Revisiting Star Trek: The Motion Picture

In 1979 I was 4 years old. I vaguely remember being aware that there was a new Star Trek out because I had seen the evidence: in a local grocer's novelty capsule machine, I had "won" a sticker set featuring Kirk and Spock. But they weren't the Kirk and Spock I knew from the show I watched with Grandma every Sunday morning. They looked a little different. And so did the Enterprise miniature I received from Grandpa that year - it was surely the Enterprise, but it was... different. And I remember seeing that bald chick on a poster somewhere.

Indeed, I was too young and too shy to ask to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But I kind of knew it existed.

I finally sat down to watch the movie many years later. I had caught part of it when it aired on television before, but the next time, I was old enough to have a modest collection of blank VHS tapes that I was allowed to play with. Thus armed with my dad's VCR, I sat down to record the CBS airing - which, by the way, like Aliens turned out to be a longer cut... and as an aside to this aside, I should mention that unlike Aliens, the longer cut didn't help matters. But again, I was too young to be complaining about much.

I had reached that age when I realized that Star Trek was actually a very old show and I had grown up on the reruns. So I was just pleased to be able to "revisit old friends." Being critical of this long-winded film was still many years in the future. I kept that VHS cassette all that time (it was such a proud accomplishment to have been able to cut all the commercial breaks with such precision, I remember I had a hand-drawn label with the logo applied to the tape).

The next time I revisited the film was just a bit weird. It was shorter than I remembered it. That's because shortly before DVDs became common, I was still buying cheap VHS tapes. At the time Star Trek had released a set of cassettes - and you'll remember these as the set hat featured the Enterprise across the box spines when you had all 5 films. The thing is, this was the theatrical cut of the movie. I think it had the "overture" at the start of the film, but did not have the unfinished footage (i.e.: extra crap) added by CBS. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it should. Perhaps by this time, I was old enough to notice that this beloved movie was kind of... not-so-great.

Finally, I revisited the film on DVD when the Director's Cut came out. I think this is the first and last time I have ever encountered a Director's Cut which was actually shorter than the theatrical film. Robert Wise has gone on record many a time before and after to express his regret for sending an unfinished film in. I have such a history with this movie, I wish I had the patience to listen to the entire directory commentary track. But as I discovered, Robert Wise has this unbearably raspy voice that I have a hard time hearing and thus I haven't ever taken the time to go back.

Despite this, the final cut was indeed better - the pacing is sped up and a lot of redundant dialog is gone. Some of the updated effects work is a welcome sight too. I remember when I was little, I couldn't quite grasp why they kept referring to V'Ger as a "cloud" when all they kept showing us was a vague pattern with no discernible context. In the new version, we finally see that the "cloud" is indeed a "massive cloud" as the mechanical beast within emerges at the climax of the film.

It's just funny to look back at such an important film - it spawned 10 successful sequels (some less successful than others), a new 7-year show with 2 very successful spin-offs plus another not-quite successful one which managed to stay upright for 3 years. And I practically missed it.