Of all the eras of Star Trek’s long history, the 1970s are filled with the most contradictions. After its cancellation by NBC in 1969, the original Star Trek series was almost instantly reborn as a syndicated TV hit, creating a fandom explosion the likes of which the world had never seen. Because so many shows and movies were later created in the 1980s and ‘90s, the 1970s, right up until the release of The Motion Picture in 1979, are sometimes viewed as a lost era. But the ‘70s gave us The Animated Series, and were when conventions helped turn the fandom into a truly massive phenomenon.
There were also repeated attempts to bring a live-action version of Star Trek back to screens. And in a new mini-documentary from OTOY and The Roddenberry Archive, the never-made 1970s reboot series, Star Trek: Phase II, is analyzed and explained with zeal.
Lost Voyages: Phase II and the Rebirth of Star Trek
Produced by the Roddenberry Archive, Lost Voyages: Phase II and the Rebirth of Star Trek attempts to condense several years of convoluted production history into 30 minutes. It’s available on YouTube now, and you can watch it above.
With commentary from artist and set designer Daren Dochterman, historians Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and one of the writers on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Jon Povill, the new documentary demystifies the long road to the first Trek movie by debunking a few myths, while also making it clear that the franchise’s challenges were the result of a collision between changing business goals and inconsistent creative visions.
After Star Trek’s cancellation in 1969, there were almost immediate discussions about reviving the show. Roddenberry took a stab at a feature script called “The God Thing,” and then, in the mid-1970s, a movie script called “Star Trek: Planet of the Titans” was written by Chris Bryant, Allan Scott, and then-director Philip Kaufman. This time-travel epic would have revealed that, through a paradox, Kirk and Spock gave fire to humanity in ancient times, and would have also featured a totally redesigned Enterprise, as visualized by concept artist Ralph McQuarrie.
Around 1975, these early film ideas morphed into a TV series called Star Trek: Phase II, which was combined with Paramount’s desire to launch a new TV network. And it’s within these details that the documentary makes an important assertion: contrary to popular belief, Star Trek: The Motion Picture wasn’t made as a response to the success of Star Wars.
Why was Star Trek: Phase II never made?
Featuring fun new digital “visualizations” of the unrealized designs for Star Trek: Phase II, the documentary points out that the reason the reboot TV show was later reworked into a feature film wasn’t just because of Star Wars’ surprise success. Paramount actually felt that they’d missed their window to capitalize on the success of Star Wars, and it was arguably Star Trek that had paved the way for the mainstream success of Star Wars anyway. (George Lucas has acknowledged that Star Trek “softened up the entertainment arena.”)
But in July 1977, with Star Wars already in theaters, Star Trek: Phase II was still in pre-production as a TV series. It wasn’t until the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1978, combined with Paramount pulling the plug on its new TV network idea, that Phase II was transformed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The documentary offers differing viewpoints as to whether there was ever going to be a Phase II, or if the project was cursed from the start because of Paramount’s shifting goals and differing creative visions for the franchise’s future. Ultimately, it seems like we were always destined for the Star Trek rebirth that we got, but the long road to that point was chaotic and full of fascinating alternate paths.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture streams on Paramount+.
