As J.J. Abrams proved (to differing degrees of succes according to various fans) with his 2009 version of Star Trek, the idea of new actors taking on the roles of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy, as made famous by William Shatner Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, seems like something of a no-brainer. But this wasn't the first time the idea was broached, as producer Harve Bennett and screenwriter David Loughery worked on a prequel following their efforts on 1989's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. While the new series version won't have anything to do with them, it's nonetheless interesting to look at what might have been.
“Every time they went to make one of those Star Trek movies,” explains Loughery, “the producers and the studio always ran into the same problem in getting the original cast together. The reasons for that were money, power, creative differences, ego, health, unavailability… all of those things. [Producer] Harve Bennett always had this ace up his sleeve, which was if we can’t get everybody together for one of these Star Trek movies, we should do a prequel.”
Starfleet Academy, which ultimately fell aside in favor of 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, chronicled the story of a young James T. Kirk, a Spock who is estranged from his parents and becomes the first Vulcan to attend Starfleet Academy, and Leonard McCoy, a 30-year-old doctor who attends the Academy after having pulled the plug on his terminally ill father and is searching for meaning his his life. Michael Curtiz’ 1940 film The Santa Fe Trail served as an inspiration for what Bennett envisioned as the classic triumvirate’s first trek. The film which could have been made, according to Bennett, for $27 million. would also have avoided the hefty multi-million dollar salaries of Shatner and Nimoy, as well as the escalating payments made to the other cast members.
David Loughery explains, “When I heard about the idea, I thought it was terrific. Not from the point of view of recasting, but from the point of view of storytelling, because I worked so closely with the characters on Star Trek V, that the idea of doing an origin story – where you show them as young cadets – was tremendously exciting. What it was, was a real coming of age story. In outline form, it was the story of Kirk and Spock meeting for the first time as cadets here on earth. We’ve got a young Jim Kirk, who’s kind of cocky and wild. He’s not exactly what you might think starship captain material might be. He’s like one of these kids who would rather fly hot planes and chase girls. Spock is this brilliant, arrogant, aloof to the point of obnoxiousness, genius. It’s this mask he’s hiding behind to cover his own conflicting human emotions. He’s an outcast, he left Vulcan in shame against his father’s wishes and, like all adolescents, he’s trying to find a place to fit in, but he keeps screwing it up.
“Over the course of this story,” he continues, “which is one year at Starfleet Academy, Kirk and Spock are sort of put to the test and they begin as rivals and end up as friends and comrades who learn that they have to combine their talents for the first time to defeat a deadly enemy. In the final scene, where they say goodbye at graduation and go their separate ways, we’re able to see the legend that these two boys are going to grow up to become. We felt that there was a powerful story there, one that the audience would be interested in. We’re always interested in young Indiana Jones and young Sherlock Holmes, and how they started and came to be who they are. This was sort of the way to explain Kirk and Spock and where they came from.”
Look for more info on the Starfleet Academy series in the near future.