Star Trek: The God Thing

Star Trek: The God Thing
Cover artwork of a planned but cancelled Pocket Books novelization
Produced by	Gene Roddenberry Jeffrey Katzenberg (executive)
Written by	Gene Roddenberry
Story by	Gene Roddenberry Jon Povill
Based on	Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry
Starring	William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley James Doohan Walter Koenig Nichelle Nichols George Takei
Music by	Alexander Courage (theme)
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Country	United States
Language	English

Star Trek: The God Thing is an unproduced film script written by Star Trek series creator Gene Roddenberry. Following the success of Star Trek in broadcast syndication during the early 1970s, Paramount Pictures sought to produce a feature film based on the property. The film's plot follows the Enterprise crew after the events of The Original Series: when an alien entity declares itself God and begins travel to Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk reunites the crew, who send it back to its own dimension. Roddenberry completed the story on June 30, 1976, but Paramount rejected the script for reasons Roddenberry attributed to the religious views of company executives. The story was rewritten as "In Thy Image" for the proposed television series Star Trek: Phase II and then as Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

After Paramount rejected the film, Roddenberry sought to produce The God Thing as a novel in the late 1970s. He signed a deal with Bantam Books to publish it, but was given extensions because of his work; first on Phase II and then The Motion Picture. During this period, Star Trek actor Walter Koenig helped Roddenberry expand the novel. In 1991, shortly before Roddenberry's death, his assistant Susan Sackett rediscovered the work on the novel. She contacted Pocket Books, which wanted to publish it; discussions to hire Sackett and Fred Bronson to expand it to novel length were held, but negotiations stopped after Roddenberry's death and Sackett's dismissal from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Michael Jan Friedman was later engaged to expand the work but it went unpublished. The God Thing has been compared to the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier that dealt with similar religious concepts.