Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Anstey]

To my 11yo self seeing the movie in the theater, it was a disappointment. Since I had only seen TOS in syndication and not understanding what syndication was, it seemed like the TV show had only been off the air for a few years along with all the rumors that it was coming back to TV. It was very jarring to see the crew completely disbanded and very different when I wanted them to pick up like it was the next episode. Frustratingly, TWOK does the same thing again after getting everyone back together in TMP. Now I like it fine enough and my preferred cut is also a mix between the original and director's cut. The extra scenes are very important but I also like the extra computer sounds and a few bits that were shortened from the original. My feeling that the movie was 'slow' came from watching the Special Edition and thinking most of it was in the theatrical cut originally.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

None of them were together, everyone was away from space for at least several years. Kirk, I assume, had a desk job and was getting antsy. Spock was off purging all emotions for at least some of those several years - that can change a person. And, McCoy was off cruising for chicks at the discos.

I think in terms of the story (rather than real life), everyone was only away for 2 1/2 years, given Kirk's line "2 1/2 years as Chief of Starfleet Operations may have made me a little stale, but I wouldn't excactly call myself untried."

TMP holds a special place for me, as well. I liked it as a movie (particularly the TV edit). I even preferred the costuming to what came after (I'm kinda disappointed they found money for new clothes in STII rather than doing a dye job on the existing outfits, which was the original plan).

I, too, would love to see a blu-ray of the director's edition, but would want it to only be a super-deluxe package that included, if possible, a blu-ray upgrade of the TV edit (though perhaps with possible re-framing of the spacewalk). Either that, or an alternate-audio option for the Director's edition that retained the original sound FX mix (put me in the camp that wasn't fond of the DE's change of sound FX).

I'd also want them to include every scrap of film they have in the extras. I know more "Memory Wall" footage exits than we were given on the DVD (though presumably not all, as it was later proven that Gene and Majel were still selling studio film at that time--including unused footage of TMP--as was proven by a fan finding a brief section of Memory Wall footage a couple years back).

It would also be nice to see all of the Phase II test footage and the text footage that was shot of the Phase II standing sets when they were trying to decide whether they'd hold up for the movie or if they'd have to be rebuilt.

I'm certain, though, we'd never get anything that nice. We'll be lucky to get just the DE on a disc with no extras at all (or the DVD ones ported over in standard def).

 

[Sam Favate]

TMP also has what I consider to be one of the greatest movie posters in movie history:

 

[Scott-S]

I am currently watching TMP as I type this. One thing is really bugging me. Kirk says the Enterprise is the only starship in range of the cloud. How is it that at Earth, Starfleet HQ, there is only 1 starship around? 1 Starship within 3 days of Earth? That was a serious miss on the part of the writers.

As for the look of the film. I am watching the DVD (Directors cut) and there is a scene when Spock shows up on the bridge in which the close ups of Kirk have everything in the background blurry. The close ups are really weird looking. Is this an error? or just a choice?

 

[Harry-N]

As for the look of the film. I am watching the DVD (Directors cut) and there is a scene when Spock shows up on the bridge in which the close ups of Kirk have everything in the background blurry. The close ups are really weird looking. Is this an error? or just a choice?

I believe that was a conscious choice with Robert Wise experimenting with split-diopter lenses.

 

[Carabimero]

At 15, I didn't care for TMP when it came out (although I loved the score). But as I get older, and develop more patience, there are treasures in that movie to be unlocked. TMP has the ability to speak to me with messages that change as I age. There's a lot of subtext in that first movie. As much as I love the next three movies in the series (and admit that they are probably better and more watchable), they haven't had the ability or the depth to speak to me throughout my entire lifetime the way TMP does. At 51, I treasure it.

 

[Nelson Au]

The Wise audio commentary explains the split diopter lens use. It's used in several shots.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

The Wise audio commentary explains the split diopter lens use. It's used in several shots.

