Star Trek Director Nicholas Meyer Reveals his Trek Regret

Star Trek Director Nicholas Meyer Reveals his Trek Regret

As part of Hero Complex in L.A., Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country director Nicholas Meyer revealed one regret about his time in the Trekverse, and it has to do with the late Gene Roddenberry.

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By EdGross - Jun 12, 2011 08:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Star Trek

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Deadshot
Deadshot - 6/12/2011, 8:25 AM
Saw this on youtube earlier, very interesting. Gene wanted the characters to be portrayed as flawless human beings without racism or prejudice as they were in the television series, where as Meyer wanted them to be racist to the klingons. I'm not sure what was the right choice, all I know is Meyer is the man responsible for the two best star trek movies of all time.
DetBullock
DetBullock - 6/12/2011, 8:42 AM
The Klingon have been enemies of the federation for decades, the development of racism against Klingon is just a logical consequence of that.
EdGross
EdGross - 6/12/2011, 8:48 AM
I think Roddenberry's point, though, was that by Star Trek's era we would have overcome intolerance for other people and species. In Undiscovered Country there's no question why Kirk would feel hatred for the Klingons -- they murdered the son he was only just beginning to know -- but for the rest of the crew to react with such racism.... well, at the time it didn't bother me, but in retrospect I think it was a legitimate complaint on Roddenberry's part.
Knightstalker
Knightstalker - 6/12/2011, 9:27 AM
Racism usually develops out of ignorance for other people and the assumptions made about them. Every time the Klingons ever had contact with the Federation, it was adversarial in nature. The prejudice that grew from that over time would have been perfectly natural on both sides of the fence..er...neutral zone.
EdGross
EdGross - 6/12/2011, 10:01 AM
WittySupername, actually Roddenberry DID tell Shatner he was unhappy with the script, but they proceeded anyway. At that point Roddenberry was a consultant -- he could consult, but they didn't have to listen to him.
smithonator
smithonator - 6/12/2011, 10:03 AM
To me Star Trek VI was about two things:

2. Despite the best intentions (having a Federation that promotes peace, scientific/exploratory endeavors, and acceptance), mortal beings still have flaws.

1. Fear of change (in fact, Captain Kirk mentioned this at the peace conference to Chancellor Azetbur at the end of the movie).

As a side note, I believe this to be a great movie.
Joe6Pack74
Joe6Pack74 - 6/12/2011, 7:37 PM
The Federation President in Undiscovered Country reminds me of Dog the Bounty Hunter.
Knightstalker
Knightstalker - 6/12/2011, 9:20 PM
@Number21....The Federation President in ST6 was Kurtwood Smith, AKA Red Foreman. He'll make you wear ass for a hat if your not careful. Also, he was Bodiker in the first Robocop movie.
nld3
nld3 - 6/12/2011, 10:17 PM
i was never wild about ST6. Now im thrilled to know GR was upset with all these changes. The later movies and tv shows drifted too far away from GRs vision. No wonder i never liked them.
niknik
niknik - 6/14/2011, 11:49 AM
What I get from that is that Roddenberry didn't agree with the extent to which the script took the racism. While Kirk would have legitimately hated Klingons, the comments that Meyer quoted regarding the crew saying things like "they all look alike" or "they all smell" are the ones that set Gene off. Roddenberry was correct. After all, no one knew those characters better than Gene. They were all HIS characters. Those blatant racist remarks would not have fit his characters as humankind had grown beyond that sort of blind, ignorant hatred. This was clearly established in the original series and first few films. In fact it was the MAIN POINT to the original series. Mankind had gotten beyond racial intolerance, greed and the like. That's the one thing that Roddenberry kept hammering home episode after episode.

Gene never should have relinguished the rights to paramount.

Meyer and Shatner could still have told the story regarding Kirks personal hatred without making the rest of the crew look like 1960's rednecks and undoing all that Roddenberry worked so hard for in those early years.

After all that it sounds like his regret is not in that script, but rather in the way he handled the meeting. Sounds like maybe he was a prick to an ailing Roddenberry.

Dipshit better regret it. It was a major F-Up on his part.
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