Star Trek: The Original Series Films Review

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Second start of the run. And straight off to

the morning. Hello and welcome to episode 138

of Movie Week in Review here on the Geekast Radio

Network. I am Walter Yost, you have joined Mike,

and joining me for... The first time since episode

135 is Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. Yes, folks,

that's right. We're getting something done that

we tried to do over about 30 -something episodes

ago. we are going to be doing three episodes,

138, 139, and 139 .5, all on the Star Trek films,

because Steve is the diehard Trekkie of the two

of us, and I'm the casual Trekkie of the two

of us. So we're kind of coming at this at two

very different angles and perspectives. I knew

of and I was raised on TNG, but it wasn't like

the most important thing in my household. It

was a fun little show to watch, and I had seen

various bits of each of the TOS films, but I

was just never really that into Star Trek. Whereas

you, on the other hand, your entire family loves

Trek. Well, my entire family grew up on the original

series, and it was more so because this is the

only TV they had in the house, and so therefore

that's what they watched. Right, absolutely.

Yeah. So if you guys look in the post for each

of these episodes, there will be links to episode

100 of MWire and episode 101 where we, as in

Steve and Optimus Solo and sometimes I, we were

going to do all... 13 films, individual podcast

episodes that never really get off the ground.

So here we are, you know, 30 something episodes

later, this episode, we're going to talk about

all six of the TOS films. And then the next episode

will be the four TNG films. And then after that,

it'll be the Kelvin universe with, uh, Star Trek

into con and then beyond. Yeah. Yeah. what you

said yeah into con wrath of darkness into con

whatever you want to call it i i don't know and

i gotta give a shout out to movie revolt dan

our good buddy from cinema geeks and talking

in circles and all that because he said on twitter

while i was re -watching um the original series

films i got to the point of watching the final

frontier i posted on twitter So which is worse,

Star Trek V, The Final Frontier, or Star Trek

Into Darkness? And he said something to the effect

of Into Darkness doesn't get the hate that it

gets. What did he say? He said something. He

said something about Into Darkness gets too much

hate that it doesn't really. Here it is. He says.

Final Frontier by far is the worst. Into Darkness

has its issues, but still a better made film

on every level. It's an okay movie that gets

unwarranted hate. It's a copy of Wrath of Khan.

When we get to that film, I have an entire diatribe

of notes that I'm going to destroy that movie.

Yeah, it's on a league of its own. So I'll leave

that there. There's so much to nitpick on that

film. Absolutely. So as I said, folks, I spent

the better part of a week before we recorded

this watching all six of the original TOS films.

I watched the motion picture, and then I watched

Khan and Spock back -to -back. I watched Voyage

Home, and then I started Frontier, but I didn't

really, like, I got it started in my Hulu queue,

but I didn't really, like, watch it yet, and

then I back -to -back watched Final Frontier

and Undiscovered Country. I'll say this. I like

2, 4, and 6, so is that, like, even with... There's

this old myth to Star Trek films, at least the

originals. TNG kind of just... Destroyed it?

Well, it kind of beat to its own drum, and I'll

get to that too. And the Kelvin universe also

kind of did its own, but there's still a pattern.

The original series films, it was the general

consensus that every even -numbered film was

the good film. Okay. and every odd -numbered

film, with the exception of three. Yeah, because

two, three, and four kind of almost go together.

Well, they absolutely go together, because they

pick up from where the other one left off immediately,

whereas the rest of them are kind of, they're

spanned between years. Yeah, I mean, I'm not

saying that 2, 3, and 4 kind of only are... You're

right, they are fully linked together. They are

a full three -part story. I'm just saying that

because they are a three -part story, Search

for Spock is not the worst film of the six. No.

So there's that. We'll talk about that as we

go along. We'll talk about that as we go along.

So we're going to take a quick break. You're

going to get all of the Star Trek film universe

information you need to know for the original

series after this, and we'll be back. This computer

terminal provides full access to the Elkar's

computer net. It can be operated both by voice

and keypad commands. Initiating update. As we

take our dive into Memory Alpha, we'll be beginning

with the original series films. Starting off

with Star Trek The Motion Picture, it was released

December 7th, 1979 and was the first of the 13

films. Coming out after the hot release of Star

Wars of 1977, this screenplay was done by Harold

Livingston. Directed by Robert Wise and produced

by Gene Roddenberry. And we give our first new

look at the Klingons in this, the new Klingon

ships. And, of course, we have our returning

cast with the 70s sported uniforms. We have William

Shatner as Captain James T. Kerr. Leonard Nimoy

as Spock. DeForest Carroll as Kelly as Dr. McCoy.

James Doohan as Scotty. George Takai as Sulu.

Majel Barrett as Dr. Chappell. Walter Coen as

Chekhov. Michelle Nichols as Aurora. Persis Kambada

played Ilea. Stephen Collins as Captain Decker.

Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand. Mark Leonard,

who also returns later in the series as Ambassador

Sarek, plays a Klingon captain in this one. The

film was rated G with a budget of $35 million,

estimated with a gross of $82 million. The major

significance of this film was it introduced a

deus ex machina with the Voyager 6 probe, which

in William Shatner's book, The Return, is stated

as a... The Voyager 6 encountered the Borg, creating

thus this living machine. Star Trek II The Wrath

of Khan was released June 4th, 1982. It was rated

PG with a runtime of 1 hour and 53 minutes, directed

by Nicholas Meyer, written by Gene Roddenberry

and Harv Bennett. Also starring William Shatner,

Leonard Nimoy, basically the entire original

cast. And then you have B .B. Besch as Carol

Marcus, Merritt Buttrick as David Marcus. Paul

Winfield as Captain Terrell, Kirstie Alley as

Savick, at least the first one, Ricardo Montalban

reprising his role as Khan from the original

series Space Seed, and the budget for this film

was $11 million, and gross $78 million. Alternate

titles for this film are, funny enough, Star

Trek II The Undiscovered Country, which would

later be reused as Star Trek VI. Star Trek III

The Search for Spock was released June 1st, 1984

with a runtime of 1 hour and 45 minutes with

a PG rating. Directed by Leonard Nimoy. Written

by Gene Roddenberry and Harvey Bennett. And starring

the original series crew as well with Robin Curtis

coming in to play Savick in this film. And David

Marcus coming in to play again. And then of course

we have Mark Leonard reprising as Ambassador

Sarek. Christopher Lloyd coming in as Commander

Crudge, the Klingon commander. Funny enough,

the voices of Spock screaming were veteran voice

actor Frank Welker. The film had a budget of

$17 million and grossed $76 million. Star Trek

IV The Voyage Home was released November 26,

1986 with a runtime of 1 hour and 59 minutes.

