STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE Director's Edition review

I was five days from being eight years old when I first saw STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE and it was not the first Star Trek that I had seen on the silver screen. In the film and comic and science fiction conventions of the seventies, where I grew up, Classic Star Trek episodes were nearly always shown on the big screen in 16mm.

I grew up in the pupa stage of STAR TREK, for a brief time in my earliest of years Star Trek was new in the form of the animated episodes on Television, but I remember the convention circuit at the time. No licensed STAR TREK memorabilia. Fan created Phasers, stills, buttons, tribbles, Spock Ears, patches, blue prints, etc…

A cash industry given birth by the neglect of the corporation that killed that which so many loved. At the heart of it was a wonderful lady named Bjo Trimble. Next to Forrest J Ackerman, Bjo Trimble is the greatest fan ever. She rallied the Trek fans together, traveled the country to conventions gathering thousands upon thousands of names. Back when such an endeavor required leg work and a great deal of personal expense. Back in a time when that fan in Walla Walla, Washington had no idea about the one in Lampasas, Texas. She found them and joined them on a list of names that refused to let a communal love for bold exploration of Science Fiction die. To keep the dream of STAR TREK alive.

I remember everything about STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE’s anticipation. The second we heard that Robert Wise had signed on to direct, I remember my parents and their friends all trembling in anticipation. This wasn’t some first time director, some actor turned director, some ex-television fella…. This was the man that edited CITIZEN KANE, that directed THE HAUNTING, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, WEST SIDE STORY and the greatest science fiction film of all time, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. This was one of film’s finest talents.

We heard that famed Science Fiction author Alan Dean Foster had written the story upon which the film’s script was adapted. We heard that the entire crew was back, though there was a fear… a rumble that Leonard Nimoy was going to hold out, but when it was announced that he had signed aboard there was great hope.

I remember in STARLOG, I had read that the effects geniuses behind STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, SILENT RUNNING and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY had signed aboard. For months we saw conception sketches in STARLOG, FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, CINEFANTASTIQUE, CINEFEX and various fan publications.

The Convention circuit was alive with the murmurs of something extraordinary on its way.

Finally I remember standing in the line for the 7:40 showing of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE at the Capital Plaza Theater. We were about 60 people back from the front. I had a two inch thick stack of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE gum cards in my hand, and a mouthful of their gum… I had just purchased them from the Walgreen’s.

The line was abuzz. This was going to be quite something. I don’t remember one person being in ‘costume’ standing in that line strange enough, but that sort of fervor was just beneath the surface of all present.

We moved into the theater, at the time it was a two screener. We had seen ALIEN here, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND here. This was a special place. This place showed good films. Ones that now populate my collection.

I remember hearing that Jerry Goldsmith score for the first time and the goose-pimpled flesh across my arms resembling that of a freshly plucked turkey. I sat front row center.

I remember seeing those Klingons with the bumpy foreheads for the first time and not knowing what the hell they were. I remember thinking they looked real cool though. I remember the shuttlecraft ride with Kirk and Scotty as they were moving from the space station to the Enterprise and it was like looking at the Enterprise for the first time.

I loved the shape of the Enterprise as it was on the TV show, but the Enterprise was always a toy, a model…. Something I could hold in my hand and zoom around with. This Enterprise in Robert Wise’s film. This was the most magnificent vessel created by anyone or anything. Genuinely awe-inspiring. And that score… Where did that come from, that music… that… that’s just a new type of Star Trek.

If the TV show had been WAGON TRAIN in Space, this wanted to be closer to THE SEARCHERS… To my nearly 8 year old monkey brain, the film was the stuff of dreams. It was years till I was attune to the pacing problems. I was always kind of hurt by the comments from the adult friends of my parents that nicknamed the flick, STAR TREK THE MOTIONLESS PICTURE.

After watching STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, I never really had the patience for Robert Wise’s film. It seemed like a bold experiment that didn’t really capture me anymore. I loved the score. I’d fast forward to my favorite scenes on my VHS tape, but rarely did I watch the entire film. And the years were excessively unkind to the film. The dream of the film was always more than what I saw in the movie. It aspired to be something that it never was. It aspired to be SERIOUS SCIENCE FICTION, not a T.V. show for the big screen. The classic characters always seemed like they were almost the characters we knew before, but not really.

Nimoy always felt like a shroom eater, Kelley seemed constipated, Shatner was never really a commander and the rest of the crew was never really there much at all. I wrote it off to being rusty, to actors that just had been out of character too long.

When I heard that Robert Wise was working with the guys that helped put together the ALIENS and ABYSS special edition cuts together… This fella David Fein… Well, I was a bit excited, but both of those films were superior films to ST:TMP to begin with, so I always figured that there would be flaws that simply could not possibly be corrected.

I got the DVD about 4 hours ago. The second that I peeled all those damn security stickers off my DVD box, I popped it open, place the disc in my player, turned up the Dolby Digital, my super sub-woofer… my high density screen, shut down all light sources, put my G4 to sleep, turned off my phones, and laid back for what I hoped would be a nice treat.

Paramount should be ashamed of themselves. This edit should be in theaters. This isn’t a minor achievement in quality increase. This is now a great film. I am literally stunned right now.

It isn’t a matter of effects, so much as it is about dynamics of motion… The tightening of scenes…. Little tweaks here and there…. An added scene here, a missing one here… Revealing more about the characters, keeping a character from being less than he should be.

First off, the Visual Effects shots are absolutely superior, while remaining exactly of the same palette as the original film. These new shots add a consistent sense of grandeur that Wise achieved so very well in some scenes, yet not at all in others. Now… Now the film is a sweeping science fiction epic… Man facing the unknown that comes from that place where no man has gone before.

The picture quality was gorgeous… the richness of the colors… Everything just gorgeous. The new sound… DEAR GOD, it was magnificent. The remix was handled to perfection and not bungled like those that were toying with SUPERMAN recently. From beginning to end there is a quality increase in the sound that never once falters to my ears on this great sound system of mine.

I’d like to tell you about the 90 or more new visual effects shots, but to be honest… I can’t. They are that seamlessly integrated. I’m sure that there were scenes of the Enterprise passing into the great V-GER ship that I had never seen, but they were intercut with old ones so well that all I got was an increased feeling of motion and dynamics of shots. The results were exactly what was needed.

Suddenly this film feels like it belongs in Trumbull and Dykstra’s Filmography. It always was nice… but before it always felt like a travelogue, and not at all threatening and ominous and creepy and moody and scary and mysterious. That’s right, these new shots actually ADD to the ATMOSPHERE.

For the first time in too long, I’m looking at not only real STAR TREK, but frankly… This is Star Trek where it should always be. Smart Science Fiction told by great Narrative Filmmakers and folks of vision…. Not the fumblings of visionless hucksters that have kidnapped the franchise since the death of Roddenberry.

I have yet to venture into the second DVD… The one loaded with deleted scenes, documentaries and the behind the scenes joys… That will be what I do tomorrow. For now I’m in the afterglow of watching perhaps the best STAR TREK movie and dealing with the realization that due to the lack of vision of cowardly executives, this final masterpiece of Robert Wise's will never be projected upon a Silver Screen as it so needs to be.

To Robert Wise… I salute you, I finally see what you were talking about. To David Fein and the folks at Foundation Imaging, I wish you guys were in charge of Star Trek instead of the Great Turd of the Galaxy.

Wow… I can’t believe I’m this jazzed over STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE. Wow. This has been a film I’ve been dissatisfied and pissed off about for over 20 years. Wow.