Star Trek: The Motion Picture Review

Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages

of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission.

To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new

life and new civilizations. To boldly go where

no man has gone before. travel forward with us

300 years into the future to confront the greatest

mystery ever to threaten mankind. We are aboard

a huge starship called the Enterprise. This is

the return of Captain Kirk. An alien object of

unbelievable destructive power is less than three

days away from this planet. Mr. Spock. I offer

my services as science officer. Dr. McCoy. Scotty.

and joining them on their mission, Commander

Will Decker and Navigator Ilea. I'm sorry. That

you left Delta for? Or that you didn't even say

goodbye? It's back in impulse power, full reverse.

One -hole distortion is overloaded main power

systems. This, then, is the epic journey of the

Starship Enterprise, traveling to the outer limits

of time and space to challenge a vast living

machine of destruction. The Human Adventure.

is just beginning. A Gene Roddenberry production.

A Robert Wise film. Hello and welcome to the

first... The Star Trek spotlight on M wire. I'm

your host Steve Megatron Phillips and joining

me in this adventure is Optimus solo Yes, welcome

back to M wire. Thank you, sir. It's good to

be back. Yes and in this episode Yes, we are

skipping and for those of you hearing this are

going to be wondering where the hell did episode

100 go? Well, we're recording it later It'll

be like a lost episode that comes later in the

feed. So Don't worry about it. It'll come eventually

Things don't always happen in sequential order

when talking about science fiction things. No,

it's we're gonna time travel back to that episode

when we have the Amount of hosts that I'm looking

for for that episode Since it's going to be an

overall Trek encompassing episode Yes, I'd like

to get as many Trek knowledgeable people on it

so Starting out this spotlight will be Star Trek

The Motion Picture. Makes sense. Yes. The very

first Star Trek film, which happens to debut

in 1979. I wasn't even born yet. Neither was

I. I was negative two. I was negative seven.

This was overall the first Film based off of

the Star Trek and it was originally going to

be planned as phase two In 1977 but Paramount

scrapped it said nope, let's do a movie so they

took one of the episodes from phase two and actually

Kind of stretched it out into this film the episode

was originally called in thy image Right, which

I did not know Until I did research on that which

I found that kind of interesting and it's also

the very first film that Jerry Goldsmith composed

the score for and kind of continued until 2002

Which this kind of sets the tone for later on

in this truck universe So getting into it. What

is your What do you remember before having watched

it recently? I mean I remember that there was

a big deal as far as you know once I started

getting into because I watched a little my family

watched some of the original Star Trek you know

we would have it on here and there never like

religiously but enough to know all the characters

and everything kind of my first Exposure to the

franchise before Star Trek Next Generation came

on where we did watch that religiously And so

I just remember learning about this after the

fact obviously existed before I was born as did

the series But I was exposed to the series first

and I didn't really know about the movies And

then I kind of had an idea that there was movies

out there And I'm sure that this was on at some

point in our house but kind of like what I was

talking to you a little bit off air, my exposure

to all of the original series movies was in bits

and pieces when my brother would be watching

it or when maybe my mom and dad would be watching

it. I kind of was fairly young, so I think quite...

Get it or I didn't quite I don't know if I didn't

have the attention span or whatever I just don't

remember ever sitting down and watching from

beginning to end of any of the Star Trek movies

of the early ones and So my exposure to this

was that was very much in bits and pieces I don't

think I had really sat down to watch this paying

close attention from beginning to end until getting

ready for the show and that's one of the reasons

I wanted to be involved in this spotlight was

so I could watch every single Star Trek film

from beginning to end and so I could remember

and figure out which ones I'd seen already which

ones I hadn't kind of get a whole grasp for the

entire thing because I am a big Trek fan and

I wanted to make sure I've seen all of them and

understand all of them and More so sort everything

out because all my memories I wouldn't be able

to tell you where my you know Which movie this

memory was from or which movie that memory was

from until I'm gonna sit down and watch all of

these You know, I've seen parts of them, but

I wouldn't Be able to straighten it out and piece

them all together as far as you know Putting

them in the order of which movie is which and

all that so that's why I kind of wanted to be

involved in this so my exposure to the motion

picture originally like I said was kind of bits

and pieces and a little foggy and that's why

I wanted to do this. Yes, and again that's why

I wanted to have you involved with all of these

because I know you're like the secondary Trek

aficionado of the network. Right, you are the

classic, well you're all things Trek guru, but

you're definitely more of an expert on the classic

Trek history more so than I am my expertise I

guess comes with the next generation which I've

seen all those episodes probably four to six

times my life But yeah, and and I remember getting

this I got this the DVD set of all of the original

motion pictures Not this past Christmas with

the one before this is probably one of the best

Christmas presents ever and then this past Christmas

I got the the blu -ray box set of all the next

generation movies So I finally have all of them

on nice little box set. So I'm very excited to

start watching through all these no, is it the

the the white box set that has the all six films

in the... Yeah, it's the white box set with the

blue kind of holographic... Track emblem on it?

Track emblem on the front and then it has the

six films and then it has the Captain's Summit

DVD, the bonus seven disc. You have the same

one that I do then. Right, okay. And I do like

the... Covers that the films come in Yeah, as

far as the way they're designed with the kind

of the more subdued White front with different

faces of the different characters and then just

the band across the middle with the with the

with the movie title I really think that's cool

how they did that with you know with Kirk and

with Bones and was Spock and all the in the seven

people they picked out kind of the main, most

highlighted cast. So yeah, it's a cool looking

box set. Yeah, I definitely, I think that they

did a nice job with the new box set. But for

art purposes, just to harken back to the olden

days, I used the original movie posters. Right.

That makes sense too, yeah. Because there is

some classic kind of aesthetic goodness to that.

And this set does have some good special features

to it, too. I know we're not strictly talking

about the DVD set here. But I do plan on, as

we start going through these, to be watching

a lot of the special features and the commentaries

before we do the records. I wasn't able to watch

the entire commentary on this one. I watched

about the first half hour worth of commentary.

that's all I had time to do besides watching

the film without the commentary on so in the

future I'm going to try to watch every film twice

once with commentary and once without it because

it is packed with interesting information during

the commentary as well as special features that

are included with each movie. I know it seems

like they did a really nice job including all

that kind of stuff in these new box sets where

they're all remastered for the most part and

it's yeah they just did really nice with them.

Any science fiction fan, any Star Trek fan should

own one of these, whether you get the DVD or

the Blu -ray box sets of these, of all the Star

Trek films, it's a must have as far as your collection

goes. Yes. For me, my initial introduction to

Trek, again, my family kind of grew up with it.

I grew up on reruns of the original series and

The Next Generation as it was doing on TV during

that time and it was one of those staples that

we'd watch every week when it came out and my

mom actually for my birthday bought me all six

Star Trek films. Nice and 92 after undiscovered

country and came out on VHS and it was a special

six Tape box set. It's so funny hearing tape

but You put all six VHS tapes next to each other

and on the one side the way that they worked

is they would form a picture So You would have

the original movie poster on the front, but then

when you looked at the side, they were all next

to each other. Each film would put together a

picture of part of the Enterprise. So when all

six movies were sitting next to each other on

the shelf, you would see the Enterprise in its

entirety. Gotcha. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I

thought so. I kind of wish I still had them,

but just for that purpose. even though I couldn't

watch them. But The Undiscovered Country was

my favorite out of the bunch. This one has always

been kind of a weird one for me. While on some

regards I like it, other regards I don't. I don't

think it's aged very well with time. This is

one of those films though that I didn't remember

much of. from back in the day. I just remember

bits and pieces like at the beginning and then

I remember some slight elements during the middle

and then mostly the end. Growing up, up until

I watched it recently. So getting into the plot

of it, the gist of the story is you have Starfleet

monitoring with Epsilon 9 An alien force and

you have the Klingons and their new warships

and their new rigid foreheads Which again those

it's completely new which forever changed the

face of Trek with that element But you have the

Enterprise going up undergoing a major refit

you have Admiral Kirk in Starfleet headquarters

Going over to the Enterprise You have a new captain

of the Enterprise which gets demoted because

Kurt pulls rank. You get to see a transporter

malfunction where it actually kills someone.

Yeah, that was kind of strange. You get to start

seeing the original cast getting sprinkled back

in. They had another Vulcan that was supposed

to replace Spock which was the one that died

at the transporter. So they went off without

him and you come to find out that Spock was on

Vulcan and he's heading back to the Enterprise.

Right. And you have this energy cloud calling

itself Vejur who takes their new Deltin navigator,

Ilea, and uses it as a probe itself. Right. And

then you have the Enterprise and their crew going

through Vager for pretty much the rest of the

movie, only to discover that Vager is scuffed

up with grease on it and it's a satellite from

20th century Earth called Voyager 6. And they

compare it to a child throwing a temper tantrum.

or Bones does, which is hilarious. And Decker,

who was supposed to be the captain of the enterprise

until Kirk demoted him, ended up merging with

it. And it kind of implodes and the enterprise

comes floating out of it. Basically, it goes

to another dimension. Yeah, it's good that you

mentioned in the opening that this was originally

supposed to be the pilot episode for the second

television series. Because knowing that makes

everything make more sense that you saw in a

way. And it's almost like when they made this

film, Like it was almost like we literally got

to see in the movie somebody scrapping the idea

for this television series because You have you

know originally the television series was supposed

to have not just some of the original cast and

crew But it was supposed to have these new characters

the three that we mentioned the other Vulcan

Commander Decker and Ilya Those were supposed

to be three new characters to debut in the in

the second television series Well, obviously

we know that the second television series is

gonna get scrapped and why I said it seemed like

you're almost watching it in the movie because

you basically see them take care of all These

new characters and get rid of them Yeah, and

they get rid of them one of them immediately.

