Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek is something that has turned out to be so many things to so many people in its long history as a pop culture institution that it wound up transcending itâs humble origins in so many ways into becoming more than what was obviously intended. Considered to be the brainchild of one Gene Roddenberry, a man who was considered to be a sort of TV Producer / Hustler Type who wanted for it to be a way to push his own personal agenda on an unsuspecting public in the form of sci fi that depicted mankind to have joined together in the name of peace and harmony to travel beyond the stars and encounter all sorts of alien species both good and evil and establish new relations with them along with the sort of modern day trials and tribulations that come with this well mined territory for us and continue to do so today. Some of the limitations of that original vision were overcome by an extremely talented team of writers that introduced new concepts unheard of at that time as far as the genre was concerned along with a game, likable ensemble cast who quickly established a chemistry and rapport that made them all remarkably legends in their own way but really found its iconic figures in its two male leads, that being William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, in many ways an ultimate manâs man who was so heroic that he would be known to face grave danger with an almost cocky demeanor and always had an eye for the ladies regardless of their species, and Leonard Nimoyâs beloved Mr. Spock, an alien from the planet Vulcan with a human side courtesy of his mother whose distinctive qualities were his famous pointy ears and total insistence to confront all situations by applying them within the boundaries of utter logic and reason without allowing the irrational side of human emotion to cloud his judgment. It was for these reasons that these two characters (especially Spock) became beloved household names to people everywhere, and the showâs three year run became one of the most auspicious in television history, with its cancellation bringing on a slew of letter writing campaigns and the continued chattering by fans of reviving the concept in one form or another, which was actually done in the early 70s with a animated cartoon show featuring all of the original actors voicing their characters, until finally in the late 70s the decision was made to do a new TV show that would revive the entire franchise, but fate would wind up interfering in a funny way with the release in 1977 of George Lucasâ Star Wars, and all of a sudden studios started scrambling looking for ways to come up with their own sci fi franchise, and thatâs when Paramount realized that they were sitting on one that was extremely beloved in its own right. Thus the decision was made to âupgradeâ the would be TV show into a VERY big budget theatrical movie, and as a result no expense was spared to turn the whole thing into a serious and ambitious sci fi effort that would rival Star Wars in its greatness and scope. Cutting edge special effects were employed for its time to a great extent, the set designs were also tremendous with their sumptuous amount of detail, and most importantly multiple Oscar winner Robert Wise was brought in to direct and would aspire to bring the same epic scope to the material that he had done with films such as The Sound Of Music and West Side Story. He was certainly not a lightweight, as in 1979, the film was released to an eagerly awaiting public. However, the action and space battles that Star Wars was known for was eschewed in favor of a much more cerebral approach (reportedly due to Roddenberryâs influence) that was more akin to Stanley Kubrickâs 2001: A Space Odyssey, becoming sort of a mirror image of that film albeit with more familiar, likable characters, and it just about pulled it off, even though the costumes (of which that design was the only time it was ever used in the series) were of the bizarre, trying way too hard to be futuristic variety that at times made much of the cast look like fools, and the amazing visuals, particularly towards the end (that rivaled and even surpassed 2001âs climatic star trip), were so emphasized with such a show off technique that it wound up slowing the story down noticeably, despite the obvious beauty. In fact, this wound up giving the film a bad reception even amongst Trekkies, who dubbed it The Motionless Picture, but in the years since it has gained a considerable reputation for what it was trying to achieve and for the most part succeeded in doing by being more of a serious sci fi picture of some stature and not just a âpopcornâ type movie, putting it in a very respectable position amongst the other 6 films in the Original Cast Series so to speak, almost all of whom became cinematic classics in their own right (except for Part 5). The plot concerns a very large alien vessel of unknown origin heading this way straight for Earth, destroying a Klingon fleet and a Federation space station along the way, and the only ship close enough to intercept is The U.S.S. Enterprise, once again captained by Admiral James Kirk and his loyal crew, including his best friend and ornery ship doctor âBonesâ McCoy played by DeForest Kelley, legendary genius engineer Scotty played by James Doohan, George Takeiâs cool as ice Sulu, Walter Koenigâs nice Russian boy Chekov, Nichelle Nicholsâ communications officer Uhura, and even Majel Barrettâs Nurse Chapel and Grace Lee Whitneyâs Yeoman Rand, with Nimoyâs Spock coming aboard a little later on after leaving his home planet of Vulcan when he senses the scope of the alien lifeform and its vast power. We also have Stephen Collins coming in as Decker, the current captain of The Enterprise who is demoted by Kirk when he arrives and assumes command, leading to some friction there, and Indian supermodel Persis Khambatta sporting a shaved head as an alien Lieutenant whose race of females is said to unleash such potent sexual pheromones that even the gay Takeiâs Sulu is shown to jump up and attempt to conceal an erection when she sits down next to him. As the Enterprise goes to head off the alien vessel, we are treated to a transporter accident that results in molecular dissemination for two unlucky victims and a warp drive malfunction that lands the crew smack dab inside a wormhole in what is actually a pretty cool moment. Once face to face with our mystery species, it takes possession of our expendable crew member in Khambatta while Spock sneaks off the ship to attempt a mind meld with the being, leading to Kirk rescuing him and one of the best acting scenes in the whole series courtesy of Nimoy as a result of how he manages to understand the being and what it is it wants, which is to know simply why it was born, bringing the film into some philosophical territory that George Lucas could never quite muster. As said, many of the visuals were stunning, state of the art stuff for its time, while the classic old crewâs out of sorts interaction with each other before they warm up again and become more their old selves is at times unwieldy, and the final revelations (the big twist involving the beingâs true identity is a good one) again strike many as being similar to 2001âs Starchild evolutionary patterns, even though itâs interesting that the whole thing was never referred to again at any other time in the entire Star Trek universe, especially with the hints that are made about an actual God-like being having been created by the events at the end of the film, despite a few people who have tried to link it at times to both The Borg Collective and The Q Continuum, albeit unsuccessfully given what is already known about both those two species. Regardless, it is good to see the old crew finally back together, up to and including DeForest Kelley, a grizzled old TV Western character actor being treated like a superstar on massively budgeted sci fi movies when most of his peers were either dead or locked up in a retirement home unable to receive work and enjoy their golden years like he did. While far from perfect or even great, a fine way to kick off a series that emphasized camaraderie over goofy gimmicks and worn clichĂ©s.
8/10