Kirstie Alley should have returned as Savvik

http://whatculture.com/film/12-least-successful-recastings-of-iconic-f ilm-characters.php/2

Films: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) & Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Replacing: Kirstie Alley

It might seem ridiculous to say so now, but Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was originally intended to be the last Star Trek film. The critical and commercial failure of Star Trek: The Motion Picture led to the second film being made on a much lower budget, and the fact that Spock was being killed off in its climactic moments put a feeling of finality upon proceedings. But once TWOK became a commercial hit, producer Harve Bennett began planning a further sequel, which subsequently became a loose trilogy with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Most of the core cast of TWOK returned for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, with Leonard Nimoy stepping into the director’s chair as well as reprising the title character. But Kirstie Alley, who had played his half-Vulcan counterpart Saavik, did not return. Saavik was Alley’s first big screen role, and due to a legal oversight her contract did not contain any stipulations regarding a sequel. Worrying about being typecast, Alley demanded more money but Bennett refused and replaced her with Robin Curtis for the next two films.

Alley’s performance as Saavik is one of the more under-appreciated aspects of TWOK. It’s a thankless role in some respects, having to play the by-the-book rookie against the experienced crew of the Enterprise, but Alley brought an earnest commitment to the role which made it more than the “tits and ass” performance that the producers wanted. Curtis, by contrast, isn’t particularly charismatic and seems uneasy amongst all the prostethics and silly costumes. While Alley worked hard to make her character rounded, Curtis allows Saavik to become at best an awkward distraction.

I was reading some of the comments on TrekBBS, is one big problem with Robin Curtis is that her take on being a Vulcan just felt forced.

With Kirstie Alley, she had that sultry, smoky sounding voice, so it was plausible for you to believe her as an aloof, ice queen. Leonard Nimoy for that matter, had that distinctive baritone type of voice, which would naturally fit well with playing a stoic, cool-headed character like Spock.

With Robin Curtis, apparently, her natural personality is the complete opposite of what you would expect from a Vulcan. Think of somebody like Mary Hart or Amy Adams, in that she has a perky, bubbly and girly-girl personality.

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/alley-on-not-doing-trek-iii.267010/page-4

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/why-is-alley-prefered-so-much-over-curtis-for-saavik.292798/page-2

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Saavik
-thats a lengthly article so i'll summerise:

basically meyer wanted Kim catrell as Savvik in II but she was unavailable so Alley got the part..... then for III her agent demanded too much $ (more than De Kelly apparently) so R Curtis was cast.....then for VI Meyer wanted Alley back as Savvik as he didnt dig Curtis in the role but she was too expensive due to Cheers, Look Whos Talking etc so Catrell got the new role of Valeris.....then there was the TNG episode Cause and Effect where the producers wanted Alley as Savvik to stand alongside fellow Cheers star Kesley Grammer at the end but again the $ werent enough

i guess ideally the smokin 80s Catrell couldve been Savvik throughout II, III, IV and VI.

but then Alley shouldve really come back for III, IV and then VI

but since things happened the way they did and Alley didnt return, maybe they shouldve just cast R Curtis as Savvik in VI instead of creating a new character (wouldve been cool had Alley done it - tying in with TWOK and all, but seems abit harsh not wanting Curtis there since she had taken over and since VI was bookending the Genesis 'trilogy' and it was her version of Savvik that witnessed Davids death at the hands of the klingons which would’ve been the ideal reason for savvik turning traitor - anyway audiences would’ve been abit like 'eh WTF? Alleys back as Savvik?')

She didn't join Cheers until 3 years later. But she was in that incredibly awesome movie with Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons!

"Oh no...they sent the wrong Spock!"

About that time she was on a short lived spy genre TV show called Masquerade.

Not sure if you can blame Curtis or if Nimoy was responsible. But the character certainly lost all of her humor.

"Live long and suck it, Zachary Quinto!"

Even thou robin Curtis did a decent job and I felt really bad for her when she wanted to return for undiscovered country but nick Meyer didn't like her version when Kirstie alley refused because of her cheer commitments. However I did like Kirstie version and would be been interesting to see how she would have reacted to David's death,

well another vulcan science officer woman working with David on Genesis mightve been too much a stretch ..and no back story from previous movie. I guess they couldve had her be a human science officer but they needed her to be vulcan for the pon farr stuff. Ultimately they shouldve just paid Alley what she wanted. So what if it was the same/bit more as Deforest Kelly shed have been worth it. everyone thought she was great (and hot) in Trek II and by that point they shouldve been introducing new characters like saavik to be part of the main cast to 'cool' up the series (Kirk Spock Saavik - like Kirk Spock Uhura in the JJ films)