Star Trek: The God Thing
Cover artwork of a planned but cancelled Pocket Booksnovelization
Written by	Gene Roddenberry
Story by	Gene Roddenberry Jon Povill
Based on	Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry
Produced by	Gene Roddenberry Jeffrey Katzenberg(executive)
Starring	William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley James Doohan Walter Koenig Nichelle Nichols George Takei
Music by	Alexander Courage (theme)
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Country	United States
Language	English

Star Trek: The God Thing is an unproduced film script written byStar Trek series creatorGene Roddenberry. Following the success ofStar Trek inbroadcast syndication during the early 1970s,Paramount Pictures sought to produce a feature film based on the property. The film's plot follows theEnterprise crew after the events ofThe Original Series: when an alien entity declares itselfGod and begins travel to Earth, AdmiralJames T. Kirk reunites the crew, who send it back to its own dimension. Roddenberry completed the story on June 30, 1976, but Paramount rejected the script for reasons Roddenberry attributed to the religious views of company executives. Story elements were used inStar Trek V: The Final Frontier.

After Paramount rejected the film, Roddenberry sought to produceThe God Thing as a novel in the late 1970s. He signed a deal withBantam Books to publish it, but was given extensions because of his work; first onPhase II and thenThe Motion Picture. During this period,Star Trek actorWalter Koenig helped Roddenberry expand the novel. In 1991, shortly before Roddenberry's death, his assistantSusan Sackett rediscovered the work on the novel. She contactedPocket Books, which wanted to publish it; discussions to hire Sackett andFred Bronson to expand it to novel length were held, but negotiations stopped after Roddenberry's death and Sackett's dismissal fromStar Trek: The Next Generation.Michael Jan Friedman was later engaged to expand the work but it went unpublished.

NBC canceledStar Trek following thethird season in 1969, but the episodes were released intobroadcast syndication where they were successful. Because of this success and fans' responses atscience-fiction conventions held in honor of the series,Paramount Pictures soon sought to create a movie based on the series. By March 1972, series creatorGene Roddenberry said there was interest in aStar Trek feature film, and that the series could return to television on NBC.^[1]

The five-year mission ofStar Trek has finished and the crew has moved on from their postings on the starshipEnterprise. CaptainJames T. Kirk has been promoted to Admiral, DoctorLeonard McCoy has leftStarfleet to become a veterinarian, and other crew members have been given desk jobs. EngineerMontgomery Scott has become an alcoholic through boredom.^[2]Spock has returned to his home planet,Vulcan, where he was seeking to control the human half of his persona.^[3][4]

After an alien entity declaring itself to beGod destroys spacecraft en route to Earth, theEnterprise is launched under the command of Admiral Kirk to engage the vessel. He re-assembles the former crew, including Spock, and sets out to intercept the alien. As they approach the entity, it transports a humanoid probe on board theEnterprise that takes a variety of forms—including that ofJesus. The crew determine that the being and its craft are from an alternate dimension and have been responsible for the creation of religion on numerous planets to teach their inhabitants its laws in a manner understandable at their points in development. The being is malfunctioning; the crew repair it and send it back to its own dimension.^[3][4]

In May 1975, Roddenberry entered a development deal with Paramount, withprincipal photography intended to start on July 15, 1976,^[5] and a budget of $5 million.^[6] He started work on treatments; his first involved the formation of theEnterprise crew, including their training atStarfleet Academy and the formation of Starfleet, but this idea was never submitted to Paramount. His first major submitted script wasThe God Thing.^[7] A scene involving a discussion in which Spock's tutors describe religion on Earth worried the studio. The tutor says, "We have never really understood your Earth legend of gods. Particularly in that so many of your gods have said, 'You have to bow down on your bellies every seven days and worship me'. This seems to us like they are very insecure gods."^[7] Roddenberry completed the script on June 30; Paramount rejected it the following month.^[8] The studio was also unhappy with, and rejected, scripts byRobert Silverberg, Chris Knopt,Dick Simmons, andTheodore Sturgeon.^[7] Roddenberry blamed religious Paramount executives includingBarry Diller for turning downThe God Thing, a story that writerJon Povill summarized as "God was a malfunctioning spaceship".^[9]

The production start date for the film was postponed to 1977,^[5] and Paramount brought in new staff. Jerry Isenberg was hired as executive producer, who hired British writers Bryant and Scott in September 1976 to begin work on a new treatment that became known asStar Trek: Planet of the Titans.^[10] After that failed, Roddenberry planned to takeStar Trek back to television as the seriesStar Trek: Phase II, redevelopingThe God Thing into thepilot episode of the series, "In Thy Image". After this too was canceled, the story was again redeveloped to become the filmStar Trek: The Motion Picture.^[11]

Following the rejection of the script, Roddenberry planned to convert his treatment into a novel.^[2] After his assistant Susan Sackett showed him the manuscript of a novel that actorWalter Koenig had asked her to type, Roddenberry sought Koenig's collaboration onThe God Thing. Roddenberry had already produced 68 pages after working on it for a month when he handed it to Koenig, who added another 83 in two months. Roddenberry received the changes enthusiastically, but a few weeks later Sackett informed Koenig that the project had been abandoned.^[12] In his 1997 autobiographyWarped Factors, Koenig stated that he still had copies of the work he had completed on the book.^[12]

In the January 1977 issue ofStarlog, Roddenberry said he was not sure when the novel would be complete, but confirmed that it would discuss the meaning of God.^[2] By March 1978, the novel was said to be half-completed. PublisherBantam Books told Roddenberry it would wait until he finished production onPhase II to resume work on the novel.^[13] When later in 1978 that production turned intoThe Motion Picture, Bantam gave Roddenberry an extension because the novelization was thought to be a full-time effort.^[14]

In 1991, Sackett discovered a partly-completed manuscript while she researched documents for her bookInside Trek. This prompted her to suggest sending it toPocket Books, which held the rights toStar Trek novels at the time, despite the prior agreement with Bantam. Roddenberry was not enthusiastic about the idea, but editor David Stern at Pocket Books was interested and wanted to know whether Sackett and fellow writerFred Bronson would be able to expand and complete it. Contract negotiations for the work began in April 1991, during which time Sackett had a version re-typed because no electronic versions were available and the type on the existing printout was faint in places. The writers were dealing with Roddenberry's lawyer Leonard Maizlish, but discussions lasted over six months.^[15] Two days after Roddenberry's death on October 24, they were informed that work on the novel would not continue. Sackett said this may have been linked to her dismissal from theStar Trek: The Next Generation television series following Roddenberry's death.^[16] Pocket Books brought inMichael Jan Friedman to finish the work, but it was never published.^[17]

The God Thing remains known toStar Trek fans because of comparisons to other works, such as the aforementionedStar Trek: The Motion Picture, in which an entity calling itselfV'ger enters Federation space in search of its "creator," and the laterStar Trek V: The Final Frontier where the crew encounter a messianic figure and an entity masquerading as God.^[18][19] Roddenberry opposed the plot ofThe Final Frontier, not wanting the film to be part of the overallcanon for the franchise.^[18] Roddenberry's themes of interaction with religion and God have appeared elsewhere in the franchise.^[18][19]

Edward Gross described Roddenberry's rejection ofThe Final Frontier as "ironic" because of the similarity between that film andThe God Thing.^[19] In his book,Jewish Themes in Star Trek, Rabbi Yonassan Gershom compared the two plots, saying they were different in their approaches. He said Roddenberry wanted to disprove God's existence inThe God Thing, whereasWilliam Shatner, who directedThe Final Frontier, sought to take God seriously. This was partly due to the novelization ofThe Final Frontier, in which the original version of the scene was to show all manner of religious expression on the final showdown with the God-like figure in Sha-Ka-Ree. However, this scene was simplified for the film due to budget constraints.^[18][20]

• Star Trek (film series)

• Engel, Joel (1994).Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek. New York: Hyperion.ISBN 0-7868-6004-9.
• Gershom, Yonassan (2009).Jewish Themes in Star Trek. Raleigh, NC: Lulu Press.ISBN 978-0-557-04800-7.
• Greenberger, Robert (2012).Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorised History. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press.ISBN 978-0-7603-4359-3.
• Hughes, David (2008).The Greatest Science Fiction Movies Never Made. London:Titan Books.ISBN 978-1-84576-755-6.
• Koenig, Walter (1997).Warped Factors. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing.ISBN 0-87833-991-4.
• Reeves-Stevens, Judith;Reeves-Stevens, Garfield (1997).Star Trek: Phase II: The Lost Series (2nd ed.). New York: Pocket Books.ISBN 0-671-56839-6.
• Sackett, Susan (2002).Inside Trek. Tulsa: Hawk Publishing.ISBN 1-930709-42-0.
• Sackett, Susan; Roddenberry, Gene (1980).The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. New York: Pocket Books.ISBN 0-671-25181-3.

• Star Trek: The God Thing atMemory Alpha

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