Both Bennett and I felt that not only was the surprise element blown but that the entire structure of the film was compromised. It was a fire storm with everyone at Paramount and our staff - but especially Leonard - going a bit berserk. Her betrayal hit most of the world’s newspapers starting with the Wall Street Journal. However, she immediately went to a Trek convention in London and announced that we were going to kill Spock. Sort of.Īn individual who was close to Star Trek was given an early draft of the script and, like all of us, sworn to secrecy. Harve sold it to Leonard and we were on our way.
The meetings were intense and frequent but Leonard remained firm until one of our writers, Jack Sowards suggested to Executive Producer, Harve Bennett that it would be enormously dramatic and a high (or low) theatrical point in the history of StarTrek. Regardless of motivation, his refusal to participate could be the iceberg that would sink the Star Trek Titanic, or at least put a major dent in its creative hull.
In retrospect, I’m not certain whether it was a negotiating ploy on his part to garner a better deal with the studio, or that he was looking for broader dramatic horizons or whether, as he told me that “he simply didn’t want to put on the ears again.” There was only one tiny wrinkle: he didn’t want to play Spock anymore. We met and I found him to be a genial, talented and extraordinarily intelligent man. I didn’t know Leonard but had admired his work on a number of television and feature projects. It seemed that most of the original cast were on board with a sequel, most that is except Leonard Nimoy of Spock fame.
The weirdness began when we were working on early drafts of the script.
No, that didn’t happen until I was deep into scripting and pre-production on the second Trek feature and began getting multiple death threats on my answering machine, such as “You kill Spock and we’ll kill you!” “To boldly go where no man has gone before." wasn’t in my game plan when I signed with Paramount to produce “Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan.” I’d served both in the Marine Corps as a non-com and in the Air Force as an officer but had never really been in harm’s way. Here's his take on what the death of Spock meant to the film and to our family:
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