What did you like or didn't like about TMP

[Sky]

- Spock's arrival. He's just too stoic and shortly thereafter very needy. Doesn't add up.

I think the Spock part of the story worked very well. He's stoic because he has just spent years on Vulcan trying to attain Kolinahr, trying to get rid of his emotional side. Which he failed because "his answer lies elsewhere". Then he melds with V'Ger and comes to the realization that he needs his emotional side as well - logic without feeling being barren and cold and empty and all - and that he needs his friends.

 

[Myasishchev]

It looked and sounded great. It really did. Still the best the Enterprise has ever looked.

Wish they'd come up with a better story than Where Nomad Has Gone Before, though.

Eh, ymmv. I thought it was "The Changeling Perfected," and that the original Nomad ep blew.

 

[startrekrcks]

but did you think the story was weak as a Star Trek story

 

[Greylock Crescent]

- Spock's arrival. He's just too stoic and shortly thereafter very needy. Doesn't add up.

I think the Spock part of the story worked very well. He's stoic because he has just spent years on Vulcan trying to attain Kolinahr, trying to get rid of his emotional side. Which he failed because "his answer lies elsewhere". Then he melds with V'Ger and comes to the realization that he needs his emotional side as well - logic without feeling being barren and cold and empty and all - and that he needs his friends.

I think, conceptually, the idea works very well. But the execution just doesn't quite work for me. Maybe it's because Spock comes across (to me at least) as too stiff, rather than too stoic. I know his "crying" performance doesn't work at all for me, even if the sudden flood of emotions is quite plausible.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

What did you like about Star Trek The Motion Picture or didn't like and post what your thoughts are.

Liked the fact that it aimed high.

Didn't like the fact that it missed.

It aimed high with a shotgun. Some of the blast hit, some didn't.

 

[Chrisisall]

I don't like the costume design. The color pallete of 70s earth tones doesn't do anything for me. Give me the bright colors of the original series or the red TWOK uniforms over the TMP uniforms any day.


I'm not a big fan of Wise's overuse of the split-diopter.

Those two plus the useless *shocking* transporter accident are what I dislike.

Everything else was fine by me.

 

[Search4]

- Spock's arrival. He's just too stoic and shortly thereafter very needy. Doesn't add up.

I think the Spock part of the story worked very well. He's stoic because he has just spent years on Vulcan trying to attain Kolinahr, trying to get rid of his emotional side. Which he failed because "his answer lies elsewhere". Then he melds with V'Ger and comes to the realization that he needs his emotional side as well - logic without feeling being barren and cold and empty and all - and that he needs his friends.

I think, conceptually, the idea works very well. But the execution just doesn't quite work for me. Maybe it's because Spock comes across (to me at least) as too stiff, rather than too stoic. I know his "crying" performance doesn't work at all for me, even if the sudden flood of emotions is quite plausible.

This was kind of my point. Spock should walk in, oh, angry and confused. He's just thrown away a few years for an unattainable goal. He should be really p---ed off. Instead it looks like he's a Kohlinar master. The rest of Spock is fine; the initial opening scene was flat. When he walks in at the last he should be transmitting "been here, done that".

 

[Sky]

I think the Spock part of the story worked very well. He's stoic because he has just spent years on Vulcan trying to attain Kolinahr, trying to get rid of his emotional side. Which he failed because "his answer lies elsewhere". Then he melds with V'Ger and comes to the realization that he needs his emotional side as well - logic without feeling being barren and cold and empty and all - and that he needs his friends.

I think, conceptually, the idea works very well. But the execution just doesn't quite work for me. Maybe it's because Spock comes across (to me at least) as too stiff, rather than too stoic. I know his "crying" performance doesn't work at all for me, even if the sudden flood of emotions is quite plausible.

This was kind of my point. Spock should walk in, oh, angry and confused. He's just thrown away a few years for an unattainable goal. He should be really p---ed off. Instead it looks like he's a Kohlinar master. The rest of Spock is fine; the initial opening scene was flat. When he walks in at the last he should be transmitting "been here, done that".

My impression was that he got really really close to being a Kolinahru. He wouldn't react angrily - he'd be quite past that kind of emotional display. Perhaps he'd be confused, but even that would not be clearly visible to others. Any human would of course be pissed off after failing, but Spock is not human.

(I didn't much care for the weeping scene either, to be honest. It went a bit too far. The sickbay scene after the meld was fine.)

 

[Shazam!]

Reaction shots of EVERY CHARACTER everytime the nebula changes colour or something kinda grates. The script could've done with some extra lines here and there and the odd moment of levity. The wormhole scene did nothing for me as well.

