Opinions on TMP

[Therin of Andor]

Part of the justification for the uniforms (color lack of uniformity etc.) came from Robert Fletcher..he mentioned that bright colors would probably be considered overly sexist

How are the bright colours of TOS "sexist"?

Fletcher, Roddenberry and Wise are all on record as noting that the uniform colours were muted for the big screen because it was well known that the primary colours of TOS (including the uniform shirts and the orange/red bridge rail) were to help encourage the sale of colour TVs in the 60s, and that there was concern that primary colours would be too garish on the big screen.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^Those bright primary coloured uniforms looked great in last year's film!

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Give Nick Meyer this story outline, let him rewrite it for tone and shoot it his own way, and maybe we're debating whether TMP or TWOK is better.

Interesting - I wonder what Nick Meyer would have made of it?

Everything about this film was just... off.

The uniforms, the music, the script, the dialogue.

Sorry, can't agree. Loved the uniforms, loved the music!

I came to TMP quite naive about TOS, knowing mainly only random episodes of TOS and TAS. Luckily for me, I got so swept away by the pre-publicity newspaper interviews about the making of TMP, and a friend's enthusiastic description of the gala preview held in Sydney, that I bought and devoured the novelization and the LP soundtrack, then went to see the movie (about five times in as many weeks). Still my favourite film of all time, perhaps now tied with JJ's ST.

Therin, I agree with you for the most part. My one sticking point is the uniforms. Trek uniforms is one of my biggest pet peeves of all time. THe issues start from the simple fact that they were costumes not uniforms, and they were for the most part treated as such by the productions (TMP and TWOK being the best against that direction). TMP's uniforms were great in concept, but suffered from two distinct and different problems.

First, that the film doesn't do them justice. Having seen them in person at a trek exhibit many, many years ago now, I came to realize that they had far more detail and quality to them than appeared on screen (at least home video wise, even bluray doesn't treat them fairly).

Second, and probably the biggest, was a lack of uniformity in wear. So many color and style combinations created visual confusion.

There was also the third problem that they were rather unflatering and revealed Decker's genitals in rather too much detail...

 

[Warped9]

I wonder what Nick Meyer would have made of it?

I shudder to think of it.

 

[Pauln6]

There was also the third problem that they were rather unflatering and revealed Decker's genitals in rather too much detail...

That was quite scary but I could have gotten used to it! His scenes with Ilia could have got quite embarassing...

Once Shatner and Doohan started to pile on the pounds though we'd have been begging them for less form fitting uniforms.

 

[Warped9]

Personally I just pretend it never happened.

Except for TMP that's actually what I think about the rest of the Trek films.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

I think that it had essentially the same sort of build as Final Frontier: it captured the feeling of wonder and adventure, but it was ruined for a number of reasons. Maybe if less of the running time had disappeared into wordless flying scenes, it would have been good.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Give Nick Meyer this story outline, let him rewrite it for tone and shoot it his own way, and maybe we're debating whether TMP or TWOK is better.

Is this ... a joke?

 

[FalTorPan]

I like TMP far better than the other nine of the first ten films, in part because it feels like its makers put effort into conceiving a future, rather than "merely" conceiving a film.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I like TMP far better than the other nine of the first ten films, in part because it feels like its makers put effort into conceiving a future, rather than "merely" conceiving a film.

Or rather, conceiving a bloated light show.

 

[arch101]

TMP is the only one of the TOS films I still watch with any regularity and couldn't help but notice how well it's aged the last time I watched it.
Mr. Goldsmiths score is the finest of his distinguished career.
You have to be an adult to really get the story.
A sci-fi film that didn't need a giant space battle! Amazing!
A diverse range of interesting costumes. It's a huge damper on filmed drama when everyone wears the same costumes in every scene. I always get a laugh when someone who doesn't know Trek well asks me why nobody ever seems to change their clothes.
TMP isn't on my shelf with the other ordinary films, it's on the top shelf with Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now, Touch of Evil, etc. It's the one TOS film that will still be around in 100 years.

 

[Warped9]

It's the one TOS film that will still be around in 100 years.

Agreed.

 

[number6]

TMP gets a pass from most fans because after about 10 years of waiting and hoping and rumours, it finally happened: New Star Trek.

