All language subtitles for The Center Seat 55 Years s01e05 Whales, God and Pepto Bismol.eng

[Gates McFadden]
Despite stellar box office...

[cash register dings]

[McFadden] Star Trek: The Motion Picture
fell short of Paramount's expectations.

But The Wrath of Khan
and The Search for Spock were hits,

proving that the franchise
could charm audiences and critics.

But as big-screen Star Trek
got bigger...

Boom!

[McFadden]
...so did the egos...

He wanted to be in my shot.

[McFadden]
...the special effects...

That's some of the most embarrassing work.

[McFadden] ...and the mounting pressure
on a risky fourth movie.

This might be it, you know.
This might be the franchise killer.

Boop!

[McFadden]
So beam aboard and hold on tight

as we boldly go
into the depths of Star Trek.

And you can see it all from here
in The Center Seat.

After finding success
with The Search for Spock,

Paramount wanted their biggest star
to direct the next movie.

Directing a motion picture

is possibly the most fulfilling thing
I can do.

[McFadden]
No, not William Shatner.

Not yet.

Their other biggest star:

actor and director of Star Trek III,
Leonard Nimoy.

Jeff Katzenberg tells Leonard Nimoy,
"We want you to make Star Trek IV ."

[McFadden]
Because Leonard already had a big idea.

Leonard Nimoy had been reading
a book by Edward Wilson called Biophilia.

[McFadden]
Whose powerful environmental message

resonated with Nimoy.

[John Tenuto]
There are certain species on Earth

where if they get pulled out
of the ecosystem,

it would be detrimental
to the entire ecosystem.

[McFadden] Otherwise known
as keystone species,

the idea got Nimoy thinking
about how Star Trek could save the world.

Maybe there is some problem
in the 23rd century

that can only be solved
by going back to the 20th century,

finding the species that humans
caused to become extinct,

and bringing them back
so that they can help solve the problem.

[McFadden]
So the crew of the Enterprise

would help save one of Earth's
most majestic creatures

in the ultimate feel-good adventure.

It was just a matter
of finding the right animal,

one that everyone loves.

And the original idea
that gets bantered around--

and it's Harve Bennett's idea--
is to use snail darts as the species.

[McFadden]
Sorry, was that snails or darts?

Snail darts are very small.

[McFadden]
As in very small endangered fish,

which producer Harve Bennett
thought would become big stars.

As a producer,
he says he liked the idea

because snail darts
wouldn't be very expensive.

[McFadden] But as far as
director Leonard Nimoy was concerned,

these snail darters were small fry.

He had something else in mind
for the big screen.

Specifically...

Humpback whales.

[McFadden]
Producer Harve Bennett and Nimoy

quickly devised a story with all
the classic Star Trek ingredients.

And now humpback whales.

[whale calls]

[McCoy] You're proposing
that we go backwards in time,

find humpback whales,
then bring them forward in time,

drop 'em off, and hope to hell they tell
this probe what to go do with itself?

That's the general idea.

Well, that's crazy.

I thought the story
was a little out there.

You know, it's like,
"Save the whales, okay."

[McFadden] But things were about
to get much further out there.

[Tenuto] Jeffrey Katzenberg calls up
Leonard Nimoy and tells him,

"I either have
what is the greatest idea of all time

or the worst idea of all time."

[McFadden] Which was enough
to make Leonard's ears perk up.

[Tenuto] That idea is Eddie Murphy
has been mentioning

how much of a Star Trek fan he is.

Yeah, I'm a Trekkie.

Get out of here, I'm a Trekkie.

[McFadden] So a script for Star Trek IV
was commissioned,

starring none other than
the biggest star on the Paramount lot.

Eddie Murphy was going to play
an English professor

who is a little bit different.

[McFadden]
A nutty professor you might say,

who had a thing for UFOs
and whale songs.

With the crew of the Enterprise
searching for whales.

[McFadden] But...

[Tenuto] It just didn't work.
It was too convoluted.

How do you balance out the comedy
with the science fiction?

[McFadden]
The one part of the script that worked...

-[whale calls]
-[McFadden] ...was the whales.

With that piece of the puzzle
figured out,

Harve Bennett decided
to bring in a writer

who he could trust wholeheartedly.

[phone rings]

I got an emergency call saying,
"Help, help, we had this script,

we threw it out,
we wanna start over."

I said, "What's the story?"

And I remember Leonard's first words.
He said, "Something nice."

[McFadden] That something nice
came with a catch.

And I was not allowed
to read their script.

'Cause I asked, I said,
"Should I read it?"

And they said, "No, please don't."

[McFadden]
Harve had an idea to speed things up.

What's your plan?

Harve said,
"I'll write the outer space parts

and you write the Earth parts."

[McFadden]
It was a kind of cosmic job-share.

My first line in Star Trek IV is,
"When are we?"

[McFadden]
As in, "What's the date?"

I believe we have arrived at
the latter half of the 20th century.

That's where I came in.

And I went out when they start talking
about D.H. Lawrence.

[video rewinding]

They say the sea is cold, but the sea
contains the hottest blood of all.

[McFadden] D.H. Lawrence was in.
Eddie Murphy was out.

And so was a storyline that would have
lit up the tabloids on Vulcan.

We would have learned that
Saavik was pregnant with Spock's child.

[dramatic music plays]

[baby cries]

[McFadden] Which was the offspring
of this encounter

with teenage Spock
in Star Trek III,

arguably modern cinema's
most romantic high-five.

I have a telegram
that Harve Bennett sent me.

He says, "I, too, am delighted
you are with us.

Have a wonderful shoot and bring
a Vulcan obstetrician along just in case.

Love, Harve."

[McFadden]
But ultimately there was only room

for one Vulcan on this trip back in time.

They ended the chapter, so to speak.

This is goodbye.

But I was mystified why she was
so unceremoniously booted out of IV.

Like, I didn't understand that.

[McFadden]
Ron Moore wasn't the only one.

Many fans were left wondering,

had Star Trek 's most famous
female Vulcan hit the glass ceiling,

or something more complicated?

Had they revealed that Saavik
was pregnant,

then you would have had
Saavik in the later films

because what are you gonna do?

