70s Trek: Star Trek In The 1970s

After a year of hearing Star Trek movie pitches and ideas from creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writers, Paramount executives decided to take matters into their own hands.  In July 1976, they named Jerry Isenberg as the Executive Producer of the Star Trek movie project. Isenberg quickly hired two writers to work on a treatment, Chris Bryant and Alan Scott.  In September 1976, they get to work and turn in a treatment at the end of the month called The Planet of the Titans.  Finally, Paramount had an idea it wanted to produce and execs ordered the writers to begin working on a script. In the meantime, Isenberg began looking for a director.  He talked with some of the big names of the day: Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Robert Wise.  Each turned him down because of commitments to other projects.  But finally Phillip Kaufman agreed to direct. During this activity, artist Ralph McQuarrie was hired to develop concept art for the project.  He had just finished a job working for