I’m starting a series driving deeply into the Star Trek Original Series movies, beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture from 1979. Listen to the podcast version or read the text version below.
Welcome to Nerd Heaven. I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars.
Today, we’re starting a gradual journey through the original series Star Trek movies by talking about the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The description on IMDB reads
When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.
The movie was written by Gene Roddenberry, Harold Livingston, and Alan Dean Foster
It was directed by Robert Wise
And it first aired on the 8th of December 1979
Which means, this is the very first piece of Star Trek content to be released while I was alive.
And to be clear, I’m looking at the Director’s cut which was released in 2001 and then remastered into 4K in 2022. Because in my opinion, this is a far superior version of the film, and as far as I know, most people agree.
Some people bemoan this as a terrible movie, and it certainly has some big problems. But it also has some good things going for it.
I’d say one of the biggest weaknesses is the script.
Looking at the writers, Gene Roddenberry and Harold Livingston were both mostly known as TV writers. Alan Dean Foster is most known as a novelist.
Much of the script of this movie seems to be copied directly from the original series episode The Changeling. Although I’ll say this is a much better version of the story than The Changeling was.
But despite the script problems, this is actually the most cinematic feeling of the TOS movies. It feels very different to the TV show. It feels like a big screen movie.
The movie actually starts with an opening overture. Basically, they play a selection of music from the score while a starfield slowly scrolls past the screen. I think this was the filmmakers trying to show how seriously they were taking this thing. This isn’t just that cheesy TV show you remember from the 60s. This is a serious piece of cinema.
To be honest, this overture feels a bit pretentious to me, but shows that they were trying to create a masterpiece. When I first saw this movie (on VHS in the late 90s, because I was only one year old when it hit cinemas) I was really confused by the overture. Was this some kind of weird mistake? What movie starts like this?
It’s very interesting to me, given this movie was very much made in response to Star Wars. Can you imagine a fast-paced Star Wars movie starting like this?
It reminds me of something that Roberto Orci said about Star Trek being beautiful classical music and Star Wars being rock and roll.
After the overture, we get the Motion Picture Theme, or as most of us probably know it, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Theme. And what a piece of music it is. I dare you to listen to this music and not get chills. While people may talk about the original series theme being iconic, to me, when I think of Star Trek, I think of the theme from The Motion Picture.
Interestingly, we almost didn’t get it. When the director listened to the score for this movie, he was kinda not impressed. He said to Jerry Goldsmith, “this is nice and all, but where is the theme? Where is the Star Trek theme?” This is what Goldsmith wrote in response.
I imagine it must have been awkward to have that conversation with a highly talented Hollywood composer. But I’m glad it happened, otherwise we might not have this.
As the credits begin to appear, this movie also gives us the Star Trek font which would be used all the way through the Berman era. It’s the one used for both Deep Space Nine and Voyager. To this day, I still think of this as THE Star Trek font.
We get our first look at V’ger. Three Klingon ships approach
Speaking of great music, the Klingon theme is really iconic. And this is the first time it appeared.
Viewers of the show would recognise these ships as Klingon immediately The K’Tinga class is a more detailed version of the D7. It looks better on the big screen. The ships look gorgeous But when viewers got a view of the inside of the ship, they would have had quite a shock.
This movie gave us the first Ridged Klingons. They look a little funky here. Star Trek 3 would improve the look, and the Berman era would improve it further, but this was the genesis.
I think it was a good move to give the Klingons ridges. All the TV show had been able to do was put a little brown paint on the actors faces, and give them all beards. They would not have looked good on the movie screen. These Klingons look much more alien. It’s ironic I say this, because I wasn’t a fan of the Discovery Klingons, although my main issue was the lack of hair.
Discovery redesigned the Klingons for the exact same reason. They had the budget to do more detail. Discovery would be airing in high definition. They wanted to take advantage of that. And while I wasn’t a fan of that choice, I did give the Discovery Klingons credit for looking more alien. So why the difference? Am I a hypocrite? Well….maybe. But the way I see it, the change was needed here. It was not needed in Discovery. The Berman-era Klingons already looked great. They didn’t NEED an upgrade.
But enough of that.
This movie also establishes the architectural look of the inside of a Klingon ship. Lots of bare metal and red lights. It also gives us our first exposure to the Klingon language.
And while Mark Okrand is credited as creating the Klingon language, and with good reason, let’s not forget that the sound of the Klingon language was really the creation of James Doohan. Okrand didn’t just ignore that. He considered every word in this movie to be canon, so when he created the language, he made sure that the random words Doohan came up with were valid Klingon.
I wouldn’t have blamed him for ignoring the words from this movie, but that’s the kind of dedication Okrand had to honouring and respecting Star Trek canon. We Star Trek fans are often derided for our obsession with canon, but looking back to this era, you see how seriously the creators of the franchise took it. I think that’s something we’ve lost.
This movie gave us so many firsts of iconic elements of what we think of as Star Trek to this day.
Next we see Epsilon 9. It’s a very different looking space station. All we’ve seen before in Trek was Deep Space Station K7. This looks more real-life. More NASA. It’s telling that this is the first live action Star Trek made since humans landed on the moon.
The NASA era is reflected in the set design of this movie too.
And if you’re not aware, the commander of the station is the same actor that was going to play Xon, the Vulcan science officer replacing Spock in the Phase II TV series. I mentioned this a few episodes back when I talked about the Star Trek New Voyages episode “The holiest Thing” Of course I don’t expect you to remember that because due to an extended break, that episode was about 2 years ago.
The Klingons attack the cloud, as Klingons do, and all three ships are destroyed.
This is all we see of the Klingons in the movie. But their inclusion was important. When the big bads of the original series get wiped out like this, we know that whatever this cloud is, it means business. And we should be scared. It’s not easy to make us afraid of a cloud, but this does the job. And it’s on a direct course for earth.
The new exterior CGI shots of Vulcan look awesome. They integrate well with the live action footage from the 70s.
Spock is on Vulcan, to complete his attainment of Kolinahr, the purging of all remaining emotions, a discipline he has adopted to help him deal with the pain of McKenna’s death in “To Boldly Go, Part 2”, and his guilt over the emotional decision he made.
You’ll have to excuse me. If you’re not aware, when I was last actively producing this podcast, I covered the fan series “Star Trek Continues” which leads directly into this movie. And, in my opinion, greatly enhances Spock’s arc in this film, which was already good to begin with.
But it turns out, Spock has not attained Kolinahr. There is a consciousness in space calling to him. It touches his human blood. He has failed. He will not find his answers here. He must find out what this consciousness is.
The new CGI shot of Kirk’s shuttle flying over the Golden Gate bridge is awesome. But so, in my opinion, was the original matte. This is better, obviously, but I want to give credit to the original artists.
I’ve always liked the shuttle we see Kirk arrive in here. So much better looking that the pod that will later take him to the Enterprise. It’s sleek and cool.
Kirk emerges in his Admiral’s uniform – the only really good looking uniform in this movie. I said in my last episode, I wish they’d just used this uniform for everyone. Sadly, even Kirk will change to the aqua pyjamas once he takes command of the Enterprise.
We meet Commander Sonak, a Vulcan assigned as the new science officer on the Enterprise. We learn the Enterprise is currently under the command of a Captain Decker, and that Kirk intends to be on the Enterprise following a short meeting with Admiral Nogura.
The space station orbiting Earth looks fantastic. So much good model work in this movie. How impressive it must have looked in 79 compared to the TV show.
Kirk beams up and meets Scotty with a moustache. That must have been a surprise to viewers at the time. Growing up I was much more familiar with the movies than the show, so going back and seeing a clean-shaven Scotty was really weird to me.
They take the shuttle pod over the the Enterprise in Spacedock, because the ship’s transporter isn’t working yet. This scene is one of the reasons many people jokingly call this movie “The Slow Motion Picture.” And that’s a fair criticism. The sequence goes on for AGES. I get it, it shows off the scale of the visual effects. It lets us linger on the gorgeous new Enterprise. But you feel like you’ve run a marathon after watching it.
Fortunately, the scene is significantly shortened in the director’s cut, and it still does its job.
Imagine watching this scene without the iconic TMP theme. I’ve seen a little clip of the scene with the original music, and it’s not good. The music, together with the visuals, is what pulls you through.
Speaking of the Enterprise, I LOVE the refit constitution class. It looks like it has weight to it. The Enterprise in the TOS movies looks amazing. One of my favourite Enterprises.
Usually when a director does a director’s cut of a movie, it’s longer. They add in scenes that were cut from the original. But this director’s cut reduces a lot of the unnecessary fluff. And there was a lot of it. The deadlines were so tight on this movie they just didn’t have time to finish editing it properly, and the pacing REALLY suffered.
The interior of the Enterprise also has a reality to it, when compared to the show. Looking down into the shuttle bay and seeing that flying tram thing really gives you a sense that this is a real spaceship. A big spaceship.
