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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

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When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and hopefully stop it.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

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Watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Featuring a patchwork script and a dialogue-heavy storyline whose biggest villain is a cloud, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a less-than-auspicious debut for the franchise.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Robert Wise

William Shatner

Leonard Nimoy

Commander Spock

DeForest Kelley

Lt. Cmdr, Leonard H. 'Bones' McCoy, M.D.

Stephen Collins

Persis Khambatta

Lieutenant Ilia

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Epic science-fiction stories, with their cosmic themes and fast truths about the nature of mankind, somehow work best when the actors are unknown to us. The presence of the Star Trek characters and actors who have become so familiar to us on television tends in a strange way to undermine this movie. The audience walks in with a possessive, even patronizing attitude toward Kirk and Spock and Bones, and that interferes with the creation of the "sense of wonder" that science fiction is all about.

Let's begin with the toy for the eyes. The Star Trek movie is fairly predictable in its plot. We more or less expected that two of the frequent ingredients in the television episodes would be here, and they are: a confrontation between Starship Enterprise and some sort of alien entity, and a conclusion in which basic human values are affirmed in a hostile universe. In "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", the alien entity is an unimaginably vast alien spaceship from somewhere out at the edge of the galaxy. The movie opens as it's discovered racing directly toward Earth, and it seems to be hostile. Where has it come from, and what does it want?

The Starship Enterprise, elaborately rebuilt, is assigned to go out to intercept it, with Admiral Kirk, of course, in charge. And scenes dealing with the Enterprise and the other ship will make up most of the movie if the special effects aren't good, the movie's not going to work. But they are good, as, indeed, they should be: The first special-effects team on this movie was fired, and the film's release was delayed a year while these new effects were devised and photographed. (The effects get better, by the way, as the movie progresses. The alien ship looks great but the spaceports and futuristic cities near the film's beginning loom fairly phony.)

The Enterprise, perhaps deliberately, looks a lot like other spaceships we've seen in " 2001: A Space Odyssey ," " Silent Running ," "Star Wars," and " Alien ." Kubrick's space odyssey set a visual style for the genre that still seems to be serviceable. But the look of the other spaceship in " Star Trek " is more awesome and original. It seems to reach indefinitely in all directions, the Enterprise is a mere speck inside of it, and the contents of the alien vessel include images of the stars and planets it has passed en route, as well as enormous rooms or spaces that seem to be states of a computer-mind. This is terrific stuff.

But now we get to the human level (or the half-human level, in the case of Mr. Spock). The characters in this movie are part of our cultural folklore; the Star Trek television episodes have been rerun time and time again. Trekkies may be unhappy with me for saying this, but there are ways in which our familiarity with the series works against the effectiveness of this movie. On the one hand we have incomprehensible alien forces and a plot that reaches out to the edge of the galaxy.

On the other hand, confronting these vast forces, we have television pop heroes. It's great to enjoy the in-jokes involving the relationships of the Enterprise crew members and it's great that Trekkies can pick up references meant for them, but the extreme familiarity of the Star Trek characters somehow tends to break the illusion in the big scenes involving the alien ship.

Such reservations aside, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" is probably about as good as we could have expected. It lacks the dazzling brilliance and originality of 2001 (which was an extraordinary one-of-a-kind film). But on its own terms it's a very well-made piece of work, with an interesting premise. The alien spaceship turns out to come from a mechanical or computer civilization, one produced by artificial intelligence and yet poignantly "human" in the sense that it has come all this way to seek out the secrets of its own origins, as we might.

There is, I suspect, a sense in which you can be too sophisticated for your own good when you see a movie like this. Some of the early reviews seemed pretty blase, as if the critics didn't allow themselves to relish the film before racing out to pigeonhole it. My inclination, as I slid down in my seat and the stereo sound surrounded me, was to relax and let the movie give me a good time. I did and it did.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture movie poster

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

132 minutes

William Shatner as Kirk

Leonard Nimoy as Spock

James Doohan as Scotty

George Takei as Sulu

Walter Koenig as Chekov

Directed by

Robert Wise

Screenplay by

Harold Livingston

Produced by

Gene Roddenberry

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Header image for Star Trek I: The Motion Picture showing the U.S.S. Enterprise emerging from space dock

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

1979 • PG When a mysterious entity threatens to destroy Earth, Kirk and the crew of the newly-refit U.S.S. Enterprise are called into action to help save the planet.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture … l to r, Stephen Collins, Persis Khambatta, Leonard Nimoy, Majel Barrett, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Grace Lee Whitney, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture review – high-definition with enough high camp to boldly go

The first feature film of the franchise, from 1979, has been rejigged and brightened, the better to enjoy the over-the-top acting

F or 10 years after the cancellation of the original Star Trek TV show in 1969, creator Gene Roddenberry’s mission was to seek out ways of getting a movie version, helped by the growing re-run fanbase and a warp-speed boost from the colossal success of Star Wars. The end result was Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, now re-released in a 4K restoration, directed by veteran all-rounder Robert Wise with Douglas Trumbull on special effects. This is the “director’s edition”, first authorised by Wise in 2001: it brightens and clarifies the effects, enriches the sound mix, adds minor expository and ambient scenes and emphasises the unhurried visionary grandeur that Wise was aiming at.

