Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Boldly going where no man (or woman) has gone before, climb aboard the Enterprise and let it fly and soar, as old friends gather, reunite, off to battle and to fight, strange new worlds, civilisations to explore.

There's a cloud that's gathering in outer space, it's heading towards Earth at a great pace, starship Enterprise is sent, to discover its intent, gauge the power of the enemy that they face.

A reflective and contemplative piece reintroduces us to the crew of the starship Enterprise.

I recently watched this movie for the first time in ten or fifteen years. When I was younger I thought this one was even worse than Star Trek V, because as bad as "The Final Frontier" was, at least it had some action and colour.

The version I just saw wasn't the new Director's Edition, just the old video, but I was still completely surprised by just about everything -- partly because I hadn't seen it in so long, and partly because it's so totally different from all the following Trek movies. I even kinda liked the silly space pajamas everyone wears.

After this, the movie series turned to action-oriented stories, a more militaristic look and feel, and infinitely less challenging concepts. True, the pacing of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" drags in parts, and the behavior of its stars is a little cold and stiff. But instead of treating us with space battles and phaser shootouts, it gives us long, loving shots of the newly revamped starship Enterprise, and instead of rather tawdry plots grounded in mundane reality, it takes us on a metaphysical voyage into an unknown, bizarre, and palpably huge alien device. The relationship of the three main characters has changed a little after several years apart, and they're each getting used to things all over again: Kirk has to deal with the unfamiliar new ship; Spock, after trying to purge his emotions, must confront his human half; and McCoy is "shanghaied" out of retirement for the trip. Decker and Ilia, the new characters, provide enough interest that they were virtually resurrected as Riker and Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The sense of scale is important. The cloud surrounding V'Ger is gigantic, and the ship at the heart of the cloud is a whole world to itself. The Enterprise must fly into the cloud and communicate with the ship, and it's the only time in any of the ten movies that the heroes actually confront something new and unknown. This was a staple of the original show, and some of the best episodes of the spin-off series. The subsequent films were content with setting their battles and chases in space, but "Star Trek I" actually wants to explore that space. The question at the centre of the film, posed by Spock, is "Is this all we are? Is there nothing more?" Kirk, Spock, and V'Ger are all searching for an answer to that question.

However, the thing that definitely drags the film down is the sound. The red alert blares every other minute, and mechanical computer voice-overs announce just about everything they possibly can. In the process of updating the ship, they've emphasized the computers and mechanics of the vessel in a way they never had before or since, and the effect is jarring and interesting at the same time. The Enterprise is much more of a physical ship traveling in space, and less of a device to facilitate storytelling.

The visual effects are amazing enough to warrant some digital cleaning, and the movie should be seen in widescreen, preferably on a large television.

It's too bad that this movie wasn't more of a success, because I would like to see more Star Trek in this style. After many years and many TV shows, I admit I've gotten a little tired of space battles.

UPDATE: I recently watched the Director's Edition DVD. The sound effects are fixed, and the film has been re-edited to tighten the pace ever so slightly. The changes made are not on the level of the Star Wars special editions, but they do make the movie more watchable. It's a little more coherent now, and I like it even more.

This DVD version has improved and restored and made Star Trek: TMP a pleasure to watch rather than a chore. You're less inclined to hit fast-forward in those lengthy scenes. This movie will resonate well with mature-age viewers because the story is not what you would expect from today's action packed cinema. I appreciated the movie more as I got older. Bob Wise explains on the DVD that production was extremely rushed and had no time to preview the film with an audience that would now after 20 years, tell him to tighten the opticals and emphasize characters. This is precisely what he has done in the DVD version and its magnificent.

Aesthetically, the DVD version shows you the best Star Trek: The Motion Picture can possibly look. Film is sharper; color is dead on however there is still a lot of film grain present unfortunately. My guess is they cleaned the original negative up as much as they could but it had deteriorated so much in storage, or was badly preserved. Certainly looks better than my bad pan/scanned VHS copy.

The DVD truly shines with its brand new sound mix. This isn't your standard stereo to 5.1 DVD conversions like they are doing for movies pre 5.1; they have gutted it up and added new stuff. The original release was so rushed that very little in terms of ambient sound and special effects audio elements were done on the sound mix amongst other production elements. For this DVD they went back to the original audiotapes and remixed them digitally.