The bridge set is new and more modern looking, but very respectful of the original. It feels familiar. The crew are delighted to see Kirk return to take command. All except an ensign who didn’t serve under Kirk during the 5 year mission. He quite fairly points out the unfairness to Captain Decker who has been with this ship for every minute of the refit.
But he says it in a very awkward unnatural way. “Captain Decker…” and then a pause, almost as if he’s meaning to address Decker, “and then adds “he’s been with…” That line has always struck me as a bit weird. But, this guy is an alien, so maybe that’s how his language is structured. At least, that’s my head canon.
When Uhura says the chances of them returning from this mission alive may have just doubled, does that show a severe lack of faith in her captain, or is it just an immense respect for Kirk? I think if we’re really honest, for her to say that, it’s got to be both.
We get our first look at the new engineering set, and it’s massive. Very impressive, showing the cinematic scale of this thing compared to the TV show. We also get our first look at a warp core, not that they call it that in this movie. I think it was just meant to look cool. It wouldn’t be until TNG that they canonised the name of the tall glowing thing.
That’s crazy to think about for a technology that is so synonymous with star trek
And of course, we’d see this style of warp core again in Voyager.
We meet Decker for the first time. He seems a personable enough guy. A very hands-on kind of Captain, which makes sense in the situation, with the ship still undergoing refits.
Kirk gives him the news that he’s taking over, just like all those jerk admirals in the old days used to do to him. And I think that history from the show makes what Kirk is doing now even more impactful.
Not only is Decker being replaced by Kirk as captain, not only is he staying on in the reduced role of first officer, he’s being given a “temporary grade reduction to Commander” which is essentially a demotion. He’s being reduced in rank, temporarily or not, that seems really harsh.
Credit to Decker, he takes it calmly. He asks Kirk for a reason, which he gives. “Five years of experience facing unknowns like this one. His familiarity with the Enterprise and her crew.”
Now the first point is totally correct. He has invaluable experience to bring to such a critical mission.
But his second? Decker rips that one to shreds. This is almost a totally new Enterprise. Kirk doesn’t know her a tenth as well as Decker. He then reminds Kirk of how envious he felt when he recommended Decker for the job. How he hoped he’d get back in the centre seat some day. Looks like he found a way.
I honestly can’t blame Decker for his reaction. But it brings some nice tension into the movie. Kirk can’t argue with Decker’s words, so he simply orders him to the bridge.
It’s never said on screen, but Decker was meant to be the son of Commodore Decker from The Doomsday Machine.
That’s when the transporter fails. Kirk and Scotty run to the transporter room where we find a familiar face – Yeoman Rand at the console. Kirk and Scotty work to fix the problem, but they can’t do it. Due to a malfunction, two crewmembers are killed horrifically. One of them – commander Sonak.
It’s a grizzly scene, but a very impactful one. And credit to it, the scene is given the emotional weight it deserves. This is no redshirt death the way it was treated in TOS. They all grieve these deaths.
Decker is going to have to double as science officer and first officer. Something Spock did for many years
Kirk assembles the entire crew to brief them on the mission. V’ger’s cloud is over 2 AU in diameter. That’s huge. That’s twice the distance from earth to the sun. It destroys the Epsilon station.
Like the Klingon scene, this scene further highlights the horrific destructive potential of the cloud. It just moves through space devouring anything in its path. What can stop it? The stakes are very well established in this movie.
Sadly, this is the last time we’ll see Kirk in his cool uniform. He wears the same pyjamas as the rest of the crew from here on.
So then Lieutenant Iliya arrives. Their new navigator (Checkov having been promoted to security chief) We learn that she and Decker knew each other in the past. He was stationed on Iliya’s home planet. This relationship, obviously, was the inspiration for Riker and Troi. The scene is almost word for word with Encounter at Farpoint when they meet on the bridge.
Uhura makes a big thing about Iliya being Deltan. Now it’s generally agreed among Star Trek fans, that Deltan females produce some kind of pheromone that causes attraction and arousal in males. But the movie doesn’t outright say that. In fact, to my knowledge, there was no canon source that stated this until the Section 31 movie.
Iliya just says that she has an oath of celibacy on record (presumably so she doesn’t take advantage of males affected by her pheromones) and then Sulu stammers in front of her like a thirteen year old boy seeing a pretty girl for the first time. Checkov makes eyes at her too.
Later, we’ll see Iliya use mental abilities to relieve physical pain. That leaves me wondering if it’s not so much pheromones, as it is some kind of telepathic influence that she exudes.
My point here is that the script doesn’t tell us enough. It sets up this woman with an oath of celibacy. Okay. That’s an interesting idea. But it doesn’t do anything with it. It left me scratching my head in confusion the first few times I watched this movie.
