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Comparing The Three Versions of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Is there a definitive version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture at last? We compared all the different versions of this misunderstood movie to find out.

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Some 44 years after it went into production, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is finally complete.

We don’t say that frivolously. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one of Hollywood’s most famous “unfinished” films. Rushing to meet a December 7, 1979 release date, with many of the visual effects being completed right up until the last possible minute by Douglas Trumbull (who had replaced the previous VFX supervisor), director Robert Wise ( The Day the Earth Stood Still , The Sound of Music ) pretty much just stopped working on the film, carrying the first available print on a plane to the movie’s Washington D.C. premiere.

The complicated story of how ST: TMP – the first major motion picture based on an existing TV series — was developed, written, filmed, and released is a long, winding one that has been told before. It’s also well-known that the original theatrical version of the film – the one that Wise had to deliver finished or not – was not well-received by either fans or critics, although it became a sizable box office success.

Yet Star Trek: The Motion Picture steadily grew in stature over the years, gradually beginning to hold its own with fans even as later favorites like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ascended to the top of the franchise.

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With fans and even critics constantly reappraising the original film, Paramount Pictures – with the encouragement of two members of Robert Wise’s production company, David C. Fein and Michael Matessino – allowed Wise and his team to revisit the movie in 2001, reconstructing it to finally adhere more closely to Wise’s original vision.

The release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition in November 2001 on home video (DVD and VHS) confirmed for many fans that there was a far better film after all hidden inside the “rough cut” (Wise’s own words) released in 1979. Scenes were excised or trimmed, a few were reinstated, and most importantly, the visuals were spruced up with the help of CGI. The legendary Wise, who passed away four years later in 2005, got the chance to finish the movie the way he wanted.

But the story wasn’t over yet.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Reborn

Earlier this year, Paramount+ premiered a 4K Ultra HD (high definition) version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition . Prepared over the course of six months by Fein, Matessino, and a visual effects team with access to Paramount’s archives, this iteration of ST: TMP stayed true to the vision established by Wise for The Director’s Edition in 2001, while doing a further, extensive, HD restoration and upgrade of the entire film.

Now the Ultra HD Director’s Edition , along with 4K Ultra HD versions of the original theatrical cut and the “Special Longer Version” that was created for broadcast television in 1983, are available in a newly released set called The Complete Adventure , which gives us a definitive document of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in all three versions, looking perhaps the best they’ll ever look ( The Director’s Edition is also available on its own or as part of a set containing Ultra HD upgrades of all six films starring the original Trek cast).

Having seen the film in its original theatrical release, then on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray, we were always put off by the seeming drabness of the image and the colors. To our eyes, Star Trek: The Motion Picture – despite the occasionally awe-inspiring visuals it did manage to pull off against all odds – never seemed to pop off any screen or medium we watched it on.

That problem is now solved, and overpoweringly so: the film in 4K Ultra HD looks absolutely magnificent, as if we’re truly seeing the film for the first time.

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Yes, many of the VFX have been digitally enhanced or even freshly recreated, but they’re integrated almost seamlessly into the original aesthetic of the film, while many of the rough spots in the original release have been repaired or replaced. Now the 4K image really does leap off the screen in amazing color and detail. To watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture in this way is to watch a 44-year-old science fiction movie that looks in many ways like it was made last year.

And now that all three versions of the movie are here in this beautiful, pristine form, which one holds up the best and do they differ?

The Original Theatrical Cut

It may look better than it ever has, but the original theatrical cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture still has all the issues it had when it first came out. It’s slow-moving to the point of being inert, it spends way too much time on endless visuals (the first sight of the refurbished Enterprise , the lengthy flyover of the massive V’Ger spacecraft – heck, even Spock’s neck-pinch of some poor slob guarding an airlock takes way too long), and it leaves certain plot information and character motivations ambiguous at best and absent at worst.

What ST: TMP does retain is a sense of grandeur, and occasionally a sense of wonder, that often marked the best of the original series and has been sadly lacking in so much filmed science fiction ever since, including later Trek movies and TV series.

So many of the later movies – especially the J.J. Abrams-conceived Kelvin trilogy , but some of the classic and Next Generation films have the same problem – revolve around fairly simple bad guy/revenge motifs.

The original series had its share of those simple action-adventure episodes, but so much more of it was dedicated to great ideas – whether it be truly alien encounters, mirror universes, or moral quandaries posed by the Enterprise sticking its saucer in a new planet’s business.

And yes, even though Star Trek: The Motion Picture is in some ways a rewrite of the original series episode “The Changeling,” it’s much more expansive and even cosmic in its implications. While several later Trek films are superior in many ways, few of them have matched ST: TMP in its ambitions and pure science fiction concepts.

The acting is inconsistent, to say the least, although all our old favorites each have a memorable moment or two, and the glacial pacing really is at odds with the imagination glimpsed in the storyline and the visuals. In many ways, the theatrical cut remains a slog, but it’s also a one-of-a-kind Trek movie.

The ‘Special Longer Version’

Star Trek: The Motion Picture premiered on American network television – ABC, to be exact – on February 20, 1983. Not only was this the first TV showing of the movie, but it also introduced a different cut of the film that came to be known as the “Special Longer Version.” Running for two hours and 24 minutes (without commercials), as opposed to the theatrical cut’s two hours and 12 minutes, the “SLV” essentially incorporated a number of scenes that were left unfinished and kept out of the picture by director Robert Wise in 1979 – who apparently did not approve of this version.

A lot of the scenes that were added back into the movie for the “SLV” were and are clearly extraneous, although in some cases amusing to watch.

There are a couple of exchanges between Sulu (George Takei) and the Deltan navigator Ilia (Persis Khambatta) – whose species is apparently quite sexually attractive and active – that are possibly meant to suggest Sulu is coming under her spell, although they were jettisoned to focus on Ilia and Decker’s (Stephen Collins) relationship (there is also more of that present in this cut).

Other sequences – like a moment in which Spock (Leonard Nimoy) weeps for V’Ger and a quick scene of Ilia helping to relieve Chekov’s (Walter Koenig) pain after he is injured – actually made it into the Director’s Cut and work well there as improved character moments.

Most infamously, the original release of the “SLV” contained a literally unfinished shot of Kirk (William Shatner) leaving the Enterprise airlock in a spacesuit to pursue Spock as the Vulcan himself spacewalks deeper into V’Ger’s interior. When the “SLV” was first shown, parts of the soundstage around the airlock set were still visible, as a result of the effects for the scene never being completed (the new 4K Ultra HD version of the “SLV” rectifies that, although the incomplete version is provided as a bonus feature).

Importantly, the new version of the “SLV” has restored it to its theatrical matting – the movie was cropped to the old TV screen ratio of 1.33: 1 for broadcast (and for several subsequent home video releases), turning Wise’s widescreen compositions into a nightmare of forced zooms and pan-and-scanning. At least now this version of the film is restored to its proper ratio.

That said, the “Special Longer Version” is in many ways the worst version of the film. While it’s always interesting for completists to see footage left out of a theatrical movie, this iteration simply pastes all that material back into the film – ostensibly to fill a three-hour “network movie premiere” slot, back in the day when such things mattered – without any consideration of whether it should be there. If the pacing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture has always been a bone of contention for you, the “SLV” doubles down on that.

The Director’s Edition

Ironically enough, the Robert Wise-supervised “Director’s Edition” of Star Trek: The Motion Picture runs for two hours and 16 minutes – four minutes longer than the theatrical release. It also includes some of the scenes Wise left out initially, which surfaced in the interim in the TV version of the movie (a detailed list of alterations and additions can be found here ).

But while it still suffers from pacing issues, they’re less of a detriment. The Director’s Edition still moves slowly, but doesn’t feel like it drags, and there’s more of a stateliness to it that is befitting the movie’s larger themes – which are also given more clarity in this version.

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Perhaps the most important edition in that sense is the scene in which Spock weeps for V’Ger – a scene that makes it much clearer what V’Ger is seeking as it returns to Earth, and why its quest has reached a potentially catastrophic dead end.

More importantly, the scene also brings Spock’s own character arc in the film into much better focus – he realizes that his desire to purge all remaining emotion from his own life (the kolinahr ritual) could lead him to the same cold, empty existence that V’Ger now faces, which he firmly rejects.

Also retained is Ilia’s healing of Chekov, adding a little more nuance to what is mostly a blank slate of a character, as well as some brief interactions between the supporting crew members.

What is left out are, most notably, the full-length travelogues along V’Ger’s exterior and interior (although we do get a neat shot of the entire V’Ger vessel emerging from its cloud above Earth). The scenes are still there, but this material – and a number of other visuals – is trimmed and sharpened to give the movie a little more forward motion. Along with that, so many subtle visual and audio touches have been added – whether it’s better matte or CG backgrounds or original sounds from the TV series – to create more ambiance and an overall more fulfilling cinematic Trek experience.

When Wise and his team took the movie back into the shop in 2001, they overhauled the visuals and the sound mix with the best available technology at the time – yet the limitations back then in terms of resolution meant that the Director’s Edition was only available on DVD for the next 20 years. With the new upgrade, all the visual and sonic enhancements (plus new ones) have been rendered so that they can now be seen in 4K Ultra HD – thus giving Star Trek: The Motion Picture the most up-to-date restoration possible.

The result is an often eye-popping science fiction spectacle that looks fresher and better than ever before. As rushed as the original production was, it’s a tribute to Wise, Trumbull, and the team that completed the film in 1979 that so much of their work still holds up and was able to mesh so well with the enhancements of both 2001 and 2021.

But just as importantly, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now about as close as it will ever come to being the visionary sci-fi epic that it was first conceived as. The new version of The Director’s Edition retains all the narrative revisions that Wise made more than two decades ago, while adding the visual grandeur that such a cerebral story needed in the first place. Yes, there are still flaws in the film, and it may never replace, say, The Wrath of Khan at the top of Trek movie rankings, but more than four decades after it first came out, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now finished.

This film’s journey is at last complete, but the human adventure is still just beginning.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition – The Complete Adventure is out now on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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Fast forward to the turn of the century when Wise was given the opportunity by Paramount’s Home Entertainment division to revisit the movie and — joined by producers David C. Fein, Mike Matessino, and Daren Dochterman — complete the post-production process the way he intended for DVD release in 2001. Armed with the burgeoning world of CG effects, as well as the time necessary to revisit the movie’s editing, the 2001 edition of The Director’s Edition was released on DVD to great acclaim.

But that DVD release was 21 years ago, and saw the movie released only in the standard definition presentation of the time. During that period, the theatrical edition of The Motion Picture received several re-releases, including on Blu-ray and most recently in September 2021’s remastered 4K UHD box set.

Meanwhile, fans of The Motion Picture Director’s Edition have had only ever had access to the original DVD release (or up-rezzed editions of that DVD picture through some streaming services). Until now!

The Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a superior film to the theatrical edition many of our readers are probably familiar with. And while a lot of the attention naturally falls on some of the movie’s sequences that have been significantly altered from the theatrical edition – Starfleet Headquarters has been improved, Vulcan’s moons have disappeared and the planet looks much more like it does in other appearances in the franchise, and we actually get to see the giant V’Ger vessel at the heart of the cloud – the Director’s Edition does more than just update the effects in a few places.

The whole movie has been upgraded, not just in its look and feel, but in how it runs, too. Robert Wise was an Oscar-winning movie editor before he moved to directing, and used the 2000-era opportunity to revisit the film to adjust a significant number of edits to the movie’s flow.

A lot of these changes aren’t major alterations – the movie is fundamentally the same – but through a series of targeted cuts and edits the movie flows better, and most importantly for fans who found the theatrical edition to be turgid, it feels like a brisker movie as well.

Drew Stewart of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Visual Comparisons project has meticulously documented the ways in which the Director’s Edition of the movie is different from the 1979 theatrical edition, and will be updating his project in the coming weeks with additional changes made in the 2022 version of the Director’s Edition . The new presentation of the movie is unlikely to fundamentally reshape your opinion of it — given that it’s still the same story and the same script — but you are very likely to enjoy it more than the theatrical edition that has been most prevalent for viewers.

And if you prefer the theatrical edition? Well the good news is, it’s available for you in the same 4K Ultra HD presentation thanks to last year’s movie box set. Fans now have the ability to choose which version of The Motion Picture they want to watch, and Paramount+ is to be commended for making that available to them… as another major science fiction franchise whose original versions have been vaulted for thirty years might take note?

Personally, I see no reason to watch the theatrical edition of The Motion Picture ever again. I’ve loved the Director’s Edition since the original 2001 release, and the 2022 4K remaster does the movie all the justice in the world. The picture is crisp, the colors more vibrant, the sound is incredible, and Jerry Goldsmith’s outstanding score has never sounded better.

The new effects are definitely not egregious additions for the sake of it; they help tell the story of the movie better for the viewer. It never made sense in the theatrical edition that on Vulcan Spock shields his eyes… from the night’s sky. And during the Enterprise’s approach to and journey inside of V’Ger, good luck being able to figure out where anything is or where the Enterprise is in relation to V’Ger as a whole.

The new quick effects shots help the viewer better understand the Enterprise’s journey, and provide more effective visual reference for how large V’Ger is… and what the ship actually looks like! The theatrical edition of the movie never even shows you a wide shot of the V’Ger spacecraft at the heart of the cloud. The Director’s Edition corrects this oversight, not for the sake of it, but because it really helps tell the story better.

The history of Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition is not one of making changes to the movie just to sell a new product for fans, but of honoring the legacy of the movie’s director and giving him the chance to finish it so that fans could see it in the way it was intended.

Even though Robert Wise passed away in 2005, he lived long enough to work with the Director’s Edition team through the original project that was released in 2001, and that same team has picked up the baton to remaster the movie for a 4K presentation today based upon his guidance during the first project.

The voyage of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition may be at an end, but the Human Adventure is Just Beginning, and you’d be wise to give this movie a chance using the biggest screen and the best sound system you have access to.

I know the Director’s Edition has significantly improved my opinion of the movie as a whole, and I hope it does the same for you.

The newly remastered  Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition  arrives in 4K UHD format April 5, exclusively on Paramount+. The new edition of the film will be screened in theaters in the United States in May,  followed by a 4K Blu-ray physical release  this September.

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Review: ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ Comes Alive In The 4K ‘Director’s Edition’

| April 5, 2022 | By: Brian Drew 146 comments so far

Today, in celebration of First Contact Day, Paramount+ has released the remastered Director’s Edition of the first Star Trek feature film, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture , now in 4K UHD.

They gave her back to me, Scotty

Set on board a refit USS Enterprise, the film reunited the original cast of the television series, with stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy returning to their legendary roles of Kirk and Spock. An enormously powerful alien force that destroys everything in its path is heading towards Earth, and the crew of the Enterprise must try and stop it while learning about its true nature.

For all its grand scale , The Motion Picture is ultimately a film about identity and finding one’s path. Kirk, Spock, and V’Ger are all searching for something that will give them direction and make them feel whole, with each of them finding their answers in very different ways.

The film as released in 1979 was often critiqued for its somewhat languid pace, with some fans dubbing it, “The Motionless Picture.” While its pacing left something to be desired, it does tell a story very much in the tradition of the original show while giving Star Trek a greater sense of scale and grandeur. And its great craftsmanship was recognized by the Academy, giving the film three Oscar nominations – Set Decoration, Visual Effects, and Original Score.

The 4K UHD release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition brings director Robert Wise’s vision of the film into the modern era with a major update in visuals and sound, and the result is spectacular. A labor of love in every respect, the film is a visual and aural experience like never before and can finally be seen as the epic film it was designed to be.

The Enterprise prepares to leave drydock.

Ready or not, she launches

Star Trek: The Motion Picture has had a strange and difficult journey, as far as movies go. Born out of a pilot for a proposed television revival of the original series, the film began production in August 1978 without a finished script and wrapped principal photography later than scheduled. That was only the preamble to a much larger problem: the original company commissioned to do all the effects work on the film failed to produce any usable footage, forcing Paramount to hire visual effects pioneers Douglas Trumbull ( 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Andromeda Strain, Close Encounters of the Third Kind ) and John Dykstra ( Star Wars ) to complete the work. Having only 7 months to finish the effects in order to meet a locked-in release date in December, the teams worked around the clock – literally. While the visual effects were being created, director Robert Wise and editor Todd Ramsay were trying to find an editorial shape for the film, despite often having large holes where the effects should be. This sometimes forced them to drop whole sequences into the film as the footage was coming in, with little time to massage the edits, which also affected the sound mix and color timing. The film ultimately met its release date but received a lukewarm response from audiences, who were unaware that what they were seeing was a compromised version of the film, which was a great disappointment to Robert Wise.

