Between 1975 and 1977, Paramount and Gene Roddenberry planned to make a Star Trek movie, but it turned out to be anything but easy. What would it be about? Plot ideas in included time travel, snake people, God, black holes, and the titans of ancient Greek mythology. Writer after writer took a turn at coming up with a story.
With the Star Trek movie project still hobbling along by the autumn of 1976, producer Jerry Eisenberg brought in Chris Bryant and Allan Scott, who'd written the adapted screenplay for Nicolas Roeg's horror film, Don't Look Now. Bryant and Scott went away and wrote up a 20-page treatment which took the idea of a cinematic Star Trek and ran with it.
They imagined that the Titans of Greek legend actually existed on a distant planet. Spock, leading an expedition searching for a missing Kirk, finds this planet hovering on the brink of a black hole. With Klingons hot on his heels, Spock touches down, finds Kirk, and also discovers that a race of evil aliens called Cygnans have destroyed the last of the ancient Titans. The story would have ended with Kirk and Spock escaping into the black hole in the Enterprise, before emerging in Earth's orbit at an early point in our history.
But there were too many people who had to approve. There was no way to please everyone involved in the project, and Planet of the Titans and all the other ideas were rejected. The whole idea of a Star Trek film was completely dropped -for a while. Read the frustrating story at Den of Geek.