Star Trek: The Motion Picture

I just watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Netflix Watch-it-now. This particular version of the movie appears to be the original, not the director’s cut with the new CG special effects. The picture quality is still very good and the music and sound effects are very cool. If you’ve never seen this movie, take into consideration that back in 1979, they were trying to introduce the Star Trek universe to an audience that had never seen Star Trek before, while at the same time they wanted to give something to the fans that had made Star Trek a cult phenomenon over the last decade. As such, the first half of the movie is mostly exposition, introducing the characters and the technology. They also wanted to show that the Enterprise was not 100% functional and was not the same Enterprise as from the TV show. You could say they wanted to “reimagine” Star Trek without breaking the continuity with the TV show. The second half of the movie is classic Star Trek. Although the plot may seem familiar to anyone who as seen The Changeling, the theme is quite different.