[Æ]

PRODUCTION NUMBER: 001
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: 12.07.1979
STARDATE: 7412.6

Director's Edition Release Date: 11.06.2001

Technology:
thruster suit

Places:
Earth
Vulcan

Alien:
Deltans

Ships:
Enterprise, U.S.S.
Klingon battle cruiser

Characters:
Admiral Nogura
Christine Chapel
James T. Kirk
Leonard H. McCoy
Lt. Ilia
Sonak
Spock
Willard Decker

[Yillara Skye]

I have not watched this film much, not since I was little. But I voted it average, it did hold my interest when I was watching it. I prefer the TNG films, but was introduced to Trek through the TOS films and reruns of the TOS series. This one was one of the better of the TOS films.

[MANVERU]

Very good, however, they could have done better

The scene where Spock is floating in space in his lame Space suit...

oh please

This post has been edited by MANVERU: 06 September 2005 - 06:34 AM

[Itchygomba69]

Its not that good, i get bored by it and on several occasions trying to watchit I fell asleep

[sea trooper]

2

I liked the beginning and the end. Other then that it was just a long drawn out light show. I only fell asleep once.

[Binar]

When looking back at the movie, some things I saw that I didn't see before.
Kirk was an Admiral; he had a desk job, with people around to do stuff for him.
I think Bill portrayed the difficulty in switching between the two roles very well.
When Spock went out in a thruster space suit, Kirk ordered someone to go get him.
Something an Admiral would do, but then he caught himself, thinking, this is my responsibility, and my friend. This is something the Captain must do.
That’s just my opinion.
But I did find it funny when Spock was trying to send the re-modulated message to the big cloud when they were getting hit by the energy balls, and Kirk kept turning to Spock to tell him to send the message…. “Spock! …… Now Spock…… Spock…….. Send it now Spock!........ Spock”
It was something like that. Maybe I should see it again
But I sure do like Bill’s way of acting.

[Trekmachine]

I Voted It's good
Go see how i rated it on my SITE

[Æ]

Shameless plug trekmachine.

[Trekmachine]

Sorry My Bad

[youbroughtheryouRiker]

Gave it a 3. It's hard to hold interest tightly when you keep confusing the audience. Had to rewind in a couple places. Oh, and I figured out what the perceptions of Earth and Enterprise (and most of what V'Ger was) long ago, so from that point of view, I honestly thought I was gonna be bored to tears, cuz it took them forever to figure it out. This was basically like an episode of TOS... especially in the way it kept harking back to the Changeling episode. And like an episode of TOS, it probably only should have been one hour long.

[Gummy]

When I originally saw it in the theater on Opening Night, I thought the trip through V'Ger was too long and drawn out. But, having seen the Director's Cut (countless times), I have come to enjoy it much more.

[hangon]

I gave it a 4..it was good but like others have said i could have been better and mabe they could have speeded up the story line,infact the effects in TMP where pretty well done if you put them up against films that came out round about that time.

It is nr.4 in my all time fav trek films.

[GhostofMajorHayes]

A great movie. I liked the story of V'ger, despite the similarity to TOS ep "The Changeling". Effective acting and the cool shots of the Vulcan solar system make this one of my fave trek films.

[Kor37]

I love this movie only because it was the first movie and I fondly remember standing in a long line to see it.Anyone who even likes this movie a little bit would be well served to check out the Director's Cut of the movie. It is awesome.

[oldfan1]

I remember well standing in a very very long line opening night to see it and was disappointed. The pacing was so slow that I wondered when it would end. After all of those years of waiting for Star Trek to return it wasn't a great experience. Consider a coupe of it's other names, Star Trek: The Motionless Picture, Star Trek: The Motion Sickness. It became the start of the original cast odd numbered movie curse. if it was an odd numbered trek movie it wasn't very good.
Of course the reason the movie series continued after an oft delayed over budget disappointing movie was because of the money it made, fans were dieing for anything new that was Trek. Some of you may not remember when there was no Star Trek other than reruns, but I do and they were not fun years.

[prometheus]

The Director's cut is very good. I like the way, when they decided to design a V'Ger ship they shaped it to match in with the original 1970s display on the viewscreen, ie the octogon shape, that was the only thing the new designers had to go on.

I loved the shag-pile carpet design of the ship, and the brown cool outfits. Like being in your pjs...

