Why I Love Star Trek: The Motion Picture 

Man don't sweat it. This was a great video. Kudos to you for creating it!

That doesnt' invalidate your opinion regardless; and others like me just made the correction in passing anyway, be it in our heads, and move along.

@@readhistory2023 They were Sonak, the Vulcan appointed science officer personnally picked by Kirk, and Vice-Admiral Lori Cianna he had been dating for a year, who he considered ''perfection.'' She is featured in the third chapter of the novel but only anomymously in the transporter accident scene of the actual movie. Sonak is the Vulcan we see briefly when Kirk disembark from his shuttle.

@Bobbie Charles Run Silent Run Deep with Burt Lancaster as the ''Decker'' of Clarke Gable' s ''Kirk.'' A classic among WWII movies. Check it out. All of us who had seen this movie immediately recognized that character dynamic when we saw STTMP. That's how you make character conflict beleivable and significant in a story.

You are flawed and imperfect, and you have not corrected by sterilization... / Error? Error? Error? Examine.

That's very accurate.

Agreed. This movie showed the Enterprise in space. Wrath of Khan showed the Enterprise at sea.

More like: what's in our own psyche.

True

No, dude this is sci-fi. Keep it real! Space is one of the most boring thing for a human today and centuries later it will be still one of the most boring thing for an average joe. The problem is most of the people decide to believe in science like it is a science fiction and will look it that way. Space is like living in a bunker under a wasteland.

A close second is "Stealing the Enterprise" from Star Trek III 'The Search for Spock'. That ship was just made to loom majestically across the screen. People who'd rather watch the ugly, pointy ships in 'Picard' lurching around have no sense of awe or beauty.

That’s a good point. You rarely got a great defining shot of the enterprise and it had been a decade since anyone had seen trek.

I was around 11 when I got to see this and I'd seen the series so many times in re-runs I had tears in my eyes seeing the Enterprise in all its glory. As I got older I appreciated it was a gift to the fans who campaigned for years for the return of Star Trek. Much as I love Wrath of Khan I love TMP more despite its flaws

They were beautiful, is what they were.

It’s an amazing feat of practical effects and model work that’s lit using dental mirrors. Not kidding, they were looking to properly light the Enterprise and built an arrangement of dental mirrors to shoot the dry dock scene.

I agree with you, but sadly, I don’t think true Trek like this is ever coming back.

I agree. Modern Trek has become too much like other shows, dark and brooding. It has lost the optimism. In the first episode of Picard, Picard says during an interview Starfleet was no longer Starfleet. A good reflection of what Trek has become. No wonder I go back to TOS and TNG. Those were the shows of hope and advancement.

But thats not what the people want, they want . . . . MOAR VIOLENCE!

You're SO damned right!

The wrong people are in control now. They don't want us inspired. They want us to believe in an ideology.

As the first movie, those initial slow shots were a real love letter to the fans. Truly epic, after years of reruns on the independent channels!

For all that it eliminated the color and vitality of the original series - rather strangely - it was also a very philosophical movie, and a very humanist one. I'm not sure people today would agree with the idea that a 'machine' is unable to understand human emotions, but at least the movie involved trying to make contact with a true alien, as opposed to "humans wearing rubber appliances on their foreheads". Even Odo, the least humanlike alien on any Star Trek show, was reduced to having love interests and thinking like a human.

Fan of the original series here: It STINKS.

It is one of the few Star Trek films I've liked more with each viewing until now it has become my co-favorite Star Trek film (with Wrath of Khan). I have watched it several times this month with the new 4k Director's Cut.

It was important for this film to be made because it conveys the awesome and infinite possibilities are out there - you don't get movies like that these days anymore.

You got that right. Now anything Trek is painful garbage designed to entertain 1000 checkmark people that would never watch the show.

