Spock's rediscovering himself, Kirk's reclaiming his command, Decker & Ilia rediscovering themselves, Ilia then becomes (involuntarily, grant you) reimagined, Bones being made to reclaim his purpose thanks to Kirk's having "drafted," and, of course, V'GER having to rediscover itself to allow him to further evolve. He's very misinformed about himself, despite being as booksmart as any conscious entity can ever hope to be. And yet, the soulless V'GER is the causative link that drives all of these characters to do all of this soul-searching. And to have the dispassionate Spock be the one who spells it out for the crew, for V'GER, for the audience, how important spirituality is to The Human Condition and what happens, when we lose that ... that's incredible! Especially, when you take into account Gene Roddenberry's supposed atheistic, or Humanistic views, which he was -- apparently -- espousing, in full, even then.
When NASA first sent its astronauts into Space, they were overwhelmed, almost, with this sense of The Spiritual. So much so, they'd crack open a Christian Bible and begin to read. Passage after Passage ... until some obnoxious looking feminazi wrote her congressman, or some shit, and put a quick halt to it. But to take umbrage at Religion, as something primitive, superstitious ... even delusional ... that's a complete and total falsehood -- on ALL counts! It's simply the approach to answering those questions Spock says V'GER's asking itself: 'Who was I meant to be? Why am I here?' You know, it's funny, how when people are desperate, they'll pray. Get comfortable and complacent, though, and they get very dismissive of faith. V'GER couldn't be in a more complacent position. It's unlocked every secret worth knowing in the Universe and it's all powerful. It's only when it finds the means to believe, through joining with a Human, that it knows anything, at all ... like what it's purpose is, or should become.
And then to have all of this weighty storyline and character stuff surrounded by the most beautiful and impressive special effects in the pre-digital age is just a very ambitious project to have taken on and it's so Gene Roddenberry! The Motion Picture has been mistreated with some really sloppy edits, like the one used for television, where we see the scaffolding in one shot and it's been labeled as boring and sterile and whatnot, by vocal fans over the years. But more than any of this, it also remains the most mined-from in terms of re-use of sets, of costumes and costume design -- even the new STAR TREK movies have aped Admiral Kirk's duatone outfit and other aspects of TMP. It's not the STAR TREK movie I would've made as the franchise's first crack at the medium of Motion Pictures. I won't lie to you, about that. But I love what was done with it, very much.
