A Brief Guide to Star Trek

very different approach had to be taken for the sequel. It had to be produced quicker, cheaper and better, yet still serve what they now had box office proof for: an audience that was hungry for more
Star Trek
. The second movie would be a chance for those now creatively in control to get it right.
    Paramount’s President of Production Jeffrey Katzenberg had been concerned about the race to have the first movie ready in time for its locked-in release date. He was not about to allow the same thing to happen again, so he sought out a safe pair of hands to look after the
Star Trek
movie franchise. Paramount’s Barry Diller, Michael Eisner and Katzenberg collectivelydecided that Roddenberry would carry the can for the near-fiasco of
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
.
    Reluctant to alienate Roddenberry completely, and worried what he might tell the
Star Trek
fan base if he was cut loose from the studio, Paramount offered the series’ creator the role of ‘executive consultant’ on the planned second movie. It was a meaningless title with next to no creative involvement, but it came with a fee attached (and a share of the box office). More importantly for Roddenberry’s not inconsiderable ego, it avoided the ignominy of him being thrown off his own creation entirely. It was not an ideal situation, but it was one Gene Roddenberry could live with if it meant the continuation of his
Star Trek
-related income.
    Producer Harve Bennett was handed the
Star Trek
movie franchise, with a tight brief to bring the second film in on time, on budget and to quality. Bennett had come to Paramount from TV and had been on the lot less than a week when he was interviewed in connection with the
Star Trek
job. On graduating from film school, Bennett had been an executive at CBS and ABC before moving into television production in the late 1960s with
The Mod Squad
. Throughout the 1970s he’d produced several television series and mini-series, including
The Six Million Dollar Man
and spin-off
The Bionic Woman
;
Rich Man, Poor Man
;
The Invisible Man
and
The Gemini Man
.
    Called to a meeting with Diller and Eisner, Bennett was surprised to also meet Charles Bluhdorn, head of Paramount’s owner Gulf + Western. Bluhdorn had been very unhappy with
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
, but recognised that the company had a great asset in
Star Trek
, if used well. He quizzed Bennett about his opinion of the film. Deciding to be truthful, Bennett told the assembled executives that he’d found the movie ‘boring’. Could he do better with less than the $45 million the first film had cost? Bluhdorn asked him. Without thinking, Bennett automatically responded with: ‘Yes. In fact, I could make five or six movies for that!’ He was tasked on the spot to produce the next
Star Trek
film.
    One of Bennett’s first questions was about Roddenberry’s rolein the new project. The new producer was told that Roddenberry was a consultant only, someone who’d pass comment on the script and creative elements of the film, but not someone to whom Bennett would have to report. In fact, across the next decade and four movies the bulk of their creative contact would be in the form of memos rather than in person. That was enough for Bennett, who saw an opportunity to escape his television background and make the break into feature film production. There was one problem: Bennett had never seen the
Star Trek
TV show.
    The producer screened all seventy-nine episodes of the ori -ginal series, both to familiarise himself with the show and to get a feel for the series – he was also on the lookout for suitable story ideas for the second film. One episode stood out for Bennett. ‘Space Seed’ starred Ricardo Montalban as a genetically enhanced villain named Khan Noonien Singh. Khan and his followers had been exiled upon a barren planet at the end of the instalment, with Kirk and Spock speculating about what might become of them. An answer to that question, and the return of the charismatic Khan, would form the basis for Bennett’s
Star Trek II
.
    Bennett worked out a sequel story that brought Kirk and Spock into conflict with Khan once again – and would result in the death of the Vulcan science officer. ‘I wanted to do it suddenly’, said Bennett of the death of Spock, originally planned for an end-of-act-one surprise, like the death of Janet Leigh in Alfred Hitchcock’s
Psycho
(1960). He brought TV screenwriter Jack B. Sowards onto the project to draft an initial