Dr. McCoy Actor DeForest Kelley Reportedly Pitched A Star Trek Movie Based On A '60s Western
by Witney Seibold · /FilmPrior to his gig on "Star Trek" in 1966, actor DeForest Kelley had a rather healthy career playing heavies and cowboys in some of the hottest Westerns of his day. Kelley's TV career was massively prolific in the 1940s and 1950s, and he spent his time playing supporting roles in multiple episodes of every popular TV Western of the era. He was in "The Lone Ranger," "Gunsmoke," "Boots and Saddles," "Bonanza," "Have Gun — Will Travel," "The Virginian," and many more. Kelley also starred in sitcoms, mainstream dramas, anthology shows ... anything, really. Prior to playing Dr. McCoy on Gene Roddenberry's popular series, Kelley was one of those reliable character actors that the industry couldn't survive without. The fact that he achieved mainstream fame is almost a fluke.
Kelley, of course, appeared in all three seasons of "Star Trek," in both seasons of "Star Trek: The Animated Series," and in six "Star Trek" movies. He was even in the pilot episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987, playing an incredibly elderly version of his character. His character, Dr. McCoy, is seen by Trekkies as one of the key characters of the series, providing a passionate, angered counterbalance to the cold, logical Vulcan Spock (Leonard Nimoy).
In 1991, Kelley made what would prove to be one of his final acting gigs, playing Dr. McCoy in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." It was at this time that Kelley became ambitious and actually pitched a "Star Trek" story idea to the film's director, Nicholas Meyer. Kelley's idea was to do a "Star Trek" version of the 1966 Lee Marvin movie "The Professionals." This pitch was mentioned only in passing in a 1996 issue of Sci-Fi Universe Magazine, and it is quite titillating.
DeForest Kelley wanted the seventh Star Trek movie to be a sci-fi remake of The Professionals
Richard Brooks' 1966 film "The Professionals," for those unfamiliar, starred Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Woody Strode, and Robert Ryan as a quartet of mercenaries who are hired by a beleaguered rancher (Ralph Bellamy) to rescue his wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), from the clutches of a bandit named Jesús Raza (Jack Palance). Each one of the four mercenaries has a notable field of expertise. Marvin's character, Fardan, was the gun expert. Lancaster's character, Dolworth, was the explosives guy, etc. Their mission, as one might predict, doesn't go exactly as planned, and there are some additional dramatic twists. Dolworth's ex-girlfriend (Marie Gomez) is part of the bad guys' retinue, for instance. Also, the true nature of Maria's marriage to the Ralph Bellamy character is revealed to be less savory than initially presented.
According to the Sci-Fi Universe article, DeForest Kelley liked the idea of a "Star Trek" movie about a similar rescue. It seems that Kelley's idea would have had the character Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) kidnapped by some sort of space villain, forcing Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and the rest to reunite and rescue her. The pitch didn't get more explicit than that. This was pitched after "Star Trek VI," and that movie was meant to serve as the final word on the original crew of the USS Enterprise. And it was.
Paramount ultimately moved to making movies based on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," featuring the characters from that series. Some Trekkies held out hope that there would, regardless, also be an additional movie or TV miniseries to feature the original "Star Trek" cast (they were all still alive at the time). Speculation ran rampant.
The other early '90s ideas for Star Trek projects with the original cast
DeForest Kelley's idea to make a sci-fi version of "The Professionals" went nowhere. But if there's one thing Trekkies are good at, it's speculating. And "Star Trek" in the 1990s was so prolific that it inflamed many imaginations. This was a time when "Star Trek: Voyager" had just launched, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" was rolling high, and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was enjoying success in movie theaters. Trekkies had every reason to believe that the original cast would also be given a few more movies, even if "Star Trek VI" was a definite coda.
Case in point: James T. Kirk had died during the events of the 1994 movie "Star Trek: Generations," but actor William Shatner refused to accept the finality. In 1995, he wrote a speculative novel called "Ashes of Eden," theorizing on what might happen in order to get Kirk resurrected. Sci-Fi Universe Magazine posited (without any substantiation) that "Ashes of Eden" was poised to be adapted into a TV miniseries, with Shatner writing and Nimoy directing. The magazine imagined that Paramount's TV network, the UPN, would never make such a miniseries, as Shatner and Nimoy were too expensive. The "Ashes of Eden" miniseries was, at the time, presented as if it were under serious consideration, but there doesn't seem to have been any meaningful movement on it. Shatner, meanwhile, penned several more novels starring the resurrected Kirk, colloquially known as the Shatnerverse.
Now, in the mid-2020s, many Trekkies are back to speculating. Both "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" and "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" have completed production, and their final episodes will air within the next year or so. Future projects may be in flux.