STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE Director’s Edition Retrospect

Introduction

The road to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) was a bumpy and curvy ride and in the end did not quite satisfy the fans of the original television series. The original idea to take Star Trek to the big screen began in 1976 with a film titled Planet Of The Titans. Paramount’s then-president Barry Diller did not like the direction of the story. He approached Gene Roddenberry to come up with a concept for a new Star Trek series.

On June 10, 1977, Paramount Studios announced that they would be creating a new television network. It would show Paramount television films and a new Star Trek series. Star Trek: Phase II was to be a new five-year mission for the crew of the Enterprise. The new series would have most of the original cast from the 1966 show.

Subsequently, Roddenberry hired producer Robert Goodwin and writer Harold Livingston. Art Director Matt Jeffries was asked to come aboard as his work was so instrumental in the original series. Still, Jeffries was hesitant to leave his position at Little House On The Prairie and only became a technical advisor.

Jeffries instead recommended his friend Joe Jennings to take on the role of the art director. Other Star Trek alums included costume designer William Ware Theiss and art department Mike Minor. Director Robert Collins (Police Story) was hired to direct the pilot. The first season was to consist of thirteen episodes.

The Cast

Getting the band back together would not be an easy task. William Shatner demanded a lot more money to reprise his role as Captain Kirk. Further, Leonard Nimoy flat out refused to return as Spock as he was in a legal battle with Paramount. This was due to unpaid royalties for the use of his image by advertisers. Without Spock and probably losing Kirk, new leads were needed.

Eventually, the producers figured that they would not be able to afford Shatner for any further episodes. Also, to replace Spock, David Gautreaux was cast as fellow Vulcan Xon. Commander Willard Decker was to be played by Stephan Collins. Persis Khambatta was also added to the crew as Lieutenant Ilia.

Various science-fiction writers had been recruited for the show. Arthur Heinemann had pitched the idea of “In Thy Image” with Alan Dean Foster writing the scriptment. Goodwin held a pitch meeting with Paramount executives Michael Eisner, Arthur Fellows, and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Eisner loved the idea stating:

“We’ve been looking for the feature for five years and this is it”

The Movie

Star Trek: Phase II was scrapped in 1977 due in part to the Paramount network collapse as well as the incredible success of Star Wars (1977). The teleplay for the two-hour premiere episode “In Thy Image” along with some of the previously built sets was to be used for the film. There was, however, one problem, as this would require new contracts with the cast and crew, no one in the meeting was allowed to discuss the movie. For five months, the people working on Star Trek: Phase II were not aware that the project was dead.

Due to the wild popularity of Star Wars, Roddenberry wanted to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture different, to avoid it being called a clone. It was not to be taken in the vein of pulpy science fiction, with a no-space battle mandate. The model they chose to use was 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Robert Wise (West Side Story) was convinced to direct the film by his wife Millicent, who was a big fan of the show.

The visual effects company, Robert Abel & Associates (later known as ASTRA), was not able to produce the needed VFX in time, requiring the production team to hire additional talent. Douglas Trumbull was brought aboard and he re-assembled his Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) team and also enlisted the help of John Dykstra’s Apogee Productions.

Dykstra, known for his motion-control camera work on Star Wars, tackled several sequences requiring miniatures. This included the Klingon K’t’inga-class warships seen at the opening of the film, the Epsilon IX station, and the Enterprise’s approach toward the V’Ger. Trumbull’s company, EEG, delivered shots, such as views of the Enterprise and the interiors of V’Ger.

December 7, 1979, was the confirmed date for the release of the film. Due to the delays with the script and VFX, the completed cut of the film was completed on December 6, 1979. There was no test screening for the movie, and Wise was unhappy with the cut. Several VFX scenes were not complete nor was the sound mix. It would be 20 years before Wise could complete the film. United Paramount Network would become a reality in January 1995 and launched its first telecast Star Trek: Voyager.

