paramount executives rushed to save their production.

Katzenberg
sends a car for me,

brings me to his office
at 7 p.m.

I walk into his office,
the secretary locks the door.

"Would you like
something to drink?"

So I said, "Yeah, I'd like
some gin on the rocks."

Brings me a full glass.

So I'm sitting there,
I'm drinking.

I drink.
Half hour later, Katzenberg comes in,

"All right, you're going to
come back to work." I said, "No, I'm not,"

And I'm drunk.
I'm whacked out of my head.

Perhaps the gin
had not swayed Harold,

but it had given him
some courage.

I said,
"I want $10,000 a week."

Got it.

And I want a picture commitment,
a script commitment.

You got it.

Now that's what I had to do.

But just as Harold
had tied one on with Katzenberg

and been tied down,
Gene was unraveling.

Gene was already
starting to show signs of substance abuse.

He was on drugs all the time.

He smoked a lot of pot,
and I know he was on cocaine,

and he was
a prodigious drinker.

Gene Roddenberry
was probably one of the most

complicated people
I've ever met. He had power,

he had authority.
he had ability.

He wasted it
by being a substance abuser.

But when he was at his best,
he was the best.

And when he was at his worst,
he was the worst.

Sidelined
from his own production,

Gene was losing touch
with his life's work.

I understand
that this was Gene's baby. It was his whole life.

And without Star Trek,
he was gone. He was nothing.

The creator
of Star Trek tried harder

to force his will
on the production.

Roddenberry
was always trying to imbue his own ideas

into the script,
into the picture.

He drove everybody crazy.

He was more than
a pain in the... to

a monumental nuisance.

Onset,
Director Robert Wise

was feeling stymied
by his over-reaching producer.

Robert Wise
was used to having

a much greater
degree of autonomy to getting things to work.

And Roddenberry's meddling
and micro-managing

was not working well for him.

He was not
a happy experience for him.

Roddenberry was
the worst producer he ever had to work with.

Adding to the trouble,

Katzenberg and Harold's
gin-fueled accord had already broken down.

I got so disgusted
with everything that

I didn't care about
the money right there.

- I just walked out.
-Again.

Which was not
the end of the story,

because the story
still had no end.

They didn't have an ending for
Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

They gave us
a two-act script and a three-act movie.

I had trouble
writing the ending myself.

I mean,
I can't blame anybody for that

because I couldn't come up
with a decent ending.

And without
a writer on board,

the only writing being done
was a series of angry memos.

Lots of memos
going back and forth, including from Paramount.

What's the ending going to be?

And nobody could agree
on what the ending was going to be.

Literally
at a loose end.

They even turned to the movie's
two stars for ideas.

Bill and Leonard
joined the party.

There's a trap there
of self-interest.

Meaning
roles that were written for other characters.

I'll do that part.

That's what I was imagining
that was going on.

You know, there were
so many voices and so many...

so much self-interest,

that it interfered with them
finding the end of the story.

But actually,
rumor has it,

Shatner was
a little more generous than previously suggested.

I'll do that part.

-No, actually...
-Bill Shatner said,

"Let's have Chekov do this."

Let...
On a couple of occasions.

That would've
substantially boosted my part.

Maybe,
Walter would have that close-up after all.

They didn't.
They didn't go for it.

Ooh. Right.

But Bill Shatner
had come out in favor of Walter Koenig.

Well,
whoever got the close-ups, it was pretty obvious

that not having a third act
was bad.

But there was another problem

that couldn't simply be solved
with the typewriter.

The special effects people
were not producing what he needed.

So the question would be,
why wouldn't they come forward

and say, "Hey,
we're having a problem."

Well, because you
don't want to get fired.

They were feeling that
they would somehow find a way to pull it through.

The director
was getting nervous.

Paramount presold this.
There was a locked premiere day.

With the movie
already booked in theaters,

Wise knew how true
the teaser poster really was.

The adventure was only
just beginning

when it should have been
nearly finished.

They were opening the movie
in nine months.

She needs more work.

Bob Wise finally said,
"Come show me what you have."

He'd been asking
to see it for a while.

The effects group
played a test real,

hoping the director
would see the light.