Fast forward to the late ’90s, and the team of restoration supervisor Mike Matessino, producer David Fein, and visual effects supervisor Daren Dochterman teamed up with Wise to craft a new cut of the film that would address some of the issues and enhance the story. They tightened the pace of the film, fixed some of the effects shots, added some others, and put together a new sound mix.

One of the biggest changes made, from a visual storytelling perspective, was the reveal of V’Ger. The theatrical version skipped over this entirely due to time constraints, so what V’Ger really looked like from afar had remained a mystery for more than 20 years. Among the edits Wise made were adding back a few scenes that didn’t make the theatrical cut, including some important Spock moments that frankly never should have been cut in the first place. They also added a star field to the film’s 2-minute overture (which had previously played over black and was sometimes mistakenly cut out by projectionists). A throwback to the golden age of cinema, The Motion Picture was one of the last films to have an overture (along with Disney’s The Black Hole , also released in 1979).

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition debuted to positive notices in 2001, with many saying it was clearly a superior version of the film. Unfortunately, even this version had its compromises. The print provided by the studio was subpar, and the decision to produce it in standard definition meant it was not ready for the then-upcoming HD era. The team has spent the past 20 years advocating for a return to the film in order to bring it up to current standards and future-proof it so that it can be enjoyed for many years to come. Producer David Fein chatted with us recently about this and much more, which you can read here .

“We witnessed a birth. Possibly a next step in our evolution.”

A Totally New Enterprise?

Af for this new 4K version, the cut of the film is the same as – or very close to – the 2001 Director’s Edition . What is different are the changes, both large and small, to the film’s visuals and soundtrack.

The original camera negative was scanned at 4K resolution and any instances of dirt or damage were fixed. The team made use of industry standard color grading tools to regrade certain shots and give everything a consistent overall look. In the past, the film’s color palette was a bit bland and veered toward the “cold” side. It is now slightly warmer, particularly in the flesh tones. The added warmth makes the proceedings more appealing and more in line with director Wise’s original intentions. It also appears that a certain amount of sharpening was applied to some softer shots, but it’s tastefully done. All of it leads to an image that showcases Richard Kline’s cinematography and gives it a polished veneer that makes the film look like the expensive studio picture that it was. It far exceeds Paramount’s recent 4K transfer of the theatrical cut.

“Well, any man who could manage such a feat, I wouldna dare disappoint. She’ll launch on time, sir.”

The visual effects see an even larger upgrade. Paramount was able to locate many of Douglas Trumbull’s 65mm film elements as well as John Dykstra’s VistaVision footage, which were scanned at 8K and 6K, respectively, then re-composited and cut into the picture. The results are absolutely stunning. The textures of the Enterprise hull, the layers of the cloud, the details on the V’Ger spacecraft… virtually every original effects shot in the film looks noticeably better.

Spock fires his thruster suit.

The visual effects that were added as part of the original Director’s Edition are also here but tweaked a bit, owing to the increased resolution and 20 years of advances in digital effects technology. All of it integrates beautifully with the rest of the film.

The new visual of the asteroid explosion in the wormhole.

Kirk’s tram approaches San Francisco.

On Vulcan, the Kolinahr masters await Spock.

A bridge to V’Ger forms from points of light.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this project is the new Dolby Atmos sound mix, which is markedly different from any previous version of the film. It is a very active mix with both big and subtle moments that create an environment far denser and more layered than before. Dialogue appears to have been mixed to have a richer lower end, making what sometimes seemed a bit tinny now sound much fuller. Every environment is more sonically active. The Enterprise is full of many different sounds that really gives you the feel of being on starship, and V’Ger itself has far more of an auditory presence and feels more menacing and mysterious.

The team’s discovery of the original ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) tapes gave them the ability to use them in fun and sometimes surprising ways. There was a great deal of material recorded and never used and some of it is applied here in a way that makes the movie’s world feel much larger and more lively.

The music cues from Jerry Goldsmith’s legendary score have been remixed under the supervision of engineer/producer Bruce Botnick, a longtime colleague of Goldsmith’s who was part of the original scoring sessions in 1979. Some of the cues feel like they’ve been remixed in a way that favors a particular instrument, but by and large the score remains the same and sounds better than ever.

This is a superb sound mix that really brings the film alive and matches the incredible visuals.

The new sound mix is truly something to hear.

The human adventure begins again

After 42 years, the film has finally been given all the resources and time necessary to present it in the best possible way. It takes all of the adjustments made in the original Director’s Edition and improves upon them. The various changes, large and small, greatly enhance the story the film is trying to tell and truly let it stand as the most epic of the Star Trek feature films. Even longtime detractors might find the film more to their liking now. For fans of this film, well, there is no comparison. This is the definitive version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Watching the new ‘Director’s Edition’ is only logical.

Available now

The film is available now on the Paramount+ streaming service in the USA . And in May you can see it on the big screen during a 3-day at theaters across the USA with Fathom Events . Blu-ray and digital releases of the film will arrive in September from Paramount Home Video. International availability has not been announced yet.

More to come

TrekMovie will be taking a closer look at the many changes in the film in the coming days, and look for an in-depth discussion on our Shuttle Pod podcast soon.

Find more news about TMP-DE and other  Star Trek home media and streaming at TrekMovie.com .

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Lovely review, thank you! We are so close to having all the films in one place for streaming, Paramount just has to sort out whatever is up with the rights for the 2009 film.

I finished watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture | The Director’s Edition 4K on Paramount+. The visuals and sound mix are fabulous! Despite not being my favorite TOS film, I highly recommend checking it out if you’re subscribed to Paramount+.

I’m looking forward to this honestly.

I’m very excited to see this!

Maybe I’m being a bit too critical but for me there was just a tad too much grain reduction, which then made the sharpening of the softer / more muddy footage quite jarring. It also made the CGI stand out more due to there being less grain to blend it with the original elements.

Still a massive effort but for my tastes, the film needed a bit less grain reduction which in turn would have allowed for a bit less over working of the softer images and better incorporation of the CGI.

Maybe that can be addressed 20 years from now. lol

All that being said, I think the film does look, sound, and play out wonderfully. Thanks team.

I agree… the sound quality was superb! A lot of blur though.. beyond that though the Vger vessel upgrade was fantastic.. wish they had upgraded some other effects like Earth. Blacklines were glaring especially around the Klingon ships and wavy around the travel pod when it left the station. IDK. I have always had a special place in my heart for STMP. I was 12 when it came out and it continued my love of all things TREK!

Really, all that effort and they didn’t clean up those matte lines around the Klingon cruisers in the opening? Heavens.

THAT’S HOW I FEEL like seriously opening sequence boom you got matte lines. I seriously wonder if they only cleaned up the lines on the beautiest of beauty shots for promo purposes

For my part, most of the compositing still look like crap: matte lines are still there? Wow. This remastered edition doesn’t live up to my expectations.

Unfortunately, people who work on these things can’t seem to resist the temptation to “go to town” with things like DVNR and color grading. Still, looking forward to seeing it.

Dude, given you watched it on P+ streaming, well that’s why it doesn’t look as good as it should. That’s an inferior way to watch 4K, at least on P+ and the other majors. Lot’s of compression algorithms that give the false impression that the remastering may not be as good as expected.

This is why I decided not to watch it until I get the 4K Blu-Ray.

Steaming compression has nothing to do with matte line still being as bad as they’ve always been

I watched the 4k blu ray original cut and then this director’s cut on P+ in the same week and was really underwhelmed with the just about all of the new VFX. In particular, the big reveal shot of Vger outside of the cloud is truly awful. Looks like a goofy video game ship circa 2003. And as has been pointed out, zero effort was made to clean up any of the most glaring optical composite matte lines. Gripes aside, I’m still glad we got a resolution upgrade of the DC.

The observation lounge scene is pretty cringey with the way they cut around Kirk, Spock and McCoy to key out the background. It obvious they didn’t have the original material to make that scene look the best it could. Was disappointed that various blue screen spilled shots weren’t fixed for this version. Shouldn’t have been a problem with today’s technology. I mean, if you’re going to go with the trouble of fixing Spock and McCoy’s jacket colors, look into more distracting manners like that as well.

Yes, the lounge scene was absolutely terrible. :( I was shocked they put it into the film like that. Would have been much better to just stick a Nacelle outside the window like they did in 2001.

Loved this version, but was also put off by the cut around the figures in the lounge scene. Did it have something to do with the fact that the location of the nacelles outside the window has changed, in the DVD they were very prominent, here you can barely see them near the bottom of the window. Hope they fix this for the Blu-ray, I would almost hope they forget the nacelles entirely and restore the version of the scene from the theatrical version.

Oh jeez, this scene is bad too? I only watched parts of it last night. I agree that the nacelle was a dumb addition in the first place and just kinda distracting

I don’t know about “too”. I loved the rest of the movie.

The observation lounge rotoscope is TERRIBLE! It instantly removes one from the film, in a few frames Bones’ nose was even cut off. Hopefully they will fix this for the physical media release. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this version, everything else was just so sweet :)

I just couldn’t watch it in its entirety. The movie has aged terribly and no “remastering” can fix a bad script and sluggish pace.

Sounds like I’m in the minority here but I was so put off by the 2001 nacelle I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the new approach. It’s not perfect but I’m 100% for it after that weird-angle-low-res-paste-job from 2001.

“ I know engineers. They love to change things.”

Beautiful job with the upgraded TMP. Looks and sounds incredible. Only complaint is with Paramount +. Difficult to navigate menus- and a chore to actually find this film. Being a highly anticipated premiere, shouldn’t TMP be highlighted- and take a prominent position on their menu? Whatever— it’s worth the search.

I agree. I thought it would be featured on the ‘splash page’ but I instead had to do a manual search for it instead. On any other platform it would have been prominently featured.

Agreed — I woke up at 6 AM this morning and fired up the Paramount+ app on my 4K TV, only to have to search deep into it just to find the movie on there. But I quickly added it to my bookmark-list, and it’s gonna be sitting right on my top page for many months to come now, here.

It’s nuts how bad the P+ interface is. Star Trek is a hub only under Shows, so even going there doesn’t get you to the movies.

They have a decent number of franchises, they should have a place for those prominently. Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Mission: Impossible, NCIS, South Park, Transformers, CSI…

This is why I will never hesitate to sh*t on P+ – it just has a disgraceful UI and completely neglects to organize content by franchise. Why isn’t there a Star Trek page?? For all the talk of Trek being the heart of their content strategy, P+ still has failed to emulate D+ in having its own “hubs” for franchises like Star Wars and Marvel.

It was a page-spanning ad right at the top of the Paramount+ home page when I opened the app. Hardly had to do anything but press one button!

Great review Brian and many thanks. I saw the movie on original release back in 79 while still at school (how time flies). I also look forward to viewing this version when Paramount+ comes to the UK.

I recall it being called ‘Star Trek The Slow Motion Picture’ in the past, but despite that I’d rather re-watch the majesty of it’s unfolding mystery storyline a hundred times compared to various big screen ‘revenge’ reboots in future.

Goldsmith’s wonderful score throughout is a big part of it’s overall appeal for me of course, and I just wish we could get a plot approaching some of it’s atmospheric vibe for the ‘Kelvin Timeline’ crew’s next big screen outing.

I’ve heard it once called Star Trek: The Motionless Picture by Eugene Roddenberry out of all people.

But you’re right, it at least tried to tell a thought provoking story and not just another uber-villain trying to blow up Earth for three straight movies.

Even though I have always loved it, I had a Trek friend who always called it “The Motion Sickness,” probably mainly because he knew it would set me off…lol

I’ll be checking this out soon, I thought it was a beautiful film to begin with. May even go check it out when Fathom brings it to theaters, too.

I know it’s not popular, but the two final things I’d love to see now that TMP has been treated properly is redoing many effects shows from Star Trek V (and maybe adding some more scenes) and then looking at recutting Nemesis with a Cast Cut. There was supposedly a lot of great stuff left on the cutting room floor for Nemesis. So would love to get those two films in as good of shape as possible.

I’d love to see a new cut of V. There’s some beautiful cinematography in that film but the visual effects fall far short of the mark.

Yeah, I second the Star Trek 5 visual update and directors cut. As far as I know Shatner did ask for this from Paramount around the same time they were preparing the Directors Edition of TMP but was rejected. I mean if they can get a Snyder Cut of Justice League out there surely they can release a Shatner cut of Final Frontier.

with Rock Monsters! :D

I’ve already got the DVD of the TMP Director’s Edition and it is a better movie with some great additional effects which you see above. I don’t have a 4K player and TVthough, only a blu ray, so if I want this new one, I guess I need a new TV, right?

Most 4K blu ray releases include a 2K disc as well now.

I started it at 11:05pm last night just to sate my curiosity with the first 10-15 minutes but instead wound up watching the whole thing. Was totally impressed. The upgraded sound grabs you immediately and doesn’t let go. Just a splendid job and I truly, genuinely loved it! Didn’t even fall asleep in the parts I normally do! Agree upthread about the observation lounge scene – that did not look good enough to warrant its inclusion. But you know what, if that’s what Robert Wise wanted and his wanting is what gave us the rest of this, then so be it. Congrats to the team and to older Trek fans who get a wonderful epilogue to our phase of the fandom.

I am excited to check this out, but live in Canada. It looks like by the language it says Paramount+ US. Seems odd it would only be exclusive to one region. Does anyone know where / if this is viewable in other regions?

I watched it on P+ in Canada this morning. All of the Trek shows appear to have been added.

That’s great! All of the trek shows meaning Picard and Discovery as well? Determining to sign up to P+ vs Crave knowing they also have the newer shows and in anticipation for SNW.

I definitely prefer the Theatrical cut to the Director’s Cut (which is also restored), if only because the added CGI elements are very poorly done and clash with the opticals. The CGI V’Ger is astonishingly bad, I mean jaw-dropping bad amateurish work. The restoration only makes me appreciate the brilliance of the VFX from the original movie. I’m surprised they didn’t improve some of the opticals once they had the pieces to do so, such as the shaky composits and edge masking problems. I have to assume they didn’t really restore those opticals beyond rescanning the final edit. Still a nice improvement, especially the phenomenal audio on this movie.

No, they recomposited the optical effects when the original elements were available. Some have sadly gone missing but the stuff they did have looks great, aside from my previously mentioned issue with the over reduction in film grain.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but even at the time the TMP visuals were considered a mixed bag, ranging from the beautifully crafted (the Enterprise drydock sequence) to the frankly inept (the saucer wingwalk), no surprise given the volume of work required in such a compressed timeframe. I happen to think that the new digital effects very nicely complement the former, and vastly improve upon the latter, but to each, his own.

I agree, though would point out they snagged Star Trek’s only VFX Oscar nod to date.

Ian … ALIEN won that year, not TMP. Trek’s only Oscar is I believe for makeup from one of the Abrams movies, incredibly enough, as Goldsmith also didn’t win for TMP.

Yep. A Little Romance won Best Original Score. Don’t remember that one? No one else does, either.

He said Oscar nod, meaning it was nominated, not that it won.

You are just wrong on how they improved the V’ger scenes — just way off base.

To be clear, TMP is my hands-down, bar-none, all-time favorite movie. That being said, I agree that VGer looks so terribly awful. Cartoonish. I am thrilled with almost everything else, but the view of VGer when emerging from the cloud and firing on Earth is, as you said, astonishingly bad. Ditto for the rear view when it “blows up”. I does look better on my iPad, but on the 85” TV, it completely took me out of the movie.

I really like the little stuff they added, such as the Enterprise turning around when it reaches VGer’s front. Stuff like that makes a huge difference overall.

The audio is killer. This alone is worth the entire effort.

This is a stunning transfer and the sound mix is fantastic.