Rated PG. Directed by... Leonard Nimoy, written

by Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, Art Bennett,

among others. Starring the original series crew

again, with Catherine Hicks playing Jillian,

and Jane Wyatt playing Amanda, which is Spock's

mother. Mark Leonard reprising his role as Sarek.

Robin Curtis reprising as Lieutenant Savick.

Brock Peters coming in to play Admiral Cartwright,

who would later come on to play Benjamin Sisko's

dad in Star Trek Deep Space Nine as a totally

different character. The film budget was $25

million. It grossed $109 million. Also known

as Star Trek IV The Adventure Continues. Star

Trek V The Final Frontier was released June 9th,

1989. with a runtime of 1 hour and 47 minutes.

It was rated PG! Directed by William Shatner.

Written by William Shatner. Starring the original

series crew again, with David Warner playing

St. John Talbot, an ambassador. Lawrence Luckenbill

as Cybok. Charles Cooper as Cord. Cynthia Gao

as Caitlin Darr. Todd Bryant playing Captain

Claw. Spice Williams -Crosby playing Vixus. And

George Murdock playing quote -unquote God. The

film's budget was $27 million and it grossed

$55 million. Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country

was released December 6, 1991 with a runtime

of 1 hour and 53 minutes. Rated PG. Directed

by Nicholas Meyer. Story by Nicholas Meyer and

Leonard Nimoy. Starring the original series cast

as well. With Kim Cantrell coming in to play

Lieutenant Valeris. Mark Leonard coming in to

play Sarek. Grace Lee Whitney, who was Yeoman

Rand in the original series, reprised her role

as Rand the Excelsior Communications Officer.

Brock Peters reprised his role as Admiral Cartwright.

Leon Russum played the Chief in Command. Kurtwood

Smith played the Federation President, who would

later come on to play characters in Star Trek

Voyager and in Star Trek Enterprise. Christopher

Plummer comes in to play General Chang. Rosanna

DeSoto plays Atset Burr. David Warner comes in

this time to play Chancellor Gorkon. Among other

cameos from The Next Generation and Deep Space

Nine, Michael Dorn comes in to play Klingon defense

attorney Worf, which is the grandfather of his

character in Star Trek The Next Generation. Christian

Slater comes in to play the Excelsior communications

officer as well. Iman plays Martia. Rene Albert

Jonas plays Colonel West, who is also known as

Odo in Deep Space Nine. The film's budget was

$30 million with a gross of $74 million. This

has been your Elkar segment. Now back to the

show. Please confirm deactivation request. Deactivation

complete. Now disconnected from this terminal.

Here in episode 138 of Movie Week in Review here

on the Geekcast Radio Network. And it is time

to talk about the six original series Star Trek

films. You just heard Steve's Elkar segment.

So, Steve, take it away with the synopsis for

Star Trek, The Motionless Picture. So, The Motionless

Picture was made essentially because of, you

know, Star Wars, essentially. It's the only reason

they went back to the Trek films. Not to mention

the failed attempt of what was going to be Phase

2 of another television series that never took

place, which they incorporated part of that into

this film. So getting into the synopsis before

I get into that, it takes place after the five

-year mission. After an 18 -month refit process,

the Enterprise is ready to explore the galaxy

once again. but a huge, invincible cloud approaches

Earth, and Admiral James D. Kirk must assume

command of his old ship in order to stop it,

and crew members old and new face challenges

and must work together to triumph over the unknown.

This film, amongst other things, tried to, because

in Phase 2 they were going to have a Vulcan,

but they weren't going to have Spock. So they

attempted to write out Nimoy's character that

he was going to have Kalinar, which is a Vulcan

essentially purging of emotions and going pure

logic. And so it would separate them from basically

their friends and all their connections and everything

else. So having some weird telepathy thing that

they never really explored before or after. He

can sense that his friends are in danger, much

like the Force. And the other Vulcan is henceforth

killed in a transporter accident, miraculously.

So they have the excuse to bring Spock in. And

then McCoy, of course, is hilarious as usual.

And then we get our first big -budgeted Klingon.

where they have the ridges on their face for

the first time. So this is where a lot of things

changed because of the budget. The uniforms were

very 70s and looked like absolute garbage. The

Enterprise was like a weird auditorium at times.

Yeah. uh various aspects of it it they almost

tried to go like 2001 a space odyssey with it

uh and so like i found even as a child that this

film was the most difficult one for me to watch

out of the first six and it still is kind of

hard to stomach to this day and there's speculation

that viger which comes later in the film uh is

like a uh a space probe that essentially got

kind of merged with a like borg technology in

a sense right at some point and so like it was

written into a into a shot in your book which

is technically not canon uh but i like to believe

that that part of it is so it gives it gives

reason to this because you're in this giant uh

ship of swords but no i mean The film has its

issues, and then they, of course, recycled this

movie poster for Star Trek Beyond. Yeah. It's

cookie cutter. I was like, man, they just can't

come up with nothing original nowadays. But yeah,

I mean, this film wasn't too bad. Captain Decker

I found a little annoying, but... Yeah, at first

I did. And a lot of the characters were very

hollow versions of themselves. Yeah. Cause I

like, again, I was not, again, you're the diehard.

I'm the casual. I, when I remember seeing original

series was not when I was a kid, it was like

when I was a teenager, 93 to 95. So when I, between

13 and 15, my dad would watch it Sunday afternoons

when it was in reruns in the nineties. And I

had already seen next gen. Because I grew up

when I was 7, 8, 9 years old, 87, 88, 89, watching

that with my mom in Massachusetts. And when I

got down here to Kentucky with my dad in 93,

I'm like, this isn't Star Trek. What is this?

