What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

I don't mind that alternate theme, the mix on that YouTube recording is a bit tinny, presumably a better recording would have been used for the actual show. It's structured very similarly to the revised TMP theme they went with, I bet everyone would have been fine if it had been used. It just sounds off because we're used to the actual one.

 

I do prefer the alternate Star Trek IV theme to the alternate TNG one.

 

That kind of opinion takes real Courage.

 

This one's a bit more recent:

 

We dodged a very generic bullet with that alt theme.

 

But it was awesome when it played in Yesterday's Enterprise. And lots of other places.

 

I dig deep in the controversy. The theatrical cut of TMP is the best Trek film.

 

That one does have a better quality recording.

I'm still of the opinion if that had been what they actually used, everyone would have been fine with it. Instead of a curiosity it would be the theme of a beloved TV show and if someone posted the different tempo'd version of the TMP theme they did use we'd think that was odd and unoriginal.

 

Defend, please. Specifically against the DE. Either version, I suppose. Although before the 2022 edition most days I'd have agreed with you.

 

You know, the unused TNG theme reminds me of THE ORVILLE a bit.

 

Like I said, that theme does get used a lot in McCarthy's TNG episodes. In fact it's the first music you hear in Farpoint after the credits.

As it was, many eyes rolled in September 1987 when the TMP theme came up. We all love Jerry Goldsmith but it was so obviously a cut and paste job (or whatever we would have called it then). We wanted a NEW theme.

Then the GNP record came out and people all said Dennis' original theme sounded too much like Superman. (Deep Space Nine sounds rather like The Planet Krypton. Williams is a god. We get it.)

I am astonished at how people react now when they see TMP. There is always confusion at the main title. "Why is this TNG? Did they go back and put it in? What was here before?" Kind of the same thing with Star Trek V. "Hey! This is KIRK! Why are they using PICARD'S music?!?" Oy.

 

Not alone, not alone...... I feel this way like I'm the only soul that really likes TMP

 

The DE trashes the soundtrack. Possibly the coolest universal translator segment in the entire franchise is the synthetic voice reading of "INTRUDER UNIDENTIFIED...." It's absence is glaring. And the replacement red alert alarm klaxon is lame. Generally speaking, a soundtrack hanging together and jibing with the rest of the film is really very important. The original soundtrack did that better than the replacement. It was a remarkable achievement for the DE to take an imperfect soundtrack and make it substantially worse.

 

(Looking at my Art of TMP, Cinefex on TMP, TMP photonovel, three different editions of the soundtrack on CD, Roddenberry's novel, and of course The Complete Adventure 4K set of TMP... And that's just what's out on display...)

It's ok.

 

I prefer the theatrical as well, there are too many strange choices and distracting fanboy stuff in the DE (Dochterman Edition). I would have much preferred an actual director’s cut based on what Wise wanted to do in 1979.

 

I thought that's what you were doing but to have you confirm it...

Like a bouquet! :-)

 

That also.

 

Are you sure? I'm not hearing it.

 

That was my main complaint about the 2001 DE. You could hear what they wanted to do and the reasons for it were correct. But they were clearly limited by time and available sound libraries / technology. It sounded a lot like the Enterprise B in Generations. Now it sounds of a piece with TMP and Wrath of Khan. In 2022 the only unmitigated "I wish the rest of the movie was this perfect!" triumph is the sound. (I was so pissed when I saw it in the cinema that the sound was low and muddy. Damn Fathom!)

Since I wasn't there, this is guesswork. Hopefully informed guesswork. But there are certainly changes that feel like Fein, Dochterman, and Matessino. But the important changes feel absolutely like Wise. (And for better or worse none of them feel like Roddenberry.) Every editorial change is from Wise. This is especially bolstered with the same edits being carried forward from 2001. Every reference to TOS (the shuttlecraft in San Fransisco) is absolutely the production team. Wise might have been OK with it, but I don't think he went into this into this thinking "I didn't have enough things from the TV show!"

The editing and flow of the film was the primary mission. Obviously it was Wise's passion and his reason for revisiting the film.

The computer voices by all accounts (including, I believe, Wise's but it's been a long time since I've watched the interviews on the 2001 DE) were something Wise was on the fence about in the first place and after seeing the rough cut (i..e. Star Trek: The Motion Picture) he was not fond of. There was a lot of "We don't know if we're going to see something so we need someone to tell us about it". And when the film was done there were a lot of people and computers repeating what we'd already seen. (But that DOES give us Galaxy Quest!)

I think TMP is a little cursed. It's like you push down one bubble on the wallpaper and another one comes up. The sound is perfect. ("Two AUs in diameter" even sounds natural now!) San Fransisco looks worse. Going back to the original effects elements makes the Enterprise look better than ever before. What the hell is up with that officer's lounge? And so on.

But of the (counts...) four released editions of this film THIS is as good as it gets.

If Spock doesn't cry, it's not Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Ok, not as early as I remembered it. It's at 0:24 in this clip.

Also:

4:02 - "That'll be the day."

 

This is abso-fucking-lutely the main theme of Galaxy Quest!

Prove me wrong.