Are you gonna have Spock
have a child and then not deal with it?

[McFadden]
And producers felt that wouldn't make

a good role model
for young Vulcans out there,

so Robin's role
was cut down significantly.

Live long and prosper, Lieutenant.

Creatively, would I have loved to played
a pregnant Vulcan? Yes, very much so.

It didn't matter.

It had been so, so good to me
up until that point

that I think one can only,
you know, be so greedy. [laughs]

[McFadden] Instead, the original crew
of the Enterprise

returned home on an aquatic mission.

Everybody remember where we parked.

It was always intended to be
a fish-out-of-water story.

A fish out of water
is always an interesting concept.

I'm from Iowa.
I only work in outer space.

[McFadden]
It seemed everyone liked the script.

I thought it was great.
Chekov had another good part.

We are in an enemy vessel, sir.

I did not wish to be shot down
on our way to our own funeral.

Good thinking.

It hit on all the right levels.

It was such a relatable story
with such beloved characters,

a storyline that really resonated
with what was going on at the time.

[McFadden] And even though
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry

was mostly on the sidelines these days,

it sounded like Star Trek IV would be
timely, compelling science fiction,

exactly what Gene always wanted
in the first place.

It just felt like it was kismet.

[McFadden] Shooting on
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

began on February 24th, 1986.

Okay, now the question is,
we're tracking here with Bill...

So let me see you do
the walk and talk, please.

Hold it real quiet, Doug.

[McFadden] But it didn't take long for
newcomer and female lead Catherine Hicks

to realize she'd have to fight
not only for her whales,

but also for her space
in this newly crowded film.

Your friend was messing up my tanks
and messing up my whales.

They like you very much,
but they are not the hell your whales.

Bill Shatner. [chuckles]

I love him, I swear to God,
but he, you know,

it's like he is a annoying brother.

[McFadden] Like annoying brothers,
he had a habit of getting in the way.

He wanted to be in my shot.

I want it all.

[McFadden]
And Catherine wasn't giving it to him.

"Get him out of my shot, Leonard."

[McFadden]
Now a veteran director,

Leonard knew how to handle
his bickering stars.

I know Bill.

He shows up to not work but win.

"Trust me, I know every, every angle
and I'll protect you."

[McFadden] But to be fair, it wasn't
just Bill causing disruptions on the set.

One time, I remember
I had a moment with her. It was...

We were in the bridge
and all kinds of things are happening.

The machines are going
and the wind is blowing,

and all the actors around are working.

Sulu, that's all I can give ya!

[Leonard Nimoy] And right in the middle
of this big set-up...

"Leonard, can we stop?"

...she stops.

And it was like...

[McFadden] And Catherine was suddenly
face-to-face with a very stern Vulcan.

Yeah.

[laughs]

Something just wasn't working for her.

And I'm yelling at her,
"Keep acting, keep acting!" [laughs]

And then we'll get this right.

[McFadden] After the take,
the ever-logical Nimoy

went over to have a talk with his actors.

He said, "Catherine, you can't do that.

There's, like,
100 million things happening.

Just play the scene out."

[McFadden] Because one of the unwritten
rules of working on a Star Trek film is...

You don't stop an effects scene.

[McFadden]
And as stressful as they were,

one big effects shot
actually put a smile on Leonard's face.

[Catherine Hicks] The diehards say,
"Oh, my God, Leonard smiled.

Spock never smiled."

[McFadden] But accidental smiles
can happen when you're all...

Having a bit of fun.

[McFadden] Well, worrying about diehards
and what they think

seems to be par for the course
on a Star Trek film.

Just ask associate producer Brooke Breton,

who was getting her first big break
on a feature film.

They brought me in to create
a lot of the material that would play

in Starfleet Command when everything
was being disrupted by the probe.

[McFadden] Ah, the probe.

It appears to be a probe, Captain.

Everybody had warned me,
"Well, if you don't get this right,

you know, you're in deep trouble
because they're paying attention.

Those fans really
pay attention to everything."

And there were a few nights
where I didn't sleep all that well,

thinking about,
"Oh, my gosh, I hope the fans...

I hope they're good with this."

[McFadden]
But when it came to the probe itself,

they could rest easy
because the movie's effects

were in the safe hands
of Industrial Light & Magic.

And as usual, they were thinking big...

or maybe not big enough.

I think it's one of those things
where you come up with the idea

and you go, "Ooh, it's this
big, gigantic, cylindrical thing.

It'll be like the monolith in 2001."

But then there's nothing
to tell you how big it is.

And no matter how you photograph it,
it doesn't seem to improve it in any way.

[McFadden] ILM's initial efforts
looked good on paper,

but only on paper.

Nimoy called in the cavalry,
asking ILM's top visual effects guru

to drop everything
and rush to Star Trek' s rescue.

I got a call both from Leonard
and Harve Bennett,

begging me to take the show over.

It was a 911 call.

[McFadden] Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
was in trouble.

-[whale calls]
-I am receiving whale song.

[McFadden] The producers of Star Trek IV
had a whale-sized problem.

Well, it's not just the whales.

[Saratoga Captain] We're tracking a probe
of unknown origin.

[McFadden] Their alien probe
looked like something else altogether.

All I saw was a big water heater.

[McFadden]
This is just one of the problems

Ken Ralston was brought in to fix.

A big, dumb shape.

[McFadden]
But he had to do it...

As cheaply as possible.

Conceptually, they wanted the probe
to look like a whale.

Specifically, humpback whale.

[Brooke Breton]
It looked rather ridiculous.

It looked like a water heater.

[McFadden] With no time or money to burn,
Ken thought...

"I can't design another ship.
What am I going to do to hide this thing?"

Then you're just gonna have
to take your best shot.

[McFadden]
The solution had two parts. One...

[Ken Ralston]
I painted it glossy black.

Making it look almost greasy,
watery, giving it a lot more texture.

[McFadden]
Ah, much better.

And two...

Lit it in ways where it
kind of came and went.

[McFadden] Reminiscent of the monolith
in Kubrick's 2001.

I hoped. [chuckles]

No offense to whoever designed it.

[McFadden] But there would be
no hiding the whales.

