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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Original title: Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition
  • 19791979
  • GG
  • 2h 11m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
92K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,025
318
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Home Video Trailer from Paramount Home Entertainment
Play trailer1:53
1 Video
99+ Photos
AdventureMysterySci-Fi
When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
92K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,025
318
    • Robert Wise
    • Gene Roddenberry(based on Star Trek created by)
    • Harold Livingston(screenplay by)
    • Alan Dean Foster(story by)
  • Stars
    • William Shatner
    • Leonard Nimoy
    • DeForest Kelley
    • Robert Wise
    • Gene Roddenberry(based on Star Trek created by)
    • Harold Livingston(screenplay by)
    • Alan Dean Foster(story by)
  • Stars
    • William Shatner
    • Leonard Nimoy
    • DeForest Kelley
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 543User reviews
    • 130Critic reviews
    • 50Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 3 Oscars

    Videos1

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture
    Trailer 1:53
    Watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture

    Photos270

    Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Persis Khambatta in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Persis Khambatta in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, Gene Roddenberry, and Robert Wise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Mark Lenard in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Walter Koenig, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Majel Barrett, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Persis Khambatta, George Takei, Stephen Collins, Nichelle Nichols, and Grace Lee Whitney in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Walter Koenig, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Majel Barrett, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Persis Khambatta, George Takei, Stephen Collins, Nichelle Nichols, and Grace Lee Whitney in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
    "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" Leonard Nimoy

    Top cast

    Edit
    William Shatner
    William Shatner
    • Capt. James T. Kirk
    Leonard Nimoy
    Leonard Nimoy
    • Spock
    DeForest Kelley
    DeForest Kelley
    • Dr. McCoy
    James Doohan
    James Doohan
    • Scotty
    George Takei
    George Takei
    • Sulu
    Majel Barrett
    Majel Barrett
    • Dr. Chapel
    Walter Koenig
    Walter Koenig
    • Chekov
    Nichelle Nichols
    Nichelle Nichols
    • Uhura
    Persis Khambatta
    Persis Khambatta
    • Ilia
    Stephen Collins
    Stephen Collins
    • Decker
    Grace Lee Whitney
    Grace Lee Whitney
    • Janice Rand
    Mark Lenard
    Mark Lenard
    • Klingon Captain
    Billy Van Zandt
    Billy Van Zandt
    • Rhaandarite Ensign
    Roger Aaron Brown
    Roger Aaron Brown
    • Epsilon Technician
    Gary Faga
    • Airlock Technician
    David Gautreaux
    David Gautreaux
    • Cmdr. Branch
    John Gowans
    John Gowans
    • Assistant to Rand
    • (as John D. Gowans)
    Howard Itzkowitz
    • Cargo Deck Ensign
      • Robert Wise
      • Gene Roddenberry(based on Star Trek created by)
      • Harold Livingston(screenplay by)
      • Alan Dean Foster(story by)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When Captain Kirk addresses the crew before launching, many of the extras were noted Star Trek fans, including Bjo Trimble, co-organizer of the letter-writing campaign that kept Star Trek (1966) alive for a third season.
    • Goofs
      When Kirk first comes on board Enterprise he is called "Admiral," and then "Captain" a few seconds later. However, it is customary for the person in command of a ship to be addressed as "Captain," regardless of his military rank.
    • Quotes

      Captain James T. Kirk: [33:14] Well, for a man who swore he'd never return to the Starfleet...

      Dr. McCoy: Just a moment, Captain, sir. I'll explain what happened. Your revered Admiral Nogura invoked a little-known, seldom-used "reserve activation clause." In simpler language, Captain, they DRAFTED me!

      Captain James T. Kirk: [in mock horror] They didn't.

      Dr. McCoy: This was your idea. This was your idea, wasn't it?

      Captain James T. Kirk: Bones, there's a... thing... out there.

      Dr. McCoy: Why is any object we don't understand always called "a thing"?

