Star Trek: The Motion Picture 4K Blu-ray Review & Comments

My main issue with the film is that Kirk's character seems off in a few scenes. He's irritable, condescending, and even rude to other characters and there doesn't seem to be much point to any of it
On the contrary, its a key part of the story. He feels old, bored and purposeless. At the end his last words "I feel...young!" and mixed in with the Kobayashi Maru about cheating death and never accepting a no-win scenario, losing Spock' but gaining a Son, gives him a different perspective on life and death, winning and sacrifice, its a clear character journey for him.
 
On the contrary, its a key part of the story. He feels old, bored and purposeless. At the end his last words "I feel...young!" and mixed in with the Kobayashi Maru about cheating death and never accepting a no-win scenario, losing Spock' but gaining a Son, gives him a different perspective on life and death, winning and sacrifice, its a clear character journey for him.
That all happened in the sequel though. I agree it makes sense as a story arc across both films, but I wouldn't give them too much credit! TWOK wasn't planned when TMP was filmed

It seemed more like a misguided attempt to make sure people know he's an admiral now and super important.
 
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That all happened in the sequel though. I agree it makes sense as a story arc across both films, but I wouldn't give them too much credit! TWOK wasn't planned when TMP was filmed

It seemed more like a misguided attempt to make sure people know he's an admiral now and super important.
Apologies, I was flicking though the 2 threads, and reacted as this was TWOK. It's still fairly similar though, he is irritable and snappy because he feels old and unuseful, the early parts of TMP back that up, where he doesn't understand the ship redesigns, and McCoy calls him on his attitude. But you see him mellowing, trusting the crew more, and becoming his better self, he accepts Decker questioning his actions, and allows him to come to Vger at the end, where as exec he should stay on the ship.
 
Thanks man, must admit it's a few years since I've seen TMP and I didn't remember any of this:

The early parts of TMP back that up, where he doesn't understand the ship redesigns, and McCoy calls him on his attitude

That does explain it. Will have to give it a rewatch although it might be next year, I'm still planning to hold out for the directors cut, looked at the box set last night and best price anywhere is £80, not much of a deal!
 
I watched this tonight via the iTunes 4K DV release. I hadn't seen it in years and my goodness it completely holds up. It's just magnificent. The lengthy sequence near the opening where Kirk and Scotty fly to the enterprise while the ridiculously good Goldsmith show plays is sublime. We'd never get a sequence like that in a modern film.

The VFX inside VGer still look wonderful too, as is the sequence where Spock flies into the core. The pacing is spot on, the cast is wonderful and it's just so epic in scope.

One of my favourite movies of all time, and I doubt we'll ever see anything like it again. Audiences didn't have the patience for sci-fi this epic in 1979 and attention spans are so much shorter now. But I love that it exists.
 
My main issue with the film is that Kirk's character seems off in a few scenes. He's irritable, condescending, and even rude to other characters and there doesn't seem to be much point to any of it
Basically comes down to fear of the future and of losing Enterprise. TMP is set about 3 years after the end of the 5-year mission shown in the original show (even though 10 years had passed since the show ended in the real world). After a few years Earth-bound during the refit of the Enterprise, he realises that he probably won’t get it back, and will probably be flying a desk for the rest of his career. Decker and McCoy are absolutely right when they accuse him of using the crisis to get the ship back, it‘s exactly what he is doing. That said, as it turns out he is the right man for the job because the more ‘by the book’ Decker would have been far more cautious and probably would have not resolved the crisis.

TWOK on the other hand is set 10 years after TMP (which explains the new uniforms and lack of reference to earlier events), Kirk continued to command the Enterprise on a second 5 year mission, retired from Star Fleet for some time and has just come back. There he really is worried about getting old and I think that arc works much better with the characters being the same age as the actors.
 
Slightly charitable giving any of these 4K UHD versions except Wrath of Khan more than 7 in terms of PQ.
You can’t improve what isn’t there to begin with. The earlier Blu-rays had all sorts of sharpening and DNR applied to them, given the choice I’d prefer these every time.
 
You can’t improve what isn’t there to begin with. The earlier Blu-rays had all sorts of sharpening and DNR applied to them, given the choice I’d prefer these every time.
Of course you can improve that's the point of remastering. Ultimately it depends on how much you are willing to spend to do it. I'm sure there are technical reasons and limitations too. That's not to say that these versions aren't perfectly acceptable. They are. It's just I felt a little underwhelmed.
 
Of course you can improve that's the point of remastering. Ultimately it depends on how much you are willing to spend to do it. I'm sure there are technical reasons and limitations too. That's not to say that these versions aren't perfectly acceptable. They are. It's just I felt a little underwhelmed.
I guess it comes down to what you want from a restoration. To me that means going back to the original film negative and rescanning it digitally and the using digital manipulation to correct obvious damage and degradation resulting from the film process and decay. The only time I would want anything changed is to correct anything that never should have been there, I.e. a wrong sign, cameraman in a reflection, stuff like that.It sounds like this is what we have with this set. This review has a bit more detail on how each film has been enhanced from previous releases or mis-steps.


