'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'

(viewed April 22-24)

 Enterprise emerges from the V'Ger cloud

• I am, of course, viewing the director's edition of this movie.
• I love the opening of this film, including the ~3 minute musical prelude at the beginning before the credits even roll.  And then we get our first ears on what would become the most recognizable Star Trek fanfare of all time (in my opinion).  Trekkies of my generation would come to know it as the TNG theme, but this was its coronation.
• And the Klingons!  They get a much-deserved upgrade in TMP:  Newly-redesigned K't'inga class battlcruisers, and our first glimpses of both the new Klingon makeup (ridged foreheads, ahoy!) and the Klingon language.
• In what is quite possibly the most-recognized fly-by sequence in cinema history, we get our first look at the refit Constitution class--the Enterprise in drydock.  Even people who don't care for TMP generally regard this scene as spectacular.  If you're a turbo-nerd like myself, you may be interested in the both the production and in-universe details of the refit.  As with most things, Ex Astris Scientia has this covered--"The Enterprise Refit of 2271".
• "Ensign, the possibilities of us returning from this mission in one piece may have just doubled."
• After being booted off TOS, Janice Rand makes her reappearance as the transporter operator.
• In the original theatrical release, the Epsilon IX communications officer says that the V'Ger cloud measures "82 AUs" in diameter, or 7,622,376,196.386 miles.  In the director's edition, this is edited to a much more realistic "2 AUs".
• For some fans, one of the most jarring aspects of TMP is that we don't have all of the original crew in place at the beginning of the film.  Our three "main heroes"--Kirk, McCoy and Spock--begin the movie not even assigned to the Enterprise.  Kirk's single-minded determination to take back the ship and go meet the V'Ger threat brings the other two into it, but they both need convincing in their own way--McCoy is convinced by Kirk's appeal to their friendship, and Spock initially joins the mission for his own reasons.  But Kirk repeatedly states that he "needs" both of them.  I think this was a clever way to rekindle the relationship between the three men, which would play such an important role over the next five TOS-era films (even if they didn't know at the time that they'd be making those films).
• All of the spacecraft sequences in this movie are done brilliantly and very deliberately.  It's clear that this is a post-2001, post-Star Wars film, with a focus on realism.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the previously-mentioned "reveal" of the new Enterprise, and in the arrival of Spock's warp shuttle (a sequence I always really liked as a kid...I think I had that Micro Machine).
• Spock's arrival is a nice turning point in the film.  The mission and the crew clearly become more focused when they're all together, although Spock's demeanor at first is very alien (what with spending the last several months/years trying to purge all remaining emotion from his personality).  The movie can almost be divided into pre- and post-Spock.
• The initially entry into the V'Ger cloud reminds me of the final sequence on Spaceship Earth.
• Speaking of which, the director's edition of this movie (or at least the one I'm watching; there may have been multiple "director's editions") features not only restored scenes and little fixes (like "82 AUs" becoming "2 AUs"), but also some new CGI to give more body and variety to the V'Ger cloud, and to V'Ger itself.  It's done very well and blends in very nicely with the original footage.  There was also a CGI version of the Enterprise created to add to these shots, which--to my eyes at least--blends seemlessly with the original motion-controlled footage of the physical model.  I think this speaks to the really great and careful work by both the original and "remaster" effects teams.
• I always found the Ilia probe to be unbearably creepy when I was a kid.
• On the other hand, I always loved the thruster suit sequence with Spock.  It was always a scary and exciting part of the movie, all at once.  And again, we see amazing visual effects representing the interior of the V'Ger cloud (or, more accurately, representations of its origin and travels).
• Don't try to mind-meld with things bigger than a school bus.  Good general rule.
• "Spock, this 'child' is about to wipe out every living thing on Earth.  Now what do you suggest we do?  Spank it?"
• "As I was when I came aboard, so is V'Ger now.  Empty, incomplete...searching."  This line from Spock is the punctuation on the rekindling of his relationship with Kirk and McCoy (and the rest of the crew); his re-integration with his human crewmates.
• In real life, of course, there were only two Voyager probes.  The first of these is the farthest man-made object from Earth, and NASA likes to tell us that it's left the solar system every so often ;)
• "And a lot of foolish human emotions, right Mr. Spock?"
  "Quite right, Doctor. Unfortunately, it will have to deal with them as well."
  Spock and McCoy giving each other a hard time again?  All is right in the Star Trek universe.
• "Heading, sir?"
  "Out there...thatta way!"

Summary:   

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a divisive film among casual Trek fans and even among some Trekkies.  I've always liked TMP, although I acknowledge its dramatic differences from almost all of the other films in the franchise.  I think the key difference--and I've mentioned this elsewhere before--is that a lot of Trek falls into the "space adventure" category (which is considered by some people, me included, to be a sub-category of science fiction rather than a separate genre).  But TMP is one of those times where Trek transcends that genre and truly becomes something resembling a hard sci-fi story (the original story by Alan Dean Foster helps bolster its "real" sci-fi credentials).

The director's edition definitely helps with the pacing, though.  The original theatrical release felt stilted in some places and drawn-out in others.

Note:  You might note that I watched this movie over the course of a couple of days.  This should absolutely not be taken as an indication of how much I like the movie.  As I mentioned, I really enjoy TMP.  But whereas I can watch many of the other films at any time, I need to be in the mood to be awed to watch TMP (like 2001: A Space Odyssey).  That's not a mood I'm in very often after I've come home from work.  So I did watch the movie in chunks, but I enjoyed every minute of it.