Star Trek The Motion Picture 45th Anniversary Book Club

[Tallguy]

I admit it would make me feel better if I could see Ilia agreeing.

She doesn't just agree. She pleads.

To Kirk (modulated): The Creator must join with Vejur.

Ilia turns to Decker in a from the floor shot looking up at the sky between them. There is a squawk from Vejur and the sky turns red. She says to Decker (un-modulated): The Creator must join with Vejur.

Jerry plays Ilia's theme. It cuts to Ilia and she is nearly in tears. And Decker figures it out.

Later: "Decker, you don't know what that'll do to you!" "Yes I do, Doctor!" Ilia raises her chin in approval.

This thread has been worth it just to see this scene fresh.

 

[Commander Troi]

OK. I guess I need to watch the movie again... aw, shucks...

 

[Ceridwen]

I tend to think Scotty is right on this one. This close to the "brain", it should incapacitate Vejur at least.

About that atmosphere being promised... too bad it wasn't in here!

I do love the reveal. I'm sure it completely surprised me as a kid.

I saw the movie for the first time in 1998, on VHS, and that reveal absolutely blew me away.

 

[Commander Troi]

Still love that last bit:

"Heading, sir?" DeFalco asked.
Kirk indicated generally ahead. "Out there. Thataway."

 

[Christopher]

Still love that last bit:

"Heading, sir?" DeFalco asked.
Kirk indicated generally ahead. "Out there. Thataway."

I like the way Shatner played it -- "Out there" with a sense of awed intensity, then shaking it off and doing a casual "Thataway" to cover for it.

But thank the Great Bird that Trek creators back then didn't feel the need to give captains recurring go-to-warp catchphrases, or we'd have heard "Thataway" in every movie and it would've cheapened it.

 

[Tallguy]

But thank the Great Bird that Trek creators back then didn't feel the need to give captains recurring go-to-warp catchphrases, or we'd have heard "Thataway" in every movie and it would've cheapened it.

Vonda McIntyre repeats it in Wrath of Khan.

 

[Firebird]

I remember reading Shatner (and the other actors?) requested that they reshoot the final scene on the bridge because it had been originally done before the V'Ger brain sequence was filmed (or, really, written), and now that they'd performed it, they had context for all the stuff in the denouement and thought they could communicate it better. That's where the Spock-and-McCoy-switching-jackets thing came from, those are shots from the second version.

I don't believe that's true. The final 12 or so pages of the final shooting script have revision dates during the final week of November 1978, with the tag scene on the Bridge being the latest-dated ones.

First unit production on TMP ended with weeks of shooting the final V'ger Hemisphere sequence, well into January of 1979. I can't recall them going back to stage 9 to refilm anything, but I'll need to double check the editor's cutting script the next time I visit the Robert Wise collection at USC.

 

[Tallguy]

I don't believe that's true. The final 12 or so pages of the final shooting script have revision dates during the final week of November 1978, with the tag scene on the Bridge being the latest-dated ones.

First unit production on TMP ended with weeks of shooting the final V'ger Hemisphere sequence, well into January of 1979. I can't recall them going back to stage 9 to refilm anything, but I'll need to double check the editor's cutting script the next time I visit the Robert Wise collection at USC.

That does it. I'm going to have to finish Return to Tomorrow now. (After I finish the third Thursday Murder Club book.)

 

[David cgc]

That does it. I'm going to have to finish Return to Tomorrow now. (After I finish the third Thursday Murder Club book.)

That’s where I saw the story, and my copy is in a box, so I’ll need someone else to run it down and check my memory.

 

[Therin of Andor]

TMP novelization unabridged audio by Ian McLean, on Flickr

Now that you have re-explored the TMP novelization, don't forget that there is an excellent unabridged audio available as a download (I think the CD set is sold out?). From Simon & Schuster Audio through Audible, the novelization's unabridged version is read by Robert Petkoff.

The book was reprinted in trade by Gallery for the 40th anniversary in 2019.

Christopher L Bennett's "Ex Machina", is a January 2005 sequel to "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in MMPB. It also received a trade reprint from Gallery, making it a great companion volume trade-size novelization. Christopher's continuation with these characters is "The Higher Frontier" (March 2020), which happens to be set on Andor! The post-TMP characters from "Ex Machina" also appear in the second "Department of Temporal Investigations" novel, "Forgotten History".


Unabridged audio of "Star Trek: The Higher Frontier" by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Christopher]

The post-TMP characters from "Ex Machina" also appear in the second "Department of Temporal Investigations" novel, "Forgotten History".

And in Mere Anarchy Book 4: The Darkness Drops Again. And in Living Memory, though elements of that one have been contradicted by Strange New Worlds.

 

[David cgc]

I don't believe that's true. The final 12 or so pages of the final shooting script have revision dates during the final week of November 1978, with the tag scene on the Bridge being the latest-dated ones.

First unit production on TMP ended with weeks of shooting the final V'ger Hemisphere sequence, well into January of 1979. I can't recall them going back to stage 9 to refilm anything, but I'll need to double check the editor's cutting script the next time I visit the Robert Wise collection at USC.

