March 12, 2003

A Trek Not Taken

By cmdr_forst

The first Star Trek movie. A second Star Trek series. Paramount uses Star Trek to launch a network.

What do these three phrases mean to the average Star Trek fan?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Star Trek: The Next Generation. United Paramount Network (UPN).

The first answer, The Motion Picture is half right. The other two are just plain wrong. The first proposed Trek film was not The Motion Picture. And the second Star Trek series was not about a new crew and a new Enterprise, but the return of Captain Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise for a second five-year mission. And Voyager launching UPN in 1995? Nope. This was way back in the mid-seventies, and called Star Trek: Phase II.

In September of 1976 the powers that be at Paramount decided to shift Star Trek from the small screen to the big screen. In other words, a feature film. This would be the true “first” film, even though it was never made. Few fans have even heard of this ill-fated project. Fewer still know much about it, which isn’t surprising considering it never even reached the pre-production stage. For less than a year, between 1976 and 1977, Planet of the Titans was a legitimate, sanctioned film project based upon Star Trek. Scripts were written, a budget was proposed, William Shatner signed a deal to star in the film, a director was hired, a few sketches of what the new U.S.S. Enterprise would look like were finished, and then the project was scrapped. But what went on with Planet of the Titans is a story for another time.

Phase II came about soon after the demise of Planet of the Titans. On June 10, 1977, Paramount announced that they would launch a fourth network, to compete with the “Big Three,” CBS, NBC, and ABC. It wouldn’t be a true network, but it would save Paramount money. They could produce a series and air it on their own network instead of producing a series, licensing it away to some other network at a loss, and then watching as it continued to lose them money.

This new network would need something to attract viewers, something that the “Big Three” didn’t have. That something was Star Trek. Along with the announcement that Star Trek would return as a weekly series, blasting off with a two-hour premiere sometime in February of 1978, with thirteen all new hour-long adventures beginning the next week, airing at 8:00PM. Gene Roddenberry, of course, was there to guide the project. His baby was once again kicking its proverbial legs.

Only thirteen episodes? Not exactly. The original deal called for thirteen episodes, to see if the series would work. Then, additional episodes would be ordered, written, shot, and aired. Simple enough. The first real obstacle Phase II encountered was Spock, or really, Leonard Nimoy. He didn’t want to do the series and nothing anyone could say would change his mind. Phase II was now without Star Trek’s signature, pointy-eared science officer. So, another Vulcan was created. Named Xon, this science officer would be a full-blooded Vulcan, and a very young one at that. Another new character was Commander Will Decker. Strangely enough, the character was created not just to fill the first officer’s role, but also to be around to replace Captain Kirk. Apparently, the producers feared Shatner’s salary would sink the series, so he would either just appear in cameos, or his character would be killed off. Decker would replace him as captain either way.

The story chosen for the pilot episode was written by Alan Dean Foster, known at the time for novelizing the animated episodes, and called “In Thy Image.” It was based somewhat on a story Roddenberry had for his introduced series Genesis II. It took Foster less than a week to write his treatment (not a script, but an overview). A meeting on August 3rd to discuss the story as the pilot became the most important point in the history of Phase II.

On that fateful day, Phase II died and Star Trek: The Motion Picture was born. Michael Eisner, upon hearing the pitch for “In Thy Image” immediately declared it would make a fine film. So it became a film. Of course, it wasn’t really that simple. Paramount had determined that there was no possible way they could create a fourth network and earn profit. So, the network died. Phase II pretty much died then as well. There was speculation that the two-hour pilot could be filmed and shopped around to the other networks, but that wasn’t a plausible idea. So, seeing that “In Thy Image” was seemingly a perfect script for a movie, a movie was the way to go.

Paramount, however, never got around to telling everyone that Phase II was over and done with. It would be five months before Phase II was finally laid to rest. One of these reasons is that Paramount could not announce, again, that a Trek movie was in the works without having new deals hammered out with producers, the cast, Roddenberry, everyone who would be involved with the film. While this was going on, the people working on Phase II did just that; they kept working. Writers were hired, scripts were written, and a handful of test scenes were actually shot. Footage still exists today, though it is rarely seen. Sets were created, even though they would never be usable on a film. A new model of the Enterprise was built. Again, it would not be sufficient for a film.