And I eventually kind of liked it, but I've never

really gone back and watched the original series.

So with this first film, with Motionless Picture

here, my ultimate takeaway from the film is...

It's highlighting the music and the effects and

the visuals more than an actual story. Because

to me, after watching this film for the first

time ever, really, all the way through, the story

kind of doesn't come through until the last 20

minutes of the film. Yeah. We've got Kirk and

Spock and Scotty and Bones and Uhura and all

of that, and that's great. And we've got, you

know... Sulu and Chekov and all of that. That's

wonderful. You know, we've got this other, you

know, we've kind of got this animosity between

the two captains and yada yada yada and all of

that. That's fine. But, like, the whole time

they're in that, that was like the longest scene

to show off every single orifice of the Enterprise.

Like, look at us! It's on the big screen now!

Yay! That scene was just way too long. when they

were in that cloud. Music was great. Visuals

were great. Plot -wise, there wasn't one there

because it was all visual and music. It was a

very poorly written attempt, but it did do the

one thing that it needed it to do, which was

revitalize the franchise. And in doing so, it

paved the way for... later films uh which were

much better and a lot of this this film was very

poor as far as the characterizations as far as

their interactions i mean you could have taken

anybody and put them in any of these roles and

it would have made no difference yeah and uh

i mean i enjoyed some of the quips and stuff

you know between the fact that you know Scotty

mentioned the fact that Kirk's got the Enterprise.

The interactions between all the characters are

great. They really are. I've never had a problem

with any of the interactions between any of the

characters. It's just that, as I said, and I

don't want to continue repeating myself, this

film feels like it's more of a showpiece of visual

effects. and the effects are stunning like i

love the clinic the klingon battle in the beginning

i love the wormhole scene um i like seeing the

cloud stuff at the end but again like i already

said to me that went a little too slow a lot

of this film went way too slow which was the

major problem with it if they would have sped

up certain uh scenic route things, it would have

made it much better as a film. One of the things

that they did get right, though, is some of the

stuff with Kirk and then some of the stuff with

McCoy as far as when Yeoman Rand was about to

transport McCoy and when told by Yeoman that

the crew member insisted on them beaming up first.

Something about first seeing how it scrambled

our molecules. Kirk tells Starfleet to beam the

officer aboard and McCoy dressed, you know, comes

in there. Yeah. Looking like he got out of a

Saturday Night Fever thing with a beard. Yeah.

And then complaining the whole way, which was

very McCoy. But the very end of the film, the

funny part about that is it parallels Star Trek

5. Mm -hmm. In a lot of ways. Yeah. God -like

identity, ship survives, comes out of the thing

that explodes, and then, you know, they go on

their happy little way. Yep. On our GCR Universal

Rating Scale of 0 to 5 stars, I'd probably give

Motion Picture a 2 .5. Only because, as we've

already said, it's so... slow at times. And the

severe lack of a plot the whole time they're

going through the clouds searching for this nameless,

faceless thing at the time. I think it was cool

that they worked in the whole Voyager space probe.

I thought that was kind of cool. They worked

in him better than Michael Bay did in certain

movies. There's that. What would you give Motion

Picture? I would probably give it a two and a

half as well, just because it revitalized the

franchise, but overall it was a poor specimen.

It's not a good story starter, like you said.

They're picking up... five years and 18 months

after the five -year 18 months after the five

-year mission so essentially five years and 18

months after the original mission thing and it's

like hmm where are the you know where have all

these people been now so um all right let's get

to khan what's going on with khan position here

lisa is that all you gotta say what about my

performance I'm not a drama critic. So up next,

we have Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan. So as

a primer for this, everyone should have watched

the original series episode, Space Seed. Because,

again, it pulls from a character directly from

the original series, which was probably one of

the... uh best ways that they could have done

something for the films and done something original

at the time except for into darkness so that

being said uh because of the casting it worked

really well um so this particular person that

directed it uh managed to completely renovate

the costumes and give it more of a military look

which definitely helped hone the uh uh the the

aesthetic of the film and involve the characters

and and kind of keep them in in this new look

for the duration of the films and then uh because

the way it was written they knew how to write

the characters so they were able to properly

connect it with the original series and evolve

the characters of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the

rest of them. But basically, the film is about

Admiral James T. Kirk facing his greatest challenge

yet, suffering through doubts about his place

in the galaxy. He is thrust into action once

more. You know, I didn't get that. I mean, I

did get that, but they used that particular plot

point in Star Trek Beyond in the beginning. The

doubts thing. Yeah. Because they use this line

that everything has gotten so episodic. But anyways,

he starts an inaction once more against his most

bitter foe, Khan, who escaped his exile in City

Alpha 5 and now seeks revenge on Kirk. With a

powerful new device in the wrong hands and a

no -win scenario in play, the cost of victory

for the Enterprise may prove to be too high.

So this takes place on Kirk's birthday. Well,

it also takes place five years. There was another

five -year mission after the motion picture,

and Kirk went back to Starfleet headquarters,

and Spock is now a captain of the Enterprise,

and they're using it for training purposes at

the moment. Right. What are your initial thoughts

before I monopolize the conversation? Hopefully

he'll listen to this. Hopefully he won't cringe.

He's about as big, if not a bigger, Star Trek

fan than you are. Our good buddy Ryan, the name

of him, Flo Merkley. He basically said to me,

you cannot say a single bad thing about Khan.

It is the single greatest Star Trek film of all

time. And he would be right. The only thing...

The only two things I'll say. You don't like

the space worms. Damn it. Stop it. The only two

things I will say is that, number one, because

I did not see this when I was a kid, I don't

have the connection to it that every other diehard

Trek fan does. Like, the first time I originally

saw this was on TV, like, two years ago. All

the way through. Obviously, that's not the best

way to watch it, but I've since seen it now.