I know that's the thing that really sucks about regurgitation Trek that has come out... Nothing's inspiring about any of the new series granted the old episodes did have some ups and downs but it was mainly inspirational and a great way to have character development that you think about in your own life

It was a grown up world, that was well traveled around the world, assembling order from the Chaos of two World Wars. Most people, most writers today have never left their own country, let alone their city or home town. Today adults are pretty much Xenophobic and Childish blissfully unaware of what goes on outside their doorstep.. content to watch curated Netflix programs and Trite serials.

@@joey_after_midnight Most writers today operate under the umbrella of “mental health issues.”

That's when we used to believe in something wondrous and bigger than ourselves. I recall a time when fine art inspired genuine reverence in people.

Goldsmith was approached to create a score for the original series but scoffed at the idea and said he doesn't score for "television". This basically was him eating crow or perhaps apologizing to Roddenberry. I'm glad he changed his mind about t.v., his score for the miniseries, "Masada" is amazing.

Correct

I agree, and it's aged like fine wine, which only excellent movies can do.

The introductory shots of the refit Enterprise are pure, unadulterated Starship Porn!

Jerry Goldsmith had such an impactful career. He left his mark all over Hollyweird. I think he was much better then John Williams, and I’m not knocking Williams. Goldsmith is just on another level.

Pure sci-fi, instead of space opera (ie. warfare in space).

Yes, indeed!

It's a masterpiece that stands on its own compared to all of Star Trek. Obviously it's flawed, but it's also ambitious in a way no other Trek movie has ever been since.

Amen

That’s an incredibly low bar. The worst episodes of voyager were better than anything pumped out of Fake Trek.

@@BalrogUdun Sadly, you are correct.

Exactly

Also playing in some selected theatres.

I trust not the remasters. Models always trump pure CGI

There are some new shots, some dodgy roto work, A new sound mix that is great except during warp shots. I was hoping they would remove those annoying matt lines around the miniatures for all the shots but not so, however optical compositing artifacts is corrected. Old 2001 CGI looks recreated from scratch.

They edited the long "entrance into V'ger" scene so it's much more palatable now, I believe. It's still long, but doesn't feel interminably so. There are still visual flaws, but overall it looks and feels better than ever, IMO.

Oh yes TMP was a rehash of that old episode to one extent or another. Maybe this was Jar Jar Abrams's inspiration when he wrote The Farce Awokens ?

@@jkdbuck7670 ST has always taken inspiration from other source materials, even it's own shows but TFA was a blatant redux of ANH. Much more shameless.

Great episode. Spock: "Your logic was flawless". Kirk: "You didn't think I had it in me, did you?" Spock: "No, sir."

I envy the people who saw this in theaters in 1979, cause this is such a beautiful film. TO be clear: The later films never got close to this LOOK (not even with CGI and that is telling you something.). And the script with the mystery is good too. In later Star Trek films there is much of action, but not a lot of what makes Star Trek so (excuse me) fascinating. Isn't that what Star Treks was originally about? Or did I miss something on the way to Hollywood?

Definitely love me some classic Doctor Who. #tombaker

LIke said in the review, the sense of scale is terrific in this one. And I wish I'd seen it on the big screen.

i understand why people like it, my best mate thinks its on of the best ST movies. But in my humble opinion its a long, philosophicaly bloated beautiful screensaver. No offense.

@@MyBrainGlows You're out of your mind, no offense.

​@@maxxdahl6062, agreed.

Are you gay?

I think for the majority new trek’s NCIS and Hawaii Five O writers this concept would fall on deaf ears. Maybe writers of CSI in the William Peterson era would get it on a rudimentary level but that’s as far as it goes.

This was another thing that TNG had taken from Phase 2. Xon was to be a full blooded Vulcan trying to understand emotion in order to better interact with his human crewmates. There was going to be something of a reversal with McCoy being something of a defender of the young man because he simply didn't understand the emotions which Spock merely denied.

