 |
| Copyright Marvel and Paramount Pictures |
As a long time Star Trek fan, the Bronze Age was a great time to be alive. In that period between the original series / animated series, and the debut of Star Trek The Motion Picture in 1979, the thought of Star Trek on the big screen was a fantastic dream. I would take photos from TV, even use my Dad’s 8mm cine camera, as a way of capturing the magic of the original show. This would have been prior to the appearance of the Philips 1500 video recorder around 1976. My pals Nigel and Geoff were avid members of Ross Carter’s local Star Trek Information Group (STIG), eager for information on what was happening at Paramount.
Like many, we were so disillusioned by Star Trek The Motion Picture when it debuted in London. The film was so slow and unlike the TV series we loved. The story of rushed production is well known. But the journey of the Enterprise within V’Ger has grandeur and massive scale, as does Spock’s attempt to mind meld with the machine (despite the film makers aborting the Memory Wall sequence).
With the release this week of a brief clip of the Enterprise inside V’Ger I harbour high hopes (no doubt which will be dashed) that the current remastering and re-creation of the Director’s Cut for 4K will build upon that improved cut of the film, and perhaps even improve upon those sequences inside V’Ger.
But for me the litmus test of improvement (slight for many) will be that they digitally correct the colour of the shoulder flashes of Spock and McCoy in the tag scene of the film. The scene starts with Spock wearing a red flash and McCoy with a blue flash, and the scene ends with Spock with the blue flash and McCoy with the red one. Unless there is sequence inserted which shows them swapping jackets while Kirk emotes his pretty pompous speech, the film will still be ruined for me. ( :-) )
 |
| Copyright Paramount Pictures. Note colour of shoulder flashes |
 |
| Copyright Paramount Pictures. Note colour of shoulder flashes now. |
I took a quick look at the recent facsimile edition of the Marvel adaptation of the film, which brings different colours of shoulder flashes into play. No attention to continuity at all! Plus the drawing of Kirk looks more like Chris Pine than Shatner.
The Marvel comic is interesting as it includes a rendition of the original Memory Wall sequence, but I was not impressed by the quality of the artwork in rendering the cast.
Thoughts folks?
As I said over on my own blog, there already has been a 'remastered' edition with new effects, etc., a few years back, but it didn't really improve my enjoyment (which was zilch) of the movie one whit.
ReplyDeleteThere was no fun in the film, no banter or interplay between the main players. Unlike many, I think the V’Ger plot was okay (how many non-Trekkie cinema goers would see the similarity to The Changeling?). What was missing was the relationship between the main players and any personal stake in the outcome of the film. Decker was superfluous and looked it. And Ilia’s role could have been assigned to Uhura, which would have introduced a personal threat to the story. But hey, they got it right with Star Trek II, so I look on TMP as an interesting but failed experiment.
Delete