Star Trek: The Motion Picture
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Short description
A vast, destructive cloud of energy is moving through space toward Earth, annihilating everything in its path, including Klingon warships and a Starfleet monitoring station. The only vessel positioned to intercept it is the U.S.S. Enterprise, which has just undergone an extensive refit and is not yet fully operational. Starfleet places the mission in the hands of Admiral James T. Kirk, who takes command of the ship from its younger captain, Willard Decker, and reassembles his former crew, including Spock and Dr. McCoy. As the Enterprise closes on the object, the crew learns it calls itself V'ger and is searching for its creator, and the encounter raises questions about what lies at its center.
This first big-screen outing for the Star Trek characters was directed by Robert Wise, the thirteenth of the thirteen films he directed in chronological order, following Audrey Rose. Harold Livingston wrote the screenplay, with Gene Roddenberry among the producers. William Shatner leads the cast as Kirk, joined by Leonard Nimoy as Spock, DeForest Kelley as McCoy, and the returning Enterprise crew played by James Doohan, George Takei and Walter Koenig. Fifty-seven cast members and sixty-nine crew members are credited.
Made for about 35 million dollars, the film took roughly 82 million dollars worldwide, a return that made a sequel viable. Its ratings sit in the middle range: 6.4/10 on IMDb from around 102,000 votes and 6.5/10 on TMDB from a much smaller base, while the critics' rating of 6.2/10 from 59 reviews places professional and audience reactions close together.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's production utilized sets and models created for the canceled series.
- The voice of Majel Barrett, wife of Gene Roddenberry, who played Christine Chapel (as well as other characters, including Troi in the 1987 film "Star Trek: The Next Generation"), was also used to voice the Starfleet computers—specifically, the onboard computer of the starship Enterprise across the franchise from "Star Trek" (1966-1969) to the eleventh feature film "Star Trek" (2009). She voiced only a few lines, but her voice is easily recognizable.
- Nichelle Nichols wrote in her autobiography that she was one of those who objected to the new uniforms sewn for the film, reasonably believing that her character, Uhura, was too beautiful for the dreary "unisex" style.
- Following the resounding success of the television series "Star Trek", Paramount decided to release a full-length feature film based on the series. One plot was selected from several proposals (authored by well-known American science fiction writers), tentatively titled "Star Trek: Planet of the Titans" by Chris Bryant and Allan Scott. However, due to the immense popularity of the then-released film "Star Wars", the studio halted further work.
- The character of Lieutenant Uhura, played by Indian model and actress Persis Khambatta, was intended to also appear in the subsequent television series.
- The film was one of the first to feature composite shots created using the Vista Flex motion control system, which allowed for the combination of multiple objects and background elements filmed separately from each other in several exposures.
- According to "The Guinness Book of Records," "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979) was the most expensive film upon its release, costing $46 million to produce. With the 1980 release of "Superman II," the combined budget of the first two Superman films reached $109 million, as they were filmed simultaneously as a single unit. The producers later stated that the production of the first film (1978) cost $55 million and the second $54 million, meaning the title of "most expensive film" should belong to them.
- Paramount planned to create its own television channel with the subsequent filming and showing of a new series, "Star Trek: Phase II". For this series, Gene Roddenberry created the script "The Return of the Robot", which was later reworked by Alan Dean Foster and given the title "The Counterfeiters". This plot was to be turned into a two-hour pilot episode of the new series. In 1977, Paramount Pictures decided to cancel work on the new series, and the completed script was decided by the company's producer Michael Eisner to be used in creating a feature film. However, preparations for creating the series continued until 1978.
- To create the theme for V-Ger, composer Jerry Goldsmith used an experimental string instrument called the blaster-beam, invented in the 1970s.
- The prop object "V-Ger" turned out to be so large that work on assembling some of its parts continued even during the filming of other parts.
- Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, refused to appear in the upcoming series, and his character's place in the script was taken by the character of Zorn (actor David Gautreau). Upon learning that a film would be shot instead of a series, Nimoy agreed to participate in it. Thus, at the last moment, Spock returned to the script, and actor David Gautreau played the role of Commander Branch.
- The costumes of some alien races at Starfleet Headquarters were made from unused rolls of fabric left over from the filming of Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (1956).
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