Paramount+ Theatrical Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (2 Viewers)

[Osato]

Wow, Tim, I’ve never seen that footage before of the premiere in Washington DC. I knew it happened and read about it. Thanks for finding that and sharing.

The comments from the cast are interesting in retrospect as they all are there to enjoy the evening and promote the film. Looks like they were at the Smithsonian afterwards.

It was on Twitter and retweeted by Inglorious Treksperts.

Agreed so cool to see!!!

Buy those tickets for the Fathom screening!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The recent 4K Paramount+ re-release was the first time I'd seen the Director's Edition cut of the movie, which was longer but felt shorter due to better editing.

One thing that played a lot better for me in the DE is the personal resonance of V'Ger to Spock. In the theatrical cut, Spock acts cold and distant for most the most of the movie, and then later on is closer to the version of the character in TOS.

In the DE, his arc is much more clear: He pursued Kolinahr to purge all remaining emotion in order to finally fully commit to his Vulcan heritage. But then, at the cusp of achieving that, he makes telepathic contact with V'Ger as it passes by Vulcan which sets him on another path. When he boards the Enterprise, he is still very much in the state that the Kolinahr ritual had left him in. But then, once he mind melds with V'Ger, he encounters a being of perfect logic, without any emotion, and what stands out to him is the absence there. V'Ger, by nature of its limitations, was what Spock had aspired to be. But now, having seen it up close in the most intimate way possible, he knows it isn't what he really wants. Instead, it brings him to embrace his human heritage, and in so doing brings him back to his friends and colleagues.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Had you never seen the Special Longer Version?

All of the “new” scenes from the DE first appeared in that cut, which had originally been created for broadcast television and subsequently was the only VHS edition available for years.

I never actually saw the theatrical cut until the first Blu-ray - it just wasn’t widely available for decades.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Had you never seen the Special Longer Version?

All of the “new” scenes from the DE first appeared in that cut, which had originally been created for broadcast television and subsequently was the only VHS edition available for years.

I never actually saw the theatrical cut until the first Blu-ray - it just wasn’t widely available for decades.

I have only actually seen this movie twice. The first time was the theatrical cut on Hulu, after I'd finished the second season of "Discovery" and was hungry for new Trek content, and then this past week with the 4K recreation of the Director's Edition.

I'd always heard it was excruciatingly slow and boring, so I never really made a point of seeking it out before I got into Trek in a more serious way the last few years. I don't think it's as bad as its reputation suggests, but it's definitely not one of my favorites.

 

[ScottRE]

Had you never seen the Special Longer Version?

All of the “new” scenes from the DE first appeared in that cut, which had originally been created for broadcast television and subsequently was the only VHS edition available for years.

I never actually saw the theatrical cut until the first Blu-ray - it just wasn’t widely available for decades.

They used the theatrical cut for the widescreen VHS releases and that was the first time I had seen it since 1979. I'm not sure when that became the default version, I think 1996 ish.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

They used the theatrical cut for the widescreen VHS releases and that was the first time I had seen it since 1979. I'm not sure when that became the default version, I think 1996 ish.

'91. That's when the widescreen laserdisc and widescreen VHS was released. I think the VHS was first in July of that year, and then the laserdisc by Sept.

When it was first released on VHS in '81, it was the pan-and-scan theatrical cut. The Special Longer Version, also only pan-and-scan, came out in late '83. The ABC airing of that version (or a version of that version - I think I recall reading that there were a few slight differences) was earlier that year.

The SLV does have a lot of the dialog edited back in, but I don't think it's all of what the DC adds. And I think there's also some editing differences in how some of it was added in. Although I haven't compared the two back to back. I did live with the SLV on VHS for a while from around '84 until I got that widescreen LD around '92. By that time, the old VHS was at my parents house, and I had already moved out 2 years prior.

 

[Nelson Au]

I had another viewing of the second half of the Directors Edition of Star Trek The Motion Picture. Didn’t plan on it, but I had seen the interview with David C Fein, Mike Matessino and Darin Dochterman yesterday on the Movie Obliette channel that Neil S. Bulk had posted about on the Star Trek TMP Fully restored DE 4K UHD on Paramount+ thread.

Several years ago, I had a revelation during the V’Ger sequence as Kirk and Spock realize that V’Ger is really Voyager 6. It was a scary moment in the sense that I finally could see that it was Illia inside the Illia probe coming out to tell Decker that he has to join with V’Ger. I never understood why he wanted it so bad, so that made sense. So in re-watching the DE, I could really see that aspect come through. I’d seen the film many times in the early days but I missed that aspect.

There was another thing I noticed last night as I watched Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Decker walk down into the V’Ger chamber. As they approached the Voyager probe, I got a very 2001 A Space Odyssey vibe. Thinking about the massive intellect that was amassed by V’Ger and the enormous power it has, and that it thought of humans as not true life forms, it felt like humans and mankind were literally the primitive apes who cautiously approached the monolith and tentatively touch it. That never occurred to me before. I have always compared the Decker transformation scene to Dave Bowman in 2001, but had not thought of Kirk, Spock and McCoy as the primitives.

It just keeps getting better with every viewing.