Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Plot: A gigantic “cloud” (nearly 300 million kilometres diameter) has been detected hurtling towards Earth and Enterprise and its crew is the only ship in range to stop it. The “cloud” does have weapons and has destroyed ships and space-stations as it journeys onward. When the Enterprise reaches the “cloud”, the crew manages to contact what is inside of it just before imminent destruction. They enter the cloud to find a colossal vessel (approximately 100 kilometres in length) at the heart of it. Enterprise is pulled inside this vessel only to discover that they are inside a living machine that is looking for its creator. If it doesn't find the creator, it will wipe out humanity.

Author's note: Some spoilers with little plot discussion contained within.

Something sparks within me when I watch this movie. I experience emotion very strongly and am not afraid to express those emotions – generally in tears. They may flow due to happiness, beauty, sadness or a myriad mix of all three or something else entirely. It happens often enough and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (referred to as The Motion Picture from here-on) is one movie that elicits such an emotional response from me. For this and other reasons, I will venture that it rates as my third favourite of the Star Trek film franchise. Overall, I believe that this movie reflects Gene Roddenberry's personal vision of what Star Trek was meant to be more than any other. This is a movie about personal growth, self-discovery, and self-sacrifice.

While not an expert in anything to do with movies, I am willing to step out and state that I believe this movie excels in cinematography, musical score, visual effects and in other areas. Acting is good, but slightly sketchy in certain areas. I have read rumours that the actors never felt comfortable doing this movie. It wasn't until Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan that they felt they were back in their original roles.

Star Trek: The Original Series ended in 1969 and The Motion Picture was released in 1979 after a flurry of confusion as to whether or not it was actually going to be a movie or a new television series. It was a huge production at the time and I feel that this expense has paid off. While slightly different from the theatrical and television releases, the director's cut holds up remarkably well in regards to production quality and visual effects. The Starfleet uniforms are bland and uninteresting, but it is almost humorous to see hairstyles coming back to what they were 30 years ago.

As mentioned, the visuals are stunning and the effects very well done. There are, however, some issues. The primary problem lies in the amount of time spent watching long, slow sequences of nothing but visuals. This is a slow-moving movie. Not remotely as slow as 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they were nudging the line.

The director's cut takes this one step further by placing a 3 minute overture into the DVD before the opening credits: beautiful music as we lollygag through a field of stars. Wonderful if you're not in a hurry, but ultimately boring. This is the time to make a sandwich or just skip ahead to the next chapter.

During the opening credits, we hear what came to be the familiar anthem for Star Trek: The Next Generation. I am sure it must have shocked Trek fans in 1979 who were most likely expecting, “Space...the final frontier...” and not getting it. However, as soon as the credits pass, we are thrown right into the action – the most action this movie really sees – and it is a rather satisfying beginning, although the new design for the Klingons may have been somewhat of a shock as well.

The next scene is a major thematic point. Spock is shown on Vulcan looking rather ragged and homeless. He is attending a ceremony to celebrate his attempt to attain Kolinahr: a Vulcan ritual through which all emotion is renounced and shed. This is important to remember for later in the movie and also brings up one of my major points with Vulcans and the Star Trek universe: if logic is the end-all-be-all, then why hold ceremonies and rituals to celebrate it? What is logical about ceremony and ritual?

The fact is, Vulcans do have emotions, they just don't show them in the same manner as humans or other species do. Ceremony and ritual is not logical, but they are beautiful and beauty expresses emotion and the expression of emotion is logical for without it, we are barren and cold just as Spock says of V'ger (the primary “villain”) later in The Motion Picture.

Now that Spock has been re-introduced to the audience, we can finally move on to James Tiberius Kirk. He has been promoted from Captain to Admiral and we eventually learn that he is regretting accepting the promotion. Before that, however, there is a lengthy amount of plot development and more visual extravaganza. Remember, fans hadn't seen the Enterprise in ten years when this movie came out, so it probably was a great idea to have the rather drawn out fly-around scenes of the ship in space-dock. Ultimately, the director must have wanted the audience to feel the same sense of awe and longing that Kirk appears to feel as Scotty shuttles him to the ship.

Doctor McCoy is brought back on-board through a rather plot-convenient transporter accident. It must be noted that DeForest Kelley really provides some of the best comedic lines and strongest acting in this film. Without Leonard “Bones” McCoy to break the tension, this would be a painful movie to watch.

The plot revolves around Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Will Decker, and Lt. Ilia. It is unfortunate that the other Star Trek crew members take sideline roles, but for this movie it is important that they do so. Had much more time been spent re-introducing Uhuru, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty it would have been a true cinematic disaster.

Captain William Decker and Lieutenant Ilia are a bit of an odd pair to throw in the movie. Decker was supposed to have been the Enterprise's new captain, but when Kirk deposes him and takes over the ship it leaves the two of them at odds. Ilia comes aboard as ship's navigator and it turns out that she and Decker were lovers at one point. This is seemingly unimportant until V'ger kills Ilia and replaces her with a bio-mechanical android. V'ger copies Ilia so closely that her personality and memory patterns are virtually intact giving the Enterprise crew the ability to interact with V'ger on various levels.

V'ger ends up being a pretty interesting “villain” since V'ger is neither good nor evil, it just is. Spock emphasizes this when he states that he senses no emotion coming from the intruder, only pure logic. V'ger only does what it does because it wants to find its creator and merge with it. V'ger wants, V'ger needs, V'ger will get rid of whatever is in its way.

The mystery of V'ger and why it is heading to earth sets up the audience for one of the greatest reveals in cinema history. In a great climbing, panning camera shot the viewer is treated to the sight of V'ger's “brain” - something I will not specifically mention here just in case you haven't seen the film.

The theme of self-sacrifice present in all ten Trek films comes to fruition when Decker joins himself to V'ger. Kirk attempts to talk him out of it, but Decker states that he “wants this” as much as Kirk wanted Enterprise back. Without knowing the possible outcome, Decker keys the code sequence that begins the transformation. His self-sacrifice saves Enterprise and saves the humans living on Earth. It is unknown what the new V'ger/Decker/Ilia lifeform actually becomes or even where it goes, although another dimension is implied. In one sense, this outright disappearance of the antagonist is slightly anticlimactic, but still works well since it is consistent with the pace of the movie.

The Motion Picture is a slow-moving film with some redeeming themes, a satisfying story, some mild action, and an interesting premise. I personally rate it as third best of the ten Trek films and around 3.5 stars out of 5 when compared to other films in general. Definitely worth viewing at least once in your life.