There be whales here!

When you saw whales
look like they were swimming in water,

they actually had a whale puppet.

I remember there was a guy named
Walt Conti who had designed these whales,

an animatronic puppet
that was remote-controlled.

[screams and laughter]

[Gillian]
Beautiful, aren't they?

[Jay Riddle] National Geographic
actually called to find out

how we had photographed
real whales like that.

Perfect whales right in our hands.

[McFadden] But there was one scene
that couldn't be done

even with the best animatronics.

[Riddle] It was a sequence that
involved going inside of Kirk's thoughts.

There were these blobby, liquidy shapes.

Turns into this
surreal something or other.

It was trying to do something
artistic and interesting.

[McFadden]
But what resulted was more...

Artsy fartsy.

Oh, I hated that sequence.

[McFadden] The special effects may have
been special in unexpected ways,

but under Nimoy's diligent direction,
the film wrapped on schedule

and under budget,
a rarity for Star Trek films.

[Nimoy] Clock it.

[McFadden]
So perhaps it was not a complete surprise

that when the film debuted
on Thanksgiving weekend in 1986,

it was an instant hit.

This unlikely comedic opera of whale song
and environmental messages

brought a whole new audience
to Star Trek,

raking in $133 million worldwide.

[cheering and applause]

[Larry Nemecek]
For the first time,

Star Trek is on the cover
of Newsweek magazine.

This is, like, awesome.
This is incredible.

All the geeks in the closet
all through the '70s,

you could only dream
of this moment, right?

But that was a real watershed moment
showing where Star Trek was.

Forget pop culture,
in the culture, period.

Everybody not going to Earth
had better get off.

Star Trek IV is really a crossover movie.

A lot of fans
who are starting to show

their new girlfriend
or boyfriend Star Trek,

you start with Star Trek IV.

Our own world
is waiting for us to save it.

[Ralph Winter] It was fun.

The material attracted people that were
outside of the Trek family and Trek fans.

It's the least Star Trekky
of all the Star Trek movies.

You're very perceptive.

It's ecological. It's relevant.

If you do a Star Trek film, that's the one
to do if you're not into sci-fi.

It is a compliment?

-It is.
-Ah.

And that's just good writing.

That's good writing and good storytelling
on Harve Bennett's and Nick Meyer's part.

Everybody was happy with it
and it made the studio a lot of money,

and they decided they'd make another film.

[whale calls]

[McFadden]
Thanks in part to the whales,

Nimoy went on to have a whale of a time

directing hit comedies,

but he was far from done with Star Trek.

[Ronald D. Moore]
Star Trek II, III, and IV

worked so well
creatively and commercially,

it's almost like a foregone conclusion
that this is now a franchise.

[McFadden] And that meant
the next movie was guaranteed.

It was written in the stars.

So to direct, naturally they turned again
to one of Star Trek 's biggest stars.

Excuse me.

[McFadden]
This time, the other biggest star.

James T. Kirk.

[McFadden] Because William Shatner
had negotiated his way

to the real captain's chair.

Now, Shatner had the famous
favored-nations contract with Nimoy.

[McFadden]
Which was designed to guarantee

Nimoy and Shatner each had their turn
helming a Star Trek movie.

[Winter] That deal was made
to let Leonard direct IV

and Bill could direct V,

so that Bill felt comfortable
with Leonard doing IV.

Very clever, Captain.

Shatner's claiming the right to direct

and everybody's like,
"Sure, fine, go for it."

[McFadden]
And while it was a contractual thing,

Shatner had earned his directing wings.

Small ones.

Shatner had directed TV episodes.

He wasn't, like,
a complete novice at that.

[McFadden] If nothing else,
Shatner had proved adept

at directing himself
in the popular police drama T.J. Hooker.

So with his favored-nations clause
in his back pocket,

Shatner was given the green light.

With the team around him,
the camera team, the support team,

the design team, the studio...

[McFadden] Like Brooke Breton.
She was back.

And of course Harve Bennett,
who'd been integral to the success

of every Star Trek movie
since The Wrath of Khan.

Oh, and there was also
Star Trek alumnus Ralph Winter.

I was the post supervisor on Star Trek II.

[McFadden] And he'd risen
through the ranks to become producer.

-[laughs]
-[McFadden] So Shatner was in safe hands.

Everybody felt like
he was capable of pulling it off.

"Go for it, Bill."

[McFadden]
Oh, and as for Leonard Nimoy...

I seem to remember that Leonard
was a little reticent to even be in V.

[McFadden] Since Paramount owed him
Star Trek merchandising revenue.

So I remember that Harve and I
went to bat for that.

Harve prevailed.

[McFadden] So the next time
the three met for lunch,

Harve made sure to bring
an extra brown paper bag.

We brought three bags for lunch.

[McFadden] Bags one through three
were just ordinary lunch,

but Leonard spotted a fourth bag.

"Well, who's that bag for?"
"Oh, it's for you. Open the bag."

[slide whistle blows]

A million-dollar check.

[McFadden]
After that, Nimoy couldn't say no.

He starts laughing.
"Yeah, I'll be in the movie."

Let's go to work.

[McFadden] At the risk of biting off
more than he could chew,

Shatner took the biggest bite he could.

He wanted to make
the biggest damn Star Trek movie ever.

We'll need all the power
you can muster, mister.

[McFadden] And thinking big
meant choosing an ambitious story

about the biggest possible topic.

Something very big.

[all cheer]

[Winter] I think we were
sort of smoking our own press releases

when we went to do V
because we picked

the hardest topic you can possibly pick.

[McFadden] Shatner wanted to return
to a favorite Star Trek theme.

I'm God.

Probably not a bigger topic
that you can tackle than meeting God.

God?

Where is God? Who is God?

God's a busy man.

Shatner's original story doc
was called "An Act of Love."

[McFadden] But maybe Shatner's script
was not inspired by God,

but rather by false prophets.

Not everyone can hear the voice of God.

A commentary
on crooked televangelists...

In the name of Jesus.

[McFadden]
1980s America had no shortage of those.

Now, this audience would warm you up
on a cold, chilly October day.

...people who were hyping a flock...

Help me with $1,000 gift.

