SilverWook said:
It's possible they had the bare bones of a time travel story, and just lacked a good reason for them to go back to 1986. Or at least a reason not done before on the series.
There also might have been budgetary reasons to do a movie mostly set in the present.
I wonder if a Gary Seven cameo was ever thought about?
It's been so long, that I don't know if talk of Kirk and company becoming an intergalactic version of The A Team, was a real thing, or just a joke that was going around. Ditto the Eddie Murphy rumor.
I was working as a helper at a Star Trek /Comic convention in early 1984 when Star Trek III was still in post-production. At the convention was Mark Lenard and Gene Roddenberry, and a production person from the film that I can't remember their name. They had with them a sneak peek reel of a scene from Star Trek III. Well anyways, a group of us working there got to sit with them after hours on the first evening. Gene was drinking, and kind of spilling the beans on the new film. He was not all too happy with how it was going, and the production guy seemed very very uncomfortable. During this talk Gene mentioned that a time travel story hook was planed to be used in an already expected (but not yet approved by the studio) Star Trek IV. But, he said that due to a budget limitation with Search for Spock, that idea was most likely being completely abandoned. Because this Star Trek III segment was being cut, Gene seemed to be comfortable talking openly about it with us. The way he told it was that there was a deleted segment (he loved) for Star Trek III where there was to be an involved cat and mouse foot / cable car chase between Star Fleet Security and Kirk's Crew right after Dr. McCoy's break out, and before they arrive at the transporter station. The chase was through San Francisco "Old City". Part of the city is keep as a living museum in a late 20th century style. This was because, A huge disaster had destroyed most of the rest of the area in the early 21st century, and "Old City" was being preserved for historic reasons. Well, the chase involved a number of interactions and situations that would have been mirrored in the upcoming Star Trek IV, but in the late 20th century via time travel. The characters would be chased through the same district of San Francisco in Star trek IV but this time by US government security. Because they also had a similar chase in Star trek III, Kirk and Crew would have had an advantage in knowing the city layout. Gene was upset because he felt that there would have been great opportunity for quite a few clever tie-in gags. Well anyway, the scene was cut from ST-III, but they did go on to use the time travel story, and a bit of the chase in San Francisco in ST-IV. So, the time travel idea was out there in late 1983 / early 1984.
This is why I think Gene loved that idea so much...
"In the far distance, the distinctively pointed shape of the old TRANSAMERICA BUILDING. Everywhere else, the San Francisco urban sprawl is totally gone, replaced by lovely groves of large trees, green meadows, streams, lakes, and crystal clear air. (There still exists a small San Francisco "Living Museum" city but it is far enough away to be hidden by trees and will not appear in this story.) Here, as in much of the world, people live mostly in the climate-controlled, colorful and efficient "subterra cities." All industry and transport is now underground. Clearly Earth has become the home of a people who love and protect their living planet." - Star Trek: The Motion Picture Draft Screenplay by Gene Roddenberry (1978).
