December 6th 2019 will mark the 40th Anniversary of the original US Premiere of one of the most iconic big-screen updates of a classic television series, Star Trek.
Few movies have polarised opinion amongst sci-fi fans and Trekkers alike as Robert Wise’s STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE, but as time has gone on, it has become more than that.
Today, it seems we never get past all manner of remakes based on TV Shows (think BAYWATCH, 21 JUMP STREET, THE A-TEAM, CHARLIE’S ANGELS amongst others), but a big-screen rendition of an old cancelled TV show back in the 1970s?
Forget about it.
STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, which more or less cornered the box-office around 1977 – 78 around the world, convinced Paramount Pictures and creator Gene Roddenberry to go ahead with a movie, in spite on there not being a final workable script.
Originally produced at the then-rather extravagant final cost of $46m ($162m in today’s inflation adjusted price), it was originally pitched as a mid 1970s follow-up TV series to the classic 1960s show titled STAR TREK: PHASE II. A press conference in 1978 touted the budget at about $15m.
Through thick and thin and a tight deadline and schedule in order to meet the aforementioned December 6th, 1979 release date, STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE emerged into the market place and became one of the most successful films of 1979, although not as big as the likes of SUPERMAN – THE MOVIE, which was that year’s champion.
The plot is as follows: A mysterious cloud, an ‘alien object of unbelievable destructive power’, as Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) describes to Commander Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) as they ride a shuttle to the refurbished Enterprise, has destroyed three Klingon Battle Cruisers and is on its’ way to Earth within 72 hours.
The Enterprise, which has undergone an eighteen month refurbishment following the completion of its’ five-year mission from the original show, is not fully fit. Despite this, Kirk insists that the ship is ready for space travel, despite the concerns of its’ current Commanding Officer, Willard Decker (Stephen Collins).
Meanwhile, on the planet Vulcan, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has returned home to under the ‘Kolinahr’, a ritual to purge him of his human emotions, due to his human mother. Unfortunately, the cloud’s presence has touched his consciousness, causing him to reconsider his options….
Much of the film’s original criticism came from the fact that it was unlike anything that had been produced for the original show, which was cancelled after three seasons in 1969, but which found a growing audience through syndication – and even today Horror Channel in the UK is showing the remastered episodes on weeknights.
What gives STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE added depth is the fact that the film really does give a sense of change and transition for the characters. Kirk is Chief of Starfleet Operations at the outset, a ‘little stale’, but truly belongs as he did five years before on the bridge of the Enterprise in the Captain’s chair.
Each of the original characters have a sense of space between the show and the movie, with ‘Bones’ McCoy (DeForest Kelley) resentful of the new design (‘It’s like working in a damn computer centre’, he scowls to Kirk during the early part of the Enterprise trip to meet the cloud head on).
Decker and the Deltan female alien Ilia (the late Persis Khambatta, an Indian actress who shaved her head for the role) add a touch of romantic backstory to the film and heightens the conflict Kirk has on returning to the centre seat of the Enterprise, especially after a warp drive problem.
The visual effects (supervised by the legendary Douglas Trumbull) are mesmerising even today and the interior of the cloud adds an amazing mystique to the idea behind it – with a pay-off that is pretty satisfying if you are willing to put your TREK-mindset to one side and embrace STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE on it’s own terms, which can be viewed as a Sci-Fi Ballet rather than a Sci-Fi Adventure.
However, the real star of the film is the now-classic score by the late legendary Jerry Goldsmith, which is one of the greatest movie scores of all-times, which he regarded according to some online reports as ‘very romantic’.Â
Originally released in a single album vinyl version on CBS in 1979, the soundtrack was expanded in 1999 to a 2-CD version, which featured the fuller soundtrack. It can be bought on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Picture-Anniversary-Collectors/dp/B00000FC5P
The film was given a make-over on Home Video in 2001, adding some key effects that made more sense to some scenes (particularly the early Vulcan sequence) and added depth to a film that resulted in a more well-received version compared to the 1979 version. It ran at 136 minutes, four minutes longer than the original.
Despite its’ then-modest success, the film managed to spawn five sequels involving the original crew, the well-loved STAR TREK II – THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982), STAR TREK III – THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984), STAR TREK IV – THE VOYAGE HOME (1986), STAR TREK V – THE FINAL FRONTIER (1989) and STAR TREK VI – THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991).
In addition, films involving THE NEXT GENERATION led by Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard and a reboot series, which began with STAR TREK (2009), directed by JJ Abrams, have kept the movie legacy alive.
It still seems forty years after the original, as the log-line of the poster proudly states:
‘THE HUMAN ADVENTURE IS JUST BEGINNING‘