For those who weren’t there when this film was released, it’s impossible to describe the feeling of seeing this for the first time in a theater after watching the series in syndication for nearly a decade. We wouldn’t see a Star Trek film produced on this scale again until 2009 and the level of detail that went into producing TMP wouldn’t be fully appreciated for years.

And something completely lost on me when I was a kid was the fractured dynamic between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Kirk drags McCoy back into Starfleet to keep himself focused but there was also a need on Kirk’s part to have one of his closest friends by his side, leading to friction between the two men with McCoy even questioning if Kirk is best suited for this mission. Later, when Spock returns and tells Kirk that it is to their mutual benefit that he is on the Enterprise while meeting in the observation lounge, Shatner’s reaction is beautifully played: He seems genuinely surprised and hurt by Spock’s response before recovering and taking command of the situation to move forward. After questioning it for years, it became apparent to me that the writer’s had a full understanding of the relationship between these three men.

It’s amazing what they managed to pull off in 1979 and Robert Wise would love what they’ve managed to do here.

Now if only Paramount+ was a platform capable of presenting content as it was intended to be seen…

kirk’s middle life arc spans the OS movies as well as spock’s development, which sees the character rebooted after his ‘death’ in ‘khan so we kind of get a different spock in IV, V, VI and the 2009 movie

I’ve found it to be one of the worst HD transfers in a long time – and Paramount is the King of half-a**ed DVD transfers. Clearly this was all about Mr. Wise’s directors cut and completing scenes to make that possible. No attention AT ALL is paid to Mr. Wise’s intent/wishes as a Director supervising a Director’s Edition of an HD transfer.

He would not have promoted this release any more than he promoted the original release of the film. Except this time he wouldn’t have faded into the background and remained silent – no doubt he would have given a tell-all interview to Variety and Hollywood Reporter about how Paramount hires talented people and then tosses their control to assistants – something he knew a great deal about.

The new visual effects and correction and transfer of the existing VFX composites is some of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. The only thing the HD transfer has done is to make EVERY process shot painfully obvious. And it does the same for every mistake and oversight in the camera originals.

I’ll say this, using this transfer as a drinking game is much more fun than in the past. I streamed this simultaneously with 5 friends. Every time Spock’s uniform changed color – a drink. Every time a stage hand or support element appeared on screen – a drink. Every time an actor reduced to stunned googly eyes with mouth agape – a drink. Honestly between the sequence in the lounge, Scotty in the engine room, the V’ger plasma probe on the bridge, and decent actors reduced to reacting to a view screen, I was crocked before the movie was half over!

Sounds like this is getting mixed reviews. I tried watching it shortly after midnight, but it wasn’t available yet so I watched some of the theatrical version so I can have a point of comparison for when I finally see it.

September here we come…not going to watch it on inferior streaming. If the Fathom Event near me really uses a 4K projector, then I would do that.

Really happy to read what a comprehensive remaster this appears to be. Can’t wait to watch this again via physical media. Streaming looks good but the image can still break down sometimes, especially during quicker pans and cuts.

I’ve watched most of this… and this is gorgeous.

Also, the tightened pacing of this cut plus new sound for the 4k, to me, moves the film along even more than the 2001 version. Fewer “dead” moments of faces/reactions/scenery… really illustrates how sound influences a film IMHO. And there’s one new Kirk line near the end, if I’m not mistaken. And perhaps some alternate ADR here and there? I want to see this in the theater for sure.

To pick nits, as we are wont to do on this site, I wish the new CGI looked a little… I dunno… wobblier, especially V’ger approaching earth. Everything moves a little too precisely, without analog artifacts. Yet, to be fair, not as video gamey as the 2001 version… so that’s good. (And I loved that version, too.)

I’m picking nits.

This is stunning.

I almost miss the more languid pace. (Kidding.) But for comfort food on a rainy day, there is the 4k theatrical cut!

Congratulations to the filmmakers. And may Robert Wise rest in peace.

VGer approaching Earth is cartoonish. Really bad. Nearly everything else gets an A+, especially the audio.

I was watching the BR a couple weeks ago and my wife and I kept commenting on the weird split-focus that Wise wanted to use. Some scenes just make no sense and I’d love to hear the blurred the appropriate side. For example, Kirk is talking to Spock maybe when he first comes on the ship, and theres the bad-hair bulbous head guy standing at his station in the background, super sharp. Why? Why? Why have the no-name crew in focus? It’s a distraction for sure.

The idea ‘in theory’ is that since they shot low-light levels and had very limited depth of field (means shallow focus) for much of the movie and nearly all of the bridge scenes, that the split-field diopters would give the impression of greater depth of field. And when used properly, with the right lighting and contrast, the trick will often work, though a wandering viewer eye can usually detect its use. Wise’s ANDROMEDA and HINDENBURG both use diopters a lot, and there were only a couple shots in the latter that I found problematic … ANDROMEDA (which was shot by TMP’s DP) has more of a problem, again owing to the set environments not being well-suited to the look, but it almost never comes off like the obnoxious blob you cite with ‘Kirk sees Spock again.’

But the TMP bridge and the way it was lit didn’t really offer hard line demarcations to hide the ‘split’ where the diopter line separating clear glass from diopter took place, so you wound up with washes of out of focus bridge that was only emphasized by the weird elements of the background that did seem sharp. Makes the scene distracting as Hell with a mushy look that seems unnatural, as opposed to traditional out of focus fallover in DoF, especially on closeups.

Way too much blame to go around on this one; DP came on late with only 1 month prep, but even if thay hadn’t tested with this lighting, they could have stopped using them when they did see the results. The idea that the whole thing was caused by having to reduce the wattage in the consoles to keep the buttons from melting — along with the idiotic call to use dim rear-projection on most displays instead of using CRTs with video playback, which was how even Disney was able to do all this on THE BLACK HOLE at the same time and how TWOK and the sequels operated — suggests the whole look of the film was driven not by artistic concerns, but by tech limitations that should have been easily overcome, even if they hadn’t been anticipated.

Wow, you couldn’t be more academic or more NOT familiar with Wise’s shooting style OR with the substantial skills of Mr. Kline, the cinematographer. Deliberately screwing a complex shot either because of blocking, lighting, camera block, or combinations is a very old trick used by all the greats and their teams so that they can stay on shooting schedule with the idea of picking the shot(s) up during re-shoots.

Why do you think on the master reveal of the bridge, all you can see is the extra’s junk slinging around in his jumpsuit? Because Wise, Kline, and Mr. Ramsay were too stupid to notice a swing crotch shot in the middle of the 65mm frame?

Mr. Wise, especially, was notorious for staging complex scenes that just weren’t coming together in the time allotted on the schedule by using the diopter where there WAS NO chance of hiding the transition in the lenses and moving the sequence to re-shoots so that he and the team had time to rethink the progression of the shots and the setups before staging it again under less pressure.

Re-shoots were a standard part of his deal since the mid-60’s and Paramount’s breach of this and director’s final-cut were one of a long list of Paramount violations that caused Mr. Wise to petition the DGA to have his name removed from the film and his refusal to do most of the promotion that Paramount had booked with him.

On the plus side – the dude with the huge forehead and really bad wig in perfect focus (he’s Kirk’s coat-check after returning from V’ger) and all the equally shocking abuses of Scott by the b-unit in the engine room are just more DRINK moments in the film – like every time Spock’s uniform shifts from blue to gray and back again, and again, and again! :)

I’m pretty well-read on the subject of cinematography, but admit I’ve not heard any of this previously, so a part of me is thinking it is a put-on. However, a friend did email me a huge document that is apparently a definitive Wise bio (have only skimmed the TMP portions and DAY THE EARTH thus far), so I’ll take a look and see if there is actually any support for this position of yours.

Given that the schedule was adjusted from 60 to 100 days after the first two weeks of shooting, and certainly went well beyond even that figure with how long they were on the v’ger set, would not come to any conclusion about Wise not getting to do reshoots (especially when practically the last stretch of live-action was a reshoot of the tag that happened at Shat’s behest.) A constant issue for the duration of the main shoot (not counting the SF, klingon, epsilon or new spacewalk scenes) was the concern that they might have to shut down to wait for the vger set … why would that be an issue if Wise could have just used that time on the standing sets to do what you are talking about?

As for Kline, the man did good work a number of times, but overall I was not impressed with his resume. Personally, I thought BODY HEAT looked godawful (why light women from beneath? Was it a carryover from TMP?) SOYLENT GREEN is sometimes overlit to the point of seeming like a TV show, and I have to wonder about how he seemed to accede to the PD on TMP about nearly everything. Not saying they had to go at it tooth&nail like the folks on SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES or the original STAR WARS, but all I see on most of TMP is surprisingly unflattering soft light, which runs counter to pretty much every prime directive a DP might operate under.

Yeah, I took a look through the rest of that book and didn’t find any references to this supposed penchant Wise had for reshooting let alone deliberately screwing up the first time in order to reshoot at his leisure.

Also have a hard time with your claim that Wise petitioned DGA to have his name removed, when he actually carried the damn print to the premiere. I’ve also dropped a line to the one guy I know who seems to have more insider TMP info than anyone else, to see if he can weigh in on these claims of yours.

I had trouble finding the movie as it wasn’t listed as ‘new’ or appearing on the main page. Its as if Paramount didn’t want anyone to easily find it.

To save time, I watched it on the iMac not bothering to set up the system to watch it properly and just wanted to enjoy it and let whatever changes come that were alerting.

The overture arrangement is different. Was it the original theatrical one? I was looking for the piano playing the Ilia theme towards the end but maybe that was added only for the album soundtrack.

The Las Vegas sparkles to the opening credits was unexpected and awful. I was thinking is THIS what was wanted had they had time to do a proper opening credit sequence? I’m thinking if you’re spending $40M on a pic in 1979, either its going to be Superman-bombastic or Alien-esque cool with movements through various space phenomenon (quasers, comets, asteroid fields, etc) set to Goldsmith’s march ending with the area of space of the Vger cloud.

The sound fx are a mixed bag. Vger’s plasma energy bolt have less of that annoying whireee sound but enough of it to neuter its dramatic bite that was supposed to set up Vger’s ‘divine’ power of destruction during the opening. The engine sound has the TNG engine beating THUGTHUG THUG, which I don’t understand to this day why they included it as it came AFTER and was more suited to the the light sequence from that ship’s warp core. The warp whooosh has that 1930s radio frequency sound but still detracts. I’m thinking why the retro choices with the sound fx mix when it was Wise, himself, who dictated to the visual and sound fx people to create things that were never heard or seen before. During the attack on the Enterprise, I could hear a snippet of the 1960s engine sound mixed in.

Some of the newer dialogue looping changes were interesting. Kirk saying to Sonak..to be on the bridge following his meeting with Nogura had less of the original’s urgency. There are more but I’ve forgotten them by now. Have to see it again…

The film quality overall is superb! I’ve seen people whom I didn’t see before after 42 years of viewing! Mostly background people and the clarity of their faces and costume. In the rec dec scene I saw this girl that with makeup resembled one of those hog looking aliens from TOS that was murdered in a Vulcan-style fashion.

Since the movie is now properly preserved, I think they should make at least 1 good 70mm roadshow quality print. With all the work that went from obtaining most of the original 65 mm elements to cleaning and preserving, why not? If interest in this new edition sells well, perhaps make 3D version for another release in a Fathom-type or limited theatrical run.

One thing I picked up on the audio which I’ve literally never heard before until I watched this last night – during the V’ger attack when they cut to the warp core getting zapped, you can very clearly hear the Wilhelm scream and it’s just so, so corny. Every time I hear it I laugh, and it’s completely misplaced in that moment.

Haha I started it up and was so excited and settling in with the overture and then the credits came on and I was like “The credits are sparkling! Wow it looks so good!” I loved it

I was surprised — okay, not surprised, actually, but definitely annoyed — by the amount of effort I had to put into finding this on Paramount +.

Here’s the thing. I subscribed to CBS All Access from day one of Discovery, and have been with it almost continuously ever since. Have never missed a single episode of Trek they’ve put out. I watch them at the first available opportunity 99% of the time.

AND YET, the Paramount + app didn’t have the sense to have this movie front and center in my suggestions.

Paramount, are you at some point going to at least begin pretending you’re not in the bush leagues of streamers?

Paramount’s sole concern at this point is being purchased by another company. That’s Viacom’s endgame, so, their consumer product offerings aren’t going to get the TLC they need to succeed, unfortunately.

Also, I notice that most streaming platforms have trouble offering mixed content. In other words, if you watch a bunch of TV shows, they’re not always likely to offer the movie based on that TV show or similar movies. BUT, yeah, you’d think with P+ that they’d have the Star Trek part of their ecosystem all sorted out. On the TV menu, they even have their own Trek section. Weird that they don’t have it linked to the movies.

I had just the opposite, It was front and center on the homepage for me

It made the homepage sometime in the late afternoon.

Interesting!

I saw the new Directors Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture once it came out on Paramount Plus + this morning and the movie has never looked or sounded any better than it does here. Also the shots of the enterprise leaving drydock so much more clear than in the Theatrical Edition. Also the sound in Dolby Atmos amazing in 5.1. Can’t wait for this to come out on physical media on 4K UHD Blu-Ray Disc this September !!!

Such an underrated film.

This film could never be made today. It’s too intelligent/thoughtful and adult oriented. If it were made today Kirk, Spock + McCoy would be turned into unrecognizable losers (see Luke Skywalker) and would be forced to share the screen with younger (less interesting) stereotypical characters and a lot of explosions.

Looking forward to seeing this in 4k

Absolutely agreed, in fact this is the film that made me a big Trek fan in the first place. Before watching this I was mostly a Star Wars fan, but seeing TMP for the first time made me realize how smart, imaginative sci-fi can be with big, thought provoking ideas and I didn’t look back since. In fact I’d go so far as to say that TMP made me a fan of more smart science-fiction in general.

Just signed up for P+ today (I knew I would!) and watched the first half-hour of TMP. The detail, clarity, and color are impressive. Looks better than I’ve seen it in a while! Pleased. :)

If you haven’t signed up for P+ already, maybe consider doing so just for one month and only just to see this movie. It increases the chances of P+ doing more streaming exclusive remasters like… oh, I don’t know… DEEP SPACE NINE …

trailing off…

Honestly never liked this movie and my grand rewatch of the franchise confirmed it once again last year.

But I have to admit, this looks stunning. It really feels like a true upgrade to the film. I will probably give it a watch now just to see all the new effects in it.

Now give us remastered versions DS9 and VOY already!!!

It wasn’t intuitively placed on Paramount+ (as a Trek fan I thought it would be), but once I got there I enjoyed it for what it is. It’s been improved. The sound design above all else. As the review noted, there are more layers to it now (not just the elimination of the annoying klaxon and computer voice that was done in 2000). The film of course also looks so much better. But the storytelling weaknesses of the movie can’t be improved; that’s set in stone. I don’t call it the ‘Motionless Picture’; I call it the ‘Bad Vibes’ movie; everyone is seething or barking at each other for the first half of it. One aspect I recently realized was how poorly the film reflects on the beloved ‘Miracle Worker’. Scotty promises Kirk that he wouldn’t dare to disappoint him and that the ship would be ready. Of course, it wasn’t. And he further dismissed the transporter malfunction as “a wee problem”. Two people end up dead. Etc., etc. Along with DISC and Picard, the old saying applies well: “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage”.

Nice mini review Anthony, I agree with everything you say.

Well, from a storytelling perspective the crew not getting along initially is a key point. Its supposed to uncomfortable to watch it play out. Its been years since they worked together, Bones is mad he got “drafted” there, Spock is a closed-off emotional mess after failing his big test on Vulcan, Kirk is insecure and can’t handle being undermined/overridden by Decker. That makes it all the more effective and important when they all finally gel in the second half, and smoothly work together to deal with the situation. And it’s not Scotty’s fault that issues he could never had anticipated crop up. And like the rest of the crew, he’s rusty and having to deal with a new ship. I don’t recall him brushing off the transporter accident, either, but maybe I missed it.

He makes the “wee problem” with the transporter comment when he meets Kirk to pilot the shuttle pod to the Big E. So the issue was known in advance as was the problems with balancing the warp engines. So his assurances that everything would be okey-dokey weren’t credible. And McCoy is later lightly razzed for not wanting to step into the transporter (not long *after* two people had died in it???) is another example of slipshod writing in TMP.

