Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979)

 

Star Trek—The Motion Picture reunites almost everyone from the original cast of the 1960s TV series and provides fanboys with a newly redesigned Enterprise to admire. The primary focus of this first theatrical film for the franchise is the appearance of a space cloud in Federation space that has destroyed a series of Klingon and Federation ships. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), now an admiral, shows up during the final stages of the new Enterprise’s construction to take command away from Captain Willard Decker (Stephen Collins), who had been in charge and who is not entirely happy that his position is being usurped, especially since Kirk is unfamiliar with the new ship’s systems. You might think that this clash between an older and younger commander would be a central focus throughout the film, but from the beginning of the story, the filmmakers seem to have another goal in mind: satisfying the rabid fan base of the show. What else could explain spending almost five minutes surveying the exterior of the Enterprise? It has been lovingly rendered, but this seemingly endless examination of the ship causes the film to drag. Other moments obviously designed to dazzle the viewer have pretty much the same effect; an encounter with an alien ship goes on for almost 15 minutes before any action occurs. And the trip through a wormhole that allows for a more direct encounter with the space cloud (called V-Ger) attempts to be reminiscent of the famous sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but all the psychedelic imagery can be quite headache-inducing after a while. The Enterprise’s navigator, Ilia (played by the striking Persis Khambatta), gets kidnapped and replaced by an alien life form. V-Ger uses Ilia’s replacement to collect information from the Enterprise crew about Earth’s creator. There’s a minor subplot involving the past romance between Ilia and Decker, but it fails to have much emotional resonance. The beloved character of Spock (Leonard Nimoy) spends much of the film either on Vulcan trying to rid himself of his human emotions (unsuccessfully, of course) or sneaking off from the rest of the crew to investigate V-Ger on his own and getting attacked as a result. The ending is a little bit of a cheat, using the contemporary Voyager space program to link the Star Trek universe to current events. The religious implications of the search for a “creator” are raised but not deeply considered. Later Star Trek films provide greater excitement than this first installment, but the opportunity to see Kirk and Spock and all the rest was, no doubt, the draw for audiences in 1979.

Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score