Star Trek- The Motion Picture Appreciation Thread

[2takesfrakes]

I just wanted to clarify that though I'm fully aware of TMP's shortcomings, they really are relatively minor and do not have a profound impact on the enjoyment of the feature. So allow me to reiterate that I love TMP and it's probably my favourite TREK adventure. It's very difficult to accept that a movie - STAR TREK, or otherwise - will never again be made with this type of aesthetic in mind, or this level of craftsmanship. My jaw still drops at everything I see in this picture. It's beautiful ... just beautiful. And I really like the performances, the story, the new characters ... it's such a wonderful film and it's decades old. That's the part that sort of gets me. This film never seems dated, even though it's obvious that it came out in the Seventies . It has a freshness that I really wish the subsequent features could've offered, but didn't in favour of 8O's sensibilities. The grandeur is completely absent in the later TREK films and that's disappointing to me.

I like how lean TWoK is, how straightforward and well-paced it is, but outside of the nebula, there's really nothing about it that demonstrates particular sensitivity to its own Artistry. Even the planet scenes seem pragmatic - it's just there to serve the story and nothing else beyond that, really. TMP is completely memorable and visually stunning and despite the inexplicable, awkward moment here or there, or V'GER's 15 minute first-reveal. I almost can't believe a movie like this even got made, especially by PARAMOUNT, which is just about as commercial a studio as you can get. It's the kind of movie where you go to the theatre and you're like ... THIS is what movies are supposed to be like. The spectacle, the Larger-than-Life characters, the imaginative storyline. Not watching people just sitting around in an apartment deciding what they want to do over the weekend. Save that for the little screen ...

 

[Smellmet]

I just wanted to clarify that though I'm fully aware of TMP's shortcomings, they really are relatively minor and do not have a profound impact on the enjoyment of the feature. So allow me to reiterate that I love TMP and it's probably my favourite TREK adventure. It's very difficult to accept that a movie - STAR TREK, or otherwise - will never again be made with this type of aesthetic in mind, or this level of craftsmanship. My jaw still drops at everything I see in this picture. It's beautiful ... just beautiful. And I really like the performances, the story, the new characters ... it's such a wonderful film and it's decades old. That's the part that sort of gets me. This film never seems dated, even though it's obvious that it came out in the Seventies . It has a freshness that I really wish the subsequent features could've offered, but didn't in favour of 8O's sensibilities. The grandeur is completely absent in the later TREK films and that's disappointing to me.

I like how lean TWoK is, how straightforward and well-paced it is, but outside of the nebula, there's really nothing about it that demonstrates particular sensitivity to its own Artistry. Even the planet scenes seem pragmatic - it's just there to serve the story and nothing else beyond that, really. TMP is completely memorable and visually stunning and despite the inexplicable, awkward moment here or there, or V'GER's 15 minute first-reveal. I almost can't believe a movie like this even got made, especially by PARAMOUNT, which is just about as commercial a studio as you can get. It's the kind of movie where you go to the theatre and you're like ... THIS is what movies are supposed to be like. The spectacle, the Larger-than-Life characters, the imaginative storyline. Not watching people just sitting around in an apartment deciding what they want to do over the weekend. Save that for the little screen ...

Great post. Couldn't have worded it better myself.

 

[cwellslovell]

TMP is a lovely film. The strange pacing and emphasis on aesthetics and scale was great to me as a kid watching it. It was like weird interactive kaleidoscope.

V'Ger scared me as a child too and then when I got older and read the (admittedly non-canonical but nonetheless awesome) theory that V'Ger is actually the birth of the Borg. Decker is the first assimilation. V'Ger's need to evolve turns its exploration and machine planet homeworld into a galactic collective. When I re-watched TMP as a teenager, post- Best of Both Worlds era now, and in the Spock sickbay scene after his mind meld with V'Ger when he said "Reistance would be futile." I spit my dr. pepper out. I was freaked out.

 

[Maurice]

...and in the Spock sickbay scene after his mind meld with V'Ger when he said "Reistance would be futile." I spit my dr. pepper out. I was freaked out.

You're misremembering.

DECKER: Captain, a maximum phaser strike directly at the beam might weaken it just enough for us to break free.
SPOCK: Break free to where, Commander? Any show of resistance would be futile, Captain.
DECKER: We don't know that, Mister Spock. Why are you opposed to trying?

That happens as V'ger first starts pulling the ship in, long before the spacewalk or sickbay scenes.

 

[cwellslovell]

You're misremembering.

DECKER: Captain, a maximum phaser strike directly at the beam might weaken it just enough for us to break free.
SPOCK: Break free to where, Commander? Any show of resistance would be futile, Captain.
DECKER: We don't know that, Mister Spock. Why are you opposed to trying?

That happens as V'ger first starts pulling the ship in, long before the spacewalk or sickbay scenes.

oh good call. After I'Lea was taken, right? It was so menacing the way he says it that I saw the whole movie differently after that. Sickbay is when he just starts laughing out of nowhere. Spock was so different in this movie, the kohlinar seemed like an even bigger deal to his personality than the resurrection/katra transplant was later.

 

[Maurice]

Yeah, just after Ilia gets grabbed and DiFalco comes in and Decker tells Uhura to hold off on launching the remote communications drone (which I guess never got launched).

 

[Tallguy]

You know, TMP may be the most significant for taking Spock's character's arc as an unhappy misfit to a reasonable conclusion.