The Director’s Edition

First released on DVD and widescreen VHS in November 2001, Star Trek: The Motion Picture the Director’s Edition was supervised by Robert Wise and unlike the previous network television and home video release, several scenes have been upgraded with new CGI visual effects and a new. sound mix. With Foundation Imaging, (Babylon 5), a new CGI model of V’Ger was created, along with some additional shots of the Enterprise. Some of the film pacing issues were also corrected as some scenes were either removed or replaced with unused footage. 

The Director’s Edition clocked in at 136 minutes, four minutes longer than the theatrical release, and trimmed seven minutes off of the extended home video version. Despite the 1979 release being a showcase for the improved VFX over the 1966 television series, there were some glaring issues with the finished product. This edition set out to fix them.

The Director’s Edition came with three documentaries, original trailers, and commercials. It also featured additional and deleted scenes from the Theatrical and TV Versions. A group commentary audio track with Wise, Trumbull, Dykstra, and Collins rounds out the special features.

The 4K Project

The new CGI shots used in 2001 for the Director’s Edition were not shot in HD. When the Star Trek films were released on Blu-ray in 2009, the theatrical edition was used. To produce a 1080/2160 cut, the film would require another remastering.

Foundation Imaging had gone bankrupt in 2002 and all assets had been auctioned off. This included their work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek: Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. Paramount was not willing to spend more on reproducing the VFX shots from scratch for an HD release. In 2013, Robert Bonchune, a former employee of Foundation Imaging announced:

“If they ask one of us – and if they use a team that uses LightWave – it’ll be much easier for them to redo…because the guys who worked on it, like me, have the assets. We have the original ships; we have most of everything that was used. That would eliminate a ton of the cost of rebuilding.”

In 2017, David C. Fein a producer of the Director’s edition noted:

“Most of the issues revolve around redoing the new visual effects for the director’s cut–they were rendered in SD not HD and it would be fairly expensive to do from scratch. All of the shots in the film were created with HD in mind so the quality of the models and elements were much higher than the SD renderings. We have everything, and when the time is right, we’ll use them.”

From startrek.com:

“In 2001, director Robert Wise revisited the film to refine the edit and enhance the visual effects.  His updated vision was released on DVD in standard definition and embraced by fans but has never been available in higher definition until now.  Meticulously assembled and restored by producer David C. Fein with preservationist Mike Matessino, both of whom originally collaborated with Wise, the film has been prepared for presentation in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision™ high dynamic range (HDR) and a new powerful and immersive Dolby Atmos® soundtrack. Fein and Matessino assembled a team of special effects experts, led by returning visual effects supervisor Daren Dochterman, and utilized the extensive resources in the Paramount Archives to recreate the effects not just in HD, but in Ultra HD.  After more than six months of painstaking work, the updated movie looks and sounds better than ever while staying true to Wise’s original intention.”

Paramount+ premiered the new 4K cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on April 5, 2022, in celebration of First Contact Day. Fathom Events presented a limited release of the film on the big screen May 22-25, 2022. The 4K UHD Blu-ray was of the film released in September 2022 and has a 7.1 Dolby Atmos mix.

Conclusion

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was not a rehash of the original television show. At the time of production, it was one of the most expensive films ever made. Despite making $82 million on a $35 million production (rumors claim to be more than $40), it underperformed. Roddenberry wanted a new take on his concept; Paramount wanted Star Wars box-office numbers.

Roddenberry’s battles with Paramount, in the end, led to his removal from further Star Trek films. The Star Trek creator essentially had become a figurehead but had no real input on the remaining Star Trek films, until he died in 1991.

The Directors Edition corrected some pacing issues and made V’Ger more than a murky object in a cloud. Those who liked the 2001 release will enjoy this update with the high-resolution updates. For those who did not care for this film in the first place, this may be an opportunity to see it for the first time on a big screen and see it as Wise had intended. 

It is the best-looking Star Trek film with the original cast. It ushered in a new life for Star Trek, spawning twelve films and ten other series. The Oscar-nominated score lived on with Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Klingon designs and language are still being used. For that, it will forever have an important role in the history of Star Trek.

More from Cinema Scholars:

The Making Of Star Trek (Click Here)

Babylon 5: A Retrospective (Click Here)

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