[Stephen of Borg]

Director's cut or not, both versions left in what made the film a little dull-the over exposure of the ship. The two things that make it dull for me is the scene when Scotty and Kirk take a flying tour of the Enterprise for what seems five minutes. The other being when the Enterprise is flying through V'ger. It was supposed to be beautiful shots, but they just drag the movie way past my interest. I'd count this as my least favorite, but I still don't hate it. I'd say it's average

[prometheus]

Daa, da-da daaaa, da-da daaaaaaaaa, da-da-da-da-da-daaaa, daaaa, daaaaaaaa, da-da-daaaaaaaaaaaaa (weeee)
Daa, da-da daaaa, da-da daaaaaaaaa, da-da-da-da-da-daaaa, daaaa, daaaaaaaa, da-da-daaaaaaaaaaaaa (weeee)
Da-da da-daaaaaaaaaa, daaaaaaaaaaa, da-de-da da da. Daa daaa daaaaa daaa da-da-de-daaaaa, DA DA!
Daaaaa daaaaaaaaaaa da de da da daaaaaaaaa, DA DA DA DA DA-DA DE-DAAAAAAAAAA, DA DE
Daa, da-da daaaa, da-da daaaaaaaaa, da-da-da-da-da-DA-DA-DA-DA-DE-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!
duh duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

3 Klingon ships, weird looking brown ridgy guys.
Big cloud.
Fire - oh all gone.

To be continued

[VaBeachGuy]

Gamera, on Nov 22 2007, 04:38 PM, said:

Director's cut or not, both versions left in what made the film a little dull-the over exposure of the ship. The two things that make it dull for me is the scene when Scotty and Kirk take a flying tour of the Enterprise for what seems five minutes. The other being when the Enterprise is flying through V'ger. It was supposed to be beautiful shots, but they just drag the movie way past my interest. I'd count this as my least favorite, but I still don't hate it. I'd say it's average

I agree, today after 11 movies and 700+ hours of TV shows it is average at best but you have to try to think about it in 1979 terms. TOS has been off the air for 10 years, TNG won't even be an idea for several more years and the only other "serious" space movie that's been put out is Star Wars (episode IV).

The long drawn out flyby of the enterprise was to re-introduce the audience to the hero of the movie (both Kirk and the Enterprise) but it was also to show off the effects on the big screen. It's boring to sit and watch on a TV now, after seeing so many Star Trek ships we can almost build them in our sleep. But in 1979 it wasn't like that. That's what the audience wanted and that scene was a breath taking moment in the theater.

Like I said though, after so many episodes and so many more movies this story doesn't really stack up. In it's place in time though it was really an awesome experience to see the USS Enterprise on the big screen for the very first time.

This isn't my least favorite of the movies though, Star Trek V holds that distinction.

[Kor37]

Well said, Kevin. When I saw that ship on the big screen in 1979, tears came down my cheeks. I wanted that flyby to go on forever.........

[VaBeachGuy]

Kor37, on May 6 2008, 04:55 PM, said:

Well said, Kevin. When I saw that ship on the big screen in 1979, tears came down my cheeks. I wanted that flyby to go on forever.........

Yeah, it's easy for people to look at the movie in today's perspective and think it's a bad movie and in all honesty the story could have been better but when you put the movie into it's proper context, 1979 it's a whole different story.

I don't remember exactly how many times I saw TMP in the movies but I'd say it was at least 10 times. Back then the story didn't matter, it was Captain Kirk and Spock and Scotty and the USS Enterprise on a big screen. That's all I cared about.

[Itchygomba69]

I guess I have always been spoiled since I've been alive Trek has been on the big screen!

[VaBeachGuy]

Itchygomba69, on May 6 2008, 07:04 PM, said:

I guess I have always been spoiled since I've been alive Trek has been on the big screen!

I wouldn't say spoiled, but I would say that you've missed out on a special event. That first experience seeing the Enterprise come into view and be 10 feet tall on the screen (or however big those screens are) was an awesome thing. For anyone that's under 30 you can't really know what that's like, sure you can see it for the first time but you've seen stuff like it before so it's not as impressive.

For me, the only thing I had ever seen that compared to (in the movies) it was Star Wars in 1977. All of the other movies were things like Westerns or Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo or Zorro or things like that.