@@carlrood4457 McCoy defending a vulcan would be great plotline. I imagine he also would try to explain to him what he don't understand and even he is still acting though in the outside he would be very understanding and helpfull, it would be like a father son relationship. And when Nimoy would came to the I Am Spock phase he could go back to the Enterprise and it would be very good to see both together.

D'ger?😂

There's nothing wrong with _that_. '2001, A Space Odyssey' is my favourite film...then it's sequel...then all of the ST films...as I have already commented on here.

I miss good science-fiction. Like you said, space lasers and special effects do not mean good sci-fi.

@@davidm4566 Space lasers and special effects are actually Action, not Sci-Fi. For example Star Wars is more like Science Fantasy. The purest form of Sci-Fi is coming from novella, it came up with an idea and makes you think about that idea, if it's a whole book they close up so much loosed end you don't have to think that much and sci-fi is about thinking, you read something and you thinking about it 10 or 100 times much than you spend reading. And the good thing is there are thousand of those sci-fi novelle all around the world. I know better, I came from Central Europe we know the western literature the eastern literature and we know Central European literature all three is very different.

Agreed

@@Zodroo_Tint, Star Wars is not science fantasy it's Space Opera, but yes the cerebral tone is one of the most interesting thing in science fiction. That's not to say there wasn't cerebrality in the other Star Trek movies, or even in Star Wars, but the subsequent movies were less cerebral, and that's a too bad.

Jesus, that's kind of haunting lol

How so?

Lol, so true! 😂

@@michaelcongerjr8806 watch (if you can endure it) ST Generation's. Kirk meets picard and the result is unexpected

LOL!

Yes, if I were to make a Mt Rushmore of SF films I'd include STTMP. The Director's Cut.

Marxist ideology is atheist to its core, and not in a cerebral way, but in a toxic and soulless way. Cynical, nihilistic. Star Trek was always spiritual at its core. Today's Hollywood does not even comprehend that it does not comprehend it. The saddest part, to me, is that actors who helped bring life to the spiritual scripts in TNG are participating in today's soulless venture without blinking an eye. Makes me admire their acting skills, from back in the day, while at the same time pitying that they could be so close to it and even speak the lines, yet not really understand any of it.

The Director's Cut is the best version but was only available on DVD and looks like crap now, to say I'm excited for the 4K release of it would be an understatement.

@@philipsheppard4815 The 4k is incredible. I joined Paramount Plus for that alone. I ordered the complete adventure on 4k and blu ray, so 9/6 can't come soon enough.

I came to like it but it could have been so much better.

A shame you needed the abysmal nuTrek movies as a comparison to appreciate this masterpiece, oh well.

I wouldn’t even say the comparison is a criticism. It’s honestly a testament to the quality of the original series that you can take an old episode remake it with a bigger budget, refine the story and add more time and have such a great movie.

I am right there with you Philip.

@@BalrogUdun Plus, from a chronological standpoint, one could easily imagine that the machine world V'ger went to & was repaired by, may have decided "that idea of going out and collecting samples,...we should do that too" and then built _Tan Ru_ which, as we know, later collides and repairs/merges with _Nomad_ .

I like STTMP more than ST IV: The Voyage Home

Wow neat

So, you need to go do a podcast with Nerdrotic and talk about it all. Bet he'd be up for it.

So you're a Wise?

@@skaterdave03 Fuck nerdrotic.

Wow. Thank you for sharing this. 🖖

I was 13 and got the VHS collection of classic trek movies for Christmas. The box art when put together visualized the Enterprise refit.

TWOK was mine. But I went back to TMP and thoroughly loved it, although when I rewatch it, I still tend to stop at the moment Spock arrives and they fix the warp drive. I should try watching it from the V’Ger encounter instead- it’s like a separate but just as wonderful film

Kirk cutting Decker, essentially his hand-picked successor, off at the knees and then forcing him to be Spock was neither mellow or patient. Kirk was chafing at being put out to pasture and took this as an opportunity to get back in the center seat. All things McCoy pointed out to him.

