Original "The Royale" Script

[Michael]

Just recently I've been reading up on the circumstances surrounding the writing of The Royale and learned of the fact, that apparently there's a version of the script that's entirely different from the filmed version, which – to the protest of scriptwriter Tracy Tormé – was heavily rewritten by Maurice Hurley.

However, I think Tracy Tormé's description of his original script sounds pretty amazing. I would love to read it, but so far I've been unsuccessful in tracking it out. Does anyone know how to get it? Or does anyone know of a way to contact Tormé himself?

By the way, here's Tormé's description from a Sliders fan page ...

Tormé recalls that he pitched two stories. One was "The Dream Pool," which never got made, and the second was "The Blue Moon Hotel," which was later produced, heavily rewritten, as "The Royale."

"That's a bit of a heartbreak for me. I really believe it would have been a tremendous show," says Tormé, who terms the final product almost unrecognizable. "'The Royale' was really my attempt to do a Prisoner show. The hotel was [The Village] and the astronaut living there was like Number Six. This is all allegory. Every day he woke up and lived this strange life inside the Vegas Hotel. Being among all these people, who weren't really people. It was very surrealistic and kind of sad. Very touching and very lonely and he didn't understand his own existence. It was like being in a Vegas casino in this barren alien planet. And the Enterprise people come aboard and realized there's only one human being there — the astronaut — and you never see the alien entity, the hotel manager, until the end. That's my Number One. The assistant manager was Number Two. It was a very complex and surrealistic story. It's about loneliness and isolation.

"What happened to 'The Royale' was that there was a stupid rule that said they had to utilize the cast more. The astronaut was too good a part and took away from our cast. They turned the astronaut into a skeleton in the bed. They decided to rewrite all the casino stuff. To me, it was like bad comedy.

"I'll give you a perfect example of someone who doesn't know anything about Vegas writing a cliché Vegas scene. They came up with this whole thing about the book and [the trapped Enterprise crew] had to win enough money gambling to buy their way out of the hotel.

"I just watched the whole show in complete horror. I had no idea what the show was about. I still don't know what the show was about! I'm really sorry they couldn't do the original. It was terrific. All through the first season, we talked about doing it. It was just a question of doing it right, spending the money and taking the time. When we were going to do it second season. I thought, 'Great!' and it turned into a disaster."

 

[Danny99]

I don't think it would have worked in that format as a second season episode. It's still early enough in the run of a show to be establishing characters and to dedicate an episode to a guest star at that time would not have been a good idea IMO. Maybe the next season?

That being said, I liked The Royale in the form in which it was presented.

 

[Trek Survivor]

Meh, Torme's originaly idea sounds a bit dull to be honest.

I like "The Royale" as-is a lot. Especially at the time, Trek had a very bad habit of taking itself too seriously, too often. It needed episodes like this - a little silly, a little fun - to strike the balance.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The only thing wrong with Torme's script - or with Torme as a writer for TNG - was that Roddenberry liked him and his work far too much for the comfort of an insecure, aging hack.

 

[Mr Silver]

I'm a fan of The Royale, I thought it was an excellent episode, considering most of Season 2 is pretty drawl to a point, I agree though some of it was kinda campy, I liked the humor aspect and lightheartedness though, This was one of these episodes where Worf actually had something to do

 

[T'Girl]

Meh, Torme's originaly idea sounds a bit dull to be honest.

Torme's original idea sounds . . . unoriginal, he admits cloning The Prisoner, plus it sounds a lot like Groundhog Day. Good thing it was heavily rewritten, making it into a much better episode.

 

[Leathco]

Another vote for the royale being a good fun episode. I always liked how the crap book was used to make a nightmare to live in, although the beings that made it had the best intentions.

 

[Kirks_Flying_Wig]

The producers not wanting to take away the focus from the main cast is not unreasonable for a weekly TV series, especially for one that has already lost two actors due to underuse.

I like "The Royale" as it is (particularly "Revolving door? Number One, proceed with caution") The fact that Col. Richey hates the book because of its clichés signals to the audience that the writers already knew that.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I guess I'll be the minority here. "The Royale" really isn't a very good episode. However, I think the skeleton in the bed is better than what Torme originally came up with. That he died alone on this alien world years ago gives us more of a sense of loneliness than Torme's living astronaut would have. And why would he still be alive anyway?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I guess I'll be the minority here. "The Royale" really isn't a very good episode.

You may be in the minority, but you're right. "The Royale" sucks.

 

[Alrik]

I've been kind of surprised by all the love that 'The Royale' has gotten lately. I can remember times around here when it has just gotten trashed. For me, it's always been one of my Trek guilty pleasures, because I really have always liked the ep. Be it good, bad, or ugly, its just nice to know that others enjoy it as well.

Oh, and as far as the original script/concept. Now that DID suck.

 

[Michael]

I don't think it would have worked in that format as a second season episode. It's still early enough in the run of a show to be establishing characters and to dedicate an episode to a guest star at that time would not have been a good idea IMO.

Personally, I think The Next Generation acutally did provide the possibilty to do a more anthology-esque episode once in a while. I don't think it would have hurt the format of the series to do a story mainly told form the perspective of a guest star.

Meh, Torme's originaly idea sounds a bit dull to be honest.

It doesn't sound dull to me. At the end of the day neither you nor me know how Tormé's version might have turned out. How could we? We didn't read it. It's just that I would love to find out about what might have been.

"The Royale" sucks.

Yep, it does. I kinda like it in a weird, campy sort of way. It has some nice humorous moments. But really, there's not much more than that. And I like to think that Tormé's version could have been a much more interesting story.

Anyway, I guess there's no-one here having a copy of the script lying around, eh?

 

[Mr Silver]

Anyway, I guess there's no-one here having a copy of the script lying around, eh?

