Scott Atwell Star Trek Discussion thread (Series and Films) (3 Viewers)

[Nelson Au]

I'll be interested in an executive overview of Tomorrow the Universe Lee. I had not recalled hearing about this one. I probably read the title as I was scanning through the Orion Press website in the past. But there was no synopsis there when I checked it again last night.

 

[FanCollector]

Schneider's story was in process for a long time and elements of it found their way into Bread and Circuses, A Piece of the Action, and most obviously, Patterns of Force. The version I have is the second draft from March of 1967. There was apparently one additional draft before it was abandoned, but I haven't read that one.The Enterprise is supposed to pick up a group of social scientists and cultural ambassadors who have been visiting a planet of "obsequious, servile, and imitative" people. When they arrive, they find the cultural envoy ship is nowhere in orbit and the Enterprise is trapped in a nuclear minefield. Sensors register some pieces of the ship on the surface so Kirk and a landing party go to investigate. They find a shrine honoring "our fallen Earth brethren" containing some pieces of the ship, including record tapes on the Earth period from 1933-1943. Spock notes that one notes historian on the mission was Dr. Alana Steele, an expert on the Nazi period. The reveal then comes with persecuted minorities, swastikas, and a giant Hitler poster. The guys are captured and taken to meet the big boss who is, I kid you not, Hitler.Turns out the imitative and servile people think that Hitler is Earth's greatest hero and that he is responsible for any success they have had. So the leader has made himself into a new Hitler and made the whole planet a Nazi regime. Oh, and meet our propaganda minister: Alana Steele.Dr. Steele, whom Kirk knows from a past experience where she was doing something dangerous and creepy with robots and also maybe from a romance (it isn't 100% clear), is purposely running the greatest social science experiment in history. It wasn't her plan all along, but once the ship crashed and the inhabitants misunderstood what they found, she went with it. Kirk learns that they are planning to attack four neighboring planets and he is going to disable their attack force unless they agree to disarm in an hour. Hitler sends up a guy to sign the peace agreement but in actuality he sends a suicide bomber who will detonate a giant bomb with his mind if Kirk doesn't surrender the Enterprise in an hour. (A lot of one-hour deadlines in this one.)While Spock tries to create an artificial copy of the suicide bomber's mind, Kirk and McCoy beam back down in Nazi uniforms to stall for time and tell Hitler that he was right and that they are all Nazis now and maybe if he doesn't kill them all, he can join the Federation and be a bigger Nazi. He says he is up for that, but they need to check right away and if the Federation doesn't agree, he will kill them in...wait for it...an hour.Tense intercutting between the Enterprise and the planet. Spock duplicates the guy's brain in time (even though everyone said it would take months) and saves the ship. Kirk beats up a lot of Nazis on the planet, captures Dr. Steele, and gets on a planetwide loudspeaker and tells everyone their whole planet is wrong and stop it, even though they have no idea who he is. He leaves Hitler with the sort-of-Jewish prisoners that have been around the whole time (they promise to be fair) and then beams up with Dr. Steele and they leave.Lucas did apparently submit a Nazi-themed story independently of this one. At some point in the process, however, elements from this story did get incorporated into Patterns of Force. Did Schneider have a case for credit? Maybe. If John T. Dugan could get sole credit for Return to Tomorrow, Schneider could have at least shared a story credit this time. Tomorrow the Universe is pretty much as unsalvageable as Fontana and Justman suggest in their correspondence. The huge structural improvement of Patterns of Force is that we don't meet Gill and Melakon until very late in the story. That difference forces much more action, but it also allows time with the Zeons, which gives Patterns of Force a sadness and meaning for which Tomorrow the Universe has no time. We meet Hitler in Act I and Steele a few minutes later, and from then on, it's nothing but talking and the talking is not especially interesting. The portrayal of the Prime Directive is all over the place too. Patterns of Force has a much clearer message. Also, it seems much more in keeping with the Roddenberry future to have a Federation historian make a critical error while trying to be helpful than to have a Federation historian be a deranged lunatic willing to sacrifice millions in order to run some tests.

