Sorry, First Contact is my least favorite Trek film. Although I can't rank Nemesis since I don't think I made it all the way through that remake of Trek 2.

can I have some of what you are smoking? please?

The even numbered movies of the series seems to me the best (2,4,6)

Wow, that's really quite observant. I wish I'd thought of that.

First Contact is better than Nemesis. Does that help?

Getting poked in the eye with a stick is better than Nemesis too. Quite similar experiences actually.....

My "Silver Bells" comment was in reference to the Voyage Home score which manages, with it's happy jangling bells, to sound like more like a Christmas musicbox theme than a film score of any kind.

As for preferring #6 over #2, it's probably the Shakespeare-wankery they threw in, I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Khan never held up as well for me on re-watches. I like action well enough, but it's sure not my favorite thing about scifi. And treating Kirk like a genius for being able to "think in 3 dimensions" during a space battle made me roll my eyes even on the first viewing.

I just watched Star Trek: TMP again and it not that bad of a flick. It does seem a bit drawn out in parts but it is a more visual movie than the other Star Trek films. I do not understand why destroying the asteroid got the Enterprise out of the wormhole though.


I noticed this for the first time -- Persis Khambatta's 'lil lip curl after she heals Chekov.

I liked TMP. It's really the only Trek movie that tries to take the Sci-Fi stuff seriously. After that, all the rest were basically action/adventure movies in space. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I enjoy TMP for being different.

Finally sat down for the first viewing of The Motion Picture.

I'm about 1:33 into the film. Ilia's own personality is peaking through the probe's facade, and Spock has just left the ship in a spacesuit. I'm not bored by this one bit. I like this film so far. A bit stuffy, but it's not as dull as it's made out to be. That Enterprise visual/music montage was nice, but would never see the light of day in a current film. Just can't get away with that kind of thing anymore. A shame.

that sounds about right. I liked 4 more than 2.

Thats great Nick, glad you're enjoying it.

With nine action-oriented Trek films, people tend to be a lot more charitable towards TMP than they used to be. I remember back in '80-81, fans were hatin' life.

The wormhole was caused by an energy imbalance in the warp engines, detonating a torpedo "added" more energy to the mix and threw it off it's rhythm.

This and the comments about her "oath of celibacy" are apparently leftover lines from where they explained that Ilia's species are incredibly evolved sexually. Basically, having sex with a Deltan would drive any other mortal insane. When she absorbs Chekov's pain, she's giving herself a bit of the ol' wink-wink nudge-nudge.

*gasp* in a G-rated film? Won't someone think of the 1979 children?!

I just actually re-read the novel a few weeks ago, it's fairly sexual, and doesn't leave any doubt as to whether or not Roddenberry wrote at least a major portion of it.

Rock on, man. Glad you're digging it. I never got the complaints. Check that - I sort of understood them, but after the Director's cut, I can't help but shake my head at them. The set design/Costuming... sure, nowhere near the awesome militaristic take that Meyer brought to the franchise, but the 60s show looks just as ridiculous. To be fair, it took me a while to be able to take all of the show's dated camp with a grain of salt, too, but TMP's look just never bothered me that much.

As for the major complaints (too slow, too ponderous)... I frankly miss that - as a whole - we never take our time with movies anymore. As you pointed out, the Enterprise docking scene would never happen in a modern movie, and that's just sad, as I think that scene is brilliant. The music builds so perfectly, the movement is graceful and poetic... this was FOR the fans.,.. giving you the most loving re-introduction to the Enterprise that you could possibly ask for! Not to mention it fits thematically, as the whole thrust of Kirk's arch in the first movie is his desire to get her back, since she is the one true love of his life.

Not to mention the super-cool, Bradbury-come-Asimov V'ger reveal which, as a kid, made the still-downy-geek-hairs on the back of my neck go woo-woo. (made all the more awesome by the Borg thing, which I had never heard!)

I certainly think that WoK and Undiscovered Country are the best of the series, and truth be told, I prefer the sort of "explorers by day, naval officers by night" direction that they took with Starfleet from STII on (taken to the extreme with DS9, a show that would make Gene roll in his orbit, but which is the perfect Trek tone for me)... but I do have a nice soft spot for this flick, and while it doesn't get frequent rotation in the DVD player, it definitely is a nice trip that receives my full attention when it does.


-Doc

I guess the Enterprise had to have something to blow up, i.e. the asteroid, for a spectacular finish to this "plot complication."

Watching Persis' portrayal of Lt. Ilea I got more of a sense of childlike wonder than something sexual -- although I can see how it could easily go that way. Even when she portrayed Ilea the Probe she had moments where she tried to emotionally emerge from her machine side with her forlorn glances to Decker. The role certainly was not played like Famke Janssen's character Kamala on Star Trek: TNG.I think I watched this movie on cable but this stuff surely went over my head since I was eight-years-old. I do recall being in a large department store at the time and thinking of the Enterprise being 1:64 scale and relating it to the department store space which I mentally substituted for the immense V'ger cloud. Ah childlike wonder.

I always wondered with the TOS movies had against phasers. TWoK is the only one in which the fire the bloody things.



-Doc

[nerdhat]
As I mentioned, I just re-read the novelization recently, so this is all fresh in my head.

During the refit/upgrade, phaser power was routed through the warp engines for, basically, more power. The novel explains that both Kirk and Decker were aware of this change, and had been lobbying the Starfleet engineers to change this before launch, (though Kirk and Decker weren't aware that each other was aware of this problem). Part of the purpose of the scene is to have Decker correct something that Kirk had forgotten about, to make Kirk realize that he was a little rusty.

The novel ends the scene with Decker showing Kirk a diagram that he's about 80% done with that will fix the issue permanently. Kirk finally starts to "get" Decker a little better and tells him to enlist Scotty's help with fixing it.

[/nerdhat]

When it was over, I found it far better than I expected. I'd gladly watch it again soon. It's quite different kind of film. Can't explain it exactly, just a feeling I guess, but a good one.

I had no idea that Wrath Of Khan re-used the same scenes for its launch sequence, and while Goldsmith's interpretation of the sequence is completely different to Horner's interpretation, neither one is better than the other, and both are perfect for their respective films.
(this coming from about the biggest Horner fan in the known universe, just letting you know where my bias is)

I watched the extras before watching the film (except the deleted scenes of course) and I was surprised because I assumed that all the effects were re-done, and instead it was only a few. I'll be listening to that downloaded mp3 commentary done by the restoration team sometime down the line.

Awesome! Glad to hear it!



Oh, I wasn't trying to knock Horner at all! (In fact, I forgot they reused those shots). Both are awesome, but the tone is totally different. Goldsmith gives as a romantic theme, full of nostalgia and pride as Kirk is slowly inspecting the Enterprise.

Horner's is a brilliant ramp up, a great, "Let's get this wagon trail moving", "NASA countdown" sort of tempo that sets up not just the training mission they think they're going on, but the epic movie as a whole.

Both work, II just simply resused some stock shots and cut them differently. It wasn't a reflection at all on the respective composers.


-Doc

I never assumed you were knocking anyone, don't worry. I just had to mention that despite my overall leanings, favoring Horner's music in general, that both interpretations of that sequence I find to be equally great, not favoring one over the other.

I don't believe my ears!

The music in the end of that trailer is clearly where THX got their "deep note" sound from!

It's the same thing, only in a different key, and of course, THX came years later.

Star Trek 6 is nowhere near as good as TMP.