Improve Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- Thread starter Agenda
- Start date
What do you mean by this?
I mean the funny talk happening on the bridge after V'Ger "evolves". Wouldn't quite fit with the rest.
I do realize it's probably the most TOS-ish scene of the entire movie.
Here's what I would do.
- Give the job of finding out that V'Ger was trying to contact the Enterprise to Uhura. She's the freaking communications officer! It's not like Spock didn't have anything to do in the movie.
- After V'Ger breaks off it's attack, everything comes to full stop. Just as the Enterprise is about to enter the cloud, it starts to dissipate. Than the V'Ger vessel slowly emerges from the cloud and confronts the Enterprise. Than it unleashes the probe that assimilates Ilia and consumes the Enterprise just as it did in the movie. That way you cut out the cloud voyage sequence and the V'Ger flyover.
- Give the job of finding out that V'Ger was trying to contact the Enterprise to Uhura. She's the freaking communications officer! It's not like Spock didn't have anything to do in the movie.
- After V'Ger breaks off it's attack, everything comes to full stop. Just as the Enterprise is about to enter the cloud, it starts to dissipate. Than the V'Ger vessel slowly emerges from the cloud and confronts the Enterprise. Than it unleashes the probe that assimilates Ilia and consumes the Enterprise just as it did in the movie. That way you cut out the cloud voyage sequence and the V'Ger flyover.
The V'ger flyover serves a purpose, to establish that this thing is freakin' huge, and serves as a counterpoint to the earlier inspection tour of the Enterprise.
You could still convey the size of the V'Ger ship when it emerges from the could in front of the Enterprise. Think the Narada coming out of the singularity in front of the Kelvin.
The Narada was no where near as large as V'Ger. We get the inspection tour of the Enterprise to get a sense of it's size then when we get to see the Enterprise looking like a very tiny speck next to V'Ger.
^ Probably the biggest reason why this film really needs to seen on the big screen to fully appreciate it.
COME ON, PARAMOUNT! LET'S SEE TMP IN THE THEATRE AGAIN!
COME ON, PARAMOUNT! LET'S SEE TMP IN THE THEATRE AGAIN!
That is the only way TMP should ever be seen. Now where can I get an inexpensive very large screen TV?
To get a screen big enough...it'd be cheaper to rent out the local theatre and get a DVD projector rig.
Yes, but the point I'm trying to make is that you don't need that much time to emphasize how massive the craft was in order to make that point. It's big, but so what? It's not an important element in the story to the overall film.
Last edited:
It was to me when I first saw it when I was 8 or so. It was one of the things that drew me into the movie. I saw Star Wars a few months earlier and it felt like I was watching a movie. When I was watching TMP it felt more like I could just walk through the screen and I was there.
I think it was definitely important to stop the film for a moment and illustrate the size and beauty of the Enterprise in order for audience to fully appreciate the incredible scope of the V'Ger craft when the Enterprise is dwarfed by it later in the film. Just saying that something is inconceivably large isn't enough... they needed to show it.
My experience too. Walking out of the beautiful old art deco cinema afterwards, with the Ilia Theme still playing, piped through the corridors and foyer, I felt like I was strolling the corridors of the Enterprise and could imagine myself in the pyjama-type uniform, running into a crewperson or two as they hurried to a duty station. And I got that feeling the five or so more times I went to see the movie in early 1980.
BTW, speaking of stepping right through the screen...
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2007/01/andorians-old-and-new-and-spider-man_6160.html
Last edited:
When I watch it now, I see your point.
But in 1979, when I was 12 and sitting in the theater seeing it for the first time, those 5 minutes just sped by, and I would've sat through twice that to be able to see more.
I prefer that scene then the Narada takes out the Kelvin scene, especially when trying to establish sizes.
I agree - the first time I watched TMP it was spell-binding because the effects were so awesome. Upon the reviewing multiple times on TV, the Enterprise and V'Ger flyover scenes do drag on. The TMP Enterprise is still the best in Trek history mind you.