And yeah, I could do without the space leeches

scene. I mean, that just creeps me out. Other

than that, I believe that this is the true Star

Trek story that should have started the film

franchise. You know, I was only up to the scene

where Kong is explaining what happened to the

SS Botany Bay. And I'm like, there's more story

in this one scene than there is in almost the

first 25 minutes of motion picture. I love that

they have Paul Winfield in here as Terrell. because

I know Paul Winfield, he was the voiceover announcer

for an A &E show called City Confidential kind

of thing. Think of like Forensic Files, that

kind of stuff. So it was kind of nice to actually

see him in action. Let's see what else here.

So much for the little training crews. Damn it,

I love Sulu. I love Sulu so much. He honestly

might be my favorite out of all of them. I mean,

I love them all individually, but if somebody

said, you know, put a phaser to my head and pick

your favorite crew member character, hands down,

it's Solo. I love the action. I love how Kirk

got around Khan at first in the first meeting

of the Enterprise and the Reliant. I thought

that was great. Are they wearing bell -bottoms?

Are they uniform pants bell -bottoms? No. They

are tucked into the boot. Okay. And then they've

got a red stripe on the side. Okay. This outfit

that the Wrath of Khan uniform, as it's been

dubbed, is one of my single favorite Trek uniforms.

That, if I ever were to get one... This would

be one of the ones I would get. Another one that

I really like is the TNG movie one that they

use in later DS9. And then there's actually one

in the Star Trek Online game that I like, which

is kind of a mixture of TNG and this particular

uniform. So it's kind of cool. Yeah, I mean,

all the characters were great. The introduction

of Savick, which unfortunately in the next film,

the actress changes, which is a bit jarring,

but I kind of liked the second one better. Yeah,

the second Lieutenant Savick is better. I mean,

the first Lieutenant Savick here, folks, if you

have never seen this film. Christy Alley. Christy

friggin' Alley. It's, look who's talking, lady.

It's, you know, the lady from Cheers. I mean,

like, I was... No, if John Travolta would have

been Khan, I would have been scared. That would

have been... Obviously, that would not have been

as awesome as Ricardo Montalban, but... No, Montalban,

you can't beat that. Yeah, no, I know, but...

You can't make Benedict Cumberbatch become Montalban.

There's no way. I know, absolutely, I know, but

I'm saying, like, Like you're saying, if John

Travolta was God, that would just be absolutely...

Oh, God. But yeah, and I've already said in my

other notes about how I enjoyed it, although

I don't have the connection to it that most do.

I can still see the friendship, the sacrifice

Spock selflessly gave his life to create a whole

new series of lives and all of that. I did very

much enjoy the film. I just don't have the same

connection to it that everybody else does. It's

very jarring when one of the characters, especially

Spock, because Leonard Nimoy wanted an out and

they wrote it for him. The reason why they didn't

remember with McCoy is because... In case they

wanted him back. Well, in case they wanted him

back, but what had happened is... Paramount was

getting floods of emails about – or not emails,

but letters. Wrong generation. Yeah, I know,

right? It would be emails now. But from disgruntled

fans and children who were just – it was basically

the Optimus Prime syndrome all over again. Yep.

You think – Everything would have learned it

from Spock, but they didn't. Because logically,

you don't do that again. And they tried it with

Duke and Prime after this. Well, but logically,

Hasbro's a toy company and they wanted their

new line, so it didn't matter about the story.

You can't kill the leaders. The top crew. So,

yeah, it became one of those scenarios. But I

love how... You know, he basically nerve pinched

McCoy and then did remember. And then he went

in there and, you know, Scotty's hurt. And you

get Kirk, one of the most famous lines of Khan.

And which was just great. And find out Kirk had

a son. Yeah. And you get this glorious battle

in the nebula between Khan and Kirk in ships,

which was which was great. And you see Kirk aging

with getting his birthday present from McCoy

at glasses. Yeah. Like old school glasses, which

was hilarious. Which those come back to play

in another film. Yeah, they do. And he has to

pawn it for money. We don't have a currency where

we come from. Which they do. Yeah, okay. I wanted

to wait to ask you about this, and I probably

will. But I was like... How do you not have money

where you are? We'll talk about that when we

get to the voyage home, though. Okay. So, yeah,

it's a very stellar film overall. And then the

whole Genesis thing, you know, a lot of these

plot points actually still come home to play

in the Star Trek online, which is considered

canon for the future timeline because there's

actually proto -matter. uh bombs that can be

set off on planets to completely revamp it uh

which is based off of genesis in effect uh so

yeah i mean i i really love the uh you know the

fact that they had the kobayashi maru in the

beginning with the test with savik and and you

know kirk is just like kind of like Nobody's

going to do what I did. And then, you know, later

they reveal what he did, and Bones is like, you're

looking at the single man who ever beat the Kobayashi

Maru by changing the parameters. So you cheated.

Sort of. Basically. Yeah. Wrath of Khan, 0 -5.

I give it a four and a half. The only reason

why I'm taking a half point off is because the

space leeches. No. Too creepy. Before I give

mine, the other thing I liked is during Kirk's

party, McCoy's basically like... Because back

then the doctors were also the bartenders, so

they were also kind of the ship counselor, all

wrapped in one. Right. Which is why McCoy had...

You know, Romulan ale. And he was being his counselor

and his medic, which is why I gave him the glasses.

And he prescribed something Kirk's allergic to.

But McCoy's basically like, do you want to keep

being, you know, an admiral hopping galaxies,

you know, in a starship or be an admiral? And,

you know, basically. McCoy's like, you should

just be a captain again before you get too old

and can't. But it was kind of cool seeing Chekov

not being a part of the crew and then coming

back to the crew. So that was kind of neat too.

And then getting a little bit of the backstory

of Khan, of what happened. You get to see a lot

of different aspects in this film that you just

didn't get in the original series or you didn't

get in that first film. And so it's very, especially

touching towards the end of it. And then they

purposely throw that shot of Spock's torpedo

in. But yeah, overall, I would give it a... I'm

going to be a little torn here because I have

like, is it fair if I give a five to multiple

movies in the series? That's fine. I don't care.

I think I'm going to give it a five because like

it's, I had a hard time picking it apart. The

only thing I probably would have knocked it for

is the fact they changed Savick between two and

three, but yeah. All right, folks, we're going

to take another quick break, come back with the

next movie after this. It is time for the search

for Spock, because he's missing, apparently.

