Seems to be Star Trek day on SyFy...imagine that, scifi on there!
I know the first movie gets teased a lot (and all odd numbered ST movies), but I still like this one a lot. VGER might be a stretch, all that alien AI that sent it back, but they couldn't wipe a little dirt off the side of the satelite or get the name from the onboard data to get "Voyager", but I still like the general premise. The "machine culture" that sent it back may have been the precursor idea to the Borg, come to think of it.
Also, I love the presentation and tone of the movie. Of all of the movies, it seems to have been taken with the most serious tone. ST 2 goes back to a slightly campy overtone. The first flick really moved the whole thing to a larger scale from the series and made some nice changes. Klingons got their new look, you get an idea of the scale of the Enterprise with the fly around in the beginning and then the briefing in the huge recreation area...good stuff. The most recent movie does an even better job of that and adds the "industrial" look to engineering but they did a good job of this back in '79 too.
Saw this in the theater when it came out, so that might color my view of it--it was HUGE when Star Trek came to the big screen--but I like this one. Most of the movies I just don't care for, they seem like extended versions of tv episodes, but this one didn't. Too bad it lacked battles that Wrath of Kahn had.

+1

Some ST films are better than others, but there hasn't been one that I've regretted watching.

Nice write up, I and II are the only ST movies I really care for and I'd happily watch either if they turned up on my TV schedule.

TMP gets a lot of stick for being slow but I like the serious tone and thoughtful screenplay - you just can't make a film like that these days, most outer-space-themed movies have to be chock full of whizz bang effects and explosions (bar a few notable exceptions on the "...2001" thread, but you couldn't do that with a recognizable canon like Star Trek and a big budget: witness high-octane re-imagined version recently - it was certainly entertaining, but was always going to be full of Gratuitous Space Battles (tm) and action sequences).

GSB would make a great movie. You wouldn't know who anyone was or why they were fighting, but a lot of blowing !@#$ up. LOL

I like ST: TMP quite a lot and I have the 2 disc special edition which has the really magnificent exterior shot of VGer among some other new CGI enhancements. It helped quite a lot that Robert Wise directed the film. He's directed other sci-fi classics like "The Andromeda Strain" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

I dont see how there was any campiness at all in Wrath of Khan. It was a very dark, serious and philosophical film.

ST IV had some campiness in it but it was the "good" type of campiness where it just worked well.

Some of the enhancements in the Special Edition of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was beneficial, but some was quite the opposite. The added flying of V'ger made the "Spaceballs" one seem short in comparison. It was something that definitely was too long and ruined the pacing.

Campy wasn't the right word, but the subsequent movies certainly had a lighter feel about them. The characters were more what you expect from the series, TMP seemed to try to rise above the series somewhat, for lack of a better description. There's little humor in TMP, it's even a little dark with Kirk usurping the Enterprise. I like the presentation even though it's not standard Star Trek.

Robert Wise directed/edited a lot of films I grew up and loved, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Haunting, Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain. Think he edited Citizen Kane too.

To me Star Trek TMP is very much a Robert Wise film that happened to be Star Trek and special for that reason. It has a pacing that means you can go into the kitchen, make a sandwich, pop down to the store, come back and still not miss very much.

It has five minutes of motion control porn, although I no longer get excited by flypasts of hot-glued models. It's quite laughable now, models often look better than CGI to me.

Speaking of which, ST:TMP was the first time you saw the Enterpirse *turn*!
Before that it just flew (or just zoomed in) straight, even if a little too much rudder to look like it might be turning. LOL

It's hard for younger fans to appreciate what a big deal it was for the newly refitted Enterprise to show up in ST: TMP. The original show had been off the air for 10 years and the fans at the time were astounded at how the new Enterprise looked compared to the old one.

I don't know, how can you say TMP was darker than ST2 where Spock dies, ST3 where Kirk's son dies and the Enterprise is destroyed, or ST6 where you pretty much have a political thriller set in the ST universe complete with assassinations?

