So I just watched ST:TMP Director's Edition

[Vympel]

TMP is one of those movies that I just keep forgetting- not the plot, I remember that very well, but when I was a kid, bizarrely, this was a movie I watched often, simply because for a while it was the only Star Trek movie I had on tape, and for all its flaws it dose have things that I found cool as a child, and some of which still hold up well today, e.g.

1. The opening Klingon cruiser sequence. Easily the best Klingon bridge ever.
2. The wormhole/asteroid sequence.
3. Spock in the thruster suit sequence.
4. The general perversity of ST:TMP looking better than STV:TFF (:lol:)
5. As always good interaction between Kirk, Spock and McCoy
6. The models are all great.

But as you can probably imagine, I fast forwarded. A lot. I mean, if there's any movie that deserves a shitload of fast-forward, it's this one.

That said, after watching the Director's Edition, did anyone else notice that in certain bridge shots, the left side of the background seemed blurry and washed out? I don't remember this in the original, but I really noticed it on DVD.

That said- what the heck were they thinking with those uniforms? I mean, really, did it ever occur to them how ridiculous they looked, even when the physique of the actors in this film was in general quite good? Can you imagine if they retained these absurd outfits as the actors' put on weight? Hell, even looking healthy, you could see some of the male actors schlongs poking out of their pants (Decker from 7th Heaven, I'm looking a at you).

We all know ST:TMP was meant to be a lead-in to a "phase II" Star Trek series- and it just goes to show that just like in TNG, they didn't think for a second about the problem of actors starting to go pudgy as they get older. Imagine how ridiculous Scotty would look in those outfits later. We all know that's why the little spandex-esque outfits of the original TNG didn't last long.

To move into costuming in a more general term- "Probe Ilia" ... where did she get those pornstar/stripper high heels from?

Oh yeah, back to the forgetting, I digressed: there's something about TMP when I don't watch it for like, 3 years, and then I watch it again, and I've forgotten the intense boredom of the long sequences of just shots of "the cloud" and the actors all staring dumbfounded, wordlessly. Just lousy directing.

[apocolypse]

Hell, even looking healthy, you could see some of the male actors schlongs poking out of their pants (Decker from 7th Heaven, I'm looking a at you).

Sounds more like he's looking at you.


And yeah, TMP had some interesting bits about it, but many parts were rather needlessly drawn-out.

[Montcalm]

That said- what the heck were they thinking with those uniforms? I mean, really, did it ever occur to them how ridiculous they looked, even when the physique of the actors in this film was in general quite good? Can you imagine if they retained these absurd outfits as the actors' put on weight? Hell, even looking healthy, you could see some of the male actors schlongs poking out of their pants (Decker from 7th Heaven, I'm looking a at you).

Sci-fi always or for most followed the fashion of the decades where X movie was made,all i can say its *It was the 70s*

I guess you were bored enough to look at an actors schlong poking out of the suit.

related to this i noticed in one of ST Enterprise episode after rubbing this gel on T'Pol Trip had a stiff dick

[Bounty]

That said, after watching the Director's Edition, did anyone else notice that in certain bridge shots, the left side of the background seemed blurry and washed out? I don't remember this in the original, but I really noticed it on DVD.

It's a side-effect of the camera system they used for the bridge shots. It's exlained in Okuda's text commentary (somehting about a system they set up where you can focus on two actor's faces at once, but the backgound gets blurred out)

That said- what the heck were they thinking with those uniforms?

I think Kirk's uniform was allright. Maybe because it was a more sensible pants/shirt combination.

We all know ST:TMP was meant to be a lead-in to a "phase II" Star Trek series

No. Phase II was supposed to launch as a TV series, but was aborted in favor of a movie series after the succes of Star Wars. They simply reused the concept art, characters and plotlines in TMP and early TNG.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

That said, after watching the Director's Edition, did anyone else notice that in certain bridge shots, the left side of the background seemed blurry and washed out? I don't remember this in the original, but I really noticed it on DVD.

