[Captain_Hair]

How would you change Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

Tedious, slow, cerebral, plodding, astounding, boring - they’re all words that have been used to describe the first Star Trek film, the aptly named Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It introduced a revamped Enterprise, an older cast, new uniforms, new crew, new enemies, and a confounding plotline that took forever and a day to unfold. Like so much of Star Trek, the premise was interesting, but was the execution flawed? What about that much-hailed Director’s Cut that spruced it all up with fancy new computer graphics? Did it need changing, after all when adjusted for inflation it brought in the 2008 equivalent of $240 million. So, how would you change Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

View: Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Memory Alpha

[WeatherManNX01]

Could have been a little less cheesy. The whole wormhole sequence always struck me as weird and out of place. There are other bits of dialog that just scream "first movie!!!" that really need to be changed. I think the overall plot is very Trek, but individual bits could use a bit of a revamp. Been a while since I've watched it, so I can't be more specific.

Oh, and no pajama unis.

[Discodirect]

Some sequences were dragged out and too long IMO, so an edit here and there would do the trick for me.

[Kuro-chan]

(Kuro-chan review = 7/10 original/editted, 7.5/10 director's cut)

While I don't think it was a prefect movie, I think it was a very ideal setup for what a science fiction story should be like. It did not need to use excessive violence, phaser blasts and millions of explosions to get the message across. Save those for hardcore action films. The story was a puzzle that was being discovered one piece at a time until everything fit into place at the very end, whether you agree or disagree with how it ended.

It is one of my favourites.

Also, as far as I know, there are three takes to this movie. The first release held all the original dialogue together and is the longest of the three, which included Decker's "We all create God in our own image." comment which I think described V'Ger to a "T". The second release took a little dialogue out here and there and two scenes were substituted for others which more or less did the same thing (McCoy and Kirk arguing after the wormhole incident and Kirk and Spock in Sickbay). The Director's cut also made use of the substitute scenes.

[toggleswitch1]

Excellent. Thanks for sharing.

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[maneth]

The intro was at least twice as long as it should have been. Sure, the Enterprise was impressive but did we have to spend 20 minutes looking at it from every possible angle? Even though I often complain about movies these days looking like extended music videos with their quick cuts, this one went the other way. Quite frankly, the intro beat Kubrick's 2001 in slowness, and that's quite a feat... Oh, and lose those pajama uniforms, please...

[Ben_Jamin]

I think I would have got rid of Ilia and Decker. Kirk's first officer is and always should be Spock, and Sulu always needs to be the helmsman. For gods sake, it's the Enterprise, not some piece of crap ship that's meant to be destroyed. I know people will hate me for saying that, but to be honest, I don't care. This thread is for expressing what we would change, that is what I would change. I'm just giving my view.

That said, that is just things as I remember them. I believe this is THE WORST Trek film, so I haven't watched it in like three years, lol.

This post has been edited by Ben_Jamin: 23 August 2009 - 06:15 AM

[NMdum1]

I would first of all put a clear limit on the number of effects shots and bring more coherence to the supervision of the effects creation process. Half the time poor Robert Wise was splicing things together and dropping them into the movie without the opportunity to really edit right down to the essential kernal. I think the length of the journey into V'Ger is a major problem in that its a remarkable technical achievement for the time and must have proved important as a step on the road to the all digital environments we enjoy in movies now, but it served no dramatic purpose. And there's a few nice sweeps over the Enterprise in Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock that would have made infinitely nicer introductions to the new ship than Kirk flying around with Scotty looking orgasmically at his old ship for 10 minutes or something.

I would have chopped at the philosophical dialogue, particularly the last major scene when the Away Team is at V'Ger and Decker is about to "join with the Creator", they take far too long to get to that moment, its a round about conversation, a musing on the nature of life when the writers should have remembered that this massive thing is getting perilously close to Earth, could easily blow it out of the sky and is although irrational from our point of view, perfectly logical to itself. Get to the point! We were a couple of steps ahead of the writers on this one.

I also think that one of the Wrath of Khan's best changes was the art direction, the uniforms are utterly dreadful and don't even look professional, giving the crew the impression of going on a pleasure cruise rather than a serious life or death mission. I don't think the Bridge set looks as good as it would in later incarnations, especially given that some people have to stand up for hours on end and are looking away from the camera and therefore its tougher to get good reaction shots or sell the idea that these are actually working stations, which is not ideal by any means.

All in all it was kind of a nice attempt to try something a little bit different. I wouldn't change the Ilya thing because Persis Khambatta took a thankless role and made it work (and I love the aside about Deltan oaths of chastity). I would say that it taught a good movie director to concentrate on the plot and service the characters and everything else would fit around it rather than concentrating on the ideas, which slowed down the plot, serviced only a few of the characters and was overblown with visuals to prove how scifi it was and that it really was Star Trek on the movie screen like this did.

[Commander Lazar]

Sulu or what's his name should stop making that weird face of his.

[Spocks Beard]

Commander Lazar, on 26 March 2011 - 11:33 PM, said:

Sulu or what's his name should stop making that weird face of his.

Whaha??

[Commander Lazar]

Spocks Beard, on 26 October 2011 - 03:03 PM, said:

Whaha??

When they were entering V'Ger Sulu was making the face for three minutes.

[dominion_ruler]

Commander Lazar, on 11 November 2011 - 10:39 AM, said:

When they were entering V'Ger Sulu was making the face for three minutes.

Hahah lol...no comment...

Anyways, TMP is certainly with plenty of faults and has always been one of my, if not most, disliked of the Star Trek films. That said, it is really beginning to grow on me. The message is impressive and actually involves some thought, unlike what appears to be becoming less of a trend in hollywood these days. For that, the film impresses me and I would actually change other films to match that quality. But, what I would change in TMP, are things like those pj's...especially when you can see a man's genatles poking through. Of course, pacing, some dialouge, and....pacing.

This post has been edited by dominion_ruler: 15 November 2011 - 08:42 PM

[jonathan]

i wouldnt change a thing

[Commander Lazar]

dominion_ruler, on 15 November 2011 - 08:41 PM, said:

Hahah lol...no comment...

[Warpfactor7]

Theatrical is perfect as it is, doesn't need anything changed.

[Ezri Dax]

More of a story, then having so much music and cute pictures of the Enterprise.

[Benjamin Sisko]

Aside from the pace of the film, I don't know that I would change anything. The Motion Picture was exactly what it was intended to be. Those hoping for action sequences probably weren't happy with the film upon its release, and it's likely that the recently released version of the film did not appease them, either. I don't mean to imply that everyone should like The Motion Picture, but I think it's important to recognize that the film has always polarized Star Trek fans.

--Captain Sisko

[Breachwood]

Wrath of Khan Uniforms!