by Edward Gross
JOSEPH R. JENNINGS
On Phase II, I had objected strenuously to the hiring of Abel and company, because I felt they were incapable of doing the job. Paramount spent a great deal of money on them and wound up with nothing. They were very good salesmen. That’s it. And their record was plain to be seen. They had been doing commercials, all of which had gone radically over budget. They had one, a Levi’s commercial, which everybody was all hopped up about. And he came on with a presentation you wouldn’t believe. Mr. Wise was very attracted to young people with new ideas. I was about his age. I was not the age of Abel and company, and we certainly did not see eye to eye. That you can write in great big bold letters.
I had one or two illustrators part time, and with the money that Paramount was giving Abel, they had five or six of them, all of whom were turning out very finished airbrushed illustrations of circumstances that really had nothing to do with the script but were very impressive. I feel that the creative people were definitely suckered in by that, because they thought they were getting something that no one had ever heard of—very art deco. And I said, “Who the hell wants an art deco spaceship?” Yet it apparently all looked very attractive. As I say, they sold very well. When they got the chance, all they did was continue selling. It was a very costly error.
SUSAN SACKETT
In a very short time, Doug Trumbull and his crew were hired. They did a lot of beautiful special effects, some totally superfluous, and all of them were included because Paramount said we bought and paid for them, so we are going to put them in the film. It became a big special-effects and light show, and a lot of that should have been trimmed. We would have done that had we had the time. The long ride around the Enterprise looks really nice, but doesn’t do much to advance the story. But on the other hand, some people love that. They think the Enterprise is the star of the show. Shatner would have you believe differently.
RALPH WINTER (postproduction supervisor, Star Trek II)
By July, Abel had only delivered one sixteen-millimeter high-speed blowup of the wormhole. He was trying to pioneer with his very smart team a new level of visual effects and he couldn’t deliver. In that sense, Star Trek V was exactly parallel to that. That’s why Doug Trumbull took over. Barry Diller said to him, “It doesn’t matter what you spend. We already presold this movie to theaters. You have to deliver this thing. Spend whatever it takes.” A lot of people made their careers and built companies based on Star Trek. You could track the credits of people in Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the next twenty years. They were all in the effects business of every major motion picture from there on out. So it was groundbreaking in what they did in six months. But there was a price to be paid.
EDDIE EGAN
At Paramount, there was absolute panic and fear of lawsuits. It was one of the broadest releases of all time at that point and they had extracted very, very strict terms from the exhibitors for the privilege of playing the movie. There were many people who thought there would be no movie to deliver based on what happened with the visual effects. It also presented practical problems for advertising and publicity. There was no film to show. There were no materials to cut TV spots from that featured special effects until very late. Later, there would be a lot of vendors put on to cut TV spots on a wing and a prayer, with slugs in them that said, “This shot will show Enterprise moving left to right toward camera.” Those were very worrisome days.
RICHARD TAYLOR
The original budget that we had to do the effects for the movie was twelve million dollars, and we had a good plan going. We started down that trail and would be designing shots and things and they kept changing the script. Every time you change the script, we had to reboard it and refigure out stuff. We hadn’t shot any scenes for the film yet, because the fucking script kept changing. So we were just beginning to start principal photography on the models, and because they kept changing the script, our budget started going up. It was fourteen and then it got to like sixteen and then they said, “Hold it. You don’t know what you’re doing and we want to bring in Doug Trumbull,” who had done Close Encounters and has made science fiction. “We want him to take an objective look at this and see if he thinks you can really finish it.”
ANDREW PROBERT (concept designer/production illustrator, Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
I started on the project with Abel and then went through the painful process of changeover to Trumbull. Trumbull took me on as one of several people that were pulled through that, so in a way I feel kind of lucky by that and certainly complimented by it. Initially when the studio brought Abel on to the film, they were very excited by the possibilities that could happen by using Abel for the special effects, because Bob had done a lot of really nice things up to that point, not to mention some nice things since, so everyone was very optimistic. Bob’s main concern in doing Trek’s effects was to give the audience something that they’d never seen before, and consequently, this entailed a lot of research and development, which ran the budget way over what he had expected.
Obviously when you’re doing research and development work, there’s really no useable footage because most of it deals with testing and wedging—which is testing light exposure. And Paramount sort of set up an ultimatum that if there wasn’t any workable footage by a certain date, Abel would be taken off the project. We scrambled to get something going, but it just wasn’t there in time, so there was a big blowup between Robert Wise and Bob Abel. Then they just turned to someone who was more or less within their sphere of influence, and that was Trumbull, and he indicated that he could “save” the picture for them.
