Was Star Trek 1 That Bad?

I liked it, even had the chance to have seen it in the movie house at first release.

It’s the best non-star trek, star trek film!

Yeah, it’s a little slow at times and it’s a long movie as well (2 1/2 hours?) I remember really not likeing this movie when I was a kid and throughout my teenage years. I saw the movie again in my mid- 20’s and had a different view, though, because I was really intrigued by the story of how Earth’s Voyager probe could have travled so far, evolved so much, and still want to come home to complete it’s mission. And seeing the poor old, beat-up Voyager probe towards the end of the movie sent a little chill up my back and is enough to make any techno-geek choke-up (IMHO!!!) 😳

It was the best Star Trek in my book, in terms of Sci-Fi goodness. It asked more than just typical sci-fi questions, it delved in the metaphysical as well. The search for God, and what happens when you finally find God, only to learn that you’ve long since surpassed it. V-ger wasn’t willing to accept this reality. Great stuff.

ST:TMP was, to be nice, an average movie. It was a story GR had thought up years ago and frankly would have been better on the small screen. The characters of William Decker and Ilia was resurrected/reinvented later as William Riker and Dianna Troi on TNG and even then it didn’t work too well and the characters direction was changed later in TNG with more success. The most ardent Star Trek fans saw ST:TMP over 20 times and tried to keep it up in the top ten as long as possible with an ongoing campaign to ask people to see the movie. The strategy worked since more ST movies were made and those were supported by fans and new viewers.

The beginning of TMP was great. We saw the “new look” Klingons and the classic Klingon battle-cruisers in action. On one hand, ST fans were ecstatic to see the original cast back in action after waiting for 10 years. But the Decker/Ilia arc needed to be focused upon a bit more since their characters were critical to the resolution/conclusion of the movie. A little more backstory would have done wonders and maybe a short verbal confrontation between Kirk and Decker would have cleared the air and answered a few questions and gathered more respect between the two. Yes TMP was slow after the beginning scenes, but for fans, it was easily forgiven.

The Wrath of Khan brought back the ST ethos, examination of humanity, the wonders of discovery, and revisited mistakes of the past. TWoK was a huge success financially plus remains popular with ST fans today. In general, the even numbered ST movies were often considered the best ones.

Totally agree with your points 7th.

[quote=”Sci-Fi”]… But the Decker/Ilia arc needed to be focused upon a bit more since their characters were critical to the resolution/conclusion of the movie. A little more backstory would have done wonders and maybe a short verbal confrontation between Kirk and Decker would have cleared the air and answered a few questions and gathered more respect between the two. Yes TMP was slow after the beginning scenes, but for fans, it was easily forgiven.[/quote]

It’s a matter of taste, I suppose, but I feel very differently. I felt there was just enough on the Ilia/Decker arc, in other words just right. I really dislike unnecessary exposition. I like to use my own imagination rather than having every detail spelled out for me. I like the chance to infer, to come to my own conclusions, and to interpret. Same thing for the Decker/Kirk dynamic.

That first Decker/Ilia glance was enough for me to “get” it.

There was a sense of mystery to the romance which worked much better for me. It’s also complements the mystery of V-ger (and Spock’s link to V-ger) . It’s a bit melodramatic, and I wouldn’t it to become more so with more backhistory.

I really like Wrath of Khan, but they’re so different. WoK is more of an action movie, whereas I see ST: TMP as [i]more[/i] of a romantic movie: meaning, to paraphrase a bit the OED, imaginative, visionary, suggestive of an idealised, sentimental, or fantastic view of reality; preferring picturesqueness to finish; concerned more with feeling than form… The Wrath of Khan was something of a romance too… Spock’s dramatic and emotional death scene, this sort of love/hate relationship between Khan and Kirk (was I the only one who suspected some sexual tension there (lol)).

The effects sequence into the V-ger cloud may be considered over long and overdone visual masturbation, but it worked for me. It did take the scenic route.

Well, the only big flaw I can think of, as far as I’m concerned, was the many crew reaction shots after entering the cloud. View outside, wondrous reaction of Kirk Cut to view outside. Cut to stunned reaction from Chekhov. View outside, cut to quizzical look from Spock etc.. in a round robin of bridge personnel. It’s like laugh tracks (which I hate) — this is where you laugh, this is where you show a sense of wonder. It’s like they don’t trust the audience enough to feel what is expected of them, so they show multiple reaction shots (every now and then would have been fine, but it was tediously regular during one long sequence).