[Nemecek] ...sucking people in
for their contribution money.

The movie was going to be a
commentary on basically charlatans.

Why is God angry?

[McFadden] It would tell the story
of a man on a mission from God.

[Sybok]
The greatest adventure of all time.

[McFadden]
After The Voyage Home,

it was time for a voyage
to the promised land.

The discovery of Sha Ka Ree.

[McFadden] Which surprisingly
turned out to have Scottish origins,

because if you say it in a certain way...

Sha Ka Ree.

[McFadden]
...Sha Ka Ree sounds like...

Sean Connery.

The quest for the Grail.

[McFadden] Who producers would
have loved to have played Sybok.

Again, it's Shatner dreaming big.

And he was busy
and it was never gonna work.

[McFadden]
So the closest they got was...

Sha Ka Ree.

[Winter] Sha Ka Ree was definitely
a reference to Sean Connery.

We really wanted Sean in the movie.

[McFadden]
Instead, the role went to an actor

who could be almost mistaken
for the man he stood in for.

Have faith, my friend.

Sha Ka Ree.

[McFadden] Unable to secure
Sean Connery for Star Trek V,

producers discovered
their charismatic cult leader

in Laurence Luckinbill.

It's me. It's Sybok.

Laurence Luckinbill
more than fills the Vulcan boots

of what Sybok needs to be.

That's exactly what I'm counting on.

Larry resonated with Harve and myself.

We shall seek the answers... together.

And so we were fortunate
and pinching ourselves that we got him.

[McFadden]
Actor David Warner was cast as...

St. John Talbot, the Federation
representative here on Nimbus III.

[Winter] David's a fine actor
and we were happy to have him.

He drank too much,
but he was a fine actor.

[speaking Klingon]

[McFadden]
Todd Bryant and Spice Williams-Crosby

sported the foreheads.

[speaking Klingon]

Spice, you know, she was a great
bodybuilder, weightlifter, a lot of fun.

She has wonderful muscles.

[McFadden] And for the Romulan consul,
producers left no stone unturned.

I was Caithlin Dar in Star Trek V.

I'm Caithlin Dar.

Casting director said
I was one of 2,000 people

that they auditioned for this role.

Well, then it appears
I've arrived just in time.

It was a rollercoaster. I mean,
there were eight callbacks in the end.

[McFadden]
Cynthia was a new kind of Romulan.

I know my character
didn't exactly look like a Romulan.

[McFadden] And it was all to do
with continuing the diversity

of the Star Trek saga.

The character of Caithlin Dar
was biracial.

I mean, her name, Caithlin Dar,
very Irish-Terran, and Dar, very Romulan.

[McFadden]
Romulan, but only to a point.

I never got pointy ears.

[McFadden] But why would producers
hide such an important detail?

Because it was too expensive
to do my ears every day.

[McFadden] Going au naturel on the ears
was one money saver,

but producers applied the same
penny-pinching logic to visual effects,

where they made a brave call.

"We're gonna find
a cheaper vendor, basically."

We made a choice.

We didn't wanna spend the money
that we'd been spending before.

[McFadden] But producers
wouldn't be able to replace ILM,

the titan of Hollywood effects,

as easily as they covered up
those Romulan ears.

They wanted a number of companies
to do a test

and show us what this, you know,
imagination of God would be,

which is a tall order no matter what.

[McFadden] After all...

How do you portray God?

We sought only your infinite wisdom.

[McFadden] The man that claimed to have
an answer as splendid as his beard

was special effects artist Bran Ferren,

whose more traditional live effects
had caught the eyes of the producers.

He really fancied himself
an in-camera effects person.

[God]
You doubt me?

I seek proof.

The character of God, Bran showed us
some stuff that was really clever,

like taking silver screen material
that you'd project in a theater,

ripping it up, putting it on a cylinder
and spinning it,

and then project God down there
with big lights,

and we'd never seen that before.

And we're watching it in-camera.

Bill and a number of others
became very enamored with that

because it was going to be
an in-camera effect.

[McFadden]
Ferren was no one-man ILM,

but his in-camera effects
were immediate and tangible.

And that was
extremely appealing to people

who had a very short schedule
and not much of a budget.

[cash register dings]

[McFadden] And even though
the last time they didn't use ILM,

things wound up pretty expensive.

They decided to go with Bran Ferren.

[McFadden]
With this special effects team on board,

production was ready to roll.

Filming began at Yosemite in 1988.

And on day one of shooting
on his first feature film as a director,

Shatner hit a wall.

But more specifically...

A fiberglass wall, which I will climb.

I had to build a side of a cliff
in a parking lot at Yosemite.

Theoretically, it's supposed
to look like El Cap.

[McFadden]
Which it certainly did,

but this was only
the first part of the illusion.

[screaming]

[continues screaming]

Shatner falls at Yosemite
and Spock goes after him.

[grunts]

[Winter] That scene, we just turned
the camera and built a set sideways,

so that the ground has rocks
and leaves glued to it,

and that's the ground.

Here's Shatner coming, you know,
this way to hit the ground.

Spock comes down this way to catch him.

These are not fancy tricks,

and they don't look great
when you go back and look at 'em now.

Hi, Bones. Mind if we drop in for dinner?

[McFadden] Designing sets
on terra firma was one thing,

but in space...

There was just so many concerns
about the ship shots.

[McFadden]
Early tests showed the in-camera effects

for the starship shots
had come a long way since Star Trek IV.

A long way in the wrong direction.

[Breton]
What was particularly challenging for Bran

is I think he thought
it was gonna be simpler to do

and to replicate the kind of work
that was being done at ILM.

That was a serious mistake.

[McFadden]
The magisterial elegance of the Enterprise

in the previous films had devolved
into something less nuanced.

The years of experience
of shooting the Enterprise

and the pearlescent paint
and all the fine details

is an accumulation of years of experience,

and especially on a tight schedule
with Bran Ferren.

He had a lot of technological know-how,

but it didn't necessarily apply
to how to get this show done.

[McFadden]
Bran Ferren wasn't the only one

struggling to realize his vision.

That problem went
all the way up to the director.

Me? What did I do?