And it raises some uncomfortable questions about her relationship with Decker. Are his feelings for her real? And why did she pursue something with him if she had this oath?
Is her oath just about the physical act? Or does it forbid her from forming relationships, because she clearly had a romantic relationship with Decker. But he left her planet for reasons that are not really explained. Maybe, like Riker, it was because of his career, or maybe, it had something to do with her oath. We’ll never know, unfortunately.
Interestingly, Iliya was originally created to be a character on the abandoned Star Trek Phase II show. There are a couple of photos around the internet of her in a TOS style uniform.
McCoy is refusing to beam aboard the Enterprise. Wanting others to go first to see how it scrambles their molecules.
This, of course, was a trait of McCoy. He was never a fan of the transporter. And yet he used it on a regular basis during TOS. He had to. So it seems he’s been overly difficult here.
But this whole scene feels a little insensitive after two crewmembers just died in a transporter malfunction, which essentially DID scramble their molecules. Rand, who was so traumatised by the incident, is still at the console, and Kirk kinda jokes about it. (joking about McCoy’s familiar words, not joking about the recent deaths)
The first time I saw this movie, that’s what I thought it was all about. Then I realised, oh, it’s just McCoy being McCoy.
McCoy’s physical appearance when he beams in is the most 70s thing I’ve EVER seen on Star Trek. The big bushy beard, the shirt undone to show his chest hair, the massive metal medallion around his neck. Honestly, it looks absurd. Has McCoy been hanging out on some kind of hippy colony all this time? It’s the one thing that really doesn’t age well in this movie.
The exchange between these two when they meet is super awkward. McCoy is grumpier than I’ve ever seen him. There is zero affection between these two old friends. It almost feels like they parted on bad terms. Certainly, McCoy isn’t happy about being pulled back into Starfleet, but it feels like much more than that.
In canon, we don’t know what their last farewell was like. But if we look at Star Trek Continues, we see that they clearly parted as friends. Friends that still intended to spend time together outside of work when they could.
I’m not saying I’m against friction and conflict between characters. In fact, I welcome it. But like the Iliya stuff, this just feels messy and incomplete.
We also learn here that Nurse Chapel is now a doctor.
The departure from spacedock is an event. I like the way they handle it.
This is the only time, I’m aware of, that an impulse speed is referred to as a fractional warp factor. In this case, warp 0.5. I would assume this means half the speed of light, as warp 1 is the speed of light.
When Kirk makes his log entry, we hear a version of the TOS tv theme music. I believe this arrangement was actually written by Alexander Courage. Goldsmith felt that would be best, as it was his piece of music. I think Courage did a great job of taking the familiar melody, from the TV theme, which lets be honest, sounds a little cheesy, and making it sound more cinematic. Great job. It definitely fits with the other music in the movie.
Scotty isn’t ready to give Kirk warp speed. The engine just isn’t ready yet. Kirk pushes. Time is of the essence. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. I suspect Kirk is really feeling that pressure. He’s faced dangerous unknowns out in space before, but the fate of Earth has never hung on the balance of his actions until now.
When McCoy calls him out on that, he says “your people know their jobs.”
DeForest Kelly doesn’t say this line very clearly. For years, I’ve thought that line was something like “Your people in other jobs”. I always thought this was a super weird line. There’s a lot of very strange dialog in this movie.
But watching it this time, I turned on the subtitles, and what do you know? “Your people know their jobs” makes so much more sense.
What I like about all of this is that Scotty and McCoy are right, but so is Kirk.
Of course, an engine imbalance creates a wormhole. Now this was kind of a cool idea, but it wasn’t implemented very well. First of all, the visual effect for the wormhole. I never bought that. I realise they didn’t have CGI in 1979 but even something traditionally animated would have worked better than this wireframe.
But what I really don’t like is the slow motion effect. The streaking effect and the extremely slow dialog make this scene tedious to watch, for me.
I get what they were trying to do, and I respect it, but it doesn’t entirely work for me.
Also, the plot is a bit fuzzy here. They’re caught in a wormhole, not sure where it’s taking them, and then suddenly there’s an asteroid in there with them, which isn’t seen or referenced until Iliya says “object is an asteroid”, which was a weird way to introduce that element. And then, destroying the asteroid somehow takes them out of the wormhole back to where they started? I dunno. It’s all a bit weird.
Of course this whole thing further highlights Kirk’s unfamiliarity with the new Enterprise, and how Decker knows much more.
It was wise of Kirk not to have an argument on the bridge in the middle of the situation. He must have suspected Decker had a good reason for countermanding his order. He takes it up in private. As he should.
He accuses Decker of competing with him. I don’t think Dekker is competing, and I do think he has valid concerns about Kirk’s lack of familiarity with the redesign. Of course, Dekker is probably underestimating Kirk’s proven ability to command a ship and deal with the unknown.
When Dekker leaves, McCoy says Dekker may be right. He points out Kirk is obsessed with getting the Enterprise back, that he’s the one who is competing. This is the kind of frank conversation that can happen between trusted friends. Kirk is probably more receptive to it because it’s coming from Bones.
This movie doesn’t entirely portray Kirk in the most positive light. And I’m actually pretty pleased that it had the guts to do something like that. I like flawed heroes.
The scene in Kirk’s quarters has been cut down significantly for the director’s cut. And this is a big improvement. This is one of those scenes that had really awkward and strange dialog.
So Spock shows up. A transport that wants to come alongside and board the Enterprise. Checkov suspects it is a courier. This all seems really weird to me. Even if you’re not on a critical mission to save earth, why would a random courier need to come aboard without explanation or identification. Very strange. But, that’s how we get Spock on the ship.
The Vulcan shuttle with detachable nacelles is kinda cool.
Needless to say the crew are pretty surprised to see him. He’s been monitoring their situation. He believes the gas cloud they are trying to intercept is the same entity that has been reaching out to him on Vulcan. They have a common goal, so he offers his services as science officer. Spock discusses the equations with Scotty and gets the warp drive working. Now they have a chance. The warp effect looks like a 70s video game, but don’t worry, we’ll get an awesome warp effect in Star Trek 2 which will be used for the rest of the TOS movie era.
Spock meets Kirk and McCoy in the rec lounge. McCoy says “Spock, you haven’t changed a bit. You’re just as warm and sociable as ever.” But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Spock is very different from the TV series. He’s significantly colder. Significantly less sociable. He’s practically a machine. This, of course, makes plot sense. Spock has been undergoing the Kolinahr discipline. He’s been trying to purge all remaining emotions.
Bones is concerned that given this entity’s importance to him, Spock might put his own needs ahead of the ships. Kirk can’t possibly believe this, and is insulted he’d even say such a thing. But I think McCoy is seeing the difference in Spock. This is not the same man they were friends with.
This scene has also been significantly re-cut and it plays SO much better. Also, I like the view of the nacelles through the windows. Nice touch from the director’s cut.
So they arrive at the cloud. Still a day from earth. Kirk is playing it very cautiously. Not wanting to scan or even raise shields, to risk appearing hostile. Given how things went the last time ships encountered this cloud, his caution would seem to be wise.
Dekker doesn’t agree.
Spock’s ability to telepathically sense the thoughts of whatever is in the cloud proves vital to the mission. He can sense puzzlement. They have been contacted. Why did they not reply? The reason of course, is that it transmits in a high frequency at an extremely high rate of speed – which makes sense for the nature of what is inside.
The cloud fires its first plasma ball at the Enterprise. The new shields hold. For the first time, something survives an encounter with its weapons. The choice to have Chapel come to the bridge to treat Chekov rather than McCoy was kinda cool because it gave Chapel a little more to do in the story. And there is still plenty of McCoy in it.
Sadly, the new shields won’t handle the second attack, which is coming. Spock retransmits just in time. In the original version, we just see the bridge, and the sound slowly fades away. It always felt messy, unfinished and anti-climactic.
In the director’s cut, we actually see the plasma ball approach the Enterprise and then dissipate at the last second. This is a massive improvement. I was absolutely thrilled to see it the first time I watched this version.
Spock doesn’t believe the shot was intended as a merciful warning. He senses no emotion. Only pure logic.
Decker argues that moving into the cloud is an unwarranted gamble. I have to disagree with him this time. I mean, this is why they came out here. This thing is a day from Earth. It’ll likely destroy the planet when it gets there. If they don’t go inside ….. What do they do? Yes, it’s extremely risky, but this is their job. To investigate, to understand, and hopefully, to find a solution.
I’m really not sure what Decker’s next move would be. Kirk asks Deker how he defines unwarranted. He has no immediate answer.
We get an extended sequence here of shots of visual effects shots, and cutting back to reaction shots of the crew’s faces. This scene does a good job of building up curiosity and wonder regarding what’s inside the cloud, but even in the director’s cut, it goes on way longer than many viewers will have patience for. The crew are in awe of what they see. The Size. The power required to generate it all. And I do feel some of that awe with them.
