Space. It seems to go on forever...
Then you get to the monkey and the en---
Hey, waitaminute, this is #wenchwatches !
Tonight: #starTrekTMP
Hilariously, Star Trek The Motion Picture is the *last* film I watched from VHS recordings I saw as a kid. We had recordings of Star Trek 2, 3, and 4. It was only after watching all of these that I finally was able to watch TMP...during a thunderstorm. My copy had several minutes missing for intercut tornado warnings.
The midwest experience, everyone!
Tonight, we're watching the 2022 Director's Edition, clocking in over 2 hours long. We've also seen this film on Wenchwatches as least twice before, but I just can't stay away.
Blame my Dad. I do.
Let's watch!
Coming from a broadcast VHS recording of the television cut still colors my expectations of this film. One thing that is striking compared to later Star Trek films (particularly 3) is how much more dark the film is. I don't mean in tone, I mean visually. The dark visuals, particularly during the V'Ger scenes resulted in significant graininess due to most of the screen being blues and blacks. As a result, any reasonable modern transfer looks spectacular, but the Blu-Ray edition is a particular treat.
In addition to several compete remakes of scenes and effects, I can only imagine a new transfer from the original film. When compared to my recollections, the initial battle with the klingons is gasp inducing.
Scotty: "The crew...hasn't had nearly enough transition time with all the new equipment..."
Me: [laughing in trans]
TMP has a reputation for being excruciatingly slow, and it's one I certainly can understand. Many even call it The (Stop) Motion Picture, or The Motionless Picture. It's not an undeserved reputation. Film reviewers the Internet-wide to Rifftrax have mocked it's languid and fraught pacing.
We can see this right when we first see the new Enterprise. To modern eyes, the eye-wateringly long shots of the refit craft seem to go one far, far too long. It's important to put these in context. Star Trek The Original Series ended in 1969. This film is a decade later, in a period where rebroadcasts were less common, and home recording was unknown. Effectively, these loving, close up shots of the new ship model feel almost justified. Having never seen the famous craft for a decade, a few minutes of lingering pans feels warranted. In addition, no one had seen detailed models of the ship before -- ever. The original TV model was good, but often rudimentary and only seen in NTSC resolutions. It simply doesn't compare to the experience of seeing it in Cinemascope.
I'm sure my gasps as a "mere" Blu-ray seem tame by comparison.
The pacing is only fraught in comparison to the film's *production*. Being a colossal nerd, I knew some of the production details, but a friend of mine gave me a deep dive into the complexity of the production.
Originally...there was not going to be a movie. Instead, there was going to be a follow up TV series, "Star Trek II", sometimes called "Phase 2" to distinguish it from the this film's much more popular successor. TMP combines elements from that show's episode "In Thy Image", expanding upon it and including the original cast rather than new characters. I was fortunate to read some of the scripts for both these episodes and some early shooting drafts for TMP.
But you don't need to take my word for it. Go see my friend's site instead: http://dolari.net/startrek/tmp/index.html
The need to reintroduce and get the cast back together in TMP introduces significant overhead in getting the plot in gear. We now have some unknown number of years between the end of TOS and the beginning of TMP to account for. The result feels like a Peter Jackson film in reverse. Instead of 5 or 6 endings we get 5 or 6 *beginnings*. Anyone who's played a JRPG knows how tiring and tedious it gets having to reassemble your party after the whims of the plot gods fling them across the planet. We need to see the film's plot, then where Spock has been, then where Kirk has been, then....actually, we don't get to see whatever amazing disco shenanigans McCoy had got up into.
Pity. I hope McCoy raised so much hell it'd make Dr. T'ana blush.
The result of all these beginnings means we're almost an hour into the film before we actually get back to the plot proper. When accustomed to a 43 minute television episode, the glacial pacing becomes pronounced. This is helped in no small means by the fact that the very *idea* of Star Trek -- the triad of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy -- has been since been so popularized that it's become a cultural conceit. Audiences may wonder why in the hell we're taking so long...just get them back together already!
And then...the wormhole scene. I've actually come to like the way the film slows down here, implying the time-dilation of being in that gravity well. Star Trek was never much for Hard SF, but TMP *tries* to push it in that direction. It doesn't entirely work, of course, and even I have to recall my favorite way to riff the entire sequence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Sc9EbTEM
Bebop Trek. We could have had it.
It takes a full 50 minutes before we get Spock back and he loses that hockey hair. Arguably, we could have cut nearly an entire 30 minutes from the film at this point, hand-waving away key details. We could have skipped so many scenes and landed right at the point Spock helps to repair the ship and relays his impressions of a distant, space-borne consciousness.
In another film, I might have called much of the wormhole sequence and much of the set dressing to get the crew back together as a "filler". In many ways, it is. The development of the film's script was difficult not only for production reasons, but because this was the first attempt to translate Star Trek to the big screen. Growing pains are inevitable.
