page_title: Star Trek: The God Thing
section_title: Novelization
hierarchical_section_title: Star Trek: The God Thing / Production / Novelization
caption_attribution_description: English: Walter Koenig participating in a panel discussion at a science fiction convention.
context_page_description: Star Trek: The God Thing is an unproduced film script written by Star Trek series creator Gene Roddenberry. Following the success of Star Trek in broadcast syndication during the early 1970s, Paramount Pictures sought to produce a feature film based on the property. The film's 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. Roddenberry completed the story on June 30, 1976, but Paramount rejected the script for reasons Roddenberry attributed to the religious views of company executives. The story was rewritten as "In Thy Image" for the proposed 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.
context_section_description: Following the rejection of the script, Roddenberry planned to convert his treatment into a novel. After his assistant Susan Sackett showed him the manuscript of a novel that actor Walter Koenig had asked her to type, Roddenberry sought Koenig's collaboration on The 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. In his 1997 autobiography Warped Factors, Koenig stated that he still had copies of the work he had completed on the book.
  In the January 1977 issue of Starlog, Roddenberry said he was not sure when the novel would be complete, but confirmed that it would discuss the meaning of God. By March 1978, the novel was said to be half-completed. Publisher Bantam Books told Roddenberry it would wait until he finished production on Phase II to resume work on the novel. When later in 1978 that production turned into The Motion Picture, Bantam gave Roddenberry an extension because the novelization was thought to be a full-time effort.
  In 1991, Sackett discovered a partly-completed manuscript while she researched documents for her book Inside Trek. This prompted her to suggest sending it to Pocket Books, which held the rights to Star 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 writer Fred 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. 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 the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series following Roddenberry's death. Pocket Books brought in Michael Jan Friedman to finish the work, but it was never published.
caption: Walter Koenig (photographed in 1980) worked to expand Roddenberry's initial draft of the novelization.
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