They emerge into a massive chamber. One thing I’ll credit that whole sequence with, it does a good job of building a sense of wonder, which is a very important part of sci-fi to me.
They can no longer communicate outside of the cloud, so they’re on their own.
Despite what I said about McCoy having plenty to do in the film, it amuses me when he walks on to the bridge, has a look at the viewscreen, and then leaves. Just so we don’t forget he’s there. I guess he was escorting Checkov.
Now, rather than seeing an extended shot of clouds and light, we’re seeing an extended sequence of model shots. This is more interesting, in my opinion.I think they’d have been better off ditching almost all of the previous sequence. The sparkly lights just weren’t all that interesting. But the model shots, they’re a lot more compelling.
You get a nice sense of scale as you see a tiny Enterprise flying over what is clearly a highly zoomed in view of part of the alien craft.
We won’t get a real look at what this craft looks like in its entirety until the end of the movie, and even that didn’t appear in the original theatrical version.
Here, we’re seeing it all from the Enterprise crew’s perspective. And they’re dwarfed.
It’s all good stuff, but we definitely linger on these shots much longer than a modern audience would be willing to tolerate.
Maybe we’ve lost something.
A crackling energy probe appears on the bridge. It scans the technology and crew.
Kirk’s comment “it doesn’t seem interested in us, only the ship” gives some credence to the popular fan theory that the Borg made V’ger.
Aand then the probe disintegrates Iliya.
“This is how I define unwarranted,” says Decker.
And as truly tragic as any person’s death is, I still think Kirk made the right call to enter the cloud.
It’s kinda shocking to see her death, as she hasn’t been in the movie very much yet. She wasn’t one of the main cast, so we’re more likely to believe her death is real and permanent, but neither was she a random redshirt. Themovie had developed her as a character with at least one relationship with another.
Of course, we’ll see her again in a different form.
Decker doesn’t seem too sad, to be honest. Sure, he’s a professional, he has to put his feelings aside and do his job, but it still feels a little unrealistic, for someone he had such strong feelings for.
The Enterprise is seized by a tractor beam and pulled inside the alien craft.
Spock continually makes arguments against trying to escape the tractor beam. He has logical enough answers, but Decker asks “Why are you opposed to trying?” prompting Kirk and McCoy to share a nervous knowing look.
I’m amused by the number of times Bones enters the bridge, has a look around, and then walks out again. This is the second time. I understand there are practical film-makling reasons for this, you don’t want to pay DeForst Kelly to stand around for days on the bridge set being a glorified extra, but it’s still funny.
The alien craft seems to be sensor-resistant. That’s when they detect an unexpected lifeform aboard the ship. What looks like Lieutenant Ilia in the sonic shower. With a glowing sensor in her neck. A probe, programmed by V’ger to scan and record the functioning of the Enterprise.
Having V’ger use Iliya’s body as a template for a probe that can interact with the Enterprise and its crew makes good story sense, but it’s also a great way of continuing to use the actress, while having that tragic moment of consequence for them entering the cloud.
The probe gives us the interesting revelation that it is on course for earth because that’s where it expects to find the creator.
V’ger intends to join with the creator and become one.
So why would something so alien, so advanced, expect to find its creator on Earth? A compelling mystery
The probe has been designed to mimic the biology and function of a human body in exacting details.
Spock makes a fascinating observation that when the probe sees Decker, it refers to him as “Decker”, not “Decker Unit”, which is how it addresses the rest of the crew.
This, of course, reveals that some recognition, conscious or otherwise, of the intimacy between Iliya and Decker still remains in this probe. V’ger may have copied the pattern too closely.
This is something they can use to their advantage. Perhaps get her sense of loyalty to surface.
But to Decker, that probe, in another form, is what killed Iliya. So this is going to be an emotionally tough assignment.
The Rec room is a pretty cool set. A nice area for the crew to relax.
He has some success momentarily, as they play a game that Iliya enjoyed. But the probe quickly reasserts itself, stating that the device serves no purpose.
It occurs to me that this movie does a really good job of giving the newer characters, like Decker and Iliya, and even Chapel, plenty to do in the story, while still keeping Kirk, Spock and McCoy at the forefront. But at the expense of some of the other major players like Uhura and Sulu. But that’s nothing new for them.
The probe gives a chilling admission. The carbon-based units on board the Enterprise, the crew, will be reduced to data patterns for storage. V’ger is going to essentially kill the crew.
But this gives Decker an opening. “If you could revive the memory patterns of Iliya, you could better understand the crew.” The probe agrees that this is logical.
