|
Let's
go back to 1979...remember the hype...the Trekkies and Trekkers who
camped out in the cold on Dec 7th to see whether "The Human
Adventure is Just Beginning" or not... the original series had only
been off the air for ten years (Hope I made you feel old) and, finally
it would be back on the Big Screen as Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The
film began production as a TV series called Star Trek: Phase II
when Paramount originally tried to launch in l976, what they finally did
19 years later, UPN ( in 1995). The network idea fell through back then,
however, and as Paramount was about to launch the series as a
direct-to-syndication show, something happened in l977: Star Wars.
Science Fiction was Cool (but we always knew that). Leonard Nimoy said
he would never do a Star Trek TV series again, but, he MIGHT do a
one-shot movie.... so why do a series when they could make a big budget
film with lots of cool visual effects? Star Trek: The Motion Picture,
with Spock aboard, was born.
Production was one of the longest ever, over eighteen months starting in
Spring 1978...about a year and a month later, Paramount got biting their
nails about the special effects being done by Robert Abel and Associates
who, prior to this, had no "movie" FX experience. In June
1979, after spending six million bucks, they had roughly 15 minutes of
useless footage (shot on 16mm!) to show for a film that was supposed to
debut on Dec 7th. Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra, two of the biggest
names in the back-then small FX industry were called in to do roughly
ten months worth of FX in about five months. The result was a film that
was edited together hours before its Washington DC premier, it was the
best that could have been done in the time Paramount had.
The film got mixed reviews, many Trekkers vilified it, others called it
bland, and almost everyone said at least the first ten minutes were
excellent and it was about 40 minutes too long after that....and the
story was too much like a previous Trek episode "The
Changling".
Fast forward to 1999. Paramount held off releasing ST:TMP as part
of the already released DVDs of the other films because Wise wanted to
complete the film. He admitted he had not watched it since it had been
released, feeling like this film was the "one that got away"
in his long career as a director. He realized that time and distance do
interesting things for any artist. They make it possible to see the good
and the bad in each work. He realized there, that ST:TMP was a
good film in its heart. What was bad about it was that it wasn't really
complete. With the new technology of digital FX enabling wonders to be
done to wonders already...Foundation Imaging was hired, along with sound
editors and some music consulting to fix this much maligned film .
The result is excellent. The film is still long but like 2001:A
SPACE ODYSSEY, it is a good length, now. At 136 minutes, this
is short compared to some recent lengthy films.
The film has been reedited extensively and improved tremendously. Be
sure to check out these changes from the original
:
 To
start with the credits...reinstated is the "Overture".
Overtures aren't done anymore but usually accompanied the start of
"big" films in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Basically in the l979
version it was a long sequence of film with a blank screen
accompanied by Jerry Goldsmith's "Ilia's Theme". In the
new version, we see a rolling starfield, with the music, in place
of the blank screen (Hey it's something to look at!). After a pause, the
Paramount logo appears and then come the main credits, with the
"Main Theme" we all know so well (remastered) with a rolling
starfield in back of them. In the 1979 version it was just white
typeface on a black screen. The new version ties in better with Star
Trek II,IV,V and VI which use the same kind of opening
credits-over-starfield look.
On Vulcan we see the first of several new FX scenes. Gone are the bad
matte paintings, the moons in the sky of Vulcan (which according to Trek
Lore, has no moon!) and we now see Spock -- a tiny Spock -- on a vast
and inhospitable Vulcan desert with gigantic statues of ancient Logic
Masters.
Next up Kirk arrives in San Francisco -- another redone matte shot that
opens up the scope of San Francisco Bay and gets rid of another
previously bad matte painting. Other reworked areas include Kirk's ride
to the Enterprise with Scotty, we now see the Enterprise in the pod
window as a reflection which establishes more of a connection. The
flyaway from Earth is vastly improved with a better rendered Earth, and
the wormhole sequence shows the asteroid being destroyed in front of the
ship, quite spectacularly, and the wormhole literally dissolving to
normal space.
The infamous endless V'ger flyover is edited significantly, and later
comes the most startling reworking: when the Enterprise enters the V'ger
"orifice". The original had a seemingly endless series of
facial reactions instead of anything to indicate the Enterprise was on
some voyage deeper into V'ger. This sequence was so obviously padded out
with edited footage that it became ridiculous. Now we see more
"guts" to V'ger, a weird, Giger-esque corridor that leads to
its brain, which we see reach out and form a bridge -- care of
CGI -- to the ship. Eliminated is another bad matte shot of the crew
walking on an out-of-scale saucer top and this is replaced with a
jaw-dropping new FX scene showing a bridge structure literally
materializing in front of the Enterprise and the crew members (digitally
re-created!) walking onto it.