Roles were even being cast. David Gautreaux was cast as Xon, and Persis Khambata was cast as Ilia. Both would later appear in The Motion Picture, although Gautreaux’s role changed entirely and he was only in a few moments of the film. It wasn’t until December of 1977 that the general public was let in on the secret. A Hollywood insider announced that Phase II was gone and that a film was on the way. Of course, Paramount and everyone involved with the project denied this was the case. But by now, just about everyone behind the scenes new the truth about what was going on. Stage 9 was full of unfinished sets. Any test footage being shot was now being shot with anamorphic lenses, the type used in films, not television. Everyone knew, that is, except the writers hired to pen scripts for the now defunct series. They would continue to do so, which is the only reason why stories for the original thirteen episodes exist today.

For the film, the sets had to be redone. A new model of the Enterprise had to be created. A new script had to be written. And most importantly, Leonard Nimoy and his character of Spock had to return for the film. He was eventually convinced to do so, and the rest, as they say, is history.

What remains today, a quarter of a century after Phase II burst onto the scene and then quietly died away? Quite a bit. In addition to the test footage mentioned earlier, and the synopsis of the thirteen episodes scripted, a “Writer’s Bible” for the series was written, covering everything from the setting to the crew, the recreation deck to the ship’s power source, sets and terminology, a Q&A section, and a note at the end that the most important thing to remember is to maintain reality. Blueprints also remain, from a booklet entitled “ ‘Enterprise’ Flight Manual.” Alan Dean Foster’s original treatment of “In Thy Image,” as well as a first-draft script of the same story, is available for any fan willing to seek them out.

A common fact to The Next Generation fans is that the Season Two episode “The Child” is based on a script for Phase II. Another episode, “Devil’s Due” is also based on a Phase II script. A revised script for the Phase II version of “The Child” is available for comparison. In the Phase II version of “Devil’s Due,” the Enterprise computer plays the part that Data would eventually play, with the rest of the story being mostly the same. The other episodes, including a massive two-part Klingon story entitled “Kitumba,” and a script that would involve nudity and adult situations, were never and never will be shot. No one will ever see that Phase II may have brought to the Star Trek franchise. What brave new worlds would have been sought out, what new civilizations would be discovered?

For those fans “in the know,” so to speak, there has been some discussion over what Phase II would have done to the franchise. Reading over the story outlines for the thirteen episodes, there is no doubt that they would have been entertaining, perhaps some even outstanding. But most agree that without Spock, Phase II would have never been picked up for more than thirteen episodes and Star Trek may have even died, forever. No The Next Generation, no Star Trek: The Motion Picture, nothing more than 79 original episodes, 22 animated adventures, and 13 Phase II episodes, 15 counting the two-hour premiere. Instead of over 650 hours of television, only 105 would exist. The science-fiction franchise that has existed for over thirty-five years would quite possibly have only a cult following, those few loyal fans clamoring for more. Not a worldwide sensation that still excites fans, new and old, today.

Phase II is the lost chapter in Star Trek lore, but it is an important one. Most people do not realize how close, and at the same time how far, the series was from being made. The intent of this article was to intrigue and inform fans about Phase II and what it means to Star Trek. To introduce to them a series that could have been, yet wasn’t. The first Star Trek film was The Motion Picture, released in 1979. The real second phase for Star Trek came about in 1987 with the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And Paramount would finally realize it's dream of launching a network with a Star Trek series at the helm in 1995, with Star Trek: Voyager.

Phase II has come full circle.

Writer’s Note:
This article was written as an introduction to Phase II, with the help of Star Trek: Phase II, The Lost Series, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. For an introduction to Phase II, the documentary included on the director’s edition DVD The Motion Picture is your best bet. It includes interviews with people involved with the series that never was, and also has some of the incredibly rare test footage. The 1997 book by the Reeves-Stevens is an in-depth look at Phase II, with everything any fan would ever want to know found within it’s covers. Photos, blueprints, pictures, scripts, memos, the entire writer’s bible, as well as the synopses for the thirteen episodes are available there.

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