TMP poll

[J.T.B.]

After thirty years, Star Trek: The Motion Picture seems to be one of the more divisive ST movies, but IMO is not as reviled as it was in the '80s and '90s. I have been wondering how much bearing the big-screen cinematic experience and "The Director's Edition" have on whether people like the movie. Please add whatever comments you'd like.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[Harvey]

I first saw it on video--the special longer version. The Director's Edition is a vast improvement on that version in almost every way (editing can only fix so many problems). I give The Director's Edition a thumbs up, although I don't rank it as highly as some other Trek films.

 

[cbspock]

I first saw it in the movie theatre in 1979. Although I do like the director's edition as well. I think that version tightened the film up a bit.



-Chris

 

[Kegg]

I first saw the theatrical cut on video. I honestly only dimly remember the experience - it was the mid-nineties and I was renting a lot of Star Trek on VHS, typically the movies as I couldn't get those on TV. And there were like, eight of them. This was the one with the weird suits and I remembered most, for some reason, the asteroid/wormhole bit and the light show that kills Ilia.

As far as reviling goes, I pretty much saw that get overturned on this board. There were a handful of TMP fans were sort of assailing the notion it was terrible back at the turn of the millennia... and I really wasn't one of them. I hadn't been at all impressed with the film on that single VHS viewing, though I have warmed to it since getting the DVD way back when (almost nine years now, egad). I have also gone back to see the original cut again and I do understand the problems people have with the director's cut, though I mostly prefer that one (there is really not a big preference either way, though.)

 

[Nerys Myk]

I saw it first in the theatre and give it a thumbs sideways. Not great but not horrible.

 

[Cicero]

I first saw it in the theater, in early 1993 (I was 8), and strongly dislike it. I had already seen the other five of the first six films before I saw it.

 

[Geckothan]

I hadn't seen it until I got the Director's Edition on DVD and I give it a big thumbs up. Proper Trek

 

[Balok's Head]

The Motion Picture, I think, is one of the earliest Star Trek memories that I have.

I remember being in a book store shortly before Christmas one year with my family. I was probably about five or six; I pointed at a Star Trek video (as I was already a mass fan) and said that I wanted it.

That Christmas my Grandmother bought me The Motion Picture. I don't remember if it was the same video that I pointed at a few months before but I still clearly remember watching it in her living room on Christmas day and telling everyone to please be quiet while I watched V'Ger destroy the Klingon armada.

I still have that very same video. I'll never sell it or get rid of it. It sounds silly, but it's a very important part of my childhood.

I've loved it ever since. There is a connection I have with that movie, and that video, that I don't have with anything else.

It's great Star Trek.

 

[bbailey861]

There needs to be another choice in the poll. "I first saw TMP in a theatre and gave it a "meh".

 

[J.T.B.]

As far as reviling goes, I pretty much saw that get overturned on this board. There were a handful of TMP fans were sort of assailing the notion it was terrible back at the turn of the millennia... and I really wasn't one of them.

I was only a kid and I could be way off, but here is my impression at the time: TMP was fairly well regarded for a couple of years by fans; maybe it wasn't a home run, but it was OK and it was good to have some kind of Trek again. Then TWOK came out raised the action level, and everybody seemed to like that. Then, within a year of TWOK, TMP was shown on TV as the ABC Sunday night movie. It seems like it lasted four hours, with all the extra footage, and being broken up by commercials made the pacing really draaaaag. I think the comparison, with TWOK fresh in everybody's mind, really cemented the idea that TMP was crap and had been a false step in Trek history. And that was pretty much the conventional wisdom among fans for a long time. I remember being at a convention in the late '80s and asking some vendor if he had any "technical manual" type books that covered the TMP period and he said something like, "No, thank God!" It wasn't till usenet in the mid-'90s that I started to see a few people start to defend the movie, and began to speak up for it myself.

I remember being in a book store shortly before Christmas one year with my family. I was probably about five or six; I pointed at a Star Trek video (as I was already a mass fan) and said that I wanted it.

That reminds me of the first TMP-related book I ever saw, also before I had seen the movie in '79. It was sticker book that had all the various logos that had been designed for the doors, consoles &c. aboard Enterprise. I believe my mom strongly discouraged me getting the book, no doubt picturing Starfleet stickers plastered all over the house, and I never got a copy, but I remember looking at that book many times in the bookstore, young sci-fi nut that I was, and being impressed that they had gone to such lengths in designing a fictional spaceship.

--Justin

 

[RookieBatman]

I first saw it on video (I think I checked it out of the library, not sure whether it was the SLV), and didn't like it at the time, so in the interest of accuracy I checked "I first saw TMP on video, other than "The Director's Edition," and give it "thumbs down." "
That being said, I'm a much more die-hard Trekkie now, with a longer attention span, and I'm planning to watch TMP again, and I expect that I'll enjoy it a lot more the second time around, since I'm not just a hyper kid expecting kewl action and space battles. What I've realized since the first time I saw it is that what I, personally, appreciate about Star Trek is the characters, and from what I've read here, it seems that their exploration in TMP went fairly deep. And I'm very excited about the spacedock flyby (CGI version or not), on my large TV.
So yeah, I think the second time around is gonna be different.

 

[AstroMike]

I liked seeing it in the Theater when it first came out and enjoyed it. I would give the nod to the Director's Edition as my favorite though.

 

[ncc-1017-e]

I hadn't seen it until I got the Director's Edition on DVD and I give it a big thumbs up. Proper Trek

i love the directors edition, but man you have to see tmp in a movie theater some day.

 

[ncc-1017-e]

i like all versions of tmp. the abc version the theatrical release and the directors cut all have theirs good points and bad ones. i do hate the officers lounge windows in the directors cut. the warp engines look like a freeze frame.

 

[Chrisisall]

There needs to be another choice in the poll. "I first saw TMP in a theatre and gave it a "meh".

How about: "I first saw TMP in a theatre and downed a pint of cordrazine because it wasn't Star Wars."

 

[Myasishchev]

I forget if I ever liked it as a kid when I first saw it. I like it a fair amount now, though.

 

[Chrisisall]

I forget if I ever liked it as a kid when I first saw it. I like it a fair amount now, though.

FORGET???
FORGET?
What are you, like 30???

Child, you waste my time.

 

[bbailey861]

^

 

[Valin]

I first saw it in a theater and gave it thumbs up. I saw it six times theatrically (the only one Trek film that I saw that many times in a theater was the new movie).

I still think that TMP's Enterprise(both inside and out) was the most realistic depiction of a futuristic spaceship in movie history.

 

[arch101]

I still predict that, in 50 years, TMP will be the only Trek film on the same shelf with 2001, Ben Hur, On The Waterfront, Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, Etc. It is an epic classic with incredibly big ideas and scope. (and one of the best scores ever). I saw it first-run and still enjoy the Directors Cut today.