He's dead, Jim. Oh. Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor,

not an insert whatever he says here. So. Yes.

It's, again, Admiral James T. Kirk finding out

he made a mistake by leaving Spock on the Genesis

planet because Sarek, his father, comes and informs

him that, oops, so he must disobey Starfleet

orders and hijack the Hobbled Enterprise to retrieve

his best friend. However, a rogue Klingon seeking

the secrets of the Genesis torpedo puts Kirk's

mission as well as the Enterprise, its crew,

and Spock himself in jeopardy. So you have...

the DeLorean Klingon. Yeah. Doc Brown, Christopher

Lloyd, probably one of the best Klingon performances

in any of the Star Trek films. Oh, absolutely.

I have had enough of you. I was really, again,

like with. Star Trek The Motion Picture with

Savick being, or no, Wrath of Khan with Savick

being Christy Alley. I was super surprised to

see Christopher Lloyd, Doc Brown, in a Star Trek

movie. Well, you gotta figure, he was big around

that time, you know. Yeah. And it was just, wasn't

Back to the Future out in 84? 85. 85, so he did

this right before that. Yep. Because this came

out in 84. I love that Kirk going... Kirk without

Spock finds that Kirk is just kind of lost. Because

they've been friends for years. Honestly, like

decades upon decades of friendship here. At least

15 years or more of missions. Because the show

was a five -year mission. There was another five

-year mission between 1 and 2. And, you know,

all of that. So, Kirk without Spock is just kind

of lost. And we see that going forward with their

friendship as the films progress. Going against

orders is just what Kirk does. So, you know,

there's that. David, Kirk's son on Genesis. That

was cool. And then, Sulu in action. Man. He needs

his own damn movie. Well, and the great thing

is they introduced the Excelsior in this. Yep.

Which is supposed to be Starfleet's big, like,

you know, between the transwarp technology, which

doesn't get fully utilized until the late 24th

century. Yep. Because the Borg are the only ones

that really know how to use it, which is why

it's funny that it's here first. And then the

fact that... scotty basically took a uh in essence

a fuse or a couple fuses from the warp drive

that prevented it from moving uh that was funny

and and and then you know the foreshadowing later

for for sulu with you know you know that's a

nice ship you know and he says why would you

want that bucket of boats Yeah. You know, so,

and then you get to see the, you know, the captain,

you know, Enterprise crew all on the bridge,

essentially getting ready to have the whole scenario

with the Klingons and, you know, pre -destruct.

The ship. Yeah. So, I mean, I, that was probably

one of the. craziest things was like oh man they

just killed the ship which is one of many times

it will happen in the films yeah it was the first

time i had seen this and how it exploded and

it incinerated from the inside out yeah which

just because they killed another character essentially

in the franchise to save another yeah I was like,

damn, the Enterprise blew up better than the

Death Star did. You know, you want to know what's

even funnier? Kirk, Scott, and Chekov are together

on the bridge of the Enterprise doing the, you

know, the outer destruct sequence. They're also

the three original cast that are on the Enterprise

B bridge. Oh, sweet. So, because you haven't

watched those yet, so. Yeah, the TNG films. Yeah.

Not yet. That's next week. Search for Spock.

Three and a half maybe for me. I enjoyed it.

It's a good middle story between the three films

that are the arc. It's nowhere near as good as

Khan, but it's still a very interesting film.

My only issue with the film was I felt like...

And I understood why they did it. Because they

had to regrow Spock throughout the film. Because

his life sign was tied to the Genesis planet

because it was unstable. I didn't like the aspects

while I was waiting for him to become fully grown

again. Oh, you didn't like his puberty? No, I

just... I was like... Even like... Even now,

I kind of skip those sections and I move on to

the action -y parts or the parts with the Enterprise

crew because I don't care about a lot of the

stuff that's on the planet until Kirk beams down.

So it's funny that when Kirk gets picked up by

the Klingon bird of prey and the Klingon's like,

you promised you would... He says, you know,

get him out of here. And he says, you know, what

are you going to do with me? He says, I'll kill

you later or whatever. And then when it comes

to later, he's like, you said you would. He says,

I lied. Yeah, I lied. Yeah. That was hilarious.

I absolutely love that. So good. All right. Another

break, folks. And we're going to go on a voyage

home after this. frontier these are the continuing

voyages of the starship enterprise her ongoing

mission to explore strange new worlds to seek

out new life forms and new civilizations to boldly

go where no man has gone before We are back,

and it is time for the fourth Star Trek film,

The Voyage Home. So this one picks up right at

the end of, or shortly thereafter, after the

third film. And again, Admiral James T. Kirk

is prepared to take the consequences for rescuing

Spock and stealing, then losing the Starship

Enterprise, but a new danger has put Earth itself

in jeopardy on his drive home. Kirk and crew

must travel back in time in an old clan bird

of prey to right an ancient wrong. In the hopes

of saving Earth and the Federation from certain

doom, there be whales here. We need to go find

the nuclear vessels. No matter what you say,

this film was fun. No, I love this film. Honestly,

this might get... The best rating I've had out

of all six of these. I love this film. This is

by far my favorite. It was so fun. The only small

little nitpick I have was really... It was a

humpback whale story, really. I'm not that upset

about it, but I was expecting that opening thing,

the big probe blob thing or whatever it is that's

destroying... The stuff from the 23rd century,

I was expecting it to be some sort of Klingon

or Romulan thing or whatever, but it wasn't.

It was some sort of giant space whale, which

is fine. They have a Romulan weapon, which is

like a doomsday device, which you have to defeat

like two of them in the Star Trek Online game,

but it's annoying. This probe thing, I have no

idea what its deal is. A long time ago, I read

a book. that had to do with that probe like before

and after this film right i can't remember nothing

about it now but uh it was it it was looking

to communicate with them and found that because

they weren't there it was like uh shutting off

power and i'm just gonna destroy the world because

there's nobody here some of the great parts of

this film though were the fact that although

it was low budget for this for the sense of There

were special effects, but it wasn't like the

whole movie. They were able to do a lot of just

everyday running around. So it was kind of funny

seeing some of the stuff happen. And then you

get Scotty's kind of his signature vest thing

that he wears all the time now in this film,

which showed up for the first time. Yeah, it

was very cool. And then he kind of wears it again

in the remaining films and in TNG, so it's kind

of cool there. But I like how they had to repower

the ship because the Klingon, Deleth, and Crystals

were drained by the time travel. So they had

to go to a nuke, a nuclear fission reactor from

a ship. Please help us to find the nuclear vessels.