Goldsmith's score sounded fantastic when it originally came out now sounds even better on the DVD version. It's tremendous, you will hear what your suppose to hear now with the added advantage of 5.1 surround sound. Goldsmith score truly has a chance to soar now by stretching into a clean high fidelity 5.1 environment rather than being squeezed onto a mono or stereo track. Bass kicks in often especially on big musical cues. You'll hear nifty panning and those surrounds and subwoofer will definitely get a workout. In instances they isolate different parts of the orchestra through different speakers, mainly the bass and percussion.

Most onstage dialog was re-recorded afterwards because of onstage noise due to mechanical devices etc; this is now common practice in the industry. The result is cleaner dialog that comes prominently out of your center speaker. The dialog audio is good, but on occasion it shows a mild muffled and tinny quality probably due to age of material or analog technology of the time, nevertheless I guarantee you, the average viewer will like it, I'm just being picky. In short the movie will sound almost as good as if the movie was made recently.

Not only having rebuilt the original audio they have put in more surround elements, like ambient bridge noises and computer voices. Not sure why they changed the `Intruder Alert' voice, I don't mind but I guess it was because they rushed the sound mix in the 70's and chose that voice as a last minute thing. There are other elements that have been changed, for the better I would say.

The DVD contents have been remastered with Wise's overseeing. There are too many subtleties to comment on so shall briefly discuss a few. Before opening credits you are treated to Goldsmiths V'ger/Love theme, a nice touch. Then you hear the bombastic Star Trek Theme. Newly done credits over moving starfield.

First main new special effect is the Vulcan landscape, tilting from sky to the surface. Then cuts to a new matte painting of the beautiful orange sky. Originally Spock shields his eyes and in the reversal, not only is there no sun there is little sky visible. The new matte painting now fits in nicely.

San Francisco sequence has been redone, 3 new matte paintings that better show the futurized city, Golden Gate Bridge and a bigger shuttlebay.

When they get into V'Ger they encounter a weapon heading towards them that is suppose to dissipate, in the original it simply disappears instantly, now we see a new visual that shows it dissipating just before it hits the ship.

Later we see a probe heading towards the ship on the viewscreen and then through some hokey editing it appears on the bridge. This has been replaced with an improved FX shot showing the approach of the entity on an exterior shot.

A new 'Wing Walk' sequence. Breathtaking new CGI's that show the away-team walk from the hull to the V'Ger stage, some using the original live action shots. New FXs for the most part are based on original storyboards. They didn't go overboard with the effects which is good, Bob tells us that they made FX that they could only do in the 1970's, unlike Star Wars whom George Lucas went overkill on new FX when he redid his in the 1990's.

There are trims, some rearrangements of shots for the better. E.g. Ilia/Deckers exchange of looks, Kirk's `Oh My God', his second `Viewer Off.' I suspect they had to edit within Jerry's score, or have to also edit Jerry's score to accommodate the new editing, if so they have done it very well, I couldn't notice. Some lengthy scenes remain in its entirety, e.g. flying up to the enterprise, I don't blame them for not trimming them, some are sentimental.

The 2 DVD's come with a plethora of information. Audio commentaries by the director, 2 special effect's guys, an actor and the composer guide you through the director's edition. Text commentary by Okuda gives even more scene specific info. Disc 2 gives you most of the trims, deleted scenes from the TV and Theatrical release not used in the DVD version and an outtake of an abandoned visual effect. Plus 3 documentaries about the abandoned TV series ST:Phase II, Directors edition DVD and the movie itself. Plus advertisements/trailers plus storyboards.

A MUST BUY FOR FANS! You'll Love It!

'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', originally released Friday, December 7th, 1979. - ORIGINAL Theatrical Version, 1979, Running Time 2hrs&12mn, Rated "G" by the MPAA - SPECIAL Extended Version, 1983, Running Time 2hrs&23mn, Rated "G" by the MPAA - The DIRECTOR's Edition, 2001, Running Time 2hrs&16mn, Rated "PG" by the MPAA - CONTENT for all three versions includes: Mild Adult Language, Mild Sexual Innuendo and Mild Violence.

My take *** (Out of ****) - or 7/10 on the IMDb Scale.

