Walter Koenig's Star Trek VI had many major characters die

Thanks to a fictional captain, the original crew of the Starship Enterprise almost didn't get a farewell on the big screen.

Before 1989, the star-crossed “Star Trek” franchise weathered the network shutdown and the box office/critical disappointment of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” As a result, the franchise unexpectedly found itself in great shape, scoring three hits in a row in the 1980s with “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage home.” For the first time, I felt like the entire Star Trek team was playing with house money. Then William Shatner, after watching Leonard Nimoy take two turns at the helm, giving him a wildly successful non-Star Trek directorial experience with “Three Men and a Baby” (the highest-grossing film of 1987), decided it was time to strut show your stuff behind the camera.

The result was “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” a film so poorly received critically and commercially that Paramount considered recasting the leads with younger actors in a prequel set at Starfleet Academy.

The writing was on the wall at this point, and for some of the actors, their advanced age showed on screen. They were lucky she had survived her last adventure and they knew it. Understandably, they also took it personally, prompting Walter Koenig, who joined the franchise relatively late (his character, Chekov, joined the Enterprise bridge in the second season of the original Star Trek TV series), to step in and write a pitch for a sixth film. How did it affect him?

Walter Koenig's presentation was titled “Star Trek VI: In Flanders Fields.” If you're familiar with the history of World War I, you can probably guess that it was an incredibly bloody – or at least expensive – tale for the franchise.

Koenig's story, reprinted from his memoir “Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe,” begins with the Federation helping a Romulan civilization on the brink of disaster due to a mysterious natural disaster. This enrages the Klingons, so they all go to war. The Federation requires fitness assessments before ships can be crewed, which excludes all but Spock from serving in this conflict. The Federation runs a successful campaign, and the former crew members of the Enterprise are dispersed. They struggle to adapt to a world that is ready to continue living without them.

Just when it seems that their Starfleet days are over, the Enterprise, returning home from the Klingon war, disappears. They have been ensnared by a race of worm-like monsters that feed on the life force of humans. Since Kirk, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty are elderly, the worms are not interested in them. Instead, they go to the worm planet to rescue Spock and the new Enterprise crew.

This is their last mission. Each of them gave their lives trying to free Spock from the dungeon. According to Koenig, Kirk will be the last to fall. Or at least that's what we think.

McCoy unexpectedly reappears and, although there is almost nothing left in the tank, he is able to reach Spock. According to Konig:

“Slowly, Spock raises his arm, and McCoy reaches out for it to help him up. In this loneliest and most desolate moment, Spock allowed himself the one expression of friendship he had never admitted before: his need for Leonard McCoy. Spock turns to the doctor for support, and the two men – adversaries in thousands of arguments over the years – leave together.”

Of course, costumes from Star Trek were involved. a different direction in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”, which wisely allowed “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn” director Nicholas Meyer to guide the Enterprise back to a safe haven where everyone was accounted for one last time (although they borrowed the idea of ​​an enemy in need, choosing Romulan Klingons instead). The baton was then passed to the “Next Generation” team for four films, although Shatner found a way to squeeze in one more film. Yes, Nimoy appeared in 2009's “Star Trek” and its sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness,” but he was one of the few unforced elements of this highly entertaining yet oddly stakes-free film.