I'd love to have a look at it also

 

[Noname Given]

I guess I'll be the minority here. "The Royale" really isn't a very good episode.

You may be in the minority, but you're right. "The Royale" sucks.

QFT - I actually like what Torme was going for, and I'm very sorry that version didn't get made. Might have made the second season more watchable.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I guess I'll be the minority here. "The Royale" really isn't a very good episode.

You may be in the minority, but you're right. "The Royale" sucks.

QFT - I actually like what Torme was going for, and I'm very sorry that version didn't get made. Might have made the second season more watchable.

Oh yeah. The Royale was just bad, bad, bad.

 

[CaptainStoner]

You know what they call that episode in France?

Royale with cheese.

 

[Shatnertage]

The Royale was awful.

If they were going for a Vegas casino look, they missed the mark. That's just not how Vegas casinos work. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be set in the 1930s--in which case you wouldn't really find a casino hotel of that size in Vegas--or later, in which case everything else is pretty anachronistic. Kind of like The Big Goodbye, the designers just seem to have one general "noir" look. It doesn't say a lot when you're not sure where or when a "modern" setting is supposed to be.

Not that I'm expecting ultra-fidelity to period detail in an hour TV drama or anything--if it was a good script, it wouldn't have mattered. But the whole thing is just so tedious...it's painful to watch. Everyone seems to be going through the motions. Give me Haven, which has its dodgy moments but where the cast at least appears to be having fun, any day.

IMHO, 2 parts almost redeem it: the bit with Worf and the elevator, and the bit where the older cowboy whines to Data, blaming him for losing his bet: "Why'd ya do it? Was it because I didn't show you my car?" He just sounds so legitimately hurt, it's kind of funny.

To give you an idea of how bad I think The Royale is, I've set aside a chunk of time in my gambling and media class for a Star Trek episode. On paper, The Royale should be perfect, but there's no way I'm having that be the first taste impressionable youngsters get of TNG.

Instead, I'm going with Tapestry. Sure, there's only a little bit dealing with gambling, but it's got a much bigger theme of risk-taking, and the gambling is crucial to the story.

I understand that because it's Trek there's some good in it, but, yeah, I really don't like The Royale.

 

[Alrik]

The Royale was awful.

If they were going for a Vegas casino look, they missed the mark. That's just not how Vegas casinos work. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be set in the 1930s--in which case you wouldn't really find a casino hotel of that size in Vegas--or later, in which case everything else is pretty anachronistic...

I think there was a solid point behind the 'look' of the places. The aliens that created it wouldn't have any idea of what a real earth casino/hotel would look like. All they could go off of was the description from the book. So of course it didn't look like Ceasars or Circus Circus.

...But the whole thing is just so tedious...it's painful to watch. Everyone seems to be going through the motions. Give me Haven, which has its dodgy moments but where the cast at least appears to be having fun, any day.

Again, back to the point being made. The book was so poorly written that most of the characters should come off wooden and hollow. That's how they were written in 'The Royal', again no point of reference for the aliens to change them up. It's likely that that is how the supporting actors were directed to portray their characters. I've alway thought it looked like Frakes, Dorn, and Spiner were having a very good time with this ep.

 

[BillJ]

Just recently I've been reading up on the circumstances surrounding the writing of The Royale and learned of the fact, that apparently there's a version of the script that's entirely different from the filmed version, which – to the protest of scriptwriter Tracy Tormé – was heavily rewritten by Maurice Hurley.

However, I think Tracy Tormé's description of his original script sounds pretty amazing. I would love to read it, but so far I've been unsuccessful in tracking it out. Does anyone know how to get it? Or does anyone know of a way to contact Tormé himself?

By the way, here's Tormé's description from a Sliders fan page ...

Tormé recalls that he pitched two stories. One was "The Dream Pool," which never got made, and the second was "The Blue Moon Hotel," which was later produced, heavily rewritten, as "The Royale."

"That's a bit of a heartbreak for me. I really believe it would have been a tremendous show," says Tormé, who terms the final product almost unrecognizable. "'The Royale' was really my attempt to do a Prisoner show. The hotel was [The Village] and the astronaut living there was like Number Six. This is all allegory. Every day he woke up and lived this strange life inside the Vegas Hotel. Being among all these people, who weren't really people. It was very surrealistic and kind of sad. Very touching and very lonely and he didn't understand his own existence. It was like being in a Vegas casino in this barren alien planet. And the Enterprise people come aboard and realized there's only one human being there — the astronaut — and you never see the alien entity, the hotel manager, until the end. That's my Number One. The assistant manager was Number Two. It was a very complex and surrealistic story. It's about loneliness and isolation.

"What happened to 'The Royale' was that there was a stupid rule that said they had to utilize the cast more. The astronaut was too good a part and took away from our cast. They turned the astronaut into a skeleton in the bed. They decided to rewrite all the casino stuff. To me, it was like bad comedy.

"I'll give you a perfect example of someone who doesn't know anything about Vegas writing a cliché Vegas scene. They came up with this whole thing about the book and [the trapped Enterprise crew] had to win enough money gambling to buy their way out of the hotel.

"I just watched the whole show in complete horror. I had no idea what the show was about. I still don't know what the show was about! I'm really sorry they couldn't do the original. It was terrific. All through the first season, we talked about doing it. It was just a question of doing it right, spending the money and taking the time. When we were going to do it second season. I thought, 'Great!' and it turned into a disaster."

The Royale is actually one of my favorite TNG outings. Not sure if I would have felt the same way if Torme's original pitch had made it to the screen.

 

[Shatnertage]

Isn't it kind of lazy to write hollow characters, then smile and say that they're supposed to be hollow? As a viewer, it makes me feel like the joke is on me.