Nicholas Meyer blocked out memos he received from Gene Roddenberry during filming of Star Trek II

Nicholas Meyer was chosen as the director of the second movie in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and while the movie turned out to be hugely successful, it didn't come without its trials. Though wisely regarding as one of the best movies in the franchise, Star Trek II faced some hurdles, once of which was Gene Roddenberry who wasn't thrilled with the movie's premise. In fact, he allegedly deliberately tried to spoil the plot of the movie, especially to get fans riled up about the death of Spock. [via Slashfilm]

Meyer remembers the time leading up to the filming of The Wrath of Khan as exceptionally busy with rewrites of the script needed in just twelve days to keep everything on schedule. While he recalled meeting Roddenberry, he doesn't recall much interaction with the creator of Star Trek because Roddenberry wasn't part of the movie. However, his memory was jogged when he returned to his alma mater, University of Iowa in Iowa City, which houses all of his papers. [via Slashfilm]

That is where Meyer discovered a plethora of memos he and Roddenberry had exchanged, but the director says he had blocked all of them out. And after reading them, he understood why.

""...people asked me for years what was my interaction with Gene Roddenberry. And I said, well, you met him. You had to shake his hand and so forth, but he wasn't part of making the movie, which was certainly true. But when I went back to my alma mater, the University of Iowa in Iowa City, I went to the library where they have all my papers, and I was stunned to see an exchange of memoranda between me and Gene Roddenberry that I had totally blocked out. Once I read them, I understand why I blocked them. It was very toxic, very venomous. He hated the script. I guess I didn't know any better, so I was intemperate. I responded intemperately. And I had just blocked all memory of this."
"

- Nicholas Meyer

It makes sense Meyer wouldn't want to remember such exchanges. And it's always difficult to believe that such a fantastic movie had such issues going on behind the scenes. Having watched the movie too many times to count, I can honestly say the final result shows nothing but near perfection.