Tag: Harve Bennett

Moreover…

It just suddenly hit me.

“Fuck!” I shouted at a New Orleans gas station while getting a bowl of delicious boiled peanuts, “maybe Harve Bennett did write a good screenplay!”

“Yes suh,” an old Cajun man said as he patted me on the back. “Ah Ben sayun tah fo 40 ye-ahs. Dat ol Harve Bennett a dat udder boy Nicholas Meyer sho re-vived dat der Star Trek wit The Wrath of Khan n The Search for Spock. Yessuh. Dat there turd movie is definy da bes un do. A’ve been waitin yeahs fo summon to say so.”

“The fuck did you just say?” I asked. “What are you? A stupid moron?! I’m talking about Star Trek. What would you know about that you fuckin hillbilly?!”

So anyway, my vacation was ruined because I couldn’t help think that maybe I was wrong. Maybe Harve Bennett didn’t write a bad screenplay for Star Trek III; maybe he wrote a pretty decent one. It has its flaws, sure. But then I remember Kirk surrendering to Kruge at the Battle of Genesis. This is a great scene on multiple levels: the Enterprise is being held together by duct tape when it goes into battle with a fully armed Klingon Bird of Prey. Naturally the Enterprise is knocked out. But instead of surrendering, Kirk attempts a bluff; and a pretty good one at that. Yet the ever intuitive and aggressive Kruge sees right through it. Moreover, the Klingon commander shoots down the high minded morality of the Federation and accuses Kirk and company of being the true aggressors with the development of the Genesis Device.

That last point might seem minor but it occurred to me that that might be the first time the Federation is criticized in Star Trek. What’s shocking is that the audience is sort of expected to agree with Kruge. But this is also a great scene when viewing the film as a character study of James T. Kirk. While Kirk faced his ultimate foe in the previous film, Khan doesn’t appear to be the space-faring tactical and strategic genius that Kruge is. No doubt Kirk made plenty of gambles (all of which paid off) throughout the series up to that point, but when Kruge calls his bluff, it felt like Kirk was finally beaten at his own game…perhaps for the first time ever.

So now that I got all that out of my system, my apologies to Harve Bennett (RIP). And I can finally enjoy bar hopping blind drunk across New Orleans.

star trek v: the final assault

This was the first Star Trek movie I saw, so maybe I have a soft spot for it.

For the record, I don’t think Bill Shatner is the problem here. I’ll defend that man till death. The problem with this film is the poor special effects (mixed in with what I presume to be budgetary constraints) and some of the strange science that flies in the face of the grounded science of Star Trek.

I don’t think the script is the problem either. Sure there were some strange decisions. The romance between Scotty and Uhura was odd, especially since it was never hinted before (or after). Trek fans hate the idea of Sybok, Spock’s half-brother…which was also never mentioned before in Trek canon… but Sybok is actually an interesting character. However, the heart of Star Trek, particularly with the original cast, was the trifecta of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and this film contains some of the best scenes of them together.

The “antagonist”, the aforementioned Sybok, was originally intended to be played by Sean Connery. If that had managed to work out, I’m sure this film would be looked at more favorably. That being said, Laurence Luckinbill does a stellar job making this religious charlatan both sympathetic and charismatic, enough for you to believe that he could rip apart the friendship between the trifecta. I’d say he’s the second best villain in Trek film (behind, of course, Ricardo Montalban’s Khan).

But I applaud Shatner’s ambition here. Harve Bennet, then the head of Star Trek films, hated the idea of “the Enterprise searching for God, but finds the devil instead,” which may be a controversial concept within Star Trek, but it is an interesting idea in-itself.

Did it work?

Not entirely.

Could it have worked?

Yes. Which is why it’s a shame that Shatner never got a chance to do a proper Director’s Cut, especially given advancements in CGI technology.

They gave Robert Wise that opportunity with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and its reputation has greatly improved.

But there is an interesting fan theory floating around the internet: the main plot of the film is Kirk’s dream while camping with Spock and McCoy in Yosemite. You watch the movie, and you can definitely draw that conclusion.

That’s how I watch it. And it becomes the greatest Star Trek movie ever made.

Maybe the internet isn’t such a bad place after all.