As for the changes the director's edition had, in many areas the pacing was actually improved. Scenes were tightened up where they could and the film is actually shorter I think.

One trim I recall off the top of my head is near the beginning when Kirk addresses the crew in the rec area and Epsilon I calls and is destroyed while they watch. The original release has Kirk say "viewer off"...then a pause...then he says "viewer off!!" and finally Uhura moves to the wall to turn it off, THEN Kirk resumes his address. The spec ed he just says "viewer off" and she moves over and does it. The whole "Uhura was so shocked she stood for awhile and had to be goaded to get going again" was totally unnecessary.

Actually, you could say ST:TMP was a sort of bridge film between the style of 2001, TDTESS, and other classic SF films, and the faster-paced films that SW ushered in and that ST2 and later would invest fully in. The director's ed of TMP makes it more like the other films and less like 2001, plus they got to finish all those effects shots they ran out of time and money for originally. FYI every "new" shot or effect was how it was supposed to look (they have the storyboards on the 2nd disc as proof) and they had to do it the other way because of their lack of time and money.


The Jedi Master

Darker throughout the movie, not just select scenes. You may just have to watch it followed by another one to see what I mean. The presentation is very different, far less humor and so I say "darker" as a result.

I dont see TMP being "darker" but instead I do see it having a more sterile intellectual/cerebral mood and feel to it compared to the other Star Trek films.

There you go PM, thanks for expressing my thoughts better than I am.
Now I'm off to watch ST 6, been a while since I saw that one, but I do remember liking it a lot. Plus Michael Dorn makes an appearance I think.

Yup, he plays Worf's grandfather!

"If there was not gravity, how could these men be walking????"

LOL

"Snow" day, watched ST 6 with the kids. Really was a good one. Added a little depth to the characters and situation, nice lead in to TNG, even though it was already going on tv. I like how they changed "...where no man...no ONE...had gone before" from TNG. Christopher Plummer was just right too.

General Chang is an awesome character and Christopher Plummer was indeed perfect for the role. If you want to see more of him in that role get a copy of the game Klingon Academy.

Yep, I think Christopher Plummer as Chang was brilliant casting.

I remember several moments of audience laughter when I saw TMP, more than when I saw ST2 or 3 actually. Bones' arrival on the ship, Chekov's reaction when Spock arrives, Bones' "aren't you lucky we're going your way" comment...

The only time I recall laughter in the next 2 is the bar in 3 when McCoy makes his "how can you be deaf with ears like that" comment.

TMP is very calm, though. It does feel like watching TDETSS or 2001 at times, something the later films never managed.



The Jedi Master

I don't know if it was all-out laughter, but I remember people chuckling in ST2 several times, like "I'm not a drama critic," or "Don't mince words, Bones, what do you really think?" or "Did she change her hair?" But all of it was very much in context and in character, so I think it flowed very well.

Also in 3, there was the "How many fingers am I holding up?" and Uhura's scene with Mr. Excitement, and I think my favorite, right after they steal the Enterprise, "Gentlemen, you've all performed admirably, and I intend to recommend you for promotion....in whatever fleet we end up serving."

We musn't forget the classic line from Sulu after he threw the Starfleet security guard on the ground, "Don't call me tiny".

Which is even funnier today

There be Whales here!

A great line by Scotty.

There hasn't been a movie with the original cast that I disliked. I remember going to the theatre to see "Star Trek The motion picture" when it came out. I was there on opening day and the lines were huuuuge. It was a big deal that Star Trek had finally made it to the big screen. The weirdest thing for me was seeing how much they had aged in the 10 years since an original episode had been made.


Wheels

Really? I thought most of them looked darn good for being in their mid to late 40's. Shatner and Doohan were still thin at that time too!

Yeah, back then it was a little bit of a shock how they'd aged, but now I watch this movie and think how they still looked great.
Age kind of changes your perspective on that one. LOL

Well, let's face it, ST5 left a lot to be desired. Its redeeming quality was seeing the whole cast working together.