'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' is the big screen debut of the continuation of the science fiction television series 'Star Trek'. The show chronicled the adventures of the crew of the space-going USS Enterprise. The ship explored the galaxy during a historic five-year mission under the command of the charismatic Captain James T. Kirk. Other crew members included the logical first officer/science officer Spock, a half human/half Vulcan hybrid (Vulcans are an alien race, complete with pointed ears) and the passionate country doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy. The TV series ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969.

'Star Trek' takes place in the latter half of the 23rd Century. Mankind has formed alliances with many alien races from planets throughout the galaxy, collectively forming The United Federation of Planets. These societies thrive peacefully and continue to develop together and independently. To protect this Federation from hostiles and seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations is Starfleet. This organization is diplomatic and scientific, yet serves as a military force as needed.

The movie opens two & 1/2 years after the completion of the starship Enterprise's five year mission. The spaceship is orbiting Earth, in a dry-dock of sorts, completing a complex overhaul. The planet Earth is in the path of a potential destructive alien intruder. The now Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) doesn't have time to spare during this crisis. He takes a grade reduction to captain, wrestling command of the Enterprise away from a less experienced skipper (Stephen Collins), and sets out to counter the alien threat before it can reach Earth. Most of his original crew has been re-assembled for this undertaking. Shortly after Kirk & team embark to stop the intruder, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) joins them on their quest.

'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' trades in on the action, good drama, suspense and wit the TV series offered to a degree. Kirk & company are here pretty much for the ride, instead of being the leaders they're known as. The movie moves at a slow pace, gradually getting into the intricacies of the alien menace. There's a lot of time adoring spaceships as they travel through space. There's not much in the way of real character development.

Despite the compromises, 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' works on some level. It's interesting to see the familiar crew in action once again. There are some very fundamental questions asked in the movie that we all have asked ourselves. I found those questions to be intriguing. ST:TMP wants to be intellectual and it succeeds a lot of the time.

Jerry Goldsmith, the film's music composer, provides us with one of the most memorable scores in motion picture history. This is a huge plus for a movie noticeably deficient in personality. This lovely score helps to make up for that. The film almost plays like an elaborate special effects music video set to this grand rousing score. I appreciated the film on this level too.

The special effects by John Dykstra were highly imaginative for the late 1970s. They still hold up well over the decades and continue to enthrall me, especially with the mystery of the alien intruder. The intruder sound effects also succeed in giving me an appropriate sense of awe and dread.

The 2001 Director's Edition is the best version of the movie. The theatrical version was rushed to make the movie's scheduled release date. It was regarded by director Robert Wise as incomplete. 'The Director's Edition' restores Wise's planned vision for the movie. This version streamlines the pace of the movie, adds a little more depth to the characters and has the originally desired sound-mix and completed special effects restored for this edition.

'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' was followed by nine sequels to date and four new TV series. There is an eleventh movie currently in production.

'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' was a shaky start for the launch of the 'Star Trek' film series. It's better to simply except this picture for what it is, rather than for what it isn't. It's not a perfect movie, but it did what it set out to do. It invited me for a journey offering good special effects, a great music score and a beloved crew back on the job. The movie also gave me something to think about. It could have been a better movie, but it's still a marginally satisfying one. Though clearly not for everyone, I recommend it to those who would welcome the philosophical ride it offers.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was Paramount Studio's attempt at cashing in on the Star Wars craze that was sweeping through the late seventies. However, instead of getting a fast-paced action romp, they got something more in tune with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Therefore, the first big screen Star Trek outing was always left in Star Wars' shadow. This, of course, was slightly rectified by the sequel (and darker and more action-orientated) The Wrath of Khan, but that's another story.

It's easy to see why Star Trek: The Motion Picture never set the box office alight, it's slow, very talky-talky, with lingering shots of things that you don't really know what they are and absolutely no action. However, that said, it's actually quite good (but only if you're in the mood).

If you're looking for something fast-paced then you should probably ignore most of the Star Trek saga and skip straight to the 2009 reboot. Whereas if you are a fan of slow-burning (and dare I say it?) 'intellectual' science fiction then you might get something out of this.

Avatar it is not. Interesting it is. Although, it should probably have an 'Eighteen Certificate' slapped on it - not because the content is particularly 'adult' in nature, but simply because there's no way anyone under eighteen would ever appreciate it and have the patience to sit through it.

May the old crew live long and prosper.