It’s enough that they already try to manipulate your emotions with the music, but… Incidentally, I do like to compare that sequence into the cloud with 2001’s sequence into the monolith (another supposedly slow movie that I enjoyed as a child and STILL love, unlike say, Star Wars, which I loved as a kid, but has since paled for me). However, I thought in 2001 that the reaction shots of Bowman were much better done.

I was young, but I was a Star Trek fan when I saw it in the cinema. I don’t feel it needs to be forgiven for being slow. Hell, many of my fave films are “slow”… The episodic series didn’t have quite the same luxury to take its sweet time (and of course they couldn’t do the same “sweet” effects).

It’s a wondrous journey relating to a wondrous journey.

Yes indeedy. Very good episode.

I am NOMAD. Destroy imperfection. Biological infestation will be sterilised. Biological infestation is imperfect. Kirk is the creator, but Kirk is biological, and therefore imperfect. Therefore NOMAD must be imperfect. Thought that would have been enough logic for Kirk to use to get NOMAD to destroy himself, instead he pulls out the Roykirk as creator card.

Dressed like Liberace, looked like Liberace, and played the piano (well harpsichord) like him.

Trelane was mischievous like Delancey’s character. Children were very rare in the continuum, and Trelane was a naughty child with parents. Q had a child with his very long-time Q partner in Voyager. One might think they were the parents (space/time as we know it means little to the Q, so the timeframe doesn’t matter).

I heard there was a Star Trek book where it was confirmed that Trelane was a part of the Q Continuum, but I don’t think it’s canon. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Q idea came from his character (still there were several powerful races in Star Trek TOS — Apollo, the cat witch lady, that guy who gave the kids powers (a gorgon?), and one that gave a human boy called Charlie powers).

Personally, I don’t think so. Trelane’s powers came from a device behind his mirror… I don’t know that the Q require technology for their powers — seems innate to them. Also skeptical due to the lack of children in the continuum.

The original Star Trek’s had so many great episodes… It had its weaknesses, but I really think it’s about the best sci-fi series ever. Never grow tired of it — the stories were so imaginative.

Charlie X was on Space channel this week.
It has an idea close to “It’s a good life ” by Jerome Bixby … that was later a Twilight Zone Episode in the original series.

ST- TMP filled a long void from 1967 to 1979. It sure took a long time for the industry to react to scifi fans. Why was that? It still took another 8 to 10 years for ST-TNG.

What’s up with all that? Be scifi fans not human? If you prick us do we not whirr and beep?
Does anybody understand this? What was the process?
Is scifi now part of the mainstream? Or do we still shuffle our feet in the house of TV?
..
ST-TMP very good, has a very cosmic theme. Man’s search for the creator. We were all glad to see them come back and .. remember Kirk’s last line..

Marcy Lafferty (Chief DiFalco): Heading sir?
William Shatner (Kirk): Out there… thataway.

“Spock and V-Ger’s relationship — great. The Decker/Ilia relationship really got to me.” I agree, also the willingness to be merged into a new life form was a classy idea.
None of : “kill the BEM” standard.

Some information from Alpha Memory:
———————————————–
The plot and script emerged from the failed pilot for Star Trek: Phase II, “In Thy Image”.The film was adapted as a novel and as a three-part comic.

Saucer Separation
Throughout most of the filming of The Motion Picture, a final ending story had yet to be developed. Designer Andrew Probert provided the producers with his own script suggestions for a visually dramatic conclusion, and storyboarded the key event. For the record, the possibility of the original Enterprise’s undergoing a saucer separation was first mentioned in the original series episode The Apple. But it was not until the pilot episode of The Next Generation that the maneuver was finally depicted.

The Walk to V’Ger
Twenty-two years after The Motion Picture appeared in theatre, the film was re-released as it was originally intended to be seen. The Director’s Edition added a new sound mix and new scenes to Robert Wise’s classic film, but one of the most notable changes from the original version is the stunning addition of new visual effects, specifically in how the mysterious craft V’Ger, is revealed. Since the walk to V’ger scene was the climax of the movie, it was important to convey a sense of the extraordinary and fantastic by using the new visual effects to complement the original film rather than overwhelm it.

