TAA Season II
Response
The Animated Adventures continued to have strong ratings going into season II. On episode premiere there was a minor dip, but on syndication it continued to do well. As with other animated shows of the era, episodes were incredibly frequently rebroadcast. Sales on the
Landing Party line continued to grow, along with other Star Trek merchandise. With it's success proven, Paramount sold Broadcasting rights for the show to air in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Critically, the series continued to be well received. Though some Trekkies had begun to complain that the show was too child-like and needed to appeal to them more, others still enjoyed it. In one of the earliest ruptures in the fandom, fan magazines began to split into ones that saw the Animated Adventures as legitimate, and those that didn't. Though treated at legitimate at first, the official canonicity of TAA would be something of a question in later yeas.
At the 1975 Emmys, the episode
How Sharper the Serpent's Tooth would win the series another 'Outstanding Entertainment-Children's Series' award. It fended off weak competition, and the award was one of the least prestigious Emmys. However, it was still impressive the series had done twice what the original could not. Following the second Emmy win, the show was green lit for 2 more seasons and 44 more episodes.
"Paramount was smart to get dotted-line signatures on the last two seasons at once. Every year the cast's wages grew, and I can only imagine how they would balloon after the revival came out. By signing them now, they kept the show affordable enough to keep on air for a few more years."
-Lou Schiemer, 1994 interview
By the end of 1974, it had become evident for the executives at Paramount that Star Trek could be revived. Between the strong critical and commercial response to The Animated Adventures, the strong ratings of the show in syndication, and the constant badgering by fans, it would be a mistake
not to try. Plus, assembling a production team and cast would be incredibly easy, as almost everyone involved in the Original Series production was willing to come back. And even if the season flopped, it would still be a win for Paramount. As they could add it to the syndication package for the Original Series, making it that much more lucrative.
Star Trek II
Pre-Production
President of Gulf Western Charles Bludhorn, Paramount's parent company, was strongly in favor of a Star Trek revitalization. Be it on the small or big screen. In 1974 he replaced the president of Paramount with Barry Diller, a man who had his reservations about Star Trek but would go along with the word of his boss. In October 1974 Diller approached Roddenberry to discuss a revitalization. [1] Roddenberry accepted, and negotiations continued throughout the fall. Roddenberry desired a movie, while Diller doubted Star Trek's box office potential. With the success of TAA, he believed the future of Star Trek laid on television. Ultimately a compromise was reached. A 2-hour long TV movie was greenlit, and that would serve as the pilot to a 13 episode long season 1. If successful, a 3 season contract would be arranged.
Known as 'Phase II' in pre-production and the community, Star Trek II would be officially greenlit on December 4th, 1974. Principle photography was scheduled for spring and summer, 1975, with a planned release in September on NBC. The budget for the pilot-movie was placed at 1.4 Million dollars. While the pilot had a budget of 425,000 and the series itself had a budget of 297,500 dollars per episode. This was only a bit larger than the budget of the notoriously cheap season 3 of TOS. However, the cost of creating most of the sets and props were folded into the movie, freeing up a large portion of the budget for future episodes. [2]
Only Roddenberry was attached at that point, and once the contract was signed he began to reassemble the production team. He had to move quick, as the series was due to premiere in the fall, less than a year in the future.
Production Team
Robert Justman
Justman was second only to Roddenberry himself in importance for creating Star Trek. Early negotiations allowed him to return to his role as co-producer, as he was liked by Roddenberry, and loved by the fanbase. The studio saw him as a useful counterbalance to Roddenberry. A tempering influence, someone to reign in many of Roddenberry's more... wild ideas, and helped him keep the budget and time in check. [3]
Robert Goodman
Goodwin was a Paramount producer who had a record for turning projects in early and under budget. Diller had pushed for his inclusion on the basis that he would serve as an 'inside man' for the studio. He was also seen as a fallback producer should Jutsman and Roddenberry prove incapable of managing the show. Goodman had never seen an episode of The Original Series and had no experience working in science-fiction. Thus he held his own reservations about being attached to the project, and was disrespected by Roddenberry. But there was little Roddenberry could do. Diller wouldn't let the show air unless he knew they would be more responsible with their money this time. [4]
Goodwin would watch the entire Original Series to prepare for his role and did his best. Though initially disliked, he would become affectionally be known as 'The Other Robert' or 'ToR' in the community.
D.C. Fontana
Fontana was contracted to work on the Animated Adventures for at least two more years, and thus was not an official part of Phase II's early development or it's first season. However, she gave recommendations, attended meetings, submitted a script, and was promised a position should she become free.
