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The 70’s was a great moment for science fiction lovers at the movies. The release of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind showed that sci-fi can’t only do great at the box office but can be very profitable movies that the general public want more of. Paramount Pictures in 1978 decided to take the syndicated television series Star Trek and bring it to the big screen. Paramount decided to can the in-developing television series Star Trek: Phase II and use the pilot script In Thy Image to create the movie. Robert Wise who did The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and The Day the Earth Stood Still came on to direct the film, despite his wife knowing more about the series than he did. He knew so little that he had to rely on the actors to make sure that the characters were saying lines that they would say. There were many script changes and as there was tinkering around with costumes. As time went on, the film’s cost expands to 46 million dollars and came together just days before the December, 7 1979 opening. Star Trek: The Motion Picture begins a long run of the Star Trek movie franchise and is also known as one of the bad ones. So, did the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise boldly, or boredly go off to the silver screen? SFL jumps to warp speed and see if this film is as bad as people say it is.



THE PLOT- (A Summary of the Story)

A Federation Communication Station picks up a battle between three Klingon battle cruisers and an unknown cloud. All three were destroyed easily by the cloud, then as the station works out the trajectory of the anomaly they are dull surprised that the cloud is heading for Earth. Starfleet calls upon the only starship within interception range, the newly refitted USS Enterprise at San Francisco Shipyard, commanded by Captain William Decker. James Kirk, who became the Head of Starfleet Operations pushed and took back command of the ship he once was in charge of and Decker is moved to the position of Executive Officer or First Officer. While this is happening, Spock is on Vulcan going through the Kolinahr ritual that removes the last ounces of his emotions. He is stopped by a feeling of that touched his human side. He is told his answers lie elsewhere and has failed to reach Kolinahr.

Kirk is joined by his old crew and newer members. The ship’s navigator is Ilia, a Deltan who had a relationship with Decker in a past posting. Spock comes on board to serve as Science Officer after the ship had left the dock. The crew of the Enterprise is more successful than the Klingons by figuring out how to communicate with the anomaly and are able to come close to the unknown. In the heart of the cloud is a massive starship that makes the Constitution class ship look like a Hot Wheel. After Kirk has the ship make an up-close pass, a beam of plasma energy that serves as a probe for the massive ship appears on the bridge. The probe takes over the ship’s computer until Spock smashes the council and the probe afterwards causes Ilia to disappear.

The massive ship takes the Enterprise inside and sends a new probe to the ship, in the shape of Ilia. The Ilia-probe reveals the name of the entity they are dealing with, V’ger, who is seeking his creator. As Kirk, McCoy, and Decker try to talk to the probe to get more information, Spock heads out in a thruster suit to see more of the ship. He finds out through his observations and a mind-meld that the whole starship is V’ger and is a living machine. V’ger arrives at Earth and sends out a radio transmission to summon the creator. After receiving no answer to its transmission, V’ger launches energy balls that will kill all human and organic life on the Earth. Spock tells Kirk to treat Vger as a child, and will some buffs convinces V’ger to bring the crew of the Enterprise to its Central Processor.

Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Decker go out to meet V’ger. V’ger turns out to be the lost deep-space probe Voyager 6 that was lost after going into a black hole over 300 years ago. The Enterprise locates the transmission code that was to be used by NASA to have the probe transmit its data to NASA. V’ger’s antenna lead burns out before the final sequence is received, Vger wants to meet its creator. Spock says that V'ger is evolving and needs to understand its reason for existing, what V'ger needs is what a human understands that a computer has no concept of because of the leaps of logic computers can’t do. Decker decides to join with V’ger so he can also be with Ilia. The joining creates a new life and also release the Enterprise from its captivity. Kirk reports that Ilia and Decker are missing in action, and decided to take the ship on its shakedown cruise.



Visuals-(Cinematography, Special Effects, Model Work, Editing, and CGI)
Let’s start with what I was using to help you understand what I was seeing. I’m using the theatrical cut that has digitally remastered visuals and sound. Let’s start with the big problem, the effects have not aged well at all. The pictures of Vulcan are very rough, showing the joints that create the picture. The most obverse showing of these problems is in the Enterprise beauty pass. There is a line of black at times around the travel pod and at times the outside view of the cockpit makes Kirk go flat. The way it is done is by a rear-projection screen, this works when it is facing the camera, but at an angle the people the screen projects have no depth at all. I have problems with them but mostly because of age. The most shocking thing is are this work is done without help from computers, most of the things you would think is from computers is from artwork, projectors, and physical effects. The Model work is great with the amount of detail goes into each of them. The lighting of V'ger and the Enterprise is just one of the small details that is taken to make them look amazing. There's one problem, it looks like the crew can’t decide if the deflector array is white or blue, but with, further investigation the color change is if the warp engines are active or not and was only done for this movie. Cinematography at times is very nice, but what hurts them the most is the editing of the film. At times the edit is nice and at other times it feels like the editor fell asleep or does not realize that to help the film he needs to cut some things by a good amount. The slow pace of the film is not helped by this one big problem. A better work at editing would have given this movie a faster pace.