Moreover, the film is revealing it's true intent in all those loving model work and effect shots. This is less a film, and more a loving gift to fans of the original show. It's pretty, it's cerebral, and it actually does have a compelling (if slow) plot. There are reasons I recommend *against* The Motion Picture as a first introduction to Star Trek films; Wrath of Khan (or First Contact) is a far better choice.
My partner reviewer expresses her opinion of the film so far...
The initial reconnaissance of the V'ger craft is yet another moment of loving effects work. Portions of it recall 2001 A Space Odyssey, particularly the cloud entry. Some portion's of V'ger's fore I swear I've seen recalled in more recent works such as Mass Effect.
The key trick of the entire part of the film is much like a stereotypical horror film axiom: "Don't show the entire monster -- at least at first". Films such as Pitch Black used this to great effect, but TMP also employs the same trick here.
Instead of instilling fear by withholding information, the purpose of the sequence is to impart a sense of awe and smallness in comparison. This is muted at first, until the entire Enterprise -- already a giant at human scale -- is shown. The V'ger craft takes up the entire screen, implying to even larger than our godlike cinematic gaze permits, while our favorite starship is a mere slot car in size. In the theatrical cut, our satisfaction is entirely denied in seeing all of V'ger at once until a brief frame or two prior to it's disappearance. The Director's Cut had CGI on its side, so we get delicious detailed shots as it approaches earth.
The original pan sequence took a significant amount of time to film. Shot frame by frame in a smoke filled set over the course of hours. If I recall, at least 12. This, no doubt placed extreme demands on the V'ger model. A full reveal may not have looked good with the technology of the time.
In a way, the earlier slow sequence of the Enterprise reveal parallels V'ger's reveal. The Enterprise sequence emphasizes wonder and a sense of majesty while also establishing a human scale for the ship. Star Trek has *never* been good at scale -- even as late as Voyager did such issues persist -- but it does give you a gut sense of it. Returning to the V'ger reveal, the sense of smallness and implied threat is amplified. If only the two sequences were closer together could the parallel have been made more strongly.
But *damn*, is the inside of V'ger pretty...
So. Persis Kumbata. Let's talk about her.
Her character of Ilya is presented -- entirely dryly -- as a means to add an element of sexiness to the film. It's hard to ignore the...particular...way she was instructed to move around during the wormhole sequence. This, as well as the entire concept of the Deltans, is unfortunately consistent with Roddenberry's problematic smarm.
Marina Sirtis was often used for similar ends throughout Star Trek The Next Generation. She wasn't even spared when reprising her role in Star Trek Picard, well after the death of Rodenberry himself. While I understand this is an unfortunate part of existing in a genre and industry which largely caters to the male gaze, it gets more and more frustrating as I get older. Yes, TMP is older than I am, but it still mars the experience when I wish it didn't.
Spock's mind melds with V'ger is what it feels like to view the Federated timeline.
Spock's exploration into V'ger's memory chamber is perhaps one of the most unfortunate parts of the entire film. What actually made to screen is...the last minute re-shoot.
Originally, both Spock *and* Kirk were to explore this part of V'ger in what was called "The Memory Wall". This sequence extensively storyboarded, sets were produced, and even sequences filmed.
Much film archeology has been done on the sequence, and a few minutes of searching can yield these artifacts. The sequence could have been a highlight of the entire film, an effects and cinematic triumph. With the lack of CGI and the limitations of green screens at the time resulted in severe limitations in shooting options and an unwieldy wiring rig necessary to suspend the actors.
It's easy to imagine this sequence being better than the late run, Spock-centric one that ended up in the final film. Some of the set work and recreations are impressive, and more consistent with the feel of V'ger as a whole. My fear, however, is that it might have ended up veering into the cheesy, as such suspended sequences tend to be. Even First Contact's spacewalking sequence didn't entirely succeed, despite all the budgetary and effects advancements at its disposal.
The existing sequence in TMP avoids this by doing *less*. Spock is largely immobile, but he isn't required to move either to make the sequence believable. He's already in significant motion, and he simply passes by or through the recreations unabated. Having the sequence be Spock alone also gives him a moment to shine without Kirk; a highlight for me as a fan of the character.
@socketwench - Personally, the Memory Wall sequence, as written, is far more exciting than what we got in the film. But from what I've seen of the filmed sequences, they're not very good. The blame is mostly on Robert Abel's production company that created the sets. They looked great, sure. But for one shot. Any other shots that would have been made traveling through would have looked like...the same shot. The Trench was a simple curve. The Memory Wall was a flat crystalline wall.
Refilming the Memory Wall at the last minute wouldn't have helped the hokey look even with Doug Trumbull at the helm, so the production gave him a check and said "make it good." It's not as exciting, but looks a helluva lot better.