“In the far distance, the distinctively pointed shape of the old TRANSAMERICA BUILDING. Everywhere else, the San Francisco urban sprawl is totally gone, replaced by lovely groves of large trees, green meadows, streams, lakes, and crystal clear air. (There still exists a small San Francisco “Living Museum” city but it is far enough away to be hidden by trees and will not appear in this story.) Here, as in much of the world, people live mostly in the climate-controlled, colorful and efficient “subterra cities.” All industry and transport is now underground. Clearly Earth has become the home of a people who love and protect their living planet.” – Star Trek: The Motion Picture Draft Screenplay by Gene Roddenberry (1978).

Thanks for the review. Decided to watch it and I agree with the fullness of the sound and improved visuals. I still think it runs a little long, but I didn’t expect major changes there. When I think about it in retrospect, they were probably trying to show what Star Trek would be with a much larger budget. They never would have spent money on a TV show back then.

Just sign up — and canceled — for P+ … But no 4k version for Canadian residents, just the theatrical release ( HD ) and director’s cut (SD) … No First Contact day release for your neighbour.

What are you talking about? It’s on there. I watched it and I’m in Canada. I think some versions of the P+ app must behave differently and require a search before it shows up but on my Google tv Chromecast, it’s under new releases

Did you try again Patrice because it’s on there.

Yep. Only the HD theatrical version is available here through the app.

Just check again on P+ via AppleTV and … no 4k version of the Director’s Cut .. only SD. Sad ;-( I was looking forward for that … I guess I’ll have to wait for the September release.

Awesome… thanks for the heads up. I’m stuck at home with Covid so its the next billing on the 75″!

Haven’t seen this yet and will be waiting for the September physical release. I have to say, I’m very concerned about what I’m hearing regarding the lounge scene. If enough people conplained, would there be any chance of it being pulled and replaced with either an uprezzed 2001 or 4k theatrical version of it, before September? Or is this now locked, and we have to live with it? The scene is arguably one of the better character scenes in the movie, and for Fein and Co to screw it up because they can’t resist tinkering, well, I’m astonished.

Lol. Upon reflection, no they wouldn’t do that. If it’s locked for streaming then it would be locked for blu ray too. With this and other issues I’m reading about online, I’ll have to reconsider whether I want to purchase this version, or just stick with the theatrical and 2001 versions.

Just how bad does the lounge scene look now? Because it ALWAYS looked terrible, with those crazy colorshifts everytime they went to an angle favoring the bluescreen starfield, since they broke a cardinal rule of old-school filmmaking in that you don’t shoot people in blue costumes against a bluescreen unless you’ve figured out a way of messing with the color record to bring things back in afterward.

First SW movie had a problem with blue matte lines predominating and they dealt with it by (and this is a short version answer, it was more complicated than this) throwing out that color record, but that only worked because it was a spaceship, not a person already seen in non-bluescreen shots, so nobody would know whether it was supposed to read as white-grey vs. grey-blue.

I’ve read three reports already suggesting going back to the theatrical version would be an improvement, but has anybody said anything about why — assuming the original elements couldn’t be found and digitally recomped — they didn’t just spend a ton of money correcting the colors on a frame by frame basis?

It has nothing to do with the colors, it’s the cropping around the characters! The original elements were probably not available.

Back in 2001, Daren R. Dochterman really wanted to fix the set behind the actors as it was supposed to be a large set of windows looking out at the Nacelle’s. He didn’t have the time or tech at the time to rotoscope the characters and put in the digital set. As a compromise, you see one of the nacelles in the window in the 2001 edition.

This time around, he replaced the window with the digital set he always wanted but at the expense of the cropping looking terrible. I don’t know if it could be fixed with a bit more time and care but it definitely needs it. It’s easily one of the most jarring and poorly done shots in the whole film now….which is a shame because the digital set itself looks pretty good.

Interesting about the colour correction, but time or budget limitations could have prevented this? In any case, the original scene never looked perfect but, effects wise, you could accept it as being as a product of it’s time, and move on. Here you have the problem of heavy handed CG and apparently botched rotoscoping, used in a bid to ‘correct’ something, actually making it look much worse. But I can’t comment on it too much since I haven’t actually seen the damn thing yet. Let’s put it this way, being honest with myself, I’m too much of a TMP fan to not pick this up at some point. But with all the negative stuff I’m hearing, it’s looking less like a day one/full price purchase.

I just signed up for P+ for the month to watch it. Was only 7 dollars. Worth it to check it out for yourself.

The new CGI looked seamless to me, with the one exception being a close view of the Enterprise that looked too pristine. The theatrical version already released already has the accepted ‘product of its time’ issues, and is still available for anyone who wants it. All the negative stuff I’m hearing amounts to 15 seconds of a poorly rotoscoped shot in a 2h 15m movie. It’s the only objectively bad issue, the rest of the changes are a matter of preference.

Interested, I feel you with the ‘too much of a TMP fan to not pick this up’ thing, but I’m really starting to wonder if the only answer is to pick up all the versions and then learn editing software, because my now decades-old cry for a cut-your-own-TMP really sounds like the only thing that will give me satisfaction w/o distraction.

The theatrical version has been my strong preference all along, for the sound choices and the VFX, but from what I’ve read, the theatrical UHD manages to ruin a lot of the spaceship VFX (not just the one dock shot) and that the problem pops up on the sequels in the set as well (I saw a couple of BoP frames from TVH that looked like they were copied from videotape, they looked so weirdly smeared.) So I have been sticking with my 09 blu set for now, which certainly has its own issues, but which I can, by manipulating various brightness and contrast controls, make pretty watchable when I re-view (which is often, far more than all the rest of the movies put together.)

The theatrical certainly has its problems visually (why Trumbull threw out the perfectly first matte on Vulcan and replaced it with the 3rD ROCK FROM SUN overbusiness with moons bopping across the sky I’ll never understand, and I’ve interviewed the guy, and nobody has ever explained how the little guy fleeing ep9 survived a daililes review, let alone inclusion in the final cut, as it has been wince-making for forever.

The fact that VFX finals arrived too late to be cut into the theatrical always made me think the wingwalk at the end could have been improved post-release, and I never got why the DE team went with low-rz CG instead of trying to find the alternates, unless it was to put their stamp on things (which seems to have worked with a lot of fans, but not with me.)

Also, given that there is little perspective change in the 2001 DE shots, I didn’t see why they couldn’t have gone old-school and just animated still cutouts of the E … it certainly wouldn’t have cost a ton to acquire some of Virgil Mirano’s incredibly stills of the E, then add the blinking lights on an animation stand, and by shooting that in 35mm, you’d have sidestepped the whole issue of resolution being substandard that seriously plagued the DE (for me anyway.) Plus the DE kind of steamrollers GR’s adherence to science aspect by popping in what looks like a stock pyro shot from an old library CD-ROM, disregarding the flames-don’t-exist-in-vacuum aspect. There’s an Apogee pyro shot seen in the longer TMP trailer that didn’t get released, the one on the DE extras disk I think, showing the debris from the asteroid, and the sliver of the shot looks quite good. Never understood why production used that terrible Abel test shot in its place, so again, something that was never done right in any version, as in the theatrical, the torp’s trail makes it look like it misses the asteroid and exits out of the wormhole before it could hit.

I suppose I should also disclose the fact that I don’t have a high opinion of those DE folks based on limited, long-distance interaction in late 2001, when as a staff writer with Cinefex, I made preliminary inquiries to Foundation Imaging about doing a story on the TMP DE (to give evidence of my enthusiasm, I remember during this period having Dochterman’s CG refit image as my desktop.) It was planned as the only other story in what was going to be an all-2001: a space odyssey retrospective ssue, which I thought was appropriate, and FI seemed enthusiastic, but then Fein (or was it Mattesino? Don’t remember, but whichever it was, it was the guy who did occasional laserdisc reviews for Cinefex) called my boss to complain about my ‘harassing’ Foundation, at which point the story went away (don’t look too hard for the 2001 issue; while it is pretty good and only contains about a dozen errors (like getting the YEAR that ‘dawn of man’ was shot wrong), it is maybe half the size of the piece I was editing. You’re better off tracking down a copy of Michael Benson’s SPACE ODYSSEY, which I see is unfortunately no longer selling for cheap at Hamilton Books … he got access to the tapes I had meticulously transcribed 18 years earlier and included a ton of info from them, making that a much more definitive accounting.)

Sorry for going on and on, just came off a near-allnighter finishing up writing about Par+’s THE OFFER, which is absolutely terrific, and I’m using this to unwind before going on to my day job.

It wasn’t the actors’ costumes that were the problem (at least that I noticed on one viewing), but the actors’ FACES were distorted.

Nothing is ever really ‘locked’ for streaming. They could always update it, happens all the time.

Yeah, as if doing visual effects cost nothing…

You left out the word ‘well.’

Effects changes were made to some TNG episodes after they were released on blu-ray. If the blu-ray isn’t due until September, there is time to fix this issue and maybe get the team to tweak a few other issues as well. It’s ‘almost’ perfect. That’s the great thing about digital files. They can be swapped in at a later date.

Wouldn’t that be great?

It’s 5 shots from one camera angle, totaling maybe 15 seconds. It does look bad, but I didn’t even notice when I was watching it, only after re-viewing after reading the complaints. I was too engrossed in the story, and each shot is just a few seconds long so it barely registers. All of the important dialogue is spoken in other shots w/o the window in view.

Really? Because I just viewed a screenshot of the offending scene (on an Avforums TMP Directors Edition thread) and I have to say, I’m stunned. At first I thought it was a joke picture posted as a prank, but no, apparently that indeed is what it looks like in the movie. What were they thinking? I said before that I was too much of a fan to not buy this at some point…but I think I just changed my mind. Excessive DNR, losing Kirk’s second ‘Viewer off!’ line to Uhura, ‘weird’ colour grading (to some) ….all of these are problematic, but probably not dealbreakers when set against the general sound and picture benefits. But that lounge scene is just too much. Absolutely shocking. And it does a lot more than just ‘barely register’. If the scene isn’t replaced by the September launch, I won’t be purchasing this.

I’m sure Paramount-CBS will get over it.

We just started watching it last night. Got about halfway and decided to take a break.

Here are my initial impressions:

-The visuals are fantastic for the most part. There are a few nitpicks I have; first of which, that observation deck scene? Disgusting. It was seriously cringe. -I noticed they changed a few things in the movie. Showed Earth next to Spacedock, changed the alarm and added the computer chirps. It was great! -The audio is INCREDIBLE. I want to pick up the new soundtrack!

Excited to watch the bottom half. Although, I forgot how boring and long going through V’ger is.

Yeah, the observation lounge scene was awful. I hope they can fix it. :(

I actually tried watching it too but I stopped after 20 minutes lol. I ended up watching First Contact instead to celebrate the day. I’m going to try and start again but even new effects just doesn’t drive me to watch it. It’s just too dry for me. But the stuff I did see look great at least.

Just finished it… looked and sounded great. Haven’t seen it for a long time and with the new special effects its an absolute cracker of a movie. Good to be able to make heads and tails of the giant Vger spaceship for the first time too!

Fantastic review, many thanks! Ohhh this sounds/looks so good! Cursing the fact I’m in the UK and will have to wait, but this’ll be a day 1 pre-order for the 4k UHD set when it becomes available. My joint favourite of the original cast films along with The Voyage Home. Very appreciative of all the hard work, love and passion that’s evidently gone into this re-re-do – This is ‘my’ Star Trek! :)

I watched it last night. TMP is my favorite Star Trek movie, and this is a fantastic upgrade. But I’ll agree with many people here regarding a couple of the negatives. Love the new opening credits but dislike the transition. I thought it was a streaming glitch at first. Agree with people here regarding the observation deck scene. That really took me out of the movie. Awful. On the positive side of things, the Dolby Atmos sound improvements are what I appreciated most. I’ll be buying the 4K BR when it’s released in September.

I have only been able to watch the opening sequence with the Klingon battle with V’ger so far. I have to say that I was disappointed that they did not “enhance” these scenes at all. The same effects issues present since the original release of the film are still there. I was hoping for some digital magic to really make this scene pop.

The opening scene was sadly one of the few where the original effects elements were missing / lost so they could not be digitally composited. Everything in the movie where they did have the original elements to work with looks stunning.

Yes, I understand. However, with today’s technology it would have been possible to “digitally recreate” these elements, especially since a physical model exists that can be scanned and used as a template. I know this adds expense, but it would have been nice to see.

I don’t think that was really in the budget or the timeline, plus all the physical models were auctioned off several years ago. They wouldn’t have access to them anymore. Taking time to hand paint out the matte lines would have been possible but of course time consuming.

I watched last night and it really is a beautiful upgrade. I’ve seen the movie many times and still very much enjoyed this version.

Just watched the 4K version. It’s amazing! Like a whole new film. I remember being 15 years old watching the film in 1979 with my grandfather. And I remember how the film seemed to drag along and the effects were not quite “there”. Seeing the cast reunite was the thing.

But… in this 4K version…. My mind was blown at how great everything looked AND sounded!!! And the special effects were outstanding. FINALLY….. I could see the V’ger cloud in all it’s amazing detail.

Kudos to ALL the artists who brought this film to life! It truly was a labor of love.

I’m amazed and very happy they addressed my biggest issue with the original movie- hardly any effects shots of the Enterprise in relation to V’Ger. There are lots now, and V’Ger looks even more massive and menacing because of them. Awesome.

Time for my nitpicks :D but thank you to everyone who worked on this and made it as good as possible for the 4/5 release. I just hope more edits can be made before now and the Blu-Ray.

I didn’t watch the whole film, only some sequences that I know inside and out, but the restoration has in fact left me a little bewildered at what they still didn’t manage to do, or what still feels kinda off.

Firstly, I thought with the digital compositing there would be no matte lines. There still are! You can see it right off the bat with the Klingon ships approaching the cloud. The V’ger cloud shots are also still incredibly grainy compared to other effects shots.

I was hoping they wouldn’t do the corny “focus in” effect on the main title graphics, which feels very 2001 – look at what fancy built-in effects come with our editing software! I like how in the theatrical cut the titles just appear on the screen, bombastic with the music. The effect of the letters coming into focus literally dilutes the impact, and the font also has this weird sparkly tint to it that again just seems way overproduced. Why do the letters need to glint in this sort of fake digital way?

For the leaving drydock scene, they missed at least one fleck of dust that I was still able to spot on the engineering hull. Seriously, they have had the ability to pore over every frame of this thing for years and years, and they weren’t able to get everything, which is kinda aggravating. Also, when the sun rises from behind the Earth, they seriously darkened the ship to make the visual pop more. That’s definitely the “beauty shot” that actually has no matte lines and looks perfect, although I think it now starts off way too dark.

They still didn’t fix the nav console “radar screen” during the approaching V’ger sequence, where it’s wavy and looks like the piece of paper that it probably is. They could’ve digitally smoothed it out to be round the way it’s supposed to look. I had pointed this out to Daren this summer hoping they would be able to tweak it.

Also, I’m less of a fan of this version of the second torpedo being disarmed versus the DVD release. That shot of the Enterprise looks so CG, and I liked how on the DVD the torpedo sort of winked out, but in this new release it sort of flashes out in a bang. It’s such a subtle change that nonetheless I find inferior to the way they originally re-did it.

I also just don’t like the sound of the red alert klaxon this time around. I haven’t seen the DVD in decades now so I can’t really compare, but it sounds different to my ears now compared to what I remember.

All said, I wish that they hadn’t made certain changes to the 4K release compared to the DVD 20 years ago. Certain shots look really lovely, but there are still some matte lines I wish they had been able to smooth over. This is literally the pickiest of nits, just wanted to get them out, and maybe I’ll have more to note when I see it in theaters next month. But I’m super glad this version gets to exist, and I appreciate all the hard work people have spent over decades to get it done.

As mentioned in a couple of articles the team wasn’t able to find all of the original effects elements, some are presumable lost / misplaced, so there are still a few effects shots with visible matte lines and the opening scene with the Klingon ships is one of them sadly.

I also hope that the team can fix a few remaining issues before committing this cut to disc in September…that officers lounge roto scoping really needs to be improved or just the original effects from the theatrical put back in.

And hopefully before the theatrical release in May. Can you imagine that officers lounge scene on the big screen?!