Mm -hmm. One of them debuts a Good quarter of

the way into the movie and then is no longer

that character anymore Right and then you have

the other character in the entirety of the movie

and He takes out the other character with himself

Yeah, so I mean it's almost like you literally

get to see them scrap this idea of a new series

right in front of your eyes and the other reason

I think it's important to know that it was kind

of technically the pilot episode turned into

a movie is because it makes sense as far as the

pacing of the film It's almost very apparent

that it's at least for me it comes across as

an hour story Stretch into a two -hour movie

Yeah, it almost seems like a two -parter yeah,

I mean it just seems like from a pacing standpoint

that It's like they didn't necessarily have two

hours worth of content But they needed it to

be two hours to be a movie So there's a lot of

And I'm not saying it's all bad, but there's

a lot of time spent outside of the action There's

a lot of visual Panoramic views and and scenery

shots and you know traveling as Not just people

outside of the ship. But as the ship is going,

you know, there's a lot of time spent without

lines being spoken and without action being taken

which I have a feeling for the casual science

fiction fan not science fiction fan for the casual

Trek fan I guess or maybe just the casual viewer

in today's world we're so used to fast -paced

action and I'm not saying I like fast -paced

action all the time but I think the casual viewer

might find this to be a slow movie If that's

a fair summation of it. Yeah, I could I could

definitely agree with that statement Yeah, just

because there there are times where even for

me who is a huge science fiction fan and a big

Trek fan even times for me watching this where

I felt it was dragging a little bit and maybe

that's just because I've become conditioned to

you know, especially with like all the superhero

movies these days to a movie that is trying to

fit so much in that it just seems like it's going

going going going and This one because it was

really only dealing with a pilot television episode

worth of content doesn't get that feel it's not

going going going it's more let's stretch this

out and really introduce you to this and and

and kind of savor it where a lot of people might

think it's dragging a little bit but again that

doesn't surprise me knowing that it was technically

a television episode somewhat I mean obviously

they re -edited and changed things and whatnot

but basically a television episode stretched

out into a movie Well, it kind of makes sense

also because you start out and you don't have

Kirk Spock or McCoy as the core three that they

were in the original series. They were originally

not on the Enterprise. You had technically the

new Vulcan taking over for Spock. You had Ilia

kind of in a sense there. You had Chappell taking

over for McCoy and then you had Decker as Kirk

Spock. Basically, because Phase 2 got phased

out, they had to bring back what worked. Even

despite that, the cast had a lot of pet peeves

with this entire film because they didn't feel

like it was actually Star Trek. That and I'm

not saying I in no way want to make this film

come across as a failure that I'm ragging on

it because I'm not at all but I can see that

statement being true as far as I'm feeling like

it's not a not Star Trek because even as as a

someone who I'm picturing someone that actually

grew up watching this series and who was alive

when this when the television series was on and

watching it You know firsthand not in rerun or

syndication like we got to see it I kind of imagined

them going to see this movie and having a little

disconnect Not just because it had been a number

of years since the television series but but

it's almost like basically take something you

grew up with and then Almost a decade later You're

gonna watch a movie of these characters now number

one. They're gonna be older So you're gonna have

a little disconnect because they're not gonna

look exactly the same as they did when you were

seeing them on television and Now number two

you're seeing them in all that entails of seeing

something in a feature film Versus seeing something

on a television screen and there's a lot of differences

between movies and TV I think that gets blurred

nowadays because in ways some Some TV shows are

more like movies these days. But back then, there

were certain things that you could do and couldn't

do in a television series versus a movie, from

a visual standpoint, from a lot of different...

aspects. So now you're seeing it in a completely

different medium as well as seeing it 10 years

later and then with you know different characters

in some instances and a number of other things.

For me was something that was always a disconnect

when I saw these movies and even some that we'll

get to as we travel through here was the difference

in uniforms as well that kind of added to the

disconnect for me. Because you're so used to

seeing them look a certain way and when they're

in different color or different style uniforms

It makes it feel like it's not the same And I

know there's reasonings for it And that was a

little bit in the commentary that I watched for

this film that You know, they didn't feel that

that the bright colored uniforms that worked

on a TV screen would work in You know in the

movie as far as on that type of medium And so

they they did change all the uniforms to make

them a little more subdued not as bright because

I felt that would play better on on the bigger

screen But it's just a little things like that

that kind of add to a disconnect so I can see

why You know cast members or fans of the original

series would feel that this is not a hundred

percent The Trek that they kind of knew and loved

at the time You know whereas us we're seeing

all this after the fact you know for for a lot

of us the series already existed the movies already

existed by the time we get to watch them so we

already have associated them as being Trek but

it's it's like if you were taking whatever television

show is current that you are a big fan of right

now and then 10 years later having a movie and

there's going to be a disconnect with it oh yeah

it'd be like if they had never done a star trek

next generation film and then they just did one

like this year yeah there would be a huge gap

With the original people and then they change

their color of their uniforms and do stuff like

that We would be like that doesn't feel the same

So I get that Yeah, I And I guess we'll get into

that, you know the technology and the the the

colorizations and everything It kind of like

the the colors of their uniforms it looks like

they went for more of a toned down bland look

And I know a lot of that had to do with Roddenberry

which was a lot of the reason why this film was

the way that it was Because I think he had too

much of a grasp on it and they didn't kind of

let things kind of go a little bit more naturally

right and It was kind of sad to see that they

did away with the red shirt they had kind of

a blandish gold shirt Which was kind of there

was no really rhyme or reason of why people were

certain colors Yeah everybody seemed to have

a different like, you know in the original series

and in the next generation and I assume in most

Star Trek series, you know Your rank or your

area of expertise determine what color shirt

you had on It doesn't all of them Yeah, that's

what I figured but in this movie, it's hard to

determine who's what rank even amongst like even

Kirk wears a number of different color shirts

throughout this it seems like I think he has

three different uniforms in this entire movie

Yeah, and just like when you see a picture of

the crew or a picture of the bridge It's hard

for me to be like, okay Those three are wearing

this because it seems like everybody's in a different

outfit or a different kind of version of the

same outfit, I guess. But yeah, it was harder

for me to determine who's what rank and what

area watching this film compared to if you watch

any of the series, you can immediately tell who's

who. Yeah, definitely. And I don't know if you

notice this or not, but Kirk's admiral uniform

that he starts out in the very beginning of the

film, they reused it into darkness. Oh, really?

