Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and writer Steve Peerson went into further detail about Eddie Murphy’s removed role in the film. While the circumstances made sense, it’s a shame we never got to see Pluto Nash on the Enterprise, so it’s time to write his story.
According to Meerson, Murphy (a big Star Trek fan) was originally designed to play an astrophysicist at Berkeley. It’s not known how big his part would have been, but it looks like it was pretty substantial, since Catherine Hicks’ character Gillian Taylor was brought on to replace him. According to an interview with Leonard Nimoy in 2008, Murphy thought the character was too much like the one he played in Beverly Hills Cop, and he wanted to play a Vulcan instead. Sadly, the talks with Murphy eventually fell through and he moved onto The Golden Child, which he later seemed to regret.
So, in honour of the role-that-never-was, and the fact that it’s Sunday and we’re all sitting on our heels waiting for Westworld, let’s workshop Murphy’s character in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. He could be a male version of Gillian Taylor, a Starfleet officer, or heck, just bring Pluto Nash aboard and see what the hell happens. I like to imagine that he was the universe’s only wisecracking Vulcan. They couldn’t just get him to stop cracking jokes, and Spock got so pissed. OK, engage!