SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: Approx. 132 Min.
Directed by Robert Wise, this $40-million 1979 production essentially launched the concept of rebooting old TV shows as big-budget films.
Set approximately three years after the Original Series ended, a newly-refitted U.S.S. Enterprise is the Federation’s only hope of intercepting an ominous cosmic cloud headed towards Earth. Supported by his familiar bridge crew, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command to lead them in a fateful encounter with the machine-like entity dubbing itself as ‘V’Ger.’
Admiral James T. Kirk: William Shatner
Spock: Leonard Nimoy
Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy: DeForest Kelley
Lt. Ilia: Persis Khambatta
Lt. Commander Hikaru Sulu: George Takei
Klingon Commander: Mark Lenard
Lt. Commander Nyota Uhura: Nichelle Nichols
Lt. Pavel Chekov: Walter Koenig
Commander Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott: James Doohan
Dr. Christine Chapel: Majel Barrett
Captain Willard Decker: Stephen Collins
Lt. Janice Rand: Grace Lee Whitney
REVIEW:
Forty-plus years doesn’t generate fresh nostalgia for Star Trek’s first movie. Still, one should keep this much in mind: Motion Picture (TMP) endured a convoluted history. First, it was meant as a low-budget, big-screen revival; then, its aborted Phase II incarnation was supposed to launch a high-profile sequel TV series (minus Nimoy and possibly Shatner’s eventual dismissal); and, finally, a let’s-break-the-bank mega-movie to cash in on Star Wars-mania. Ultimately, hapless viewers are left with what amounts to ‘Star Trek: The Slow-Motion Picture.’
While big-league special effects vastly upgraded the Enterprise, the misguided filmmakers (franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, chief among them) couldn’t/wouldn’t grasp that their monotonous epic isn’t Trek-style entertainment. Offering grandiose platitudes, like “the human adventure is just beginning,” don’t cut it as a creative substitute for making this movie any more watchable or any less motionless.
Setting Robert Wise’s classiness aside, his dramatic sensibilities totally mismatch with Trek. Contributing factors further include the total absence of action-adventure; the film’s ultra-sterilized look (i.e. the drab gray pajama-like Starfleet uniforms); and, undeniably, the cast’s taking themselves-far-too-seriously performances. Case in point: clearly looking a decade older, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy come off as dead-serious; their endearing TV charisma is nowhere in sight.
While Roddenberry doesn’t rip off the pulpy glamor of Star Wars, what still doesn’t make sense is why he utterly disregarded the appeal of The Original Series as is. Still, the biggest self-inflicted mistake is Roddenberry’s stubborn insistence that the film’s recycled script forcibly mind-meld the premise of a forgettable Original Series episode, “The Changeling,” with 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Hence, the ultra-pretentious TMP saps all the colorful energy powering The Original Series. As this space opera drags on (with Kirk and Co.’s vague observations of V’Ger spelled out ad nauseam), hope fades that Shatner & Nimoy might still salvage this tone-deaf disaster.
If given the choice, watching 1984’s gloriously stupid The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai would be preferable. Banzai is clearly sci-fi pulp farce, but, at least, that quirky cult favorite doesn’t strive to bore its viewers. TMP’s elitist storytelling, by comparison, blurs into a cinematic sleeping pill — it’s just not nearly as fast-acting as Spock’s Vulcan nerve pinch.
P.S. Here’s this reviewer’s quick take re: which inept Trek movie is a better viewing bet – Star Trek V: The Final Frontier or TMP? The edge goes to Final Frontier – William Shatner’s 1989 directorial misfire at least tries to recapture the adventurous spirit of The Original Series.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 3 Stars
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