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Recently, as I was getting back into Star
Trek (mainly The Original Series), I recalled a post about how Paramount got the first
Star Trek movie and the rest of the movie series right by casting all the original actors
from the show into the movie. How would the Trek films be like if we saw someone else
playing Kirk, Spock, McCoy (Bones), Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov? The fans and Star
Trek creator Gene Roddenberry would have been not only furious but the first film would
have flopped and the succeeding films and spin-offs would have never got off ground.
I found another similarity when The Original Series, which ran from 1966-1969, was bound
for cancellation during its second season (1967-1968). A female fan and her husband
immediately started a Save Star Trek campaign. They contacted many fans via mailing lists
from sci-fi conventions and those contacted fans in turn contacted others (sound
familiar?). In a few months, NBC, the network that aired ST, received thousands of mail
from fans begging the network to keep ST on the air. Immediately, NBC did what the fans
asked without having to delay their request for, say, 3 years. Amazing how all this
happened before the Internet existed.
While ST was cancelled by 1969, the fans still won in the end because when the show was
syndicated, it became a hit, much to the surprise of NBC! And the rest is history from
there.
How does this compare with the Phantom of the Opera movie? Well, NBC and Paramount
listened to the fans and did what they asked in a short amount of time. Plus, Roddenberry
really cared about his show. He fought for it from getting it on the air to retaining it
on the air to having all original cast members be cast in the film series. My god, he kept
that up until in 1991, when Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was released (the last
Trek film to feature all the original crew) and when Roddenberry died. Whereas Andrew
Lloyd Webber used to care about Phantom of the Opera but these days he doesn't since he is
favoring Antonio Banderas as the Phantom instead of Michael Crawford and seeking a younger
Christine since Webber thinks the Christine character is more important than the Phantom.
As for the Phantom fans, we would win if the movie had finally casted Michael in his
original role, not to mention the definitive performance would be preserved forever. Even
with all the trials and tribulations that occurred since the Phantom movie camapaign
began, we never gave up. Hey if the Star Trek fans were successful, we ought to be
successful too!
Now, I found another similarity with POTO and ST. It was a good thing Paramount got the
Trek films right not just because they listened to the fans and did what they wanted but
because one of the actors from The Original Series died in 1999. DeForest Kelley, who
played McCoy, died on June 11, 1999. This is like how Steve Barton, the original Raoul in
POTO, died in July of this year. The difference is De Kelley was able to reprise his
original role on the big screen while Barton was unable to, thanks to Andrew holding up
the POTO film for more than 10 years. True, Barton's voice is preserved on CD, photos, and
video clips but if the movie were made back then like it should have and made right, we
would have the original Raoul preserved on screen along with the original Phantom and
Christine. As with De, he may have played the role on the TV series but the ST movies
would have not been the same if he was not cast in his original role.
This is why casting Michael in his original role as the Phantom is extremely important.
Saddens me while Paramount and Roddenberry understood the Trek fans, WB and especially ALW
don't understand the Phantom fans. Actually, it seems Andrew is the one who really doesn't
get it. |