What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[fireproof78]

It was a way to introduce the audience to the new Enterprise.

And that is a way.

It was a way that did not land for me.

 

[1001001]

And that is a way.

It was a way that did not land for me.

I fell asleep during that scene, and when I woke up it was still going.

 

[Finn]

I probably would have if my folks took me to see it.

 

[Citiprime]

So we just tool around until launch and grin like idiots?

It lands oddly.

The context for this is also important. This movie is coming out a decade after TOS went off the air. So we look at this with a flippant “oh yeah, that’s the refitted Enterprise.”

But for audiences and fans of the time, this is the first glance of a completely different Enterprise that went beyond the very limited visual effects of 1960s television. And I can understand Robert Wise wanting to establish that this is the ship as it exists now, the world it inhabits, and how it’s different from what people knew.

I know i’ve seen reviews where it’s been discussed that Wise was channeling 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Enterprise flyby sequence is no more gratuitous than the “Blue Danube” flight from that movie.

 

[cooleddie74]

Wise was correct. This was a movie designed to show off what Star Trek could do in 1979 as opposed to 1969 and his creative choices with introducing the refitted Enterprise were all pretty much on the money. What would be considered mind-blowing and groundbreaking in any other science ficition film gets labeled as plodding and boring in this one. To each their own, but for five-year-old me in December of 1979 this was mind-melting.

 

[Tallguy]

Controversial opinion time – TMP's much-maligned "flying round the Enterprise" sequence isn't gratuitous at all, it's magnificent, and perfectly shows off the Enterprise's amazing glow-up.

Just true.

And I think the contrast of it inside V'Ger is something which makes this scene even more impactful later in the movie. We spend 4 minutes flying around the Enterprise as this enormous, wonderous machine, but there's a really memorable shot of the Enterprise inside V'Ger where it looks like a bug traversing a void in contrast, and really sells how odd and weird V'Ger is.

This. All this.

And if it didn’t take 20 minutes.

It's 4 1/2 minutes.

the Enterprise fly-by is maligned?

Lots.

It's a weird shift in pacing

Because the film had been break neck pacing until now? How long did we look at the big Klingon ships, or Epsilon 9, or the office complex?

takes forever during a supposed crisis

Rather than travel to the docking port Scott flies to the bow of the ship and then back. So an extra ship length and a half.

and gives conflicting information

Conflicting what?

It was a way to introduce the audience to the new Enterprise.

Yes. Not Trekkies who had been "waiting so long", but the audience. We need to know two things: That Kirk is willing to do anything for this ship and we need to know that no matter how massive it is it is a speck next to the Intruder. This scene does both.

I know i’ve seen reviews where it’s been discussed that Wise was channeling 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Enterprise flyby sequence is no more gratuitous than the “Blue Danube” flight from that movie.

If Wise wasn't, Trumbull was. But look at The Andromeda Strain or The Sound of Music. The man doesn't do "roller coaster".

I fell asleep during that scene, and when I woke up it was still going.

That must have been a very brief nap. I think I've been replying to this post for longer.

Wise was correct. This was a movie designed to show off what Star Trek could do in 1979 as opposed to 1969 and his creative choices with introducing the refitted Enterprise were all pretty much on the money.

Yup.

You can be cynical and say "They're showing off how expensive it was." But part of cinematic sci-fi is spectacle. No matter how cheap or expensive it's meant to be transporting.

And this scene does that in spades. Then sprinkle a dollop of Goldsmith. And by dollop I mean pour a healthy bucketful on top.

 

[fireproof78]

Because the film had been break neck pacing until now? How long did we look at the big Klingon ships, or Epsilon 9, or the office complex?

And then Kirk is urgent. So, yes, weird pace change.

Rather than travel to the docking port Scott flies to the bow of the ship and then back. So an extra ship length and a half

So...not urgent.

Conflicting what?

It's no longer urgent.

The context for this is also important. This movie is coming out a decade after TOS went off the air. So we look at this with a flippant “oh yeah, that’s the refitted Enterprise.”

But for audiences and fans of the time, this is the first glance of a completely different Enterprise that went beyond the very limited visual effects of 1960s television. And I can understand Robert Wise wanting to establish that this is the ship as it exists now, the world it inhabits, and how it’s different from what people knew.