Matt Jeffries
Matt Jeffries was a production designer who had designed the original Enterprise model, The Enterprise's bridge and sickbay, the Klingon D7 Battlecruiser, the Romulan Bird of Prey, and numerous other sets and props. He was Art Director for The Original Series, and had a reputation of being able to make impressive models and sets possible on the increasingly shrinking budget of the show. Held in high esteem by everyone who worked with him, he was offered his old position as art director for the new show. Unfortunately, he was already contracted as Art Director for Little House on the Prairie. He recommended Joe Jennings, assistant Art Director for the The Original Series's second season for the role, and Jennings was quickly hired.
In addition to recommending his replacement, Jeffries provided a series of concept art sketches and oversaw the design of the refit Enterprise model.
Jesco Von Putamaker
Putamaker was a NASA manager known for his outreach in improving knowledge of space in the greater public. He was hired as a scientific consultant, to help writers understand space and give the series an air of scientific legitimacy.
John Povill
John Povill had helped Roddenberry get set back up in the early days of Phase II's development. He himself was a hopeful Hollywood screenwriter and a fan of TOS. Initially he was 'assistant to the producer' but following the submission of the script 'The Child' he became an associate producer and script editor, entirely because Roddenberry liked the script so much. He was not seen as qualified by Justman or Goodwin.
Others
A variety of other production crew members would be brought back into the fold. The two other associate producers were unit production manager Gregg Peters, and director of photography Jerry Finnerman. In addition, special effects artist Jim Rugg, costume designer William Theiss, makeup artist Fred Philipps, and production illustrator Michael Minor were all hired. With the exception of Minor, all were TOS alumni taking back their old jobs.
The Enterprise Refit
The original Enterprise model was over 10 years old at this point, and needed to be completely reworked to be shown on modern television. A new, 8 foot model was ordered. There was greater detail along the whole thing, more more hull livery and mechanical bits sticking out. The nacelles were swapped out with a sleeker design, the secondary hull was given a more barrel-like shape, and a torpedo control room was added along the neck.
Like the last series, they filmed a handful stock shots of the ship and then reused them for the rest of the series. If they were lucky, they could add a handful of new or episode specific shots a season.
OTL TMP Poster with the Phase-II Enterprise
Sets
As all of the original series sets had been demolished or repurposed by this point, everything had to be rebuilt. Besides, many of them looked outdated. starting essentially from scratch, 10 new sets were created. With concept art from Jeffries, Jennings and Rugg set about designing the refit Enterprise's interior. Roddenberry's new vision for the show was that the Enterprise would have a colder, more muted color scheme. No longer filled with reds and blues and greens, the new interiors were white with grey and black accent colors.
Set List
Bridge
Engine Room
Cargo Bay
- A Cargo Bay set was planned, but last minute had to scrapped as it was deemed too expensive
Kitchen-Officer's Mess / Conference Room
- With minimal work, the Officer's mess could be refit into a conference room, getting two sets for the price of one.
Recreation Deck
Arboretum
Medical Bay
Generic Quarters
- A multi-purpose set. This one could be rearranged to be anyone's quarters.
Transporter Bay
Corridor, Jeffries Tube, and Turbolift
Type-K Shuttlecraft
OTL Phase II Set Concept art.
"Well, the show will in fact have more sets than the original. Some, like the transporter room, are just touched up versions of the original. Others, like our new Rec Deck, are completely new. We know how cramped and mechanical the old show could feel, especially in the third season when location shoots were limited. So we're adding an arboretum."
Jo Jennings, 1974 convention Q&A
Costumes
The Costumes for Phase II were by an large reuses of the TOS era costumes. This was mostly a cost-saving measure. However, there were several updates. One, the material was of higher quality, with the rank bands and insignia improved. Two, the green command uniforms formally became golden. Three, taking advice from James Doohan, the pants now had the division color as a pinstripe running down their length.
The biggest change came at the suggestion of Roddenberry. The environmental belts of TAA were to make their way into these costumes as well. They were black belts that ran along the waist, with a large black device in the front of them. They were supposed to project an invisible 'environmental field' allowing one to beam down to non-M class planets without the need for a spacesuit. Thus, freeing the writers from one of their biggest constraints. This was widely seen as ugly and were uncomfortable to wear for long period of time, and after only a few episodes the belts instead became equipment sometimes worn on away missions.
