Review of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) by Tony H — 30 Apr 2010

So which version? The original or the directors cut? Well it gets an extra star for the directors cut and another just for the memory of going to see it in the cinema and being 5 years old and never so excited about anything else upto that point! The directors cut that came out on DVD a few years ago does a lot to the film along with the new effects.

They are so in tune with the original model work that it really shows up the tinkering that Lucas carried out on the Star Wars films. Instead of shoehorning in the new stuff it flows with the original 1979 effects shots.

Something I'm glad they have kept with the new vrsions of The Original Series. The story is abit of old crap though. A bunch of living machines find a Voyager probe from Earth and creat a ship as big as the solar system and send it back to Earth? Eh? A case of to many writters and ideas spoiling the central idea of getting the cast back to do what they did wek in week out for 3 years.

Somehow through the re-writes and daily script changes the soul of Star Trek got lost. It is there, just. If they had managed to get that right (And the directors cut goes along way to restore the balance) then the 10 minute fly-bys might not have seemed just so strained.