Leonard by William Shatner

Author:William Shatner
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781250083326
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

EIGHT

It was these conventions that kept the franchise alive and led to the movies and the various TV series. For several years, we’d been hearing rumors that Paramount was considering reviving the series or producing a low-budget feature, but it never seemed to materialize. Finally, in 1975, they hired Roddenberry to write a screenplay. Typical of Roddenberry, he came up with an unexpected twist: the bad guy turned out to be God.

Incubus made more commercial sense.

Paramount then brought in Harlan Ellison, who created a story about the Enterprise time traveling back to the prehistoric era to save the future by fighting a race of giant reptiles. This was about the same time that Chariots of the Gods, a book by Erich von Däniken claiming that alien visitors had revealed their secrets to the ancient Mayans, was a huge sensation. During story meetings, a studio executive suggested Ellison add some Mayans to his concept. When Ellison explained patiently that in prehistoric times there were no Mayans, the executive said brightly, “Nobody’ll know the difference!”

While the first Star Trek movie was in development, Star Wars was released. It became a worldwide sensation. Suddenly, there was a clamor for science fiction, and Paramount was uniquely positioned to take advantage of it. They had what was by now a proven show to drive right into that niche. Instead, they dropped the project.

About a year later, the studio announced it was going to boldly go where no one had gone before: it was going to start a fourth television network, and Star Trek: Phase II was going to be its first original series. Their problem was that Leonard didn’t want to put the ears back on. Having been involved from the first pilot, he had spent more time aboard the Enterprise than any of us and just didn’t want to do it anymore. His career was progressing comfortably, and he just wasn’t interested. Additionally, he also was involved in a very complicated lawsuit with the studio about merchandising revenue. And his relationship with Roddenberry was almost nonexistent. During an argument, Roddenberry had told him, “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be who you are today!”

Whether it is accurate or not, it certainly wasn’t the right thing to say to a man with great pride and talent who had earned everything he’d gotten in the business. Leonard responded, “Don’t do me any more other favors.” So when his agent called to tell him about the offer, he supposedly responded, “If you ever call me again about Star Trek, you’re fired.”

The concept of making Star Trek without Spock was like making My Fair Lady without Eliza Doolittle—the dance numbers were going to be very awkward. I didn’t try to talk him into it. Leonard did not make decisions rashly; they were well thought out, and once made, he did not easily change his mind. Finally, the studio offered Leonard a good deal to appear in a minimum of two episodes out of every eleven that were shot.

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