Since When Is The Motion Picture A Good Trek Film?

[trevanian]

Episilon 9 was attacked because they scanned v'ger. And when Kirk came out of the airlock, I hid my face in my hands.

Because of how bad he looks? Shat looks even worse than Nimoy in the suit, they made a serious mistake not having a real cinematographer shoot those bits at trumbull's, the lack of makeup makes these guys look older than they were by far.

 

[Joker]

Rand came out the worst.

 

[Psion]

Absolutely right, T'Girl. (About V'ger's interpretation of the scans ... the bit about hiding one's face must be a T'Girl thing.)

Later in the movie, Kirk is adamant about not scanning the cloud. Culminating in the point when he and Decker have the exchange:

KIRK: Let's take a look. Full sensor scan, Mr. Spock. They can't expect us not to look them over now.

DECKER: Now that we're looking down their throat.

KIRK: Right. Now that we've got them just where they want us.

That little exchange, including the grins shared between Kirk and Decker, not only refers back to the destruction of Epsilon 9, but shows these two men -- competing from their first scene together -- finally working through their differences.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Rand came out the worst.

According to GLW, she came out on set the first day in Rand's glam makeup, updated for 1978 of course, and Robert Wise sent her back to have it all removed. His quote was not wanting Kirk's "geisha girl" on the ship.

She was very upset because Chapel, Uhura and Ilia were all allowed "beauty makeup", and Persis Khambatta's contract even specified that she could send off all her publicity shots for expensive airbrushing, but GLW wasn't permitted any such favours.

 

[Pauln6]

Grace was given a hard time. Wasn't she also working as Wise's secretary and got a roasting because they pulled a stunt on him on his first day and she actually came in glammed up like a tart? I think his refusal to let her wear too much make-up was revenge for the joke they tried to pull. With or without make-up, I thought she looked pretty good. She was in her mid to late forties and had spent a decade as an alcoholic at that point (I think she got sober in 1980). I was rather disappointed when she was absent from TWOK. Even a simple death scene on the Kobayashi Maru test would have done me. One of the reasons I like TMP so much is that it is the only time that all the main historical cast features together apart from the final scene in STIV.

 

[Chrisisall]

TMP was the 70's 2001.

 

[Warped9]

TMP was the 70's 2001.

This is often said, but I didn't believe it then and I still don't believe that it was Robert Wise and GR's intention to offer up Trek's version of 2001.

I think a fundamental misstep in TMP is that they wanted to do TOS writ large on the silver screen and with a grand story with science fiction feel--which they did. But along the way they forgot to include a little more down-to-earth drama and tension and scene chewing. Some more genuine, oldfashioned Kirk/Decker and Spock/McCoy friction would have really helped fill the gaps between the spectacular visuals and also help make it all more accessible to the audience.

"The human adventure is just begenning" is a great tagline, but they overlooked including a little more down-to-earth human tension and bickering.

 

[Chrisisall]

"The human adventure is just begenning" is a great tagline, but they overlooked including a little more down-to-earth human tension and bickering.

Agreed.

 

[Maurice]

With all due respect to Ms. Whitney, I could easily see a director not liking beauty makeup he felt was overdone, and a throwaway comment about said makeup could be taken as a slight. Not to disbelieve her story, but it could be how she interpreted what he said, even if he didn't say the exact words she relates.

 

[msbae]

The film's story was quite good and quite original. The problem here was the pacing, lack of action and those uniforms.

Those uniforms were the most ironic part of it all. Wise had the earlier one replaced because he thought they looked like pajamas. I think the TMP uniforms look like pajamas, with the exception of Admiral Kirk's uniform in the early scenes. That one wasn't so bad.

 

[The Evil Dead]

One the things I like most about Star Trek is it's flexibility. One week you get Way of the Warrior and the next you get The Visitor. In 1979, we got TMP and in 2009 we got JJ's Star Trek. I like the more thoughtful, heavy sci-fi aspects of Trek we saw in TMP just as much as I like the edge of your seat thrills of the new film. My only stipulation is that in either case, it needs to be done well.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Grace was given a hard time. Wasn't she also working as Wise's secretary and got a roasting because they pulled a stunt on him on his first day and she actually came in glammed up like a tart?

Gene Roddenberry had her pretend she was Wise's new secretary. She came in chewin' gum and generally creating havoc.

 

[Pauln6]

"The human adventure is just begenning" is a great tagline, but they overlooked including a little more down-to-earth human tension and bickering.

Agreed.

This was absolutely the movie's worst failing. Some of the few character scenes were shaved in the Director's cut too. I love the film's epic feel, and the special effects were awesome for their time and don't embarass even, now but I wanted to see more of the crew interacting instead of just repeating Kirk's orders all the time. The big three was never enough for me.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

TMP was the 70's 2001.

One could not say a worse thing about '70s cinema than that, if one accepted it as true.

With all due respect to Ms. Whitney, I could easily see a director not liking beauty makeup he felt was overdone...

Well, he approved Shatner's and Nimoy's. What was up with that?

 

[Chrisisall]

One could not say a worse thing about '70s cinema than that, if one accepted it as true.

Well, for what Trek was, I meant.

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

I think it wanted to be 2001 but falls far from achieving it.

 

[Winterwind]

All I can say is that after reading this thread, I popped in my DE DVD.

Guess what? I fell asleep. And that has nothing to do with attentions spans and needing battles in space. Great Expectations, Crime and Punishment, and Anna Karenina are my three favourite books so we can rule that AD/HD argument out some toss around.

I just find it very plodding and slow. Visually stunning and kudos to Mr Wise for that direction but the story was a simple rehash of the Changeling and really suffered, in my view, from all the behind the scenes BS involved in the writing.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I didn't like the first movie much as a kid, but it's grown on me over the years, and this happened years before the first movie came out. I'll be the first one to call it an imperfect and very flawed first effort for Star Trek on the big screen, but I still enjoy the basic premise, I've grown to appreciate the slow pace of the story, and I think there were some strong performances from much of the cast.