That pretty much jives with what I've read elsewhere, that Roddenberry flipped his shit over it. Meyer apparently didn't give much of a crap, arguing that he'd invented the character and could therefore do whatever he wanted with her, but somehow he got overridden.
Meyer didn't get overridden at all. Cattrall did not wish to be Actress #3 to play Saavik and insisted on creating a new character.
So, these passages would seem to contradict the idea that Roddenberry held any sway, even if he did object. No?
Roddenberry hadn't "held sway" since ST:TMP. He was "Creative Consultant" on films II-VI, meaning he had to be sent
every version of every script, and made copious notes in memos, but
no one had to listen to him.
His comment about Saavik being revealed as a traitor was that she seemed to be "a beloved character", and that fans might find it hard to cope with such a revelation. (And I would agree that this would be true, only it would certainly have made the movie more compelling!) This bemused Meyer a lot, since GR had supposedly objected strenuously to the addition of a young, female Spock protege in the lead-up to the filming of ST II. But they didn't have to listen to him then, nor for ST VI.
Mind you, "From the Bridge" does have some factual errors. Meyer's accounts are incorrect in several instances throughout the book.
I've heard that Kristie Alley was unavailable to play Saavik in Star Trek: TUC, so why didn't they give Robin Curtis the job??
Was she busy to act in it too? Did they forget about her?
In a "Starlog" interview, Robin Curtis said she and her agent were never approached. When Kirstie Alley turned down the offer of ST VI, Meyer went straight to Kim Cattrall,
his original choice for Saavik for ST II.
He had not cared for Curtis's performance in ST III and IV and wasn't interested in pursuing her. Cattrall only agreed if she could play a
new Vulcan character, and had a hand in naming her (she suggested "Eris" and Meyer added the "Val'-" prefix to make it sound more Vulcan), designing the severe no-sideburns look of her hair, and the metal headband. The revised script actually calls her "Val'eris", although the apostrophe was removed by the time of the credits and publicity materials.
I still don't know why they recast Saavik in the first place.
It's my personal speculation that Nimoy didn't care for Alley's interpretation. (Was he also threatened by her popularity, I wonder? Fanzines of the day often seemed to be saying that, if Spock was really dead, "at least we have Saavik".) Supposedly there was lots of friction between Alley and Shatner on set (according to my interview with Paul Winfield), and Director Nimoy probably wanted to ensure that ST III was a happier set. Alley and Butrick had both mentioned that the main cast weren't going out of their way to be friendly to them, seeing them as potential caretakers of a new series of ST telemovies. He also took the chance to refine the character as all-Vulcan, not the feisty Romulan/Vulcan hybrid described in the script of ST II.
Alley wanted more money and they didn'r want to pay it, I think. It's a shame.
Actually, the "more money" was the
ST III problem, although Paramount offered her less than ST II for that, knowing her agent would make a counter offer, but that then freed Paramount to recast.
Alley simply turned down ST VI, AFAIK.
The only reason Alley was thin enough to win Saavik for ST II was that she was grieving for her parents, who'd just been in a horrific car accident, resulting in the death of one of them. The story is told in her otherwise rather hilarious autobiography.
