Review #263: 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' (1979)

I have decided that I wanted to tackle an entire franchise of films. When posing this idea to Tom, he immediately stated that I should see all of the Star Trek films. Eek, I thought!! Not ever being a fan of it, I had only been exposed to the original series that was shown constantly on BBC Two as I was growing up, and the later series The Next Generation, that I had seen a few episodes of from the late '80's, and I was never enamored by it - I am certainly no 'Trekkie'. My only experience of the films was the very recent J. J. Abrams 'reboot', that I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. With trepidation, I began the series, inevitably, from the very start. And I have to confess I was pleasantly surprised with it, despite it being an odd number film (if you are unaware, the fan world suggests that only the even numbered Star Trek films are any good).

The main crux of the story focuses on an unidentified phenomenon that is heading towards Earth, destroying everything in it's path. This brings back together the original crew of the Starship Enterprise: Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Bones (DeForest Kelly), Scotty (James Doohan), et al. Their task is to stop the strange enemy. The villian of the piece is certainly an interesting one. A more cerebral monster, in a state of existential crisis, the team have quite a task to penetrate it's unknown dangers.

Aside from the awfulness of Shatner - he genuinely can't act - the characters are interesting, and with Kirk's usurping of the Enterprises captain at the start seems to create an interesting duality. This is quickly thrown to the side. There is an interesting and theoretically disturbing scene at the start of the film, we see the teleportation units that 'beam up' crew members go horribly wrong. The result - whilst not seen - is horrifying, as the fundamentals of teleportation require that the body is broken into it's most basic molecules and reconstructed in a different place. This transaction was never completed, and therefore the bodies of the travelers, are never fully restructured.

With some science consultancy from the great sci-fi writer, Isaac Asimov, the film surely had some credentials. The special effects were overseen by Douglas Trumball and John Dykstra, and the results are often astounding, even today. Whilst not capturing the fun and excitement of Star Wars (1977), this more cerebral, esoteric space adventure, offers a more 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) stance on space than the Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers elements of Star Wars. It's not a great film, but I was absolutely amazed that it was actually good. However, at an exhausting 132 minutes, the film could have been tighter with a few trims here and there. It would have benefited with a 100 minute running time.

Directed by: Robert Wise
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy