Ian Shlasko wrote:
Though Roddenberry outdid Lucas on his second attempt)
Strictly speaking, Roddenberry was bumped his position of overall control on ST-I when Paramount freaked out about trying to make a movie of a TV show and hired William Wise as director. Wise was responsible for blowing the budget on SFX and for insisting that they all appear in the movie. Both Star Wars and Close Encounters were blockbusters with lots of SFX, so, obviously ST:TMP needed to be filled with lots of bells and whistles - and enough plot to have filled a 1-hr TV show nicely - indeed it already had, since "The Changeling" in season 2 had the same semi-Frankenstein and the monster plot. Roddenberry was tarred with the same brush as Wise by Paramount, however, when the movie barely broke even, and had no control on ST:TWOK. Harve Bennet and Nick Meyer deserve all the credit for saving the franchise.
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