    • Crazy credits
      End title: "The human adventure is just beginning."
    • Alternate versions
      On November 6, 2001, the Director's Edition supervised by Robert Wise was released on DVD and widescreen VHS, running 136 minutes. The material added to the film consists of the following:
      • The landscape of Vulcan was changed to include a yellowish sky and new landscape featuring massive statues. All other footage was tinted gold.
      • The matte painting of the Golden Gate Bridge in the scene where Kirk arrives at Starfleet Headquarters was replaced by a new CGI scene that shows Kirk's shuttle arriving at Starfleet. It is actually slightly longer than the original version.
      • The matte painting of Starfleet Command was improved with CGI effects, including an original series shuttle launched in the background.
      • In a close-up shot when Kirk first sees the new Enterprise from his shuttle, the image of the ship was superimposed over Kirk's face as a reflection in the shuttle's window.
      • After Kirk leaves the bridge, a short conversation between Sulu, Uhura and an alien officer was inserted.**
      • A new CGI shot of the Earth is shown on the viewscreen when the Enterprise leaves the planet.
      • A new CGI effect showing one of the Enterprise's nacelles was inserted into the window when Kirk, Spock and McCoy speak on the observation deck.
      • A new CGI shot was inserted which shows V'Ger's second energy torpedo vanishing before it could strike the Enterprise.
      • The energy probe that invades the bridge now approaches in a CGI exterior shot.
      • A new CGI shot shows the V'Ger vessel entering Earth orbit.
      • The scene in which Chekov burns his hand is much longer and shows Lt. Ilia healing him with her empathic powers instead of Nurse Chapel.**
      • The long walk to V'Ger was totally redone. There is now a walkway that materializes out of thin air, compared to the endless field in the original version.
      • The Enterprise's voyage to the center of V'Ger is slightly extended. It has a scene of Spock sharing a tear "for V'Ger" and Scotty ordered to self-destruct the ship if the landing party is unsuccessful.**
      • The small black "empty matte" in the window when Decker and Ilia confront each other in the recreation deck was replaced with a CGI shot of the V'Ger cloud interior.
      • The final explosion of V'Ger was slightly extended. The shot from the original version remained intact, but a new element of the vessel imploding its energy for the explosion was added.
      • New opening titles were commissioned for the film's opening. The opening titles now have a slight fading effect and are now seen over a background of stars. The text is colored a bright gold, compared to the original version's white.
      • The explosion in the wormhole was redone. There is now an exterior shot of the asteroid exploding and the wormhole disintegrating. Additionally, the viewfinder in the next shot is enhanced to show sparks and debris.
      • The final message to the audience, "The human adventure is just beginning", was altered. In the original version, the starfield cuts away to a blank title card showing the text. In the Director's Edition, the starfield was extended by a few seconds to allow the text, colored bright gold, to fade into the picture.
      • The ending credits were slightly altered. The text, as with the opening titles and the final "human adventure" text, was changed color, from white to a bright gold. Additionally, the music was slightly extended to add new Director's Edition credits.
      • An all-new sound mix was commissioned, keeping the music and dialog intact, and adding new effects for almost all scenes. For example, the Enterprise computer voice alarms are now replaced with klaxon sirens, the lightning effects have new echoes, and a blend of Enterprise bridge sound effects from the original Star Trek series, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country have been added into the background of scenes taking place on the bridge. The new mix is in Dolby 5.1 EX Surround.
      • The footage from 1979 was digitally restored and remastered, and combined with the new CGI elements.
      • The opening overture has been restored to its full length. It is also played over a CGI starfield, rather than the blank screen in the original version.
      • A slight dialog alteration was made: In the 1979 and 1983 versions, the V'Ger cloud is said to be "over 82 AUs in diameter" which equals 7.626 billion miles across - much too large for the Enterprise to realistically travel to the heart of the cloud at subwarp speeds within a reasonable length of time. For the Director's Edition, the Epsilon 9 commander's dialog was altered so that the cloud is now said to be a (somewhat) more reasonable "over 2 AUs", or 186 million miles.
      • The producers of the Director's Edition submitted the film for re-rating by the MPAA, hoping for a PG rating rather than the original G rating which they believed carried a negative association; the basis for the higher rating was the intensified soundtrack. Oddly, when the original theatrical version was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2009, it carried no MPAA rating.
      • Scenes previously available in the "special longer version."
    • Connections
      Edited into Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
    • Soundtracks
      Theme from 'Star Trek: The television Series'
      Written by Alexander Courage and Gene Roddenberry

    User reviews543

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    The Director's Edition is Bob Wise's definitive vision of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. And what a vision!
    This DVD version has improved and restored and made Star Trek: TMP a pleasure to watch rather than a chore. You're less inclined to hit fast-forward in those lengthy scenes. This movie will resonate well with mature-age viewers because the story is not what you would expect from today's action packed cinema. I appreciated the movie more as I got older. Bob Wise explains on the DVD that production was extremely rushed and had no time to preview the film with an audience that would now after 20 years, tell him to tighten the opticals and emphasize characters. This is precisely what he has done in the DVD version and its magnificent.

    Aesthetically, the DVD version shows you the best Star Trek: The Motion Picture can possibly look. Film is sharper; color is dead on however there is still a lot of film grain present unfortunately. My guess is they cleaned the original negative up as much as they could but it had deteriorated so much in storage, or was badly preserved. Certainly looks better than my bad pan/scanned VHS copy.

