In "Star Trek The Motion Picture" Old Friends Returned

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 210 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Running time: 132 minutes (2 hours, 12 minutes)
MPAA – PG for sci-fi action and mild language
DIRECTOR: Robert Wise
WRITER: Harold Livingston; from a story by Alan Dean Foster (based on the TV series created by Gene Roddenberry)
PRODUCER: Gene Roddenberry
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Richard H. Kline
EDITOR: Todd Ramsay

SCI-FI/ADVENTURE with elements of drama

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Majel Barrett, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Persis Khambatta, and Stephen Collins

The original cast of the 1960’s sci-fi television series, “Star Trek,” reunites aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise with Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), now admiral, back in the big chair. Their mission is to intercept a giant alien ship steadily approaching Earth and destroying everything in its path. Kirk must also square off with the man who was the Enterprise’s new captain, Commander Decker (Stephen Collins), until Kirk displaced Decker and made him his assistant.

In 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture blasted onto movie screens, much to the delight of Trekkies/Trekkers (Star Trek fanatics) and TV viewers who made the original series, which ran on broadcast TV from 1966-69, a smash hit in syndication during the 1970s.

While not the best of the Star Trek films featuring the cast of the original series, it’s joyous simply because the film marked the return of the original cast. The film has many good moments, some of them awe-inspiring and others deeply emotional (such as the scene in which Kirk sees the Enterprise in dock for the first time in over two years). While at times, it comes across as a Star Trek riff on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: The Motion Picture hits all the right notes for those of us who are not fanatics, but who have a soft spot for the original Star Trek – warts and all.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1980 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Harold Michelson, Joseph R. Jennings, Leon Harris, John Vallone, and Linda DeScenna), “Best Effects, Visual Effects” (Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Richard Yuricich, Robert Swarthe, David K. Stewart, and Grant McCune), and “Best Music, Original Score” (Jerry Goldsmith)

1980 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Jerry Goldsmith)

Tuesday, October 10, 2006