Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote a script for a movie in which Captain Kirk would have fought Jesus Christ--well, sort of. It was an alien who had shape-shifted into the image of Jesus. This is according to an excerpt from the new book, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek - The First 25 Years, which The Hollywood Reporter posted and Slashfilm brought our attention to.

　　The story would have involved Kirk, who was an admiral in the fiction at this time, seeking out his crewmates for a mission in which they encountered an entity claiming to be God and coming for Earth. The being was actually a living computer that was programmed by a race "cast out" by its own dimension and into that of Star Trek's. This was all part of Roddenberry's script, which was called "The God Thing."

　　"The story ends with the 'God' entity miraculously granting our crew newfound youth and returning them back to the original five-year mission," the excerpt explained.

　　Production company Paramount shot down the idea for a movie based on The God Thing. According to Jon Povill (Star Trek: The Motion Picture), the story was too controversial, especially for Barry Diller, the head of Paramount at the time.

　　"It probably would have brought Star Trek down, because the Christian Right, even though it wasn’t then what it is now, would have just destroyed it," he said. "In fact, Gene started the script under one Paramount administration and handed it to another ... to Barry Diller, who was a devout Catholic. There was no way on Earth that that script was going to fly for a devout Catholic."

　　For his part, Roddenberry--who passed away in 1991--said The God Thing would have ultimately been a story that proclaimed the "beauty" of God. Still, Paramount wasn't having it.

　　"I was going to say that this false thing claiming to be God had screwed up man's concept of the real infinity and beauty of what God is," he said. "Paramount was reluctant to put that up on the screen, and I can understand that position."

　　William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, said he enjoyed the idea. "It was a great story," he said.

　　Go to The Hollywood Reporter to read the full excerpt. It's fascinating.

　　The Star Trek series celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. One part of the celebration is a number of panels at San Diego Comic-Con this month, including a marquee event where Shatner and other stars will discuss the franchise's legacy.

　　Looking ahead, a new Star Trek TV show will air in 2017 on CBS All Access, a paid streaming service run by GameSpot parent company CBS.

　　The next Star Trek movie is this month's Star Trek: Beyond, from Fast & Furious director Justin Lin. As for games, Ubisoft is making a virtual reality title called Star Trek: Bridge Crew; it comes out later this year for PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift.