Star Trek - The Motion Picture is a theatrical release based on the TV series that aired from 1966-1969. After the series was cancelled, Paramount had two directions to consider taking the franchise. One direction was to adapt it to the big screen. The other direction was to relaunch it in a new series called Phase II. Paramount eventually decided on producing a theatrical film. The pilot for the Phase II TV series became the plot for the film.

Returning crew members are Leonard "Bones" Mccoy, (DeForest Kelley) Spock (Leonard Nimoy) James T. Kirk, (William Shatner) Montgomery Scott, James Doohan, Uhura, (Michelle Nichols) and Hikaru Sulu (George Takei). New crew members include Capt. William Decker, (Stephen Collins) and Ilia (Persis Khambatta).

The story involves a giant probe hidden in a cloud heading towards Earth. It has destroyed 3 klingon ships in its path. A starfleet monitoring station detects the probe. Meanwhile, back at starfleet, the enterprise is being reworked. New systems and upgrades are being added. The crew is being headed by a new Captain, William Decker. James T Kirk, shows up and assumes command, much to the anger of Captain Decker. Meanwhile, there is a transporter malfunction in which two officers, one of them a science officer get their molecules scrambled by the transporter.

The crew get called to the assembly room where they get a look at the threat that is headed for Earth. James T. Kirk takes command and launches the mission immediately, but between the reworking of the enterprise being incomplete and Kirk being unfamiliar with the new configurations, the mission turns out to get a rough start and tensions between Kirk and Decker rise. Spock finally shows up and they work on the enterprise and optimise it for the mission. They eventually make it to the space probe named V-Ger and they find themselves in a battle of wits. What follows is a showcase of special effects and long scenes of trippy images. The crew eventually find out what V-Ger is, where it came from, what its purpose is and how it intends to acheive that purpose.

Star Trek - The Motion Picture was received with rather negative reviews. The common complaints were that it was too slow and boring. The production was rushed to get the film ready for release in theatres by Christmas 1979. The unfortunate result was a film with unfinished effects, and long running scenes.

When Star Trek - The Motion Picture reached television, new scenes were added to the film bumping it up to 143 minutes from its original 132 minutes in its theatrical release. Robert Wise, the director of the film expressed disappointment in the product released in 1979, calling it a good rough cut of the film he wanted to make. In 2001, he was allowed to go back and revisit the film. He redid the effects, made further edits to some scenes, and tightened up the pacing of the film. What resulted was a smoother version of the film called Star Trek - The Motion Picture: The Directors Edition. It was released on DVD November of 2001.

People received this version of the film a lot better than the previous versions. Many scenes were reworked including the title sequence, which was originally a white lettering over a black background. Spocks planet Vulcan was fixed in the revision. Many other visual mistakes were fixed, and new effects were added throughout the film, giving it a more "complete" feel.

This film is still regarded as the slowest moving Star Trek film of the series. Even with its revisions the movie can bore some people whojust want to see spacebattles, but the changes to this film make a significant difference. But after the overwhelming opening scene with the Klingons, you would think that the film would keep that same pace but it almost immediately slows down after that sequence. This film is followed by Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan.

Run Time - 136 mins (Director's Cut) 132 mins (Theatrical) 143 mins (television)

Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1 (35MM, DVD) 2.20:1 (70MM)

Sound Mix - 70MM 6 Track stereo (70MM prints) Dolby Stereo (35MM prints) Dolby Digital (DVD)

Rating - G (theatrical) PG (Director's Cut)

Cast

William Shatner - James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy - Spock

DeForest Kelley - Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

James Doohan - Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott

George Takei - Hikaru Sulu

Majel Barrett - Christine Chapel

Walter Koenig - Pavel Chekov

Persis Khambatta - Ilia

Stephen Collins - William Dekker

Music by Jerry Goldsmith

Directed By Robert Wise

Picture

The DVD presents the film in its original anamorphic Panavision theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Good color reproduction and black levels. The picture is enhanced for widescreen TVs. There are some signs of aging on the elements used for this presentation but it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of th film at all.

Sound

The DVD boasts a new 5.1 Dolby sound mix. The reproduction is faithful to the original presentation and doesn't sound too tampered with. The music is mixed wonderfully into the soundtrack and sound effects are crisp and dynamic. Channel seperation is good as well. The DVD also has the original 2.0 stereo surround mix.

Extras

This is a 2 disc set with the film and a couple of extra features on one disc and the rest of the features on the other. The first disc has the audio commentary by the filmmakers and a text commentary. Disc 2 has documentaries and interviews that talk about the production of Star Trek - The Motion Picture. There are also deleted scenes from the other editions of the film. Lastly, the DVD has a set of trailers and TV spots for the film.

When the Star Trek films were released on DVD, they were released in counter chronological order, meaning the latest Star Trek film (then, Insurrection) was released first as bare bones DVD copies. Not all of them had good transfers (some of them weren't even enhanced for widescreen TVs). By the time they got to The Motion Picture, they allowed Robert Wise to fine tune his film for release and gave the film a special edition release. They went upward with the release of the other Star Trek films giving them similar treatment (2 disk special editions) and improving the transfers on some of them. (New anamorphic transfer)

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