THE PROBLEMS WITH STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE

1. The klingons look like the gorillas from Planet of the apes.

Since this basic look became the standard for the Klingons' appearance for the next thirty years of "Trek" I believe most would disagree that this is a problem. There were only minor refinements between "TMP" and "Search for Spock."

2. The hippie Spock on Vulcan 3.

Care to elaborate? Why is his unkempt appearance a problem?

3. The movie is VERY slow and ponderous at times.

The film's pace is not a new criticism. Hard to argue against it.

4. The story is way too padded.

What does this even mean? Define "padded" in the context of a "Trek" story. If anything, the story is very simple and simply presented.

5. The characters are just muted, one dimensional versions of themselves.

Which characters? All of them, just a few of them? The main characters had been apart from one another for some time and all had undergone changes. It took them a good while during the film to warm up to one another again.

6. The super computer Vger is supposed to be this all powerful, galaxy consuming machine and yet it is unable to remove a smudge of dirt to see it's own name!

This is another old criticism. Again, hard to argue against the logic that a race of living machines advanced enough to design and build the craft to carry Voyager back to Earth would probably have been a bit more thorough in their examination of the NASA craft.

7. The dialogue between Kirk and Spock at the end "Did we see the beginning of a new life form?" HUH?!!!! It looked to me like Decker had himself vaporised in some weirdo light show!

The dialogue leading up to that point between Spock and McCoy set up exactly what happened to Ilia and Decker. McCoy: "You mean this machine wants to physically join with a human? Is that possible?" When Decker completes the code sequence ordering Voyager 6 to release its compiled data, he validates his status as "the creator" and joins with Ilia to become a trans-dimensional being.

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The unending length of the V'ger flyover/fly-through. Just. Too. Much. Time. Spent.

V'ger's guts were interesting and sometimes beautiful, but far too much time was wasted on this kind of inverse Fantastic Voyage. A relatively tiny Enterprise slowly sails through sfx...slowly...slowly...sails. The majority of the sfx tell us nothing about V'ger until Spock finally mind-melds with the Ilia-clone-drone sensor. So the lllloooonnnnggg V'ger trip only contributes to what Harlan Ellison called Star Trek: the Motionless Picture.

Otherwise, the film was, I would say, a "B-plus" effort. Not "A" because of the aforementioned length and boggy sfx...and because of its far-too derivative plot from the TV series episode.

On the plus side:

Spock nearly achieves the final state intended by the Kolinahr Discipline; finds his "God" in the simple ability to feel, and re-cements his regular relationship to the Enterprise and crew;

a slimmed-down Shatner takes his punches from the super-competent, rightfully-irked Decker, as well as justifiably-concerned friend Bones;

Ilia is beautiful both as an alien and as V'ger's incarnation/avatar and agent;

the rest of the crew finally relax into a cohesive, familiar whole in the film's final two-thirds;

cosmic significance is invoked via the Decker/Ilia/Ilia clone/V'ger merger, wherein an entirely new kind of life-form is created;

and, of course, Jerry Goldsmith's score is fairly groundbreaking.

So: not a really great - or a a really terrible - film. Rather: a watchable Star Trek episode for the cinema, which with a little tweaking, could be made a significant amount better in terms of length and pacing.

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👍 👍

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Main problem - it was B-O-O-O-O-O-R-R-R-R-R-ING!!!

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