After rewatching TMP, spurred by the current thread about rewatching TMP, I decided to rewatch TWOK as a followup. Like TMP I watched TWOK DE version that's comprised largely of brief scenes and bits of dialogue edited back into the film that had been edited out of the theatrical release.
Firstly I will say that I am of two minds regarding this film. Whereas my appreciation of TMP has gone up over the years with each successive viewing my opinion of TWOK has wavered over the years. I never disliked TMP when I first saw it at the age of 20, but myappreciation of it improved with the passage of years and growing maturity and perspective. In 1982 at the age of 23 I rather liked TWOK overall , but things I didn't care for in the film loomed ever larger with each successive viewing.
First the good stuff. TWOK is nicely paced and it has a number of decent character moments and the performances are generally good. This is the TOS crew feeling more like what we might expect albeit played somewhat older. Indeed although made only three years after TMP the characters in TWOK feel a lot older than they do in TMP. They not only act distinctly older but look distinctly older as well. Part of this I think has to do with the lighting. There are a lot of shadows and darkened scenes in TWOK that makes it feel somewhat more moody than TMP. After all is said and done I think the cast's performances are the strongest element of this film. Good thing, too, because there are things in the script that I really don't care for.
TWOK is the beginning of the redefining of Kirk. It now seems that when many people talk about Kirk they seem to be describing the Kirk of the films TWOK-TUC more than than the Kirk of TOS-TMP. This is just my opinion in case that actually needs to be said.
A number of things really jump out at me with TWOK particularly so soon after rewatching TMP. The first thing is the heavy reuse of footage from TMP. That footage is really noticeable when you can see the difference between those reused shots and the new sequences filmed specifically for TWOK. The Enterprise doesn't really look like the same model given the lighting is different (brighter) and the ship's pearlescent finish has disappeared. The ship's finish now looks distinctly faltter in the new sequences. And a big no-no shows up when you see how poorly the port side of the ship's engineering hull is painted in a scene before the Reliant fires and damages the ship. Sloppy.
A big issue was made of TWOK costing a lot less than TMP to make and it really shows. Not only are a lot of the new visuals not as polished (but generally not really bad), but the heavy redressing of TMP set pieces is really obvious. When you start looking the film looks rather slapped together production wise. This in itself could be excused, but what I think of as "cheap think" extends beyond that.
Gene Roddenberry and in extension Robert Wise envisioned Star Trek as something distinctly far future looking albeit with familiar elements. In terms of aesthetics it was a sleek and streamlined future design wise. But Nicholas Meyer throws most all of that away to shows us a Trek that looks more like tomorrow rather than far future. TOS gave us compact and sleek looking communicators as well as casual like everyday service wear. TMP tweaked that look for the nig screen while keeping the essential thinking behind it. Meyer ditches that to give us stiff Buckingham Palace outfits, bulky and clunky looking communicators and tech and graphics that looked dated even in the '80s. To these eyes the whole thing looks wrong, wrong, wrong. So much of the sets and set decor look like someone was rumaging through a junkyard rather than a far future setting.
Meyer didn't stop there. Whereas Roddenberry and Wise gave Starfleet a somewhat military flavour in its operation and behaviour of personnel we now get Meyer dialing the nautical flavouring heavily into the 19th century. He really lays it on thick throughout the film. It becomes clear Meyer and Bennet wanted to make a 19th century nautical flick that just happened to be have some Trek familiarity to it. Again it's wrong, wrong, wrong.
The music in TWOK of Khan is generally good, but that said the main theme--while pleasant enough in itself--is not Star Trek. Again, it leans heavily on trying to convey an ancient nautical feel rather than one of science fiction adventure. The only part that worked was the familiar Star Trek fanfare at the beginning.
One BIG inconsistency that screamed at me even in 1982 was the casting of Khan's followers. Seriously, WTF? Whereas "Space Seed" made a point of depicting genetic supermnen (and women) of different races TWOK casts everyone as looking like California surfer dudes and bunnies who also look far too young. And none of them looked remotely imposing.
In the beginning of the film there is also a glaring element that has always screamed out to me. TWOK is in many ways a sort of reboot/restart after TMP. TWOK starts with Kirk in essentially the exact same position he was in at the beginning of TMP. It's like saying putting Kirk out of the loop is still a good place to start, but we're going to redo everything after that...except reuse as much of the previous film's footage as possible.
If you don't really look at TWOK you can get carried along by the acceptable performances and decently paced action. But when you do start to really look throughout the film a lot of cheap and arbitrary thinking becames apparent. The story has a lot of logic flaws that seem even more obvious when you also start noticing all the production shortcuts.
In the end I find the cast's performances and number of decent character moments aren't quite enough to sell me on TWOK. Meyer changed and shortchanged too much to make his nautical flick. And Meyer's touch also makes TWOK not feel like it's of the same universe as TMP (another indirect rejection of TMP) or even of TOS.