Yes. He also used them in The Andromeda Strain, in part because the same cinematographer was involved - Richard Kline. It's more noticeable in the widescreen versions since the 4x3 pan and scan videos kind of hide the effect being usually scanned to one side or the other of the split.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

One has to presume then that all starships (or at least heavy cruisers) are on deep space assignments at this time. We have the original 12 Constitution-class starships, minus a few like the Constellation, Intrepid and others. Some may been lost since the end of TOS canon, or listed as "missing" due to contagion (as with the Exeter) or just straight-up missing (the Defiant).

A few of the original 12 actually survived their 5-year missions, like the U.S.S. Yorktown (which became the Enterprise-A), but those might have gotten a refit and then sent right back "out there, that-away." We know of at least one that's "in the fleet museum" 80 years later, but that may be an extraordinary case.

However, radio dialog beamed from Epsilon 9 hints at a much larger fleet, the one described in the Star Trek Technical Manual from 1973:

Scout Columbia NCC-621, to rendezvous with Scout Revere NCC-595 on Stardate 7411.4.

Those ships were listed in the manual having the same registry numbers. The manual went on to list hundreds of starships of various classes, including a larger dreadnaught that would have been great to hurl at an unknown intruder. So yeah, where were those?

TMP almost explains this by having Admiral Kirk take over the Enterprise, despite the vessel's operational status, because his experience and reputation made him The Man. Send Kirk out in a shuttle craft and he'll bring back the baddie's head in a bag.

Except... Kirk fought (with difficulty) to get that command back from Admiral Nogura. So what was Starfleet's actual plan, before Kirk offered himself?

Imagine Kirk is home in bed, blinded because he's fighting off a reaction to Retinax 5, when V'ger shows up and sterilizes the planet...

 

[Lord Dalek]

I like SFDebris' theory that the Enterprise is literally the only starship Starfleet actually has and the rest are just glorified weather balloons.

 

[Sam Favate]

Every week from now until the new movie opens, EW is presenting an analysis of each film. This week starts with TMP. I caution you that the tone is snarky and the writer seems to have a disdain for Star Trek (even calling it "inessential").

I disagree with this article in almost every way, but here it is, current TMP talk.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/29/star-trek-motion-picture-geekly

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For better or worse, EW doesn't have real writers anymore. There was a little bit of publicity, maybe two years ago, when they basically laid off their entire staff of professionals and went with people who were mostly amateurs or bloggers without professional experience. The quality of writing has decreased dramatically since then in my opinion.

 

[TonyD]

I just watched ST:TMP thatrical version for the first time probably since before dvd.

Been awhile since I saw the dvd dir cut.

Anyway I'm a huge fan of this and all the ST movies.

I wish I could remember what I thought of this when I saw it at the movies but I really can't.
I'm guessing that I really liked it.
After BOND the ST movies are my favorite series. I like the SW films too but ST does things better for me.

Maybe this is answered more clearly in the longer cut but how did Spock know that V'Ger's "ship" was built by a Machine speciies on a "machine" planet, which would be an amazing movie to see on it's own.

Also has there been any whispers about the longer cuts appearing on bluray?

 

[Nelson Au]

Tony,

When Spock goes on his unauthorized spacewalk into V'ger, he mndmelds with the crystal on the scanned image of Ilya. Later in Sickbay, he tells Kirk that Voyager 6 landed on the machine planet and the machines there saw that Voyager was a kindred device and after learning its programming, they built the ship so Voyager could complete its mission and return it to home. Now that I actually wrote that out, it makes the whole idea even more amazing. And not the same idea as The Changling.

There has been several threads where we have hoped, pleaded and have been dissapointed that The Directors Cut, the TV cut and the theatrical cut could all be made available on blu-ray. We are all really hoping this comes to pass. Given its the 50th Anniversary year of the original series, it's a real dissapontmemt nothing has come out yet.

The Motion Picture for me is the best Star Trek film. Not perfect. But the boldest in terms or epic scale and going into harder science fiction.

PS: it seems this film is getting more love too recently. Even possibly defying the notion it's a long bore.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Also has there been any whispers about the longer cuts appearing on bluray?