    The DVD truly shines with its brand new sound mix. This isn't your standard stereo to 5.1 DVD conversions like they are doing for movies pre 5.1; they have gutted it up and added new stuff. The original release was so rushed that very little in terms of ambient sound and special effects audio elements were done on the sound mix amongst other production elements. For this DVD they went back to the original audiotapes and remixed them digitally.

    Goldsmith's score sounded fantastic when it originally came out now sounds even better on the DVD version. It's tremendous, you will hear what your suppose to hear now with the added advantage of 5.1 surround sound. Goldsmith score truly has a chance to soar now by stretching into a clean high fidelity 5.1 environment rather than being squeezed onto a mono or stereo track. Bass kicks in often especially on big musical cues. You'll hear nifty panning and those surrounds and subwoofer will definitely get a workout. In instances they isolate different parts of the orchestra through different speakers, mainly the bass and percussion.

    Most onstage dialog was re-recorded afterwards because of onstage noise due to mechanical devices etc; this is now common practice in the industry. The result is cleaner dialog that comes prominently out of your center speaker. The dialog audio is good, but on occasion it shows a mild muffled and tinny quality probably due to age of material or analog technology of the time, nevertheless I guarantee you, the average viewer will like it, I'm just being picky. In short the movie will sound almost as good as if the movie was made recently.

    Not only having rebuilt the original audio they have put in more surround elements, like ambient bridge noises and computer voices. Not sure why they changed the `Intruder Alert' voice, I don't mind but I guess it was because they rushed the sound mix in the 70's and chose that voice as a last minute thing. There are other elements that have been changed, for the better I would say.

    The DVD contents have been remastered with Wise's overseeing. There are too many subtleties to comment on so shall briefly discuss a few. Before opening credits you are treated to Goldsmiths V'ger/Love theme, a nice touch. Then you hear the bombastic Star Trek Theme. Newly done credits over moving starfield.

    First main new special effect is the Vulcan landscape, tilting from sky to the surface. Then cuts to a new matte painting of the beautiful orange sky. Originally Spock shields his eyes and in the reversal, not only is there no sun there is little sky visible. The new matte painting now fits in nicely.

    San Francisco sequence has been redone, 3 new matte paintings that better show the futurized city, Golden Gate Bridge and a bigger shuttlebay.

    When they get into V'Ger they encounter a weapon heading towards them that is suppose to dissipate, in the original it simply disappears instantly, now we see a new visual that shows it dissipating just before it hits the ship.

    Later we see a probe heading towards the ship on the viewscreen and then through some hokey editing it appears on the bridge. This has been replaced with an improved FX shot showing the approach of the entity on an exterior shot.

    A new 'Wing Walk' sequence. Breathtaking new CGI's that show the away-team walk from the hull to the V'Ger stage, some using the original live action shots. New FXs for the most part are based on original storyboards. They didn't go overboard with the effects which is good, Bob tells us that they made FX that they could only do in the 1970's, unlike Star Wars whom George Lucas went overkill on new FX when he redid his in the 1990's.

    There are trims, some rearrangements of shots for the better. E.g. Ilia/Deckers exchange of looks, Kirk's `Oh My God', his second `Viewer Off.' I suspect they had to edit within Jerry's score, or have to also edit Jerry's score to accommodate the new editing, if so they have done it very well, I couldn't notice. Some lengthy scenes remain in its entirety, e.g. flying up to the enterprise, I don't blame them for not trimming them, some are sentimental.

    The 2 DVD's come with a plethora of information. Audio commentaries by the director, 2 special effect's guys, an actor and the composer guide you through the director's edition. Text commentary by Okuda gives even more scene specific info. Disc 2 gives you most of the trims, deleted scenes from the TV and Theatrical release not used in the DVD version and an outtake of an abandoned visual effect. Plus 3 documentaries about the abandoned TV series ST:Phase II, Directors edition DVD and the movie itself. Plus advertisements/trailers plus storyboards.

    A MUST BUY FOR FANS! You'll Love It!
    helpful•65
    20
    • homie_g
    • Feb 19, 2003

    FAQ15

    • Why did V'Ger choose to take Ilia out of all the people on the Enterprise?
    • Did V'Ger ever transmit its data or just join with the Creator?
    • What is "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" about?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 8, 1979 (United States)
      • United States
      • Startrek.com
      • English
      • Klingon
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA
    • Production companies
      • Paramount Pictures
      • Century Associates
      • Robert Wise Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 2 hours 11 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Stereo
      • Dolby Surround 7.1

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