RICHARD TAYLOR
While we were building these models, Trumbull came over several times and I could see he was lusting on these things. He was like, “Holy fuck, those models are really good. I didn’t have anything to do with them.” And so when it came for the objective review of what we were doing, there was no objectivity at all. It was like he basically said, “No, they aren’t going to be able to get this done. The only way it’s going to get done is if I do it, and I’ll do it if you’ll let me direct this movie Brainstorm after.” So he threw that into the pot. And he came in and took over and a bunch of my people got taken by him from Abel’s. Then he realized he couldn’t get all this shit done either, so he recruited Apogee with John Dykstra and gave them a percentage of the work. And time was running out, so all of the sudden people are working golden time. And triple golden time. It cost forty million dollars in the end. Frankly, I didn’t believe it when they told us we were off the picture. I had about a hundred and some people working for me one day and the next day I don’t have anybody working for me.
I was actually in the camera room shooting a shot when they came in and said, “Richard, we’ve got to talk to you.” And I said, “What?” and they said, “You’re not on the movie anymore.” I said, “What?” And they said, “Trumbull is taking over the picture and we’re off the show.” And I said, “I don’t believe it. I’m going to keep shooting.” And I kept shooting until they finally came in and unplugged the camera and said, “No, it’s over. It’s all fucking over.” I left Abel’s shortly after that, because I’d worked there from ’73 to ’79 and I’d helped create this studio. I thought we had worked our ass off to this point and we had done some great stuff and we were on track and he kept dragging us into more stuff.
JON POVILL
If we had six months longer to finish the effects the way they could have been done, if we’d had good special-effects personnel from the beginning instead of having to start over in January or February of ’79, it would have been a very different movie. It still wouldn’t have been good, but it would have been vastly better.
ROBERT WISE
Extra time would have made a difference, and I think that both Doug and John would admit that. By saying this, I don’t want to imply that I don’t think they did a fantastic job. The two of them did, and their people did a fantastic amount of excellent work to get the picture read
y by the date, especially considering the fact that they had started behind schedule. I can’t give them enough credit or praise for the job they did. However, given more time, let’s say another three or four months, I think they would both agree that there are areas which could have been improved or done slightly differently.
One aspect of the film that is an indisputable triumph is composer Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-nominated soundtrack (for the record, it lost—incomprehensibly—to Georges Delerue’s score for A Little Romance) which helped define what Star Trek music was for the next generation, literally and figuratively.
JERRY GOLDSMITH (composer, Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
The problem was I didn’t have a theme. We recorded thirty minutes of music and everybody says, “Wow, that’s wonderful.” A couple days later I got a call from Bob Wise and he said, “I want to talk to you.” He came over and said it wasn’t working, because there’s no theme. So once I got my ego under control, I agreed that he was absolutely right! So for two weeks I sweated that one out, and the rest is history: the Star Trek theme was born.
LUKAS KENDALL (editor, Film Score Monthly)
The best score of the movie series still has to be Jerry Goldsmith’s for The Motion Picture. It’s a magnificent achievement—modern, timeless, and unforgettable, with the definitive theme for the franchise. The movie, for all its faults, is still a towering piece of cinema, and the score a major component. But it was chaos to create: Goldsmith couldn’t write without a finished film, and they were feeding him scenes and VFX sequences piecemeal. They’d book the 20th Century–Fox scoring stage not knowing whether they’d have music to record; sometimes they had a ninety-eight-piece orchestra sitting there with nothing to do, so they’d record umpteen takes of the main title.
JERRY GOLDSMITH
If it wasn’t for Jeffrey Katzenberg, it would have never gotten done. He just wouldn’t take no for an answer, and he was really like a high-school coach. He pushed everybody and got ’em going, and gave us pats on the back and cheered us on. He was fabulous. And I said after that, “Boy, this kid’s going to go a long way,” and I was right on that. In hindsight it was a lot of fun, but the actual doing of it wasn’t so much fun.
The drama of the behind-the-scenes production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was so all-encompassing that it can sometimes be forgotten that the entire cast from the original series was reunited and attempting to capture what had so successfully worked before. Additionally, Persis Khambatta, cast as Ilia in Phase II, was brought over to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with Stephen Collins joining the production as Commander Will Decker.
ROBERT WISE
When Paramount held the press conference announcing the film, they set up a large table with Roddenberry, all the cast, etc. When my turn came to speak, I said, “You know, I’m the alien here,” because I was the only one who hardly knew anything of Star Trek. They all knew more than I did. But it worked very well. They’re all very good actors, very professional. I found all of them, and particularly Bill and Leonard, to be professional and very good actors.
WALTER KOENIG
A highlight for me was the first day, when I was at my console and Nichelle was at hers and George was at his, and Bill, the captain, walked onto the bridge for the first time, and I said, “Kep-tin.” We all jumped up and ran over to him. I got such a high, such a rush at that moment that it took all my self-control not to embrace him. It was such a lovely moment. I should have embraced him.
