20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
2. Leonard Nimoy Came Up With A Humorous Note For The End Of The Movie—But It Was Cut
In 1986, while he was promoting his second Star Trek film as as director, Leonard Nimoy told American Cinematographer about what it was like to make the first movie eight years earlier:
At the end, in fact it was the last day of filming, we were shooting the tag scene on the bridge...[Kirk] says to McCoy, “I can have you back on Earth in two days.” McCoy says, “Now that I'm here, I might as well stay.” Then he says to Spock, “I suppose you want to go back to Vulcan." Spock's line, as written, was “My business there is finished.” Final rehearsal before the take, Kirk says, “I can have you back on Earth...” McCoy says, “No, I'll stay here...” and he says, “I suppose you’ll want to go back to Vulcan.” And I said, “If Dr. McCoy is to remain on board, then my presence here will be essential." Everybody roared—which I knew they would. But then I saw the command group gather. They really huddled. Bob Wise came to me and he said, “Seems inappropriate to be doing humor at this point.” I said, “I offer it to you. I can’t make you take it.” They wouldn’t let me do it. They were really adamant about it.
It’s a great story designed to contrast the largely humorless first movie with the flat-out comedy of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), but there’s reason to believe Nimoy’s memory wasn’t entirely accurate.
For one thing, Walter Koenig described the same incident in his diary from the making of the film, later published as Chekov’s Enterprise. In the entry for November 22, 1978—long before principal photography wrapped, and NOT the last day of filming—Koenig says Nimoy tried out both versions of the line during rehearsals, resulting in laughter from the cast when he tried his version. Koenig goes on to say that when it came time to shoot Nimoy’s close-up, both lines were filmed.
Additionally, notes on the “cutter’s script” in the Robert Wise papers at USC confirm Koenig’s account. Not only was Nimoy’s alternate line filmed on November 22, but it was filmed from multiple angles. Although Robert Wise may have later decided the humor was inappropriate, he certainly didn’t prevent Nimoy from putting his version of the line on film. (To date, however, footage of Nimoy’s alternate ending line has never been seen publicly.)