Nelson beat me to it, but basically everything he said. Bill Hunt at the Digital Bits has personally spoken to some people at Paramount, and Bill confirms that there are no plans to put either the Director's Edition or the Special Longer Version on Blu-ray. Nor are there any plans to re-do the Blu-rays for the remaining movies, save for the "Wrath Of Khan" disc coming out next month. The only plans that Paramount has to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek this year are:

- UHD releases of "Star Trek" (2009) and "Star Trek Into Darkness" - these films have been upscaled from 2K DIs to 4K, and have been re-timed to include HDR, which they were not originally made with. The sound from Star Trek '09 has been remixed to Atmos. There are rumors that "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" was being prepared for UHD, but as per Bill Hunt at the Bits, Paramount will not be releasing any additional UHD titles (not just Trek, but UHD in general) until they are able to gauge interest in the format, which they will do solely based on how ST'09 and STID sell.

- "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" is being re-released on Blu-ray with the Director's Cut now included in HD (about two minutes longer). It appears that this may be a new master and not the Lowry cleanup issued on the previous disc.

- "Star Trek: The Original Series" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" are being reissued on Blu-ray in complete series sets. There is no new bonus content on these sets, just repacks of the existing discs.

- "Star Trek: The Animated Series" is likely to come to Blu-ray sometime in the 4th quarter (HD masters have been on Netflix for several years).

And that's it.

 

[Carabimero]

My understanding is that they looked into remastering TMP's Director's Cut and, forgetting the enormous cost, all the elements needed were no longer "readily available" or didn't " lend themselves to HD restoration." The project has multiple strikes against it, and I'm not sure any of them are Paramount not wanting to do it. There are just a lot of technical mountains to climb.

 

[joshEH]

A few of the original 12 actually survived their 5-year missions, like the U.S.S. Yorktown (which became the Enterprise-A), but those might have gotten a refit and then sent right back "out there, that-away."

Well, to be sure, there's really no canonical evidence that the Yorktown got rechristened the Enterprise-A -- it was just a throwaway comment made one time by Roddenberry back in the '80s in the aftermath of Star Trek IV where he brought it up as one theoretical possibility. In fact, going by onscreen dialogue in Star Trek V (produced after the Roddenberry remark), the Enterprise-A actually seems to be a completely brand-new ship.

Every week from now until the new movie opens, EW is presenting an analysis of each film. This week starts with TMP. I caution you that the tone is snarky and the writer seems to have a disdain for Star Trek (even calling it "inessential").

I disagree with this article in almost every way, but here it is, current TMP talk.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/29/star-trek-motion-picture-geekly

Yeah...on all three of these released to date (going up through Star Trek III, as of last Saturday), while the author does occasionally offer up a fairly-interesting new insight, most of the time he seems to be more in love with the splendor of his own snark.

 

[Osato]

Well, to be sure, there's really no canonical evidence that the Yorktown got rechristened the Enterprise-A -- it was just a throwaway comment made one time by Roddenberry back in the '80s where he brought it up as one possibility. In fact, going by onscreen dialogue in Star Trek V (produced after the Roddenberry remark), the Enterprise-A actually seems to be a completely brand-new ship.



Yeah...on all three of these released to date (going up through Star Trek III, as of last Saturday), while the author does occasionally offer up a fairly-interesting new insight, most of the time he seems to be more in love with the splendor of his own snark.

Was trek 3 posted??

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I can't wait to see if he insults the fake cactuses.

 

[Nelson Au]

I came across an EW article on Flipboard about Star Trek III called How Star Trek III Explains Leonard Nimoy and Wiliam Shatner, if that's part of the series of articles you guys have mentioned, then I can see the snark there. No offense to the millennials in the thread, but it read like what a new comer to Star Trek who didn't grow up with it, might react. The writer just seemed like someone who had grown up on other franchises and so won't be able to relate to what they did in those films. I did find what he said about the Starfleet personel who were roadblocks to Kirk trying to get back to Genesis interesting.

I might read the others, we'll see.