I've said this a lot before, but the popular perception of Spock is either the logical Zen fellow we meet in TWOK, or the Data-like fish out of water character we see in the later films. And that's largely how he is portrayed when other actors played him later on.

But in TOS Spock did have an emotion: Anger. Or to a lesser extent at least frustration. Kirk really did balance Spock out. (Pike probably did as well, but not in the role of a peer as Kirk was.) Spock's arc in TMP is what happens when he rejects that balance. I think it's one of the most remarkable things in 50 years of Star Trek.

(I do think Quinto tapped into that angrier more stand-offish Spock.)

 

[2takesfrakes]

Spock's going through the Kolinahr seems to have been very ritualised and highly unusual, as if it were almost elitist, in a sense. Later STAR TREKs seem to suggest that just any Vulcan can go through it, which I feel diminishes it, somewhat. The same with Mount Seleya, from the sequel The Search for Spock ... it's depicted as a Vulcan hangout in later series, particularly -ENTERPRISE-. Spock's failing the Kolinahr at the very, VERY last minute, though ... is a little too convenient, though. Like when Luke Skywalker just-so-happened to arrive at Dagobah with, like, 10 minutes to spare to catch up and witness Yoda die. Annie Skywalker does the same with his mum, in "Attack of the Clones," as well.

I hate this staple of old timey sci-fi movies, it's only there because it's so damn emotionally manipulative. So, why couldn't V'GER have waited just 10 more minutes to distract Spock with its emotionally-moving Pure Logic? When you see Spock looking all elfish, with his elders, in a hellish-looking Vulcan with its bubbling cauldron and giant cuprite statues of Surak and ... and so forth ... you can't help but to expect a truly gripping scene. What's THIS going to be about? In the end, it's all about a mind meld, but it's played so over-the-top, though ... and I love it. The tonality of the scene is just ... it's just perfect! The Certificate of Logic is cool-looking as all hell, too! I must possess it ...

 

[Maurice]

Go to 4:48 (Link to that spot)

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Firebird]

Go to 4:48

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Just skimmed through all 5 parts of that video. The production design was remarkably faithful to TMP. I'd never seen it before, thanks for sharing it!

 

[iliescu]

It really explored the nebula now can see the importance of it though.

 

[arch101]

Go to 4:48

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Holy Crap! That is truly epic for home made claymation. I'd never seen that before. Hilarious!

 

[Maurice]

All five parts of that can be found here:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[2takesfrakes]

This STAR TRIX or whatever the balls is absolute rubbish, of which I could not watch more than a minute or so. Some things in the past are better left behind ...

 

[nightwind1]

I'm betting it's better than anything you've done.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Well ... I am a working Artist, in the sense that -- you know -- I actually get paid for my Artwork. So ...

But no, I've never dealved too deeply into animation, except as experiments, relating to how well I understood rendering objects. They were not for public consumption. That's the first thing. Secondly, I would never have wasted my time on a STAR TREK spoof. And besides ... spoofs aren't any good, generally speaking.

For instance, I know that Galaxy Quest has its fans and it benefits enormously from Missi Pyle's having been cast in it. At the time she was still quite lovely and is always very talented. She saved the spacey sequences which otherwise sucked pretty badly, in this, uh ... in this "film." The scenes taking place on Earth were far more enjoyable. Alexander's rantings at the convention were pure gold: "Five curtain calls! I was an ACTOR once, damn it. Now look at me. LOOK AT ME! I won't go out there and say that stupid line one more time. I can't ... I won't." Rickman is sorely missed, indeed. I won't even go into The Orville. I tried to give the show a chance ... but it doesn't do the trick.

Fan Films in general aren't worth looking at, but STAR TRIX star sux and if it didn't ... I wouldn't have said so.

 

[Maurice]

This STAR TRIX or whatever the balls is absolute rubbish, of which I could not watch more than a minute or so. Some things in the past are better left behind ...

You're entitled to your opinion. But someone was inspired enough by TMP to go to this much effort to lovingly spoof it in an era when home filmmaking technology made that a steep mountain to climb.

For someone who made Super 8 films in high school I tip my hat to the Art Binninger who made these. In this era of digital video filmmaking is much easier. Not so then. He had to use a lot of ingenuity and effort to make those work at all... especially the effects. And what you're seeing is a video of the film being projected, not a proper scan, so it looks muddy and faded because of the conversion methods.

You may or may not find it entertaining, but c'est la vie.

W... I would never have wasted my time on a STAR TREK spoof...

I see... if you wouldn't engage in an activity, it's a waste of time. So noted.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Though lengthy (almost 20 minutes), this is a clip of the premier with the ST:TMP cast and it is cool as all hell. You can wave your mouse over it and find your favourite Trek actor, director, producer, whathaveyou as they get interviewed, stepping out of their limos and onto the red carpet ... just about everybody showed:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[marsh8472]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I remember this commercial. Anyone remember this too? Putting myself in the place of fans back in the late 70's watching Star Trek the motion picutre, it must have been pretty exciting seeing that long segment showing the Enterprise after the show had been off the air for so long. It was neat seeing the Klingons in the beginning and Spock on Vulcan too. I thought the rest of the film was a piece of garbage but it's a true test of a treky to sit through and watch this entire movie. I've done it multiple times.

 

[Maurice]

^^^Never saw it. But not seeing how that relates to TMP?