Where are the nuclear vessels, please? And at

the time, like, tensions were high with Russia,

much like now. Yeah. So they were like, oh. Oh,

dude. Yeah. Talking to the cops and, you know.

And then we get the other part of Seventh Heaven

on this show. The one that played the Dr. Jillian

Taylor, the whale lover. The one that played

her husband on this show was in the motion picture.

Oh, sweet. That was Captain Decker. Oh, cool.

Never watched the show, but I think it was funny

that it just kind of played out that way. And

then miraculously, she gets to go to the future

as well, which is kind of funny because she plays

Kirk. Not surprisingly. And then a lot of the

interactions between Kirk and Spock throughout

this film when they're together. or very humorous,

and then the ones between McCoy and Scotty, especially

going to the PlexiCorp. Yeah, that was... Hello,

computer. Yeah. And then he's going to type everything

the hard way, and he's just kind of like... Well,

he starts off really slow, and then by the end

of it, he doesn't burn out the keyboard, but

I was like, oh, it's the mass kind of thing,

where he super speed trips. Cause that's, that's

like the, um, like any film they're typing on

nothing, just random stuff's appearing on the

screen. Um, so, you know, it's just like, you

know, uh, Oh, I'm hacking this computer, you

know, um, even though he's not. Yeah. And, uh,

McCoy and Scott are kind of talking about the

You know, altering the future or preserving history.

And it kind of turns out that that guy invents

the technology that they're after anyway. So

it's kind of one of those time paradox things.

So they didn't really alter anything. Nope. No,

but I love this. Simply for the fact of Sulu.

It has to be Sulu. Because oh my god. And obviously

in 6 he will have a more prevalent role. Because

he gets bumped up to captain. But I just. Because

he was like oh San Francisco. I was born here.

And it's just. It's just so fun. It's a very

very fun film. It's probably the only one out

of the original series films that I could go

back and watch and, you know, not necessarily

over and over and over again, but watch more

than once, you know. And then one of the other

great parts is you get Kirk getting court -martialed

in front of everybody. Yeah. And they're like,

because you've saved Earth. You're just permanently

stuck at the rank of captain. You can never be

promoted again. And he's like, oh, I'm good with

that. And then they're like, and as a bonus,

you know, let's give you another ship, another

Constitution -class starship, also named Enterprise,

NCC -1701A, which is my favorite one. We'll talk

about this as we go along in the next episode

for the TNG stuff, but does anyone really like

the original Enterprise? Like, no bloody A, B,

C, or D, but the original, original Enterprise?

I will tell you in Star Trek Online, it is a

rabid thing that everyone wants, but can't get

their hands on. No, they have one that they give

you right off the bat. early in the game and

not going into too much detail just talking the

ship but uh they have a very high level version

of it that's for uh it's basically like a promotion

premiere thing that you can't really get uh unless

you spend a lot of money in game and it's because

they call it a temporal light cruiser but it's

just it's the same ship It's just so that it's

higher level, but everybody wants that sucker

more than anything else in the game. Myself included.

You can also put the skin on it to make it look

like the refit or the Enterprise A. But, yeah.

Voyage Home, like I said, everything about the

movie made sense to me. I thought it was interesting

that they did a time travel story. I didn't think

that... Star Trek would... I don't think that

TV series did time travel stories originally,

did they? Not in TOS, did they? Nine times. Really?

Okay, well... Eight or nine times. All right,

then. Yeah, I just absolutely love Voyage Home,

so for me, out of five, it's probably going to

get a five, because I thought it was just such

a fun film. What about you? I'm going to give

it a five because it's got a lot of rewatchability

to it. It's one of those ones where I can just

turn it on and kind of shut my brain off. Funny

thing is, it's one of the few I don't fast forward

through when it's on my other screen when I'm

playing a game on the other one. All right. All

right. Another break and we'll come back and

enter the final frontier. Jim. How many fingers

do I have up? That's not very damn funny. Your

sense of humor's returned. The hell it is. What's

that? Lexerin. Lexerin? What for? You're suffering

from a Vulcan mind meld, Doctor. That green -blooded

son of a bitch. It's his revenge for all those

arguments he lost. So it's Final Frontier time,

folks, here on episode 138 of MWire. Now, why

in the hell does everyone say this is the worst

film out of the six? So, the plot is when a renegade

Vulcan captures the Federation Klingon and Romulan

ambassadors on Nimbus III. By the way, I hate

Nimbus III. or nimbus in general because like

right it's a star trek online game is like my

it's the one planet i would love to avoid but

i can't for for game reasons uh so the planet

of galactic peace it's like trade it's like orion

slave trade planet on the game so um It can only

mean one thing. The vacation is over. James T.

Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise A are pressed

back into service to come to the rescue, but

when the Vulcan has a prior association with

Spock, it allows him to seize control of the

Enterprise and put it on a course to the center

of the galaxy where he and his followers believe

that they will find the place from which creation

sprung. So let's see. We've had a time -traveling

whale story. And now we have a creationism story.

Well, this was Shatner's attempt at doing humor

in this film, which is why the Enterprise was

broken most of the movie. I don't see how that's

funny. I think it's a little bit funny in a sense,

but... I mean, the only time I found it funny

is when Scotty's complaining about how broken

the ship is. I didn't like aspects of this movie

between the characters and how they interacted

and then how, like, Cybok annoyed me. And then,

of course, Shaakari. Yeah, that was a little

weird. Because, correct me if I'm wrong, maybe

I misinterpreted this. After all, this is the

first time I've really seen this movie. At the

end, was it mainly meant to show that Shaakiri

was actually Spybok or Cybok or whatever the

hell his half -brother's name is? Like, is that

his inner... Nope. Shaakiri was actually, like,

some kind of an alien that was trapped in the

planet. Okay, so it was a Unicron thing. Essentially,

it was like a spirit thing, and it wanted a starship

to leave the planet, and it used... Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Cybok to try and do it and unfortunately

like it just yeah because Kirk's question what

does God need with the starship and then like

of course Spock says it too and then McCoy's

like if it is the voice of God you know the you

know why is he why is he doing this you know

and then Cybok finally gets it. You know, why

Kirk's kind of, why, why would he need a starship?

