20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
17. Pieces Of An Infamous “Star Trek” Story Outline (AKA “Planet Of The Titans”) Are In The Movie, Too
October of 1976 brought a new set of writers to table, Allan Scott and Chris Bryant, who turned in a story outline that was simply titled “STAR TREK.” In fandom, this story is better known as “Planet of the Titans.”
This one introduces several new elements that ended up in in the eventual movie: the transporter accident—which in this instance mangles Spock’s dad Sarek but doesn’t kill him; Spock failing to eliminate his human half; and, most significant, the notion of a mechanized planet with incredible technology:
The civilization of titans was so advanced that the distinction between animal, vegetable and machine has become blurred. Their computers are not boxed with controls and circuitry, they are pulsating moving matter, organically involved in the planet itself...
Although this concept went to script, to date this screenplay has never been seen publicly, so it’s impossible to know what other elements it might have introduced.
When Paramount rejected this version, too, the director attached to it—Philip Kaufman, later to direct Leonard Nimoy In Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)—took a stab at writing a new story outline. But, the studio pulled the plug on the entire movie, in favor of making Star Trek back into a TV show for a prospective Paramount TV service.