But I feel like you can digitally erase matte lines the same way you can erase dust – you take the before and after and you composite it using computer magic

There’s a lot in VFX that doesn’t quite work as advertised. In 2000 I heard about a matting system called Knockout that would let you do just about anything — then Disney quietly folded that ‘The Secret Lab’ company (after only a couple years earlier, buying and destroying DreamQuest Images to acquire said talent pool.)

Back in 2014 I was hearing about a system that was on the horizon that would let you identify and isolate objects in frame based on their distance from camera — so theoretically, you could just be filming somebody out of doors on a busy street, and it would isolate just the people 15 feet away (or 15 ft and 20 ft, whatever you dialed in) and be able to matte them into a different environment. That horizon must still be on the horizon, haven’t seen anything about it actually happening.

I’m not saying what you suggest is impossible, but it does sound impractical … as in, too much effort and not a guaranteed quality result. As AI gets smarter, this sort of thing should get easier, but TMP’s matte lines sometimes ‘chatter’ so that might require more smarts to figure out, and you’d have to be working at resolutions high enough that the result isn’t just a fuzzing of the line or too-sharp of a delineation.

If you read some of the in-the-weeds articles on VFX of the 70s, like CINEFANTASTIQUE’s piece on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and STAR WARS and some of what is mentioned about ALTERED STATES, you see that for all the science and math and tech involved in making the work successful, that a lot of it ultimately rested on human operators finessing things by eye, usually slipping the mismatch part of a shot on the part of frame that viewers are least likely to see. And that’s with even the best work being done, which I think everybody would have agreed was Trumbull’s stuff. But even there, I remember seeing stars ghost through the edge of the mothership as it crossed overhead (not the reveal, the shots showing it moving before doing its flip) and having to concede that nobody is perfect.

In reading that last paragraph, it occurred to me that stuff about human operators almost sounds like an argument in favor of human intelligence still being essential for espionage in the spysat age, a notion that I guess keeps going out of favor but seems a no-brainer to me. Based on what I can bring myself to read about current events, I think the HUMINT factor is really helping with the current war on the side of the angels, and for once it seems like our intelligence agencies have gotten things right when it mattered. Question is whether that will be enough (end side-rant.)

Thrilled with the updated visuals but absolutely floored by the sound. I’ve watched it twice now with the Atmos mix (with Apple AirPods Max) and there are soooo many new little touches everywhere I don’t even know where to begin. Overall the mix contributed to a sensation I’ve never experienced while watching this movie – genuine tension. Congrats to the team, amazing work!

Ha-ha: Atmos on earphones!

There is indeed Atmos for headphones. Apple Music has a whole catalog of very interesting new and remastered mixes in Atmos. Their newer AirPods products support Atmos. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Atmos#Headphones

I watched it with AirPods Max, too. I didn’t know about this setting! Gonna have to watch it again!

This version of the film is for me, now the definitive version. The new sound mix is excellent, in my opinion. The “lounge” scene is never going to look great but this version of it improves on the original. The scene with the energy probe on the Bridge has always looked really bad and now looks much better. I never thought it could be so dramatically improved.

As others have commented, the overall look of the film is much “warmer”.

Paramount has made mistakes in the past in their handling of Star Trek, but this time, they put the money into getting things right. For that, I am grateful.

that attack on the bridge was always my favourite moment in the film, even if the effects were wobbly. it just so unnerving and creepy.

not 4K and no atmos sound in Canada…will have to wait in September for the 4K bluray :(

Do you have the premium plan? That’s the only way it shows up in 4K and Atmos in the US

Where is the 4K version located? You’d think Paramount + would feature it somewhere. I cannot find the 4K version. Does someone have a link to it?

You need the Paramount Plus premium plan

It is an amazing film in 4K. The remastered music score, the visual effects, everything completely enhance the film. I never thought it was a bad or boring movie to begin with, but, with all the work they put in, this definitely makes it a better film. This is how it should’ve been, and maybe the whole movie franchise would’ve been markedly different.

When V’ger is initially revealed inside the cloud, I had presumed the round honeycomb structure was the front of the vessel as it was headed to Earth. But upon reaching Earth in the Director’s Edition, the orientation appears opposite; the honeycomb structure is treated as the tail end. I wonder how this is accounted for.

It’s not really an issue. It’s as simple as the trajectory the Enterprise follows to enter the cloud ends up at the back of V’Ger. You can see they then go up and traverse the length of V’Ger and end up at the front. The problem is the Theatrical version just never makes that very clear. Have you watched the new Director’s Edition? There’s a new little shot that helps make it a bit clearer where the Enterprise ends up.

I also found this review video of the V’Ger replica from Eaglemoss that matches the model to clips from TMP that might help. https://youtu.be/GT0ebHIX2k8

All it would have taken in the theatrical was another screen graphic or two, or an ‘Enterprise pivoting while at warp’ shot (god how I love that shot in TOS) to make absolutely clear that they were turning and then closing from astern. I knew from the novelization that they were seeing the back end of the ship first, but now I’m wondering if that would have been clear if I hadn’t read it. It amazed me to see people 20 years ago who still didn’t realize which end was which on Vger. Did people think that the Enterprise was going warp 7+ in frigging reverse to pass over the ship front-to-back?

I will say to be fair to folks who don’t get V’Ger’s front from back, it is a little confusing. I didn’t have a clear picture of it for years until I saw the concept art somewhere. The Enterprise leaves from Earth to intercept V’Ger which is heading for Earth. So you’d kind of expect them to meet “head on.” Of course when you’re dealing with an unconventional giant ship with a massive energy field around it, it may not really be clear exactly which end is which and it might not even really matter, since it’s like a drifting force of nature slowly moving towards our solar system.

And yes I agree another “tactical plot” type graphic that we saw a couple of times in TMP would have helped.

The reason I suggest an Enterprise pivoting shot is that you could have played it against a CORBOMITE style reveal, where the cloud blows up from a dot to a huge form as the background. That way you’d be able to tell that the E’s approach would be in pursuit. It would be interesting to see some of Abel’s boards to see if this was reflected in the original intent.

Ah yes, I see. That would have been a great shot. The “Corbomite” shot is always awesome to watch.

I watched some of it yesterday and just listened to the “Inglorious Treksperts” guys go off on how unbelievably good that it was.

“Star Trek-TMP” was always visually good. I don’t really understand why there was a need to re-do this or that to make it more visually stimulating. I guess its the same reason why they re-did the effects from the original show. To make it more marketable and to bring in new revenue for Paramount. That part I understand.

But this film never got me, emotionally invested, like I was with “Star Trek II-VI”, so all the tune-up’s and window dressing doesn’t really do a thing for me. I’m impressed. The work is great. It’s just that to me, the other films get you more engaged with the characters and feel more like “Star Trek” than this.

How Star Trek: The Motion Picture 4K Director's Edition puts the Star Wars Special Editions to shame

The best way to upgrade a classic science fiction film is to change it as little as possible.

The human adventure is just beginning. At the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), these words appeared on screen in plain white text. In the most recent 4K director’s edition , those words are in golden text. Believe it or not, this is one of the more radical changes made to the first theatrical Star Trek film.

Here’s why the beautiful new 4K restoration of this Trek film takes a subtle approach to updating an older sci-fi movie. And how it course corrects a trend established by the infamous Star Wars special editions .

Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Director’s Edition

The Enterprise leaves spacedock in the 4K version.

On April 5, 2022, the new 4K restoration of Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Director’s Edition debuted on Paramount+. Overseen by David Fein, Daren Dochterman , and Mike Matessino, this cut of the film is, essentially, a spruced-up version of a previously released “director’s edition” from the year 2001. Back then, director Robert Wise was still alive and approved a few of the movie’s bigger changes, which, for the most part, are very minor.

In other words, just like there have been multiple “Special Editions” of the 1977 Star Wars or the 1982 Blade Runner , this isn’t the first time Star Trek: The Motion Picture has been re-released. In 1983, a “Special Longer Versions” of the film hit VHS , which notoriously spliced in footage from one of the film’s deleted scenes, creating a continuity error in which Kirk is wearing two radically different spacesuits just seconds apart.

Neither the 2001 nor the new 2022 Director’s Edition have these kinds of problems, but that doesn’t mean Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a perfect movie. Whether it's 1979, 1983, 2001, or 2022, the film is still a fairly humorless, slow-paced, and derivative of a pre-existing TOS episode, “The Changeling.” These days, homages and Easter eggs in Trek feel normal, considering there’s so much material to work with. But in 1979, there had only been 79 episodes of TOS . Why the eventual shooting story was, in essence, the same story that The Original Series had already told is still baffling.

Of course, there are various explanations for why The Motion Picture was written and filmed the way it was, and those accounts have filled several books, including Return to Tomorrow by Preston Neal Jones , The First Star Trek Movie by Sherilyn Connelly, The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Gene Roddenberry and Susan Sackett, Chekov’s Enterprise by Walter Koenig.

tl;dr: Nearly the entirety of the 1970s were filled with attempts to get a Star Trek film made, which, at one point, resulted in a new Star Trek TV series entering pre-production, and that failed TV show eventually resulted in The Motion Picture .

A classic science fiction film

The remastered Enterprise in the 4K Director’s Edition of The Motion Picture . This is not a new VFX shot.

But the power of The Motion Picture has almost nothing to do with its story or the behind-the-scenes machinations. Like much of what is powerful about Star Trek, the subtext matters more than the context. Even with its flaws, there’s no denying this is a classic science fiction film. And it’s also obvious the film made history in many significant ways: It was the first major motion picture based upon a TV series, it was the first mainstream science fiction film to use the word “wormhole,” and it was the first feature film in what would become the ever-expanding Star Trek media franchise. Released on December 6, 1979, The Motion Picture was the literal last word in the sci-fi cinema of the 1970s, a bold and thoughtful film that has proven itself more timeless than some of its peers, most notably, the 1977 version of Star Wars .

From a purely superficial standpoint, what makes the new 4K Director’s Edition so shocking is how well the visual effects and overall design of the film hold up to contemporary scrutiny. The Star Trek franchise wouldn’t begin using Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic until Wrath of Khan in 1982, meaning the effects and production design of TMP came from a combination of talents including Doug Trumball, Alex Weldon, Robert Abel, and legendary model and prop-maker Brick Price, credited on screen for the first time in this 2022 edition.

There are a lot of behind-the-scenes reasons why The Motion Picture had so many cooks in the VFX kitchen, most of which are detailed in Jeff Bond’s amazing 2020 book, Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects , but the result is clear: From the redesigned USS Enterprise to the mysterious V’Ger cloud to the massive sets and, of course, Spock’s ultra-memorable space-walk scene, the way The Motion Picture looked in 1979 was an achievement in a specific type of science fiction cinema which, can only be called epic . Arguably, it hasn’t been replicated, and seeing it in 4K only proves how amazing it looked the first time around.

What the Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Director’s Edition changes

Kirk arrives at Starfleet Command in a new VFX shot. This is one of only a handful of “new” shots in the “Director’s Edition” of the film.

So, what did the new 4K version change? Essentially, everything about the original cut of the film simply looks crisper and clearer. Some of the sounds have been remixed for clarity, most notably, the trippy “wormhole” scene. A few new VFX shots have been either added or cleaned up, specifically when Admiral Kirk arrives at Starfleet Command toward the beginning of the film. And yes, the font for the opening and closing credits is gold now, not white.

But the result is pretty much the exact opposite of watching any of the various “Special Editions” of Star Wars: A New Hope . Although the enhanced DeathStar battle in the Special Edition of Star Wars is, admittedly, great, The Motion Picture didn’t actually need to do anything radical like that. Starship shots have not been replaced with new angels, and the meaning of each scene has not been changed. There is no “ maclunkey” moment in the Director’s Edition for The Motion Picture . There are no distracting CGI characters. The movie is simply the movie, just way better looking.

Because The Motion Picture is arguably the most beautiful Star Trek film of them all, this means this restoration doesn’t feel silly or gimmicky. This is Star Trek as it was in 1979, which, watching it now, feels shockingly brand new.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Director’s Edition is streaming now on Paramount+ .

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‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director’s Edition’ Review: Honoring the Franchise Installment with Visual Effects It Always Deserved

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Back in 1979, when Robert Wise ’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture first debuted, Wise very much viewed the film’s theatrical release as a rough cut. Over the years, the first Star Trek movie has seen a number of retoolings, from the release of its extended cut in 1983, to a revised release in 2001 which included new CGI sequences and a soundtrack remix so ominous it moved the film’s original G rating to PG. Now, in celebration of Star Trek Day, Paramount+ has released yet another new version — Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director’s Edition — in 4K UHD.

Considering every version this first Star Trek movie has taken, its newest iteration, with its gorgeous new CGI and visual effects, most effectively-realize Special Effects Director Douglas Trumbull ’s original dream, which he discussed at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016. Trumbull intended a beautiful space epic that really gave audiences the opportunity to bask in the glory of space travel, and the glory of Star Trek. When the original version of Star Trek was released, it received mixed reviews, as fans criticized the movie’s lack of impactful action sequences. Watching it, we do spend an awfully long time gazing at the stars and various spacecrafts. Our beloved space explorers do the same. And yet, that’s the point: a celebration of the great human adventure, and traversing this extraordinary world. The new Director’s Edition doubles down on this original intention, even more effectively realizing Trumbull’s goal. Now that four decades have passed since the film’s first release, technology has finally caught up to the Trumbull’s initial aspirations, and this cut realizes the movie’s modern space epic potential.

Originally criticized as devoid of enough action sequences and overly indulging in visual effects, this Director’s Edition turns that reaction into a celebration. This movie is now a feast for the eyes, complete with stunning new visual effects upgraded for the modern audience. A true revelry in the grandeur of space odyssey, the digital artistry, and care given to reimagining the look and feel of the original footage feels like an homage. Paired with the all-consuming soundtrack from the 2001 release, the entire movie feels crisp, bright, and exciting. When our crew struggles to regain control during a warp core malfunction, we see their essences stretch and strain through space-time, their struggle much more dynamic than in the first iteration. As the crew approaches what we’ll eventually come to know as V’ger, the cloud’s details shine brighter than ever before, giving an even stronger nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey . With glistening new motion graphics that read as clean, contextually appropriate reimaginings of the director’s original intention, the Director’s Edition is a celebration of all this movie wanted to be and has finally had the chance to become.

RELATED: The 4K Remaster to the Director's Edition of ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ Is Coming to Paramount+

As the first Star Trek movie in the franchise, at the time of its original release, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a reunion of sorts for the fans who had, at this point, only come to know and love the cast of the Enterprise through their television sets. The movie, flawed as it may be regarding its inactive plot, was an upgrade from the at-home experience. It’s clear everyone behind the film intended on giving fans the chance to bask in this space world, joke with their space friends, and ponder big questions. A reunion launching us into new escapades in the great unknown. Now-Admiral James T. Kirk ( William Shatner ) returns to his beloved ship after time away, hell-bent on saving humanity from an unknown existential threat. Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ) finds his way back to the Enterprise, pulled to the mission by sensing the threat all the way on Vulcan. Much of the film's tension comes from Kirk’s determination to muscle through this mission, often casting aside advice from trusted crew faithfuls like Leonard McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ), Montgomery Scott ( James Doohan ), and William Decker ( Stephen Collins ). The movie—as it did back in the ‘70s—still very much feels like one long episode of television. And yet, it eventually meanders its way toward its true purpose as an origin story.

Much like how Decker and antagonist V’Ger’s ultimate union and evolution births a new species, so too did this film birth a new chapter in the Star Trek universe. While many agree that it’s not until Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that the franchise fully finds its footing in terms of the tone subsequent movies will take, this film was the bridge along which the Star Trek universe made its way onto the big screen. This new edition honors that legacy, matching the film’s big questions about the nature of man, machine, logic, emotion, determination, acceptance, and evolution with the visual wonder questions like these warrants.

Other than the special effects advancements, the re-release of this particular film, a work exploring the consequences of man’s creations, feels unnervingly relevant today. What started as humanity sending a probe out into the universe searching for more ultimately devolves into V’ger’s longing to connect with its creator nearly turning catastrophic. Humanity misinterprets this yearning and curiosity as a hostile attack, a miscommunication that nearly costs everything. Four decades later, we humans continue struggling with the repercussions of our best intentions. Glorifying this version of that tale via a new director’s edition cements this take in the canon of man vs. machine science fiction, sure to offer audiences food for thought for decades to come.

