Review of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) by Jack C — 05 Feb 2010

In 1977 a little independent film called "Star Wars" was released in the cinemas across the world. It was quite a large success and a great earner for the studio that distributed it, 20th Century Fox.

Now at the time other major studios suddenly started scrambling to see what they could release so as to jump on the science fiction bandwagon. Executives at Paramount Pictures were sitting scratching their heads with this very same problem when a revelation came.

Since 1969 Gene Rodenberry, the man who created Star Trek, had been lobbying for a film version of his cancelled TV show. Paramount saw the success science fiction was having at the box office and thought, this is the one for us.

Using a script that was originally intended for a defunct second series of the television show, countless writer after writer took a stab at nailing the screenplay. Eventually they settled on one by Harold Livingston and took the film to the Oscar winner Robert Wise, so he could direct.

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" unfortunately suffers from the fact it was originally a television episode. At times it feels as though the film is filling in the running time with repeated grandiose shots of the Enterprise or endless shots of the alien V'ger (the antagonist of the film), and what happens is you end up with quite a dull, bloated film.

Of course all the major cast from the television show return and it is in their chemistry that the film finds its legs, something that I feel was noticed and worked into the later films. Seeing Shatner, Nimoy and DeForest Kelley bounce off one another is fantastic and so anytime spent away from them seems wasted.

Eventually though the films ends, quite quickly it would seem, and it's over. It takes about a half an hour to get on the ship, then an hour searching for V'ger, they find him and then its only 20 minutes and the films over.

It's an odd watch, but with glorious moments and some epic visuals (though slightly long perhaps) "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" isn't Star Trek's finest moment, but it is a significant one.

There is no comparison.