Eddie Murphy Was Almost In A ‘Star Trek’ Movie: ‘They Had Me Talkin’ Jive To Spock’

It’s kind of hard to imagine, but Eddie Murphy was almost in a Star Trek movie in the 1980s.

Seriously.

The 1986 hit film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home did so well in part because it featured comedic elements along with the obvious science fiction.

Eddie Murphy in Star Trek?

The concept of the movie goes something like this according to The Messenger:

In case you haven’t seen it, the general concept is this: a probe is zooming through the galaxy and approaching Earth. It is trying to make contact with intelligent creatures believed to be on the planet — no, not humans, you speciesist! Humpback whales. Alas, whales are extinct in the future, and the probe is causing such tumult that soon, humans might follow them.

Our friends aboard the USS Enterprise (actually, they aren’t on the Enterprise in this one, but I’m not getting into that right now) decide to travel back in time, find some whales, bring them to the future and save the day. (It seems far more reasonable when Spock lays this plan all out.)

But then comes the kicker.

The Messenger continued, “When they get to ‘the past,’ which was ‘now’ (but is now ‘then’ because it was made in the mid-’80s), they befriend an oceanographer named Dr. Gillian Taylor. That character was in the original script, but she was secondary to a zany college professor with a love for whales who also believed that UFOs were real.”

“The character was created explicitly for Eddie Murphy,” the outlet notes.

Now in the mid-1980s, Murphy had already joined the cast of Saturday Night Live at age 19, had monster television comedy specials and was taking Hollywood by storm with hits like 48 Hours, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop.

Him being in this Star Trek movie would have been a big deal.

Plus Murphy was a big Trekkie, something he would talk about onstage during his act.

Warning: explicit language:

Murphy’s Role Didn’t Make It In The End

But alas, Murphy’s role was cut from the movie.

Murphy told Jimmy Kimmel in more recent times that he was unhappy with the script and that “I want to beam up and be on the ship, and “they had me talkin’ jive to Spock in San Francisco.”

Now THAT would have been something to see.