Sound-(General Sounds and Music)
The sound work is good most of the time. There are a number of well done sounds, but the one is the sound of that V'ger makes. The Vger sound is from an instrument known as a Blaster Beam a unique electronic string instrument that creates the low strums, which is why people think of it has a low electric guitar sound. The blaster beam is a stretched-out guitar that you can play in many ways, even striking it with artillery casings. The best thing though is the score. The score is created by Jerry Goldsmith who will be a part of the franchise. He worked on The Next Generation, Voyager, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis. His work here will set the music of the world and leaves it with its most famous theme that will always be connected to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iXK5i7aSq4

The best thing I loved is how the music is used to tell us what is happening during the scene. Pay attention at times for Ilia’s theme after she is turned into a probe. During times when Ilia’s memories creep out, Ilia’s theme starts to play and V’ger’s theme comes crashing in when the probe’s programing returns or when Bones remind Decker that the Ilia-probe is only a machine. The music helps us understand what is going on with the scene. If you hate this film, you can’t argue against me on how well the music was done and how it was used.



Acting and the Wardrobe-(How the actors and actresses do and also how is the costumes and props)

Ok, I feel like I need to start with the costumes. The costumes are not good at all. The main problem is the constant changes, I will point out the epaulets on the shoulders for the blue uniforms. The uniform’s epaulets appear and disappear off the uniforms. This a surprise that this happens and is pretty noticeable. They also gain a flap on the shirt to cover the crotch because of some of the awkward shots proving that the pants are way too tight. The main problem is that black thing on their belly. For a long time I have not known what the thing that looks like a belt buckle without the belt. After listening to the commentary I found out that it is a health monitor, and was revealed in the book for the story. This is a problem, why not have Bones check one or just delete them if they are not going to use them at all. I will also say that this is a weird choice of a uniform. Now I know people are going to tell me that this coming from a show that had different bright colored shirts and the girls wore miniskirts. I understand your point, but the thing is that we had a consistency, They wore the same uniform at all times, they had a consistency of the wardrobe at all times,. The captain may have his own special uniform, but the uniforms for the standard crew have the same style and also denote the person’s rank and department. These keep changing, and makes it hard to understand who is what. Now to the acting, The original cast was good to most part, Kirk at times could be better and most of the time the characters are speaking information, but they do it in character and don’t try to bury us in complete technobabble. The sad thing is that Decker and Ilia don’t have enough time to develop as characters and as a couple. The worst part is from the acting in the let’s look at something on the viewscreen and then show the characters reacting to what we saw. This is just not needed at all and I have to say it, cut it down a little or add some dialog to break up the monotony of nothing is even happening. Now to do something I will try to do with my reviews of movies, I will point out some of the best actors and actresses in the film. So here they are

1. Leonard Nimoy as Spock: This is the best actor on the set. He is playing Spock as a man who is trying to finally deal with his duality. He also shows that he sometimes puts his needs above the crew, when he tells Kirk to go on even when they know they are in serious danger. He feels like he is doing the same thing as V’ger is doing, trying to understand who he truly is. A great character with a great arc for himself.

2. DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy or “Bones” Bones comes back as a man who is there because he is needed and sees that he is also there to keep Kirk grounded. Kelley brings our favorite southern family space doctor back with all of his great delivery of his dry humor. My favorite line comes from him, “Your child is throwing one hell of a temper tantrum. Now what do you propose us to do? Spank it?” I do say it is a surprise to see Bones in disco clothes and a beard. I think he looks like a giant disco-loving leprechaun.



Standout Scenes-
The scenes that I'm going to bring up are mainly scenes that are not even needed at all. First is the nightmare fuel that is the transporter accident. The only reason it was done was to get rid of the character of Commander Sonak, who was only used as an information dump for Kirk at Starfleet HQ. In other words, he is not needed. In fact they actually have a better scene they could have used. Kirk states he is going to see the admiral to get command of the Enterprise back, how about showing us that and giving us an understanding on the drive Kirk has to get command of a starship, remove the need for Sonak and don’t have to give us some nightmare fuel for the kids. For those of you who need to know, the film was rated a G at the time.


