Star Trek The Motion Picture: If You Could Remake It

[arch101]

Okay- I've given this a little thought. I really like the DE version of this film, and the movie's been a fav of mine since it came out. That said- if made today, it would have to be a little different. A few tinkers:
-The Mystery Cloud would be shown causing more widespread havoc against more ships/planets in order to up the sense of danger. This could be used to explain why there are don't seem to be very many ships available to confront it.
-Decker wouldn't be as 'green'. In addition to commanding a scout for a couple of years, the Enterprise crew would have served under him for a year in the field after Kirk was promoted. Now, after the huge refit, he would remain their Captain but Kirk would command the mission as senior officer (given the dire importance of the job at hand). This makes it a bigger deal when Kirk has to override Decker's authority at the first contact with V'Ger and causes the crew do have to divide loyalties.
-Scotty has a mentoring relationship with Decker, whom he thought would be his CO for the long haul. With old friend Kirk back aboard and depending on him, poor Scotty is split on who he should support.
-Instead of being a member of the refit crew, Ilia would be Decker's wife who's ship was lost in the outer regions several years before. (these kind of coincidences happen all the time in SF). It would make Decker's efforts to reach her and his intimate sacrifice mean more. Imagine Decker arguing to mine the Ilia probe for information against a skeptical Kirk.
-Dr Chapel would try to rekindle her relationship with Spock. This would serve as one more thing working to soften Spock's already dissolving stance that the path of pure logic was incorrect.
-There would be some kind of acknowledgment of the connection between Matt and Will Decker.
-Decker tells Kirk he should take his place on the Enterprise just before he transcends. This should be Kirk's big motivator to stay at the end, not just that "he won".
-I'd find more for the rest of the ensemble cast, something the TOS movies were terrible at. Sulu would be Decker's XO. I would have another Science Officer who has to step aside when Spock returns in that post. maybe that's still Xon, who spends the remainder of the film working for Spock. Maybe Uhura finds the crucial communications breakthrough about how to communicate with V'Ger and the radio transmission near the end of the film. Perhaps Chekov has been working as Admiral Kirk's Adjutant at Starlet Command and is his right hand guy.
Geez, in 20 years I might rewrite the novel version of TMP with all this stuff!

 

[pfontaine2]

Arch101, these are all excellent suggestions! I'm not keen on all of them but it would certainly make an awesome alternate version of the film.

 

[Warped9]

There were a number of things that went south for TMP during its development and production. But if I had to cite one overriding problem that exacerbated the rest it was not having a finished script before being greenlighted for production.

A finished script might also have solved some of the story problems rather than trying to fix things and plug holes on-the-fly.

There is an odd parallel to TMP with how Star Trek got started. "The Cage" was a very nice execution of GR's idea for a series, but it was lacking in dynamic in execution and in some of the characters. The story itself could have worked once the series was going and the audience had already bought into the setting and characters, but as a starting point it's lacking. WNMHGB was a much more dynamic production in every way and it wasn't any less cerebral than "The Cage."

The essentials of TMP are fine, but after a long absence Star Trek needed to do a film equivalent of WNMHGB rather than "The Cage." They needed that dynamic and energy people associated with TOS. If they had managed to inject that into TMP it would generally be remembered differently.

I also think they went too far (in some respects) in distancing themselves from the look of TOS. The uniforms in particular, but there were other aspects as well.

 

[Lance]

I like TMP and I don't offer these suggestions out of some need to 'fix' it, but simply in the spirit of good natured discussion.

Maybe I'd have made it less a 'new start' and more a coda/finale for TOS. Instead of having the intercept of V'Ger being the first mission of a refitted Enterprise, I'd have had NCC-1701 and her crew encountering the probe en route back to Earth at the end of their five year mission.

I'd definitely have tried to have a ship battle there as well. Some concepts of the movie have the Klingons being captured (rather than ionised) at the beginning, only to emerge at the end in Earth's orbit and in a foul mood. Maybe I'd add the Klingons as another element inside V'Ger. The Enterprise discovers they aren't the only ship wandering around inside this thing, the enemies engage each other in battle, but quickly realize they have a better chance of survival and escape if they co-operate and try to work a way out mutually. The Klingons may or may not still be treacherous enough to double-cross.

 

[Firebird]

I don't think action and pew-pew-boom-boom battles is what the movie needed. It needed more character beats and stronger, well-defined arcs for Kirk and Decker. Oddly enough, the novelization adds a lot of this to the story, even making the crew more active, instead of just sitting at their stations and staring at V'ger the whole time. Add more of that, cut down the filler visuals, and the movie would have been more engaging for audiences.

 

[Lance]

I'm not suggesting the pew-pew-boom-boom () is a be all end all solution, but it'd definitely have added some spark and tension.

 

[Nyotarules]

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