And so they brought it in
and they screened it.

Robert Wise
saw the light, all right.

The probe itself,
which was a physical thing.

putting out
a huge amount of light.

But that was all he saw.

And he said," Okay,
show me what else you have."

And they said,
"That's everything."

And they failed terribly.
They were over their heads.

They didn't know
how to do something like this.

Worse, this humble
on-camera effect

was not what
Robert Abel had promised.

Bob had bitten off
a huge chunk.

He had proposed and pursued

doing the effects for the movie
in a digital environment

with computers
that were not even

as powerful as your cell phone.

Unbeknownst
to the director,

the digital effects had failed,

and the only
stunning visual effect

Robert Wise saw
was the disappearing budget.

About $5 million
was squandered.

Robert Wise had a meltdown.

He just stormed out and said,
"I never want to see that man again."

That man
was soon to be replaced

special effects supervisor,
Robert Abel.

"Find me somebody else.
I don't care who.

"I will never
have anything to do with that man again."

-The numbers
-The Motion Picture.

Six months until the premiere.
Only two of three acts scripted

and just one miserable minute
of special effects.

Nearly a year
into production, Star Trek: The Motion Picture

still had no special effects,
no ending and seemingly no hope.

System's overloading, Captain.

Only one thing
could make this

classic Hollywood nightmare
worse. Lawyers.

Exhibitors put a lot of
pressure on the studio,

in the form
of a potential lawsuit

to make sure
that the movie was completed

on the date
that they had proposed.

There's nothing like
the threat of legal action to get things moving.

Fearing the worst,
Paramount made plans to shift liability.

I believe they had to have
a fall guy.

Overwhelmed
and underachieving,

Robert Abel was cast
in that role.

Bob Abel became
the force majeure that the studio had to have,

in case they were sued
by the exhibitors

to avoid
a $100 million class action suit.

Dreaming up
legal strategies was one thing.

But what Paramount needed,
was someone to dream up an ending to their film.

And Jon Povill,
who was associate producer, came up with the ending.

in the eleventh hour
with this idea that

V'ger is trying to
achieve consciousness.

That's V'ger, the giant
amorphous energy cloud.

And how better to do it
than to merge with the Creator.

- And who is the creator?
- A human.

That's this human

And Decker
can merge with Ilia.

That's this woman.

The creator has not answered.

Which is
also merging with V'ger.

Who is V'ger?

V'ger is that which
seeks the Creator.

Which allows V'ger
to merge with humankind.

It became a living thing.

If that
sounds confusing,

that's because it is.

And Paramount
felt the same way.

Paramount hated it, hated it.

But Robert Wise said,
"I like it."

And of course,
when Bob Wise liked it,

then Paramount liked it.
And so it got filmed.

Working out
the end was a start.

But in June of '79,
Paramount still had

an incomplete film
with no special effects.

Paramount
brings in Doug Trumbull,

who is one of
the special effects world's

most amazing artists,
working on 2001.

Stanley Kubrick's
classic opus

had virtually defined the look
and feel of space on film.

Nobody knew
how to do space effects better than Doug Trumbull.

Paramount
needed Trumbull

to do the same forStar Trek
and at warp speed.

WhatStar Trek needed
was a new way of doing things.

And luckily for Trumbull,
John Dykstra

had invented just that,
courtesy ofStar Wars, again.

This is where the fun begins.

When we did
theStar Wars stuff,

it opened up a whole new realm
for lots and lots of material.

Motion control,
still a new technique,

had made it possible
to realistically depict space fight.

Take us out.

We were using
technology we designed

for an earlier project,
to achieve a new result.

But there was
so much work to do

in such a short period of time.

When I joined them,
it was triage.

Suddenly there was
a crash rush at the end of...

coming up to release dates.

We immediately
went into a nightmare.

Everybody's hair was on fire.

We were working
three eight-hour shifts.

They brought beds in.

I think the quote was
from Michael Eisner was,

you're coming out
on the release date.

We have said, "I don't care
if there's black leader

"in place of where
the effects should be. The movie's coming out."

Don't worry.
She'll launch on schedule

if we have to tow her out
with our bare hands.