It’s interesting:
There seems to have been 9 episodes prepared for Star Trak II with Willim Shatner, but I think only the first was aired (as the movion picture). apparently Star Wars had something to do with killing the series.

Where are the other 8 episodes?
In a vault somewhere? Pity!

http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek:_Phase_II

I think ST-TMP is classic for it’s time.
It is a new age now and we are all undergone evolution in our tastes. The age of the “flashing arrow” has died and now we apprediate muti-threaded stories with hard gritty reality. So now we can’t expect the same thing again.

Here is a review stating that the plot partially comes from ST-TOS “The Changeling” (story of Nomad).

The story is cerebral, with little in the way of space battles or other action. It is also, unfortunately, a re-hash of several old Star Trek episodes combined and re-arranged “The Changeling” being the most obvious inspiration”.

Perhaps the greatest strength of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is that, despite a badly-paced middle, it boasts a strong beginning and end. The movie is more enjoyable on video than in the theater (a few character-building sequences have been added) since the special effects are less dominating. After all, beneath all the glitz, there is a legitimate Star Trek story struggling to escape.

http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/s/st1.html
From TVTome:
32. The Changeling
gs: James Doohan (Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott) Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Nyota Uhura) George Takei (Lt. Hikaru Sulu) Majel Barrett (Nurse Christine Chapel) Blaisdell Makee (Lt. Singh) Barbara Gates (Astrochemist) Meade Martin (Engineer) Arnold Lessing (Lt. Carlisle) Vic Perrin (voice of Nomad)

Stardate 3451.9: The Enterprise crew discovers that the Malurian system has been destroyed, and during their investigation the ship is attacked by a small spacecraft of enormous power. When Kirk identifies himself, the attack abruptly ends and communication is established with the unknown vessel which happens to be small enough to be beamed aboard the Enterprise. Kirk learns that the vessel is actually a probe named Nomad and that the attack on the Enterprise was discontinued after Nomad identified Kirk as “the Kirk,” its creator. After consulting the ship’s computers, Spock finds that the probe’s origin is indeed Earth and that its creator, Jackson Roykirk, programmed it to seek out new life. Nomad, however, does not look like the picture in the ship’s record banks. Spock uses the Vulcan mind meld technique and discovers that Nomad was damaged in a meteor collision and drifted in space until it met another probe, Tan Ru, which was originally programmed to gather and sterilize soil samples. Now combined into one machine, Nomad believes that its mission is to seek out and destroy imperfect life forms. Unwilling to remain idle, Nomad erases Uhura’s memory trying to learn what music is and kills Scott when he tries to interfere. Nomad repairs Scott, but Kirk finds that he has a bigger problem after learning that Nomad is returning to its launch point, Earth, where it will find billions of imperfect life forms and sterilize them. Kirk gambles by telling Nomad that he is not “the Kirk” that created it. Since Nomad made a mistake in identification, Kirk convinces Nomad that it is imperfect and must be destroyed. While analyzing its mistake, Kirk has Nomad beamed out into space where it quickly destroys itself.

b: 29-Sep-1967 pc: 60337 w: John Meredyth Lucas d: Marc Daniels

[quote=”kokopelli
I found it on Scifi.com

Season 3 episode 3 of TNG. “The Survivors”.
50 Billion with one thought.

Picard said he wasn’t qualified to judge him, but maybe the Q are.
Verdict?
Here ye hear ye. I say INNOCENT.
Ask him for help with the Borg.
But I think they came along in later episodes.
—————————————————-
[/quote]

Thanks for digging that up…I didn’t know which episode it was but I figured it was an early season like the 2nd or 3rd.

I think the Douwd are not as powerful as the Q because Kevin (the Douwd) did not restore his wife to life after she was killed by the Husnock. He loved her so much so I believe he would have. But maybe he could have but chose not to? He was a strong pacifist, but he also seemed incredibly “fatalistic.” I’m not sure if that is the right word but Kevin’s disposition seemed to be, “Well, what happens, happens. I cannot interfere.” It’s been a while since I’ve seen this ep so I can’t recall all of the details.

Anyway, it’s small potatos…he’s immortal and has great powers nonetheless. And anyone who can whack 50 billion people with one thought is pretty strong in my book.

Interesting quote by Picard, though. “I’m not qualified to judge you, but maybe the Q are.”