With TMP you have to squint a bit to accept it as the same universe as TOS. With TWOK and the rest of the films you have to close your eyes tight and cover your ears so only muffled sounds can be heard. Maybe that way you can feel it's of the same universe as the soriginal eries and first film that came before.
Firstly I will say that I am of two minds regarding this film. Whereas my appreciation of TMP has gone up over the years with each successive viewing my opinion of TWOK has wavered over the years. I never disliked TMP when I first saw it at the age of 20, but myappreciation of it improved with the passage of years and growing maturity and perspective. In 1982 at the age of 23 I rather liked TWOK overall , but things I didn't care for in the film loomed ever larger with each successive viewing.
First the good stuff. TWOK is nicely paced and it has a number of decent character moments and the performances are generally good. This is the TOS crew feeling more like what we might expect albeit played somewhat older. Indeed although made only three years after TMP the characters in TWOK feel a lot older than they do in TMP. They not only act distinctly older but look distinctly older as well. Part of this I think has to do with the lighting. There are a lot of shadows and darkened scenes in TWOK that makes it feel somewhat more moody than TMP. After all is said and done I think the cast's performances are the strongest element of this film. Good thing, too, because there are things in the script that I really don't care for.
TWOK is the beginning of the redefining of Kirk. It now seems that when many people talk about Kirk they seem to be describing the Kirk of the films TWOK-TUC more than than the Kirk of TOS-TMP. This is just my opinion in case that actually needs to be said.
A number of things really jump out at me with TWOK particularly so soon after rewatching TMP. The first thing is the heavy reuse of footage from TMP. That footage is really noticeable when you can see the difference between those reused shots and the new sequences filmed specifically for TWOK. The Enterprise doesn't really look like the same model given the lighting is different (brighter) and the ship's pearlescent finish has disappeared. The ship's finish now looks distinctly faltter in the new sequences. And a big no-no shows up when you see how poorly the port side of the ship's engineering hull is painted in a scene before the Reliant fires and damages the ship. Sloppy.
A big issue was made of TWOK costing a lot less than TMP to make and it really shows. Not only are a lot of the new visuals not as polished (but generally not really bad), but the heavy redressing of TMP set pieces is really obvious. When you start looking the film looks rather slapped together production wise. This in itself could be excused, but what I think of as "cheap think" extends beyond that.
Gene Roddenberry and in extension Robert Wise envisioned Star Trek as something distinctly far future looking albeit with familiar elements. In terms of aesthetics it was a sleek and streamlined future design wise. But Nicholas Meyer throws most all of that away to shows us a Trek that looks more like tomorrow rather than far future. TOS gave us compact and sleek looking communicators as well as casual like everyday service wear. TMP tweaked that look for the nig screen while keeping the essential thinking behind it. Meyer ditches that to give us stiff Buckingham Palace outfits, bulky and clunky looking communicators and tech and graphics that looked dated even in the '80s. To these eyes the whole thing looks wrong, wrong, wrong. So much of the sets and set decor look like someone was rumaging through a junkyard rather than a far future setting.
Meyer didn't stop there. Whereas Roddenberry and Wise gave Starfleet a somewhat military flavour in its operation and behaviour of personnel we now get Meyer dialing the nautical flavouring heavily into the 19th century. He really lays it on thick throughout the film. It becomes clear Meyer and Bennet wanted to make a 19th century nautical flick that just happened to be have some Trek familiarity to it. Again it's wrong, wrong, wrong.
The music in TWOK of Khan is generally good, but that said the main theme--while pleasant enough in itself--is not Star Trek. Again, it leans heavily on trying to convey an ancient nautical feel rather than one of science fiction adventure. The only part that worked was the familiar Star Trek fanfare at the beginning.
One BIG inconsistency that screamed at me even in 1982 was the casting of Khan's followers. Seriously, WTF? Whereas "Space Seed" made a point of depicting genetic supermnen (and women) of different races TWOK casts everyone as looking like California surfer dudes and bunnies who also look far too young. And none of them looked remotely imposing.
In the beginning of the film there is also a glaring element that has always screamed out to me. TWOK is in many ways a sort of reboot/restart after TMP. TWOK starts with Kirk in essentially the exact same position he was in at the beginning of TMP. It's like saying putting Kirk out of the loop is still a good place to start, but we're going to redo everything after that...except reuse as much of the previous film's footage as possible.
If you don't really look at TWOK you can get carried along by the acceptable performances and decently paced action. But when you do start to really look throughout the film a lot of cheap and arbitrary thinking becames apparent. The story has a lot of logic flaws that seem even more obvious when you also start noticing all the production shortcuts.
In the end I find the cast's performances and number of decent character moments aren't quite enough to sell me on TWOK. Meyer changed and shortchanged too much to make his nautical flick. And Meyer's touch also makes TWOK not feel like it's of the same universe as TMP (another indirect rejection of TMP) or even of TOS.
With TMP you have to squint a bit to accept it as the same universe as TOS. With TWOK and the rest of the films you have to close your eyes tight and cover your ears so only muffled sounds can be heard. Maybe that way you can feel it's of the same universe as the soriginal eries and first film that came before.
