"Star Trek - The Motion Picture" (1979), Directed by Robert Wise, Produced by Gene Roddenberry

[DonRocks]

When this movie was released in 1979, I saw it in the theater. As of right now, the only two things I remember about it are:

1) I was excited and happy that this childhood favorite was made into a film

2) I enjoyed it, although I don't remember why, or even know what it's about

But now, in 2014, I'm about 35 minutes into this 2+ hour film (which I will finish in the next couple of days), and so far? It is ... just ... awful.

I'm purposely not looking at any reviews, but my initial impression is that this is going to be painful to get through. The modern-day, parody of William Shatner - replete with bad makeup - is already shining brightly in 1979 (*), and the rest of the cast looks like they had a pretty rough ten years. Please get better, movie. Please?

(*) The shot where Captain Kirk extends his hand to Dr. McKoy to try and welcome him back onto the ship is *terrible*.

[porcupine]

All of the Star Trek movies are awful.  None of them aged well.  Star Trek - The Motion Picture, bad as it is, is not the worst of the lot.

[DanielK]

All of the Star Trek movies are awful.  None of them aged well.  Star Trek - The Motion Picture, bad as it is, is not the worst of the lot.

Without starting the 12 millionth internet flamewar, I disagree with you that ALL of them are awful. However, the first is beaten to the bottom only by the 5th.

[DonRocks]

Without starting the 12 millionth internet flamewar, I disagree with you that ALL of them are awful. However, the first is beaten to the bottom only by the 5th.

All of the Star Trek movies are awful.  None of them aged well.  Star Trek - The Motion Picture, bad as it is, is not the worst of the lot.

Okay, my conclusion: I didn't like this movie at all, and I don't really see how I did when I was a teenager. That said, now that I read about it online, I see there's a "Director's Cut" that's supposed to be better - or should I say: "less bad" - and I watched the regular, non-HD version. I could go into a lot of detail (and will if someone has any discussion or questions), but for now, I'll just go on the record stating that I was sorely disappointed - in plot, in special effects, and in character development.

On a side note, Leonard Nimoy (who was a heavy smoker during this time, and who has recently revealed that he has COPD) really *sounded* like a heavy smoker - given the recent news, I couldn't get past how much his voice had changed in ten years, and it made me sad.

Could it be that Star Trek is an institution solely from it's first two years on TV? The third year was awful, and if the movies are awful, then ... what? I did used to really enjoy The Next Generation - was that considered a "savior" when it came out?

[porcupine]

All of them were great fun at the time.  I loved the original series, I loved each movie when it was released (except 5), I loved TNG, I loved DS9, I loved Voyager though sorely disappointed in a missed opportunity to go truly dark, and heck I even liked Enterprise.  But truly, none of them aged well.  With the exception of a few TOS episodes, I've never really enjoyed re-watching any of the shows.

Trivia question for Don: I left something off the "I love" list above.  Do you know what it is without googling for it?

Old-timey story: I stood in line for hours to watch the first showing of The Motion Picture, at the old MacArthur Theater.  Loved that place.  Wish it were still around.

[PappyVanWise]

rivia question for Don: I left something off the "I love" list above.  Do you know what it is without googling for it?

No "love" for Star Trek the Animated Series?

[DonRocks]

Trivia question for Don: I left something off the "I love" list above.  Do you know what it is without googling for it?

No "love" for Star Trek the Animated Series?

If it says anything about what a Trekkie I'm *not*, before I started these forums, I didn't even know there was a Star Trek - The Animated Series.

But I did enjoy TOS as a child (and really enjoyed watching the entire series in these past few months - I feel like I really "know it" now - I'm yearning for conversation and/or questions about it). I also enjoyed TNG when it came out - enough so that I would really look forward to seeing it, and I'm toying with the idea of embarking on the same thing I did with TOS: watching the entire series. When DS9 came out, I watched several episodes, became disenchanted, and stopped. Voyager I've only seen a handful of times, and I don't even know what Enterprise is, alas.

I think between TOS, The Flintstones, I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bugs Bunny Cartoons, and *maybe* All In The Family and maybe even The Brady Bunch, these are about the only series I've seen just about every episode of. To put my television-watching career into perspective, I don't think I've ever seen an episode of Dallas because I'd stopped watching TV by then.