The Jedi Master

Yeah, ST5 was easily the weakest of TOS movies. I did like the "what does God need with a starship" scene, though. And thinking about it recently, I wondered if they were trying to make a dig at cult and religious leaders, who promise their believers that they know all the answers, when they really don't.

Hmm...just a few sci-fi examples of that!

1. Baltar (starting with season 4 in BSG)

2. Paul Atreides (Dune)

3. Clarice Willow (Caprica)

I was going to mention that as the films progressed they got a little "healthier."



I was 14 when I saw it and I thought they looked old. I was thinner than a rail then too. Watching it now I wished I looked as good as they did then since I am just a couple of years younger than Shatner was when Star Trek The Motion picture was released.

I remember when Star Trek 3 came out I thought Nichelle Nichols looked better in it than she had is ST:TMP.


Wheels

Well, the pitch Shatner made for ST5 was "what happens if Kirk meets God?" I'm not sure there was any original intent to pick on cult leaders, but there's no doubt in the finished script that Sybok was portrayed as very misguided and misled. It's unclear in the film (although it's confirmed in the novelization) that Sybok somehow communicated telepathically with the "god" being, which is how A) they found the planet and B) Sybok was able to adjust the shields of the Enterprise so it could penetrate the "great barrier" at the center of the galaxy. The Klingons adjusted their shields to match so they could follow.

ST has a preoccupation with "great barriers" in our galaxy, both at the center in ST5 and at the edge in Where No Man Has Gone Before and also an ep or two in later series. The one at the edge of the galaxy made zero sense, but in ST5 it was supposedly the accretion disk for the giant black hole at the galaxy's center. How they could go in there, though, was just left unsaid!



The Jedi Master

It's all possible thanks to Hollywood magic!

Even with ST 5 being the weakest of the original cast ST films, it's still quite viewable and enjoyable for me.

According the earlier paragraph, they 'adjusted their shields'.

That's to get thru the barrier aka acretion disk. That's fine and good, but then that implies that inside of it they're VERY close to the largest black hole in the galaxy...that's not exactly where you'd be able to fly around.



The Jedi Master

This thread needs an to be cool

Putting a SW vehicle into a ST thread! Blasphemy!!



The Jedi Master

Nerd fight!

live long and prosper.

Fly her apart then...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KBHVKUMLaY


Wheels

I thought Birds of Prey had to decloak to fire their weaponry?

The one Chang had in ST VI was a new prototype.

I was just watching this the film last night. Its nice to see Sulu in command of a ship at last. He could have had a mini-series. Wasn't that exploding BoP shot used in another Trek movie?

While going through the movies I'm levelling up a Klingon in Star Trek Online, the content is quite good when you can find it. For complete geekness it's a nice game to play with one of the Trek movies on in the background. My current ship is tailored for cloak ambush attacks.




Thanks to this thread I tracked down ST:II on BD cheaply. If you have the DVD then there's not much improvement. Maybe I should have gone with ST:TMP instead?

Yeah, the exploding BoP shot was used again in the destruction of the other BoP in Generations after doing one over on the Enterprise. I remember seeing that one and thinking "waaaaaait a minute...".

I have to be honest, I've never liked TMP that much. I do agree that the direction is definitely darker, more serious than the series, I couldn't get over the subject of the plot, nor the slow pacing. I'm not saying it's a pile of crap, it's just that my memory of it is most likely to be heavily biased as it was one of the last of the original series movies that I saw. After coming down from 2-4 (like you, I'll ignore 5) it just felt dated, which by that time that's exactly what it was, through no fault of its own.
(To tie in another SW link, it's like seeing New Hope after ESB and RotJ, which is what happened to me as well!)

I'm interested to know what you chaps think of #6. I personally liked it a great deal (second only to Khan), but a lot of people critique the cold war association.

