I remember hearing that shortly after Star Trek: The Motion Picture debuted in 1979, Gene Roddenberry pitched the idea of having the U.S.S. Enterprise crew go back in time in their advanced spaceship to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Then that would change history and possibly create a paradox in which the Federation never existed, a la the classic Star Trek TV show episode “City on the Edge of Forever.”

We all know how history turned out.

Roddenberry’s idea for a sequel was shot down by the studio, he was replaced by producer Harve Bennett, and the film series was guided to live long and prosper by creating one of the best sequels of all time: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

But what if Roddenberry’s original idea for a sequel had been allowed to go into production? What would that film have looked like? I guess we’ll never know. Or maybe we already do.

In 1980, just one year after Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived in theaters, there was a film called The Final Countdown about the crew of not the U.S.S. Enterprise but the U.S.S. Nimitz aircraft carrier going back in time in their advanced warship to prevent the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. They argue back and forth about the morality and wisdom of changing history and possibly creating a paradox in which they are never born.

Sound familiar?

As it turns out, the very film Gene Roddenberry envisioned was in production while his first Star Trek film was out in theaters. So we get to see an alternate history play out in a film that’s all about creating an alternate history. Is your head spinning because mine sure is?

What if Star Trek II had been about preventing a national tragedy that shifted the course of our nation for better or worse? We get to see that story play out in The Final Countdown.

In the Same Spirit as Star Trek

I adore The Final Countdown. It’s a wonderful showcase of the might of the U.S. Navy, and it has a compelling story that brings up all kinds of ethical questions. Is it right to allow hundreds of Americans to be gunned down and bombed in a horrific attack that nearly crippled our country’s ability to fight back in the Pacific Theater before we had even entered World War II?

However, given our Godlike knowledge of how events transpired after the attack on Pearl Harbor, is it right to sacrifice those lives because they didn’t die in vain? Those brave souls already died, so bringing them back from the dead (as it were) would have all sorts of ripple effects, not to mention the fact that wiping out the Japanese planes that were coming to Pearl Harbor would completely change the tenor of the war that followed. Perhaps the United States wouldn’t have entered the war at all without suffering such a major tragedy.

A modern aircraft carrier, complete with dozens of advanced jets, could easily destroy anything an enemy in the 1940s could throw at it. Thus, it wouldn’t be a fair fight. But the attack on Pearl Harbor certainly wasn’t a fair fight either. Preventing that attack would create so many new variables in history that the very existence of the Nimitz could be threatened in that new timeline.

All of these questions sound like something straight out of a Star Trek film or episode.

A moral dilemma, time travel, and bringing advanced technology back to a previous time period. Those are the recipe for a perfect science fiction story.

What If This Was the Second Star Trek Film?

What if The Final Countdown had been the second Star Trek film? The film had a rather lukewarm reception when it debuted in 1980. It made a profit, but it was modest, similar to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Critics and audiences were less than impressed by the amount of talking and the lack of action. Over the years, many people have come to appreciate The Final Countdown’s outstanding qualities, like its cinematography and score, as well as its focus on military hardware and intriguing moral quandaries.

Unfortunately, such cerebral and retroactive appreciation weren’t what the Star Trek film series needed for its second outing. It needed to be something exciting and captivating in order to breathe new life into the franchise. In other words, it needed to be Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which set the tone for the next four films after it and set a high-water mark for every other Star Trek film to be judged against.

As much as I enjoy The Final Countdown, I admit it has its faults. If it had been the second Star Trek film, the series probably would have died, having failed to connect to a wider audience and prove the longevity of the series it was trying to create.

The Final Frontier and Countdown

Just like the ending of The Final Countdown, we’re unable to change the past, but we do find an interesting wrinkle where something appears that shakes our concept of what was going on the whole time. A modern military man gets accidentally left behind in the past and uses his historical knowledge to become rich and live a full life with a woman from the past who he fell in love with. And it’s he who sent one of the main characters to the Nimitz to participate in the events of the film. That creates quite an interesting paradox.

This is indicative of our position. We can see how history turned out in that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan led to many positive things happening, including all the great Star Trek TV series and films that came after it. But we also see a little film called The Final Countdown that feels forgotten in the wake of all the great time travel and science fiction films that have come out before and after it.

Many of us who watch that film fall in love with it and enjoy the richness it has to offer. Luckily, there’s no paradox or contradiction in being able to enjoy both this film and the actual Star Trek II.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

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