The team behind this new release used CGI effects to resolve some visual effects issues that have always plagued this film. Now, the movie is the closest it’s been yet to its original vision. If you are a fan of the original, this new Director’s Edition will feel like a real homecoming. If this is your first foray into the Star Trek cinematic universe, welcome. The human adventure, after all, is just beginning.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director’s Edition is available now on Paramount+.

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‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director’s Edition’ makes its glorious return

It’s still the same film, but it’ll never look better than it does right now..

If there was ever a Star Trek film that needed a do-over, both artistically and reputationally, it was The Motion Picture . Dismissed by critics as boring and sterile when it came out, its nickname inside Trek fandom has long been “The Motionless Picture.” In 1997, director Robert Wise started the process of re-examining the film, with a Director’s Edition being birthed at the dawn of the DVD era in 2001. For a couple of reasons, the altogether better version of that movie fell into obscurity, unavailable for most people to see. Now, twenty years after Wise’s amended film made its debut, the film has been given a second do-over in the form of a 4K remaster for Paramount+ .

The Abandoned Picture

You can buy a shelf’s worth of books discussing the troubled production of The Motion Picture , and its creative failures. Paramount wanted a new Star Trek TV series, until the money men balked at the cost and potential disinterest from advertisers. The pricey show got crunched into a single movie-of-the-week, right until the moment that Star Wars (and Close Encounters ) swallowed 1977 whole. Bosses wanted a slice of that late ‘70s sci-fi movie pie and upgraded the Trek project to a big-budget movie. Except none of the already-made material was movie quality, and the effects house wasn’t up to the task at hand.

The Motion Picture was directed by Robert Wise, a footnote in a career that started in 1934 and ran through 2000. Wise got his big break as Orson Welles’ editor on Citizen Kane and, more controversially, The Magnificent Ambersons . He’d won enough Academy Awards that The Motion Picture wouldn’t be in the top ten of his most notable achievements. The special effects were eventually completed by the recently-departed Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra; both could point to 2001 and Star Wars as the highlights on their own resumes. Even so, Wise was battered by the process of making it, hand-delivering the prints to the film’s premiere and declaring it to be a rushed, unfinished job.

Length was a problem for the film, a 90-minute TV pilot expanded to more than two hours, bloated with too many special effects shots. Paramount would subsequently produce an even longer cut of the film, letting ABC screen a super-sized, 143-minute TV version which included deleted and unfinished scenes. (There is a rumor, apparently tied to this forum post from 2016 (via Memory Alpha ), which suggests that Wise re-cut the film in 1980 to be 12 minutes shorter, but producer David C. Fein doesn’t believe it to be true.)

The Director’s Edition

In 1997, Wise, through his company Robert Wise Productions, enlisted the help of producer David C. Fein, post-production supervisor Michael Matessino and visual effects supervisor Daren R. Dochterman to help fix the film. They examined the original storyboards, fixed some of the more egregious effects choices and tightened the editing. While the runtime was longer, a snappier edit (more or less) helped contextualize some of the choices made back when the film was shooting. It also helped to kickstart the reappraisal of the film as something more valuable than the big-budget catastrophe it was treated as.

Part of that work was to broaden the visual palette, especially in some of the key sequences which weren’t fully-realized in ‘79. The inconsistencies during Spock’s first scene – which were shot in broad daylight but painted on a matte implying darkness – are fixed. Many sets that were constrained even with matte paintings were broadened out and CGI – by pioneers Foundation Imaging – used to fill the gaps in the action. The film remained, more or less, like it had two decades prior, but was a much more joined-up experience on screen.

But this edition, while considered “definitive,” was never re-released beyond its original 2001 DVD printing. According to Memory Alpha , it’s because Paramount never kept its own archive copies of the CGI files for its projects. And when Foundation Imaging went under after the death of its founder, Ron Thornton, it was believed that those files were gone forever.

The Re-Remaster

“Completely untrue,” said David C. Fein who produced both the first Directors Edition and its 2022 successor, to Engadget. “Everything was designed to be able to go to film, but the resolution [in those original files] wasn’t there, [...] so it couldn’t just be re-rendered,” he said. “It had to be recreated by people who knew what we were going for, because we’re now able to put the detail in for it to be full-size.” “We re-did all the visual effects, not from scratch – the setups [from 1999] were there – then we worked in all of the new levels of technology and information,” said Fein.

Fein says that the project, which was announced in July 2021 , is “not a restoration,” and that his team wasn’t just “polishing this film,” but working to tweak it to improve the overall storytelling. That meant scanning the raw material and re-compositing everything to make a fresh, 4K scan off the original 35mm live-action footage. (Douglas Trumbull, to avoid detail loss, would shoot on 65mm film, and so his material was scanned in at 8K, while Dykstra’s VistaVision material was scanned in at 6K.)

The project is, if we’re being a little too honest, long overdue, since Paramount opted to offer the theatrical print of The Motion Picture for all of the Blu-ray releases. “Unfortunately, when the hi-def [versions of the Star Trek films] came out, Bob [Wise] got to watch the fact that it was the original theatrical version,” explained Fein. “And he sat me down in his kitchen and said, ‘I need you to promise me something Dave’ – ‘I don’t care how long it takes, I need you to finish the director’s edition and it needs to be finished ,’ meaning film quality.” But Fein says that the lag time was down to a need for the technology to improve, and also for the “guardian angels” at Paramount+ to greenlight the work.

There are a number of small tweaks to the film, designed to smooth out even more of its visual rough edges. Keen-eyed fans will enjoy spotting the additions and changes, an early highlight is the addition of Shuttle Pod 5 to the exterior of Starfleet’s orbital office. “Just about every shot [in the film] has been touched in some way, there’s a lot of subtlety added to shots,” he said. “There’s [also] at least one clearly new shot in the film that helps continuity, and I hope no-one else notices it.”

One sequence that Fein spent lots of effort on, both then and now, was when the V’Ger probe attacks the bridge. The original film sequence was projected through a bent mylar filter with intentionally harsh lighting to create the alien effect. “The way that it looked, was almost like [our] film stopped and another one started,” he explained, looking at the washed-out colors, high grain and poor continuity. Fein credits the power of HDR which enabled his team to create a harsh overexposure of the probe without dulling the rest of the film.

And a less obvious change – unless you’re like me and watched multiple versions side-by-side – is a vastly improved color grade. Because the film was so rushed, Fein explained, the process of color grading, which can take months, was crunched down to four days. He said that the crew’s opinion, at the time, was “just ‘let’s get it done as flat [as we can] so everything matched, and [get it done] as quickly as it could.” The film’s colors are, traditionally, washed out, leaden with that ‘70s sci-fi beige that makes even the actors look like pieces of furniture. “Now that we’re working from negative scans, we’re able to do what [Robert Wise’s] real intention was.”

The final task Fein had to oversee was to ensure that The Directors Edition is no longer a rare curio. Fein explained that, having worked with the digital negatives and produced a new print designed for theatrical distribution, the film is now “future proof.” That should ensure that it never again becomes the sort of film you have to actively seek out to watch. Not to mention that Fathom events will offer a handful of screenings (in select theaters) for viewers to see the film on the big screen once again.

Give me a Good Time

I don’t want to be facetious when I say that The Motion Picture is less of a film and more of an experience . For all of the complaints that the film was slow, antiseptic and cold, it also offers something a little more heavyweight than you may expect from a franchise movie. The team behind the film may not have been making Solaris , or 2001 , but those influences are keenly felt through much of the movie. It’s not dumb noisy fun, and it’s not as clever as it thinks it might be, but it’s trying to deal with some weighty issues around what it means to be human. A computer looking to understand if there’s any meaning beyond its existence is something fiction has come back to again and again – it’s always been a fascination for Star Trek , too.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch the 4K transfer in all of its glory, since previews were capped at 1080p ( I know ). What is obvious, however, is that the new version is a whole lot brighter, with much more detailed CG models and much better sound, in most places. The new color grade makes a huge difference, with actors no longer blending into the background of their own film. There are only a few moments where the transfer seems less kind than you may expect, and that’s mostly when you go looking for matte lines. You can clearly see some of that hand-cut wonkiness in the more detail-heavy sequences, like the drydock scene.

(While we’re on the subject; the Drydock sequence is considered, by non fans, as the ne plus ultra of pointless fan service. Yes, it’s a six-minute scene in which Kirk stares, milky-eyed at the refitted Enterprise, well-known enough that even nü-Trek repeatedly tips its hat to it . But let’s be honest, if you wanted to spend six minutes staring at a model, you might as well make it the most beautiful model ever to be created .)

And as much as it’s Wise’s name on the film, in these modern eras, I think we should also offer kudos to Trumbull and Dykstra for their contribution. The effects sequences are, for their age, some of the best ever put to film and the trippy late ‘70s sci-fi visuals during the spacewalk sequence are on a par with anything 2001 offered. I can’t not also say that, without Jerry Goldsmith’s score, one of the best ever written, much of this film wouldn’t hold together nearly as well as it does. While the finished product is not to everyone’s taste, you can tell it is the product of a number of virtuosos all working to produce their very best work.

It’s funny, because I’d say that I’ve seen this film more times than I should probably admit, especially the first 40 minutes. Something that only occurred to me during this rewatch is how Wise’s direction, and the acting, loosens up as things go on. Kirk, Spock and McCoy all start this film stiff and stagey, acting like they’re all trying to act under the effects of a sedative. But once they’ve returned to the Enterprise and you see Kirk visibly relax into his chair, Spock and McCoy start bantering, and you could almost frame this as a deliberate choice to make the film a form of origin story.

While researching this piece, I went hunting for critical reviews of the film back when it first debuted in 1979. (The best modern essay on the film, and the best modern essays on any of the Star Trek films, is Darren Franich’s 2016 retrospective , which I urge you to read.) Weirdly, Roger Ebert wrote the smartest take on the film back then, and I reckon the conclusion of his review is probably the most elegant way anyone could discuss it. He wrote, “Some of the early reviews seemed pretty blase, as if the critics didn’t allow themselves to relish the film before racing out to pigeonhole it. My inclination, as I slid down in my seat and the stereo sound surrounded me, was to relax and let the movie give me a good time. I did and it did.”

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition , will be available on Paramount+ on April 5th, 2022. A physical media release will follow with new special features.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture’s Theatrical Cut was released on 4K resolution blu-ray earlier this year and the results are pretty spectacular. The film has never looked better and you would imagine there would be no further room for improvement, image quality-wise. Then comes this month’s release of the “Director’s Edition”. First seen in 2001, the Director’s Edition re-edited major portions of the film under the guidance of original director Robert Wise and also added a number of effects changes and additions that Wise may or may not have cared about. I’m not a fan of the Director’s Cut in general, but I like to start my critiques with cheers. I’ll save my jeers for another article.

What ultimately draws me to the Director’s Edition is the promise of recomposited effects scanned from the original negatives, something we’ve been told for decades no longer existed. These newly composited shots, mostly of the drydock scenes, look superb. They’re so good, in fact, that I wish they had been included in the theatrical cut. I’ll be looking at some of those shots and comparing them to what we got in the 4K transfer of the Theatrical Cut. Keep in mind that these shots don’t show the full quality of either version since they aren’t in High Dynamic Range which makes a huge difference. Click each image to see it at full size.

The first thing you’ll notice when comparing the Director’s to the Theatrical cut is that the elements are much sharper. I have several ideas on why this is. The first is that old style optical printer compositing was a mess that added grain at every point of the process. When filming models you’re often shooting multiple passes, including the ship itself, the running lights, the spot lights, the engine lights, etc. The reason for this is because each one requires its own exposure settings. Window and running lights, for instance, would barely show under the bright studio lights needed to shoot the model itself. Windows and other lights are usually shot in complete darkness. Each one of those passes has its own film grain. And each time you refilm those passes in the optical printer, the film you’re printing on has its own grain. Some lighting effects were composited in-camera by reversing the film and just making a double exposure since lighting doesn’t require a mask. That reduces extra grain by a lot. But then you have to add other elements like the various shuttles and planets. The grain still really adds up. This isn’t a problem with digital compositing because there is no film intermediary. You just scan your film into the computer and layer it with zero added noise or degradation.

The second problem with optical printing is that you’re filming a projected image of a pass and a projector needs to be focused. Modern film scanners autofocus like a digital camera does and previews of digital scans can be blown up to check sharpness before the whole roll goes through. Optical printers of the 70’s had to be focused by hand and if the last part of the process was out of focus it would all be out of focus. The composite could only be as sharp as the very last pass. As you can see in these comparisons the Enterprise and the travel pod were originally a bit blurry, but it’s clear from the Director’s Edition that the elements themselves weren’t shot that way. You can almost see Kirk and Scotty’s face now.

Other problems crop up with optical printing. In the original of the above the planet is bleeding into the center of the warp engine grill. That’s been fixed. The whole scene is brighter and sharper. Although, with that brightness the workbee’s matte lines (the dark edges around the model) are more prominent and don’t blend with the background. Why those weren’t finessed out of existence by the digital team is beyond me.

One thing that both editions make clear is some of the “silvering” on the decals used for the Enterprise’s livery. Silvering is when air bubbles get trapped between the decal and the imperfect surface you’re applying them to giving them a mottled, washed out appearance that direct lighting really highlights. On a static model one might apply livery with paint masks or make silvering less apparent with a clear coat over them. Movie and TV models, however, need to be dynamic. If you’ve ever wondered how ships on Star Trek can be renamed so easily, it’s because decals are left above the final paint surface and can easily be pulled off with some low-tack tape. This was the case in the Original Series where the shuttlecraft was renamed for it’s Starbase 11 appearance and on the Enterprise itself, which would have used this technique to put on reverse decals to portray the ship’s port side. This was only seen in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and “Mirror, Mirror”. In the films it was used to convert the Enterprise to its “A” variant.

Here are a few more comparisons. In most cases the difference is stunning. The pearlescence of the Enterprise’s paint job has never been more apparent:

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- 87 listed changes - Difference without logos/credits: 10 sec (of which about 7 sec are pure master errors on DVD)

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE and its troubled production

The budget was massively exceeded with 40 million US dollars, a considerable part of which was spent on visual effects. The first company, Robert Abel and Associates, was unable to deliver usable material, so all the effects shots had to be hastily recreated. To be on the safe side, veterans Douglas Trumbull ( 2001 , Close Encounters of the Third Kind ) and John Dykstra ( Star Wars ) were brought on board. Under such difficult conditions, they delivered a remarkable outcome, but with more time, more would have been possible.

On top of that, some annoying mishaps happened, for example the original ADR sound was not used in 1979. In America it is a common practice that parts are re-dubbed due to poor quality of the studio sound. All of these ADR shots were indeed recorded, but in the hurry they only resorted to the studio sound. So a comparatively poor audio track was delivered and the effects shots came in at the very last minute before the theatrical release, so there was some fine tuning missing here as well, which both the director and the seasoned FX artists were actually aiming for.

Extended TV version and a DVD-exclusive Director's Cut

In any case, director Robert Wise was never quite satisfied with the film over the decades. Various matte paintings and storyboards are also a good testament to the different vision he had for various scenes in the film at the time. Ironically, the digitally remastered versions of the "quasi-competitor" Star Wars may have been a major factor in why Wise was given another chance to work on his baby at the turn of the millennium. In contrast to Lucas' ever-changing improvements, the 2001 director's cut can be said to have an absolutely undeniable added value.

Some of the longer scenes already known from the TV version were added here, focusing on those with a real added value and leaving out filler material. At the same time, material from the theatrical version has been trimmed , e.g. logic and continuity errors that have been corrected in this way. Various effect scenes , which were faulty or simply never completed at the time, could now be created retrospectively for the first time. For this, too, some shots used in the theatrical version as a substitute for those missing effects were deleted. In addition, a new sound mix was created, which was a clear improvement over the theatrical/TV version, but basically used the same source material.

The Director's Edition was completely remastered  in 4K

Another highlight was that in the meantime the original ADR recordings had been recovered and the original score by Jerry Goldsmith had been restored. So even the troubled audio situation could now be tackled with a significantly improved starting point and in the spirit of the original version. 

For the 55th anniversary of the series on September 07, 2021, they unfortunately weren't ready yet, so "only" the theatrical version was released in 4K here for the time being. However, in April 2022, a 4K version of the director's cut premiered exclusively in the US VOD offering from Paramount+. Since September 05, 2022 , this "Director's Edition" is also available on 4K Blu-ray as well as Blu-ray. We now work up here what eager fans have already collected in the months since VOD release sometimes more and sometimes less detailed.

The differences in the 4K director's cut

In the course of this, even the original effects were given a makeover . In contrast to the 1979 theatrical version, which was of course composited using the trick technology of the time, there was no longer any generation loss and obvious edges around the matte paintings. Also, because of the time pressure at that time, some composites of effects scenes were much blurrier than usual, this is now also fixed.

Some elements remained unfortunately lost, so that one had to trick here otherwise. Details about this are explained in a 90-minute YouTube interview with the people responsible for the 4K restoration , which is worth listening to. Many nice examples of reworked effects can be found in DVD Schweizer's huge image comparison . Here, we will only focus on the cases where clear differences between the visuals itself are also noticeable.

As just mentioned, the access to original elements at that time was worth its weight in gold there. Goofs in e.g. landscapes in the background were often ironed out, or a curious example in this respect are the changing jackets of Spock and McCoy shortly before the end credits. In general, small continuity errors and geometric inconsistencies  were often addressed. The completely rebuilt CGI models got different shapes here and there in detail. Again, it must be clearly attested that these changes don't seem out of place at any moment, as is sometimes the case with George Lucas' many reworkings of the original trilogy.

Also curious are a few alternate or completely exclusive shots . In some moments of the 2001 director's cut, such as the scene with Spock in the 11th minute, alternate takes were used. The 4K DC goes back to the original theatrical version footage here. In the 95th minute, there is an approximately 3 sec long completely new shot of the rings, which was probably added for continuity reasons.

Last but not least, the recovered ADR bits in the audio track should be highlighted again. In the documentary on the new bonus Blu-ray there is an excerpt of the ADR session with Leonard Nimoy as Spock, where you can see for yourself the effort that director Robert Wise made back then. Also in several other places, which are not even highlighted in the cut report, a clearly better sound quality is noticeable. In some cases, radio calls are distorted differently or dialogues were deliberately mixed left/right for spatiality. In addition, the soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith has also been polished up, as mentioned in the previous section.

It should be summarized as a conclusion that these are mostly adjustments that are actually clearly to be welcomed. Revisionist, yes - but in a conscientious way that respectfully gives the film another little polish. With excellent picture quality and the touching up of many little things that Wise unfortunately couldn't do himself during his lifetime, the classic has now been duly archived for eternity

Summary on the three main versions of the movie

Here is a quick overview of the three main versions, which also includes a few small comments that have not found a place in the long text up to this point.

a) VHS/DVD/2009 Blu-ray : In several editions this is clearly the version that has been released most times. For director Robert Wise, however, this has more the character of an incomplete rough cut due to incomplete realization of effects, soundtrack and some action scenes.

b) 2021 4K-remastered : Basically the same film version, but in one scene in particular it was noticeable that an attempt was made to digitally conceal a film error (model arm of the Enterprise covers the dock). However, this was done carelessly and even a piece of the Enterprise was cut away, see high-resolution image comparison from DVD Schweizer .

a) On VHS/Laserdiscs from the 80s and 90s , a version was released based on the theatrical version, adding just under 13 minutes of Deleted Scenes to it. Was also released in Germany on VHS, including re-dubbing for all additional parts.

b) 2022 4K-remastered : Basically the same film version, but for the additional scene "Kirk's spacewalk" the missing set background was now completed digitally.

a) 2002 DVD : Personally supervised by director Robert Wise, this is a reconstruction of his desired version. With many digitally redone effects and some new action scenes, but also some scenes cut from the theatrical version.

b) 2022 4K : Newly restored version of the Director's Edition by the core team also involved in the DVD reconstruction. Further details that could not be technically realized in 2002 were added.

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The new Star Trek: The Motion Picture director’s cut is finally coming to Paramount Plus

Check out Kirk, Sulu, and Mr. Spock in 4K

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Star Trek : The Motion Picture — the 1979 outing and the first film in the franchise — is coming to Paramount Plus on April 5 (known as First Contact Day in the Star Trek universe) with a new “Director’s Edition.”

For this new version, Paramount Pictures has remastered the film in 4K — an upgrade that even includes recreating the special effects in 4K. The Director’s Edition will eventually come to Blu-ray this September, and appear in theaters via Fathom Events on May 22 and May 25.

Star Trek : The Motion Picture sees the cast of the original series return to the U.S.S. Enterprise to investigate and pursue an alien ship that mysteriously destroyed multiple Klingon vessels. It was one of the top-grossing films in 1979 and earned itself three Oscar nominations, despite being “rushed to theaters” and ultimately earning a lackluster legacy among fans.

The Director’s Edition was restored by producer David C. Fein and preservationist Mike Matessino, both of whom have previously collaborated with Wise. In addition to the various visual improvements and 4K resolution, it also offers Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos.

“I couldn’t be prouder and more thrilled to have completed the film in 4K,” said Fein. “Paramount offered unprecedented access to the original elements and exceptional support and the results are stunning. Utilizing the latest discoveries and innovations of modern film production, The Director’s Edition delivers so much more today than was previously possible.”

Until its release on Blu-ray and its brief stint in theaters, Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition will be exclusive to Paramount Plus.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Director's Cut) (United States, 2001)

A long time ago in a strange place called Hollywood, a theatrical cut of a movie was considered to be the director's cut. Now, with the advent of DVDs and the proliferation of special editions, numerous big-budget (and some not-so-big-budget) motion pictures are being given a second life in a format that is often quite different from the original version. For filmmakers who continuously like to tinker, this new philosophy is a godsend. They can release a truncated, studio-friendly version in theaters, then offer their "true vision" to DVD buyers.

This trend towards director's cuts/special editions was not started by George Lucas, but it was popularized by him. The financial windfall reaped when Lucas re-released the original three Star Wars films with new effects and footage awakened Hollywood executives to a previously-untapped resource. To be fair, most special editions exist primarily for creative reasons (although the studios backing them dream of $$$), and often result in a vastly improved product. James Cameron's The Abyss is a completely different movie - confusing and dissatisfying in the shortened theatrical version; sublime and brilliant in the director's cut. The hour added to Wolgang Petersen's Das Boot transforms it into a character-driven white-knuckler. Cameron Crowe's extended Almost Famous gives the story greater span and depth.

In 1979, the release of Star Trek - The Motion Picture represented the climax to every Star Trek fan's wet dream. The date, December 7, lived in infamy for the entire production crew. Paramount Pictures etched this date into their release calendar and informed everyone involved that the film would be ready on that day. Despite the Herculean effort by legendary director Robert Wise and his army of post-production assistants, the version of Star Trek - The Motion Picture that reached theaters was not complete. Effects scenes were unfinished, the sound mix was not perfected, and several important sequences were inexplicably left on the cutting room floor.

The movie that played in theaters during late 1979 and early 1980 received a mixed critical and popular reception. Star Trek fans were divided over the film. On one hand, it gave them the opportunity to spend time with characters who were as dear to them as old friends. On the other hand, it was largely a re-hash of previously-produced television episodes (in particular, "The Changeling"). The general public, expecting a Star Wars clone and instead getting something more sedate and less action-oriented, was bored. Two unflattering nicknames were born: Star Trek - The Motionless Picture and Star Trek - The Motion Sickness . The movie was a financial success, grossing nearly $90 million domestically (against a $35 million budget), but a large portion of that was contributed by Trekkers who returned time and time again to theaters to re-watch the movie. It was not unusual to find die-hards who would proudly claim to have seen Star Trek - The Motion Picture 40, 50, or even 100 times. (This kind of repeat business, unheard of in the era of home video, did occasionally happen.)

The film opens with the destruction of three Klingon warships by a mysterious energy cloud that is on a direct heading for Earth. The newly redesigned U.S.S. Enterprise , the pride and joy of the United Federation of Planets, is the only ship available to intercept the cloud, and it hasn't undergone its shakedown cruise. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner), restless after 2 1/2 years behind a desk, uses the crises to once again take command of the Enterprise , forcing the ship's expected captain, Will Decker (Stephen Collins), into the role of Executive Officer. Most of the crew is re-united, including the irascible Dr. McCoy (the late DeForest Kelley) and the half-Vulcan Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Spock senses a kinship with the vast consciousness that exists at the heart of the cloud. Also on board are Chief Engineer Scotty (James Doohan), Security Chief Chekov (Walter Koenig), Helmsman Sulu (George Takei), Communications Officer Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and a newcomer, Navigator Ilia (Persis Khambatta).

After battling several systems failures, including a malfunctioning transporter that kills two crewman and a propulsion system that becomes unstable and creates a wormhole, the Enterprise makes contact with the entity within the cloud, called V'ger. The journey to the center of the alien ship is a strange and bizarre one. Ilia is killed when a probe invades the Enterprise bridge, and V'ger later sends a second probe to the ship in the form of a mechanism that mimics Ilia's body and features. Kirk learns that V'ger is a living machine traveling to Earth to make contact with its "Creator". If this contact is not made, V'ger intends to wipe out all of the human beings "infesting" the planet. It is up to the crew of the Enterprise to prevent that eventuality.

My recollections of seeing Star Trek - The Motion Picture during its initial release are of watching a lot of pretty images pass across the screen. The special effects sequences seemed to go on forever, with only an occasional glimpse of the actors reacting to what their characters were supposedly seeing. Subsequent viewings on videotape enabled me to more clearly pinpoint the film's flaws - poor pacing and a reliance upon special effects over character development. The sterile atmosphere of the new Starship Enterprise had seemingly seeped into the movie's tone, which was cool and unfriendly.

Now, more that 20 years later, Robert Wise has had the opportunity to return to the film and complete it in the manner he had originally envisioned. In addition to re-editing the movie, he was given the money to complete several effects sequences. The soundtrack was re-mixed and the picture was cleaned-up. The resultant product was released on DVD after consideration of a theatrical re-release was nixed. (A friend of mine who works for Paramount indicated that, had there been an actor's strike, Star Trek - The Motion Picture: Director's Edition would have been in multiplexes some time during 2002, but, since the strike didn't happen, tentative plans for a theatrical launch were scrapped.)

The film's total running length has hardly changed, expanding by four minutes from 2:12 to 2:16. However, alterations to the Director's Edition represent more than just adding a few scenes. Some material was either removed or replaced (all of the deleted scenes and trims are available as part of the DVD's supplementary material). In total, about 10% of the film is different from the theatrical cut, but the changes, while seemingly slight, result in a significantly improved motion picture. Star Trek - The Motion Picture: Director's Edition is no 2001 (its obvious inspiration - a fact that is more evident here than ever before), but it represents thought-provoking, well constructed science fiction.

So why is this version better than its theatrical sibling? The first, and most obvious, reason is that the pacing is better. Some of the new effects transform the V'ger trip into a more involving experience, and the inclusion of several character-based scenes that were previously edited out (Spock weeping for V'ger, Kirk ordering Scotty to prepare for a self-destruct) subtly shift the focus away from technical elements and back to the players. Wise's decisions about what to eliminate and what to add are inspired. The entire second act feels completely different. Secondly, the improved sound allows the audio to pack a punch that the original never did. And, finally, there's an intangible - because the movie explores ideas, it has aged better than many of its action-oriented contemporaries.

The "idea" aspect of Star Trek - The Motion Picture is enhanced in this version. The film spends more time exploring those unique qualities that make human beings special, and the importance of tempering logic and knowledge with emotion. Spock's breakthrough comes when he embraces his human half instead of rejecting it. For V'ger to grow, it must find a way to move beyond the cold machine logic of its programming. To do that, V'ger wants to "join" with its creator, and, in this, the film illuminates our need to strive for new goals and seek to attain the previously unattainable. And, while Star Trek - The Motion Picture doesn't answer the questions of "Who am I? Why am I here?", it isn't afraid to ask them.

It's interesting to note that the new special effects (produced by Foundation Imaging) - including an improved vision of Vulcan, a more impressive end to the wormhole sequence, our first view of the entire V'ger ship from the outside, and a change in the approach "walkway" to V'ger at the end - are done in such a manner that they blend seamlessly with the work done by Douglas Trumbell and John Dykstra 22 years ago. Nothing in Star Trek - The Motion Picture: Director's Edition seems out of place. A casual viewer who hasn't seen the film in more than two decades might assume that little or nothing had changed.

Jerry Goldsmith's score, which has since become a staple in the Star Trek musical lexicon, represents one of the film's strengths. It's the music, as much as the visuals, that makes the shuttle's initial approach to the Enterprise such a majestic moment. The sequence is overlong, but the thrill of hearing Goldsmith's score allows us to enjoy the moment rather than fall asleep. The ominous, ethereal strains of his V'ger themes enhance the sense that the Enterprise is penetrating ever deeper into a wondrous and dangerous realm as it moves deeper into the aliens' vessel.

When it comes to a Star Trek movie, the quality of acting is largely irrelevant. The familiar faces are all there doing pretty much what we expect them to do. William Shatner, ever the ham, applies his unique brand of overacting to Kirk, and we welcome it. (To be fair, Shatner is capable of giving a good performance as Kirk - something he does in Star Trek s II , III , and VI .) Leonard Nimoy imbues Spock with a quiet dignity and DeForest Kelley slides easily into the part of the anti-technology old country doctor. The camaraderie between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, one of the strengths of the TV series, is in evidence here, although not to the extent that it could have been. As far as the newcomers are concerned, Stephen Collins is solid as Decker. However, while Persis Khambatta is striking to look at as the svelte, bald Ilia, this is not a memorable example of acting.

Re-visiting Star Trek - The Motion Picture via this director's cut is like seeing a familiar story unfold in a new way. Wise's picture was an ambitious effort from the beginning, striving for a greatness that it never attained. In this new version, it still falls short, but not by as much. It has taken more than 20 years for Robert Wise to return to his chapter of the Star Trek saga and fulfill his vision. With no hesitation, I can say that it has been worth the wait. Star Trek - The Motion Picture: Director's Edition vaults this movie from a position as one of the weakest entries in the long-running film series to a perch as one of the strongest.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture The Director's Edition - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Boldly going where no television series had gone before, Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition allowed the late Robert Wise the opportunity to properly finish and edit the film he always envisioned. This cut fixes the rough visual effects, and languid pacing bringing home a truly dramatic piece of science fiction that finally feels complete. Paramount Home video gives this cut of the film the red-carpet treatment with a fully restored Dolby Vision transfer and a magnificent Atmos audio mix with tons of new and archival bonus features to pick through. It may not be the best Original Cast film but it’s certainly the most ambitious and a wonder to behold. Highly Recommended 

Read our single title Star Trek 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Reviews: Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Edition Complete Adventure Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The U.S.S. Enterprise boldly debuted on the big screen with the cast of the original Star Trek series, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan.  Meticulously restored and remastered, with enhanced visual effects and state-of-the-art sound, this definitive vision of director Robert Wise has been optimized for a new generation of fans. When an unidentified alien intruder destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Admiral James T. Kirk (Shatner) returns to the helm of a newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command and confront an alien spacecraft of enormous power heading toward Earth.

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one of grand ideas and ambition. After the dynamite hit of Star Wars , suddenly space-age Science Fiction wasn’t a secondary genre. Every studio had to have the next “ Star Wars ” in theaters to entertain a fixated audience that demanded more spaceships and lasers. Paramount was already in the process of rebooting its classic television series and so the swift decision was made to upgrade this show to the big screen with master craftsmen in Robert Wise at the helm. But with the film’s lofty ambitions and heady concept, the film’s back was against the wall to meet a predetermined release date. What hit theaters in 1979 was the best that could be accomplished at the time and the would-be franchise was nearly scuttled after its maiden voyage. But when Paramount was readying their Special Edition DVD sets, they gave Robert Wise the chance to complete the film he envisioned with updated visual effects and a new edit.

Some new scenes were added, and some were trimmed down, but essentially this is the same film with a little different pace, different dialog cues, alternate takes, and new visual effects. I consider myself a fan of this edit, but then I also enjoy the Theatrical Cut too. I didn’t always love this movie, the first time I saw it as a kid was our VHS copy of the Longer Version. I thought it was slower than a slug and boring. It wasn’t Star Trek II . But with every new disc release, I’ve gone back to this film and it has steadily risen in my favor. It had a lot of grand ideas and themes and it wasn’t simply a “pew-pew” laser blast popcorn movie. It tried to have the sense of adventure of the original show but the scale and grandeur of something like 2001: A Space Oddyse y complete with Douglas Trumbull visual effects. Of all the films in the original crew series, it’s the one most worth revisiting again and again. As much as I love Wrath of Khan , Search for Spock , Voyage Home , Undiscovered Country , and yes even Final Frontier - they’re all pretty surface-facing films. Their themes and ideas are right there to grab. In comparison, The Motion Picture is a much deeper well to draw from and I always feel like I come away with something new. 

For another great take on this film, I encourage you to take a look at Josh Zyber’s 2009 Blu-ray Review .  

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition beams aboard 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray Bonus Disc with Digital. These two discs are also found in Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture 6-Movie Collection and the limited edition Complete Adventure sets. Pressed on a BD-100 disc, the disc loads to a static image main menu with basic navigation functions. The Blu-ray houses the bonus features. There is not a 1090p Blu-ray with this set. The only set released in the U.S. that also includes a 1080p Blu-ray is the 6-Movie Collection

NOTE: All images are sourced from a standard Blu-ray disc. When we can we'll circle back to replace these images with 4K sourced images and or a demo video if possible.  

Video Review

Of all the films of this franchise to hit 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, the Director’s Edition received the most love and attention. In order for Robert Wise’s cut to come to the format, it required a complete ground-up restoration and reconstruction from the original 35mm negative elements as well as the original large format visual effects elements and the results are simply extraordinary. From small details in facial features and makeup to the incredible models used for the huge effects shots, this is some genuine restoration magic at work. Film grain appears to have undergone a little bit of management per Paramount’s usual workings, but nothing too intrusive or severe. It’s not the waxy mess of the original 2009 Theatrical Cut Blu-ray, there’s an actual grain structure to appreciate. Some of the original optical effects still appear a little dodgy, but others look tighter and clearer than ever before.

This version of the film also underwent a new color grading for Dolby Vision (and HDR10) that leaves the film looking vibrant and lush without over-saturating primaries or skin tones. Black levels are deep and inky and some of those grand visual effects shots against that vast starfield lend some impressive depth to the image. It may be slow and indulgent, but Scotty delivering Kirk to the Enterprise is simply glorious. The new CGI effects also blend much better and barely draw any attention to themselves, this isn’t at all like that other space franchise's "Special Editions." The biggest visual gain here is we now have a sense of scale to the inside of V’GR and it’s quite impressive in 2160p with HDR. Whites in those dentist smock uniforms are also much more vivid and crisp. 

I missed out on seeing this restoration in theaters and like so many I’ve had to get by with Paramount+ streaming. Without the compression of streaming, this version looks even better on disc. Black levels have always been dodgy whenever I stream content so it’s nice not seeing those anomalies with this disc release. I honestly can’t imagine this film looking any better than this. It’s genuinely marvelous.

Audio Review

The Director’s Edition also comes packed in with a genuinely fantastic demo-worthy Atmos audio mix. From the opening overture and credits into the Klingon attack, this is a big soundscape at work. Front, side, rear, and overhead channels all get their time in the sun. Even the quietest conversational scenes have something happening to keep those channels engaged. A little moment like the first time Kirk arrives on the bridge and everyone is too busy to notice him, the chitter-chatter among the crew circles the channels beautifully. Throughout, the dialog is clean and clear and never overpowered by other elements. If anything, it’s actually easier to hear a lot of dialog exchanges since this cut used a number of different ADR takes for some dialog and the extra channel space keeps the mix from sounding too stiff or closed up. Then you have the iconic Jerry Goldsmith score. I play this movie loud largely because his compositions are so magnificent, but they sound incredible here. There’s cleaner and clearer instrumentation giving you the full appreciation of the orchestra. The Klingon theme with those pulsing low notes and harp twangs set the stage for the LFE response for the rest of the film. Levels are spot on without any need to monitor or keep your thumb on the remote, but play it loud! When you have the rumble of ships’ engines rattling your subs, you’ll be glad you punched the volume as loud as your ears can tolerate.

Special Features

Not to be content with simply recycling archival materials - which are all excellent - Paramount sweetens the deal with an exciting collection of new extras and making-of materials to pick through giving you a little over an hour of exciting and worthwhile new extras to dig into and enjoy on top of the older commentary tracks and documentaries. And for the score hounds out there, the Jerry Goldsmith isolated score track is also available!

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

• Audio Commentary featuring David C. Fein, Mike Matessino, and Daren Dochterman
• Audio Commentary featuring Robert Wise, Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Jerry Goldsmith, and Stephen Collins
• Text Commentary featuring Michael and Denise Okuda
• Isolated Score Track (found in the settings menu)

Bonus Blu-ray

• NEW The Human Adventure 8-Part Documentary (HD 48:17 Total)
• Preparing the Future
• A Wise Choice
• Refitting the Enterprise
• Sounding Off
• V’GER
• Return to Tomorrow
• A Grand Theme
• The Grand Vision
• NEW Three Deleted Scenes (HD 4:31 Total)
• Ilia & Decker in Engineering
• Security Guard
• Three Casualties
• NEW Effects Tests (HD 3:30)
• NEW Costume Tests (HD 4:40)
• NEW Computer Display Graphics (HD 3:10)
• The Star Trek Universe
• Phase II: The Lost Enterprise (SD 12:39)
• A Bold New Enterprise (SD 29:41)
• Redirecting the Future (SD 14:06)
• The Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture (HD 10:44)
• Special Star Trek Reunion (HD 9:37)
• Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 001: The Mystery Behind V’Ger (HD 4:24)
• The New Frontier: Resurrecting Star Trek (HD 30:01)
• Maiden Voyage: Making Star Trek: The Motion Picture (HD 29:13)
• Storyboards
• Vulcan 
• Enterprise Departure 
• V’Ger Revealed 
• Deleted Scenes - 1979 Theatrical Cut
• Trims (SD 6:08)
• Outtakes/Memory Wall (SD 2:49)
• Vulcan and Starfleet (SD 4:15)
• Attack on the Enterprise (SD 2:36)
• Cloud Journey (SD 3:31)
• V’Ger Flyover (SD 5:04)
• Wing Walk (SD 4:48)
• Deleted Scenes - 1983 TV Version
• Sulu and Ilia 1 (SD 1:06)
• Sulu and Ilia 2 (SD 00:27)
• Kirk’s Quarters (SD 00:21)
• Officer’s Lounge (SD 00:13)
• Attack on the Enterprise (SD 1:08)
• Intruder Transformation (SD 00:32)
• A Huge Vessel (SD 00:47)
• Kirk Follows Spock (SD 1:13)
• Ilia’s Quarters 1 (SD 1:05)
• Ilia’s Quarters 2 (SD 1:20)
• Its Creator Is a Machine (SD 00:17)
• Teaser Trailer 
• Theatrical Trailer 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition is an exciting version of this massive cinematic undertaking. Now fully restored and reconstructed for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Robert Wise’s preferred version of the film looks and sounds better than ever. While the differences between this version and the Theatrical Cut may be small, the little edits and alternate takes and dialog allow the film to feel whole and complete. The Dolby Vision HDr transfer is simply magnificent and the new Atmos track is demo-worthy material. Add in an extensive assortment of new and archival bonus features, this is a terrific release for the first cinematic mission of the Enterprise and her original crew. Highly Recommended

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Differences between Director's Edition and original

• Thread starter Tribble Threat
• Start date May 27, 2020

Tribble Threat

• May 27, 2020

I recently watched the Director's Edition of The Motion Picture. I'm wondering what the differences between this and the original theatrical version are. What are some things that were changed between the two versions?  

Vice Admiral

I think we only saw the ship itself without the cloud as it approaches Earth in the DE.  

There are literally dozens of changes. Special effects things taking out other things put in, sound design, the credits, basically from the first shot to the last and many things in between. If you want a visual comparison go to YouTube and type in Star Trek the motion picture director's cut vs. Theatrical  

Oh another big change is the dish when they leave the ship and walk towards the probe: The odd matte painting was replaced with a proper looking digital model, and the bridge formed piece by piece.  

Rear Admiral

There are actually some YouTube videos that do comparisons with Theatrical and DE and Theatrical and SLV. Edit: I see Grant already mentioned this!  

Fleet Admiral

NCC-73515 said: Oh another big change is the dish when they leave the ship and walk towards the probe: The odd matte painting was replaced with a proper looking digital model, and the bridge formed piece by piece. Click to expand...

Grant said: There are literally dozens of changes. Click to expand...

• May 28, 2020

General comparison here: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=2400  

That's the translation from the German website. So the language is sometimes odd and inaccurate. And there's a lot of other small changes besides those those are the major additions but there are literally dozens or hundreds of smaller ones  

Yeah that covers all of the major additions I'm not sure if it's covered the chunks that were taken out of the clouds journey and the Voyager fly over. Put on the YouTube comparison videos there so many changes that it's literally in three 15-minute minutes segments to watch them all!  

• May 29, 2020

From what you all have told me and what I read in the link Tosk provided, it sounds like there are no changes that affect the story. It sounds like there are changes that slightly improve the special effects, and spend a lot more time showing the special effects. And sounds like there are some changes with lines removed, that had a detrimental effect to the mood of the story. For example, when the transporter malfunctions early in the movie, Kirk shouted "Oh my god!" and this was removed, giving even less weight to the deaths on the transporters than the original version had. And at one point, Kirk says they can only hope there are creatures on board whose power of judgment is equal to ours, and this was removed from the Director's Edition. Would you say my assessment is accurate?  

Tribble Threat said: From what you all have told me and what I read in the link Tosk provided, it sounds like there are no changes that affect the story. It sounds like there are changes that slightly improve the special effects, and spend a lot more time showing the special effects. And sounds like there are some changes with lines removed, that had a detrimental effect to the mood of the story. For example, when the transporter malfunctions early in the movie, Kirk shouted "Oh my god!" and this was removed, giving even less weight to the deaths on the transporters than the original version had. And at one point, Kirk says they can only hope there are creatures on board whose power of judgment is equal to ours, and this was removed from the Director's Edition. Would you say my assessment is accurate? Click to expand...

They don't spend a lot more time in the director's cut showing special effects. The biggest cuts as far as time goes in the director's cut are special effects. Specifically the Voyager flyover and the cloud Journey have been edited down.  

Grant said: They don't spend a lot more time in the director's cut showing special effects. The biggest cuts as far as time goes in the director's cut are special effects. Specifically the Voyager flyover and the cloud Journey have been edited down. Click to expand...

Snagglepussed

• Jul 10, 2020

Kirk didn’t shout “Oh my God,” but the line as delivered did not work.  

Kor said: The perspective looks better, but it looks very much like a digital model. And the little CGI people make the whole thing look even more digital. Kor Click to expand...

• Jul 14, 2020

• Jul 17, 2020

The “tear” scene is, to me, the most important change. It brings resolution to Spocks story where there wasn’t one in the original cut.  

There's a lot of debate about what he was referring to in that video. He uses the word Atmos but he is not a soundtrack mixer he is a musical score mixer. And he has in the past mixed musical albums into Atmos. He has not been involved in mixing the entire soundtrack of a movie into Atmos. So the speculation is that he is referring to remixing the score of the movie into Atmos for yet another release of the Goldsmith score. I'm still holding out hope that he is mixing the score into Atmos as part of a larger project tp remix the entire movie soundtrack into Atmos for the purpose of releasing the movie in 4k. The really sad thing about that video is when he mentions it to the person interviewing him the guy absolutely could not care less about what he's talking about when it comes to Star Trek. All it would have taken was a couple of follow-up questions to clarify exactly what he was doing and exactly what the project was.  

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Published Jul 7, 2021

Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture Set to Be Fully Restored

The restoration is expected to take 6-8 months.

StarTrek.com

Paramount and Paramount+ are excited to announce that a full restoration of the Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture has been greenlit.

The restoration will be undertaken by producer David C. Fein, restoration supervisor Mike Matessino, and visual effects supervisor Daren R. Dochterman, all of whom worked previously with director Robert Wise.

The film will be prepared for presentation in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision™ high dynamic range (HDR) and a new Dolby Atmos® soundtrack. The restoration is expected to take 6-8 months and will launch with an exclusive window on Paramount+.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (The Director's Edition)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (The Director's Edition) is a special two-disc widescreen Director's Edition DVD of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , with the discs mounted within the standard plastic snapcase. While the Region 1 release did not, the Region 2 snapcase came standard in a matching softboard slipcase.

The release contains a slightly different cut of the film from the theatrical release and the previous DVD release. The run time is slightly longer (approximately 244 seconds for the NTSC version), due to extra footage and different takes being inserted into scenes. Some of the footage comes from extra or alternate footage seen on ABC-TV broadcasts of the film; some of it added specifically for this release, the most notable ones being the two scenes in which it was firmly established that the ill-fated Peter Preston was the nephew of Montgomery Scott . At least one line of the extra footage ties directly to a scene from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , helping to make the continuity between the movies that much more cohesive.

• 3.1 Disc One
• 3.2.1 Documentaries
• 3.2.2 Other
• 4 Background information
• 5 External link

Summary [ ]

Chapters [ ].

Like most or all DVDs, the film has been sectioned into chapters, similar to tracks on a CD. The titles of these chapters are listed below.

Special features [ ]

Disc one [ ].

• Audio commentary – A newly recorded commentary track with director Nicholas Meyer .
• Text commentary – Michael Okuda , co-author of the Star Trek Encyclopedia , reveals Star Trek trivia and production notes specific to the events in the movie as the film plays.

Disc Two [ ]

Documentaries [ ].

• The Captain's Log – New, exclusive cast and crew interviews with Nicholas Meyer, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy , Ricardo Montalban, and Harve Bennett . They discuss the way in which they originally intended to put the film together, and how they eventually ended up completing that task, among other things.
• Designing Khan – An analysis of the comparisons between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan . The documentary features interviews with Director Nicholas Meyer, the costume designer, Art Director Lee Cole and Production Designer Joseph R. Jennings . They talk about the transitions they made in costume and production design from the first Star Trek movie to its sequel.
• The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – A documentary which features interviews with Nicholas Meyer and the visual effects designers who work(ed) for Industrial Light & Magic . The effects crew explain how they executed and completed the special effects shots.
• "The Star Trek Universe: A Novel Approach" by authors Julia Ecklar and Greg Cox – Includes interviews with Julia Ecklar , the author of The Kobayashi Maru , and Greg Cox , the writer of The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh , Volumes One and Two and To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh . The authors discuss how their books help to fill in the gaps between the movies and where their concepts for stories come from.
• Original Interviews – Interview material from 1982 featuring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban, and DeForest Kelley .
• Theatrical trailer – an advertisement for the film's original release, remarkably featuring sound effects originating from the Star Wars franchise, when the USS Enterprise and the USS Reliant do battle. Conceivably this had been an in-joke of Industrial Light & Magic , the visual effects company which has served both franchises as such.
• Storyboard archive – an assortment of early concept sketches. These archives feature ten original storyboard sequences. Their titles are listed below.
• Interactive animated menus

Background information [ ]

• In 2016 a remastered version was released on Blu-ray Disc as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (Director's Cut) . However, that release was not quite a one-for-one copy as the remastered version was slightly differently cut, which meant that Okuda's original text commentary track could not be included on the Blu-ray release as it was out of sync with the new release. On the other hand, Nicholas Meyer's original DVD audio commentary was edited to fit the newly-cut release.
• The Blu-Ray version was officially supervised by Meyer himself. Several minor bits of dialogue present in previous versions, such as the extended description of the Kobayashi Maru , Kirk's line to Spock about David being his son and Spock's response were removed.
• In 2017, the remastered director's cut was given a limited theatrical release to celebrate the film's 35th anniversary . [1] [2]

External link [ ]

• Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan Comparison at Movie-Censorship.com – detailed analysis of the differences between the Theatrical Version and the Director`s Edition
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)