 

[Ockeghem]

Lee,

Fascinating. I couldn't help but think in part of Storm Front. I doubt very much however that the writers of that episode knew very much about Tomorrow the Universe. But the Nazi theme isn't something I see (or hear of) very often in the six Trek series.

I wonder if having Hitler being the big boss had anything to do with it not coming to fruition? It's unlikely, but at the time we're only some twenty or so years removed from WWII. To be honest, I am quite surprised that Patterns Of Force was ever allowed to make the cut for that very reason.

 

[FanCollector]

That's a very good point and I'm sure that was one reason for the objections. There are Hitler figures in, for example, The Twilight Zone, but only for brief appearances at the end of a story. In this case, again, the problem is that the Hitler figure is there almost the whole time and it would be hard to take seriously, which would in turn be upsetting for many.One thing about Patterns of Force is that it makes an attempt to capture a small part of the true horror of the history to which it refers. Of course a one-hour adventure series that generally requires a happy ending and comic relief is not going to illustrate the full experience of the Holocaust. But by taking some time with the victims, I think the finished episode makes a real effort to take the matter as seriously as the format allows. Tomorrow the Universe doesn't do that at all, and it really doesn't read any more powerfully than the Rome of Bread and Circuses. And as you suggest, that would not have made the story worthwhile at that time.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Wow! That's some fascinating stuff there Lee! Thanks for sharing.

Watched The Naked Time and it's such a seminal episode for Kirk and Spock - especially Spock. It's easy to see why Spock's character took off after this episode - such a clever story device to give the audience a peak behind the seemingly impenetrable mask of the Vulcan first officer. The staging of the shots after the just infected Spock leaves Sickbay and Nimoy's performance as Spock wrestles with his loss of emotional control are amazing. His search for privacy leading him to Briefing Room 2, the leaning against the door, the loose body gestures ie posture slouching, foot raised with heel on door, smacking of fist into palm of other hand battling with his attempts to return to formal, controlled movements all punctuated by his dialogue to dramatizing his internal conflict to re-establish control but failing are truly wonderful and a powerful glimpse into Spock's psyche.

Then we get to see Kirk's inner struggle with his love/hate and fear relationship with the Enterprise - something that would be revisited in TMP and in different flavours in the other movies.

The other character's inner selves are played mostly for laughs and it is a sad missed opportunity that we never get to a glimpse into McCoy's inner demons until much later in Star Trek 5 - the highlight of that movie for me - and one that retroactively explains so much about the McCoy character.

It's no wonder that the temptation to revisit this story device in The Next Generation - but to much lesser success IMO - was too alluring to resist.

 

[FanCollector]

I had the exact same lament about Dr. McCoy the last time (among others) I watched The Naked Time, Lou. I think it was Nelson who pointed out very rationally that if McCoy had gotten the disease, it would have been the last episode of the series...but I still wish we could have gotten into his head a little.

 

[Nelson Au]

Lee! Thanks for the recap of Tomorrow the Universe. Wow, I kept thinking there are so many elements there that they incorporated into other episodes as you noted. Leaving Hitler with the Peoples he tormented felt like the coda for I, Mudd too. Thanks for your analyses too. You really understand story structure! Something I don't think I'd know how to do. It sounded like Bread and Circuses for sure, except substitute Steele for Merikus. Lucas and the staff definitely must have reviewed this script before the other scripts were finalized. Under the time pressure they were and the need to get those last episodes produced, I can see they do what they needed to make the grade and get a product out. If that meant taking elements from other stories to make things work, thats what you do. Scott, I seem to remember all the posts here at the HTF of the negative posts regarding the use again of Nazis when the Hirogen were using the Voyager crew for sport. And then the episode of Enterprise you mentioned above. But as you said, it wasn't like the dependence on Borg episodes they tended to do.Regarding the Naked time, definitely a milestone episode. It's funny that when I first saw it at a time I was able to understand it, I had seen other episodes out of order, but I was still able to get it.