I just saw my copy of Return to Tomorrow isn't actually in a box, so here's what I was remembering:

Page 318

WILLIAM SHATNER​

After we shot the V'Ger squence, which was months after the bridge stuff, I said to Bob Wise that I felt the way I played the ending of the movie—the dialog that refers to, "What did we just see? My God, was it the birth of a new life form...?"—I'd had no real concept, as nobody had, of what V'Ger was going to look like and what was going to transpire. Now that we all had become acquainted with the V'Ger set and the enormity of dealing with V'Ger, when we came out of that sequence, I said to Bob, "We really should go back to the bridge and reshoot that last sequence. Because now, the V'Ger climax is much bigger and more enormous than I had even thought." He said, "You're absolutely right."​

​

Days later, we went back to Stage 9, opened up the bridge set, and did a whole reshoot, which they never would do ordinarily.​

 

[Firebird]

I just saw my copy of Return to Tomorrow isn't actually in a box, so here's what I was remembering:

Page 318

WILLIAM SHATNER​

After we shot the V'Ger squence, which was months after the bridge stuff, I said to Bob Wise that I felt the way I played the ending of the movie—the dialog that refers to, "What did we just see? My God, was it the birth of a new life form...?"—I'd had no real concept, as nobody had, of what V'Ger was going to look like and what was going to transpire. Now that we all had become acquainted with the V'Ger set and the enormity of dealing with V'Ger, when we came out of that sequence, I said to Bob, "We really should go back to the bridge and reshoot that last sequence. Because now, the V'Ger climax is much bigger and more enormous than I had even thought." He said, "You're absolutely right."​

​

Days later, we went back to Stage 9, opened up the bridge set, and did a whole reshoot, which they never would do ordinarily.​

Interesting. I remember there being some Bridge stuff they filmed from prior revisions of the 3rd act in the editor's "lined" script, but it was all bits with Sulu, Uhura, et al, none of the final scene itself except for the version we know.

The one page I have a photocopy of that editor's script for that tag scene shows page 139 (the penultimate page) of the final shooting script was shot on November 22nd, even though the mimeographed page is dated November 29th. Although, what happened several times is on-set rewrites on typewritten pages were later codified into color mimeo pages for official studio record.

I really need to get back to USC once of these days.

 

[Ssosmcin]

"Between the V and the G was a torn, gaping hole, mute record of some encounter with space hazard. "V-GER . . . Vejur!" said Kirk. He traced a finger where the letters had been obliterated. "V-O-Y-A-G-E-R . . . Voyager Six!" "

I've always thought that this is how they should have filmed it. V'Ger couldn't scrape the gook off its nameplate because half the nameplate was gone! Works so much better.

I always rationalize it as V'Ger's got no hands.

 

[David cgc]

This is a bit out-of-date, but I wasn't reading along in the book and was just going from memory. I saw a post elsewhere that quoted a bit of the Officer's Lounge scene that raised an interesting question for me.

Kirk's expression told McCoy there had indeed been such a thought—although this surprised McCoy much less than the fact that Spock had admitted sensing it, considering his present unfriendliness. It was common knowledge that telepathic rapport between Vulcan and human was possible only in cases of extraordinarily close friendship.​

What’s the deal with all these “extraordinarily close friendships” between humans and Vulcans that not only took place in the last two hundred years, but were public enough for at least one party to discuss how, “Oh, yeah, we hear each others’ thoughts sometimes, no matter how far away we are. Is that weird?” often enough that the possibility became “common knowledge.” I'm trying to think of this in the 1979-context, but it still feels a little odd that brotherly bonds like Kirk and Spock's world've been that common even without considering what later shows established about how common it was for Vulcans and humans to get on each others' nerves.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I think Roddenberry was addressing the K/S fan fiction, acknowledging it while still saying "but they're not lovers." So he pushed the close friendship button pretty hard.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I think Roddenberry was addressing the K/S fan fiction, acknowledging it while still saying "but they're not lovers." So he pushed the close friendship button pretty hard.

Fandom's responses according to "Fanlore" wiki:

T'hy'la (Vulcan term) - Fanlore

fanlore.org

 

[Tallguy]

Fandom's responses according to "Fanlore" wiki:

T'hy'la (Vulcan term) - Fanlore

fanlore.org

And Admiral Kirk’s footnote on the ‘rumors’ -- penned, of course, by Roddenberry -- was a delightfully ambiguous, sly, teasing affirmation of the fact….

Kirk: That's not what I'm into. And also not with Vulcans because that would be foolish. Not that there's anything WRONG with that. (Seinfeld before Seinfeld.)

How is that ambiguous?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Kirk: That's not what I'm into. And also not with Vulcans because that would be foolish. Not that there's anything WRONG with that. (Seinfeld before Seinfeld.)

How is that ambiguous?

I think because GR had boasted to the K/S writers in advance that he had added a little something just for them. So they took the term -- and Kirk's footnote -- as open to interpretation.

 

[Tallguy]

I think because GR had boasted to the K/S writers in advance that he had added a little something just for them. So they took the term -- and Kirk's footnote -- as open to interpretation.

GR was an amazing con man.