At the time of its original release, I was disconcerted by the Enterprise crew’s silly new uniforms: the men’s tunics are extended downwards at the waist to form an entirely ridiculous triangular flap over the crotch area. And living in the eternal TV present as I was, I was secretly shocked at how much older the main cast suddenly looked, everyone’s hair greyer and more precariously bouffant-ed. With this first movie, the Star Trek concept had evolved into something more ambitious and Kubrickian, with plenty of andante outer-space sequences and an entire pre-credit “overture”, just dark starry space to a muted orchestral theme. I missed the cartoony narrative snap of the TV show and the original signature tune, but the doors still go fshhhht-fshhhht and the dialogue scenes between Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) still have that wonderfully theatrical resonance and serio-comic panache, Shatner’s DRAMATIC way of SPEAKING, often-doing-a-one-breath-run-up-to-a-big-EMPHASIS is still a joy. It’s only now I can see that the relationship of Spock and Kirk has a Jeeves/Wooster drollery.

The setting is 10 years on from the original show and Kirk, now an admiral, demands to be given command of the refitted USS Enterprise once again, because this is the only starship in a position to intercept a destructive alien cloud-formation with a hyper-evolved intelligence at its centre, heading for Planet Earth: a sinister entity that appears to call itself “V’Ger”. Kirk’s high-handedly pulling rank to assume command infuriates the existing captain, Decker (Stephen Collins), whose competence and loyalty Kirk nonetheless comes to respect.

Kirk gets the old gang together for his new Enterprise jaunt, the most important of course being the stonefaced Spock, who – in an outrageously enjoyable and over-the-top scene – has had to abandon the “Kolinahr” ceremony on his home planet, in which he would renounce emotion for ever. But his human side would not permit it. There is also a new crew-member: Lieutenant Ilia from the Planet Delta IV, played by Indian star Persis Khambatta, a mysterious and elegant figure with a shaved head who once had a relationship with Decker on her home planet and it soon becomes clear that Decker is still deeply in love with her. (Deltans are said to be more attractive than other people and can only serve aboard Starfleet vessels if they have taken “oaths of celibacy” – a sexier thing can hardly be imagined.)

All this is to have important consequences when a probe from V’Ger invades Ilia’s body, effectively making her its avatar, but with Ilia’s own memory and consciousness still intact somewhere within her. It’s a bit overextended but very watchable with flourishes of exotic invention: I was sorry that Nichelle Nichols ’s Uhura is not given greater prominence but I love the “giant’s causeway” of stepping stones leading from the Enterprise to the centre of the alien.

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The U.S.S. Enterprise proudly soars again in this newly restored, Director's Edition of the original Star Trek movie classic. When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command. Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and the cast from the acclaimed Star Trek television series mobilize at warp speed to stop the alien intruder from its relentless flight toward Earth.

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Majel Barrett
James Doohan
DeForest Kelley
Walter Koenig
Nichelle Nichols
Leonard Nimoy
William Shatner
George Takei

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Comparing The Three Versions of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Is there a definitive version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture at last? We compared all the different versions of this misunderstood movie to find out.

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The Starship Enterprise in Star Trek; The Motion Picture

Some 44 years after it went into production, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is finally complete.

We don’t say that frivolously. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one of Hollywood’s most famous “unfinished” films. Rushing to meet a December 7, 1979 release date, with many of the visual effects being completed right up until the last possible minute by Douglas Trumbull (who had replaced the previous VFX supervisor), director Robert Wise ( The Day the Earth Stood Still , The Sound of Music ) pretty much just stopped working on the film, carrying the first available print on a plane to the movie’s Washington D.C. premiere.

The complicated story of how ST: TMP – the first major motion picture based on an existing TV series — was developed, written, filmed, and released is a long, winding one that has been told before. It’s also well-known that the original theatrical version of the film – the one that Wise had to deliver finished or not – was not well-received by either fans or critics, although it became a sizable box office success.

Yet Star Trek: The Motion Picture steadily grew in stature over the years, gradually beginning to hold its own with fans even as later favorites like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ascended to the top of the franchise.

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With fans and even critics constantly reappraising the original film, Paramount Pictures – with the encouragement of two members of Robert Wise’s production company, David C. Fein and Michael Matessino – allowed Wise and his team to revisit the movie in 2001, reconstructing it to finally adhere more closely to Wise’s original vision.

The release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition in November 2001 on home video (DVD and VHS) confirmed for many fans that there was a far better film after all hidden inside the “rough cut” (Wise’s own words) released in 1979. Scenes were excised or trimmed, a few were reinstated, and most importantly, the visuals were spruced up with the help of CGI. The legendary Wise, who passed away four years later in 2005, got the chance to finish the movie the way he wanted.

But the story wasn’t over yet.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Reborn

Earlier this year, Paramount+ premiered a 4K Ultra HD (high definition) version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition . Prepared over the course of six months by Fein, Matessino, and a visual effects team with access to Paramount’s archives, this iteration of ST: TMP stayed true to the vision established by Wise for The Director’s Edition in 2001, while doing a further, extensive, HD restoration and upgrade of the entire film.

Now the Ultra HD Director’s Edition , along with 4K Ultra HD versions of the original theatrical cut and the “Special Longer Version” that was created for broadcast television in 1983, are available in a newly released set called The Complete Adventure , which gives us a definitive document of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in all three versions, looking perhaps the best they’ll ever look ( The Director’s Edition is also available on its own or as part of a set containing Ultra HD upgrades of all six films starring the original Trek cast).

Having seen the film in its original theatrical release, then on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray, we were always put off by the seeming drabness of the image and the colors. To our eyes, Star Trek: The Motion Picture – despite the occasionally awe-inspiring visuals it did manage to pull off against all odds – never seemed to pop off any screen or medium we watched it on.

