Star Trek TMP: First Viewing Opinion and Queries

[Tallguy]

He looks at them and immediately concludes that Kirk isn't fit for duty.

That's not what happens.

“These anagram conversions on the captain mean what?” asked McCoy. “Do you see them as stress indications?”

McCoy then reflects on Kirk being kicked upstairs to be Admiral and how McCoy resigned from Starfleet over it.

Chapel then notes

“ . . . and in his case,” Chapel continued, “starship command fitted his psychological needs so perfectly that deprivation of it produced physical and emotional symptoms remarkably like those associated with narcotic withdrawal.”

And that's as far as it goes.

Also McCoy notes that at that point he only had fifteen hours of data on Kirk onboard the Enterprise.

 

[Therin of Andor]

So, McCoy sat on a reading that would have removed Kirk from command until he saw a reading he liked?

Sounds like the thoughts of an old, country doctor who still trusts a set of healthy tonsils over computers.

 

[Riley]

I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the film. TMP is the most TOS and most Star Trek of all the Trek films. People who consider it "boring" or criticize the characters for "not being themselves" miss the point of the film entirely. The ultimate message of the film is about self-discovery and learning that you are incomplete until you figure out where you belong. It's brilliant that Kirk, Spock, McCoy to an extent, Decker, and Illia are all in the same place in their lives, just as V'Ger is. The movie truly is what the best Trek is about: exploring the final frontier of the human adventure. Though Earth is in danger, V'Ger isn't a villain and teaches our heroes about themselves in the course of learning about itself. TMP remains my favorite TOS film and one of my top films in any genre.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the film. TMP is the most TOS and most Star Trek of all the Trek films. People who consider it "boring" or criticize the characters for "not being themselves" miss the point of the film entirely. The ultimate message of the film is about self-discovery and learning that you are incomplete until you figure out where you belong. It's brilliant that Kirk, Spock, McCoy to an extent, Decker, and Illia are all in the same place in their lives, just as V'Ger is. The movie truly is what the best Trek is about: exploring the final frontier of the human adventure. Though Earth is in danger, V'Ger isn't a villain and teaches our heroes about themselves in the course of learning about itself. TMP remains my favorite TOS film and one of my top films in any genre.

For sure.

 

[Therin of Andor]

TMP remains my favorite TOS film and one of my top films in any genre.

Totally agree. Love TMP -- and I actually had the same immersive feeling watching the first Kelvinverse movie in 2009. Lots of people disagreed with me, but I sat next to a friend who had also become a Trek fan with TMP -- and she had the same experience in 2009. Not sure why these films worked so well for us, but WOW.


Star Trek commemorative coin, 2009 by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Tallguy]

Totally agree. Love TMP -- and I actually had the same immersive feeling watching the first Kelvinverse movie in 2009. Lots of people disagreed with me, but I sat next to a friend who had also become a Trek fan with TMP -- and she had the same experience in 2009. Not sure why these films worked so well for us, but WOW.


Star Trek commemorative coin, 2009 by Ian McLean, on Flickr

I can't argue with what you feel. I can tell you what I feel.

TMP always felt like the world was thought out and planned to a ridiculous degree. Because it was. Partly owing to being based on not one but two TV shows. I know it's far from bulletproof. But TMP was definitely "overdesigned". Perhaps (some would say) to the detriment of the film. (I wouldn't say that. TMP is a part of Star Trek where I want to climb inside and pull the door shut after me.)

JJ Trek doesn't feel like that (to me) because it wasn't. Aggressively wasn't. JJ himself railed against such an instinct. Which is why you get such evocative concepts as "red matter" and "a black hole that was going to destroy the galaxy but just got Romulus." Anything more than that is "technobabble" to him.

What 2009 does have is a narrative and character structure that grabs you by the nostrils and doesn't let you go. I always wish that JJ could find some collaborator that could cancel out his worst instincts. His sense of character and casting is nearly unmatched.