@@MrCornrowz If he hadn't, that ship wouldn't have been coming back.

maybe fifty seemed older in those days.. it did to me but i was barely in double figures at the time.. was eleven when i saw the motion picture and the crew looked really old to me at that time... not now! 🙂

The oversaturation of CGI flashy, jumpy, slo mo, and 'splosions, has jaded an a generation. They just can't sit through the older movies with story, character arcs, etc. Sure old movies had crazy action and all that but they were not as blockbusters but something to watch, and laugh at, on a slow day.

The first movie is terrible everyone knows its terrible so I dont understand you dorks trying to argue this.

I gave a copy of my avatar I had signed by Miss Sean Young to a friend at work, and to my niece out west....they STILL havent been able to sit though Blade Runner to understand the image. And Blade Runner has actual beatings and shooting people.

@@springwoodslasher79 No one is arguing eneything we are just having a conversation about the movie. What's with the anger ? Everyone is entitled to he or she's opinion , just like i respect yours. You said that you didn't "understand" how come we liked this movie so much?. 🤷 WITH RESPECT MY FRIEND HAVE YOU BEEN CHECKED FOR ( A D D )?.

Both it and 2001 are ×××× and overrated. They are pretentious. Let's be honest.

I remember going to the theater to watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with my parents as a kid. A total borefest. As a kid , the part was watching the Enterprise go to warp speed & the worm hole scene. I couldn't grasp the intellectual aspect. Now I'm 51 yrs old, in my opinion, this movie was a continuation of TOS thinking. The philosophy, critical thinking & egos was tremendously awesome.

@Newsbender II"Ye're rright!" 😂

According to the writers of the Star Trek Chronology (1st ed., p. 17), shortly after "Q Who" was produced, "Gene Roddenberry half jokingly speculated that the planet encountered by Voyager might have been the Borg homeworld."

@@ajclements4627 It is possible.

First Contact was good.

I thought the first two TNG films were fairly good, but I'll agree that pretty much everything after that has been decidedly weak.

@@drumjedi5301 Insurrection had it's moments, but too few of them. Nemesis was pure crap though, but the director should take all of the blame he removed almost any and every scene that would have improved that movie by a ton.

Not enough pew, pew? I would image a large portion of the ones who saw it had previoulsy seen Star wars, as well as the more swashbuckling episodes of TOS... It is very different to those.

ST 1 and 2001 are ××××. Let's be honest. Both are pretentious. 2001 isn't even a movie. It's a music video for classical music (and it's actually cynical like the rest of Kubrick's overrated movies).

@@GoldenCroc I appreciate the restraint to not have a classic TOS space battle scene upped in scale to that of Star Wars. It showed a focus on story and humanity as you put it over explosions.

@@tomcruisenukedmyaccount5388 I don't see how 2001 is cynical. Bowman ascends to the next level and returns to the Earth...like in so many other myths and legends out there. Am I missing something?

@@jkdbuck7670 You have to read between the lines. I'm not the first person who said this, and I'm sure there are essays about it online somewhere. The biggest clue is the photo taking scene with the monolith on the moon. The movie is different from Clarke's novel which is more optimistic. If I remember right, Kubrick claimed 2001 is supposed to be subjective, but if you look at it closely, it's pretty cynical. It's a post modern, deconstructionist movie which mocks the audience. Why would Kubrick make one optimistic movie in a series of extremely cynical ones??? My addition is AI is a pessimistic response to and apology for 2001 which already is cynical. Basically, 2001 portrays a universe where violence and oppression are inevitable for intelligent life. Also, humanity is portrayed as shallow and stupid and small.

Yes, it was even more pronounced for me because I've always loved 2001 !

@@kathleenhensley5951 me as well, its total art.

Does it matter? Like speaks to like.

@@Tarotlynx idk. Cant whoop me though 👊👊

And you can feel Star Trek influence in 2001 a Space Odyssey. ;) The big difference is that Star Trek tells a story with a real scenario and a clear purpose.