That problem is now solved, and overpoweringly so: the film in 4K Ultra HD looks absolutely magnificent, as if we’re truly seeing the film for the first time.

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Yes, many of the VFX have been digitally enhanced or even freshly recreated, but they’re integrated almost seamlessly into the original aesthetic of the film, while many of the rough spots in the original release have been repaired or replaced. Now the 4K image really does leap off the screen in amazing color and detail. To watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture in this way is to watch a 44-year-old science fiction movie that looks in many ways like it was made last year.

And now that all three versions of the movie are here in this beautiful, pristine form, which one holds up the best and do they differ?

The Original Theatrical Cut

It may look better than it ever has, but the original theatrical cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture still has all the issues it had when it first came out. It’s slow-moving to the point of being inert, it spends way too much time on endless visuals (the first sight of the refurbished Enterprise , the lengthy flyover of the massive V’Ger spacecraft – heck, even Spock’s neck-pinch of some poor slob guarding an airlock takes way too long), and it leaves certain plot information and character motivations ambiguous at best and absent at worst.

What ST: TMP does retain is a sense of grandeur, and occasionally a sense of wonder, that often marked the best of the original series and has been sadly lacking in so much filmed science fiction ever since, including later Trek movies and TV series.

So many of the later movies – especially the J.J. Abrams-conceived Kelvin trilogy , but some of the classic and Next Generation films have the same problem – revolve around fairly simple bad guy/revenge motifs.

The original series had its share of those simple action-adventure episodes, but so much more of it was dedicated to great ideas – whether it be truly alien encounters, mirror universes, or moral quandaries posed by the Enterprise sticking its saucer in a new planet’s business.

And yes, even though Star Trek: The Motion Picture is in some ways a rewrite of the original series episode “The Changeling,” it’s much more expansive and even cosmic in its implications. While several later Trek films are superior in many ways, few of them have matched ST: TMP in its ambitions and pure science fiction concepts.

The acting is inconsistent, to say the least, although all our old favorites each have a memorable moment or two, and the glacial pacing really is at odds with the imagination glimpsed in the storyline and the visuals. In many ways, the theatrical cut remains a slog, but it’s also a one-of-a-kind Trek movie.

The ‘Special Longer Version’

Star Trek: The Motion Picture premiered on American network television – ABC, to be exact – on February 20, 1983. Not only was this the first TV showing of the movie, but it also introduced a different cut of the film that came to be known as the “Special Longer Version.” Running for two hours and 24 minutes (without commercials), as opposed to the theatrical cut’s two hours and 12 minutes, the “SLV” essentially incorporated a number of scenes that were left unfinished and kept out of the picture by director Robert Wise in 1979 – who apparently did not approve of this version.

A lot of the scenes that were added back into the movie for the “SLV” were and are clearly extraneous, although in some cases amusing to watch.

There are a couple of exchanges between Sulu (George Takei) and the Deltan navigator Ilia (Persis Khambatta) – whose species is apparently quite sexually attractive and active – that are possibly meant to suggest Sulu is coming under her spell, although they were jettisoned to focus on Ilia and Decker’s (Stephen Collins) relationship (there is also more of that present in this cut).

Other sequences – like a moment in which Spock (Leonard Nimoy) weeps for V’Ger and a quick scene of Ilia helping to relieve Chekov’s (Walter Koenig) pain after he is injured – actually made it into the Director’s Cut and work well there as improved character moments.

Most infamously, the original release of the “SLV” contained a literally unfinished shot of Kirk (William Shatner) leaving the Enterprise airlock in a spacesuit to pursue Spock as the Vulcan himself spacewalks deeper into V’Ger’s interior. When the “SLV” was first shown, parts of the soundstage around the airlock set were still visible, as a result of the effects for the scene never being completed (the new 4K Ultra HD version of the “SLV” rectifies that, although the incomplete version is provided as a bonus feature).

Importantly, the new version of the “SLV” has restored it to its theatrical matting – the movie was cropped to the old TV screen ratio of 1.33: 1 for broadcast (and for several subsequent home video releases), turning Wise’s widescreen compositions into a nightmare of forced zooms and pan-and-scanning. At least now this version of the film is restored to its proper ratio.

That said, the “Special Longer Version” is in many ways the worst version of the film. While it’s always interesting for completists to see footage left out of a theatrical movie, this iteration simply pastes all that material back into the film – ostensibly to fill a three-hour “network movie premiere” slot, back in the day when such things mattered – without any consideration of whether it should be there. If the pacing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture has always been a bone of contention for you, the “SLV” doubles down on that.

Leonard Nimoy as Spock, William Shatner as Kirk, and DeForest Kelley as McCoy in Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The Director’s Edition

Ironically enough, the Robert Wise-supervised “Director’s Edition” of Star Trek: The Motion Picture runs for two hours and 16 minutes – four minutes longer than the theatrical release. It also includes some of the scenes Wise left out initially, which surfaced in the interim in the TV version of the movie (a detailed list of alterations and additions can be found here ).

But while it still suffers from pacing issues, they’re less of a detriment. The Director’s Edition still moves slowly, but doesn’t feel like it drags, and there’s more of a stateliness to it that is befitting the movie’s larger themes – which are also given more clarity in this version.

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Perhaps the most important edition in that sense is the scene in which Spock weeps for V’Ger – a scene that makes it much clearer what V’Ger is seeking as it returns to Earth, and why its quest has reached a potentially catastrophic dead end.

