What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[fireproof78]

All fair points I suppose, but I've tried to watch it more than once, and it just makes me want to fall asleep. From an historical view, it seemed (at least according to what I read) that Paramount mostly approved it while panicking, due to the unexpected success of the first Star Wars. As you admitted, the franchise had been dead for a decade besides reruns, and I also read that initially, some of the cast weren't too thrilled about coming back. It was a risky move on the studio's part, but I think they were just so determined to beat Lucas at his own game, that it overrode the rest of their thinking.

It was also a need to make back money. They had been in development hell over several film scripts, then the Phase II idea, then back to a film. So, a lot of time and money for no product to show for it. I don't think they necessarily wanted to beat Lucas, so much as they wanted to strike at a time when they thought they could actually make money on what was still considered a niche genre.

 

[1001001]

…but the 1979 original and 1983 Special Longer Version are edits I also love.

Holy fuck, there’s a longer version?

Made for Movie Night at Guantanamo, no doubt.

 

[Ricky Spanish]

I'm curious what version of TMP people like right now?

Honestly, I can sit down and watch any version at any time. TMP is one of my favorite movies.

 

[GhoulEddie74]

Holy fuck, there’s a longer version?

Made for Movie Night at Guantanamo, no doubt.

Your righteous nerd indignation is adorable.

 

[Drunk Superman]

Reading online, I learned the film made $139 million, on a $44 million budget...and I just kept asking myself, "How is that even possible? The entire thing is boring beyond reason!" Maybe its because I was never a fan of the 1960s show, but that doesn't hold much water since I did end up enjoying some of the other films based on it.

It was a different time. We hadn't had any new Trek in almost a decade. Because of Star Wars SF was a hot commodity. It's also a very different animal than the 60's TV show. It's aim was closer to 2001: A Space Odyssey than TOS.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

It was a different time. We hadn't had any new Trek in almost a decade. Because of Star Wars SF was a hot commodity. It's also a very different animal than the 60's TV show. It's aim was closer to 2001: A Space Odyssey than TOS.

To this day, I've never seen 2001 - it was released 12 years before I was born, and for whatever reason most sci-fi didn't appeal to me for a long time (Star Trek and Star Wars being the main exceptions). I still don't go out of my way to watch a lot of it; for example, I've only seen The Abyss and A.I. once each, and I only got about halfway through Minority Report, despite multiple tries.

 

[Drunk Superman]

To this day, I've never seen 2001 - it was released 12 years before I was born, and for whatever reason most sci-fi didn't appeal to me for a long time (Star Trek and Star Wars being the main exceptions). I still don't go out of my way to watch a lot of it; for example, I've only seen The Abyss and A.I. once each, and I only got about halfway through Minority Report, despite multiple tries.

It's very different from all those. Pre-Star Wars SF was on a different track,

 

[FredH]

I'm curious what version of TMP people like right now?

I’ll watch any, but favorites are the ABC cut, followed by the original theatrical cut. I’ve always felt the (perfectly fine) Director’s Cut was extraneous, basically just existing to give people an excuse for the fact that they’d started to like the film after all by saying it was the cut what done it.

 

[BK613]

@Tallguy Humor. It's a difficult...oh never mind.

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Re: TMP
My favorite Trek film. One thing though, there are aspects of the directing that reminds me more of The Andromeda Strain than it does 2001.

 

[Credit Check]

Both The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and The Andromeda Strain (1971) are better science fiction films from Wise than TMP. The problem is traceable to the script, I think. The scripts of those earlier two films are far superior to the TMP script. TMP needed at least one more rewrite to make it into the league of the earlier two.

 

[Lord Garth]

Both The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and The Andromeda Strain (1971) are better science fiction films from Wise than TMP. The problem is traceable to the script, I think. The scripts of those earlier two films are far superior to the TMP script. TMP needed at least one more rewrite to make it into the league of the earlier two.

I've seen The Andromeda Strain. It wasn't bad, but I think it's overrated. I expected more from it, based on reputation.

I've also seen The Day the Earth Stood Still. I'm normally not into '50s movies (culturally, it's my least favorite decade), but I can see what you mean about this one having a better script.

 

[Credit Check]

I've seen The Andromeda Strain. It wasn't bad, but I think it's overrated. I expected more from it, based on reputation.

I've also seen The Day the Earth Stood Still. I'm normally not into '50s movies (culturally, it's my least favorite decade), but I can see what you mean about this one having a better script.

I think The Andromeda Strain is brilliant, but the novel is even better. Given the advancements in computer technology since the early 1970s, I can understand why some might consider it dated (not that this characterizes any of the criticisms you might have of it), although the mechanical hands still seem contemporary enough even for today. YMMV.