With the hardest
of hard deadlines, John and Doug

divided the work
between their studios.

Doug was really, I think,
focusing on the Enterprise.

The iconic and now
redesigned mothership.

was destined
to be the centerpiece.

Doug did the drydock sequence.

And they do the tour
around the Enterprise

and if you're a Star Trek fan,
then it's, "Aah!"

The introduction
of theEnterprise,

had to be orgasmic.

I'm in heaven.
You know, you could stop now. They all die happy.

This cinematic climax
was made possible

by some ingenious
smoke and mirrors.

Trick is,
is that we're trying to create an illusion.

You put a light source
on the ship

and you want it to focus
on a particular thing.

So much white lighting
on the side of the ship

kind of took away
from the scale of the ship

and he thought
it would be better

to neutralize all of those,
that lighting down

and just use these spotlights
to give the ship a more scale.

That epic scale
came from something

small enough to fit in
your mouth.

There was dental mirrors.
A lot of dental mirrors.

Take a light source

that's a focused beam,
bounce it off a dental mirror,

and it puts a spotlight
over here,

and it looks like
that light is...

is sourced from here.

But to get
the party started, it wasn't theEnterprise

that needed to look imperious.

John Dykstra's outfit
did the opening shot,

which was of the Klingon ship
looming into view.

They knew how important
it was for the picture.

If theEnterprise
was going to be majestic,

her enemies needed
to be electrifying.

We had lots of weird stuff.

We had a Tesla coil,
which is a lightning generator.

It would throw a six foot arc
in helium within the vacuum

which is a long piece
of lightning.

It used 60 amps
at 440 volts,

which is a lot of electricity.

And we had to build
a cage around it

because we're near
the airport there,

and when we fired it up,
it would interfere with radio transmissions

from the the tower,
with airplanes.

Maybe that wasn't
the best way to do it,

but it was the way
that we figured

we could get it done
in the time that we had.

While
incredible explosions were being rendered to film,

something else was exploding
like a supernova. And it wasn't pretty.

It went way over budget.

It doubled and then tripled
and then eventually was $45 million.

Money wasn't an issue.

And worked around the clock
and finished the last of the special effects

about a week before
the movie was going to open.

-A lot had gone into
-The Motion Picture.

Nobody had seen the movie.

And a lot of it
ended up on screen.

It was
an incredible human effort.

So it was
no surprise that,

following their
first screening,

the "L" word was used.

And suddenly,
it's feeling long.

Along with
the "B" word.

It's feeling a little boring.

However,
somewhat ironically,

Robert Wise just didn't have
enough time to fix it.

He wanted more time
to shave off some of those moments

that people complained
about where there's

a little too much
special effects.

add a little bit more
of the humanity into the film.

But with
the premier looming,

Paramount had
the bigger problem

of finishing their final cut
or any cut.

in time for the opening.

They were just hoping
that they could get it done.

December 7th,1979...

There was
a red carpet thing. Everybody was in tuxedos.

...as everyone
made their way to the premiere...

Robert Wise
is carrying with him the print and it's still wet.

They just made the prints.

They came out of the developer
into the can still wet

with the idea
that they would be dried off

by their first trip
through the projector when they got to the theater.

The last roll of visual effects
had been done.

- the night before...
- They got into the theater.

The feeling
in the room was euphoric.

The opening to
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is glorious.

There's so much going on.
The effects are marvelous.

The audience cheered
and applauded when they saw the Klingon ships.

Paramount
had a hit on their hands.

It's amazing. It's insane.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
was extremely successful.

It's insane that the movie
made as much money as it did.

It made a fortune.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
makes $139 million.

After crawling over
the finish line,

the film still managed
to take first place.

It was number one
at the box office for about three months.

It made more money,
than any Star Trek film until Star Trek 2009.

But critics were split.

About half of them
were very positive.

- Half weren't.
-For some,

the rebirth of Star Trek
was an achievement itself.

What a towering achievement

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
was that it was able to take

a 1960s television show
produced on a 1960s budget

with 1960s
special effects technology.

and transform it into something
realistic and believable.

Looks like you found a way.

