The Big Whatsit

While it’s possible to look upon such films as City of Ember and The Dark is Rising as rather cynical attempts to cash in on the success of Harry Potter, it would take some effort to beat the desperate gold rush that took place in the wake of Star Wars. Movie after movie was churned out, the majority of them hopeless dreck (seriously, can anyone watch Battle Beyond the Stars without cringing?) that proved science fiction done on the cheap just does not work.

One decidedly lucrative alternative to the Imperial Wars, however, was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, released in 1979 at considerable expense and with a fair amount of hype behind it. At the time, the original series was being repeated on BBC2, no doubt a further consequence of the Wars bandwagon. Considering how shabbily the show was treated, particularly towards its premature end, the fact Paramount plunged a hefty $35m into a spin-off feature film ought to have come as something of a surprise. Even more amazing was the sheer talent drafted in to get the thing made. Two-time Academy Award winner, Robert Wise (this site gushed over The Day the Earth Stood Still several weeks ago) was hired to direct. Jerry Goldsmith (who had clinched an Oscar for The Omen) provided the score. Richard Kline (two previous nominations) was the cinematographer, and the film also had the considerable likes of Douglas Trumbull - who produced the groundbreaking special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey - to call upon. A more marquee crew you can barely imagine, though it was only with the reassembling of the original cast that the production really gelled. The hardest of these to entice back into his unflatteringly tight-fitting uniform was Leonard Nimoy, who was involved in a legal dispute with Paramount at the time and had to have this settled out of court in order to don the ears once more.

The story, originally conceived by Gene Roddenberry and written by science fiction novelist Alan Dean Foster before Harold Livingston polished it off, was intended to form the pilot of a new Star Trek TV series. For various reasons, the show never came close to being made, but the film was. In a pre-release marketing bonanza that was reminiscent of a certain other science fiction epic, we could buy all sorts of Trek related goodies, including Klingon action figures that seemed a bit redundant considering they hardly feature in the movie at all. Indeed, the rather solemn picture that finally hit the screens bore little resemblance to the ripping action adventure promised in the trailers and publicity. The Motion Picture was far from a blockbuster of Wars proportions. It did all right commercially, but to younger viewers expecting another special effects driven boys’ own story it must have been a great disappointment to come across this stately epic, the ‘action’ rarely leaving the bridge of the Enterprise.

It’s only with later viewings that the intelligence of the screenplay, a cast that manages to take it all so seriously, Goldsmith’s beautiful score and some superb special effects work come to the fore. The flagging pace of TMP remains a problem. Much of the film’s first hour is taken up with reuniting the Enterprise’s crew, from McCoy’s unwillingness to step foot on a transporter through to Spock’s spiritual journey back to the ship. The extended scene where Kirk is shuttled to the refitted Enterprise is an exercise in sheer indulgence as we get to see the old thing from almost every conceivable angle. Hardcore ‘Trekkies’ might love this stuff. For the rest of us it’s unforgivably dull, as though the production team insist on their audience sharing with them the experience of putting this much effort into innovative effects.

Eventually, The Motion Picture sets into, er, motion. Suddenly, the serene character setting we’ve been treated to begins making sense. We get the tension between Kirk and Decker quite early. The former, now an Admiral, wants the Enterprise back and uses the threat of a potential alien invasion to gazump the much younger Decker out of the captain’s chair. Once the ship catches up with the approaching cloud of matter that makes up the enemy, Kirk gets niggly with his executive officer, his respect only growing once Decker’s quick thinking and knowledge of the Enterprise gets them out of one or two tight spots. For Decker, the appearance of his old flame, Ilia, on the ship creates yet more tension and leads to the film’s final, decisive twist.

Spock comes with a fair amount of baggage also. At first he’s at his most imperiously haughty with his comrades, but this is just a facade. Spock’s journey is one of exploration. He’s the first to guess at the entity’s purpose and by this stage his austere, Vulcan front drops entirely. Little wonder that Nimoy agreed to play Spock once more. The character is allowed far more depth than he ever got on the TV series.

As is so often the case, however, it’s James T Kirk who holds the space opera together. William Shatner puts in a performance that’s entirely winning. Slimmed down, effortlessly charismatic and showing few of the mannerisms that give impressionists hours of material, it’s like he has never been away. One of the running issues Kirk experiences during the Trek film series is that of age, of becoming old. It’s present in The Motion Picture, shown most clearly in his spats with the younger Decker, Dr McCoy never far away to administer a summary of the good Captain’s failings.

Shatner and Nimoy are the best things in the movie’s cast, but Stephen Collins is worthy of note as Decker, his latest appearance in a promising career that perhaps didn’t go as far as he would have liked (I, for one, loved Tales of the Gold Monkey). Indian actress Persis Khambatta plays Ilia, beautiful enough to go bald-headed for the role and striking a considerable rare note in Trek by playing a woman who has some significant part to play in the plot i.e. not some cursory love interest or minor character.

The edition I bought is the Director’s Cut. This doesn’t add anything in terms of deleted scenes that have since been spliced into the main picture. Instead, under the supervision of Wise himself the main difference is in its visual effects, which have come in for a series of CGI enhancements. The fortunate thing is that this doesn’t mean endless Lucas-esque tinkering with backgrounds, digitally inserted characters, etc, though in certain scenes it’s pretty clear that technicians working in 1979 could not have produced the effects we’re watching. For the most part, the enhancements are reasonably subtle, upgrading shots to twenty first century standards quite unobtrusively. They can do this because the original effects were hardly terrible. Money, time and love was invested on this stuff. The shots of the Enterprise passing through the outer layers of the alien entity, V’ger, still make various lists of best special effects, rubbing shoulders with any number of CGI monstrosities.

If the Motion Picture isn’t exactly Star Wars, then it’s obvious inspiration is 2001, and certainly the scenes described above are very reminiscent of the ‘Jupiter journey’ sequences in Kubrick’s masterpiece. It can’t quite manage the profundity of 2001, but at the same time it’s far more accessible. Kirk and Co’s discovery of what V’ger is and what it’s about has emotional resonance and delivers a rather thoughtful payload that wouldn’t have been achieved with a straightforward comic book movie. And if everything happens too slowly, then perhaps that’s not the film’s fault but ours for expecting a different kind of experience, especially after the marketing. In any event, the box office spoke loudest. The Motion Picture’s sequel, though perhaps the best in the run of Star Trek movies, gave audiences what they wanted in terms of action and explosions and shifted the tone away from what this episode tried to produce.