Also altered was the Spock walk sequence, which was padded out in video
versions of the film in the l980's which went so far as to show Kirk in
a discarded space suit that did not match the design of one he would be
in moments later, hanging on obvious wires with studio scaffolding(!!!)
around him!
Toward
the picture's end (it's been 22 years, you know how it ends don't you?),
we are treated to lengthy, new FX sequences of the V'ger exterior, its
cloud dissipated, approaching Earth and going into orbit. We see the
whole object side-on. It was only vaguely suggested in the original
version with one quick FX shot.
My only quibble: a continuity issue that every Trek/Non Trek
person spotted was not corrected. Near the last shot of the film,
McCoy and Spock are wearing similar khaki colored Landing Party jackets
one with a thin green armband and the other with an orange one. In one
cut, they SWITCH colors! But, this could have been fixed with the same
digital technology the rest of the film was redone with.
One of the things Foundation Imaging had to do was to match the
"look" of the then-state-of-the-art 1979 FX. In other words it
had to look detailed but, not TOO detailed ala their recent work on TV's
Enterprise. It had to look like that rather soft, grainy lighting
that was used in much of the film. Rather than do what George Lucas did
in Star Wars:The Special Edition where he was quoted as saying he
wanted to "bring the film into the 90's"...Robert Wise
Productions chose wisely to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The
Director's Edition appear as if it was all done in the l970's
-"like a 70's film but a good 70's film" I think was the
quote.
Improvements were also made to the Audio portion of the film. Many of
the sounds of things were either changed or amplified. Gone, thankfully
is that awful droning "Alert" sound, and a much
nicer-on-the-pointed-ears one is in place. The Klingon bridge really
sounds like a Klingon bridge. And the classic "ping, ping"
sound of the old Enterprise bridge is back and lends a nicer connection
to Treks of past. Some lines were mercifully excised such as
Chekov saying all too obviously "Ve're out of it" when the
wormhole dissolves.
The audio commentary which is by a raspy Robert Wise (who sounds 100
years old!), Doug Trumbull, John Dykstra, Jerry Goldsmith and Stephen
Collins is worth the price of admission on this one. Lots of techie and
sometimes fun anecdotes. Wise remarks to Goldsmith that he "thanked
Jerry for a great score because there was simply no time to do any sound
editing on the film...the score had to carry the sound.." He also
revealed that (surprise, surprise) the script was being written as
scenes were about to go before camera!! Trumbull talks like the
techie genius he is...Dykstra is a little more informal with his
gosh-wow demeanor.
A
second disc includes a documentary, which is quite good, featuring many
of the cast and FX crew, the producer and the writer as well as rarely
seen "making of" FX footage AND even rarer test footage of the
abandoned Star Trek:Phase II TV series.
This footage reveals new sets and shows script tests of actors Persis
Khambatta (Ilia) and David Gattreaux as the Vulcan Xon (this part was
written out but Gattreaux did play Commander Branch in the movie)
in full make-up and costume (which looked just like the 60's uniforms at
this point, but slightly "sexier"). Very
very cool.
Composer Jerry Goldsmith provides the most humorous interview recounting
how he'd written "Ilia's Theme" and was so proud of it and
then he was asked, "Well what about the MAIN theme?" and back
he went to his piano in a huff. Also shown, to accompany this is a
previously unheard version of the "Main Theme" which, director
Wise rejected saying it reminded him too much of "Conestoga
wagons" and it does! He took a few notes out and we have the now
famous theme.
Another interview is with Jeffrey Katzenberg, who put 1100 miles on his
car in the three final weeks before ST:TMP was to debut making
sure the film was done. Also shown is the massive film-processing set
up, staged at a rented MGM soundstage. Processing several thousand
copies of the film day and night, all were specially delivered to
theaters, sometimes the same day the film was to debut. Katzenberg
called it an "incredible feat".
I was really amazed that Paramount kept all this cool stuff hidden away
for so long, almost no one has seen it, it's never been bootlegged. The
rest of the disc features all of the TV trailers (narrated by Orson
Welles!!!!) and two theatrical trailers, all of which sport 70's
graphics and disco-neonness to them...and if that doesn't make you feel
old....the shots of Gene Roddenberry in those weird 70's leisure suits
certainly will.
Take a new look at this film. I can even dare to call it a
"classic" now that it's over twenty years old. It always will
be the FIRST Star Trek theatrical film and pioneered both the
return of Trek to TV and the defunct series to the screen. That's
a lot for one film to accomplish.
|