More importantly, the scene also brings Spock’s own character arc in the film into much better focus – he realizes that his desire to purge all remaining emotion from his own life (the kolinahr ritual) could lead him to the same cold, empty existence that V’Ger now faces, which he firmly rejects.

Also retained is Ilia’s healing of Chekov, adding a little more nuance to what is mostly a blank slate of a character, as well as some brief interactions between the supporting crew members.

What is left out are, most notably, the full-length travelogues along V’Ger’s exterior and interior (although we do get a neat shot of the entire V’Ger vessel emerging from its cloud above Earth). The scenes are still there, but this material – and a number of other visuals – is trimmed and sharpened to give the movie a little more forward motion. Along with that, so many subtle visual and audio touches have been added – whether it’s better matte or CG backgrounds or original sounds from the TV series – to create more ambiance and an overall more fulfilling cinematic Trek experience.

When Wise and his team took the movie back into the shop in 2001, they overhauled the visuals and the sound mix with the best available technology at the time – yet the limitations back then in terms of resolution meant that the Director’s Edition was only available on DVD for the next 20 years. With the new upgrade, all the visual and sonic enhancements (plus new ones) have been rendered so that they can now be seen in 4K Ultra HD – thus giving Star Trek: The Motion Picture the most up-to-date restoration possible.

The result is an often eye-popping science fiction spectacle that looks fresher and better than ever before. As rushed as the original production was, it’s a tribute to Wise, Trumbull, and the team that completed the film in 1979 that so much of their work still holds up and was able to mesh so well with the enhancements of both 2001 and 2021.

But just as importantly, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now about as close as it will ever come to being the visionary sci-fi epic that it was first conceived as. The new version of The Director’s Edition retains all the narrative revisions that Wise made more than two decades ago, while adding the visual grandeur that such a cerebral story needed in the first place. Yes, there are still flaws in the film, and it may never replace, say, The Wrath of Khan at the top of Trek movie rankings, but more than four decades after it first came out, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now finished.

This film’s journey is at last complete, but the human adventure is still just beginning.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition – The Complete Adventure is out now on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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Fast forward to the turn of the century when Wise was given the opportunity by Paramount’s Home Entertainment division to revisit the movie and — joined by producers David C. Fein, Mike Matessino, and Daren Dochterman — complete the post-production process the way he intended for DVD release in 2001. Armed with the burgeoning world of CG effects, as well as the time necessary to revisit the movie’s editing, the 2001 edition of The Director’s Edition was released on DVD to great acclaim.

But that DVD release was 21 years ago, and saw the movie released only in the standard definition presentation of the time. During that period, the theatrical edition of The Motion Picture received several re-releases, including on Blu-ray and most recently in September 2021’s remastered 4K UHD box set.

Meanwhile, fans of The Motion Picture Director’s Edition have had only ever had access to the original DVD release (or up-rezzed editions of that DVD picture through some streaming services). Until now!

The Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a superior film to the theatrical edition many of our readers are probably familiar with. And while a lot of the attention naturally falls on some of the movie’s sequences that have been significantly altered from the theatrical edition – Starfleet Headquarters has been improved, Vulcan’s moons have disappeared and the planet looks much more like it does in other appearances in the franchise, and we actually get to see the giant V’Ger vessel at the heart of the cloud – the Director’s Edition does more than just update the effects in a few places.

The whole movie has been upgraded, not just in its look and feel, but in how it runs, too. Robert Wise was an Oscar-winning movie editor before he moved to directing, and used the 2000-era opportunity to revisit the film to adjust a significant number of edits to the movie’s flow.

A lot of these changes aren’t major alterations – the movie is fundamentally the same – but through a series of targeted cuts and edits the movie flows better, and most importantly for fans who found the theatrical edition to be turgid, it feels like a brisker movie as well.

Drew Stewart of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Visual Comparisons project has meticulously documented the ways in which the Director’s Edition of the movie is different from the 1979 theatrical edition, and will be updating his project in the coming weeks with additional changes made in the 2022 version of the Director’s Edition . The new presentation of the movie is unlikely to fundamentally reshape your opinion of it — given that it’s still the same story and the same script — but you are very likely to enjoy it more than the theatrical edition that has been most prevalent for viewers.

And if you prefer the theatrical edition? Well the good news is, it’s available for you in the same 4K Ultra HD presentation thanks to last year’s movie box set. Fans now have the ability to choose which version of The Motion Picture they want to watch, and Paramount+ is to be commended for making that available to them… as another major science fiction franchise whose original versions have been vaulted for thirty years might take note?

Personally, I see no reason to watch the theatrical edition of The Motion Picture ever again. I’ve loved the Director’s Edition since the original 2001 release, and the 2022 4K remaster does the movie all the justice in the world. The picture is crisp, the colors more vibrant, the sound is incredible, and Jerry Goldsmith’s outstanding score has never sounded better.

The new effects are definitely not egregious additions for the sake of it; they help tell the story of the movie better for the viewer. It never made sense in the theatrical edition that on Vulcan Spock shields his eyes… from the night’s sky. And during the Enterprise’s approach to and journey inside of V’Ger, good luck being able to figure out where anything is or where the Enterprise is in relation to V’Ger as a whole.

The new quick effects shots help the viewer better understand the Enterprise’s journey, and provide more effective visual reference for how large V’Ger is… and what the ship actually looks like! The theatrical edition of the movie never even shows you a wide shot of the V’Ger spacecraft at the heart of the cloud. The Director’s Edition corrects this oversight, not for the sake of it, but because it really helps tell the story better.