They manage to get her from calling him Decker, to Will. This is bringing up all sorts of conflicting emotions for Decker. McCoy has to remind him this is a mechanism. It must be such a confusing and painful experience. Knowing the woman you love is dead. Almost having her back, and yet, not quite.
V’ger doesn’t know what the creator is and the probe can’t help them make direct contact.
Spock takes it on himself to get some answers. He steals an EVA suit and travels through the large doors into the inner chamber. He’s acting mostly on personal motivation here, it seems. Otherwise why did he do this without permission?
He succeeds in getting some answers. This is a pretty cool part of the movie, as we finally learn more about what this alien…thing…is.
He sees a representation of V’ger’s home planet. It looks pretty cool. The entire world looks covered in technology. Reminds me of coruscant in Star Wars. V’ger has recorded images of its entire journey across the vastness of space.
Those ships and stations that have been destroyed by V’ger are stored here in perfect detail. Spock sees the Epsilon station.
He is convinced all of this is V’ger. That they are inside a living machine.
He tries to mind meld with a holographic representation of the probe’s sensor and blacks out, then rescued by Kirk.
The idea of V’ger is a giant living machine, from a race of machines, is a pretty cool sci-fi concept. The sense of wonder it evokes is one of the saving graces of this movie.
It’s also one of the things that makes this movie feel very Star Trek. There’s an element of exploration here. Of meeting new civilisations from strange new worlds.
V’ger is a living machine and it assumes the Enterprise is also a living thing. It has knowledge that spans this universe but it’s a being of pure logic. No beauty or mystery. Cold and barren.
Without any understanding of feelings, it’s asking questions. Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more? It’s searching for a spiritual component in its life.
They receive a message from Starfleet. The Entity is in Earth’s solar system. The Cloud is dissipating. V’ger is 3 minutes from earth orbit
This is where we finally get to see the exterior shot of v’ger, which was new and exclusive to the director’s cut. It’s Awesome. And the 4K Paramount+ version may be a new better effect again.
Vger is signalling the creator using old style radio
It expects an answer but nobody knows how to answer
V’ger launches weapons and disable’s earth’s defensive systems. Again, the shot of the weapons coming out of the ship are wonderful and a vast improvement over what we saw in the original cut.
The theatrical cut of this movie really did approach things in a similar way to the original series. You wouldn’t always see alien ships properly. You’d get glimpses through the viewscreen, but you rarely got full wide beauty shots, because they simply didn’t have the budget to always do that.
I feel like this movie approached V’ger in the same way. Whether it was lack of time or just doing what they’d always done, I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a lack of budget.
The director’s cut gives us some wonderful exterior shots of the V’ger ship. I don’t know if, prior to that cut, if the filmmakers had even figured out what V’ger was supposed to look like. We only ever saw extreme close-ups of small parts of it.
These weapons could devastate the entire surface of earth
V’ger assumes the humans are an infestation on earth and the Enterprise, the likely cause of the creator’s failure to respond.
V’ger doesn’t recognise humans as true life forms. It assumes its creator is a machine.
It’s time for a traditional Kirk bluff.
He tells V’ger he knows why the creator hasn’t responded but refuses to tell the probe.
He can only disclose the information to V’ger itself, not its probe. And the weapons must be withdrawn.
This is how Kirk is able to get to the central control area of this ship. To see what he’s really dealing with.
Kirk asks Scotty to be prepared for a self-destruct, if he can find no other way to take out the intruder.
Spock has undergone a major turnaround. From being more emotionless than he ever has been before, to crying actual literal tears.
“I weep for V’ger as I would for a brother. As I was when I came aboard, so is V’ger now. Empty, incomplete and searching. Logic and knowledge are not enough.”
Spock has found what he needed, but V’ger hasn’t.
And so Spock’s character arc in this movie is completed. He has now transitioned into the Spock we know from the rest of the movies. Still very much logical, but much more embracing of emotion. He still keeps that emotion controlled, but he integrates it into his life.
There is still a little more development, or more, re-development for him to undergo in Star Trek 4, but this is essentially the experience that makes him the man he will become. The man who will say, in Star Trek 6, “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.”
No other character in TOS has the kind of development and growth that Spock has over these movies, and the role of this movie in that arc should not be overlooked.
V’ger is searching for the meaning of life, specifically, the meaning of its life. It has that same yearning for meaning that we all have.
They reach their destination. An oxygen envelope forms around the Enterprise and the central hub of whatever V’ger is.
It’s time for Kirk, Spock and Bones to go on an old-school Star Trek landing mission to explore an unknown. Decker comes along. Kirk doesn’t argue.
