Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).  Director: Robert Wise.  Starring: (Come on, do I really have to tell you?  Oh, fine...) William Shatner, Leonary Nimoy, DeForrest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei.

When the announcement was made that Star Trek, the television show that withered and died during its initial run on TV but whose popularity grew exponentially in syndication, was making the transition to a theatrical film, the burgeoning fan base was ecstatic.

 I certainly was.  At the time I had no idea who director Robert Wise was or what he had done before (for shame), but I just knew the movie would be good.  It had to be.

You see, I was one of those kids who caught the show during its heavy rerun rotation following the show's cancellation.  It, along with Get Smart, and The Wild, Wild, West were among my favorite television shows.  There was something so genuine about the relationship between Kirk/Spock/McCoy and the rest of the crew of the starship Enterprise.  Despite many of the fantastic trappings, the people on the show felt so genuine and the conflicts they encountered were often far from the simplistic norm of other science fictional fare.  Today, with hindsight, I recognize that the shows best seasons were the first two and that the third had its share of clunkers.  To this day, my all time favorite episode of the original series remains "The Doomsday Machine".  I still remember, as a young boy, being blown away with the idea that another Enterprise sized/type spacecraft could absolutely get its ass kicked by the episode's central menace.  And when that menacing planet destroyer turned its attention to Kirk and his crew...Brrrr....

Anyway, when Star Trek: The Motion Picture (STTMP) was finally released, I was living abroad and had no access to a theatre playing it.  For those old timers that remember the pre-internet years, news and reviews weren't always easy to come by, and this was especially so when you're living in a foreign country that isn't even scheduled to receive the film for a few more months.  Even so, I somehow picked up stray opinons on the film, and the word was that the film wasn't good.  Someone dubbed this "Star Trek: The Motionless Picture", and that insult, more than any other, stuck.

Eventually I managed to catch the film in a local theatre and, frankly, the critics were right.  While it was a thrill to see the original cast and crew, one would be hard pressed to say we saw them "in action" again.  Worse, the film devoted way too much screen time to newcomers Stephen Collins (As William Decker, son of "The Doomsday Machine's" Commodore Decker and personally selected to command the re-fitted Enterprise, until the events of the film make Kirk take charge) and Persis Khambatta (as Lieutenant Illia).

And, even worse than that, the movie's plot was mostly recycled from "The Changeling" (itself not one of the better original Star Trek episodes) with a smattering of 2001: A Space Odyssey thrown in for good measure.

Luckily for Paramount and the cast of Star Trek (and anyone else with financial interests in Star Trek's continued survival), the film did well enough at the box office despite the bad reviews to garner a sequel.  If STTMP cracked the door open for what followed, it was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that kicked it open wide, and what followed was close to three decades (and I'm sure more to follow) of various Star Trek related franchises.

As the years passed, I heard stories about the troubled production of STTMP, how the original company in charge of the effects was dumped and how the film's makers had to hastily go to others to complete the film.  When shown on television, the film featured several new sequences, and the story was a little more coherent (this in spite of the fact that some of the new sequences clearly featured incomplete effects).  It was this extended version of the film that was eventually released to video.

However, like Blade Runner, the alternative cuts and stories of a director who wasn't able to make the film "his way" and, perhaps most importantly of all, the fact that the Star Trek was now a solid money making franchise, convinced the powers that be to allow Robert Wise to return to STTMP and produce a "director's cut".

I'm glad they did.

Now, don't get me wrong: Some of the initial problems with the film are still there and will always be there.  I still feel that Illia wasn't all that interesting a character.  But at least she did something, even if it was acting like a robot.  Stephen Collins' Decker could have been cut from the film entirely.  And the plot, still a re-warmed version of "The Changeling", left much to be desired.

However, the "director's cut" of STTMP represents a quantum leap from either the murky theatrical cut or the slightly better "extended" cut.  In this version we see a story that finally, finally moves.  Yes, kids: This is no longer a "motionless" picture.  Tension actually builds and we look forward to seeing what will come next.  Icing on the cake, though, has to go to the new CGI graphics.  Unlike the ham handedly-obvious quality the new effects had in THX 1138's car chase scene, the new effects in STTMP actually fit in pretty seamlessly.  They actually add to the film rather than detract.

So there you have it, a "director's cut" that is very much worth the price of admission.  Sadly, the new effects created for this film were done on lower resolution and, therefore, its unknown when and if a Blu-Ray high definition version of the "director's cut" of STTMP will ever be released.  I hope so.  STTMP may not be the very best Star Trek film ever made, but it was the first, and in the "director's cut" version it shines.