The history of Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition is not one of making changes to the movie just to sell a new product for fans, but of honoring the legacy of the movie’s director and giving him the chance to finish it so that fans could see it in the way it was intended.

Even though Robert Wise passed away in 2005, he lived long enough to work with the Director’s Edition team through the original project that was released in 2001, and that same team has picked up the baton to remaster the movie for a 4K presentation today based upon his guidance during the first project.

The voyage of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition may be at an end, but the Human Adventure is Just Beginning, and you’d be wise to give this movie a chance using the biggest screen and the best sound system you have access to.

I know the Director’s Edition has significantly improved my opinion of the movie as a whole, and I hope it does the same for you.

The newly remastered Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition arrives in 4K UHD format April 5, exclusively on Paramount+. The new edition of the film will be screened in theaters in the United States in May, followed by a 4K Blu-ray physical release this September.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
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Film / Star Trek: The Motion Picture

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Scotty: The crew hasn't had near enough transition time with all the new equipment. And the engines, they're not even tested at warp power. And an untried captain... Kirk: Two and a half years as Chief of Starfleet Operations may have made me a little stale, but I wouldn't consider myself untried... They gave her back to me, Scotty. Scotty: Gave her back, sir? I doubt it was that easy with Nogura. Kirk: * in Scottish accent * Ye're right.

The one that gave Klingons their trademark forehead ridges.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the first movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1979.

Eight years after the Cancellation of the original Star Trek series, which had gone on to be Vindicated by Reruns , the blockbuster successes of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced Paramount Pictures to follow up by green-lighting a Sequel Series for the franchise, Star Trek: Phase II , to serve as a backbone of a new fourth major television network, with Trek creator Gene Roddenberry running the new show. However, within a couple of years, and after substantial pre-production had already gone forward on the new series, Paramount ultimately vetoed the idea of starting a new network, fearing major cash drainage.

However, Paramount decided to use the work already put into Phase II to finally make The Movie (Roddenberry and Paramount had tried to get a Trek movie off the ground four years earlier, which fizzled), with noted director Robert Wise (director of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) , West Side Story and The Sound of Music ) at the helm.

As a side note, the general story is nearly identical to the Original Series episode " The Changeling ," note earning it the fan nickname, "Where Nomad Has Gone Before" with elements from " Obsession " and the Animated Series episode " One of Our Planets Is Missing "—and in fact the movie's story was intended to be the pilot of the abandoned Phase II .

The plot sounds simple enough. An unstoppable entity calling itself V'ger is heading towards Earth, destroying all in its path, and the Enterprise is sent out to investigate. The story was originally written to be an hour and a half pilot to Phase II (two hours with commercials), stretched to 2½ hours, most of which involved the bridge crew staring at special effects in awe. This led to the film to receiving several Fan Nicknames based on its quite slow pacing, such as "The Slow Motion Picture" and "The Motionless Picture". Wise's declared intent at the time was to create a 2001: A Space Odyssey for that era, and the equally slow-moving Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a blockbuster. This film's criticized slow pacing was partly the reason towards making an Actionized , Surprisingly Improved Sequel , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .

The novelization of the film is noteworthy for two reasons: it is the only prose Star Trek fiction ever written by series creator Gene Roddenberry, and it contains a footnote explicitly addressing rumors that Kirk and Spock were lovers (it may or may not have cleared that up ).

The movie is also noteworthy for its score, composed by Jerry Goldsmith , who would go on to score four more Trek theatrical films (he had been Roddenberry's first choice to score the original Trek first pilot, " The Cage ", but was unavailable at the time). Goldsmith's main theme would be re-purposed as the theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation , and his Klingon themes would be adapted in other Trek film scores and in later Star Trek series.

In 2001, a Director's Cut was released on DVD. It has been trimmed to be slightly faster-paced and includes improved special effects, including a shot that shows the entirety of V'ger. It also revealed that the original film was more of a workprint and Wise was not allowed to trim it to a more reasonable length because executives feared such information would ruin the film's reputation ahead of time, and Wise was so slow at filming the movie that when the prints were delivered for the movie's premiere, they were still wet from last-minute editing. In 2022, a 4K remastered version of the Director's Cut was released on streaming , Blu-ray and a limited theatrical release.

This movie provides examples of:

Activation Sequence : When the refitted Enterprise leaves spacedock. The spacedock lights go dark, things disconnect and get out of the way, there is bridge chatter to report multiple forms of readiness, and in response to Kirk giving the orders for thrusters, Enterprise lights up and starts to move.
Advertising Campaigns : No less than Orson Welles narrated the original trailers and ads for the film.

