I'm not gonna lie. I'm an honest-to-God Trekkie, primarily thanks to my parents who watched Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation on television whenever it came on (Deep Space Nine and Voyager, not so much). The Star Trek franchise, originally created by Gene Roddenberry, is wildly considered to be one of the biggest cult phenomenons of all time, if not, THE biggest. The original series, unfortunately, came to a sad end when it was cancelled after three seasons, without a conclusion, mind you. It was followed with an animated series made by the folks who also make He-Man and the Masters of the Universe that feature the voices of the original cast. While the stories made for this series were quite imaginative, the animation was anything but top quality, despite all the characters being recognizable. Thankfully, for every single geek who grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the voyages of the Starship Enterprise were anything but over. The folks at Paramount Pictures, including Roddenberry himself, sought an opportunity that there was a possibility of making a feature film continuing said voyages of the Enterprise crew, led by the uncanny Captain James T. Kirk, alongside his faithful first officer Spock, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, and the rest.
In 1979, Paramount Pictures released Star Trek: The Motion Picture into cinemas. It would be the first of what will currently (as of this post) be a total of 12 theatrically released movies based on Roddenberry's Star Trek franchise. This film would be directed by Academy Award-winner Robert Wise, whom prior to this has also directed hit movies such as The Sound of Music (1965, Fox), The Sand Pebbles (1966, Fox), The Haunting (1960, MGM), West Side Story (1961, United Artists), The Andromeda Strain (1971, Universal), and The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951, Fox). Already, he's had a hit winning streak when it comes to directing motion pictures, so did he have a hit with this? Well...
So, the story behind this movie is that an unidentified anomaly is heading towards Earth, right after destroying three Klingon ships. The Earth happens to be the home of the United Federation of Planets, also known simply as the Federation, so guess who is sent to investigate the anomaly? That's right, the now Admiral James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner), who has been given the duty of taking over the command of the Enterprise's new captain, Decker (Stephen Collins), despite being three years since the good admiral took command of a Federation starship, and the ship's interior has been completely redesigned to keep it in service, to which Decker reminds Kirk that this version of the Enterprise is entirely new, and not like the one he served on. Nevertheless, the Enterprise crew sets out to confront this entity and declare peace, not realizing that it wants something more than just a friendly greeting.
The story for this movie is quite fascinating and fitting for the very first Star Trek movie, because the imagination created by Gene Roddenberry translates very well onto the big screen as it did on the original television series, and at the time of release, it was great to see the unflappable and iconic captain and his crew in the theatre. The special effects, unlike the television show, are actually really freakin' good. Unfortunately, even though this is the first Trek movie, it isn't without noticeable flaws, the biggest one being the overall pacing. This movie has a nickname, not just from Star Trek fans, but from a lot of moviegoers who watched the film from beginning to end. That nickname is "Star Trek: The Slow-Motion Picture". That's right, this movie is slow to the point where it'll put anyone suffering from insomnia to sleep in a matter of minutes, because the movie moves as slow as a snail. Considering that this is from an Oscar-winning director of some of the most iconic movies in the film industry's history, you would think that Mr. Wise would know how to get the audience's attention. In fact, the show that the film is primarily based on was an exciting space opera that had its fair share of dramatic and action-packed scenes rolled into an hour-long program. In the movie, what we get is a movie with the pacing of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969, MGM), only in that film, the slow pacing worked in its favor. Here, it just drags the movie on longer than it should, and that is my biggest complaint. There are also some moments in the movie where it just feels a bit...well...silly. but hey, Star Trek as a whole is also known for having some cheesy and silly moments here and there.
This is not a bad start for the franchise's first step into the world of cinema, and it definitely wouldn't be the last, as 9 more movies would follow, including two reboot films in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but there are better Trek films out there, and this is one I would recommend if you're planning to have a Trek movie marathon or if you're a huge fan of Star Trek. On its own, it's a slow moving space picture.
DID YOU KNOW?:
- 12 minutes of extra footage was inserted into TV broadcasts of the movie. These were deleted scenes that didn't make it into the original theatrical release. On the Director's Cut DVD, the deleted scenes can be seen as a bonus feature.
- The film was originally rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America. When the Director's Cut was submitted for certification, the film was re-rated to PG.
- The Director's Cut version of the film is 4 minutes longer than the original theatrical release, not including the deleted scenes.
- The film was made 10 years after the cancellation of the original series.