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The Story
This is the first feature film production of the popular
TV series "Star Trek", starring no other than the original crew:
William Shatner as Admiral/Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, DeForest
Kelley as Dr. "Bones" McCoy, James Doohan as Scotty, George Takei as
Sulu, Walter Koenig is Chekov, and Nichelle Nichols as Uhura.
In this episode, a mysterious alien cloud threatens the
planet earth as it rapidly approaches our home planet and destroys any
spaceship that gets in its way. With the safety of earth at risk,
Captain James T. Kirk manages to get the Federation to give him control of
the USS Enterprise for this mission. Though the Enterprise is being
remodeled, Captain Kirk urges the crew to quickly prepare the ship for their
time-critical mission. Upon their encounter with the alien cloud, Mr.
Spock gives his expert assessment of the situation:
"We are obviously confronted by a highly advanced
mentality.
Yet they cannot understand...who we are or what we want...
That would presuppose a feeling... compassion.
I sense no emotion. Only pure logic."
Will Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise solve
the mystery of the alien cloud and prevent it from destroying the
earth? Ah, I'll leave it at for you to enjoy the movie.
The DVD starts the first chapter with a star journey set
to Jerry
Goldsmith's Star Trek score, which is kind of nice. The movie
doesn't actually start until Chapter 2, with the Paramount Pictures logo and
opening credits. I found some parts of the 136-minute Director's Edition
rather slow and drawn out.
The Director's Edition employed better visual special
effects, but stayed true with what would look state-of-the art for a 1979
theatrical release. I think this was a decision that is artistically
and aesthetically correct and it turned out well. Not having
remembered how the theatrical version looked, I didn't find any of the visual special
effects standing out as being new for The Director's Cut. It wasn't
until I saw the bonus materials on the 1979 and 1983 versions did I realize
how much it had improved. That's a testament to how well the new
visual special effects were integrated into the film.
The Extras
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" The
Director's Edition DVD contains a comprehensive set of bonus
materials. Paramount claims a total of some seven hours of bonus
programming (which undoubtedly includes the two commentaries on disc
1). Navigation of the two-disc set is easy, thanks to the cool
animated menus which automatically advance you to the next feature.
Disc 1:
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Audio commentary by directory Robert Wise, special
photographic effects director Douglas Trumbull, special photographic
effects supervisor John Dykstra, music composer Jerry
Goldsmith, and
actor Stephen Collins
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Text commentary by Michael Okuda
Disc 2:
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"Documentaries"
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"Phase II: the Lost Enterprise": a
documentary on the second TV series.
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"A Bold New Enterprise": a
documentary about this movie, including the story of how tight the
production schedule was to meet the holiday season release for
1979. Talk about just in time movie making, whoa!
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"Redirecting the Future": the
making-of The Director's Edition DVD of "Star Trek: The Motion
Picture", showing the effort behind this edition of the film.
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Credits for the above three documentaries
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"Advertising"
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Trailers: includes teaser trailer, theatrical
trailer, director's edition trailer, Enterprise TV show promo
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TV Spots: includes these TV spots
"Hardware", "Startle Your Senses",
"Cast/Human Adventure", "Spiritual Search",
"Spiritual/Startle Your Senses", "Startle/Human
Adventure", and "Event/Common Experience"
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"Additional & Deleted Scenes"
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1979 Theatrical Version: shows the scenes that
have been shortened, re-edited, and/or had new visual special
effects created for The Director's Edition:
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1983 Television Version: these deleted sequences
were inserted into the television version of the film. But the
following scenes were not included in The Director's Edition:
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"Archives": storyboards of scenes never
produced. The scenes are entitled "Vulcan",
"Enterprise Departure", and "V'Ger Revealed".
It's interesting to learn that the production of the film
faced a really tight schedule to meet the 1979 holiday season release date,
what a risk it was for Paramount to produce this movie (and the resulting
payoffs for Paramount), and how much effort went into making The Director's
Edition DVD. It is also interesting to note that when they edited for TV
presentation in 1983, they added back previously deleted scenes that were not in
the 1979 theatrical version.
This is definitely a rich set of bonus features. One
that is sure to please many Trekkies and casual fans alike.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is good, considering the vintage of the film. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is good. The picture is rather soft in
some scenes and grainy in others. There are dust specks and other film
imperfections throughout the movie. It is interesting to note that The
Director's Edition team intentionally created new visual special effects
footage to match the graininess and imperfections of the original film
footage for seamless integration.
In contrast, the all-new Dolby
Digital 5.1 re-mix is spectacular, fully employing the immersive
qualities of the 5.1-channel
format. For example, in Chapter 18, the electronic beeps of from the bridge's
instruments and controls are imaged throughout our home theater, between the
front and surround speakers, in a holographic-like effect. The music
score by Jerry
Goldsmith is sensational and sounds pretty good in Dolby Digital, while
the dialog consistently comes across crystal clear.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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