Out of curiosity, how do you figure TMP?
I can see how NEM could be kind of like TWOK and TUC. But other than the drydock scene at the end and Jerry Goldsmith's score, I'm not really seeing TMP. The closest I see is Riker and Troi, the stand-ins for Decker and Ilia, finally getting married.
So it's more of a texture thing, and a lot of it is unintentional. It's in the viewing experience.
You've mentioned the drydock exterior, where already there's a subtle awareness on the part of the composer that he was bookending ST's ten-movie saga. And Decker/Ilia is one of the main elements that makes TMP seem very proto-TNG. I mentioned that the TNG characters in
Nemesis feel like they're running off the S1 bible.
Seems neither of us are heavily fond of
Nemesis, though obviously there are things to appreciate in it. And I don't know where you stand with TMP. Personally I love it.
So now imagine the irony of having to explain everything you don't like about
Nemesis if it was already known you loved TMP. It's stiff, it's stilted and awkward, it's visually muted and grey. Mr Data, shut up. My oath of celibacy IS on record, Captain.
Now imagine if
Wrath of Khan were directed by TMP. Same collateral damage, same themes of mortality and sacrifice, but with the TMP uniforms, lighting, cinematography... Goldsmith as composer, the TOS characters and chemistry at their TMP stage of disfunctionality. Maybe Berman Trek's signature bubble forcefield in place of a lot of TWOK's flashy pyrotechnics, with constant reminders of said field in danger of giving out. What movie would this start to look like?
TMP is the 'biggest' classic ST movie, but why? I mean it's mostly in the effects (and it's got almost as many as the rest of the movies put together), but also some of the sets. TMP also has some very impressive-looking (but not particularly moody) cinematography. Yet on the flip side, most of the other Trek's have at least some location work, TMP doesn't.
Nemesis runs up against its budget in more than enough places to seem like a cheaper movie. You want the
Generations-style stellar cartography and a TUC-scale Romulan Capitol but they can't deliver it. You don't get the ILM effects of
Generations but you do get more of a cinematic eye than either of Frake's films are able to offer (and
perhaps even more in some places than
Generations cinematographer John Alonzo could provide under David Carson's directing).
Wrath of Khan is famously said to have been managed by Paramount's TV division. Do we know when that ever stopped? If it did? Would Paramount have ever changed a management decision that seemed to be working for them? Is there any place in the remaining nine films where the production value shows a dramatic shift?
Both TUC and NEM seem larger than their predecessors, but also cheaper. We know Paramount kept a tight financial grip on Meyer with TUC. And Berman was very much a TV producer, who in many people's opinions (definitely mine) maintained too tight a grip over his production team's creative talent. If he could do it with TV people, preferably his own network from the various shows, he would. We even got a TV score with
Generations. But in what movie did Berman's influence seem at its weakest?
