Just too much "Fan Fiction" frankly. As a very Wee Spud I enjoyed Blish's novelizations of what were Star Trek episodes. However, his novel
Spoke Must Die sucked as most novelizations do.
One problem may be high expectation: "we" know what we like and when someone gets it wrong it pisses us off. Oddly enough, the Bestest
Star Trek film nearly became the worse if they used the original scripts. As has been told too many times Nimoy about had it with Star Trek and
The Motionless Picture really pissed him off. He and DeForest Kelly tried to add some of their banter--no. I found that funny when I first heard about because when I saw
The Motionless Picture Me Dad and I concluded that "something's missing."
We returned home, turned on the television--there is a Star Trek rerun of course!
I, Mudd. In the opening McCoy complains that there is this crewman who is strange--Thanks interwebs:
NORMAN: Good morning, sir, Doctor.
SPOCK: Something wrong?
MCCOY: Yes. There's something odd about that man, and I can't quite pinpoint it.
SPOCK: Perhaps you're making a rather hasty judgment. Mister Norman has only been aboard seventy two hours.
MCCOY: I know when something doesn't strike me right, and he doesn't.
SPOCK: Specifics, Doctor. Labels do not make arguments.
MCCOY: All right. There's something wrong about a man who never smiles, whose conversation never varies from the routine of the job, and who won't talk about his background.
SPOCK: I see. Spock actually stops short and stares at McCoy for a moment with his "I am Irritated Even Though I Show No Emotion, You Fuck!" stare.
MCCOY: Spock, I mean that it's odd for a non-Vulcan. The ears make all the difference.
SPOCK: I find your argument strewn with gaping defects in logic.
MCCOY: Maybe, but you can't evaluate a man by logic alone. Besides, he has avoided two appointments that I've made for his physical exam without reason.
SPOCK: That's not at all surprising, Doctor. He's probably terrified of your beads and rattles.
"That's it!" Me Dad said.
And indeed, the "ending" of
TMP is Scotty telling Spock they can bring him back to Vulcan in a few days. The script read--and The Suits Insisted on Retaining: "My task on Vulcan is complete."
Nimoy wanted to say something along the lines of, "Since you are retaining the good doctor, my need here is greater than ever." Just one nice old Spock-McCoy jab. Nope.
Put it this way, even the clueless hack Lucas did not make Harrison Ford correct his "I know" ad-lib. "Harrison, the line is SUPPOSE to be, 'remember that 'cause I'll be back.' Yoda can stick to the script, why not you?"
Paramount made $$$ on a film no one really liked, saw visions of a new series and something like seven films. So they had the brains to fire everyone involved and hire people with brains. However, to convince Nimoy to come back--and you cannot do
Star Trek without him--they said they would kill him off in response to his demand that "it be different."
And he was suppose to die in like the first act. And like you can see how that would have sucked. An upset Flunky leaked that which caused everyone to scramble and come up with a much better story. The whole opening was a "tease" of "You're upset we might kill Spock? What if we kill EVERYONE AND YOUR CHILDHOOD AHA!HA!HA!HA!HA!JETFUELCAN'TMELTCORBOMITE?!!!!"
Hard to plan that sort of stuff. Sometimes you get lucky. Just like "Bruce the Shark" never working made a better film and saved Richard Dreyfus' character.
--J.D.
~ Witness
