Nimoy famous that he and producer Harve Bennett initially thought up a time-travel story for “Star Trek IV” and that “we should always loosen up. The image must be enjoyable compared to the earlier three.” Nimoy additionally needed the movie to be centered on ecology and visited a number of universities to speak to environmental scientists and futurists to get their speedy issues concerning the future. Finally, Nimoy mentioned, these conversations spun off into philosophy and principle, resulting in some deep consideration about how human contact with extraterrestrials would possibly doubtlessly change notions of faith and sociology. Enjoyable conversations, to make certain, however not fairly what Nimoy wanted to type a narrative for a “Star Trek” script.
It wasn’t till he met with a specific writer that notions of biodiversity — as a direct story factor — started to enter Nimoy’s thoughts in earnest. The director mentioned:
“In [Edward O. Wilson’s] e-book Biophilia, he tells us we might be shedding as many as ten thousand species off this planet per yr—a lot of them having gone unrecorded. We can’t even have identified what they had been and they are going to be gone. He touches on the idea of a keystone species. In case you arrange a home of playing cards you might be able to draw back one card efficiently and one other card efficiently. However sooner or later you’re going to get a card that may be a keystone card. When that one is pulled away, the entire thing will collapse.”
Wilson’s e-book is simple sufficient to search out on-line.
The “keystone,” Nimoy identified, might be any species on Earth, and that it was smart to guard them. All through the Eighties, the slogan “Save the Whales” was largely touted on bumper stickers and by environmental activists.
Lo, there was Nimoy’s “hook.”