The women's costumes were also completely reworked. The plunging neck-line, miniskirts, and high heels would not fly in the modern era. So they were updated. Now the women's uniform cut was a two piece like the men's. Instead of a miniskirt, it had a knee-length black skirt worn on top of a top identical to the men's. Women's collars were now the same as men's, and women no longer wore heels. Some background women wore pants, but the main characters only did so on landing parties. [5]
Medical officer attire was also changed for Phase II. Now medical officers wore white uniforms, their own color, with their own divisional insignia. Previously the red cross had only appeared on Chapel, but now it was standard for all of them. In addition, Chapel and other nurses wore nurse's caps, and McCoy had a red lab coat he occasionally wore.
"As far as I know, McCoy getting a different uniform came from the studio. With him and Spock being so prominent together, they wanted a way to distinguish us clearly. We had identical uniforms and now identical ranks. Giving me a different uniform made us stick out more."
-DeForest Kelly, 1975 interview
Dress uniforms make no appearance in the first season, simply due to a lack of money. And background characters continued to wear uniforms identical to the ones found on TOS.
Cast
The entire cast was offered to reprise their role in the revival series. And all but one would come back with ease. However the casting story of Leonard Nimoy will be covered in a future chapter. DeForest Kelley managed to secure a formal spot as one of the three leads, with the pay that came with it. [6] Early negotiations by Doohan, Takei, Nichols, and Koenig saw them as contracted regulars instead of the day workers they were in the old show. This secured them names in the opening credits.
In addition, two new characters were added for the series. First was William Decker. Decker serves as this show's POV character. Initially, he was going to be the ship's XO, but following Nimoy's return, his role changed. He became a very young and fresh-faced ensign. Inexperienced and not very bright, Decker is a mix of comedic and charming. Things are frequently explained to the audience through him. And the other addition was Ilia. Ilia was a Deltan, a telepathic alien species with a propensity for circlets. She was also the ship's physiatrist and a love interest of Decker.
Though the main 7 appear in all 13 episodes, Chapel and the new pair appear less frequently. Decker is in 11 episodes, Ilia in 10, and Chapel in 7.
The descriptions of the new characters sent out to casting agencies were:
"Ensign William 'Bill' Decker. Early 20s, Caucasian male. Decker is the youngest member of the Enterprise crew. He is the ship's navigator, but he is a frequent member of away teams and is handy with a phaser. His father was a Starfleet captain who died in the line of duty, and Decker entered the service in honor of him. Decker should be charming, attractive, and heroic, but also naïve, inexperienced, and even vulnerable at times. He looks up to Captain Kirk as mythic hero, and has a complicated romantic life with Lt. Ilia. [7]
"Lieutenant Ilia. Early-Mid 20s, female, any ethnicity. Ilia is the ship's physiatrist. She is a Deltan alien and as such she should have an exotic beauty. Deltans posses powerful ESP senses, including the ability to read minds. Because of this, Ilia keeps herself at a distance from the rest of the crew. The exception is Bill Decker, who she has a complicated romantic life with. Ilia is second only to Mr. Spock in terms of brainpower, and she comes into conflict with her superior officer, Doctor McCoy." [8]
Characters
Name: James T. Kirk
Rank: Captain
Role: Commanding Officer
Played by: William Shatner
Though Kirk's personality goes mostly without saying, this series would lean into his separation from the rest of the crew. He maintains a professional wall he can only somewhat drop when around Bones. To quote the series bible, he is 'Always on Trial with himself' and is 'The loneliest man on the ship.'
Name: Spock
Rank: Commander
Role: Senior Science Officer, First Officer
Played by: Leonard Nimoy
Spock is much more Vulcan at the start of the series. After the five year mission, he attempted to purge his emotion and achieve Kolinahr as a monk on Vulcan. No one saw him in the interim years, and a key plot point in the pilot is him rekindling his old friendships. Over the course of the movie and then television series he has a loose arc, where he slowly comes to accept his two halves as part of one, and manages to balance both his logical and emotional sides.
Name: Leonard 'Bones' McCoy
Rank: Commander
Role: Ship's Surgeon, Senior Medical Officer
Played by: DeForest Kelly
Though McCoy is the same personality wise as OTL, he has a new relationships. The pilot movie would touch on his complicated relationship with his daughter and granddaughter, and future episodes would go into more detail about the McCoy family.
Name: Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott
Rank: Commander
Role: Chief Engineer
Played by: James Doohan
Scotty is as OTL.