It's a side-effect of the camera system they used for the bridge shots. It's exlained in Okuda's text commentary (somehting about a system they set up where you can focus on two actor's faces at once, but the backgound gets blurred out)

Specifically I think that would have to do with the depth of field for whatever particular lens they used for those shots.

[Spacebeard]

Yeah, ST TMP was based on the script that was supposed to be the pilot for phase II, if I recall correctly. When you stretch the script for a forty minute television show into a two hour movie (and when you're trying to rip off 2001 and wow the audience with your expensive special effects), you end up with the masterpiece we all know as Star Trek: The Non-Motion Picture.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

For the record, the premier episode for Phase II was going to be a two-hour (ninety minute) TV movie.

[SirNitram]

For the record, the premier episode for Phase II was going to be a two-hour (ninety minute) TV movie.

I don't usually nitpick, but that's a funny definition of 'two hours'. Which was it?

[VT-16]

I like TMP. Sure, it´s long-winded in places, but I like it as a laid-back way to kill some time. Fleshing out more of the Federation was a welcomed treat (the Earth of "today" rather than another time-travel episode, the Comm array, the references to dreadnoughts and scoutships, the Vulcan shuttle, the drydock, seeing the logistics behind everything). And V´Ger was a cool machine/villain, certainly the most visually spectacular in all the movies.

As a whole, it tried to aim high and became pseudo-cerebral (though someone might have confused that with "draw scenes out indefinitely").

[Spanky The Dolphin]

For the record, the premier episode for Phase II was going to be a two-hour (ninety minute) TV movie.

I don't usually nitpick, but that's a funny definition of 'two hours'. Which was it?

Two hours total broadcast time, ninety minutes actual programme content. Although if I recall correctly, it might have also at times been planned as a two-part miniseries.

[Skylon]

I think it would have been a better bet if TMP just stuck with the uniforms from TOS. Christ, they would have looked better than the pajamas from the movie.

Agreed on the Klingon Battlecruiser bridge. Simply beautiful. I also always liked engineering with the plexiglass floors on the upper-levels and the eerie glow in the warp-core. I hated most of the tweeks TNG did to the basic set design.

The Director's Edition I found still has the same general weaknesses of the original release, but thanks to the added sound effects (and trust me, the original release was lacking in this department) and improved visual effects simply has a litle more life in it and make it an okay, but far from great little sci-fi film.

[Nephtys]

I think it would have been a better bet if TMP just stuck with the uniforms from TOS. Christ, they would have looked better than the pajamas from the movie.

Agreed on the Klingon Battlecruiser bridge. Simply beautiful. I also always liked engineering with the plexiglass floors on the upper-levels and the eerie glow in the warp-core. I hated most of the tweeks TNG did to the basic set design.

Agreed on Space Pajamas. I remembered that I liked the later movies 'red navy' uniforms though. They actually looked half-respectable.

But oh.. for TNG... simple. My explaination: The UFP made beige their official color. That has to be it.

[Stark]

I can't take TMP seriously since the Kiwi Dave experience: he kept leaving to have a smoke, buy some food, go to the servo etc, and whenever he came back, he'd cry 'they're STILL looking at that fucking blue thing??' and we'd tell him that nothing happened except McCoy came on the bridge, looked around, left. Some people said 'whoa'. ('Chekov got three whoas to one whoa of Kirk! SUBTEXT!') It very much needs to be edited.

[Vympel]

Yeah I forgot about McCoy's pointless, wordless visits to the bridge where he'd just stand around and then leave.

What reference to dreadnoughts is there in TMP anyway?

[Oberleutnant]

TPM is perhaps the most epic of all Trek movies. Others, especially those with the TNG crew, feel like extended episodes (Insurrection...). Somewhere, people have blamed the director, Robert Wise, but I don't think its his fault that the movie ended up so "motionless". Wise knew how to direct tense scenes; the opening sequence with Klingons is well-thought out and nicely executed. It builds up rather well, and even up until the point Enterprise meets with V'Ger, the movie is ok. After that -- closeups of actors gazing awe-struck at special effects, which look like an LSD trip gone wrong.

