A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The Arsenal of Freedom   Stardate 41798.2 (Earth Calendar Year 2364)   Original Air Date: April 11, 1988   Written by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler   Story by Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin   Directed by Les Landau       On stardate 41798.2, the  Galaxy- class  Starship USS Enterprise  (NCC-1701-D), under the command of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), arrives at Minos, a Class M world located in the Lorenze Cluster.  Her assignment: to find any trace of the missing  USS Drake  (NCC-20381), a Federation starship of the  Wambundu  class commanded by Capt. Paul Rice (Marco Rodriguez).  For the  Enterprise’s  First Officer, Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), the disappearance of the  Drake  is of interest on both a professional and personal level, for not only is Capt. Rice a friend of Riker’s from their Academy days, but Riker had been offered command of the  Drake , an assignment he had turned down to serve aboard the  Enterprise.   The  Enterprise  scans Minos for li

In 1991, the  Star Trek  franchise celebrated its 25th Anniversary.  Although the feature films which starred the cast from  The Original Series (TOS)  had lost some momentum due to the lackluster performance of  Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,  Paramount Pictures greenlit writer-director Nicholas Meyer’s  Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country  and scheduled its release date for early December of 1991.  Although  Star Trek VI  had a few plot points and one crossover appearance by actor Michael Dorn, the  TNG  producers came up with a clever concept: why not have an episode set in the  TNG era  that obliquely referred to the events of  The Undiscovered Country  which would star Leonard Nimoy as Spock?  For  TNG’s  executive producer Rick Berman, Gene Roddenberry’s chosen “heir” to produce  TNG  and any possible spinoffs, this idea had a lot of appeal.  An episode which featured Spock in a major way would excite the fans and give the show great ratings, while at the same time

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Directed by Nicholas Meyer Screenplay by: Jack B. Sowards, Harve Bennett, and Nicholas Meyer (uncredited), based on a story by Harve Bennett & Jack B. Sowards Based on the “Star Trek” television series created by Gene Roddenberry Starring:  William Shatner ,  Leonard Nimoy ,  DeForest Kelley , James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Kirstie Alley, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick,  Ricardo Montalban In June of 1982, less than three years after the premiere of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” Paramount Pictures released director Nicholas Meyer’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” Executive-produced and co-written by Harve Bennett, “Star Trek II” was more of a swashbuckling space opera than Robert Wise’s leisurely-paced and effects-heavy mish-mash of “2001”-style science fiction and producer Gene Roddenberry’s New Age-flavored humanism. In the 23rd Century….. Years after the Starship  Enterprise’s  histori

Pros:  Interesting, if slightly flawed concept.  Good script.  Nice acting. Cons:  Tends to perpetuate the myth of Nazi efficiency.  Otherwise, none. Patterns of Force:  Parallel Worlds, TV Production Politics and  Star Trek  Explained  Considering the socio-cultural and financial success of Paramount’s  Star Trek  franchise – a multi-media colossus rivaled perhaps only by J.K. Rowling’s  Harry Potter  and George Lucas’  Star Wars  empires – over the past 46 years, it’s hard to remember the reality that Gene Roddenberry’s Original Series was not given too much support from NBC,  the network on which it originally aired. Of course, to those fans who saw  Star Trek  during its broadcast network run (1966-1969) and those who latched on to Trekker status in the decade that followed its cancellation and eventual rebirth in syndication, the show’s struggles to survive on the air is part of the  Star Trek  legend.   Star Trek  was, after all, the first show in history to be saved