WILLIAM SHATNER
It was a strange feeling, full of complex, even conflicting emotions. Ten years in my life suddenly had been swept away just as though they never had existed. I knew it was 1979, but it seemed like 1969 was just yesterday. Time seemingly stood still since I had last taken my place on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise and uttered those now familiar words, “Captain’s log, stardate…” I felt exhilarated, gratified, nostalgic. At the same time, there was a tinge of disbelief and a bit of concern. I guess each of those feelings was traceable to the fact that all of us had waited so long for this to happen. It was difficult, after so many false starts over a number of years, to realize Star Trek was really back.
DeFOREST KELLEY (actor, “Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy”)
The whole thing has been remarkable, an incredible experience. From the beginning. When we were all brought together again, for the first time in ten years, it was hard to realize it was really happening. Yet we also had that strange feeling that the last decade had never existed. The family was just picking up right where it left off.
LEONARD NIMOY
I was looking forward to reprising the character, because I certainly wouldn’t want either one of two things to happen—anyone else playing it, or Star Trek happening without me.
JAMES DOOHAN (actor, “Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott”)
The only thing I can remember thinking at that time—because to me, work was work, and I had to work to make a living—all I could think of when they were going to start a movie again was, “Thank God, maybe we’ll make a living out of this show!” Because it was ten years later and we knew what the fans thought. I went to 250 universities and received standing ovations all the time.
GEORGE TAKEI (actor, “Hikaru Sulu”)
The characters were all good friends and compatriots, and the context was of course Star Trek, so there was the feeling of coming home, but there was also that feeling of excitement and of scariness as well. Here we had this distinguished, legendary director, Robert Wise, so there was that sense of moving into another stratosphere in one’s career progression. Then it wasn’t really going home, because there was a whole different feel about that show. The costumes were different; the feel of the set, even though the geometric configuration was still the same, the tone, the color, the steeliness, and the monochromatic look was totally different. There was also this electricity in the air that there was a lot of money, and the buzz was that this was the most expensive movie up to that time. So it was a little bit of going home again, but more than that, it was a new and heady as well as an intimidating and awe-inspiring progression in terms of career and the project.
WALTER KOENIG
Standing on the set for that first shot where Kirk comes in and George [Takei] and Nichelle [Nichols] and I rush up to him and when we were setting up the lighting for that shot I finally believed we were making this movie. I was just caught up in a wonderful sense of euphoria, it’s one of the highlight moments of my involvement with Star Trek. The sense of yes, we are doing this, how neat, how unusual … how extraordinary.
Eric Harrison, a friend of Robert Wise’s, shared his unguarded thoughts about the tenor of the set with his friend actress Katharine Hepburn in a letter he sent to the beloved actress at the time. Harrison mused, “I gave your regards to R. Wise. He was thrilled and hopes when you come out here that you will visit. I think it would do a lot for his morale. The studio belongs to the oil company Gulf & Western and Star Trek is the first film with their own money so they constantly pace the set plus the fact that the technical problems are enormous. One whole week’s film has to be reshot because of a bug in the camera. So what was to finish the 21st of October is now 23rd of December. When I gave your regards to Wise, the first wardrobe lady was there and she did Rooster Cogburn with you.”
WILLIAM SHATNER
By the time we completed five months of filming—we used to do a TV show in one week—I felt we had achieved a galactic jump from our past efforts. What impressed me most, even more than the enhanced physical scope of its sets, costumes, and special effects, was the way the story had been developed. Captain Kirk has meant so much to me, been such an influence on my life as well as my career.
PERSIS KHAMBATTA (actress, “Ilia”)
I was so nervous on my first day, I couldn’t even remember my lines. I had to create a character and wasn’t sure what a Deltan was, exactly. On the second day of shooting I realized that I had to talk to Gene. I said to him, “Gene, you have to t
ell me what a Deltan is like.” So he gave me four pages of synopsis, which I think he gave to all the actors, even Leonard Nimoy. I read about the character and I really liked her. In some ways she is like me. She comes from a more spiritual world, beyond the material, where people count. Where you read people’s minds through the senses. It was something I felt very close to.
Unfortunately the script didn’t give me ways to express those things in the film. But some of those ideas must have gotten through, because so many people have commented on the sensuality that Ilia had, even though it couldn’t be expressed after she becomes a probe. One can’t express a probe being sensual. The woman’s basic expressions are in the eyes and mouth, and I think I tried to show this in the scenes with Stephen Collins. You see, I am very much like a Deltan in some ways. Ilia is into people and the beauty of everything.
RICHARD H. KLINE
One of the two new major cast members was Persis Khambatta, a very striking woman who had to shave her head completely to play the role. That might sound easy enough, but I must say that it was rather difficult to retain a visual continuity because, just like a man with his beard, she would develop a “five o’clock shadow” on her head. Also, as a result of the constant shaving of her head day after day, she would develop a rash, and a very clever type of makeup had to be applied constantly in order to hide it.