News Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Cut is being restored in 4K, launching first on Paramount+

[J.T.B.]

As far as I am concerned TMP was much better off without the reveal of V'ger as done in the DE. It was more effective for the audience to get glimpses but never know quite how it all fit together. Like it was just too big to comprehend. It made this entity seem more threatening and unknowable, as a vastly powerful but completely alien intelligence should be. The revealed model, as weird and alien as you try to make it, is still going to look like a model.

 

[drt]

They could actually pretend that everything was Wise's idea and we would be none the wiser.

My understanding is this is what largely happened the first time, unless in the intervening 20 years Wise became a Trek fanboy that needed his film to fit into the holy canon better.

As far as I am concerned TMP was much better off without the reveal of V'ger as done in the DE. It was more effective for the audience to get glimpses but never know quite how it all fit together. Like it was just too big to comprehend. It made this entity seem more threatening and unknowable, as a vastly powerful but completely alien intelligence should be. The revealed model, as weird and alien as you try to make it, is still going to look like a model.

I was actually thinking the same thing. I recall the first time I saw the DE it was like "Whelp, I guess that's what V'ger looks like, kinda underwhelming..." where previously it was just huge and mysterious.

 

[Grant]

No.

 

[cooleddie74]

I loved seeing the entire V'Ger ship approach Earth and drop into orbit over the planet. To be fair the scale of the vessel could be depicted a lot better in the DE effects but overall I was very satisfied with seeing the V'Ger ship in all her stem-to-stern beauty.

 

[Therin of Andor]

My understanding is this is what largely happened the first time, unless in the intervening 20 years Wise became a Trek fanboy that needed his film to fit into the holy canon better.

We do know that Wise responded to twenty years of critiques re the theatrical version (ie. work print) with the changes he made in his DE, after many years of him not being particularly fussed. I recall he was unimpressed with the SLV.

He was supposedly very keen to re-edit TMP in 1980 and Paramount decided not to do that, leading to that ongoing disinterest in TMP. But he did get very enthusiastic in his talks with the DE team and this is backed up by his words on the commentary accompanying the DVD DE.

I don't recall the DE team having a need to make the DE fit "holy canon", then or now?

I loved seeing the entire V'Ger ship approach Earth and drop into orbit over the planet. To be fair the scale of the vessel could be depicted a lot better in the DE effects but overall I was very satisfied with seeing the V'Ger ship in all her stem-to-stern beauty.

Indeed. And it utilised sketches that were not able to be realised for 1979.

Syd Mead's diagram in the Eaglemoss magazine accompanying their V'ger model:


Vejur diagram by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Jeyl]

Mystery can be good, but Star Trek: The Motion Picture isn't about having mystery for the sake of mystery. This isn't JJ Abrams Star Trek after all.

Take the original ALIEN for example. The mystery surrounding the Alien works because we know as much about the Alien as the crew does, which is squat. Not having the audience know anything about the alien (Prequel films not whistanding >.<) allows the audience to feel invested in the characters because we're on the same boat as them. Plus, knowing the origins of the alien wouldn't help matters because knowing who created them and why wouldn't really help in trying to defeat them.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture's handling of mystery is different because a lot of this movie's mystery is all about discovery. This movie tackles external discovery (V'Ger and it's origins) and the internal discovery (Spock coming to terms with himself). Both are mysterious yet figuring out both of them are essential to solving the problem.

Revealing the whole scope of the V'Ger vessel works in the film's favor because it occurs during a point where things are starting to reveal themselves. What the Director's Edition does well is how it doesn't allow the reveal of the V'Ger vessel to overshadow the important reveals later on.

 

[David cgc]

I don't recall the DE team having a need to make the DE fit "holy canon", then or now?

That's probably referring to the TOS bridge sound loop, the TOS shuttle easter-egg, and San Francisco not matching the production art. I suppose there's also the moonless Vulcan, too.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I suppose there's also the moonless Vulcan, too.

The planetoid in Vulcan's sky comes from Filmation's TAS. Vulcan itself still has no moon.


ShiKahr, Vulcan, TAS by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Maurice]

The planetoid in Vulcan's sky comes from Filmation's TAS. Vulcan itself still has no moon.


ShiKahr, Vulcan, TAS by Ian McLean, on Flickr

The planetoid in Mike Minor's concept, which was painted and scrapped?

Doug Trumbull felt Vulcan as originally depicted in the scrapped matte looked to Earthlike and he was concerned people would not think it was an alien planet. He wanted to weird it up to make sure it read as "alien" hence the multiple moons/planets in the the black sky and the redesigned matte looks nothing like an Earthly desert. Mind you, it's a terrible matte in the final theatrical film. The DE goes back to the earlier idea but it looks just like what Trumbull feared: a rather Earthly landscape.

 

[Jeyl]

Doug Trumbull felt Vulcan as originally depicted in the scrapped matte looked to Earthlike and he was concerned people would not think it was an alien planet. He wanted to weird it up to make sure it read as "alien" hence the multiple moons/planets in the the black sky and the redesigned matte looks nothing like an Earthly desert. Mind you, it's a terrible matte in the final theatrical film. The DE goes back to the earlier idea but it looks just like what Trumbull feared: a rather Earthly landscape.

Yeah. I remember all the criticisms the Director’s Edition received by fans and movie goers alike when they didn’t understand why Kirk simply didn’t fly 10 minutes from San Francisco to ask Spock to come back and join his crew.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

*characters start speaking an alien language*
Audience: "Wait, isn't this supposed to be earth???"

 

[Grant]

Yeah. I always wondered why those giant statues of warriors were using those distinctive Vulcan weapons.
"Wait! Why are those human figures using the "lirpa?"

 

[Jeyl]

*Spock kneeling on volcanic terrain with an all orange sky*
*Me, watching the scene in my home in North Carolina that’s surrounded by green mountains and blue skies*

This is amazing. I didn’t know they shot this movie in my backyard!

 

[Grant]

But they cut out the best part when Spock is kneeling on the ground shielding his eyes against the Sun and then we cut to a matte painting that shows that it's actually night time.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

But they cut out the best part when Spock is kneeling on the ground shielding his eyes against the Sun and then we cut to a matte painting that shows that it's actually night time.

Hey, pretty strong moonlight! Or moonslight.

 

[Maurice]

The Vulcan scenes were filmed English and the decision to dub it in Vulcan was made after they shot the Klingons late deep into post production.

They were hoping to get more than the Trekkie audience, so they wanted to make sure non-fans could follow what's happening—hell, I know non-Trekkies who can't tell the TOS Enterprise from the TNG one—hence Trumbull's concerns that a big desert with some mineral springs (shot in Yellowstone) might read as future Earth (especially with characters soaking in English). I'm not saying he was correct, and the resulting shot in the theatrical cut was a disaster, but he was right that Vulcan as "restored" in DE doesn't jump out as "alien" at first glance.

 

[drt]

Maybe they should have used a chyron, lol.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I'm not saying he was correct, and the resulting shot in the theatrical cut was a disaster, but he was right that Vulcan as "restored" in DE doesn't jump out as "alien" at first glance.

It may not look as alien, but it doesn’t look like garbage as his effort was. I’m glad to get rid of it in a 4K restoration of the DE.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Maybe they should have used a chyron, lol.

Man, the chyron in the DE is stupid. It doesn't convey any information that isn't already seen on screen. The stardate is meaningless to a general audience, even to a Trekkie one.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I pretty much feel that was about ALL films giving a stardate a subtitle. It's a little too "cute".