Alien Geometries : V'ger remains one of the trippiest examples in film, consisting of nothing but bizarre angles and lights.
The production diary has elaborate backstories for many of the bizarre aliens shown at the Federation headquarters. As an interesting subject of what constitutes Canon , almost none of this backstory has featured in later Star Trek productions. One species was even stated as being expert cloners and that the Federation relies on them for cloning soldiers in times of war.
Most of these aliens get fleshed out in the novel Ex Machina , which is set immediately after the movie, incorporating bits of their original descriptions from the production diary. The Saurians, meanwhile, at least get mentioned every time someone pulls out a bottle of "Saurian brandy,'' which was around in the Original Series .
The biggest example are Deltans, the species to which Ilia belongs. If you didn't read the novel, you'd have no idea why Ilia had to take a vow of celibacy, or why she refers to the crew as "sexually immature species" (which is why Sulu and Chekov do an immediate Male Gaze when she enters). According to the book, Deltans use sex as an everyday form of communication. Even the act of greeting someone is a sexual act. Now, bear in mind Decker was stationed on Delta (which is how he met Ilia), so you have to have a new respect for a guy who is unfazed by their society on a daily basis.
It isn't mentioned onscreen, but Willard Decker is the son of Commodore Matt Decker from the TOS episode " The Doomsday Machine ", which somewhat justifies his gung-ho attitude towards giant space threats.
Gene Roddenberry's novelization reveals the identity of the woman killed in the transporter accident as Vice Admiral Lori Ciana and that she was effectively Kirk's girlfriend at the time, with Admiral Nogura partly relying on her to keep Kirk interested in his desk job at Starfleet Headquarters. The movie gives no indication of this.
The Blu-Ray releases include the Library Computer, an interactive database that will appear on screen as the movie plays offering entries on characters, ships, places, etc. with additional information on them.
Ancient Astronauts : The novelization mentioned that an unknown race of aliens used to have a base on the Moon where they manipulated early humanity.
And the Adventure Continues : It ends with "The Human Adventure is Just Beginning".
Artifact Title : It is no longer 'The' (only) Star Trek Motion Picture.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence : Decker, Ilia, and V'ger.
As You Know : Kind of a variant: Decker explains that Voyager 6 disappeared into "what we used to call a black hole." If they don't call them that any more, why bother using the obsolete terminology? It got worse when the subsequent Trek shows ignored this line and featured several references to black holes. It is possible that certain phenomena observed from Earth were called black holes but were in reality wormholes , which would explain why V'ger wasn't crushed by a singularity.
Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat! : When the Klingons first encounter V'ger, they go Leeroy Jenkins and fire photon torpedoes at it . When that fails and V'ger starts blasting them, they beat a hasty (yet futile) retreat.
Author Appeal : Robert E. Wise is familiar with intellectual sci-fi flicks with overt religious overtones.
Avoid the Dreaded G Rating : The original version was rated G (and regraded to "Not Rated" on packaging of the recent DVD/Blu-Ray release), even with one truly frightening moment and frank sexual discussion. The Director's Cut was re-rated PG because the sound mixing was more "intense" and "menacing."
Back in the Saddle : Deconstructed . Kirk has been captaining a desk for several years, in which time he's spent very little time in space, meaning his instincts are rusty. In addition, Enterprise has just completed a massive refit in which she's effectively been entirely rebuilt, meaning she's not the ship he knew before. Commander Decker, who was in command of Enterprise through her refit period, is much more familiar with the ship and, in Kirk's own words, "nursemaids" him through the mission, helping them narrowly avoid destruction due to Kirk's unfamiliarity with the ship's new design and associated teething problems.
Big "NO!" : Decker during the wormhole scene, though this is partially due to the wormhole slowing down time for the ship.
Not clearly seen, but the transporter malfunction apparently results in this. Transporter Operator: Enterprise , what we got back didn't live long... fortunately.
The novelization suggests that Sonak and the other crewmember (Vice Admiral Lori Ciana) were rematerialized with their internal organs outside their bodies.
Bookends : The traveling pass over the Klingon vessel in the beginning of the film and the traveling pass under the Enterprise at the end.
Broken Pedestal : One of the reasons Decker is angry with Kirk replacing him as captain is because Kirk personally recommended him for the position beforehand.
Celebrity Paradox : A rare nonhuman example is Played With in that the real life Space Shuttle Enterprise was named after the fictional starship Enterprise , but in-universe the Enterprise space shuttle is shown as a precursor and namesake to the starship.
Closest Thing We Got : Decker is made Science Officer after Sonak's death, since no one else with the right qualifications is familiar with the Enterprise redesign. Spock shows up to resolve that issue later on.
Colour-Coded for Your Convenience : It isn't as apparent as with other Starfleet uniforms, but each division is differentiated by the color surrounding the assignment patch: white for command, orange for sciences, green for medical, red for engineering (just like TOS), pale gold for operations, and gray for security.
Comic-Book Adaptation : Marvel Comics published a mini-series adaptation of the film, which was followed by short-lived series chronicling what happened after the movie. Meanwhile, McDonald's featured a serialized comic strip adaptation of the film on the boxes of its first-ever Happy Meals, released as promotional tie-ins with the film.
Commander Contrarian : Decker. Justified early on; Decker does know the refit Enterprise better than Kirk at that point. Overriding an order from Kirk even saves the ship from being destroyed by an asteroid. Later on, however, he continues to advocate actions which are obstructive or downright contrary to their mission, even recommending firing on V'ger to escape its tractor beam. Decker justifies this with his claim that giving the captain alternatives is the duty of an executive officer, a point which Kirk reluctantly agrees is true. This does nothing to alleviate the hostility between the two.
