Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition UHD Review

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition in 4K is, to my mind, the perfect and ultimate way to experience and enjoy the crew of the Enterprise’s maiden big screen voyage. This release is nothing short of spectacular, perhaps only to be bested by the expensive Star Trek: The Motion Picture—The Director’s Edition—The Complete Adventure 4K Ultra HD (which I have on order), and which contains the “first-ever widescreen presentation of the Special Longer Version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, originally created for broadcast television in 1983.”

The film has never looked better, and certainly never sounded better. The special features are generous and engaging. As unabashed lover of The Motion Picture, having enjoyed the film many times over the years and three times already in the past 12 months, I’ll gladly defend its importance to any naysaying Trek fan. If you’re even a slight fan of the film, you’ll want this version.

The Production: 4/5

“I think we gave it the ability to create its own sense of purpose out of our own human weaknesses, and the drive that compels us to overcome them.”

A mysterious, dangerous, and deadly ‘cloud’ is on a direct course to planet earth. Everything that crosses its path is destroyed and the federation’s only hope is the crew or the USS Enterprise. Her maiden voyage, following a complete refit, is to be captained by Decker, but Kirk, recognizing the gravity of the threat to Earth, convinces Starfleet to hand the Enterprise back to him for this mission. They have only hours before the massive and powerful cloud reaches earth and head out to intercept to uncover the mystery of what the object is, what it wants, and how they can save the world.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture can be a difficult film to appreciate as a Star Trek film. It is at once a bravura science fiction concept explored through the directorial prowess of one of cinema’s gifted filmmakers, Robert Wise, while also not seeming well-attuned to who the characters we loved from the television series were to us. The duality continues with its lavish production design, alluring visual effects, and one of the grandest and most resplendent film scores to grace a film of any genre.

The film also happens to, occasionally, be a lumbering experience.

As the first feature film for the Original Series of Star Trek’s crew, it lacks the color, energy, and familial feeling one could rely upon the weekly adventures of the Enterprise crew on the small screen. It’s a hexagon shape trying to fit in an oversized octagon shape, and the ill-fit can feel like the handbrake being left on while trying to drive at full speed. It both is and is not itself as an adventure with Kirk and crew. And I have to tell you, despite all that, I love every minute of the experience, even when the film feels out of step or focus for the characters I had come to love from the TV show.

The Director’s Cut

This Director’s Cut of the film is generally a better experience. Wise, rushed to meet Paramount’s theatrical release date, never quite got the film the way he wanted; with edits he wished he’d made, and visual effects the crew wished had been completed. In 2001, he was given another go at the film, refining, completing, and fixing some visual effects work, and making some editing choices, inserting footage back in. The work done in 2001 was only standard definition and, thus, not prepared for the HD era. The DC version of TMP had long been desired. For most, once you see it, it’s the preferred version of the film (not for all, but I’d say most).

Now, over 20 years later, we have the director’s cut not just in high definition, but glorious ultra-high definition – 4K. For this new 4K release, the film was put back together through the committed work of producer David C. Fein and Mike Matessino (one of my heroes from his work on so many of the film scores I own). With a team of visual effects experts (under visual effects supervisor Daren Dochterman), the previously SD visual effects work has been recreated in 4K and new clean-up work performed to present a version as close as possible to the artistic vision of director Wise.

The opportunity to create this cut in 4K was a true gift to fans. Paramount, making their extensive library of archives available to the team working on the DC, and the expertise and passionate of the fans, conspire to give us something many of us know dreamed of. While the new visual effects work can be a delight, it’s the smaller character moments added back in that mean the most to this viewer. Spock gets a few extra moments to explain his understanding of V’ger, Scotty gets a few extra lines, the former Nurse Chapel gets screen time, too. Lots of these moments sweeten the experience.

Star Trek on television, during its original three-season run, explored such rich science fiction concepts but never had the budget or scale to realize them fully. The effects work was solid for the resources it had, but the Trek transition from the small screen to the big screen in 1979 gave fans not only their beloved crew gracing cinemas, but a giant leap in the quality of visual effects work, striking for its day despite being imperfect at the time. The scale and quality of the sets, the stunning refit of the Enterprise, the magnificence of the model work, and the departure from the limitations of television gave audiences, fans of the Trek show, something wonderful, and through that lens, The Motion Picture is a marvel. While the course correction we get in Star Trek II was a better marriage of the big screen and our beloved crew, The Motion Picture and its earnest, fascinating science fiction idea, still gives me goosebumps.

Performances from the core crew are somewhat modulated and the energy and ‘spring in their step’ flair from the show had cooled, but Kirk, McCoy, Chekov, Sulu and Uhura are generally close to what we knew. Spock’s journey is different given his pursuit of the Kolinahr prior to rejoining the Enterprise for this mission and, as a result, gives us a more aloof Spock than we’d come to love. Nimoy is terrific in the role anyway and is the final piece for the film once he arrives on board. William Shatner does exceedingly well as Kirk on the big screen, a role he has always owned but really becomes something special in the films, perhaps never better in Star Trek II and IV.  DeForest Kelley’s gruffness as McCoy is also welcome refreshment to the cast upon his appearance. Walter Koenig’s Chekov and George Takei’s Sulu are underused as usual, but this experience would be completely lacking without them. Of course, James Doohan’s Scotty is great, and Nichelle Nichols, who sadly left us this year, always on point. New additions to the cast for this outing, Persis Khambatta as Lt. Ilia, and Stephen Collings as Captain Decker are very good, with Khambatta becoming not only a key part of the film’s plotline, but a distinctly memorable character in her own right.

