20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
10. Star Trek: The Academy Script And Harve Bennett
Harve Bennett successfully guided the franchise from Star Trek II to Star Trek IV, and perhaps less successfully, through Star Trek V. He wrote a treatment for a potential sixth film that has never truly died. This idea was Star Trek: The Academy Years.
It was set at a time when the Federation was less enlightened than it would become. Spock would be the victim of racial bullying at the Academy, an idea anathema to the established depiction of Star Trek. James Doohan recalled that after negative reception from the core cast, Gene Roddenberry, and the fans, Bennett's script was scrapped.
This would be the end of his involvement with the franchise. Bennett claimed that he was offered a lot of money to rewrite the script and change it up, but he was committed to his idea about Star Trek: The Academy Years. He would go on to re-pitch it over the years, though he conceded that when Star Trek 09 was released, the franchise had truly moved beyond his vision.