The Motion Picture and Amazon

[Armus]

I can't get past my DE pet peeves. I don't care about the new effects, I didn't like some of the editing choices made to cut footage from the original theatrical version. I grew up watching the special longer version on VHS so I appreciated the inclusion of some that footage in the DE.

The DE messes up a sweet moment between Illia and Decker. In the special longer version Decker smiles at Ilia when she confirms his computations. In the DE the editers placed that smile during the Enterprise's first voyage out of the Earth's solar system. It feels out of place.

The editors of The DE cut edited Spock's thruster suit coundown, which reduced the power of that scene in my view.

They cut Kirk's second "screen off" after the crew witnessed the destruction of the space station. Again a powerful moment was arbitrarily diminished to cut running length.

Then there are the changes to the soundmix, a new computer voice(arbitrary) and vintage TOS bridge sounds(unnecessary). Two thumbs down from this TMP fan.

 

[Christopher]

Then there are the changes to the soundmix, a new computer voice(arbitrary) and vintage TOS bridge sounds(unnecessary).

I like those changes. As much as I like TMP, it's always bugged me that there's almost no commonality between TOS and TMP tech designs, that every last bit of equipment and tech has been simultaneously replaced. So I appreciate anything that establishes more continuity between the two, and the legacy sound effects help do that. And I definitely prefer the change in the computer voice. The original voice was too harsh, and it seemed odd that the computer in TMP would have a male voice when it's traditionally been female everywhere else in Trek.

Besides, the original sound mix in the theatrical version was an unfinished temp mix, and it had some deficiencies, like having too sterile an ambiance in a lot of the shipboard scenes, and having the sound effects in the sequence of V'Ger's plasma bolt attack be too poorly synchronized with the action, with the sound of the last bolt continuing for some time after it disappeared. The new audio mix adds more intensity to the action, and that was actually a factor in getting the film upgraded from a G to a PG rating.

 

[Indysolo]

The DE messes up a sweet moment between Illia and Decker. In the special longer version Decker smiles at Ilia when she confirms his computations. In the DE the editers placed that smile during the Enterprise's first voyage out of the Earth's solar system. It feels out of place.

This is one of my favorite changes. It replaces a shot of lights going off on the astrogator, which was clearly a place holder. Now we get an emotional connection between two people during a moment that is joyous. It's a little change that makes a big impact.

Neil

 

[David cgc]

Here's a site that covers the differences scene by scene:

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=2400

I've been having a (very slow) go at reconstructing the DE using what's available on the theatrical edition blu-ray. Excitingly, along with a lot of one- or two-frame trims for pacing that I remembered being mentioned in interviews when the DE was released, the Klingon and Vulcan scenes each have a few shots that go a frame or two longer than the theatrical version. And the DE and Blu-Ray are built from different masters so the cropping of the frame is slightly different. I haven't decided how I'm going to end up dealing with that, yet. Trim down the audio, double-up frames, Photoshop the missing frames from the closest one available in HD...

 

[BillJ]

1983 Special Longer Version (144 minutes)

Really wish I could get this on disc, in its 4:3 presentation. Have thought about buying a LaserDisc player for it. But it would be silly for one movie.

 

[Relayer1]

You'd think they'd release a branching version so that you could select any of the three.

Alternatively, I'd like a 'complete' version with everything in.

 

[Maurice]

[...]Alternatively, I'd like a 'complete' version with everything in.

Well, as they say, "you can't have everything."

 

[Therin of Andor]

So there's 3 versions of the film, right? Original, Extended and Director's Cut?

Over at the ST: TMP "Appreciation Society" Facebook group, we have established there was also a version prepared for screenings on airplane flights during 1980 (the then-Paramount publicist, Eddie Egan, thought it had the transporter accident trimmed out and the V'ger flyover shortened somewhat), and - for a special Los Angeles "Sit Long and Prosper" Marathon in the 80s - there existed one set of film reels of the "Special Longer Version", the same as the ABC-TV and VHS versions but which omitted the unfinished matte painting/studio rafters/wrong spacesuit Kirk sequence. That version was withdrawn from distribution because it had not been properly approved for general cinema audiences.

There was also a set of three Super 8 reels that told the movie's story in greatly abbreviated form.

They cut Kirk's second "screen off" after the crew witnessed the destruction of the space station. Again a powerful moment was arbitrarily diminished to cut running length.

No, Wise had heard that some people had interpreted this scene as anger from a white male captain admonishing a professional black woman for not doing her job fast enough. (That was never my interpretation in 1979, but you can see how viewers perceive the scene differently in different decades.) It wasn't cut for time, it was cut because Kirk seemingly repeated several orders during the movie and this was the best to trim.

