Star Trek: The God Thing

Star Trek: The God Thing is an unproduced film written by series creator Gene Roddenberry that reached the script phases of production. Following the success of Star Trek: The Original Series in broadcast syndication during the early 1970s, Paramount Studios sought to produce a feature film based on the property. The plot follows the Enterprise crew after the events of The Original Series: when an alien entity declares itself God and begins travel to Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk reunites the crew, who send it back to its own dimension. The story was completed by Roddenberry on June 30, 1976, but Paramount rejected the script for reasons Roddenberry attributed to religious views of company executives. The story was re-written as In Thy Image for the television series Star Trek: Phase II and then as Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

After Paramount rejected the film, Roddenberry sought to produce The God Thing as a novel in the late 1970s. He signed a deal with Bantam Books to publish it, but was given extensions because of his work first on Phase II and then The Motion Picture. During this period, Star Trek actor Walter Koenig helped Roddenberry expand the novel. Shortly before his death, Roddenberry's assistant Susan Sackett rediscovered the work on the novel in 1991. She contacted Pocket Books, who wanted to publish it and discussions were held to hire Sackett and Fred Bronson to expand it to novel length. However following the death of Roddenberry, and the sacking of Sackett from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the negotiations stopped. Following this, Michael Jan Friedman was engaged to expand the work, but it went unpublished. The God Thing has been compared to the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier which dealt with similar religious concepts.

Synopsis

The five-year mission seen in The Original Series has finished, and the crew has moved on from the Enterprise. Captain James T. Kirk has been promoted to Admiral, Doctor Leonard McCoy has left Starfleet to become a veterinarian while other members of the crew have been given desk jobs. This has led engineer Montgomery Scott to become an alcoholic through boredom. Spock had returned to the planet Vulcan where he was seeking to control his human half.

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