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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek) and
Alan Dean Foster (story) ...
more
Release Date:
7 December 1979 (USA) more
Tagline:
The human adventure is just beginning more
Plot:
When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and hopefully stop it. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 15 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(47 articles)
AFI Fest 2009: Something’S Gonna Live, North By Northwest
(From Alternative Film Guide. 26 October 2009, 12:41 AM, PDT)
And the Next 'Star Trek' Movie Villain Is...
(From CinemaSpy. 18 October 2009, 9:05 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
A different kind of Star Trek more (315 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| William Shatner | ... | Admiral James T. Kirk | |
| Leonard Nimoy | ... | Mr. Spock | |
| DeForest Kelley | ... | Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy | |
| James Doohan | ... | Cmdr. Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott | |
| George Takei | ... | Lt. Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu | |
| Majel Barrett | ... | Dr. Christine Chapel | |
| Walter Koenig | ... | Lt. Pavel Chekov | |
| Nichelle Nichols | ... | Lt. Cmdr. Uhura | |
| Persis Khambatta | ... | Lt. Ilia | |
| Stephen Collins | ... | Cmdr. Willard Decker | |
| Grace Lee Whitney | ... | CPO Janice Rand | |
| Mark Lenard | ... | Klingon Captain | |
| Billy Van Zandt | ... | Alien Boy | |
| Roger Aaron Brown | ... | Epsilon Technician | |
| Gary Faga | ... | Airlock Technician |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Star Trek II (USA) (working title)
Star Trek: Phase II (USA) (working title)
Star Trek: Planet of the Titans (USA) (working title)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition (USA) (DVD title)
more
MPAA:
Rated PG for sci-fi action and mild language.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
132 min | USA:136 min (director's cut) | USA:143 min (TV version)
Country:
Color:
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital EX (director's cut) | Dolby
Certification:
Italy:T | Canada:PG (Ontario - 2006) | Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | New Zealand:G | Netherlands:6 (theatrical rating) | Canada:G (Canadian Home Video rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:K-10 | France:U | Ireland:G | Netherlands:12 | Norway:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:U | USA:G | USA:PG (director's cut) | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | Canada:F (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Nova Scotia) (director's cut) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) (original rating)
Filming Locations:
Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA more
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Marvel Comics did a three-issue adaptation of this movie to kick-off their new Star Trek comic series. It was a good adaptation of this movie, except that they used the Memory Wall sequence instead of the Spock Walk sequence. It appears that they were using the original script as the basis for their adaptation and didn't know the Memory Wall scene had been scrapped. more
Goofs:
Audio/visual unsynchronized: Edna Glover's scene as the Vulcan Kholinahr Master was filmed with her speaking English. Only later were Vulcan words (invented by James Doohan) recorded over the original dialogue. The phonetics of the Vulcan words were chosen to closely follow the original English script so that her lips would seem to move correctly, and English subtitles were inserted with the phrasing reworded so the change would not be obvious. For example, when the subtitles say "Our ancestors cast out their animal passions on these very sands" her lips are clearly saying "Spock, on these sands our ancestors cast out their animal passions." Other examples are "Your thoughts... give them to me" [subtitle] versus "Spock... give me your thoughts" [actual] and "Your human blood is touched by it, Spock" [subtitle] versus "It stirs your human half, Spock" [actual]. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Klingon captain:
[giving an order in Klingon] Tactical...
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime (2001) (V) more
FAQ
Why does the Ilia character talk of an "oath of celibacy" to Kirk?How fast is the Enterprise?
Who invented the Klingon language spoken in this movie?
more
more (315 total)
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I recently watched this movie for the first time in ten or fifteen years. When I was younger I thought this one was even worse than Star Trek V, because as bad as "The Final Frontier" was, at least it had some action and colour.
The version I just saw wasn't the new Director's Edition, just the old video, but I was still completely surprised by just about everything -- partly because I hadn't seen it in forever, and partly because it's so totally different from all the following Trek movies. I even kinda liked the silly 70's leisure suit uniforms.
After this, the movie series turned to action-oriented stories, a more militaristic look and feel, and infinitely less challenging concepts. True, the pacing of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" drags in parts, and the behavior of its stars is a little cold and stiff. But instead of treating us with space battles and phaser shootouts, it gives us long, loving shots of the newly revamped starship Enterprise, and instead of rather tawdry plots grounded in mundane reality, it takes us on a metaphysical voyage into an unknown, bizarre, and palpably huge alien device.
The sense of scale is important. The cloud surrounding V'Ger is gigantic, and the ship itself is a whole world to itself. The Enterprise must fly into the cloud and communicate with the ship, and it's the only time in any of the ten movies that the heroes actually confront something new and unknown. This was a staple of the original show, and some of the best episodes of the spin-off series. The subsequent films were content with setting their battles and chases in space, but "Star Trek I" actually wants to explore that space.
However, the thing that definitely drags the film down is the sound. The red alert blares every other minute, and mechanical computer voice-overs announce just about everything they possibly can. In the process of updating the ship, they've emphasized the computers and mechanics of the vessel in a way they never had before or since, and the effect is jarring and interesting at the same time. The Enterprise is much more of a physical ship traveling in space, and less of a device to facilitate storytelling.
The visual effects are amazing enough to warrant some digital cleaning, and the movie should be seen in widescreen, preferably on a large television.
It's too bad that this movie wasn't more of a success, because I would like to see more Star Trek in this style. After many years and many TV shows, I admit I've gotten a little tired of space battles.
UPDATE: I recently watched the Director's Edition DVD. The sound effects are fixed, and the film has been re-edited to tighten the pace ever so slightly. The changes made are not on the level of the Star Wars special editions, but they do make the movie more watchable. It's a little more coherent now, and I like it even more.