Star Trek 6 is a fantastic film and I've never understood the complaints by some about the Cold War undertones. The movie did after all come out in theaters the same month that the USSR was dissolved! Nick Meyer was the best director of the ST films. Both Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country are proof of that.

Oh, one thing I did NOT care for at all in TMP was the costume design. Those Starfleet pajamas were horrid.

Definitely! The uniforms found from Wrath of Khan onward were very well done. Someone liked them well enough to use them as the basis for the BSG dress uniforms. And then someone thought up the TNG abominations!

The red and black Starfleet uniforms from ST 2 through 6 dont look anything like the BSG officer uniforms to me. Where did you read about that?

I think he means the design of the chest panel and how it pulls down/zips up. If you take off the white collars of the ST uniforms and dye them and the BSG ones both white you'll see the similarities. It's not in your face, though.

The TNG uniforms from the first couple of seasons were crap as well, but the later years and as used in DS9 and Voyager's early runs were fine. I do like the ones introduced with First Contact, and then later used on DS9, more though. Something about the gray with the colored undershirts seemed more dignified than the entire uniform being a different color with black.



The Jedi Master

Exactly. Take away the ST turtleneck-type collar and the tunics are very similar with the cut, chest flap, and double-breasted design.

ahh..

BTW, I was waiting for the president of the federation to start yelling "DICK JONES! It was DICK JONES!"

Actually, I thought it would've been great had he called the C-in-C of Starfleet a dumbass.



The Jedi Master

He surely would have threatened everyone with "a foot in your ass".

Kurtwood Smith is great. He had a great starring role in an X-Files episode and of course he made a great villain in Robocop.

I have seen the movie several times and it wasn't until I posted the clip a few days ago that I finally realized who was playing the President.


Wheels

He also played a Starfleet helmsman 5 years earlier in ST IV.

It must have been a very small part because he isn't listed in the cast credits for Star Trek IV or the movie at his IMDB page.

Until he played Red Forman I never noticed him. I just saw him in a movie with Gene Hackman made in the 1991. Company Business
Looking at his IMDB page he was in several movies I have seen I just hadn't noticed him.


Wheels

That was another actor playing the same species as his character in ST 4. Smith wasn't in ST6.



The Jedi Master

Kurtwood Smith played the Federation President in Star Trek 6.
I can't find where he had a role in Star Trek 4.


Wheels

Oops. Typo. I meant he wasn't in ST4, and the guy you see at the start of the movie is just someone of the same species. I think Efrosian is the name.




The Jedi Master

the only think I hate about JJ Abrams ST was the Effing over use of the Lens Flare Effect. I mean JESUS. theres excessive Lensflare and LIGHT HALOING in every scene.

I actually liked the look. It was certainly different for Star Trek so I welcomed the change.

Thats the novelette that was with the edition of Star Trek 2009 Bluray I got, havn't read it yet tho.

I was just wondering where people go the info about nero’s ship and stuff.

I understand a general time limit when editing and filming
Had I been on the project, I would have included about 15-20 minutes of the nero/spock backstory in the early beginnings of the film. Even Spock’s mind meld w/ Kirk doesn’t explain the conflict w/ Nero and Nero vs both the Romulans and Vulcans and how his mining ship went from a smaller mining ship to a nexus of hulls with borg enhanced weapons. The comic clearly should have been part of the storyline of the film.

The Film could have easily started out with the sun going SuperNova, about 5-10 minutes of the spock back story w/ Nimoy Narrating it. Opening Credits. Then to the encounter with Kirk’s father’s ship. Then directly to the Beastieboys 2 minutes of worthless footage, what is that supposed to do, tell us kirk is a deviant in IOWA? Pointless sequence. At least Spock’s 2 minutes of footage showed his flaw that plays a part in the story line later.

I guess it was a scene just to show what kind of reckless and restless soul Kirk was even as a young kid. I think it tied in well with the scene at the restaurant where Pike found Kirk.