There are definitely some changes and cuts I think were not his idea. I also wonder if wise would've cut the special effects footage down any more than in the final Director's Cut.
Interviews he did post-release, around 1980 or 81, suggest he'd've tightened the drydock scene by a minute and the vger flyover by about double that, which is a pretty substantial difference from the minimal cuts in the DE. Still don't understand why he didn't cut the little space guy fleeing epsilon 9, which is one of the worst fx ever.
Yeah, but unlike the dry dock scene or V'Ger flyover, that scene would be WAY too short without that scene. Plus, the music would be butchered. I say all this being a fan of TMP in ALL incarnations. I even made a point of buying the extended laserdisc.
Yeah I guess you're right. My point stands more with the drydock scene. The music is fantastic, but that scene kinda loses its majesty when you've seen it so many times. The music in the flyover is so similar you could cut the scene and just edit together the music, then synch it up. I would like to see someone attempt a 1980's style director's cut, applying some changes that might have been made if Wise was more involved.
Is anyone here for starting an alternate versions/deleted scenes thread? Anyone? Comic images, still photos, screenplay excerpts, rare home video releases/TV airings, trailer footage, work prints etc.? EDIT: Sorry for double post.
If you mean the V'Ger flyover, Goldsmith intentionally scored it and the preceding cloud sequence with lots of repetition so that the music could be easily trimmed down for the final edit. The Director's Cut removes about a minute from both portions, and the music blends smoothly.
^Really? I thought the DC just reordered the shots. I personally have no problem with the cloud sequence. I have NEVER seen anything like that in films anywhere else. Plus great, if not repetitive, music, too. I did think that Goldsmith would have had to score the scene so they would be ripe for trimming later on. There are still people I know who wish the sequence was like how it was in the comic, with us instantly seeing the ship instead the cloud.
The 2001 cut eliminates one of the other worst shots in the movie, when Kirk orders reverse angle on the viewer and you see a seriously out of focus shot of a crevice area just fore of the vger engine assembly.
Yep. They are mercifully shorter; they do seem interminable in the theatrical and the Special Longer Version. I think the balance is about right in the DC.
I'd love to see Director's Cuts or alternative editions released someday. Making The Final Frontier more impressive is of particular interest to me. Checked out clips over YouTube a few times down the years, but forget exactly what became of this. I have the theatricals on Blu ray and it's depressing they've been repackaged a couple times already, rather than putting out variants for The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan & The Undiscovered Country. Or somebody let loose to dabble with improving likes of The Final Frontier, Generations or Nemesis.
With enough money thrown at it, there are so many things that could be corrected and made better. Like when they step foot on Shakaree, everyone sees a different world (Sybok sees the most beautiful garden of Eden, Spock and McCoy see something else, the people on the bridge see something else, and Kirk sees what was in the final film), and we then settle for what Kirk sees. And what Kirk sees could be enhanced to look more alien. Digitally replace the deck numbers and make slight re-edits, so they don't go up 70 decks, just 12. Show Sybok having visions of Shakaree and the God creature there earlier in the film. There also was that fan edit on Youtube that, when Kirk climbs the mountain to escape the God creature, added voice overs from his past, including his "I've always known I'd die alone" which truly elevated that scene. The filming material is all there for stuff like that.
The public release will be different from the "directors cut". But it is still in the works. Meantime look this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUgBJUv4TG4