Robert Wise delivered a Trek experience for the big screen unlike anything Trek fans had seen, and really, unlike anything we’ve seen from cinematic Trek since. It was a bold, brave gamble in execution and budget, and against all odds, the gamble did pay off. There’s something grounded about the experience, with the careful pacing and how it is enamored by the visual effects creations as the Enterprise flies into and inside the gargantuan ‘cloud’ to decode the mystery. The director’s cut makes the composition of the cloud a little clearer, though the scale of the central ‘craft’ as it arrives at earth and sheds the cloud is a little inconsistent. A minor quibble.

I can appreciate the differing opinions on The Motion Picture, but, and this is an important part of our individual film appreciation, I saw this film after falling in love with The Original Series in reruns in the UK at a critical moment in my life, and was enraptured by the experience, even as a young boy.

Video: 5/5

3D Rating: NA

Paramount’s release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Cut in 4K is a treasure.

Remastered from original elements and graded for Dolby Vision® and HDR-10, this is the best presentation of this film I’ve seen in any version. The Motion Picture is replete with complex optical effects work and more of the original work can be seen here. In the commentary track from David Fein, Mike Matessino, and Daren Dochterman, they share how for the 2001 release some of the fixes required recreations, but with the new scan and work for the 4K release, they’ve been able to go back to the original work in more places (it’s a worthwhile listen, by the way). There is still some softness, and the seams of the effects are perhaps more pronounced now that we’re seeing maximum resolution, but it’s a small price to pay. It’s most challenging during the initial portion of the film, up to the triumphant launch of the Enterprise from space dock. The transition between the outer view of the pod as Scotty and Kirk leisurely tour the spectacle of the refit Enterprise – with the composite effects work – and the close ups, can be startling, but the majesty of the model work and Goldsmith’s legendary score in that moment refocus to splendor that sequence for this fan. If you can recognize that the edges of some of those visual effects will be poking through and be okay with it, that’s a winning approach. The visual effects work once the Enterprise is inside the V’Ger cloud remains stellar. The reveal of the central ‘craft’, which I mention in my review of the film, looks better than ever.

Flesh tones are quite faithful, and while color is muted throughout the ship now, the bursts of color from V’Ger’s cloud – with those iridescent blues – gets the most out of the HDR grading. Black levels are acute, shadow details strong, and the film’s grain appears normal. The Commentary from the Matessino and others mentions grain removal and replacement, an apparent necessity from the general clean-up work, doesn’t call attention to itself and so can be considered another feather in the cap of presenting this film as faithful to the original, and original intent, as possible.

Audio: 5/5

The Dolby Atmos track on offer here is everything! It’s a revelation of immersion and surround and height placement. Goldsmith’s score is one of the main beneficiaries of the Atmos mix, with his Blaster Beam electronic instrument tracks finding their way above the listener, separating out sounds from his music in notable ways. The 7.1 track was always quite a delight, but this Atmos track is something else entirely and one of the more pronounced I’ve heard. The height channels get a terrific workout, perhaps a tad too loud in one or two moments for me, but I won’t hold that against this release at all.

The center channel carries the bulk of the dialogue and is pristine, the rear’s compliment the heights in bringing the fullest possible immersive experience, and the track is filled with great ambience and activity.

Special Features: 5/5

A comprehensive collection of special features delves deeper into the experience of The Motion Picture. You’ll delight at the 8-part documentary and the collection of new deleted scenes. The newly recorded commentary track in March 2022 from Fein, Matessino and Dochterman was a particularly welcome inclusion as they share extensive insight into the work that went into creating the Director’s Cut and their unending appreciation for Wise’s film.

4K Disc:

• Audio Commentary with David C. Fein, Mike Matessino, and Daren R. Dochterman—NEW!
• Audio Commentary by Robert Wise, Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Jerry Goldsmith, and Stephen Collins​
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda​

Blu-ray Disc:

• The Human Adventure—An all-new 8-part documentary detailing how the Director’s Edition came to life—NEW!
  • Preparing the Future – How the remastering began
  • A Wise Choice – The storied history of Robert Wise
  • Refitting the Enterprise – How the Enterprise design shaped future federation starships
  • Sounding Off – Exploring new dimensions of sound in Dolby Atmos
  • V’ger – The conception and restoration of an iconic alien antagonist
  • Return to Tomorrow – Reaching an already high bar with new CGI effects
  • A Grand Theme – Behind the iconic, influential music score that shaped the franchise’s future
  • The Grand Vision – The legacy and evolving reputation of this classic movie
• Deleted Scenes — NEW!
• Effects Tests — NEW!
• Costume Tests — NEW!
• Computer Display Graphics — NEW!
• Additional legacy bonus content

Overall: 4.5/5

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition in 4K is, to my mind, the perfect and ultimate way to experience and enjoy the crew of the Enterprise’s maiden big screen voyage. This release is nothing short of spectacular, perhaps only to be bested by the expensive Star Trek: The Motion Picture—The Director’s Edition—The Complete Adventure 4K Ultra HD (which I have on order), and which contains the “first-ever widescreen presentation of the Special Longer Version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, originally created for broadcast television in 1983.”

The film has never looked better, and certainly never sounded better. The special features are generous and engaging. As unabashed lover of The Motion Picture, having enjoyed the film many times over the years and three times already in the past 12 months, I’ll gladly defend its importance to any naysaying Trek fan. If you’re even a slight fan of the film, you’ll want this version.

Highly recommended.

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Neil Middlemiss

Neil has been a member of the Home Theater Forum reviewing staff since 2007, approaching a thousand reviews and interviews with actors, directors, writers, stunt performers, producers and more in that time. A senior communications manager and podcast host with a Fortune 500 company by day, Neil lives in the Charlotte, NC area with his wife and son, serves on the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte Board of Directors, and has a passion for film scores, with a collection in the thousands.