Since the Enterprise was in warp drive during the change to the timestream, they were unaffected and able to go back in time themselves to fix the timeline.ĭID RODDENBERRY GIVE UP ON HIS JFK STAR TREK IDEA? So the idea was that the Klingons used the Guardian of Forever to go back in time and prevent the Kennedy assassination which, for whatever reason, led to the Federation never existing. Roddenberry was aware of the criticisms of the first film and so he planned to go out of his way to get this film to be as popular as possible, by working in many of the popular elements of the original series, namely the Klingons, the Guardian of Forever (from 'The City on the Edge of Forever') and, of course, the time travel element from that classic episode. His first treatment was oddly called Star Trek III, as Roddenberry felt that the first film was really a sequel to the original TV series. Roddenberry, though, naturally felt that he was going to be responsible for the next film in the series. Again, though, the film obviously made enough money for the studio to want to make another sequel). Paramount generally blamed Roddenberry for the high budget (due to his many rewrites) and relatively disappointing box office returns (they felt that Roddenberry didn't put enough action into the film.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture wasn't a flop, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is fair to say that Paramount Studios believed that the film could have been a WHOLE lot more profitable than it was, as it cost a shocking (for the era) $44 million (the sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was produced for roughly a THIRD of the budget of the first film). RELATED: Of Course, the Karate Kid Crane Kick Was a Legal Move WHEN DID GENE RODDENBERRY FIRST COME UP WITH THIS IDEA FOR A STAR TREK FILM ABOUT THE JFK ASSASSINATION

Susan sackett gene roddenberry