The second one is the shower scene, not needed at all for the story, it is only there for gawking at Ilia and to take her out of her Starfleet uniform and give her the iconic bathrobe and clear high-heel shoes. Just have her in her Starfleet uniform in her room and Kirk and company are happy to see her back. Kirk turns her around to say he is sorry for what happen or ask if she is ok and see her lifeless stare and the red light on her neck. That is more scary, you think everything is ok and then realize that things have gotten even worse.


Finally, the wormhole sequence is not needed at all and can be removed by use of a safety feature activating every time Kirk impatiently tries to warp. It will also take away the silliest special effect of the movie that happens during this part. Also I need to point this out as a moment of fan service, the scene where the crew is in the recreation hall is full of people that were a part of The Star Trek Fan club, Save Star Trek movement who gave the original series one more season on the air, and other people that loved the franchise and became a part of it. What a thank you to the dedicated fans who waited a decade to see a Star Trek film on the silver screen.

OVERALL & DIY-(My thoughts on the film overall and what can be done to improve the film)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is not a bad, but at the same time not a good film. This is a film that can be divisive, some people enjoy the film, and others think it is one of the worst created. The main thing is that this film is more like 2001: A Space Odyssey, than it is Star Wars . The film has the slow pace for that reason, why would you want to quickly reveal who V’ger was? If the film was more of an action film, that is a complete no-brainer, you want to reveal who the true threat is pretty soon so we understand what we are facing. In a mystery you want to wait until near the end so we have the fear of dealing with an unknown entity. If you are going into this film, make sure you understand that this is not an action film, it's more like a Sherlock Holmes story. That said there's some very big problems, and like Bones I have a hypospray that could have fixed the problems.

1. Paramount Pictures should have slowed down and gave the film proper pre-production time.
This film was rushed through, the constant script changes, the mess with the uniforms and the words of the director calling this film the rough cut tells me this film was a mess because they did not have the time to iron out all the deals on what is going on within the film, and was the main reason for the crazy ballooning cost and made the weak story.

2. The story and the characters should have been the focus of the film, not the effects.
When you make a mystery story, you need to spend more of your time with the cast and help us understand what is going on, and how they are dealing with the situation. We need to care about the characters and sadly the most important characters for the story, Decker and Ilia were not given enough time to give us time to care about them and feel sad when Ilia disappears. Sadness about what has happened to a character comes from us caring about said character. If we don’t have the time to develop that feeling of care for them, we won’t be affected the way you want us to. The film is driven by the special effects and that doesn't not work well for a mystery film and will weaken the film over time as the effects age. This is sad because Robert Wise knows how to do this, he directed West Side Story and The Sound of Music, stories that are driven by the characters.

3. Knowing when to cut or if you need to add some dialog.
Some of the worst things is the long sets of look out the viewscreen and see the characters react, this again is showing the film is special effects driven. What is needed at times is to either give us some good dialog to help us understand what is going on and how they are feeling. That will help the Enterprise Beauty Sweep and the V’ger pass over a great deal. The second is if it doesn’t need to be that long, cut down on the scene. The pass through the clouds that hide V’ger is a good place to do this. These scenes are nice but the lack of something going on will slowly bore the audience.

4. Have the people running the production understand the franchise they are working on.
I’m not asking for Star Trek fans to be the only people that can work on a Star Trek film. What I want is for the people who work on any franchise, they should understand what they are working with. Robert Wise has a lot of problems because of the production mess, but it was made worse by his lack of knowledge of the series.


Final Thoughts-
In the end, an average film that is deeply flawed. I enjoy it, but I don’t watch the film much because there is no true reason that the film sticks in your mind. This is pretty sad because it sets things for the franchise. One item that can be pointed to is the star field cradled by olive branches that is on the floor at Starfleet headquarters is established as the symbol of the Federation. Some may hate this film but Star Trek: The Motion Picture brought the franchise out of syndicated limbo and gave it a new life. I recommend renting it if you don’t know if you would like it or not. I will agree that this film is not the best of the bunch, but this is not the big, bad, stinker people say it is.

Next time on Shore Leave, one word will tell you what I’m facing
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

Until Then, Peace and Long Life
Dauntless2000

Shore Leave Header By Dogpyl. Star Trek and all of the things connected to it is owned by Paramount Pictures. All items are used under Fair Use for review and commentary reasons.