 

[FanCollector]

I think the rationale was probably that they paid him for the script, so they owned it and everything in it, and if nothing rose to the level of earning WGA credit, they were free to use what they wanted. (The whole museum scene recalls the discovery of The Book in A Piece of the Action, another story of an imitative people.) Apparently, that wasn't how Paul Schneider saw it.The Naked Time probably has even more impact when you've seen a lot of other episodes first. (I wish I remembered more about the order in which I saw the episodes.) I think some of the actors wanted it to air even earlier than it did, but it seems more meaningful once you have seen them in their normal state for a while first.

 

[Ockeghem]

I finally put these on my wish list. Of course, it will be quite some time before I can actually read them given that I continue to work on my own book. I still haven't listened to the entire Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection either. Would that I could live as long as Methuselah.

 

[Nelson Au]

I didn't get to reading the rest of the Patterns of Force production section last night. I did peek ahead and saw only that Paul Schneider wasn't happy. I'll hope to have a minute tonight to read about his displeasure. Thanks for posting the images Scott, it got me to check the Jacobs Brown site and I see the third book is out in the fall. I like their promotion now if you order the book, you get a flip clip! it's almost here!However, I am scratching my head why the ebook versions is the Adobe ebook format and incompatible with any of the most popular tablet formats. There must be a reason for that, licensing fees or something. With all the tablets in use now, it's crazy not to make the books compatible. Scott, what is your book about, if I may ask? I think you probably mentioned it before but it escapes me. I hope you complete it!

 

[Ockeghem]

Nelson,As you'll probably recall, I really wanted to purchase the three volumes once they were all published. I figured that there would be a third volume, but I wanted to be certain before I made any purchase. My book is an analysis, extensive bibliography, and discography of the complete works of the fifteenth-century composer (Ockeghem) whose music I've been studying for many years.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hi Scott, that's what it was, thanks for reminding me, that sounds like a really intense and highly detailed effort! Ockeghem makes me think of Akharin/Flint. I don't suppose that was how they named that character? At any rate, not meant to make light of your work Scott. I hope you find time to read the three Cushman books. By the way, you guys probably are aware of this Fresh Air interview with George Takei that was recently done. I listened to about 90 percent of it before I had to go to work. While Star Trek is a tiny tiny part of the interview, it's fascinating to listen to his life. I had heard rumblings of this George Takei movie, but hadn't really investigated it yet. http://www.npr.org/2014/07/28/335945625/whats-it-like-to-be-takei-george-takei-offers-a-glimpse

 

[Ockeghem]

Nelson,When I first heard Flint's 'Akharin,' I thought it began with the letter 'O' given how it sounded when pronounced. I had to look it up years ago to find out the correct spelling. As for the name of Ockeghem (which is a geographic area in the Netherlands), it has about thirty different spellings!

 

[FanCollector]

Thanks for the interview link. I knew about the movie, but not the interview. Looking forward kt hearing it.

 

[Nelson Au]

So Akharin could have been inspired by Ockeghem? Finished the Patterns of Force chapter. I liked what William Wintersole said about the new reduced schedule Paramount had imposed on production of each episode. He treated it like a stage play and was true to the character and just went in and did it. No time for do overs and you play to the other actors and director. I imagine this seat of the pants acting can be frustrating for the perfectionist actor. It painted a picture of production on Star Trek as that grind I hear TV actors talk about. They just crank them out, Also surprised that the producers picked this episode to invite the press in for promoting itself. It is pretty neat to read the experience of fan Kim Larson and her experience visiting the Star Trek set and watching this episode being filmed that day. I liked her description that the Enterprise crash lands on a planet that made itself up like Nazi Germany.I was surprised by the Lucas story that he brushed off George Lucas because he was in a rush to get back to filming who was at Paramount the day they were filming in front of one of the buildings. I didn't know George Lucas had started in the business quite yet in 1967. But it's probably likely.I thought it was enlightening to read McEveety's thoughts on the episode, his least favorite.