Flyovers can be made more interesting to watch too. I love the opening scene of the Black Hole for example.
Flyovers can be made more interesting to watch too. I love the opening scene of the Black Hole for example.
It's been a while since I've posted anything on TrekBBS, but this thread caught my attention as I'd been thinking about the film recently. Last year I was modelling and rendering the Enterprise, but in the last 5 months I haven't had any time to work on it.
When I was a kid I loved this film and it is still visually great. But casting an eye over it now, I don't think it holds up as well as it used to. Here's my list of changes that "could" improve it.
1. Tweak the Enterprise.
It's my favourite design because it is well thought out. However there are small problems with it. Here are a few changes I'd make to it.
a. Redo the curvature of the bottom of the saucer to give it 2 full decks across the saucer's diameter. Achieve it with the smallest possible changes to the ship's sillohette.
b. Fix all the self-illumination issues. Anyone working on CGI models will know what I mean. God knows I've struggled with it. The production by and large lit the ship using an external light source and dental mirrors.
c. Move the docking hatches on the secondary hull down to central axis. Solves the error in the film involving the shuttle pod.
d. Very slightly thicken the base of the warp pylons - a bit like you see on modern airliners.
2. Redo the SFX.
Given what can be done with CGI these days - TMP could look absolutely amazing. I'd like to see shots respectful to the originals.
a. One shot I'd remove is that of Jupiter - it doesn't fit the film's timeframe. At impulse it would take hours (if not days) to get there. Use the moon instead. Sync that scenes music to end as Earth vanishes behind the limb of the moon.
b. Fix the orbit of drydock. If you assume the north is at the top of the screen in the film, drydock is in a retrograde orbit!
3. Replace the theme music!
I like Jerry Goldsmith's score. But in hindsight it doesn't fit the serious nature of the film.
I think the problem is that the TMP theme is similar to other themes of that time (Star Wars, Superman). It's a bold, confident, adventurous theme, but the film is about something quite different. Strangely enough Two Steps from Hell - Freedom Fighters (from STXI trailer 3) would work better. I could picture the camera moving through a nebula to that music up to the point where the Klingons run into V'ger.
When I was a kid I loved this film and it is still visually great. But casting an eye over it now, I don't think it holds up as well as it used to. Here's my list of changes that "could" improve it.
1. Tweak the Enterprise.
It's my favourite design because it is well thought out. However there are small problems with it. Here are a few changes I'd make to it.
a. Redo the curvature of the bottom of the saucer to give it 2 full decks across the saucer's diameter. Achieve it with the smallest possible changes to the ship's sillohette.
b. Fix all the self-illumination issues. Anyone working on CGI models will know what I mean. God knows I've struggled with it. The production by and large lit the ship using an external light source and dental mirrors.
c. Move the docking hatches on the secondary hull down to central axis. Solves the error in the film involving the shuttle pod.
d. Very slightly thicken the base of the warp pylons - a bit like you see on modern airliners.
2. Redo the SFX.
Given what can be done with CGI these days - TMP could look absolutely amazing. I'd like to see shots respectful to the originals.
a. One shot I'd remove is that of Jupiter - it doesn't fit the film's timeframe. At impulse it would take hours (if not days) to get there. Use the moon instead. Sync that scenes music to end as Earth vanishes behind the limb of the moon.
b. Fix the orbit of drydock. If you assume the north is at the top of the screen in the film, drydock is in a retrograde orbit!
3. Replace the theme music!
I like Jerry Goldsmith's score. But in hindsight it doesn't fit the serious nature of the film.
I think the problem is that the TMP theme is similar to other themes of that time (Star Wars, Superman). It's a bold, confident, adventurous theme, but the film is about something quite different. Strangely enough Two Steps from Hell - Freedom Fighters (from STXI trailer 3) would work better. I could picture the camera moving through a nebula to that music up to the point where the Klingons run into V'ger.
Similar threads
- Locked