Name: Sulu
Rank: Lieutenant Commander
Role: Senior Helmsman
Played by: George Takei
Sulu's personality gets a bit more development here. He is now shown to be a 'serial hobbyist' or renaissance man. His interests ranging from fencing to botany to Andorian cuisine. He's also shown to be talkative, and at the very least he thinks he is suave. His friendship with Chekov appears in higher prominence, as they have a somewhat comedic duo. A running joke in the series is that despite both claiming to be skilled ladies men, all of their dates end in disaster.
Name: Uhura
Rank: Lieutenant Commander
Role: Senior Communications Officer
Played by: Nichelle Nichols
Uhura is a bit more prominent in Phase II. She has a noted intelligence, and is skilled with computers and code-cracking, something never seen on TOS. It is also said she is a skilled actor. She is able to impersonate the voice of several crewmembers on a dime.
Name: Pavel Chekov
Rank: Lieutenant
Role: Senior Tactical Officer, Security Chief
Played by: Walter Koenig
Out of all of the TOS crew, Chekov receives the biggest overhaul. His role on the ship is changed, he's gone quite far up in rank, and his personality is very different. He now has a serious, gruff, militaristic and headstrong persona. To quote the series bible 'Chekov believes it is his duty to protect his ship, his crewmates, and his captain at all costs.' He balks at any suggestion that throws his comrades in danger, but leaps at the opportunity to do it himself. Even his appearance is different, he now sports a buzzcut and scar along his cheek.
When with Sulu, his older personality shines through a bit more. Much of the show's comedy now comes from the contrast between him and Sulu. Chekov is now the very serious straight-man to the antics of a slightly more eccentric Sulu.
"I have no proof or anything, just a gut feeling. But I do feel like they made Chekov almost a completely different character because of his depiction on The Animated Show. They didn't want to, in the eyes of Trekkies, be connected to someone so childlike. So they went in the complete opposite direction. You know what I mean?"
-Walter Koenig, convention Q&A, 2000
Name: William 'Billy' Decker
Rank: Ensign
Role: Navigator
Decker in this show is very similar to Chekov in TOS. Though he is more charming, more of a dashing hero as opposed to a comedic one. Much of his success rided on casting of an actor who could simultaneously .
His Father was captain of the USS Independence before dying in battle with the Klingons 15 years ago. Will was only 5when this happened, and thus does not remember his dad very well. But it left him with big shoes to fill, and for his whole life all he's wanted was to become a Starfleet officer. This ambition lead him to become one of the youngest cadets in Starfleet Academy's history at 16, and one of the youngest officers in the fleet, at 20. He carries a chip on his shoulder about Kllingons,
He's wide-eyed and eager, though he doesn't quite have the experience to back up his skill. This makes him the perfect audience view point character. Though he presents himself professionally as he can on duty, off duty he is shown to be softer and more vulnerable when off duty. His enthusiasm means he's frequently put on away missions, in fact he spends more time on the ground than navigating the ship. Will is always amazed by the wonders of space.
He has had a boyish crush Ilia since the academy, which she initially rejected, then accepted, then called off when she graduated. They remain friends and bunkmates, and Will constantly is scheming to get her to 'fall back in love' with him. He is frequently mentored by Captain Kirk, and he looks up to the senior officers as gods, The Enterprise's mission being required reading at the academy. While Kirk is happy to mentor Decker, he is uncomfortable with the narrative of him as a legendary hero, as he feels he is just human like everybody else.
Many of the characters have different names for him. To Kirk, he's 'Ensign'. To Bones, he's 'Kid'. To Ilia, he's 'Will'. To Spock, he's 'Mr. Decker'. To Sulu and Chekov, he's 'Billy' and to Chapel and Uhura, he's 'William'.
Name: Ilia
Rank: Lt. JG
Role: Ship's Psychiatrist
Ilia is arguably the most unique character on the cast outside of Mr. Spock. In continuing with Star Trek's history of progressivism, she is the ship's psychiatrist and a woman not written to be a sex object. Though, she is quite frequently a damsel-in-distress. She is intelligent, and has a personality atypical for female roles at the time. Like Decker, due to her odd role much of her success relied on casting a skilled actor.
Deltan ESP abilities are left vague, and serve the plot rather than internal logic. She can read minds, but with discipline this can be blocked. She can always sense someone's emotions, and can tell the 'emotional and mental signatures' of people apart, allowing her to locate people through walls and over miles of distance. She can communicate telepathically, placing images, thoughts, emotions, and words into someone's mind, but this requires concentration and has a smaller range of effect. According to the pilot, there is a 'Telepathic privacy act' preventing non-consensual use of her abilities, and that she is licensed by Starfleet to use them as her captain orders.
