The Leaked Script for "The Search for Spock"

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In 1983 and 1984, there was much fannish furor and interest in the leak and sale of a script outline, presumably pirated, supposedly written by Harve Bennett, for the third Star Trek movie, The Search for Spock.

The upcoming film was very heavy on fans' minds due to the death of Spock at the end of the previous film.

The script was sold by dealers at a con for $5.

Some fans speculated that it was all a trick by Paramount to garner interest in the upcoming film.

The Context

The early to mid-1980s were a time of a feud between two groups of fans regarding the first three Star Trek films and their content, creation, and ideology -- some fans vehemently felt that Gene Roddenberry was the soul of Star Trek and was being disrespected by new fans and by TPTB, and some were fans of Harve Bennett and "his" vision of Star Trek. Some of this was reflected in what they felt was a skewed version of Trek, from one of peace and acceptance, to that of brutish militarism.

This feud encompassed some fans enthusiasms and disappointments in the film, their feeling of a lack of power to get what they wanted on the screen, and frustrations and anger aimed towards other fans regarding perceived access to the ears of TPTB, and of censorship and gatekeeping. There were some fans who felt pressure to support films they did not care for because they were afraid that without fan support, Paramount would cease making more movies.

The script leak, and fan reaction, touched on the topics of canon, ownership, suspected hijinks by Paramount (and therefore fan manipulation), the big business of film making, and fans' supposed desperate desire to buy anything.

This feud had center stage in the pages of Interstat, a letterzine whose editor was a very fierce advocate of Harve Bennett and had a strong interest in maintaining cordial relationships with Paramount. The discussions then spilled out into other venues.

Fan Commentary

1984

From The Letter That Interstat Wouldn't Print by Sandra Necchi:

It used to be that ST fans were distrustful of all the executives and studios and other top brass in Hollywood. Way back in '73 when I first entered fandom, I was impressed by how militant and resistant to authority fans were, and had been during the show's run. The only people we trusted were the show's creator (remember him?), its stars and perhaps its production crew. That was then.

But it seems the conservative shift in the country has hit fandom as well. Now, we're not supposed to try to find out about any ST films before they're released, we're not supposed to "make trouble," we're not supposed to complain. During the run of the show, fans would try their best to find out about upcoming scripts for new episodes. Now, we're supposed to passively accept any information the studio deigns to hand out to us. The new philosophy is "leave it to the big guys. They know what they're doing. Don't ask or complain." The old philosophy rightly assumed that whatever good came on the screen was there in spite of the studio machinery, not because of it.

[...]

You see, I too bought that outline at a con and any of you naive enough to believe Bennett and Paramount don't know anything about it should see me about a bridge I'd like to sell. What exactly is wrong about buying it? Is it wrong when we go to a con to see preview slides of the film that a con committee got a hold of? Is it wrong when Teri prints photos from the film? If I want to find out the story for ST III (and I WISH they would change that horrendous title, "The Search for Spock") and I see a script outline written by the film's producer for sale for $5.00, I'm not going to pass up the chance to see what kind of ideas are floating around in the hallowed halls of Paramount studios. They have all the power — they can do anything they please with ST. I'm just a fan with no influence, with no ulterior motives or a vested interest, who loves and cares about STAR TREK. All I can do is search for what bits of information I hear and see.

I want to know, if only for curiosity's sake. And that's mostly why I bought the outline — curiosity. But no matter how much the script has been changed (and Eddie Egan's synopsis does not contradict with its basic thrust, unless you consider changing Romulans to Klingons a major change, which I don't), the mere fact that Bennett could've come up with it in the first place is a testament to his lack of creativity and lack of understanding of ST. And this is what you're all ignoring.

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