[McFadden]
Star Trek V 's director

was pouring his heart and soul
into the project.

[Breton]
Bill was very passionate.

He brought a lot
to trying to make the story

something that he had in his heart
and in his mind.

As a director,
he was generous, compassionate,

kind, supportive of all the actors.

[McFadden]
But Shatner's acting instincts

were not helping him
direct his first feature.

All the other staging things
in terms of transitions

and the way you're telling the story
and the way it plays out...

Yeah, he wasn't disciplined about that.

[McFadden] Now his film
was coming apart at the seams.

[Winter] Two-thirds of the way through
and it's out in Ridgecrest

when we're filming all the stuff with God
that it starts to just be...

It's a mess.

[McFadden]
It seems Shatner's style of directing

involved almost as much ad-libbing
as his acting.

[Winter]
You know, having people running at camera

and then while they're running at camera,

"Some of you fall down."

[McFadden]
But no one did fall down because...

[Winter] Normally, you'd prepare that
ahead of time.

But what do you expect to happen?

[McFadden] And while
they were having trouble falling down,

Nichelle Nichols
was having trouble staying on her feet.

[Nichelle Nichols] You know what happens
when you're in a dune?

The sand does what it wants to do,

and it's not always
what you want it to do. [laughs]

[McFadden] It seemed like every day
there were some unexpected challenges.

Production at times seemed a bit shaky.

And we're trying to help
with the cameramen,

trying to help out with the first AD,
trying to help out in all the other areas.

But you know,
there's only so much you can do.

It didn't gel.

[McFadden] Producers had seen enough
and convened for an emergency summit.

"What are we gonna do about this?
How are we gonna control this?"

[McFadden] As panic set in,
Paramount contemplated the unthinkable:

demoting the captain.

But was anyone willing to take the wheel?

Harve Bennett had asked me
if I would take over directing it.

And I said, "What is it about?"

And they said,
"It's about the search for God."

[McFadden] Presented with the chance
to get back into the director's chair

of one of cinema's biggest franchises,
Nicholas said...

I don't think so, you know. It's just...
I didn't like the odds.

[McFadden]
Neither did Paramount,

but two-thirds of the movie
was already in the can.

The die is cast.

[McFadden]
And with little time to course-correct,

one thing was becoming very apparent.

Holy...

We're gonna...
We're gonna hit the wall.

[McFadden]
With what little time they did have,

drastic changes were ordered
to at least rein in the budget.

Everything ended up being simplified.

[McFadden] For example...

Creating what should have been
a much bigger town,

I must have taken every bit
of stock scenery

that was in the backlot out to the desert
to build that little city.

[McFadden]
And given that it was expensive to build,

when it came time to tear it all down...

The town mysteriously burned.

[dramatic music plays]

I don't know what happened, but
I know that it's cheaper than striking it.

[McFadden]
I guess it must have been an act of God.

[chuckles]

[McFadden] Because ultimately, even God
himself was forced to bow to budget cuts.

The scaled-back special effects
went a bit Old Testament.

Here is the proof you seek.

[groans]

[McFadden] Bran Ferren's special effects
were so short of the mark,

they were mistaken for tests.

It was childish
and we all really did believe that

that was just a preliminary
and that the good stuff was coming later.

But it didn't really evolve
all that much past that.

[McFadden] And it wasn't just sets
and special effects

that were feeling budget cuts,

so were the costumes.

The rock man was a rock monster
that comes together

out of living boulders
on this planet of weird stuff.

Bill really wanted that.

[McFadden] But in 1988, the technology
just wasn't there to make it happen.

It looks amateurish because it is.

Yeah, the rock creature was a disaster.

Boop!

[McFadden]
But on the bright side...

If that had worked, then we wouldn't
have had the great homage in Galaxy Quest.

[McFadden]
That's right, this grumpy customer

is a loving nod
to William Shatner's ambition:

the rock monster he never had
and we never saw.

But despite all of the setbacks,

Bill Shatner
still very much believed in the picture.

I remember he came to us three weeks
after the picture ended and said,

"I'm done. I've edited the picture.
We're all done."

And he leaves the room and Harve
and I look at each other and go,

"Holy...
We're in trouble."

Because you can't possibly edit
the movie that quick.

[McFadden] Sure enough, after viewing
a rough cut rougher than most,

producers were left asking...

What's going on?

It was a mess.
It didn't make any sense.

It was like this giant puzzle
laid out in front of you. It was like...

"All right, how do we fix this?"

[McFadden]
A radical makeover was in the cards.

We were grasping at straws,

trying to figure out
how can we beef this up.

I would put lipstick on the pig
so that, you know, it's more attractive.

[McFadden]
Desperate to beautify their pig,

Jerry Goldsmith was brought in
to apply some musical lipstick.

So, you know, we were hoping
that the music's gonna elevate it.

[McFadden]
The music was good,

but not that good.

[Breton] If a project is stumbling
and disappointing,

it's not gonna be saved
by a terrific score.

[McFadden]
It needed major surgery.

And so we had to recut it.

[McFadden] And the emergency surgeon
was Harve Bennett.

Harve was really known
in his writing as a structuralist.

He knew how to structure a story.

And so Harve just went at it
in the cutting room for a while.

[McFadden]
And quickly came to the realization

he would need more than just edits.

[Nemecek] The whole Klingon scene
at the end on their bridge

was added to kind of clean up
the ending of Kirk's rescue

and being reunited with Spock.

Our new gunner.

[McFadden]
And even if you can't work a miracle,

you can still act like
you're about to reveal one.

Spock.

[McFadden] Paramount's marketing arm
went into overdrive,

asking audiences to strap themselves in.

You saw the teaser poster
with this row of theater chairs

and the caption says,

"Why are they installing seatbelts
in movie theater chairs this summer?"

Everyone's like, "Oh, it's exciting,
the movie's opening!"

It's like... [grumbling]

You know, you're just like...

You're sweating because
you know what's gonna happen.

You know it's not up to snuff.

[McFadden] Oh, come on,
that's up to the audience to decide.

Premiering on June 9th, 1989,

it raked in 17.3 million
in its opening weekend box office.