Deltans normally communicate telepathically, with their vocal chords vestigial. Thus she has an odd cadence to her voice, and doesn't speak often. When she does, it's direct and to the point. Deltans, unable to hide their thoughts from one another, don't really understand the concept of obfuscation or lying. Emotions are contagious in their society. They will feel happy if they sense happiness, they will feel sadness if they senses sadness, and so on. And because this can be crippling, Ilia holds the rest of the crew at arm's length. She is not emotionless like Spock, she feels emotions more powerfully than everyone else on the ship, she just has to cover them up.
The exception is Decker. He is the one human to get her, and the only one she can let her walls down around. But, despite his insistence, she does not feel like she can pursue a romance with him, as he is a non-Deltan. She is an officer under Doctor McCoy, and frequently comes into conflict with him over how to treat patients. She is a kindred spirit to Spock, as they are both aliens on a crew of humans who supress their emotional sides. They also frequently come into conflict, sparring with words over topics like
Name: Christine Chapel
Rank: Lieutenant Commander
Role: Head Nurse
Played By: Majel Barret
Chapel has a bit more of a presence in Phase II, but not much more characterization. Compared to Bones's old country doctor routine, Chapel is more modern and less technophobic. And she has better bedside manner. But this rarely means much. She is largely there just to split medical exposition into a conservation instead of a monologue.
Credits
Staring
William Shatner as Captain Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock
DeForest Kelley Doctor McCoy
Also Starring
James Doohan as Commander Scott
George Takei as Lt. Commander Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Commander Uhura
Walter Koenig as Lieutenant Chekov
Majel Barret as Nurse Chapel
And
??? As Ensign William 'Billy' Decker
??? As Lieutenant JG Illia
Production Crew
Executive Producer: Gene Roddenberry
Co-Producer: Robert Justman
Producer: Robert Goodman
Associate Producers
- John Povill (& Script Editor)
- Gregg Peters (& Unit Production Manager)
- Jerry Finnerman (& Director of Photography)
Makeup Artist: Fred Phillips
Art Director: Joe Jennings
Assistant Art Director, Production Illustrator: Michael Minor
Special Effects Artist: Jim Rugg
Costume Designer: William Theiss
NASA Consultant: Jesco Von Puttakamer
Sorry for taking so long, this was a lot of writing, and a fair bit of research. Next Update is titled
Chaos on the Bridge. It'll go into detail on the production nightmare that was Phase II, the casting of the two new crewmates, and the TV movie. Then we'll cover the release and reception to Star Trek II and The Animated Adventures season III.
[1] Minor correction from last update. OTL, talks to revive Star Trek began in October, not December. And OTL, Roddenberry attempted to play Studio politics and put Diller on hold for 6 months. This angered Diller, who subsequently held a strong negative opinion of him and the franchise in general. This lead to him rejecting two different scripts for a revitalized Star Trek movie. ATL, Roddenberry accepts much quicker, as he's seen the success of the Animated Adventures and want's to capitalize on them as quickly as possible. Thus the negotiations are earlier, with a positive studio head, and with a stronger track record behind the franchise. This is why it blossoms into a successful show so quickly, as opposed to a movie 4 years later.
[2] OTL in 1975 a theatrical movie with a 3 million dollar budget was discussed, but the script was rejected.
[3] With Diller and Roddenberry on better terms, Justman gets to come back with Goodman. OTL he was completely replaced by Goodwin.
[4] Outside of Justman, this is the OTL production crew of Phase II along with some guys from TOS.
[5] Though this is not what was planned OTL, I'm going to say the butterfly effect and a desire to keep the show for all ages leads to a less revealing female uniforms.
[6] With no Spock for a time, he was the second biggest star. So here he is on more equal footing with Shatner and Nimoy.
[7] As he's no longer the XO, he has a similar role to what had Chekov in TOS. He's a young ensign and navigator who primarily appears to teenage girls and little boys.
[8] Justman manages to reign in a lot of Roddenberry's uh, for lack of a better term, horniness, when writing Ilia. In the OTL series bible, most Ilia's page is describing how beautiful she is or how Deltan life revolves around intercourse above all else. Here Ilia is very similar to Counselor Troi. Though Troi was distinctly a secondary character, and Ilia gets more to do than people like Chekov or Uhura. Her dynamic with Decker is also definitely not a ploy to get in that lucrative teenager market.