Yeah, it's the exact same one that Pike and Marcus

wear. Oh, okay. I mean, of course, it's updated

just ever so slightly in the new film, but it's

the same uniform. Oh, okay. Which I'll have that

published in an article that I'm writing of some

of the comparisons between this film and some

other stuff. What did you think about the improved

enterprise and bridge? I liked the enterprise.

I liked the bridge I Wish they would have done

more Showing like there was that scene where

Kirk is kind of stumbling through the halls and

not really sure which way to go or You know how

to find where he wants to go But that was really

just like a hallway scene. And I wish they would

have done more to show the inside of the Enterprise

a bit more. We get a great view of the outside,

the exterior, and how that looks. And you do

just because a lot of the action takes place

in the bridge, you do get to see a lot of the

bridge. But I almost wish when they were introducing

some of the older characters who were coming

on the bridge and rejoining up, I don't know

if they could have not necessarily taken a tour

of the ship, but some way worked in a little

bit more where we could have seen a little bit

more of what was going on in the inside. But

I like the way they did things. I mean, it is

completely different. It's much more akin to

what you would see in the next generation ship

as far as the inside goes compared to the original

enterprise that we saw. I get a lot more feel.

It's more similar to the next generation Enterprise.

But I do like the updates. I like all the ships

that I've ever seen for the Enterprise though,

all the different versions. As do I. Yeah, I

can definitely agree with that. Getting into

some of the pros and cons, what are some of your

favorite aspects of this film? I do like... Like

we were just kind of talking about, I do like

the way that they show the exterior of the enterprise

and how they kind of show it on the outpost there,

this space station or whatever you want to call

it, before they launch their voyage. I like how

they show that. And I think it gave a good sense

of the changes and the new version of this enterprise.

I do like that. I like how they worked in getting

all of the original cast members in by this way

or that way. And not just them coming aboard

and joining the movie, but the reasoning why

they were needed, or the reason that they came

aboard, that type of stuff. So I thought it was

cool how they worked that in. that we get to

see the Klingons at the beginning and I thought

it was an interesting way to introduce us to

the film as far as setting the stage for something

massive because you know the Klingons at that

point are kind of at that point in Trek history

are kind of seen as the bad asses as one of the

worst villains that they could come across and

to see them just easily disappear I guess due

to this unknown entity it really does set the

stage for something that must be badass if it's

taken out these guys how I feel about that later

we will get into and I did like the sequences

on earth as far as showing the all the different

Starfleet individuals and there was a variety

of different types of Aliens and people and whatever

that you can see when you kind of scan in that

crowd So I kind of enjoyed that So those were

saying that I think the music was great. The

music's always great in most Star Trek things,

but I really like like what Goldsmith does with

this film and I think the music does help a lot

Especially those moments where I was talking

about where it does seem to drag at least you

do have a good musical score to kind of keep

your interest Yeah, I I too love the score for

the film and much like all other Star Trek films

or TV series, I pretty much like anything that

comes out of it sound wise from this point on.

I found it interesting in this film that James

Doohan, Scotty created the distinctive Klingon

vocabulary heard in this film. and then they

later had Mark O 'Krand develop the Klingon language

based on the actors' made -up words, which I

found that interesting about that film. I love

this revamp of the Enterprise. This is quite

possibly one of my favorite versions of the Enterprise.

for some reason I like it because when it adds

the a to it even though it's not really much

different other than the the bridge and then

the letter but I I love this style of the Starship

better than the original I agree it just looks

more more streamlined and it just looks cooler

and I like the blue accents off of the the kind

of whitish metal look I like the the aging of

Scotty. He looks pretty much mostly different

than anybody else in the film. Right, for sure.

It kind of added that nice touch to him, which

followed him throughout the rest of his Star

Trek career. Of course, you know, I love the

crotchety moments where McCoy is throwing out

his kind of quips about everything. Yeah. He's

always been one of my favorites of the show.

He had an interesting look when he first got

there, too. Yeah, I know, a scruffy beard and...

You know, and then you have Spock showing up

in robes. Mm -hmm. So, I mean, it's... They did

a good job of aging Spock because he literally

does... Like, the way they aged him in 1979 to

make him look older is how he looks older. Yeah,

like if you literally take him that many years

later and just look at Leonard Nimoy like they

almost like did it perfectly Yeah So I thought

that was crazy looking back at it now. It's like

man I just got to keep reminding myself that

that's not him today because it looks like he

looks today It is actually kind of sad that it

does Like they got that right on I forgot to

mention that I do I did also kind of like I usually

I'm not a big fan of A lot of new characters

when they're introduced to franchises like this

just for a movie or this or that I know they

were supposed to be on the you know The next

TV series and whatnot, but I did think they did

a decent job Ilia and Decker and Stephen Collins.

