Amph [NERRRD] Observations, rhetorical questions, comments & 55 Years of Star Trek (General Thread)

Well, fortunately, the episode wasn't effects heavy. Even after the upgrade for Blu-Ray. This was one of the more cerebral and intellectual episodes regarding time travel.

 

Speaking of time travel, today is the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. As I understand it, Gene Roddenberry tried several times to have this event used as the centerpiece of a "Star Trek" movie. Does anyone know exactly how he intended for this to work? I've heard something about Spock being on the Grassy Knoll, but not much more detail than that.

Just wondering...

 

I've heard that story too. It was something to do with the crew of the Enterprise going back into to stop the Kennedy assassination, only to discover that JFK's death is a fixed point in time and leads directly the creation of the Federation, or something along those lines.

 

I think it was something to do with a curry.

 

Memory Alpha sez the TOS crew had to stop the Klingons from stopping the JFK assassination. I think I remember reading in Shatner's "movie memories" also that the script climaxed with Spock on the grassy knoll taking the fatal headshot! So that was probably officially a thing.

bit on it in here but also lots of factoids how the eventual script for Wrath of Khan was cobbled together by Nick Meyer from several other drafts in less than 2 weeks.

Considering how Roddenberry took a lot of unused TOS / Phase II concepts and worked them into TNG (even some unused Phase II scripts were reworked into TNG eps) I'm surprised he never got around to the JFK assassination story on TNG. Woulda made a hellova S1 finale! In an alternate universe somewhere, there is the craziest goddamned TNG Roddenberry penned time travel JFK assassination ep where Data is on the grassy knoll. Or maybe Westley Crusher. He was shoehorned awkwardly into a lot of early TNG. If Westley Crusher was the one who killed JFK that would be the greatest thing ever.

 

Maybe what was originally planned for the finale was a casulty of the '87 Writer's Strike.

 

Gene Roddenberry kept pitching his "The Enterprise crew has to let JFK die so the Federation can exist" as ideas for Star Treks 2,3,and 4.

I think I remember reading details like The Guardian of Forever being used as the means of time travel (which would have had Harlan Ellison pitching a fit, but what else is new?), Kirk and co. giving JFK a tour of the Enterprise, and yeah, some type of "Spock on the grassy knoll" business (I think read he kills JFK with a "psychic bullet" or something to that effect).

 

Well now we know where RTD got the idea to have the Doctor in Dallas on the day of the Kennedy assassination when Doctor Who returned in 2005.

 

That grassy knoll must have been pretty damn crowded.

 

Spock, Data, and Lee Harvey Oswald walk into a bar...

 

That's a pretty provocative premise, but probably one better suited for an hour long episode than a two hour long feature film. That said, I just can't see TNG quite pulling it off. That sort of thing would've been more in TOS wheelhouse, though obviously it would've been too close to the actual events to do it during its original run.

Ultimately it was probably for the best that Roddenberry was marginalized during the making of the feature films, but it's a little sad to think about someone having to watch their creation hijacked and taken in directions they don't approve of. It happens all the time, but this is a high profile example of it.

 

DS9 did do something similar with a fictionalized 'future' event that's probably similar in concept to where Roddenberry wanted to go with the JFK plotline. It was fairly good, I thought.

 

Do you mean Past Tense? I don't see that as similar

 

I thought it had some, in so much as how the presence or lack thereof of a historical figure can change the future in an instant.

 

But the crucial difference is we don't get to see the alternate future (aside from a few lines on the Defiant bridge. Which shouldn't even be there). That's what makes the JFK concept interesting. The awfulness of the sanctuary districts is the correct future.

And the episode is awful. The ultimate in pompous preachiness.

 

Onto Best of Both Worlds in my TNG rewatch. 10 years later, and I still know most of the lines!

 

But... that's all wrong...

Shaka was when the walls fell, to indicate failure.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra was to indicate coming together in a common cause, then becoming friends on the ocean...

 

His arms open wide?

 

Temba, his eyes open!

 

The2ndQuest - Quantum Leap actually did a two parter were Sam leaped into Lee Harvey Oswald's body several times. I can't remember the exact details of the ep (it's been ages since I've seen it), but Sam tries to change Oswald's actions and his destiny in being Kennedy's shooter. Ultimately he fails, and his last leap is into the secret service agent who jumps onto the car when Kennedy is hit. Sam, at the end of the two parter then learns he was never meant to save JFK, but rather Jackie Kennedy.

 

Ah. The Quantum Leap eps tend to be the first that spring to mind when the topic of episodes about the assassination and 'what if' it could be prevented pop up.

 

Ooh, Garak plays Kennedy. Will have to watch that!