Star Trek was always my favorite TV show going back as far as I can remember so in 1979 when the Enterprise made that first appearance in that theater it was just an awesome thing and I can still remember the audience applauding it when they showed it.

[prometheus]

and don't forget the funky grey jumpsuits and afros. Uhuru looked very Foxy Brown in that one...

[rob39874]

Ah Star Trek the motionless picture one of my DVD collection of Star Trek This film is better than such rubbish as Star Trek V but it is far to slow in places

[DaboGirl]

Robert Wise (the director) needed to get slapped for this one. Too many scenes just drug on and on.
I remember when I first saw it V'ger vs. the Klingons, Spock on Vulcan were the 1st two scenes & I thought 'This is going to be great'... Unfortunately it was all downhill after that.
Sure there were some great moments, but overall not a great film.
I give it a 3.

[Bethlehem]

I loved it!!!!! As VBG pointed out it was such a long wait and to see Trek on the big screen.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Alterego, on May 28 2005, 07:24 PM, said:

Meanwhile, on Vulcan, Spock is preparing to undergo the rite of Kolinahr — the achievement of total Vulcan logic — and the purging of all remaining emotion. Just then Spock's human half stirs in response to the cloud entity, interrupting his meditation and forcing the Vulcan masters to withdraw Spock's admission to their ranks.

You know, I never quite understood that. If V'Ger stirred Spock's human half then why didn't V'Ger have any effect on 100% humans?

Overall I thought this movie was crap. Bad dialogue, long drawn-out shots, uniforms that make the crew look like aquarium guides, and bad dialogue.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

It sucked.

[prometheus]

As Ivana Trump would say ... "it is, what it is!"

I enjoyed it when i first saw it and was new into Star Trek as i had seen Wrath if Khan up to Undiscovered Country first. So it was a real shock seeing the oh so 1970s hairdos (Uhura looked fresh from a Blackspoitation Movie lol) and Dr McCoy looked like a drop out who had 'tuned out' way too long, sporting full beard and a medallion? Am i remembering that correctly? The grey/brown skin tight, spit-thin polester flared jump suits did no one any favours, least of all poor Decker who, let's say, was more 'on show' than any of them. I read that the director told the actress who played Janice Rand to strip off all her make up. You may recall on TOS she was quite the lady and very beautiful. Grace Lee Whitney had been set to be a big character alongside Kirk and Spock but was dropped from the show after the first season due to personal issues. The reason why Robert Wise made Rand so bland was due to old Roddenberry. If you read anything about Star Trek who will hear all about him and his 'practical jokes' which to be honest i have always found to be childish for a grown man ofhis years. He made Whitney play some joke of Wise and he was not amused and so punished her by leaving her looking washed out on the movie.





Regardless i think she still looks pretty, naturally so and amongst the greys and beiges of TMP she does not look out of place. Shatner and the rest of the crew had their own problems with makeup. Too much in fact. The movie tried to keep the characters looking a young as possible so that they didn't look so far removed on thebig screen to the generation who grew up with the 'younger crew' in the TOS reruns. No one has seen Spock and Kirk and company in roughly ten years and many of the actors were well into their 40s. Shatner himself said that he hated having to go on a diet to look relatively fit in the aforementioned polyester jump suit. I note they gave him in particular a rather large plastic buckle to try to cover that gut! Thankfully Meyer knocked this on the head in Star Trek 2 and addressed the theme of aging with open arms. But that is for another post.

I never liked the movie's portrayal of Vulcan. Where was the atmosphere!!? It looked like they were on a Vulcan moon. That too was addressed in Star Trek 3 and Star Trek 4 in particular, at the beginning. The Directo's Cut of TMP went back and redid Vulcan making it fit in better with what we had seen in TOS and afterwards. The actress who played the Femal Vulcan Priestess/Master was noted by wise as being 'cheap' and lacking stature. I think that this was noted by Leonard Nimoy when he directed Search as he brought in well known actress Dame Judith Anderson as T'Lar, another Vulcan High Priestess, whose prescence and stature carried that scene terrifically.

Spock's extra coldness was explained by his completion of the Kulinar, a discipline which crops up in Abrahms new movie. I rather suspect that in Star Trek 2 Spock might complete Kulinar and may detach from Uhura. I hope that happens so that Spock's character will be more completely Vulcan in the next movie. Thankfully, Spock gets over himself and starts to call Kirk Jim again after he does his wee space walk.