[cash register dings]

It actually opened a half-million more
than IV had opened,

which was a big, great sign.

[McFadden]
But week two was a different story.

It just sunk like a rock after that.

[McFadden]
Box office fell 59% in the second week

to just over $7 million.

Like the rogue rock monster,

Star Trek V
had come crashing down to Earth.

Fans were disappointed. Yeah.

[McFadden]
And they weren't the only ones.

Star Trek V is so slow to get moving
and so confused in its plotting.

I had a stern talking-to
from the studio afterwards and saying,

"Don't ever do this again.
This is not good."

[McFadden]
Star Trek V looked for all the world

like it might end careers.

When it was over, I thought,

"Well, they'll never offer me
another picture after this."

[McFadden] And even hastened the end
of something much bigger.

We all kind of thought this might be it,
you know.

This might be the franchise killer.

[screaming]

[McFadden]
Star Trek V was a box-office bomb.

I'm hardly in a position to disagree.

[McFadden]
But its failure was not fatal.

The franchise had something
a single dud film could not erase.

[cash register dings]

[Nemecek] All of those say
Hollywood and the franchise

and the films
are all totally about the bottom line.

There was a lot of affinity
beyond budget dollars for Star Trek

and a lot of affinity for those actors.

[McFadden] And with a growing
and vocal fan base in mind,

Paramount executives asked themselves...

"Do we really want to end
Star Trek movies and the Kirk era

with that movie?"

Your pain runs deep.

[McFadden]
While the answer was obvious,

the story for the next film was not.

[Nicholas Meyer]
Harve had proposed to Paramount

to do a movie about young Kirk
and young Spock, et cetera,

at the Starfleet Academy,
and he had developed this in some detail.

You want to go back?

[McFadden]
With an aging original cast,

producer Harve Bennett
had his eye on the future.

Maybe they're throwing us
a retirement party.

That suits me.
I just bought a boat.

[McFadden] Harve Bennett and Ralph Winter
teamed up for the proposed prequel.

We developed a screenplay
with David Lowery who wrote V.

And Harve really wanted to make that.

Still think we're finished?

More than ever.

[McFadden] A changing of the guard
was being conceived

to allow the original cast
a graceful exit.

You and I have grown so old
and so inflexible.

"They're going to age out
of being able to do this.

Here you go, Paramount.

Here's a perfect way
to continue the franchise."

[McFadden] But...

The studio didn't wanna do it.

[McFadden] In fact,
just about no one wanted to do it.

[Nemecek] Gene, the studio,
the fan base, and the actors,

they're all saying, "No, we're not
quite ready to go out to pasture yet."

People can be very frightened of change.

[McFadden] Paramount
was not quite ready for the future

because they were not done with the past.

They said they weren't happy
with the fifth Star Trek movie.

My pain?

It runs deep.

And they didn't wanna go out
on that note with the original cast.

I wouldn't.

[McFadden] There was a legacy
that needed to be honored.

[Winter] Frank Mancuso and the studio
wanted to capitalize

on the 25th anniversary
for the marketing and distribution aspect.

It was a nice ending to all of this.

There was so much more momentum
on a larger scale.

This is the final cruise
of the Starship Enterprise

under my command.

They decided there was gonna be
a Star Trek VI

with the original cast.

[Gorkon]
The Undiscovered Country.

[McFadden] Everyone was on board
for one last blast with the original cast,

barring one key crew member.

Harve really just didn't wanna do that.
He really wanted to make the prequel.

He left very upset and very disillusioned

and feeling very manipulated
by Paramount.

"After all I've done for you?"

And they're like, "Sorry, no."

So he's like, "Okay, then I guess
our time together is at an end."

[McFadden]
Ralph Winter would stay on as producer,

but the biggest personnel question was...

"Who's been the most successful
with our Star Trek movies so far?"

I think my passion is directing.

[clears throat]

-Leonard directing...
-[sighs]

[McFadden] And...
-...and Nick Meyer writing-directing.

[McFadden] After Shatner's
mismanaging of Star Trek V,

the studio wanted a safer pair of hands.

[Winter] They certainly went back
to Nick to be sure.

Here's the guy that directed II
and did a lot of writing on IV.

"Let's do this the way
we know that works.

Let's not take any chances
like we did on V."

I gotta sit down.

"You know, we're not gonna screw
this up. This is the 25th anniversary.

This is the one we gotta deliver on.
We gotta go out with a bang."

[banging]

[McFadden] Nicholas Meyer
had not only worked on Star Trek films,

he had also saved them
and even done some writing for free.

-But this time, it was all about money.
-[cash register dings]

They said they wanted to do it
for about 30 million bucks

and would I be interested.

-And I said, "Sure."
-[cash register dings]

[McFadden]
Paramount had already confirmed

the other member of their dream team.

I assume command of this ship.

[Meyer]
I get a call from Leonard.

"Can I come and talk to you
about a Star Trek VI movie

which I'm gonna executive produce?"

And I said, "Sure."

It's a case of Leonard and Nick
kind of saying,

"It's up to you and me, buddy."

[McFadden]
Leonard already had a concept.

[Meyer] He said,
" Star Trek has always reflected things

that are going on
on planet Earth, inevitably."

[McFadden] And in 1989,
what was happening on planet Earth

was about to change everything.

I'm Peter Jennings in New York.

Just a short while ago,
astonishing news from East Germany,

where the East German authorities
have said, in essence,

that the Berlin Wall
doesn't mean anything anymore.

[McFadden]
Nimoy saw the fall of the Berlin Wall

and the collapse of the Soviet Union

as a potential turning point
for Star Trek,

a show originally conceived
at the height of the Cold War.

We Klingons have a reputation
for ruthlessness.

[Meyer] The Klingons have always been
our stand-ins for the Russians.

"What if the wall comes down
in outer space?"

And that was all I needed.
You primed my pump. Okay, great.

[McFadden]
The starting point for the story

was inspired by
another Cold War flashpoint.

[Peter Jennings] There has been
a nuclear accident in the Soviet Union.

One of the atomic reactors
at the Chernobyl Atomic Power Plant

near the city of Kiev was damaged.

We start with an intergalactic Chernobyl.