 

[J.T.B.]

I'm not a big fan of Wise's overuse of the split-diopter.

It is very noticeable some times, but it was a technical necessity, not a creative choice, so I'll cut him some slack, there.

I like the film's ambition, epic scale, the sure, classic Hollywood hand of Robert Wise and of course Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful score. I liked how it was crafted as its own movie, not as a continuation of the TV series or as the first episode of a movie series.

I don't like the pace of some of the trip through V'Ger. I don't like seeing the V'Ger "vehicle" in the Director's Cut, I thought it was better when it was shown in pieces, like it was too big and alien to comprehend as a whole.

I am actually one of the few who likes the uniforms, but more from a conceptual than an aesthetic viewpoint.

A lot of people complain that Kirk and Spock's characterizations were "off," but that was the point, it was important for those characters' stories.

--Justin

 

[Too Much Fun]

Liked:

* The visual effects, especially Spock's 2001-inspired astronaut journey and the ship passing through that crazy multi-coloured landscape

* Possessed Illya referring to the captain as "Kirk unit"...I thought that was adorable

* Kirk basically busting out his Corbomite Manuever tactic on possessed Illya - great character moment for Kirk (in a movie that unfortunately had very few character moments) and a cool callback to events of the series

* McCoy's grumpiness upon being beamed aboard...another rare and welcome character moment

* The ending - I thought the reveal of the probe's true nature was satisfyingly creative, unexpected, and logical

Didn't like:

* Many of the beginning sequences like Spock on Vulcan and Kirk being brought to the ship, which dragged on and on

* The general pace throughout the movie

* How stiff, bland, and lifeless a lot of the characters seemed to be. It was weird to see Kirk so deadly serious the whole time and lacking the charm he had on the series

* The excessive reaction shots

* Dekker being so whiny (although it was understandable at times)

* Illya, before she was possessed (boring and irritating)

 

[startrekrcks]

Well do you want Kirk to be not serious he was admiral you know

 

[Sky]

There's a difference between serious and wooden.

 

[AnyStar]

i never really liked the wormhole thing. it was too cheesy.

i understand why it was needed, but its the one part i could do without

 

[Joel_Kirk]

It's interesting, because TMP is what got many people thinking Trek as a whole was boring...

These would be casual people who know of Trek; as for the tv series itself, they would recall 'Dr. Spock' or Kirk and green-women...

Mind you, this was before TNG and everything else...

I actually started thinking 'boring' once TNG really got started, but that is a rant for another thread.

Likes:

*The theme music by Jerry Goldsmith; aside from the movie, whether one thinks it's good or bad...that theme is cool.

*The epic scale

Dislikes:

*The slow moving story

Everyone kind of hit the nail on the head in previous posts, actually.

 

[Orac Zen]

As others have noted, the score is glorious - even by Jerry Goldsmith's standards. The movie is epic in scope and feels more like a movie than some of the following ones, which seem more like glorified TV episodes (even though the plot was basically ripped from "The Changeling"). McCoy was marvellous. Basically, I like TMP quite a bit...

...despite the occasionally glacial pacing, some really awful acting, and the fact it could have benefited a great deal from some more ruthless editing (the seemingly endless Enterprise beauty passes, the equally eternal flight into / through V'Ger and the aforementioned reaction shots of almost every character reacting to almost everything that happens being the most obvious examples). The pyjama uniforms don't really bother me but colour-wise, they were duller than dull. And the transporter sequence was pointless - something else that should have hit the floor in the editing room.

 

[Bones2]

As regards those who say the transporter accident was pointless and should have been cut, perhaps it was pointless, but is it really any more pointless than a lot of the film? So much of it could go because of how slight the story is, and that scene is probably my favourite in the film. I have a damn hard time watching it, but...

 

[Harvey]

I'm not a big fan of Wise's overuse of the split-diopter.

It is very noticeable some times, but it was a technical necessity, not a creative choice, so I'll cut him some slack, there.

A technical necessity that was brought about by sets and lighting that was not properly thought out beforehand, IIRC. Probably not Wise's fault, to be sure, but someone is to blame. I seem to recall Wise using the same effect in The Andromeda Strain, but to better results. And Oliver Stone's use of the effect in Talk Radio, where it is supposed to be noticeable, is superb.

 

[DonIago]

For those of us who aren't particularly familiar with split diopter (even after a glance at Wikipedia), could some examples or elaboration be provided?

 

[Harvey]

Surely. This blog post includes pictures and explains the process better than I could.

http://www.dansdata.com/danletters155.htm