I hated V'Ger. Gosh i did. It was just too intangible. Here in the United Kingdom we have a dessert called a Viennetta. V'Ger looked like a giant Walls Viennetta. An ice cream treat in space.



In the Directors cut they created a more solid tangible and identifiable space ship for V'Ger, which was interestingly based on the shape which was outlined on a viewscreen on the Enterprise in the original 1979 version. It is hard to know who your villan is when they hide behind smoke and mirrors.

The Enterpise itself was redesigned for the movie. It had been redesigned for the proposed Phase II series. It retained its general shape and features but was given new nacelles and a more detailed saucer and secondary hull. The designers, for some reason, shanged the deflector dish from orange to blue. This is sorta addressed when the Enterpise powers out for the first time. The dflector dish is orange as it had been and then it changes to blue - like it has 'warmed up' or something. Although usually if things warm up they go from blue to orange but anyway, i think you get the idea. This was probably so that when the rerun generation saw the Enterprise for the first time the deflector was orange as they were used to and then it changed to blue through the movie and then stayed that way. It was blue in the next 5 movies (and never orange) and subsequent Enterpises had a blue deflector dish. The first thing i notice in First Contact when we first saw the Enterprise E was a return to the orange deflector dish. Also - note the red doors on the bridge! The warp drive effects were apparently expensive, particularly the wormhole affect. This was almost a LSD experience - hey man, we are triiiiiiipin, on de Enterprise lol More 70s tat. The corridors were reused in the movies and TNG. The bridge had a ceiling. The interior of teh bridge was nice and bright. I never liked the dark dank bridges of Khan and Search. The bridge was brightened at the end of Voyage Home on the new Enterprise A and was nicely carpeted and Hiltoned up for Star Trek 5, reaching out to TNG which was running on tv at the time to make a link. Meyer must not have liked this as in Undiscovered Country he almost retrograded it with toggle switches and chrome plating. The brightness remained though. In the new movie Abrahms made the bridge really bright to make the ship sparkle and look new. So i like the bridge in TMP it is okay.

Decker and Ilia, forerunners for Riker and Troi were okay too. They would have joined the original cast had Star Trek Phase II got going along with a new Vulcan called Xon. The actor who was to play him appeared as the guy at the array which picked up the Klingon distress calls etc and was up on the big rec-deck viewscreen when the crew of the Enterprise learned their mission. When Ilea was taken by V'Ger it was extremely sad. Her recreation as an Android/avatar for V'Ger was confusing but then nothing about V'Ger was not confusing. It woul dhave been funny if Android Ilia did not have the discipline and oath of celebacy which she herself had taken to stop her from going around attaking the males of the Enterpise. TMP lacked any of the humour of TOS and the other movies which was a bad thing. The film needed that. I could see Android Ilia grabbing Kirk and saying ''Kirk Unit - give yourself to me'' and Kirk raising an eyebrow and saying ''i hope you have a long battery life" or something tongue in cheek like that. But no it was all quite depressing and Ilia and Decker ended up eyeing each other and spending eternity together in some confusing fusion of man, Deltan and machine. There always has to be some sort of underlying romance/chemistry going on though in the movies. In Khan we had Kirk and Marcus. Search we had Saavik and David; Voyage Home - Kirk and Gillian Taylor, and so on.

What else is there to mention? The Klingons yes. They obviously must have gotten over their difficulties which started off with Enterprise's Divergence and continued throughout TOS. The ridges were there and it was nice to see them but they were out of it pretty quickly after being atttacked by the giant Viennetta. Not much glory in that. Their ridges were all the same and variety only came in subsequent incarnations.

The movie came out in the year of my brith - 1979. It must be maturely assessed in context. All in all the movie was fine; slow and a bit lacking in terms of story and script but i blame Roddenberry for that. If you ask me the franchise blossomed without his control. He may have created it, he certainly sewed the seed but the flower which bloomed was tended to by better gardeners than he. The effects would have been super at the time and the hype would have been satisfied by the product.

I like the movie, from a nostalgic point of view. It is different. It broke a hungry legion of fans back into Trek. It is what it is ...

Kieran

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This post has been edited by prometheus: 15 August 2010 - 10:11 AM