So, what’s with that exquisitely rendered scene from Star Trek: The Motion Picture on the front page? That’s the beginning of a new interim project I’m calling TMP:Redux. It’s something to tide us all over while the next original comic storyline is being worked on. Mixing what we saw on screen with concepts from Roddenberry’s novelization of the film, I’m attempting to create an ending for The Motion Picture that I think makes more dramatic sense. Part of that means recasting Decker. Besides the fact that Stephen Collins the man is fucking gross, as an actor he’s also terribly bland with all the emotional impact and sex appeal of an over-cooked lima bean. I replaced him with Glynn Turman, a much more attractive and dynamic actor who is the same age as Collins and also did much of his work in the 70s and 80s.
There’s going to be a lot of changes besides just the visual, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Even though The Motion Picture is a polarizing film with most fans considering it a slow-moving mess, there are many, like myself, who really dig it. To those who hold the film sacrosanct, know that I do love it. That’s why I want to play with it. Shitty things you hate just aren’t worth the effort. For the rest of you, maybe this will give you a new appreciation of the slow-moving mess.
Otto, Browne is too ugly compared to Turman, and he’s a bit overrated anyway.
I might check this out, but I think that getting rid of Collins is the least of this movie’s worries; the story that should’ve been told on screen, Planet Of The Titans, is worlds better than that of The Motion Picture, which is still (IMHO) a big bowl of watery tasteless slop (flying through sections of alien starship just to reach an old late 20th/early 21st century probe from Earth that had been converted to be…a giant ship is not entertainment, no matter how people want to spin it [hey, if people still want to blast Suicide Squad, I can blast this movie-at least Suicide Squad was entertaining, and it earned a ton of money at the box office for that very same reason, popular failure or not.]) The movie tries to be like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it doesn’t work in any way like that classic at all, and it proves (unfortunately) that Gene Roddenberry was past his prime, and then some when he wrote the script and the novelization of the script.
I really like your sketch of Bones! I know you have all sorts of different story ideas and plans, but it makes wish “what happened to McCoy in those first few years after he was ‘drafted'” is part of it.
Looking forward to this. I too have a love-hate relationship with TMP and booting Collins is an A+ move.
I still think this is an odd source to choose to work from, but I’m looking forward to seeing how you fix it. Because it does need a lot of fixing. Replacing Collins is a great start.
Also, your Kirk sketch looks a bit like Christopher Walken, which I heartily approve of. 😉
Good morning!
Just occurred to me, given what happens to Decker at the end of TMP, might they have wanted to cast a “disposable” actor?
Looking at the casting sheets for both Phase II and TMP Deckers they were all the same kind of meh. Whatever the reason Collins was chosen, I wouldn’t want to draw a hair on his head considering his admitted past.
I hear ya, and if you have to retcast Matt, I nominate Roscoe Lee Browne.