But for some,
the film still moved at a 1960s pace.

"Star Trek:
The Motionless Picture" and things like that.

The papers,
they were brutal.

They just said we were
these old guys

who should have
stuck to television.

It was just awful.

The only thing was,
I evidently was so anonymous in the picture

that when they came...
when the reviews came

and they started
naming the actors

who were out of their league,
by being in this picture,

they ignored
my existence entirely.

I... I was grateful.

We're out of it.

I always see
all the flaws in it because I was there,

and I know
where the compromises are.

For Leonard Nimoy,
The Motion Picture was like a faraway planet.

V'Ger is barren, cold...

It was cold.
It was distant.

It had very little to do
with Star Trek.

...no meaning, no hope.

Characters were not in shape,

and plays...
playing off of each other

and with each other
the way we did best.

There were some reviews
that called into question

the missing sort of humanity
of the characters.

Then
there was possibly the most confusing ending

to a sci-fi picture
since2001: A Space Odyssey.

I wasn't crazy about the ending.

What V'Ger needs in order
to evolve, is a human quality.

And that's not
because I didn't write it,

because it made
little sense to me.

Well, though, a merger...
Do something. I don't know.

But, if it worked
for the Star Trek people, okay, good.

For director
Robert Wise,

it turned out to be
one of his biggest hits.

and one of his
least favorite films.

So I've never made
a movie before

where we were re-writing
the script as we were shooting

and waiting
for the special effects.

Making Star Trek wasn't fun.

-The success of
-The Motion Picture had saved the franchise.

Star Trek:
The Motion Picture was such a big hit.

Of course there was going to be
a second movie and a third movie and so forth.

We made it of worth to continue
the Star Trekfranchise.

But this larger prize
came at the expense of the TV show.

So their Phase Two
went away for that reason.

Because of the success
of the movie.

For Gene Roddenberry,
The Motion Picture

was another example
ofStar Trek taking off without him on board.

You know, there were
a lot of problems withThe Motion Picture,

both structurally
and as... as a film.

And a lot of that
was not Gene's fault.

But he was blamed
and he was demoted.

After The Motion Picture,
Gene was kicked upstairs.

They gave him a new contract,

but said that he would be
a very well-paid script consultant.

For perhaps
the first time in its history,

but not the last,
Star Trek had broken through,

despite its creator,
as well as because of him.

We wouldn't be here
discussing Star Trek

if it wasn't for
Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Somebody had to go boldly
where no one had gone before, and Robert Wise did it.

It would be churlish
and self-aggrandizing I think,

to not acknowledge the debt,

even if it, you know,
I just learned things that I... watching the movie

that I didn't understand
or wanted to change

or thought
could be done differently.

It was also a sociological

pop culture landmark.

What do you make of all this?

Just as
The Motion Picture's split critical opinion,

fans were also split
and still debate its worth today.

The very first debate
among the fans is

Star Trek: The Motion Picture,
good or bad?

Just didn't have the dynamics
didn't have the drama.

I think it's a good movie.

Most people excoriated,
but I... I like the first Star Trek movie.

But for every fan
of the original series

who lamented
the lack of a good villain or driving action...

...there was a fan
who sees pure science fiction.

It's a very cerebral,
thoughtful commentary.

It comments
on the concept of faith.

It deals with something
that we are dealing with right now in a profound way,

which is the merger
of humanity and machines.

V'Ger and the creator
will become one.

And so,
in some ways again,

like really
great science fiction, ahead of its time.

For all the slings and arrows
that The Motion Picture

takes as a piece of cinema,
Star Trekbroke so many norms,

it broke so much new ground
on so many levels.

We are inside a living machine.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
goes into who we are.

What is life?
What is the meaning of life?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
keeps in line,

with Roddenberry's edict
that Star Trek is us.

I think we gave it
the ability to create its own sense of purpose

out of our own human weaknesses.

Whatever its
human weaknesses.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
had put Star Trek, the franchise, back on track.

even if its makers felt like
they had just survived a war.

I've been in three... wars,
had the... kicked out of me.

My worst war was
with Roddenberry.

I don't know who else
could have taken all that...

Well,
Harold would not be the last.