[explosion]

Like a nuclear meltdown.

Their moon has exploded
their energy source.

No! [screams]

[Meyer] And suddenly,
the Klingon Empire is no more.

And all these immigrants
are gonna be trooping to planet Earth

and other places dispersed
'cause their planet is collapsing.

The Klingons have never been trustworthy.

[McFadden]
This existential threat to the Klingons

would also prove
an existential crisis for Kirk.

They're dying.

Let them die.

"Who am I
if I have no enemy to define me?"

Would you and your party
care to dine in this evening?

We would be delighted.

Kirk's assigned to escort
the Klingon Chancellor.

[clears throat]

We must do this again sometime.

The Klingon Chancellor
gets assassinated...

[groans]

-...due to Kirk's negligence....
-What happened?

-...'cause he hates Klingons...
-They're animals.

...'cause they killed his son.

[Kirk] I could never forgive them
for the death of my boy.

They're all unfurled,
you know, in a big gush.

[all cheer]

Tell us that you plan to take revenge
for the death of your son.

It parallels a great deal
of what's going on today in this universe

and more or less
a quest for peace.

[McFadden]
Leonard Nimoy liked Nicholas' idea.

And he said, "Great! This is great!"

[McFadden] But there was one opinion
that had to be heard...

even if no one wanted to hear it.

[Meyer] I met Gene Roddenberry
when the script was finished,

and he had a lot of objections to it.

It's no surprise that Roddenberry
would be dissatisfied with the script

'cause that means he's gotta fix it.

That means he gets paid.

[McFadden] One of Gene's objections
had to do with a traitor

the producers decided should be...

Lieutenant, are you wearing
your hair differently?

[McFadden]
...Lieutenant Saavik.

Out of the gate,
they wanted to bring Saavik back.

[McFadden] Originally played by
Kirstie Alley and later by Robin Curtis.

But how could they
have evolved so quickly?

[Meyer]
Ideally, it was to have been Saavik.

It was to have been somebody
that you liked, trusted,

whose tragedy was this terror
of the unknown,

of change.

And that made the whole story
more complicated.

[McFadden] But complicated was not
how Gene saw his beloved Vulcans.

He did not like the idea
of making her a traitor.

A lie?

A choice.

[Meyer] We had a meeting with a lot of
other people in the room, in his office.

I had so much raining down on me.

We just created another character.

So there were a lot of forces here
that aligned

to have the turncoat be someone
that you just met.

Lieutenant?

Valeris, sir.

[McFadden]
An all-new Vulcan.

She's a Vulcan all right.

[McFadden] And there was
one other element to the story

that Gene found objectionable.

The Federation is no more
than a Homo sapiens-only club.

[Meyer] He, in retrospect,
perhaps was understandably mortified

to find that the crew
of the Enterprise was racist.

They all look alike.

What about that smell?

[Meyer] Which was sort of the point
I was trying to make,

but it was
absolutely antithetical to his view

about the perfectibility of people.

We were at loggerheads.

[Azetbur] It's racist.

[McFadden] But at least everyone
could agree on the budget

because what's not to like
about $30 million?

When VI was proposed to me
in London by Frank Mancuso,

he said $30 million.

[McFadden] But having already
moved his family to LA...

I rented a house for my family.
We're all there.

[McFadden] Nicholas attended
a Hollywood meeting

and found that something had been lost
in the trip across the Atlantic.

I was in a meeting with Ralph Winter,
Steve Jaffe, Leonard Nimoy, and Paramount.

[McFadden]
In other words, the big wigs.

[Meyer] "And we're all excited
to be making this movie.

Now we're talking about
a budget of 25 million."

And I go, "Wait, wait.

We're not talking about 25.

We're talking about 30 because
Frank said 30 when I agreed to come here."

[McFadden] It seemed Paramount
now had a new vision for the film.

"Well, Frank has this vision,"
and I said, "Stop."

[McFadden]
That turned out to be the trigger word.

"Don't talk to me about Frank
and his vision.

I'm the artist. I have the vision.

And I wanna give you some math,
which shouldn't be my responsibility,

but I'm gonna do it."

[McFadden] Standby for a lesson
in basic film-production accounting.

"You have the cast, you have the script,

producers' fees, directors' fees,
all of that.

There's 14 million before
you've put any film in the camera."

And back then it was film.

[McFadden]
Expensive film.

Then there's the small matter
of post-production.

You got two and a half million dollars
in post-production or something.

You have $4 million in special effects.

We're now up to,
I don't know, $19 million.

I can't remember. I added it all up.

[McFadden]
Actually, we're already over 20 million.

But the point is...

"Where's the movie?"

[McFadden] In Hollywood,
everyone lies except the numbers.

Numbers don't lie.

I see we have a long way to go.

"Would you excuse us for a minute?"

And we sat there
and they went into another room.

And then we waited for about 20 minutes.

And they came back
and they said $27 million.

And I said, "Guys, you're confused.

I'm not negotiating.

I'm gonna see Frank Mancuso.
I'm gonna explain it to him.

We're gonna settle this whole thing."

So I go see Frank Mancuso
and he courtly hears me out,

and he said, "Thank you very much,
Mr. Meyer, for explaining this."

I leave and he cancels the movie.

The operation is over.

[McFadden] With Star Trek VI
canceled over budgetary concerns,

Nicholas Meyer
suddenly had a lot of time on his hands

to think about where it all went wrong.

I am in total shock,

wandering around the lot
like a lost soul

and the sound
of an empty soundstage,

and I thought, "Oh, yeah,

this is where the peace conference
was supposed to be."

[phone rings]

[McFadden]
When out of nowhere the phone rang.

There's nobody else there.
I pick up the phone. "Hello?"

And this voice says, "Nick."

And I said, "Yeah."
He said, "This is Stanley Jaffe."

[McFadden]
Stanley Jaffe was the super producer

behind some of Hollywood's
recent big box-office hits.

[Meyer]
Now, Stanley Jaffe and Sherry Lansing

had made Kramer vs. Kramer

and they had made Fatal Attraction.

[McFadden]
But it was Stanley Jaffe's new job,

not his track record,

that was about to make Nicholas' day.