Keep in mind that if Wise had been able to tinker between previews and premiere, most of us would never had seen what was changed, and we would be none the... Wiser.

 

[drt]

Also, I think the running time given for the theatrical cut is for the home video release of same which omits the "Ilia's Theme" overture at the start of the film (TMP was one of the last films to have an overture played before the film to give the audience time to be seated, in place of the ads and trailers we have today), while the DE includes the overture. That's a bit over 3 minutes, so really the TE and DE are almost identical in length.

The newish bluray of the TE has the overture - the original black screen version, not the starfield version of the DE.

 

[Indysolo]

and - for a special Los Angeles "Sit Long and Prosper" Marathon in the 80s - there existed one set of film reels of the "Special Longer Version", the same as the ABC-TV and VHS versions but which omitted the unfinished matte painting/studio rafters/wrong spacesuit Kirk sequence. That version was withdrawn from distribution because it had not been properly approved for general cinema audiences.

That's nonsense about it being withdrawn, that print played at The New Beverly in 2017. It had full color, as opposed to the print run in 2015 at the Egyptian, which was reportedly faded and terrible. I wasn't at The Egyptian showing (which some called "the grindhouse version" of TMP, because the print was so tattered) but I went to The New Beverly. The extra scenes were physically spliced into the print and the sound would always go to mono for them, while the common theatrical footage was in stereo.

I don't consider this print a real version of the movie, just a one off. Airline versions don't count either. It's not like we're including every edit ever done to it for various television broadcasts either. The three available cuts of the movie are the 1979, the 1983 and the 2001.

Neil

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's nonsense about it being withdrawn, that print played at The New Beverly in 2017. It had full color, as opposed to the print run in 2015 at the Egyptian, which was reportedly faded and terrible.

And that is when Eddie Egan advised it needed to be withdrawn. Check with Paramount. It is now no longer in the catalogue.

 

[Indysolo]

And that is when Eddie Egan advised it needed to be withdrawn. Check with Paramount. It is now no longer in the catalogue.

You must be thinking of someone else. Egan isn't at Paramount. Where did you get this info?

Neil

 

[Therin of Andor]

You must be thinking of someone else. Egan isn't at Paramount. Where did you get this info?

Eddie Egan was Publicist, as you know, for TMP through to ST IV. He is no longer at Paramount, correct, but he is a member of our TMP Facebook group and still in contact with Paramount colleagues. We saw the saga of the offending reels play out on our page.

 

[Maurice]

You must be thinking of someone else. Egan isn't at Paramount. Where did you get this info?

Neil

Egan claimed this on the TMP appreciation page on Facebook. Mind you, he also claimed TMP didn't cost anywhere near as much as claimed and suggested it actually cost south of $20mil.

 

[Indysolo]

That would be a pity if it was withdrawn. I wonder if Paramount has any 35mm prints to show anymore.

 

[Maurice]

Speaking of the TMP alarms and alerts, I have a bunch of the sound effects from the film an in one of them there are a while series of alarms, including ones we didn't hear in TMP originally but were used in the DE and TWOK, etc.

I've said this before, but in the book Return to Tomorrow there's a quote that says they went with a mix that deliberately spare on sound effects and no mention of no time to do a proper mix. Make of that what you will, but it was typical of that when each reels was locked the sound mix for that reel was completed, so unless they FX issues delayed all of the reels from being completed til very late at least some of them should have had a full mix.

 

[Therin of Andor]

That would be a pity if it was withdrawn.

The only version that was officially withdrawn was a copy of the Special Longer Version that was deliberately lacking the Kirk wrong-spacesuit scene. Because it wasn't ever supposed to be an official version of the movie.

We also heard about a very red-skewed version of the theatrical that drew complaints when last screened.

 

[Indysolo]

We also heard about a very red-skewed version of the theatrical that drew complaints when last screened.

That's The Egyptian screening from 2015. By all accounts that prints was dreadful.

Neil

 

[mb22]

TMP was one of the last films to have an overture played before the film to give the audience time to be seated, in place of the ads and trailers we have today.

When I saw the film at a local (Brooklyn NY) theater about two weeks after the premier, I recall seeing trailers for Electric Horseman, 1941, and an advert for Busch Gardens. I have no memory of the overture. It would seem that Paramount made different prints available to theaters.

 

[Christopher]

Well, maybe they did both trailers and the overture.

Of course, trailers originally came after the film, which is why they're called that.