We were having such a good time talking about the early Star Trek films in the comments section of my review for The Captains, that I figured I would finally go ahead and write-up my thoughts on the series as a whole.
The first Star Trek movie had the pretentious subtitle “The Motion Picture” just in case you thought you were still watching Star Trek the TV show. People jokingly refer to it as “The Motionless Picture” because not a lot happens. It’s a very cerebral movie and the cast spends a lot of time looking at special effects on the ship’s monitors.
I am guilty of making fun of “The Motion Picture”. One of the things I remembered the most about seeing the film as a kid was the extremely long sequence in which Captain Kirk inspected the newly refitted Enterprise. It just went on and on forever. But at least you can sit back and enjoy Jerry Goldsmith’s rousing score.
Star Trek had a bumpy road to the big screen. The original TV show had been cancelled in 1969 after only 3 seasons. But re-runs in the 70’s gave it a newfound popularity. As early as 1975, Paramount began developing a Star Trek movie.
Eventually, they decided to create a new Star Trek TV show. The show, called Star Trek Phase 2, included most of the original cast. But new characters were mixed in. Leonard Nimoy was reluctant to reprise his role as Spock, so a new Vulcan was created. Commander Decker was created as a new first officer.
Decker was also insurance in case Shatner asked for too much money. He was an action hero in the Kirk-mold who could easily step in to the Captain’s chair if Shatner should bail.
Following the success of Star Wars, Paramount changed their minds again. The TV show was off. The pilot episode was adapted into a feature film. Commander Decker and Ilia (another new character) were retained in the feature script. But the replacement Vulcan was written out when Leonard Nimoy agreed to return.
Reaction to Star Trek: the Motion Picture was mixed. On the one hand, fans were happy to see the original crew reunited. And most everyone agreed the film was visually striking. But they also were in agreement that the movie was kind of dull.
The movie was a hit for Paramount. But not as big of a hit as they had hoped. The studio was hoping for another Star Wars. When that didn’t happen, they decided to green-light a sequel. But at a lower price. This would become Paramount’s modus operandi for the franchise.
Also, series creator Gene Roddenberry was blamed for making the movie too cerebral. While his name remained on the credits for the sequels, he was muscled out from the remainder of the series.
The sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, is easily the high water mark in the series. Once Paramount moved Roddenberry out of the way, they gave the film to their new TV producer, Harve Bennett. Bennett had never seen an episode of Star Trek before. So he went back and watched them all.
The result was a movie that was much more in keeping with the adventurous spirit of the TV show. Where Star Trek: The Motion Picture felt cold and impersonal, Wrath of Khan brought back the human interactions that made the show popular to begin with.
Bennett also decided to bring back Kahn from the TV episode, The Space Seed. This gave Wrath a meaty villain instead of the abstract menace of the first film. But with a writers’ strike looming and budget cuts. Bennett still had a lot of obstacles to overcome to bring Wrath to the big screen.
Leonard Nimoy, who had reluctantly appeared in the first Star Trek movie, only agreed to appear in the sequel if Spock was killed off. Originally, this was set to happen at the beginning of the movie. However, this was leaked (many believe Roddenbury himself was the leak) and fans went nuts.
There were several competing scripts for Wrath of Khan. The deadline to start filming was looming. So director Nicholas Meyer finally set about consolidating the best of all the different scripts into one cohesive vision. He started by making a list of all the things people liked about the various scripts. Then, in just 12 days and with no writing credit, he turned in a single script that unified the greatest hits of the previous drafts.
Every Star Trek movie that has followed has lived in the shadow of Wrath of Khan. It is the near-perfect synthesis of everything fans love about Star Trek.
Reviews for the new film were mostly positive. Although the film grossed less than the first, it was more profitable due to the lower production costs. Paramount was happy. After a shakey start, the franchise had been saved.
The Lowdown on Jaws Rip-Offs
The Lowdown on the Planet of the Apes Movies
The Lowdown on Body Switching Movies
Le Blog
Great article, and you hit the mark squarely on both of these movies. I don’t have much to add, so I’ll throw in a funny story. Several years ago I was having dinner with a fellow Trek fan. We were enjoying a great meal at an Italian restaurant in Lexington (which I think is closed now) and had probably had way too much Grappa. On the way out, we passed a section of wall that contained a bunch of celebrity photos that had been autographed by famous patrons. Right next to William Shatner’s picture was one of James Caan. My… Read more »
very funny! great story!
Great story.
Just goes to show how Kahn has sunk into the culture. None of the other Trek movies have moments like that.
Great article Lebeau! One point I’d like to add regarding the Roddenbury leak. To save the surprise of Spock’s death, they added in The Kobayashi Maru test which showed Spock pretending to be dead at the beginning of the film. This was to put fans at ease – and then surprise them again at the end of the film. It worked!
Good point.
Nick Meyer was a genius. It’s a shame he wasn’t involved in the follow-up.
Out of 5 stars…
Star Trek **1/2
Star Trek II *****
Star Trek III ***
Star Trek IV ****
Star Trek V *
Star Trek VI ***1/2
Ratings-wise, we’re in sync.
I’m behind in writing the follow-up unfortunately. I also write for a comic book blog (readrant.wordpress.com) and there’s quite a bit going on over there with the DC Relaunch. So it’s been siphoning off a lot of my blogging time lately.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture has a very slow, dry (all of the actors including William Shatner, seem for the most part, muted), glacial pace w/o much sense of urgency. Basically, it seems like it was trying to be the next 2001: A Space Odyssey or a big budgeted, feature length remake of the Season 2 episode “The Changling”. There really isn’t much of a substantial plot (it’s literally, a one hour TV pilot for the cancelled Phase II TV series, padded out) once you get past the crew resembling and them getting to V’ger. Basically, all that it has… Read more »
i enjoyed star trek 2. star trek 1 was ok but kind of draggy.
It is ironic that it would be the second Star Trek film that would end up rivaling Star Wars in terms of quality, when Paramount was putting all its money into the previous Trek film to do that.
True.
Trek 2 had its budget slashed. But hiring Nick Meyer was money well spent.
The CineFiles: The Star Trek Movies – Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY9bvo_13tA
Uploaded on Oct 29, 2009
We now go from STAR WARS to STAR TREK. Gear up for that Vulcan mind meld! And set your phasers on fun! This captain’s log covers our thoughts on the first four flicks: Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek: The Voyage Home.
We’ll continue with the rest of the films in the next episode, so stay tuned!
What are the least loved Star Trek motion pictures and why? #5: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – studio interference and the selection of an unqualified company to do the visual effects (ILM was too busy) severely damaged this film. The story had an intriguing story idea – what if the crew of the Enterprise met God? But you just can’t tell that story in America. And you certainly can’t make your God very convincing with television grade special effects.#10: Star Trek: Nemesis – the director, Stuart Baird, is a renowned editor, but he’s not a good director and he didn’t understand Star… Read more »