I mean he's a pretty famous person. You know

the dad from seventh heaven So I definitely recognized

him at the time you wouldn't you know when this

movie came out He probably wasn't that well known.

But now, all these years later, seeing that movie

immediately, I'm like, wow, what's the father

from 7th Heaven doing on Star Trek? But I thought

he did a good job in the film. Yeah, he definitely

was one of the few that got a lot of character

moments in this film. Oh, and I should say I

like the cameo for Well, not really cameo, I

guess, because it hadn't happened yet. No, he

played it in the television series, but Spock's

father, Serak, the same actor that plays him,

was the Klingon commander in the opening sequence.

Oh, nice. So I thought that was pretty cool that

they worked him in there. Yeah. Yeah. And that's

that's the third alien he's played. He started

out as a Romulan in the series, then he played

Sarek Malkin, and then he plays a Klingon. He

had him covered. Nice. How many other people

can have that claim to fame? So they did have

the entire original crew in this film. Yeah.

They had Janice Rand, who disappears until the

sixth film again, and then Chappell, who's never

seen again. Basically, they only heard from him

after that. The computer. Yeah, it's probably

better that way because some of her scenes were

a little forced. Well, and I think that the only

reason she got into this film is because Roddenberry

was running the show. And that changes as the

films go on. It's less and less of him and more

and more of outside. Right. But we'll get into

those when we get into those films later on.

But yeah, I definitely liked a lot of those aspects

of the film. I'm not I like the bridge improvements

Although I'd like the original series one a little

bit better than the motion picture bridge I don't

really start liking the original series film

bridge until I think six Gotcha because I find

it weird how it changes every film Even though

it's not really a refit like the first and second

film, it's totally different than the third film.

It's like slightly different than the second

film. And then you, of course, have four or five,

six, and it's different in every movie. And it's

the same enterprise. But but yeah, I'm a little

off put on that. But I can't really complain

too much about the film. I like the premise of

it for the most part. I just think that, like

you said, it was a little slow. But I guess we'll

get into our cons about it and I guess I'll go

first. I was a little, I don't know, as a kid

kind of weirded out by Ilia having the glowing

dot in her neck and then talking with some kind

of a weird reverb on her voice. Something about

the whole VJ thing was kind of creepy and I know

it was very very very sci -fi That's true So

I guess that's kind of why it was the way it

was and so I mean in that instance I can understand

it and appreciate it for what it is But I just

I kind of found it very weird in a Star Trek

film Yeah, and I kind of the first time yeah

from some of the first time it was used I was

throwing off a little bit Some of the appearances

of some of the characters were a little bit weird

I mean they definitely look 70s. Mm -hmm Namely

like, you know check off Uhura Right Then you

you know, I and I think they try to cram too

many characters in this film again, they didn't

really need Janice Rand or chapel They just It

was more of a nod and letting them be in it then

yeah There was a lot of characters that just

seemed they're just because just so we could

see them and they really served no purpose or

didn't get any type of development You know,

they're the relationships between between a lot

of the characters were non -existent So yeah,

there was definitely a lack of character development.

I mean, I know you're already dealing with established

characters, but for me a lot of the outside of

like Spock and and Kirk and a couple others You

know, there really wasn't anything for Chekhov

or Sulu or, you know, I just don't feel like

they got anything worthwhile and there was two

hours that they could have had something. Yeah.

So that was a little disappointing for me because

that's one thing that always has been something

I liked about all Star Trek things is the interactions

between characters and the character development

and relationships between different individuals

and to see that. And I thought it was just a

little missing in this one. Yeah, I kind of felt

that as well. It kind of almost seemed like it

was thrown together a little bit too haphazardly

and like they were trying to just get it out

more than actually trying to concentrate on making

it a logical progression of the original series.

because really the only characters that you see

any relationship or development between are Kirk

and Decker. That's really the only combination

where you really get some back and forth and

some feel for how these two feel for each other,

how these two interact with each other, and how

that progresses throughout the movie. Outside

of that, there's just not a lot of... of development.

And when I say that, I mean from the beginning

of the movie or from the first time a character

is seen until the end of the movie or the last

time a character is seen. There's not a lot of

growth for a lot of the relationships between

characters except for Kirk and Decker. That's

the only one that evolves over the course of

the movie. Yeah, I can definitely agree with

that. So and I just think with as much time as

they had and as much time as they spent with

no dialogue. that there could have been instances

that they threw more of that in there somehow.

And that's some of the complaints that I read

from even some of the cast members, that they

just didn't feel that some of the characters

got enough time, they didn't feel like there

was enough characterization or relationship.

Even Bones kind of said that feeling the characters

and relationships were not there that made the

series successful. Yeah, I definitely can agree

with him on that. That's where it was definitely

lacking. Yeah. I did find it nice that they went

to Vulcan though. Yeah, that was cool. That was

definitely cool to see a little bit of that.

I also think, as one of my cons, that a little

bit Now I know this was done in the 70s and I

think they did a tremendous job visually for

a film done in the late 70s, but not trying to

start a franchise war here, but some of the visual

aspects did not hold up compared to another late

70s sci -fi movie. Now I know they didn't have,

you know, some of the stuff that Mr. Lucas had

at his Disposal so to speak, but I thought some

of the visuals were excellent and some of the

visuals did not work Mainly the ones that I didn't

like in this film Were a lot of the sequences

especially at the beginning When they would show

a either the off the station or one of the ships

from a distance coming at you or a shuttle or

anything that had a window and then they would

show the two people on the other side of that

window and It just looked really fake. And I

don't remember seeing any instances of that in

the original Star Wars. So I don't know what

their technique was compared to each other. and

why one looked more legit and one looked more

fake. But there was a lot of instances like that

that I kind of saw that looked a little fake.

