a Starfleet Chief of Staff Admiral who gives Captain Kirk his orders). Following Star Trek V, Bennett developed an idea for a sixth Star Trek film that would take a different approach from the previous films. Titled "The Academy Years", it would have focused on the characters of Kirk and Spock when they were much younger and cadets at Starfleet Academy. It would have delved into the early relationships between these characters, and shown how they developed such a close friendship over the years. While William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy would have had cameos at the beginning and end of the film to "bookend" the story in flashback form, new actors would have portrayed most of the roles in the film, including the young Kirk and Spock. Although Paramount was initially enthusiastic about the idea, feedback from fans was almost universally negative over a Star Trek film without the established actors that fans had come to know and love. Also, Martin Davis who at the time was the head of Gulf & Western, wanted a film featuring the original cast to mark Star Treks 25th anniversary in 1991. Paramount offered Bennett the opportunity to produce this film with the original cast, even offering to produce his academy film afterward, but Bennett declined, citing multiple reasons including a lack of story ideas for the requested film and the rushed time frame in which the film would have to be completed in order to coincide with Star Trek's 25th anniversary. This marked the end of Bennett's association with the Star Trek franchise, and shortly thereafter he left Paramount. The sixth Star Trek film was later titled Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and was released in movie theaters on December 6, 1991. Later works After producing the Star Trek films, Bennett wrote the television movie Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (1992). He co-created and produced the science-fiction television series Time Trax (1993–1995), and produced the animated miniseries Invasion America (1998), for which Nimoy was a voice actor. Death Bennett died on February 25, 2015, in Medford, Oregon, due to a burst embolism in his small intestine and a second one found in his lung. His death occurred two days before that of Leonard Nimoy. He was interred at the Willamette National Cemetery. Filmography References External links Harve Bennett Biography 1930 births 2015 deaths Film producers from Illinois American male screenwriters