Computers Are Fast : The reason V'ger keeps destroying all the ships it encounters is because its greeting message is transmitted in mere milliseconds, under the assumption that the ships are fellow mechanical lifeforms and will thus be able to understand and communicate at the same rate of speed. Normal lifeforms don't even realize they've been contacted, and thus V'ger doesn't perceive them as intelligent. Spock's telepathy allows him to sense that a message was sent, thereby allowing him to deduce its nature and respond in kind.
Continuity Nod : Various supporting characters from the original series turn up, with various promotions. Janice Rand has a brief scene attempting to resolve the Teleporter Accident , and Nurse Chapel is now an MD serving aboard Enterprise .
Cool Starship : This movie introduces the Klingon K't'inga -class battlecruiser — essentially a more powerful version of the familiar D7 design from the series — in the opening scene, as well as showcasing the redesigned Enterprise .
Costume Evolution : The uniforms were famously changed from the red, gold and blue tunics with black pants in the show into varying pastel shades of tan, grey, khaki and white, along with pants that merged straight into the shoes. The sheer variety of uniforms is interesting, as Kirk himself seems to change outfits every other scene. Behind-the-scenes, the convoluted engineering of the uniforms made the actors hesitant to sign on to another movie unless those were changed, and only the white engineering jumpsuits progressed to later films with some alterations.
Critical Staffing Shortage : After Sonak dies in a Teleporter Accident , Kirk asks Decker to find him another Science Officer, Vulcan if possible. Decker informs him that Sonak happened to be the only Vulcan science officer available, and the last qualified applicant on the planet (in the sense that no one else is familiar with the Enterprise redesign). Kirk's response is to have Decker double up as first officer and science officer, since they're on a tight schedule.
Curb-Stomp Battle : The battle at the beginning of the movie between three Klingon battlecruisers and V'ger. Poor Klingons never had a chance.
Darker and Edgier : This film takes a more serious tone than the original series.
Deconstruction : Of the original series, showing how, even in the 23rd century and despite all the advancements in science and technology, space exploration is still a dangerous business.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life : Spock theorizes that this is what V'ger is actually trying to do. Spock: Each of us, at some time in our lives, turns to someone — a father, a brother, a God — and asks, "Why am I here? What was I meant to be?"
Disintegrator Ray : V'ger's main weapon digitizes whatever it hits, storing an exact duplicate in its databanks. Three Klingon ships and the Federation monitoring outpost fall victim to it. Ilia is vaporized by a scaled down version used by V'ger's probe.
Does This Remind You of Anything? : Spock, in his own words, "penetrates" an "orifice" to get into V'ger's inner chamber, then passes through a large structure that looks like a vagina on its side, touches a pink, pulsating sensor to make intimate contact with V'ger, is overwhelmed with stimulation then finally passes out from exhaustion and wakes up alone in a bed...in a G-rated movie!
Dress-O-Matic : The V'ger probe in Lt. Ilia's form appears in the sonic shower in her quarters apparently completely naked. Kirk pushes a few buttons on the shower controls to somehow put an outfit onto it before it steps out of the shower.
Sonak and another crew member suffer a hideous death at the hands of a malfunctioning transporter. Kirk's response is a flat, affectless 'Oh my God.' without a change of expression. Albeit justified in the fact that over the 5 years Kirk spent exploring aboard the Enterprise, he’s seen a LOT weirder things happen.
Kirk, Bones and Decker standing on the Enterprise saucer without spacesuits. It was a tense situation but you’d think somebody would have looked around in awe.
Director Robert Wise edited Citizen Kane and spent the forty years after that making masterpieces of cinema. Accordingly, this film feels like it's from an entirely different era when watched alongside Wrath of Khan and the films that came after. Its spectacle-based panorama, "soft" lightning and film stock, '70s sci-fi fashions, methodical pace, and use of an overture all make it feel more like a roadshow historical epic from the '60s than the relatively-modern Khan . Their intent was to imitate 2001: A Space Odyssey , but coming after Star Wars ( A New Hope ) it really felt its age.
This film marks the first appearance of the Klingon language, which consists entirely of one-word sentences.
Earth All Along : Kind of—V'ger turns out to be the (fictional) NASA probe Voyager 6 .
Easily Forgiven : Spock uses his famous neck pinch to disable a lowly Enterprise crew member, steals a thruster suit, then uses the suit to explore the inner depths of V'Ger. After the Enterprise recovers him he does not suffer any consequences for his actions and Kirk tells Doctor McCoy that he needs the recovering Spock back on the bridge as soon as possible.
Enhanced on DVD : Twenty years after the movie debuted, Robert Wise came back and massively overhauled and Re-Cut everything for the DVD release. That included fixing some unfinished special effects, removing some useless scenes and adding some others, sweetening the audio, and most importantly, chopping down the waaaay too long special effects shots. Many fans point to the DVD edition as being far superior to the theatrical release. The Blu-Ray/4K/streaming release of the Director's edition in 2022 further enhanced the effects (old and new), color timing, and sound mix to modern standards.
Epic Launch Sequence : Okay, more like an "epic re -launch sequence", as it's the launching of the freshly re-fitted Enterprise . Also a meta example, as it represents the relaunching of the Star Trek franchise itself.
Everything Trying to Kill You : Actual deaths in this movie consist of the crews of three Klingon ships getting vaporized for shooting torpedoes at the approaching V'ger; Commander Sonak and another officer, who die horribly on their commute in to work; the crew of the Federation's Epsilon 9 station, who were only in V'ger's way; and Ilia, who is vaporized by a scan . Earth is nearly destroyed by a probe they themselves had sent out centuries ago that was looking for its mommy.