Was it perfect? Hell no. It was long and drawn out and the plot was unoriginal and uninteresting, but who cared?? Kirk and Spock on the big screen, new ship, new look, same old faces!!

People went and saw it again and again for their fix. I know I did.

That said, the movie wasn't great.

 

[Psion]

TMP is the only one of the TOS films I still watch with any regularity and couldn't help but notice how well it's aged the last time I watched it.
Mr. Goldsmiths score is the finest of his distinguished career.
You have to be an adult to really get the story.
A sci-fi film that didn't need a giant space battle! Amazing!
A diverse range of interesting costumes. It's a huge damper on filmed drama when everyone wears the same costumes in every scene. I always get a laugh when someone who doesn't know Trek well asks me why nobody ever seems to change their clothes.
TMP isn't on my shelf with the other ordinary films, it's on the top shelf with Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now, Touch of Evil, etc. It's the one TOS film that will still be around in 100 years.

I second this, although I don't want to get into throwing stones at people just because they like action-adventure films more than serious science fiction. Wrath of Khan and TMP are two sides of the same coin, and original Star Trek often entertained both thoughtful SF and adventure themes. My problem with Wrath of Khan comes from the perception some have that it is the superior film, while it suffers from minor problems itself, has a cheaper score, and the costumes are idiotic. It did not make as much money as TMP, yet it was perceived as enough of a success that from that point on, Trek movies had to be about phasers and photon torpedoes instead of a thoughtful story. Mind you, I'm fond of the work Nick Meyers has done, but the effort to emulate Wrath of Khan, almost always unsuccessfully, has harmed the franchise.

It's a shame TMP didn't get more recognition for its success back in the '80s ... we might have gotten more Trek films that tried to be thoughtful and conceptually amazing. Final Frontier, for example, had a great idea behind it -- a madman hijacks the Enterprise to seek God -- and it could have been a brilliant exploration of cult mentalities and the nature of religion. But we got a cheaply produced popcorn flick that let the entire franchise down. In part because someone felt the need to muddy the concept with the Klingons and a forced threat that really wasn't central to the story.

 

[Pauln6]

There was a lot of TMP merchandise which I started buying as a kid before I'd even seen the film. Still, I wish there had been more of it! I would have loved a full set of figures of all the crew in their TMP uniforms - blimey, it's thirty years and we still haven't had that!

 

[Mr Silver]

The Best Elements

*Leonard Nimoy's "Refined" Spock Character
*The Soundtrack
*The Special FX
*The Refitted Enterprise
*The Makeup (In particular, the variation in Alien Races shown on screen)

The Worst Elements

*The Decker/Kirk Feud Sub-Plot
*The Decker/Ilia Romance Sub-Plot
*The Lack Of Meaningful Dialogue For The Likes Of, Uhura, Sulu, Ilia, Chekov And Scotty
*The "Rushed" Feel Of The Film
*Not Filming The "Memory Wall" Sequence
*The Uniforms

 

[Therin of Andor]

^Those bright primary coloured uniforms looked great in last year's film!

Sure, but there were things done to those JJ ST uniforms to trick the eye. The sheen of the material, that repeating insignia pattern in the weave.... And a definite colour shift: a brownish yellow, a greenish blue, a maroonish red.

Hey, I saw almost every episode of TOS - for the first time - on the big screen: Sydney and Melbourne used to have monthly ST marathons all through the 80s at a privately owned theatre! But TMP would have come under huge criticism in the pastel-loving late 70s/early 80s for attempting to put giant-sized gold, blue and red shirts on the big screen.

 

[Gorn Captain]

[]
I second this, although I don't want to get into throwing stones at people

Thank you for this.

 

[Lor'Vela]

Despite the uniforms - which I too am not a fan of - it is my most favourite Trek film out of all of them. I find it to be the most "Trek" like experience out of the other films. It may not have as much action as subsequent films, but I find it to be more cerebral, if you're in to that kind of thing.

 

[Pauln6]

I find that I enjoy the ealrier scenes in the movie a bit more than those later on and I think that's because there is more interaction between the characters. If they could have worked in a few more scenes for the supporting characters and maybe sent a landing team to investigate V'ger that didn't just consist of the triumvirate and Decker (perhaps including a couple of the supporting cast like Uhura, Rand, or Scotty who might have been of some use on the mission), then that might have fixed some of the deficiencies in the latter part of the movie.