But then there was a lot of really good, especially

when you focus on the enterprise as a ship and

its movement that looked really good visually.

So, I mean, there was some stuff that hit really

well and some stuff that just looked very out

of place or fake. So, I mean, it was kind of

a hit or miss visually for me. Did you notice

when they were on Vulcan that they There was

moons orbiting it? No, I didn't even pay attention

that close to see that. And Vulcan... I am correct

that Vulcan shouldn't have had any moons, right?

I don't think they did. I know they had a twin

sun. Yeah, I don't think they had moons, but

it's kind of something they very briefly touched

on in the commentary that they said, oh, look,

Vulcan has moons. And I got the impression that

that was a mistake, that that shouldn't have

been there. Yeah, I don't think that they did.

The other interesting thing that I got picked

up from the commentary just from that first half

hour I don't mean to change subjects too much,

but in the original cut Because when they did

the the scene with Spock and the other Vulcans

They had them literally just read the words in

English and They captured it and then took out

the sound and dubbed in the Vulcan Well, I guess

in the original cut they had to switch All the

subtitles around a little bit So it didn't read

like they originally read because otherwise if

you had the subtitles on you could see that the

the lip movement Completely matched the English

words They were saying so I guess they had to

rewrite those lines so that you couldn't pick

up on it is easy I don't know if it existed in

any of the other cuts But I know they said that

had existed in the original cut so I thought

that was kind of kind of funny That is kind of

funny. Oh, but yeah, my really only my only car

Didn't mean to cut you off and I'll let you talk

about your cons a little bit more since I didn't

let you finish, but my only cons besides a few

of those visual aspects that looked fake was

really almost completely surrounding the pacing

of the film. I just really think they could have

done stuff to keep the action moving a little

bit, throw in more dialogue, throw in more character

development, throw in more action. as much as

you can I mean I know there's not a lot of action

there's not like you know these big fight sequences

or chase sequences and there's not like human

you know there's not the villains aren't you

know necessarily like tangible as far as like

they're not Klingons they're not Romulans they're

not other humans that you can't battle so I mean

I know it's kind of dealing with more of a you

know a villain that's not something you can see

and touch, so to speak. But I just think there

was something they could have done to make it

work where it felt like it was traveling a little

faster and not dragging on. So that was my biggest

con from the movie. Yeah, I. There were still.

I can definitely agree on the the pacing aspect

of the film, the. There were several scenes like

when they're going through Veger when Spock's

floating in his spacesuit I Mean those things

just seem to drag And the the other one was a

big scene that drag for me was that was just

that opening Not not the part where you deal

with the Klingons not the part where you deal

with the Vulcans but in between there where They're

kind of getting that the ship ready and they're

showing all that stuff that just that 15 to 20

minutes, really, as Kirk and Scotty are getting

to the enterprise, that kind of dragged on a

little bit for me, too. Yeah, they could have

still had a little bit of that and done less

of them visually and just kind of dubbed it over

them flying to the enterprise or something. I

mean, I know it was kind of the unveiling of

the new enterprise, and they wanted to have that

kind of crescendo and build that up a little

bit, but it just was, ah, it's like, come on,

we get it. But I mean, yeah that that was I think

pretty much the only problem with it really is

just the pacing Yeah, I mean that's just the

main the main problem and I think that's why

this film gets such a bad rap Because honestly,

it's not as bad as I mean, it's it's not a great

Trek film But it's not terrible. There's still

one or two down the line that They're gonna be

worse They're gonna be kind of that in some ways

yes, and in some ways no But I think the other

reason some people kind of pan this a little

bit Or a lot of people have problems with it

is because it's it's such an abstract villain

There is no physical face to it Right, and it's

so abstract to then try to wrap your for, you

know, especially non science fiction fan to try

to wrap your brain around what exactly how this

all works and how you can kind of like come to

terms with what's going on, especially when it's

related back to the Voyager NASA craft and that

connection. I think a lot of people might have

saw that as kind of hokey. And just with the

whole. robots that are living or machines that

are living and I think some people will have

a hard time kind of grasping that and coming

to terms with that so I think they can just pan

stuff like that because it's too abstract for

them to deal with. I didn't see that as a huge

problem but I could see a lot of other people

kind of harking on that. Yeah I could definitely

see that being the reason why people are kind

of People need their villain that they can yeah,

they need a they need a face to their evil not

yeah, and you could almost argue that This made

contact with the Borg at some point Yeah, yeah,

and they do mention that in a couple of things.

And that's what I was thinking when I was watching

this and when I originally saw that this and

this kind of like entity kind of took over the

Klingon ship and it had been for Earth and it

was this impending doom, I was like, man, it

sure sounds a lot like the Borg, which obviously

didn't exist at that point, you know, didn't

come along until later. But I thought that was

a definite thing that anybody nowadays watching

it would pick up on and be like, man, that's

got a lot of similarities to what they deal with

with the Borg later. And I can't remember who.