He said, "Frank Mancuso
is not with the studio anymore.

Sherry Lansing and I
are running the studio.

And I hear you have a problem."

And I said, "Yeah, I need $5 million."

And he said, "You got it."

And he hung up.

And suddenly, we were back on.

[McFadden] And just like that,
all of Nicholas' problems

were the kind with creative solutions.

Like casting, which stretched
all the way back to the original series.

Mark Lenard as Spock's father.

That was a no-brainer.

Quite logical.

[McFadden]
Having appeared as Spock's father,

Mark Lenard was an old hand
at playing a Vulcan.

While Kim Cattrall
was new as Lieutenant Valeris.

Sir, I address you
as a kindred intellect.

[McFadden] Star Trek V 's David Warner
underwent a makeover

and reemerged
as the cultured Chancellor Gorkon.

You've not experienced Shakespeare

until you have read him
in the original Klingon.

[McFadden] Kurtwood Smith
played the Federation President.

I have ordered a full-scale investigation.

[McFadden] And Nicholas Meyer
had only one actor in mind

to play the rambunctious General Chang.

I have so wanted to meet you, Captain.

When the time came, I said
to my casting director, Mary Jo Slater,

"Don't come back without
Christopher Plummer or we're sunk."

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

And his only thing was, you know,
"Don't strangle me with makeup."

So he wound up being
sort of a modified-Klingon look.

[McFadden] When it came to Klingons,
Nicholas' biggest problem

was figuring out
how to assassinate one in space.

One of the things
that always struck me is,

when you watch Star Wars
or any outer space movie,

nobody's ever floating.

They all walk down these corridors
like they're in a Holiday Inn.

And I'm thinking,
"Ooh, what a cool idea."

They knock out the gravity machine,

and two guys in magnetic boots go in
and blast away.

[McFadden]
Which leads to...

Floating blood. Ooh!

[McFadden] Which raised
a surprisingly vexing question.

What color should Klingon blood be?

Originally, I thought about it.
It should be green.

And Leonard nixed that.

I'm not sure why, but he didn't like it.

[McFadden]
Possibly because Vulcan blood is green.

So producers went to the other end
of the spectrum.

On Next Generation , Klingon blood

had seemed to be
just kind of a dark red-brown.

[McFadden]
But that sounded a little dull.

And we just wanted it to be different.

-[McFadden] And so...
-I chose this pink.

We retcon that as saying,
"Well, when Klingon blood's in no gravity,

then it turns that way."

[groans]

[McFadden]
But if gallons of floating pink blood

were unsettling for some,
not to worry.

I didn't think about Pepto-Bismol,
and I wish I had.

[McFadden] So Klingon blood looked
a little bit like indigestion medicine,

but producers were occupied
with a bigger challenge.

Which was the guy
being shot in the hallway.

[McFadden] Producers were stumped
about how to create zero-G effects

on a shoestring budget.

"How do we get the impact of this guy
to take the phaser hit

and then in a weightless environment,
push him down the hallway?"

[McFadden]
No CGI would be necessary,

since veteran
production designer Herman Zimmerman

had an old-fashioned solution.

We take the whole scene,
the hallway that we're gonna build,

and we build it like this.

So that the guy
who's gonna be shot is hanging.

And now we yank the guy
up towards the ceiling

and it looks like he's weightless
going down the hallway.

[McFadden]
The visual effects were stunning,

but were they convincing enough
for Star Trek 's creator?

Gene Roddenberry still had
a contractual guaranteed say on Star Trek.

They had basically
the completed cut.

Gene is in his wheelchair,
having had his mini-strokes.

He's having good days and bad days,
more bad days than good days.

[McFadden] They had a special screening
just for him at Paramount Studios.

Producers anxiously waited
for his reaction.

I'm thinking in my head,
"If there's a problem,

A, he gets more money,

and B, we gotta deal with that problem."

[McFadden] And so an ailing Gene
was seeing his characters

behave in ways
he would never have imagined.

Like Spock mind-melding in anger.

It's waterboarding by sci-fi means,
and it ain't pleasant.

[McFadden] And yet Star Trek VI
was pleasant enough for Gene.

As they're wheeling him out the theater,

he said, "No, I liked it.
Thanks very much."

[McFadden] Until he thought about it.

A couple of days later,
here come a whole list

of complaints and comments and demands
that Gene wants changed.

[McFadden] But before
they could get to the bottom of it...

Gene dies within days.

[dramatic music plays]

[McFadden]
And the notes were never brought up again.

It's kind of an odd last moment for
Gene and the characters that he created.

[McFadden]
Star Trek VI premiered December 6th, 1991,

and The Undiscovered Country
discovered $96 million worldwide

on its budget of 30 million.

-[cash register dings]
-It did well, yes.

[McFadden] For Paramount,
it was the best possible way

to celebrate
the franchise's 25th anniversary.

-Here's to 25 years.
-You bet.

Of joy and happiness,
and fussing and fighting.

Yeah.

[McFadden]
But what this really meant was...

We were done with that cast.
That was the end.

[McFadden]
At the end of the film,

each actor's signature
appears on the screen.

Signing off both on the roles
they had shaped into iconic characters

and also signaling the end of an era.

Your heart's in your throat, watching
those signatures go up at the end.

[McFadden] And although
it was the end of an incredible era,

there would be a small return
to the silver screen

for some of the original cast
in 1994's Star Trek: Generations.

And even though Captain Kirk
had clearly lost his place

at the center seat,
he did leave us with this final moment.

[exhales]

It was...

fun.

[McFadden]
While that was the end of Captain Kirk,

that wasn't the end of Star Trek.

Quite the opposite.

Because the staggering success
of Star Trek IV

had not only done its part
in saving the whales,

it also saved televised Star Trek
from extinction.

1986, Voyage Home is a huge hit

and the local stations saying,
"Guys, can you please do something?

We've had these same damn
little 80 one-hour episodes

we've been showing
for 15 years now,

but if you would just make
some more Star Trek for us on TV,

we'd all make more money."

And it's within several months
of the film's success

that they announce that
Next Generation is gonna be a reality.

[McFadden] And believe me,
that is quite a story.

[theme music playing]

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