Released in 1979, Star Trek: The Motion picture is one of those
films that people either love or hate. It was certainly one of the most
anticipated movies, since it reunited the original cast of the popular TV Star
Trek series of the 1960s. If nothing else, ST: TMP was a triumph for Trek fans
the world over who fought the good fight to see new adventures of the crew of
the fabled starship, the U.S.S. Enterprise. Directed by film legend Robert Wise,
and produced by series creator Gene Roddenberry, expectations were high that
this would be a truly magnificent film, a real Christmas present for the fans
that year. However, while the film managed to rake in the bucks, insuring a
legion of sequels both on the big screen and on TV, ST: TMP was still a pretty
sorry excuse for a movie.
The story begins with a giant cloud of enormous size and power that is drifting
through space. It passes through the territory of the Klingon Empire, and the
Klingons, who are never the friendly sort, send out three of their capital
battle cruisers to "investigate"--which, for the Klingons basically means shoot
at the sucker until it blows up real good. A Federation space station is
observing this bizarre confrontation on long-range sensors, and they watch with
fascination as the pesky space cloud mops the floor with the Klingons. As they
project the cloud's course heading, the crew of the space station are startled
to discover that this big whachamacallit is headed straight for earth!
Back on Earth, Admiral James T Kirk is busy getting the newly re-fitted U.S.S.
Enterprise in tip-top shape to intercept this mysterious space cloud. After
spending 18 months in space dock, the Enterprise is now practically a brand new
vessel (with a marvelous new sleek design). After wrangling with Starfleet to
get command of his old ship back, Kirk goes aboard the Enterprise to reconnect
himself with his ship and crew. Chief Engineer Scotty is still aboard, having
overseen the refit himself. Com Officer Uhura, helmsman Sulu and chief of
security Chekov are back on the bridge and are all happy to see Kirk again. The
one member of the crew who is not happy to see Kirk is Captain Will Decker, whom
Kirk has unceremoniously demoted to Commander when he got command of his ship
back. Doctor McCoy is beamed back on board, much against his will, and even Mr.
Spock rejoins the crew to help them with some engine trouble. Once they've got
their house finally in order, they all go off, meet the space cloud, and have an
amazing, wondrous adventure beyond space and time.
At least that was the idea….
The first problem with ST: TMP is that we are dealing with a huge space cloud;
the darn thing doesn't look very threatening, even after we're constantly being
reminded of how big it is and how much awesome power is being generated within
the cloud. The space cloud is a little too abstract to be a credible onscreen
threat. Another problem is the the Enteprise crew are ship-bound throughout the
movie. And everybody is so stiff...literally. The cast grimly stands around as if they're
posing for their action figures. And for a large chunk of the movie, they pretty
much react to everything that happens around them, staring glumly into
viewscreens while coming up with various odd theories to explain the weird stuff
they see out there. Another thing that always bothered me is that Earth, the home of the Federation,
is threatened by this major galactic menace, and the only ship within the entire
mighty Starfleet that's available to deal with it is the untried and untested
Enterprise, which is still working out the bugs in space dock?! Where's the rest
of the fleet? At Risa, the resort planet? It always amazed me that Earth
wouldn't have a permanent home fleet--at least two or three ships--in the
vicinity just for a situation like this. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. I could go on with
what's wrong with ST: TMP, but I'm already running over with this review.
And yet, as you glance up at the top of this review, you'll probably notice that
I've given the film four stars. That's because something really cool happened
while ST: TMP headed for a DVD release: Paramount decided to let Robert Wise
come back and rework the film. And rework it he did, into a far better movie
than the original theatrical version ever was. What's interesting is that Wise
not only added new special effect scenes via CGI, but he also cut scenes from
the film, thus making it tighter, leaner, and more fun to watch. The new effects
scenes include exterior shots of Vulcan; the Enterprise going head to head with
one of the cloud's deadly plasma torpedoes; a new look at the grand V'ger ship
as it threatens Earth, and the Enterprise arriving at V'ger's control center.
ST: TMP The Director's Edition also has a second disc that is chock full of
extras, including several brand new retrospective documentaries featuring the
cast and crew, trailers, deleted scenes from the 1983 TV version, storyboards,
and much more. There's a great group commentary that features director wise,
special effects artists Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra, the late composer
Jerry Goldsmith, and actor Stephen Collins (Decker). There's also a text
commentary by Michael Okuda. Even if you hated the original theatrical version
of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, you may want to give this new version a try.
While it's still not exactly a perfect film, even with the changes, it is a
perfect DVD, and a must for any Trek fan.
--SF
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