Like 2001, Andromeda was a slow burn, heavy on both science and philosophy, and this describes TMP's aspirations also.

 

[CorporalClegg]

The DNA of a truly great film is there. It had the director, but the script was never would it could have been -- it's 'science and philosophy' elements were sound, but just not excecated well.

But the "slow motion picture" argument never really connected with me. Film is, first and foremost, a visual medium, and the visuals were nothing short of exceptional. I think they even hold up today. Plus, the visuals were paired with Goldsmith's score, which I believe to be the very best of his career, Trek or otherwise.

But execution matters most, and in the end it just never came together the way it could have. Still, I'd gladly pick it over most of the other twelve films.

 

[Citiprime]

It's funny the general consensus is of all of the cuts that people like tend to extend out The Motion Picture, when arguably I think there's a case to be made the movie might benefit from being shortened. That there's probably a cut of the movie where you could make it a really tight watch without losing too much depth.

Someone put together a "modern trailer" for The Motion Picture and it's awesome.

I think in all of the cuts, the middle section where they explore the interior of V'GER could be chopped back and it would help a lot with the pacing. I understand the purpose of it. It sells the vastness of what they're dealing with and how weird it is. But it seems to go on forever, and is just the audience watching the bridge crew watch the viewscreen. Also, probably could tighten up some of the stuff with robot Ilia towards the end (e.g., I'm thinking of Decker showing her around the recreation deck stuff), and you wouldn't lose much.

 

[GhoulEddie74]

It's a gloriously imperfect magnificent to me. It has so many warts, but it's like the most majestic species of toad in the world and you can't take your eyes off it.

 

[Citiprime]

It's a gloriously imperfect magnificent to me. It has so many warts, but it's like the most majestic species of toad in the world and you can't take your eyes off it.

It's interesting in the ways it's flawed.

I've always been fascinated by its choices, unlike Nemesis where I think it's bad in a different way that I don't find interesting. Even with The Final Frontier, I can see the outline of an interesting idea and some really good character moments that don't work because it just isn't fleshed out right and the good parts gets stepped on by bad production choices.

With The Motion Picture, I feel like they're trying to be ambitious but some of the choices just don't work. Where Nemesis feels like something where people are going through the motions.

One of the most interesting aspects to me about The Motion Picture is that if the overarching theme of the TOS movies are ideas about found family, loyalty, friendship, etc., then TMP is the Enterprise crew at their most dysfunctional. For a good portion of the movie, Kirk is a fish out of water who has forced himself back onto the Enterprise and feels so out of place in his former home. Spock is at best ambivalent about being back on the Enterprise, and spends a good part of the movie trying to reject any emotional reaction to being back around his friends. And McCoy is dragged back to the Enterprise against his will and spends a good part of the movie pointing out all of the ego trips the characters are on during this entire crisis.

 

[drt]

Theatrical.

I tend to prefer the theatrical as well, there are too many weird errors and fanboy choices in the Dochterman Editions.

 

[ananta]

I think in all of the cuts, the middle section where they explore the interior of V'GER could be chopped back and it would help a lot with the pacing. I understand the purpose of it. It sells the vastness of what they're dealing with and how weird it is. But it seems to go on forever, and is just the audience watching the bridge crew watch the viewscreen.

Funnily enough, that’s maybe my favourite part of the film. The combination of the visuals and Jerry Goldsmith’s beautiful score make it almost meditative to me. It’s like tripping out on the sheer wonder of the universe. I can’t even imagine how immersive it must have been on the big screen.

I know many if not most fans berate TMP (and so,sadly, did many of the cast) but I’ll never not love it. It’s a film you have to approach in a certain way. It’s certainly not a thrill-a-minute blockbuster, but if you just let it wash over you, it’s actually a really beautiful film.

 

[Tallguy]

I'm curious what version of TMP people like right now?

The 2021 DE. It's the least flawed. I still watch the theatrical. I have the ABC cut but I have to admit I have not watched it in over 30 years.

Maybe its because I was never a fan of the 1960s show

That would seem to be a barrier to entry.

Someone put together a "modern trailer" for The Motion Picture and it's awesome.

I love that one. I love this one too.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

That would seem to be a barrier to entry.

Well, TOS started airing 14 years before I was born; my older cousin who loved the show didn't even exist at the time. My own mother would've been 7 back then, the same as I was when TNG started, but I don't know if she watched the earlier show in her youth, either (in fact, I don't know if her family even had a TV at all).