Yeah. But, um, yeah. So Cybok uses his, his Vulcan,

uh, kind of telepathy to kind of connect with

shockery. Yeah. So then they, you know, basically,

Because this life form is imprisoned on this

planet behind the Great Barrier, so it can't

escape on its own. It needs a ship to do it for

it. Right. Yeah, so they have to blow it up with

Cybok on there. Then it makes you think that

Kirk's going to die on the Klingon Bird of Prey.

And, you know, hey, there's Spock with General

Kord. Yep. Eh, this movie, I like the angle of

doing more family stuff with Spock, that it's

his half -brother, that, you know, we kind of

get a little bit of the way Spock was when he

was a kid, that kind of stuff, but overall, he's

kind of boring. I think there was, like, one

scene with Scotty and Uhura where I'm like, are

they really... flirting around with each other,

which doesn't bother me. I just find it absolutely

hilarious. At least it's not with Spock. Uhura

and Spock. Yeah, that comes later. I did like

the fact that they're sitting there eating potato

chips on the bridge. Yeah, that was fun. And

then Scotty's like, oh, you know me so well.

Yeah, mostly in the beginning and the end we

were really good. And I'm not saying that because

it started and it stopped. I'm saying because

you get them out in the wilderness and then Kirk

kind of lets it slip that I always knew that

I would die alone. And then they start singing

at the end. Well, Spock finally starts singing

because he wasn't going to sing earlier because

he didn't know the damn song. I love McCoy. How

do you not know? Row, row, row your boat. You

know everything else about Earth culture. How

do you not know that? And then it's funny because

later in the movie, Kirk's like, I thought I

was going to die. And then Spock's like, not

possible. You were never alone on the bridge

of the Klingon ship. Kirk goes to hug him, and

Spock's like, please, Captain, not in front of

the Klingons. And then Spock says, I was thinking

of Cybok. I've lost a brother. And Kirk's like,

yes, I've lost a brother once, but I was lucky

I got him back. Talking about Spock. Spock, yeah,

that's awesome. So awesome. I mean, it wasn't

terrible. It could have been a lot worse, and

the effects were, you know. What's funny about

it is it won the Razzie Awards for the worst

picture. And Shatner won worst actor and worst

director. And worst picture of the decade. And

McCoy got worst supporting actor. And then it

got worst screenplay. That's not right. That's

not right. So it says some of the special effects

in the film were different than those featured

in previous films. Among the changes, photon

torpedoes have different design and color. It

was a recolored reuse of V 'ger's whiplash bolt

from the motion picture, among other things.

And then the next film actually kind of goes

back to standard grain of high tech. Yeah. So,

but yeah, it's, the film wasn't that bad. It

could have been better, but yeah. I mean, what

I liked about it was overall was the camaraderie

between the three of them, between Kirk, Spock

and McCoy. That was cool. I like that. I thought

that was good. The fact that we actually see

them on shore leave, on vacation, it doesn't...

In the films, obviously, it doesn't really happen

all that often. Almost all six of these are a

weird journey for all of them. Like you said

earlier, Kirk starts off in the films as an admiral.

He gets demoted to captain, and he can never,

like we already said, he can never be more than

captain again, which, honestly, I think he would

probably prefer that because he likes being in

the shit. Well, and it's another thing that's

actually kind of funny is there's a TNG episode

in the third season premiere because it came

out around the same time as this film. they had

Data reference that there hasn't been a system

-wide technological failure on a starship in

79 years, referencing the Enterprise A in the

Final Frontier. So, yeah, they're very good about

keeping with canon in Star Trek. Because they

kind of have to. Or the Trekkies will riot. Yes.

Like we did earlier. Yes. Alright, folks. We're

going to take one final movie break and come

back with The Undiscovered Country after this.

Captain Kirk. Captain Sulu. As much to the crew

of the Enterprise, I owe you my thanks. Nice

to see you in action one more time, Captain Kirk.

Take care. My God, that's a big ship. Not so

big as her captain, I think. So, this is goodbye.

I think it's about time we got underway ourselves.

Captain, I have orders from Starfleet Command.

We're to put back to space doc immediately to

be decommissioned If I were human I believe my

response would be go to hell If I were human.

Course heading, Captain. Second star to the right.

And straight on till morning. Captain's log,

stardate 9529 .1. This is the final cruise of

the Starship Enterprise under my command. This

ship and her history will shortly become the

care of another crew. To them and their posterity

will we commit our future. They will continue

the voyages we have begun and journey to all

the undiscovered countries boldly going where

no man, where no one, has gone before. Last movie,

folks. And it's Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered

Country. Probably the only movie out of the six

that I actually remember watching as a child.

I watched this one so many times as a child that

my VHS had to have the tracking adjusted almost

every time. Yep. So, yeah. Getting into the story.

It's the battle for peace has begun as an interstellar

cataclysm cripples the Klingon Empire's homeworld,

leading to their chancellor seeking peace with

the Federation. But covert acts attempt to thwart

the peace process with the assassination of the

Klingon chancellor. With Kirk and McCoy as the

prime suspects, the Enterprise A and Excelsior

must attempt to uncover the truth before the

conspirators can plunge the Federation and the

Klingon Empire into war. And I love how it starts

out the film with Sulu. flying the ship and it's

um saying you know after three years he's concluded

his first assignment as master of this vessel

um you know and they're heading home under full

impulse power and uh he's got along with him

uh he's actually got yeoman rand on the uh the

ship or janice rand uh who's his communications

officer who used to be on the enterprise as well

right And it's kind of funny that she kind of

gets to follow. They kept a lot of their original

series cast as best they could throughout the

films, which was nice. But you get to see the

senior crew of the Enterprise A assemble the

Starfleet headquarters. It's got very much a

darker, grittier tone to this film. The budget's

much better on it. Yeah. just by special effects

and what you're seeing in it which is almost

kind of reminiscent of a little bit of TNG with

how dark they could get with some of the stuff

but it's also because it's Nicholas Meyer it

looks very much like Wrath of Khan with a better

budget yeah so I really enjoyed that and you

get to see David Warner back as another character

in this film yeah I mentioned that While I didn't

know he was in Final Frontier, the character

he plays here, I was like, oh, my God. He kind

of looks like Ra's al Ghul, which he voiced in

Batman the Animated. Well, he would voice in

Batman the Animated Series, you know, a year

after this came out or so. But, yeah, I was not

expecting David Warner to show up in two of these

films. One, sure. Two, no. That was awesome.