I just read something about that connection.

I'll have to see if I can remember what they

what they said about that. But there is Shatner

actually wrote Star Trek, The Return, and it

takes place after generations and before first

contact. And it's where the Borg use nanites

to revive Kirk. Okay, who died in that? Not going

off too much into that His job essentially by

the end of that is to pull pull a switch on the

Borg homeworld and you know, which shuts them

down kind of thing and They have Spock they somebody

from the Borg try and assimilate Spock and They

said you've already Connected with us before

and in this film eating veger when he mind -melded

Okay, so they couldn't assimilate him because

he was already technically part of the collective

Yeah, cuz they were saying basically when this

one that when the sad Voyager satellite kind

of went off and whatever and it eventually came

into contact with this with this Planet of living

machines at that planet that he came into contact

with was the Borg So maybe it trans worked away

in this film Yeah, so the interesting connections

that you can kind of draw I guess it could go

anywhere really Yeah, as science fiction always

can which is why it's so great. Yes So what were

some of your memorable moments or quotes of the

film? As far as memorable moments Probably first

and foremost was was the unveiling even though

it took a while to get there But the unveiling

of the new enterprise seen that in all its glory

was it was pretty cool Did enjoy that There was

a couple things as far as interactions between

Kirk and the new captain or the captain that

he basically Shuffles down and demotes immediately

some some dialogue between them and some interactions.

I thought were cool I like the time where Kirk

is about to correct him and then he kind of stops

and is like that is your job to give me alternatives

and whatnot. So I thought that was kind of interesting.

I definitely got a next generation feel that

I kind of enjoyed when the entity kind of was

present on the bridge. It's a little standing

electrical storm there, I guess, or whatever

you want to call it, before it takes over Ilya.

Cause that reminded me of that happened a lot

on the next generation where someone would all

of a sudden be present on the bridge and, you

know, would be doing stuff that they couldn't

control or that they were trying to deal with.

Um, so I liked it when that happened and I thought

it was interesting to see, you know, who is it

going to attack or who's it going to go after

what's going to happen here. So that was kind

of some tense moments. And that's as close as

you get to kind of, uh, of that physical interaction

with our, with our antagonist, protagonist, uh,

relationship there. Um, Before it takes over

Ilya, so I kind of enjoyed that And then of course

when when Kirk is Having to go down to convince

Scotty to come aboard Or not Scott excuse me

bones to to use a teleporter and come on board

It's always good seeing Kirk and bones kind of

interact with each other So those are some of

the ones that kind of stood out the most the

most to me How about you I I, for the most part,

liked when they reintroduced everybody kind of

thing, showing off the new enterprise. I liked,

again, Bones' reintroduction, which was funny

because he's giving him a smart -ass remark.

He's like, just a moment, Captain Sir. I'll explain

what happened. Admiral Naguro invoked a little

known seldom used reserve activation clause in

simpler language captain. They drafted me Which

I found that hilarious and then Then he starts

right on by complaining, you know saying that

I hear chapels and MD now Well, I'm gonna need

a top nurse not a doctor who will argue every

way And then he says, you know, they've probably

redesigned the whole sickbay too. I know engineers.

They love to change things Also like this line

why is any object we don't understand always

called a thing I know I'd love that I You can

never go wrong with a McCoy reference. Yeah So

yeah, I definitely thought he had some of the

crowning moments as far as quotes go Just like

when Chekhov goes no casualties reported sir

or doctor and then McCoy says wrong check off.

There are casualties my wits And then he keeps

calling him captain sir to Kirk like giving him

a slap in the face consistently. Yeah, which

I found kind of funny No, I agree that those

were some funny moments Like I said, I just wish

there was more of those moments There was more

dialogue between them because what they did put

in there was decent So if there was more it would

have been even better. Yeah, there was just too

many quiet parts in the film Yeah, too much scenery

and not enough characters. Mm -hmm One of my

other favorite parts is the end when Veedger's

arguing with Kirk and Kirk just simply tells

it, no. You know, and it's like, you will do

it. And he's like, no, you'll do what I want

first. And it's like, fine. And then McCoy, you

know, basically says, you know, about it being

because Scott calls it a child. And McCoy is

like, what do you suggest we do? Spank it. Your

child's having a tantrum. I know I just I I found

that hilarious. It was I I just couldn't help

but laugh at that But then it was it was kind

of sad seeing Decker go away Yeah, I kind of

thought that he had a possibility for potential

to join the crew in some capacity Yeah, he definitely

had the potential he had the good interaction

I definitely could have seen him being you know

a main person going forward but You know if that's

I really think it would have been a you know

Obviously had they not have they they would have

ended the film a little differently But had they

decided to go forward with the second series

I really could have seen him as like a number

one or as like a you know a main character on

the bridge So it's kind of unfortunate they never

did that in series So yeah some of the minor

background information This was obviously the

only Star Trek film in the 70s. Janis Rand and

Sarek were the only two actors besides the original

cast to appear in both the first film of the

original series and the last film of the original

series. and it says Majel Barrett and Leonard

Nimoy are the only original series actors to

participate in both this film and the latest

or it was the latest at the time which was the

2009 reboot. Right. Nimoy is still the only one

though. She didn't talk at all in that last movie?

