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STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE THE DIRECTOR'S EDITION

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
© 2001 Paramount Home Video

While far from the best of the TREK features, 1979's STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE did manage to relocate the rather chintzy adventures of the original TV Enterprise crew to the silver screen with a polish and grandeur that Kirk and company had long deserved.

When a mysterious and powerful space cloud is discovered to be en route to Earth in search of its "creator," it falls to none other than Admiral Kirk and the Enterprise team to intercept the alien creature and prevent it from wiping out the planet. In a plot device that would come to be de rigueur STAR TREK scripting, the Enterprise is the only ship within range to protect Earth from the cloud, which calls itself V'Ger. One wonders why Starfleet doesn't keep a few ships in Earth orbit for just this sort of incident, considering how often space clouds, probes and cyborgs mount invasions.

Yes, Kirk is an admiral at this point in his career, having received a promotion between the end of the original series and the start of this film. But in a theme that would permeate all of the character's film appearances, Kirk yearns for more than a desk job, fearing that he's aging beyond his usefulness. In this film, Kirk's mid-life crisis proves most unfortunate for the current captain of the newly re-fitted Enterprise, the strapping young Captain Decker (Stephen Collins), when Kirk assumes command of the ship in order to meet the V'Ger crisis head on. The astute viewer will recall that Decker's father, Commodore Matt Decker, also received the short end of the stick from Jim Kirk in the CLASSIC TREK episode "The Doomsday Machine."

Also thrown into this mix is a bald-headed sexpot named Ilia (Persis Khambatta), who had a past relationship with Decker that is distinctly Troi/Riker-esque. She, too, will come to regret serving under Kirk and not being a regular cast member.

Meanwhile, we learn that Mr. Spock has retired from Starfleet in order to attain some kind of fancy schmancy Vulcan state of supreme logic, and Doctor "Bones" McCoy has long since left the service and gone hippie. Of course, soon enough they're back at Kirk's side to face V'Ger, just as Scotty, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura are standing around on the bridge with little to do and even less to say. Just like the old days!

What follows are some very cool set pieces that where even cooler back in 1979 for the viewer who had no NEXT GENERATION or VOYAGER or anything else to compare this too. Transporter accidents, warp speed visual effects, Klingons with ridges, and so onthis film finally gave STAR TREK the veneer it desperately needed to thrive in a post-STAR WARS world.

But there's a lot that's not quite right about the film, despite its visual splendor. For one thing, those grand, sweeping shots of both the Enterprise and V'Ger are too grand and sweeping, taking ageseven in this re-cut director's versionwith the result often coming across as a poor man's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. When the actors do get the chance to act, they are forced to deliver some truly stilted dialogue. And the costume and set design, frankly, are quite unexciting and often bland, particularly when contrasted to the bold hues of the original TV series. Never mind though: Nicholas Meyer would remedy this in STAR TREK II when he incorporated the familiar burgundy Starfleet tunics that worked so well.

As for the story, it's actually pretty compellingeven if it is a rip-off of a couple of the old TREK TV series episodes. V'Ger, it seems, is actually on a mission of self-discovery, searching for its identity and a sense of what life is all about. It's a universal idea that all but the most thickheaded among us can relate to, while the revelation of what V'Ger actually is remains pretty cool even today. Ultimately, this film is several dilithium crystals short of a warp drive, but it did launch STAR TREK into a new phase of its evolution.

This two-disc set offers helmer Robert Wise's brand new "Director's Edition" of the film. Famously (in TREK circles anyway) released in a less than complete form because of its tight release schedule, STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE has always had a few oddball bits and pieces to it. Wise has finally been given the chance to remedy these problems with this disc, which offers the director's film as it should have originally been released. Through some digital trickery and an ever so slight re-edit (plus a new sound mix), Wise now has the film he always wanted.

But that doesn't make the picture any better than it was in 1979. Yes, it's interesting to see the new version of the "Spock on Vulcan" sequences, or to finally get to see what V'Ger looks like without its clouds, but really this variation on the film is indistinguishable from both the theatrical and television versions of THE MOTION PICTURE to all but the most picky of STAR TREK fans.

The widescreen anamorphic picture is a bit more speckled and flawed than one might hope, but the  Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio mix sounds great. Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround is also offered.

The first disc offers the film itself, along with a group audio commentary from Wise, special photographic effects director Douglas Trumbull, special photographic effects supervisor John Dykstra, music composer Jerry Goldsmith and actor Stephen Collins. For Trekkies, it's a worthwhile listen, especially the bits from Trumbull and Dykstra (the commentaries were all recorded separately and then edited together). Wise, too, is interesting, though he's obviously quite ancient now and seems to mainly be reading from prepared notes. The inclusion of one-shot Trekster Collins is curious, just as the absence of Shatner and his cronies is noticeable. A feature length text commentary from TREK mainstay and tech geek Michael Okuda is also of interest.

The second disc is devoted to all extra features. Three featurettes are chief among these extras, with the first, "The Lost Enterprise: STAR TREKPhase II," being the most interesting. The segment explores the history of THE MOTION PICTURE and how it was originally meant to be a new TREK TV series. "A Bold New Enterprise: The Making of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE" relates more directly to the film itself, but as with all of these too-brief featurettes, one can't help but feel that they only scratched the surface here. "Re-Directing the Future: Making STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURETHE DIRECTOR'S EDITION" is the third of these segments, focusing on the differences between the Director's Edition and the original version of the film.

Plenty of original trailers and TV spots are included, as are previews of the Director's Edition and of UPN's new series ENTERPRISE. And for the anal retentive out there, all of the scenes from the 1979 theatrical cut that have been shortened or otherwise altered by this new version are included in the "Additional and Deleted Scenes" section. Same goes for the bits and pieces from the 1983 television broadcast version, which have more or less been excised from this Director's Cut (and rightly so). Finally, the "Archives" section offers storyboards from select scenes.

Apparently, Paramount is going to start re-releasing the rest of the TREK films now in Special Edition form starting next year. For those who have already gobbled up the flimsy DVD versions of those films, well, that's a shame. For everyone else, congratscause if this disc is any indication, then what's still to come will be quite nice.