Star Trek The Motion Picture Director's Cut Remastered Trailer
By: Gizmodo
I'm excited. I had the whole box set on VHS back in the day, but I don't have any of the original crew on disk.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Rob Bricken
Way back in 2001, Star Trek fans were delighted to receive a director's cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with enhanced visual effects, on DVD. For a film that director Robert Wise originally felt was rushed to theaters—and definitely had incomplete visual effects—the remasters version of the movie was a godsend. Now, more than 20 years later, Trek fans can rejoice again, because the director's cut is finally making its way to 4K Ultra HD—and that's not all.
That includes the aforementioned visual effects, which have been recreated in 4K thanks to producer David C. Fein, preservationist Mike Matessino, and returning visual effects supervisor Daren Dochterman, who assembled a team of special effects experts to comb through the Paramount archives for the task. It took more than six months to assemble (or reassemble, I guess), but the result is the best-looking version of the first Star Trek movie ever. Seriously, check it out:
What's especially cool is that this new version of the Director's Cut will include deleted scenes from the movie that were once thought lost forever. "There's a deleted scene that we wanted to have back 20 years ago," Fein told StarTrek.com. "This was Ilia and Scotty and Decker in engineering. We found some of the footage 20 years ago, but there was no audio, so there was really no point in showing the scene. But it's three or four scenes that people have wanted to see forever. So we re-transferred that footage… and we found out that [director] Bob [Wise] looped the dialogue for the scene. Now that scene's going to be included in the physical media release and others, because he looped a few. And we found other key scenes that are just fantastic."
Fans who subscribe to the Paramount+ streaming service will have the first chance to check out this enhanced version, as the remasters movie will premiere there on April 5, less than a month away, in celebration of Star Trek's "First Contact Day." Not a subscriber? Luckily, the film will also be returning to theaters on May 22 and May 25, with assistance from Fathom Events. Can't make it to a theater either? Well, you'll be able to purchase the movie in Blu-ray form in September, with a host of extras that are yet to be announced.
Director's Cut or no, Star Trek: The Motion Pictures has its issues—the biggest one being it's basically a rehash of the TV episode "The Changeling," just starring a sentient version of a 20th-century Voyager space probe—but the movie revitalized the franchise so thoroughly that it led to The Next Generation and the umpteen Trek TV series currently airing now. It's worth a rewatch, and if you're going to do so, this is clearly the version you need to be watching.
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This is going to look stunning on my system!
I fell asleep during this movie , in the theater. I like Star Trek, but I thought the first theatrical movie was boring.
Not sure a directors cut can help this movie. This seemed to be as a 1 hour tv episode that they stretched into a 2 hour movie. Way too many lingering shots of the outside of the Enterprise...
It's better than the "save the whales" 4th one. Damn, I dislike that movie.
But she regrew a kidney...
I hold Leonard Nimoy in high regard, but I'm not a big fan of movies with no action of some kind. I'm definitely in the minority as many fans see this one as the best of the Old Guard movies.
Oh no. I thought The Voyage Home was a great movie. I'd love to see it in the new format.
I thought a few scenes were longer than they needed to be, but overall, I liked TMP.
I wish they could do something about those uniforms, though. I don't usually care much about that stuff, but they looked like they wore their pajamas on the bridge. And Ilia's uniform was ridiculously skimpy even by Roddenberry standards.
A lot of people knock TMP, but this film had one of the best Star Trek moments ever — the reveal of the Enterprise after the refit.
To be honest, the scene is overly long, but if you skip ahead to about the 1:50 mark you'll be pretty close to the reveal. Turn the volume up and check it out.
I still get goosebumps watching that big cut to the ship, synced with the music. I saw it in the theater and remember some oohs and ahhs, and a few people clapping. Later on I heard that in some theaters people were giving it a standing ovation, lol.
People were soooo happy to have Star Trek back.
Yeah, the scene was a bit too long, but the reveal - it works.
I never noticed until rewatching the movie after TNG started that TNG recycled TMP's theme music.
I don't much care for the shuttle Kirk and Scotty are in. It's like going to space in a Ferris wheel gondola. I feel like they could tip it over if they aren't careful.
Same here.
Heh. The only thing cool about it is that it can back up to the docking port on the side of the ship. No shuttle bay necessary, lol.