The extension of the land bridge from V’ger to the Enterprise saucer section is another wonderful addition to this cut. It never quite made sense how the crew got there in the original.
When I first saw this movie, I was surprised to see an old-fashioned satellite in the midst of all this high-tech alien equipment. Kirk and his crew must have been pretty surprised as well.
And here we get the big reveal that VGER is actually Voyager 6, a NASA probe sent by earth 300 years ago. Designed to gather data and return it to Earth. Learn all that is learnable and return that knowledge to its creator.
It fell through a black hole and emerged on the other side of the galaxy, the delta quadrant perhaps?
But I can’t see the Borg being charitable enough to help the probe fulfil its mission. They likely would have ignored it, considering it unworthy of assimilation.
But here’s where it falls down for me. On it’s journey, it amassed so much knowledge that it achieved sentience. I can’t accept that sentience is simply a matter of information. A more likely explanation, in my opinion, is that the race of sentient machines augmented the probe, granting it their own style of sentience.
All the weird noises gives this whole thing an exotic creepy feeling. Nobody on earth could remember how to understand the old message from Voyager 6 requesting to transmit its data. The creator does not answer.
V’ger can’t accept that humans are the creator because carbon-based units are not true life forms. Kirk proves it by transmitting the NASA sequence that instructs the probe to transmit.
But V’ger burns out its own transmitter to prevent transmission.
Now that it believes Kirk, it wants the creator to enter the code manually, so that V’ger can merge with the creator.
This desire for an intimate relationship with the creator, with God, is something that V’ger is experiencing. It’s something that I believe is built into all of us.
Mccoy’s reminder that they’re down to 10 minutes adds some needed tension to what could otherwise have been a slow climax. Things aren’t going smoothly, and if they don’t figure this out soon, they can kiss Earth goodbye.
V’ger has amassed so much knowledge. It wants more. What it needs from its creator is the human capacity to believe in more than can be explained by pure logic.
It’s lucky for Earth that Decker is willing to volunteer to merge with the machine. It’s a massive sacrifice. Fortunately, this is something Decker wants, as much as Kirk wanted the Enterprise. This is a whole new adventure, a whole new purpose for him. More importantly, it’s a way for him to be with Iliya again – in some form.
There’s some mysterious unknown technology at play when Decker goes all glittery, Iliya embraces him, and they both disappear. It comes off as a bit mystical, which is entirely appropriate.
But something weird is happening. It’s like the whole of the Vger spacecraft is dissolving, being converted into energy. I guess Vger figures it doesn’t need this physical ship anymore. It’s shedding its body, kind of like ascension in Stargate.
That means the away team needs to get back aboard the Enterprise fast or they’ll find themselves floating in vacuum.
They probably could have added a little more intensity to this sequence, but it works.
So they’ve just witnessed a birth, the creation of a new life form. It’s kind of a shame we never get to find out what becomes of this new creature, but perhaps it’s better left to our imagination. Kirk reports Iliya and Decker as missing. They’re not so much dead as …. Changed.
The movie ends in a very TV episode kind of way. “It’s time to go off on our next adventure. But it maintains that Star Trek feel of always boldly going.
We’re left with the message “The Human Adventure is just beginning.”
I’ve often pondered exactly what is meant by that. But it reminds me of Qs words at the end of “All Good Things.” He suggests that the real exploration ahead of humanity is not charting nebulae but exploring the unknown possibilities of existence.
I think Kirk and his crew did a little of that today.
This movie had substantial flaws at release, and while the director’s cut is a massive improvement, it still has flaws. It’s a slow story and it lacks excitement. But there is also a lot to enjoy and appreciate in Star Trek The Motion Picture. We get bigger stakes than we’ve ever had in Star Trek before. The whole movie is filled with a sense of wonder, which I love in Science Fiction. And we get some nice character development for Kirk, Decker, and especially Spock.
Star Trek The Motion Picture was not received well. In today’s environment, that would likely have ended the franchise. Luckily for us, Paramount were willing to give it another go. Unfortunately for Gene Roddenberry, the sequel was taken out of his hands. As a writer myself it’s not hard to imagine how much that must have hurt, to have your baby taken away by people in suits and given to someone else.
But the upside of this was that Star Trek was handed over to Harve Bennet, who would shepherd a successful Star Trek movie franchise for decades to come, and would give rise to TNG, and by extension, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise.
Next time, and I’m making no promises as to exactly when that will be, we’ll be talking about Star Trek II The Wrath of Kahn.
Until then,
Live long and prosper
Make it so.
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