Nope. They didn't have a computer voice in this.

That was too bad that kind of upsets me because

she had literally been it she had been the only

person ever to be on every Series and I thought

she was in every movie too. She I believe was

up until This latest one then to darkness I don't

they didn't worked her in somehow. Yep, and they

they had the funny thing was is they had Somebody

doing the voice for the vengeance Yeah, and into

darkness and I don't recall ever hearing the

Enterprise computer They had the Delta Gotcha

doing a lot of the stuff. So but uh Yeah, so

not to go off on a tangent of all the different

Truck news or Information on this film because

there's absolutely a lot of it What are your

more or less? Before people jumped on our throats,

I don't want it to make us sound like we're ignorant.

I didn't mean that they could somehow include

her in person since obviously she's not alive

anymore. But what they've done in other stuff

is just reuse voice. There's so much dialogue

that's already recorded from her that it was

more so them being able to use her voice in a

way and put it in there somehow. Or they could

almost take all of that and archive it like they

did with Roger Ebert where they made him a vocalizer

that he typed into and it would sound just like

him. Right. Yeah, so I wasn't trying to make

it sound like she could have actually somehow

physically been in the film since that would

have been impossible. Yeah, very impossible So

getting into it What are your Final thoughts

of the film overall? I think it was a tough feat

that they were doing. It was something that had

never been done before as far as obviously Star

Trek goes. I mean, you had this somewhat successful

television series. It had been off the air now

for a while and it was a big risk and a big feat

to tackle as far as trying to get this into a

motion picture and to make that work. I think

being the first one that they got some stuff

right and they stumbled a bit on other parts.

It could have been a better film for sure. It

also could have been a disaster that would have

resulted in no future Star Trek films, so at

least it didn't go that route. So I think you

got to take the good with the bad, and there's

some growing pains as far as trying to transfer

this franchise onto the big screen, which they

do get successful, very successful with certain

other films that will come as we go through here.

You know, it's a necessary first step. Overall,

I mean, if I was trying to give this one a rating,

you know, if we were going out of five, I'd probably

land it somewhere in the three range. You know,

like a three star out of five, because I think

it does kind of just fall in that middle territory

where it's nothing that was phenomenal for me,

but it wasn't like the worst thing I've ever

seen either. It was you take the good with the

bad with this one. Yeah, I think I kind of have

to agree with you there. I think I'd have to

also give it a 3 out of 5, only for the fact

that it did revitalize Star Trek, at least to

begin with with the feature films before it went

to more television series. And it did happen

to more or less triple its budget of $46 million

in box -offs that made $139 million, which in

today's age, that would be a total bomb. or a

quasi bomb because some films don't even make

their money back. But I would definitely say

that it did well enough that it garnered to go

on to a second film. However, it also showed

that despite Roddenberry being the creator and

driving force of the series, subsequent films

will show it was a good thing that they forced

him out of creative control so yeah overall yeah

overall I'd say that it wasn't a total loss it

was it was definitely innovation in Star Trek

and in science fiction in 3d or CGI graphics

right so Think that about wraps it up for this

episode Yeah, I mean I'm glad that you know we've

started this and I'm looking forward to seeing

you know all the other movies again some of them

maybe for the first time at least all the way

from beginning to end so I'm interested to see

which films I end up liking which ones I don't

like see if we agree or disagree on any of the

other ones, but Yeah, I'm you know for this being

the first one. I'll take it for what it is and

Like I said it could have been worse. Yes, definitely

so Join us again I'm not sure when we'll have

time just for the next episode, so don't hang

us. Be sure to leave us feedback. Again, that

clip will play at the end of this episode, but

you can also reach that either on the website

or the forum or feedback at geekcasterito .com.

Always look to see what you guys have to say

about it. So yeah, whenever this being the first

one if you guys want us to touch on certain things

in future Recordings for the other Trek movies

if you want us to you know answer some questions

or You know do whatever just let us know as we

go through this especially early on here. Yeah,

definitely I want to make it as Relatable and

interactive as possible as we go through so that

for instance if you guys have specific memories

of each film as it goes through, then go ahead

and send it, whether it be voicemail or email,

and we'll bring it up and try and touch on those

points in the episode. Yeah, stuff you like,

stuff you didn't like, whatever. What you would

rate it. And, you know, because possibly we may

overlook it. And the other thing I'm going to

do as we go through here is I'm going to kind

of do a running ranking. I don't have any preconceived

notions of where I would stack all these films

up, so I'm going to be ranking them as we go.

So right now, this film is in the top spot, and

we will see as we go through how I change as

I insert each film into its appropriate placing.

Yeah, and I'll probably do that as well. And

then when we get to I'm thinking about doing

the episode 100 actually after. all of the films.

Yeah, that'd be cool too. Because then we can

reveal our total list in that episode as well

as touching on various aspects of the series

as well. Yep. So definitely want to do that and

as always, we will try to get it out as soon

as possible. Just depends on mine and Kevin's

schedule. For sure. everything to get in the

way. We'll try not to let it get in too much

of the way. Yes, we'll try and be timely with

it anyway. So again, thank you for listening

to this debut first episode of the Star Trek

Spotlight and you can contact us on Twitter.

My Twitter handle is scp21. Mine is Optimus Solo.

So thank you for joining us on MWIRE and we'll

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