PHE Press Release: Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Fully Restored Director's Edition (4k UHD) (Paramount+ Streaming) (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

I think it's just a great, if a bit goofy, science fiction story. I like that it doesn't feel the need to explain every little thing -- why do the all-powerful aliens only communicate with the humpback whales? The mystery is more effective than any answer would be, suggesting as it does that there are multitudes that even a utopian future humanity doesn't understand about Earth's other native inhabitants, and about the cosmos. At the same time, the premise is straightforward so that the audience easily grasps their objective and can evaluate for itself how their progress at achieving it. And the ending is hopeful, appealing to best of who we could be rather than the worst of who we've been.

My biggest issues with "Voyage Home":

1) Catherine Hicks. Always Catherine Hicks.

2) "Trek" comedy is rarely actually funny. It's more cutesy than witty. Too much of that in the movie.

Lose Hicks and the movie rises higher in my view!

 

[TravisR]

My biggest issues with "Voyage Home":
...

2) "Trek" comedy is rarely actually funny. It's more cutesy than witty. Too much of that in the movie.

What I like about the comedy is that they lightened up a little after the other movies were really serious affairs.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

What I like about the comedy is that they lightened up a little after the other movies were really serious affairs.

Dunno if I'd call "Search for Spock" all that serious. It had plenty of light moments - as did "Wrath".

"TMP" was largely humorless.

Both "Spock" and "Wrath" had deaths, which made them more serious in a way, but they weren't dark in general...

 

[TravisR]

Dunno if I'd call "Search for Spock" all that serious. It had plenty of light moments - as did "Wrath".

"TMP" was largely humorless.

Both "Spock" and "Wrath" had deaths, which made them more serious in a way, but they weren't dark in general...

Overall, Spock dying and the Enterprise getting destroyed all make the previous two serious in my mind. That's not a bad thing but I was glad to see a more fun movie for the fourth one.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Overall, Spock dying and the Enterprise getting destroyed all make the previous two serious in my mind. That's not a bad thing but I was glad to see a more fun movie for the fourth one.

Well, "Trek" in general was pretty "serious". A handful of largely comedic episodes - especially "Tribbles" - so one would expect the movies to follow suit.

Anyway, my issue with "Voyage" remains more I thought the humor was too cutesy than I didn't think it was serious enough!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Overall, Spock dying and the Enterprise getting destroyed all make the previous two serious in my mind. That's not a bad thing but I was glad to see a more fun movie for the fourth one.

That’s pretty much what Nimoy said in his pitch to the studio for IV.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

1) Catherine Hicks. Always Catherine Hicks.

Definitely not great as female leads go, but not bad enough to derail the movie for me. And a pretty typical mid-eighties performance.

2) "Trek" comedy is rarely actually funny. It's more cutesy than witty. Too much of that in the movie.

I normally agree with you. Way more often than not, Trek humor makes me wince or cringe instead of laugh. But most of the humor in Star Trek IV worked for me, even the cutesy stuff.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Definitely not great as female leads go, but not bad enough to derail the movie for me. And a pretty typical mid-eighties performance.

Nah - most 80s performances weren't that annoying!

Hicks isn't a bad actress and I didn't hate her in other movies.

But her Gillian is just unbearable. As I note in my review, every time I watch "Voyage Home", I wonder why I dislike it... until Gillian hits the screen.

Then I go "oh yeah!"

 

[joshEH]

I think that bit had also been previously inserted back into the ABC-TV version, right?

That's not what I meant, but is actually the below scene from the Marvel comic. Set in engineering, but I mis-remembered it being as part of the 'self-destruct' stuff.

Ah, I gotcha, yeah -- and the "self-destruct"-scene was actually one of two completely new, never-before-seen sequences reinstated in the 2001 DE (the other one being the "Spock crying"-scene), IIRC. It's gonna be interesting to see how the new "Ilia-visits-Engineering"-scene will affect things, here.

 

[BobO'Link]

You hire Doug Trumbull, you're getting lots of slow moving motion control beauty shots. That's just how he rolled.

(which probably explains why I'd shudder to think how Star Wars would have turned out if George had landed him instead of Spielberg >_<)

Spielberg did *not* direct any of the Star Wars films...

 

[Camper]

The scene with Decker and Ilia in engineering is not going to be inserted into the movie proper. It is simply going to be a deleted scene. Somebody from the production team mentioned that over on Facebook. There aren't going to be any additional scenes added to the movie that weren't in the 2001 version. There were a couple of reaction shots in existing scenes that they looked for last time but they couldn't find. Perhaps they found those and those will replace other shots but as for new scenes with new dialogue that's not part of this project. This was mainly about upgrading the CGI to high definition standards andGetting a Ultra clear 4K resolution picture whereas the 2001 standard definition is an absolutely filthy print of the movie. It's shocking they couldn't find a better print back then to use for the director's Edition.

 

[Worth]

Spielberg did *not* direct any of the Star Wars films...

I think he meant if Trumbull had done the effects for Star Wars instead of Close Encounters.

 

[BobO'Link]

I think he meant if Trumbull had done the effects for Star Wars instead of Close Encounters.

Makes sense - I didn't read it that way... obviously, eh?

 

[Lord Dalek]

Purchase physical media and send a message to studios to continue to fund projects like this.

Not gonna help much. UHD player production has been in decline for some time and I never even saw the 1-4 box set show up at my local big box here in "Middle America".

 

[JamesSmith]

Guess I meant what other "Big" films, not necessarily Star Trek, should movie studios work on re-releasing on DVD or 4K next?

--jthree

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m sorry but this is a thread about Paramount+ premiering a new version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on their service. It hasn’t even premiered yet. Why must the conversation move to what unrelated films the studio may or may not work on next? Plenty of other threads to discuss that in.

I can only imagine how frustrating and disheartening it would be for anyone working for a studio or home video label to check the internet response to whatever new project they’ve been hard at work on, only to see that people are already demanding “what’s next?!” before the current project has even had a chance to be seen.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Ah, I gotcha, yeah -- and the "self-destruct"-scene was actually one of two completely new, never-before-seen sequences reinstated in the 2001 DE (the other one being the "Spock crying"-scene), IIRC. It's gonna be interesting to see how the new "Ilia-visits-Engineering"-scene will affect things, here.

It's awhile since I watched it, but I'm almost 100% certain that both the 'self-destruct' sequence and, especially, the Spock 'weeping for V'Ger' scene were in the ABC-TV/Special Longer Version before being included in the Director's Edition.

That Special Longer Version was (I think) the very first VHS tape I ever purchased.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

It's awhile since I watched it, but I'm almost 100% certain that both the 'self-destruct' sequence and, especially, the Spock 'weeping for V'Ger' scene were in the ABC-TV/Special Longer Version before being included in the Director's Edition.

They were.

That Special Longer Version was (I think) the very first VHS tape I ever purchased.

I can't confirm that.

 

[Dave H]

When released in 2001 many, myself included, thought it improved the film.

My older brother who is a big Trek fan, and saw TMP in 1979 while he was in high school, thought the 2001 Direction Edition version was an improvement when we watched it on DVD. He also owned the longer version VHS.

 

[KPmusmag]

I had the laserdisc of the longer version. I drove all over Los Angeles looking for it; it sold fast.