Even Final Frontier is a masterpiece compared to the Jar Jar Abrams movies. It's made with more love for the IP and characters then anything Jar Jar did, who just turned it into a run of the mill action flick. The interaction between Kirk, Spock and McCoy is top notch and when they confront their deepest traumas the actors get to show some meaty acting.

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 For all the criticism ST 5 got it was the most like an old TOS episode. The whole crew is together on the ship and they actually go “where no man has gone before”.

@@otarthemad9780 Even though ST5 is the least favourite, it had the best moment between Kirk, Spock and McCoy of all the movies. When Kirk remarks how he lost a brother once and was glad to get him back. Such a tender moment in the franchise between those 3. I think that scene gets overlooked due to the dislike of ST 5, to me it's the best part of that whole movie.

Big Bang Theory isn't laughing with nerds, it's laughing at them. That's why they got it wrong.

@@blbatled1 Totally agree. I wish they had made a couple more movies like that

Was the monumental _Star Wars ANH_ not the same two years earlier? _Grease (1978)_ was pretty ... exuberant.

@@beingsshepherd In 1978 Grease was the word, was the word, was the word. But when, by a year later, the movie world saw Alien and people were scared. Very scared. They stopped going to movies for a longish period of time. They slept in, didn't go to work, GDP went down. Then, two years later, Raiders of the Lost Ark came out and people started to see the light again. GDP rose. Reagan was president. The world looked incredibly bright. It was in that world we first got a glimpse of The Thing.

@@trhansen3244 Intriguing analysis. I always felt the economy didn't bounce back until 1982's _ET_ & Michael Jackson's _Thriller._

@@beingsshepherd No. ET was not really that big of a success until it was on home video. Thriller was more of a spectacle than a financial success. It intrigued certain people but that's about all.

@@trhansen3244 From Wikipedia: 'The film [ET] was an immediate blockbuster, surpassing Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held for eleven years until Spielberg's own Jurassic Park surpassed it in 1993. E.T. was widely acclaimed by critics, and is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It received nine nominations at the 55th Academy Awards, [...]' 'With 32 million copies sold worldwide by the end of 1983, Thriller became the best-selling album of all time. It was the best-selling album of 1983 worldwide, and in 1984 it became the first album to become the best-selling in the United States for two years. It set industry standards with its songs, music videos, and promotional strategies influencing artists, record labels, producers, marketers, and choreographers. The success gave Jackson an unprecedented level of cultural significance for a black American, breaking racial barriers in popular music, earning him regular airplay on MTV and leading to a meeting with US President Ronald Reagan at the White House.'

I'm so jealous of you Americans being able to see the Director's Edition in cinemas! 😩

@@josie_the_valkyrie Haha I’m Canadian my friend, but yes we are privileged!

@@stevemeyer4765 yeah, I don't understand why they didn't release it to Europe as well? 😕

@@josie_the_valkyrie likely didn't think it would make enough money in a theatre, but would on home media.

Silent Running is one of the best science fiction movies from the 70s. I got to see it when it came out and I still love watching it today.

Silent runnings worth a watch?

@@chriswright6245 absolutely

Silent Running had some questionable themes. But the Scifi was full of wonderful bits and the robot interactions absolutely made the movie. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.

I've never seen Silent Running, but 2001 is way overrated. It's pretentious and barely a movie. (Also, it's secretly cynical like Kubrick's other movies.) ST 1 is a lame knock off. The uniforms are atrocious.

Don't forget Kirk offered Spock to remain in command after it became serious, and Spock said he didn't have an ego to hurt.

Agreed! I remember watching TMP for the first time, and that glimpse of V'ger just absolutely rocked my imagination. I never understood those complaints.

I absolutely love the slow moving scenes moving into the cloud and then flying over the V'Ger vessel, turning around, and then going into it. I have probably watched it a hundred times.

