50 Years of Star Trek Page #3

It's a great scene."

This is the first

interracial kiss on television.

[dramatic music]

[applause and laughter]

They were writing some

pretty major stuff in those days.

I mean, very eloquent

writers. Very knowledgeable.

They did "Mark of Gideon,"

which got a lot of flack,

about birth control, overpopulation.

'Cause nobody had

talked about that on TV

up until that point.

NBC was disappointed with "Star

Trek" from the get-go,

but the rating were not bad

and the fan mail was huge.

"Star Trek" is doing things

that a lot of the

affiliates were uncomfortable with,

so they kept moving it from

one bad slot to another

until they finally put

it in the death slot

to get rid of this show.

That is what killed "Star Trek."

Narrator:
The original

series is canceled

after 3 seasons and 79 episodes.

But it's gained a cult following

that's become undeniable.

Within four years, "Trek"

is back on the air.

This time reaching a new

generation of young fans.

["Star Trek:
The Animated Series" theme]

My first contact with "Star Trek"

was probably

watching the animated series

on Saturday morning

TV in the early '70s.

And, you know, I was

really struck by the, you know,

the bright colors of the uniforms.

The fans were very wary.

In fact, some of the cast was wary too.

They felt, "Hey, 'Star

Trek' is starting to get momentum.

"We think there could

be more life in this.

But if we do a

cartoon, it's gonna kill it."

And Gene Roddenberry was

very cagey and very smart.

He says, "No, this will fan the flames.

This will keep it alive rather

than let it disappear."

And he was right.

It sounds funny for saying this,

but it has never been canceled.

You know, um, we were just

off longer than we wanted to be.

So then we have the

'70s, right, '70s hit.

Everyone went to see that

"Star Wars" situation.

[laughter] I think we

can make some money.

So you had a TV script

that was being padded out

into a motion picture.

They took themselves

a little too seriously

and they were trying to be

a little more like, "2001."

Then they brought in Robert Wise

because he was known as

a big-time movie director.

There never really been a movie

years after a show was canceled.

["Star Trek:
The Motion Picture" theme]

"Star Trek" would be the beginning

of that phenomena, which... now,

you know,

well, unceasing phenomena.

When we came back to

do the first really big one

that we did after being away so long,

it was amazing.

Narrator:
"Star Trek:

The Motion Picture"

hits theaters in December of 1979.

But the cast has its doubts.

So Robert Wise was

a very good filmmaker.

He was a multiple

Academy Award-winning director,

but he did not know "Star Trek."

We sat down to watch that first movie

and the beginning was great.

Dat-dat-dat-dat-dat-dat-dat.

Bum-bum-bum-bum.

And then it suddenly

became a talking heads movie.

Where was the friction?

Where was the conflict?

Where was the passion?

It had very little

to do with "Star Trek."

You had the spaceship, the Enterprise.

You had the crew.

But the story had very little to do

with anything "Star Trek-y."

The characters were

not in shape, in place,

playing off of each

other and with each other

the way we did best.

Why are they wearing pajamas?

Why, you know, does it look like

they're in a Holiday Inn?

So a lot of what "The Wrath of Khan"

proved to be about aesthetically

and maybe even intellectually as well

was a reaction to what I saw.

And for a movie that

was so poorly received,

we had done extremely well.

To my great surprise, they

said, "Star Trek II."

Narrator:
"The Wrath of

Khan" becomes an instant classic.

It's villain is a

genetically engineered superhuman,

who first appeared

in the original series

bent on revenge against Captain Kirk.

"Wrath of Khan" is a classic.

I mean, "Wrath of Khan" just

works on every level.

You know, it just

does. It's pop entertainment.

It's a fan's dream.

It's fun. It's funny.

The visual effects are state of the art

and really hold up even to this day.

Those space battles are fantastic.

Montalban was a charismatic actor.

He really gave us this

wonderful performance.

It was theatrical, imaginative, creative

performance as Khan in "Star Trek II."

And he looked great.

And that was his

chest that people thought

had been built up with

makeup or something.

That was him, you know?

It was really Ricardo Montalban.

That's his chest. It's his chest.

Gives you an idea of

"Star Trek-ian" scholarship

that that's the most, you

know, frequently asked question.

Narrator:
Behind the scenes,

the cast didn't always get along.

I had immediately had a

good rapport with Nick Meyer,

but as we went

through several rehearsals

working with the camera,

Shatner would come over to me

and start trying to redirect me.

- Is the word given, Admiral?

- The word is given.

So I finally said, "Can

I stop for a second?"

Nick said to me, "What's

the matter, Ike?"

I said, "Well, I'm getting direction

"from other people on the set,

"and it's making me very uncomfortable.

"I just want to make sure

I'm doing my job correctly,

So I'm listening to you."

And he said, "That's right.

You're listening to me. We good?"

I said, "We're good.

Thank you very much."

And I just stood back.

No one else ever said

anything to me again after that.

Narrator:
Khan uses mind control

to achieve his ends,

delivered in a gruesome way.

They're young. Enter through the ears.

And wrap themselves around

the cerebral cortex.

Yeah, well, that was fun.

You know, being on

the other end of that.

What it was, it was a stunt bug.

No, it wasn't a stunt bug.

It was... it was a

little thing that had

a little rubbery plastic thing,

and they had a fine

filament thread attached to it.

It was very hard to see.

When it was going up my face,

there was actually a

guy standing above me,

and they had drilled

a hole in my helmet,

and he was pulling it up

my face on that filament.

And when they got to my ear,

and them I made all those screams,

really unbecoming an officer,

but they... that's

what they wanted.

[both screaming]

Narrator:
But there is

one scene that has become

the defining moment in

"The Wrath of Khan."

I read that script and

I saw the conflict,

and I saw the passion in it,

and when I saw the scene

where Spock tries to save the ship

and dies in the process, I said,

"This is a good, good film."

I really believed that

this was going to be

the final "Star Trek" movie.

So I thought if "Star

Trek" is coming to an end,

maybe it's fitting that Spock should die

saving the ship and the crew,

and be a hero and go

out in a blaze of glory.

During the making of the

movie, I began to be concerned

that maybe I'd made a mistake.

And on the day we went to

shoot Spock's death scene,

Harve came to me on the set.

He came to me on the set and he said,

"What can you give us

that might be a thread

for the future for

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