I know i’ve seen reviews where it’s been discussed that Wise was channeling 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Enterprise flyby sequence is no more gratuitous than the “Blue Danube” flight from that movie.

It doesn't fit the emergency that is supposedly happening.

Context in the film is important too.

 

[BillJ]

It doesn't fit the emergency that is supposedly happening.

Context in the film is important too.

As others have pointed out, it took five minutes.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I guess, for some Ship/Space/Battle Porn matters.

For others, they want to get to the Story/Talking bits.

You're never going to satisfy everybody.

 

[Citiprime]

It doesn't fit the emergency that is supposedly happening.

Context in the film is important too.

Except, the Enterprise is in no shape to launch when Kirk does the flyby and comes aboard. So there's no reason to be in a hurry.

It's still loading equipment (i.e., we see the shuttle bay is still loading cargo when Kirk's shuttlepod docks and comes aboard), the transporters don't work, and the warp drive is messed up and not fixed until Spock comes aboard.

It's not like they're waiting on Kirk in order to set an intercept course towards V'Ger and he's out taking a joy ride. It's 4 minutes before they launch in 12 hours.

Also, I think the sequence plays into the idea that Kirk doesn't know this Enterprise, which Decker argues when command is taken away from him. Kirk is in awe of it because of how she is the same ship but isn't.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's better than the journey to the center of the V'Ger stuff

 

[Tango]

*GROAN!*

Don't you mean *GORN!* ?

 

[fireproof78]

As others have pointed out, it took five minutes.

It still affects the pacing. For me.

5 minutes is not the issue. Its the presentation, change of pace and attitude.

Except, the Enterprise is in no shape to launch when Kirk does the flyby and comes aboard. So there's no reason to be in a hurry.

Yes, there is. Kirk is hurrying then isn't?

It's off kilter to me.

 

[Shawnster]

The story could have preserved the feel of urgency with 1 pass of the pod on the way to the docking port, then those 4 minutes of beauty shots as the Enterprise powered up, left space dock, and departed Earth.

 

[1001001]

It’s not like I enjoyed TMP anyway. I hated that movie. But I thought that scene was particularly boring.

 

[1001001]

It's better than the journey to the center of the V'Ger stuff

Yeah that was terrible too, IMHO.

 

[Paul755]

Yes.

It's a weird shift in pacing, takes forever during a supposed crisis, and gives conflicting information.

interesting, I always thought it was the one universally liked scene from that movie.

And man, does it land beautifully for me.

same

 

[Commander Troi]

Just true.


This. All this.


It's 4 1/2 minutes.


Lots.


Because the film had been break neck pacing until now? How long did we look at the big Klingon ships, or Epsilon 9, or the office complex?


Rather than travel to the docking port Scott flies to the bow of the ship and then back. So an extra ship length and a half.


Conflicting what?


Yes. Not Trekkies who had been "waiting so long", but the audience. We need to know two things: That Kirk is willing to do anything for this ship and we need to know that no matter how massive it is it is a speck next to the Intruder. This scene does both.


If Wise wasn't, Trumbull was. But look at The Andromeda Strain or The Sound of Music. The man doesn't do "roller coaster".


That must have been a very brief nap. I think I've been replying to this post for longer.


Yup.

You can be cynical and say "They're showing off how expensive it was." But part of cinematic sci-fi is spectacle. No matter how cheap or expensive it's meant to be transporting.

And this scene does that in spades. Then sprinkle a dollop of Goldsmith. And by dollop I mean pour a healthy bucketful on top.

^All of this. When I rewatched TMP a few months back, I was transported. It blew me away again, just like it did when I was a kid seeing it in the theater.

 

[cooleddie74]

TMP is peak cinematic Trek in terms of visuals and actual science fiction concepts.

 

[The Knappos]

I find one of three things happens when I put TMP on:

1. I’m asleep before the overture ends and I wake up wondering why I even bothered
2. I fall asleep about the time the Enterprise first goes to warp and I wake up wondering why I even bothered
3. I’m enraptured by the whole thing, beginning to end and wonder why I usually don’t get very far into the film.

It’s everything that everyone in this thread has said and it is equally all the better and all the worse for it.