"How Star Trek The Motion Picture changed Trek Canon" Topic

…Forever.

"For 40 years, the vast majority of Trekkies have considered 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture to be inferior to its successors, specifically 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. For many, the cinematic voyages of the starship Enterprise didn't really kick into warp drive until after the first movie. But however you feel about the movie's artistic merits, The Motion Picture remains historically significant as the first time Star Trek experienced a low-key reboot.

From small changes in the roles of familiar characters and tweaks to Starfleet traditions and uniforms to the actual canonical depiction of genre-famous alien races, Star Trek: The Motion Picture created a new aesthetic for the franchise. More significantly, that "look" is the one stuck with Trek ever since. From The Next Generation to Discovery, contemporary Star Trek owes more to The Motion Picture than it doesn't…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I'm glad to be in a minority – I really like ST:TMP, it was a brave attempt to be "2001" in a cinematic world of Star Wars clones. And it almost succeeded.

As to the long scene of Kirk travelling by shuttle to the Enterprise, it was an acknowledgement that the ship was as much a character as the crew, and it had also been a very long time since any New Trek – and with the ship remodelled it was a great way to show it off and re-introduce it. I really enjoyed that scene in the cinema.

I was completely engrossed in my small town's little (1930's) one screen theater in 1979!

Yes, the pacing was slow (hence "The Motionless Picture") but, dear God, it was beautiful to look at and listen to.

Good memories! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I regard the long shots of the new made for big screen Enterprise as fan service--and I was one of the fans serviced. It had been a long wait.

A pity they hadn't worked quite as hard on the script. 20th Maine, you may be right, and I'm not a 2001 fan, which makes a difference. But accepting the overall plot, it needed a couple of passes for plot-tightening and dialogue sharpening it didn't get. There have been and would be worse--but I wanted that one to be perfect.

The Director's Cut of TMP is probably my favorite Trek movie. The problem that Trek sometimes gets into is that the SF is window dressing for the characters, & that the actual SFinal elements start going by the wayside. TMP was probably the most SF of all the Trek movies.

Damon.