If only the movie had been about Klingons vs Federation, or even better, Romulans.

Meh.

[Dennis Toy]

TPM is perhaps the most epic of all Trek movies. Others, especially those with the TNG crew, feel like extended episodes (Insurrection...). Somewhere, people have blamed the director, Robert Wise, but I don't think its his fault that the movie ended up so "motionless". Wise knew how to direct tense scenes; the opening sequence with Klingons is well-thought out and nicely executed. It builds up rather well, and even up until the point Enterprise meets with V'Ger, the movie is ok. After that -- closeups of actors gazing awe-struck at special effects, which look like an LSD trip gone wrong.

If only the movie had been about Klingons vs Federation, or even better, Romulans.

Meh.

i think the movie should have been shortened by 1 hour.

[Kuja]

For the record, the premier episode for Phase II was going to be a two-hour (ninety minute) TV movie.

I don't usually nitpick, but that's a funny definition of 'two hours'. Which was it?

They're called 'commercials', Nitram.

[SirNitram]

For the record, the premier episode for Phase II was going to be a two-hour (ninety minute) TV movie.

I don't usually nitpick, but that's a funny definition of 'two hours'. Which was it?

They're called 'commercials', Nitram.

Surely a communist plot to get at my precious vital fluids!

[VT-16]

What reference to dreadnoughts is there in TMP anyway?

The Entente, Revere and Columbia were mentioned in radio chatter during the Epsilon IX-sequence. The names were taken from the Star Fleet Technical Manual (which was at the time considered 'canon' by the producers), and refers to a Federation-class Dreadnought and two Hermes-class Scouts.

[Uraniun235]

What reference to dreadnoughts is there in TMP anyway?

The Entente, Revere and Columbia were mentioned in radio chatter during the Epsilon IX-sequence. The names were taken from the Star Fleet Technical Manual (which was at the time considered 'canon' by the producers), and refers to a Federation-class Dreadnought and two Hermes-class Scouts.

Where did you hear this?

[VT-16]

Got it off the Memory Alpha Wikipedia. Found it under 'references' in TMP. There´s also diagrams of a Saladin destroyer, Hermes scout and Ptolemy transport in TWOK. Fun to see those TOS-style ships on-screen, even if they´re just on a computer.

[Frank Hipper]

I love TMP because it's a SFX wankfest. The V'ger flyover, the Enterprise flyover, and most especially the Klingon battle; all superior eye candy.

Yeah, as cinema it's dull and un-engaging, sometimes VERY poorly edited as well, but that never bothered me. It's just too fun to look at.

[Tsyroc]

One thin I always like about ST:TMP is that it really felt like a movie. A lot of this is because of the sets on the Enterprise. They just looked better and more realistic than some of the stuff that came later. Plus I just love the scale they give the ship. Look at the size of the Rec Deck. They don't even have a room that big on the Ent-D when TNG comes out.


The movie also has a more old fashioned version of the universal translator so it doesn't always appear like everyone is speaking English.


It's still a long boring ass movie but is sure starts off great. The Klingon sequence still has the best looking Klingon ships to date. How can you not like scorch marks around the edges of a main weapon? Plus, putting a weapons port on the aft end of the ship that is in line with the one on the bow seems to provide an additional reason for why Klingon ships had that long thin neck on them.

[Chmee]

The opening was great, but the script forces me to always remember it as 'Star Trek, the Motionless Picture' .....

[Frank Hipper]

It's still a long boring ass movie but is sure starts off great. The Klingon sequence still has the best looking Klingon ships to date. How can you not like scorch marks around the edges of a main weapon? Plus, putting a weapons port on the aft end of the ship that is in line with the one on the bow seems to provide an additional reason for why Klingon ships had that long thin neck on them.

I'm of the opinion that since Klingon ships don't fall to pieces while manouvering, that the boom on the D7 family is the main structural member.

Perhaps some sort of hollow, geodesic, tapering tube with the wings of the main hull grafted onto that, running from the vicinity of the extreme stern all the way forward into the command pod.