Obviously fir something like TMP: Directiors Edition we can make an exception because the production was flawed and compromised by money and timing, and tge Director himself took part in the restoration. So redoing effects and making changes to the film that ideally would have been done originally, I think is warranted.
 
I guess it comes down to what you want from a restoration. To me that means going back to the original film negative and rescanning it digitally and the using digital manipulation to correct obvious damage and degradation resulting from the film process and decay. The only time I would want anything changed is to correct anything that never should have been there, I.e. a wrong sign, cameraman in a reflection, stuff like that.It sounds like this is what we have with this set. This review has a bit more detail on how each film has been enhanced from previous releases or mis-steps.


Obviously fir something like TMP: Directiors Edition we can make an exception because the production was flawed and compromised by money and timing, and tge Director himself took part in the restoration. So redoing effects and making changes to the film that ideally would have been done originally, I think is warranted.
I agree with a lot of what you say. I don't know whether you have these restored 4K versions but if you look at approximately 6m 50s into The Motion Picture, a scene on Epsilon 9 you can see how out of focus and grainy the picture is. It looks like very little effort was made to improve that beyond the Bluray. I could honestly say it looks DVD quality. The are a number of other examples I could point to. It would interesting to know why exactly they couldn't improve that.
 
I agree with a lot of what you say. I don't know whether you have these restored 4K versions but if you look at approximately 6m 50s into The Motion Picture, a scene on Epsilon 9 you can see how out of focus and grainy the picture is. It looks like very little effort was made to improve that beyond the Bluray. I could honestly say it looks DVD quality. The are a number of other examples I could point to. It would interesting to know why exactly they couldn't improve that.
Quite lot of the effects shots were very rushed because less than a year before the movie was released, they fired the original effects house that had been working on it since the development of the ‘Phase II’ show (that was then reworked into the movie), and brought in a new team. That’s why some effects look great and others kind of rough. In other shots it’s just down to soft focus, either deliberately with a bit of the old Vaseline on the lens to make Kirk look younger, or accidentally just due to lack of time to get the best shot.

I’m pretty confident what we are seeing in the transfer is what is really baked in to the film stock that was scanned, but the new Director’s cut remaster should hopefully fix at least some of the problems.
 
Rewatched for the 1st time in about 15 years.

Very much a late 60s style sci-fi movie. Although the plot unfolds at a pedestrian rate it does deliver on a great spectacle, amazing soundtrack and what is fundamentally a great premise for the story.

Watch it on a big screen with a great sound system and you’ll be captivated by its cinematic spectacle. Watch it on the box on a Sunday afternoon after a big dinner you’ll be asleep before they leave space dock.
 
The only thing is..the original star trek movies there were 6 off them..weres final frontier and undiscovered country? Would it be too much to have all 6 in the set ?
 
The only thing is..the original star trek movies there were 6 off them..weres final frontier and undiscovered country? Would it be too much to have all 6 in the set ?
Would have made sense so can only assume covid is the cause they are not all done and they released whatever they just put out whatever they had finished for the anniversary.
 
Would have made sense so can only assume covid is the cause they are not all done and they released whatever they just put out whatever they had finished for the anniversary.

Yes, as @Steve Withers said on the podcast, they may be shooting for:

1. TMP + Genesis Trilogy (4)
2. V-Generations Crossover Movies (3)
3. Next Generation Trilogy (3)

Which, as you say, makes it easier to get them out in time for the anniversary AND not put people off with ridiculous price tags.

I'd certainly feel happier paying £80 now and £60 end of year, and another £60 next year, as opposed to £200 now, even if they add up to the same thing. And many may wait for the latter two sets until they drop anyway.
 
Yes, as @Steve Withers said on the podcast, they may be shooting for:

1. TMP + Genesis Trilogy (4)
2. V-Generations Crossover Movies (3)
3. Next Generation Trilogy (3)

Which, as you say, makes it easier to get them out in time for the anniversary AND not put people off with ridiculous price tags.

I'd certainly feel happier paying £80 now and £60 end of year, and another £60 next year, as opposed to £200 now, even if they add up to the same thing. And many may wait for the latter two sets until they drop anyway.
Meanwhile on iTunes I bought all of them on special for under £20 years back and they'll all go 4K for free. (the first four already have)

I like discs but the pricing is just bananas, and I'm finding it ever harder to stomach the environmental costs of these things. Discussion for another thread I know.
 
Just bought ST:TMP The Director’s Edition 4k Dolby Vision Dolby Atmos, for £7.99 on iTunes. The Atmos mix is one of the best I’ve heard.
 
Slightly charitable giving any of these 4K UHD versions except Wrath of Khan more than 7 in terms of PQ.
For the past few days I thought I was going mad, all the praise being heaped on & people stating the PQ is so much better. I'm honestly not seeing it, save for the CGI scenes, which look heaps better in UHD, but they were rendered & not filmed.
I'm the opposite however, I feel like tWoK is the most similar to the previous HD blu-ray Anniversary release.
 
Just bought the boxed set from my local HMV for £50. I’ll be starting viewing this evening, once the wife’s soaps are finished. Can’t wait!
 

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