 

[Nelson Au]

I managed to rip through The Ultimate Computer chapter tonight. I didn't know Lawrence Wolfe was a one time writer who submitted his spec script and through such unique means. I liked that DC Fontana was able to turn its focus away from Daystrom and make it a man vs machine story with Kirk's job on the line. It read like it was a real breeze to quickly redo the script and filming was quick and efficient. I always liked this episode and will enjoy a re-view. I had always found that long tracking shot along the corridor effective. But reading how it was done makes me want to see it again.

 

[FanCollector]

John Meredyth Lucas was a good director. That was the first Star Trek episode he directed, but he did spend a lot of time on the set. The hallway shot is very unusual for the show, and I'm sure he was happy to have gotten it in there.The Cushman chapter makes it seem like the story really spoke to Fontana, even if she recognized that the story needed a change of focus. One thing I liked, which seems SO much like her style, was the way Spock and McCoy both try to make Kirk feel better but in such different ways. The episode succeeds more than many at balancing characterization and thematic material, and that mix seems to have been primarily Ms. Fontana's doing.

 

[Nelson Au]

Great insight into the Fontana contributions Lee! I had a case of insomnia last night so I read through the Omega Glory chapter. Cushman was really into emphasizing the better elements of the story and the weaker ones. I didn't know that Shatner had a separate story idea and the teaser is very much from that story. Even Gene Roddenberry was willing to admit his story for The Omega Glory wasn't the best work of the series. But he sure really liked it a lot amongst all the negative comments from the staff and NBC. So it was interesting to read as Fontana explains where Roddenberry's head was on that story and how strongly he felt about the flag and getting the episode made. No one was going to let that episode pass, yet he was the boss, so he pushed it through. While it wasn't clear, unless I didn't read it right, why everyone so negative on the story, I'm guessing it was the parallel Earth with the same Jefferson and Constitution idea.McEveety certainly had much more praise for that episode then Patterns of Force. And it certainly sounded like it was as gritty to film as it looks. What surprised me was how out of order some of the shots were. So the continuity person was really on the ball in that one to be sure the blood stained tunic Kirk wears is used and a clean one is used in other earlier scenes.

 

[FanCollector]

I am always surprised that McEveety prefers The Omega Glory to Patterns of Force, but from his perspective, I guess I can see it. The Omega Glory has a lot more going on visually and required a lot more of him as a director. (Touching on an earlier discussion, look at how great the fight scenes are in The Omega Glory as compared to The Gamesters of Triskelion!) Or maybe, like Roddenberry himself, he just liked the show better. As for Roddenberry pushing it through over everyone's objections, I can understand feeling confident in his idea. At the same time, trying to promote the finished episode for an Emmy nomination was not only delusional, but kind of insulting to writers of so many obviously superior episodes throughout the year. Wanting to try something in which you believe is one thing; seeking personal recognition for it at the expense of others is something else.I had no idea until reading Cushman's book that there was a second version of the script commissioned by the show and written by the Pines. I wonder how they handled it. And maybe Shatner was onto something. The teaser is one of the best parts of the episode. He is credited with a story on Checkmate. He was supposed to be the guest star but then had to back out for scheduling reasons and they got Tony Randall to play it. (How many times were THEY up for the same roles??) It was a pretty good story, although of course it may have been rewritten considerably.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

I had the exact same lament about Dr. McCoy the last time (among others) I watched The Naked Time, Lou. I think it was Nelson who pointed out very rationally that if McCoy had gotten the disease, it would have been the last episode of the series...but I still wish we could have gotten into his head a little.

True. In retrospect they could have dropped the Chapel/Spock unrequited romance storyline and had her develop the cure allowing McCoy to be infected.