@@trhansen3244 Yes .. It still completely holds up. The scene when Spock goes into V'Ger on his own with his jet pack was pretty damned awesome too. I

@@Fiveash-Art Yes, another breathtaking sequence, culminating with Spock's mind-meld with 'Ilia'.

@@trhansen3244 Ilia .. that sexy minx.

Good point.

I recall seeing one of the Taken movies (the 3rd perhaps), there's a scene where the main character jumps over a fence during a chase. For that one jump I think I counted 26 different camera angles. Modern movies have followed the short attention span trend of social media, nothing lasts for more than a few seconds, the MO is to hammer the senses so the viewer never has a chance to thnk about what they're seeing. It's as bad as when camera shake became fashionable in both TV drama and movies, as if ordinary people stand and perpetually wobble. Don't even get me started on CGI, and I say that as someone who kinda helped in the effects industry for a fair while. And then there are the endless reboots, sequels, prequels, retcons, etc., no attempt to tell genuinely new stories, despite there being a plethora one could choose from, such as the Hyperion/Endymion series by Dan Simmons, the "City of Stairs" series by Robert Jackson Bennett, etc. Or pick virtually any of the dozens of short stories from the long running book series, "New Writings in SF" (highly recommended if you've never read them, easy to find on ebay, etc., I now have the complete 30-book collection), though some have doubtless already been put to film albeit in inferior form, eg. ("Passengers" is highly reminiscent of "Spacemen Live Forever", published in 1966 by Gerald W. Page, though the latter is a better tale with more interesting concepts. A while ago I watched, "The French Connection" for the first time, always liked Gene Hackman but this one had somehow passed me by. Well oh my what a contrast to modern movie styles. 8) Lots of older films put modern productions in the shade, eg. how many movies ripped off, "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (or were at least inspired by it). So yes indeed, TMP is a stand out for sure. I think this is why, out of the other Trek movies, my favourite is probably Undiscovered Country, because it has a proper story and it doesn't shy away from these other aspects of film making. Assuming of course we don't count Galaxy Quest, which is quite wonderful. :D Strange btw, "Pitch Black" is a film I initially ignored upon release because its marketing portrayed it as if it was a slash horror, but it's actually a lot more like the scenic scifi you're referring to, fascinating concepts with good opportunities for soaking up the stunning visuals, etc. I never understood why the marketing was so misleading; fans of slash horror wouldn't like it because it certainly isn't that (doubtless many "wasted ticket" reactions there), while scifi fans may have ignored it like I did. They could have just conveyed it for what it was, appeal to the proper target audience. But then, dumb marketing is nothing new when it comes to scifi. I'm sure some did not react well to "The Fifth Element" because the trailers very much suggested it was a serious scifi movie, so the comedy and whackyness were doubtless jarring, but I've come to love the movie a lot. At least Besson was trying something different, and these days nobody in Hollywood is capable making something as gutsy as his original "Nikita".

@@mapesdhs597 Thanks, I'm going to check out Pitch Black!

@@zxyatiywariii8 Note the sequel is kinda ok I guess (meh plus or minus; they rather wasted some opportunities. though it still has its moments for sure), but the later movie just called "Riddick" is definitely good. I also recommend, "The Brother From Another Planet", "Silent Running", "Firestarter", "Farenheit 451", "A Matter of Life and Death", "The Andromeda Strain", "The Satan Bug", "The Quiet Earth" (fantastic final shot in this one), "The Third Man", "The Bedford Incident", "Westworld", "Capricorn One", "The Medusa Touch", "Dark Star", "They Live", "The Omega Man", "Outland", "The Thing" (1984), "Angel's Dance", "Catch 22", and I'll stop there before I wear out the 2 key. :D Though I expect you've already seen many of these.

They can't hold a candle. They're all style and no substance. No thanks. I'd rather have Star Trek 1-4 again (provided they don't leave Saavik behind like they did . . .)

I hate the new Trek.

@@trhansen3244 me too. Nu-trek sucks. Voyager was the last real Star trek series.