I think it's funny, too, that in this, it says

Spock reminds Kirk of the ancient Vulcan proverb,

which it's more of a human thing, but only Nixon

can go to China. Yeah. So, yeah, Kirk is very

angry with Spock for even entering him into this

situation. And Spock's like, they're dying. Kirk's

like, let them die. And then you get Lieutenant

Valerius in there, who's sneaky, sneaky Vulcan.

And you get the final, you know, this is the

final mission. This is the, you get General Chang,

who's Christopher Plummer, of course, who plays

this role spectacularly. Yeah, he does. And I

love the fact that you get kind of a team effort

of Klingon and Federation. One of my favorite

things that has... One of my favorite weapons

in this is towards the end when the Enterprise

-A is getting shot holes through it and fighting.

And then you see Spock and McCoy's... going down

to construct surgery on a torpedo. Right. And,

uh, they go down there and he's like, lock him

up, Jim. And he's like, fire. And then it just

swirls around finding the neutron radiation emanating,

you know, from the, from the, the Klingon bird

of prey and just blasts it while it's cloaked,

uh, which is one of my favorite weapons in the

game. under the enterprise a yeah um and then

of course the the whole planet aspect and i love

the aesthetics of the enterprise a in this film

uh the bridge the the ship just everything about

it and again i think it's mostly because i watched

it a lot as a kid and i mean a lot uh i actually

had the enterprise a model on my desk from Hot

Wheels a few years back. Cool. And then we got

Colonel Worf in the film. Yeah. Who is Commander

Worf's grandfather or great -grandfather or something.

Yeah, he's a prominent attorney and diplomatic

figure during the late 23rd century, which it's

kind of funny because He's playing the same character,

essentially, as his TNG counterpart. The ridges

are less prominent in this version of Worf, and

they give him a little bit different aesthetic.

But I think it's funny that he's actually the

first one that gets to play a descendant of his

own characters. Kind of like Brent Spiner gets

to do with Data and Lore and B -9 and Dr. Soong.

And then even in Enterprise, you get to play

Dr. Soong's great -grandfather. So it's kind

of funny when you get to see the actors getting

to play a different character that's in the same

family bloodline. Yeah, I said something because

I, again, Casual fan. When I see Worf, I think,

oh, that's Commander Worf from TNG. So I just

saw him as part of the Klingons, and he has yet

to join Starfleet, that kind of thing. And I

mentioned, oh, I was not expecting to see Worf

in this movie. And somebody's like, that's not

him. That's his, like I said, grandfather, great

-grandfather, whatever it is, some sort of early...

I'm like, yeah, I know. I get it. It's not the

same character, but it's the same guy. So, you

know. Apples and oranges, people. Yeah, but it's

funny that it's Worf's grandfather. They didn't

want him to be too close in resemblance, but

they give him just enough. And then he got to

be one of the first ones to work with the original

series cast, which is kind of funny. And around

the beginning of TNG during, I think, the voyage

home. The Voyage Home was TOS. Yeah, I realize

that. But McCoy got to be on the very first episode

of TNG. Oh, okay. Before they had Spock and Sarek

and Scotty show up later, and then later Kirk.

But yeah, I mean, this film is by far one of

my favorite TOS films. and still one of my all

-time favorites out of any of the Star Trek films.

Yeah. Like I said earlier, when we were talking

about what's good and what's bad, 2, 4, and 6

for me are my favorites out of the TOS films.

4 and 6, a little bit more than 2, but 2 is still

a very good film. Undiscovered Country, I'll

probably give it... Four and a half, maybe? Okay.

Yeah, I'm giving it a five. If I could give it

a six so it was 120%, I would. One note I want

to bring up about Michael Dorn. For anyone that

didn't know or was living under a rock or you

just don't care to watch the sometimes dumpster

fire that is CW's Arrow, he was the voice of

Prometheus in CW's Arrow. And this year, I don't

know if it's out yet or not. It doesn't say in

production or anything, but it doesn't have anything

next to it on IMDb. But apparently he is the

new voice of Fortress Maximus in Transformers

Titans Return for the TV miniseries thing that

they've done apparently. Interesting. So Michael

Dorn as Fortress Max. So that's kind of cool.

I hope everyone enjoyed our episode, our first

Trek. Our Trek into the original series. Yes,

our Trek into the original series. I'm very much

looking forward to TNG next time because while

I didn't see Generations when it first came out,

everybody knows the, you know, I was flying around

the galaxy when your grandfather was in Diapers

Line. Everybody knows that and whatever else,

but I have seen Generations before this. Again,

I think I caught it on, I don't know, FX or Spike

TV or one of those things a couple Christmases

ago was running all the Star Trek movies on some

weekend or whatever. And, yeah, next time, First

Contact was the first and only Star Trek film

I saw in a theater. So that was pretty awesome.

So I really dig First Contact. I like that one.

For MWire folks, you can find us online, geekcastradio

.com. Comment on all the posts. You can leave

us feedback in iTunes. Please do this. Follow

us on Twitter. Show is at GCR on MWire. Mine

is TF2 on Mike. What is your Twitter? SCP21.

Tune in next time when we talk about the next

generation Star Trek films here on Movie Week

in Review. Keep those film reels rolling. So

until next time, unleash the geek in you. In

a world... There, I said it. Happy?