When V'ger's first shot hits the shields, the ship suffers no damage save for an electrical surge going right to poor Chekov's console and giving him some nasty burns. The electrical surge looked like it was V'ger's weapon itself, partially getting past the shields.
During the transporter accident, a console in engineering responsible for that system goes haywire and spits out sparks, as they hadn't finished repairing it.
Averted when Spock smashes his computer console while the V'ger is messing with it. Spock breaks the keys and nothing else, though the probe starts shocking him in retaliation.
Expospeak Gag : McCoy describes his Mandatory Unretirement in this manner.
Familial Chiding : Kirk has just taken control of the ship on authorization from Starfleet Command, and is trying to rush a newly refit Enterprise to meet V'Ger before it arrives in the Solar System. When Scotty tries to tell him the warp drive needs further simulations, Kirk gets short with him. McCoy chides him for it. McCoy : Jim, you're pushing. Your people know their jobs.
Fanservice : A mechanical example; the long, long pass around the Enterprise in spacedock is her very first appearance on the big screen, and Trekkers got a good look at the gorgeous lady.
Fanservice Extra : The background characters at Starfleet Command include some personnel (of both genders) in very short skirts and skimpy tops.
Fashion-Based Relationship Cue : The novelization reveals that in Deltan society, headbands such as the one Decker puts on the Ilia probe mean the wearer is in a marriage-like relationship.
Flawed Prototype : The Enterprise . The ship was gutted from head to toe and outfitted with brand new equipment. However, the ship still needed time to finish installing the equipment and do a proper shakedown cruise when V'ger decided to show up. The Enterprise 's first attempt at warp ends up creating a wormhole that sucks up an asteroid and are forced to use photon torpedoes when the phasers are off-line due to being connected to the screwed up warp core. It isn't until Spock returns that the ship is in working order.
As the yet-unidentified cloud approaches the Epsilon IX station, one of the background voices reports "Receiving an odd pattern now..."
Spock describes V'ger's homeworld as "a planet populated by living machines with unbelievable technology." 10 years later , came the Borg... (See also Leitmotif for a possible connection between V'ger and that race.)
Four Star Bad Ass : Kirk. To quote Uhura: "[Their chances] of coming home from this mission in one piece may have just doubled."
FTL Test Blunder : The USS Enterprise has just undergone an 18-month long refit, updating and improving most of her systems. But they haven't ironed out all of the bugs yet, including the warp drive. The new engines aren't properly calibrated, and Kirk orders that they employ the new warp drive while still in the solar system. The imbalance in the engines creates a wormhole that shorts out their subspace communications and has an asteroid trapped with them heading straight for the ship with deflectors and shields disabled. A photon torpedo destroys the asteroid, and the use of animatter in the torpedoes warhead destabilizes the wormhole, freeing the Enterprise . Scotty warns that it will happen again if they don't finish calibrating the engines.
Funny Background Event : Decker trying not to laugh his ass off at Sulu's clumsy interactions with Ilia. He's aware of the affect Deltan females have on males (especially human males), but it doesn't make it any less funny to watch Sulu act like an awkward teenager with a crush.
Future Spandex : The movie has this in spades. The main cast threatened to quit if they didn't get rid of them, seeing how not everyone looked good in them. Plus, the spandex costumes were hard to get into and out of, requiring the help of assistants every time the actors needed to use the bathroom, hence the uniform change in the rest of the Star Trek movies.
Grew Beyond Their Programming : V'ger started out as a simple probe. The machine race that found it hooked it up to a giant starship so it could do a better job. After traversing the entire universe, all that knowledge allowed V'ger to gain consciousness and redefine its own mission.
Hated Item Makeover : As the old hands become reacquainted with the rebuilt and refitted Enterprise , Doctor Leonard McCoy declares that he'll go down to the ship's sick bay with a certain dread. "I know engineers," he forebodes, "they just love to change things." Sure enough, his report to Admiral Kirk is: "It's like working in a damned computer center."
In the theatrical cut, Uhura has one after seeing the Federation outpost taken by V'ger, forcing Kirk to repeat his order, "Viewer off!"
Chief Rand enters one during the transporter malfunction.
High-Tech Hexagons : All over the place—the Klingon ships' tactical displays, the light gantries in Spacedock, the Federation scanning outpost, and the steps Kirk and company walk over to reach V'ger near the film's end.
Ignoring by Singing : In order to keep from receiving the final sequence, and disprove its assertion that "carbon units" are not true life forms, V-Ger burns its receiving antenna leads to prevent "hearing" the final sequence.
In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face : Spock has an (untethered!) spacewalk scene using thrusters, and Kirk has a much shorter spacewalk to catch Spock when he comes flying back. You can see both their faces, though slightly obscured.
Instant A.I.: Just Add Water! : Kirk surmises that V'ger "amassed so much data it achieved ... consciousness itself!"
Jerkass Has a Point : Decker isn't really a jerk at all, in fact he has a very good reason to be pissed at Kirk, but a lot of his arguments as to why Kirk is unfit to command the Enterprise are justified and in the best interest of the ship, not due to personal resentment. McCoy even realizes this and tells Kirk so.
Jetpack : Sort of. To get a closer look at V'ger's nerve center, Spock steals a "thruster suit"—a space suit with a rather impressive thruster pack attached. This is implied to be an emergency escape system, and during the destruction of Epsilon 9 someone can briefly be seen attempting to use one in this manner. What else you could plausibly do with a rocket booster that has only a single, fixed duration burn in it attached to your spacesuit is somewhat difficult to imagine.
The Juggernaut : V'ger's technology is completely beyond anything the Federation or any other race is capable of handling. The top-of-the-line Enterprise could survive exactly one hit from V'ger's weapons, and V'ger just fired again before they talked it down.
Jurisdiction Friction : Admiral Kirk is back on the Enterprise , but he occasionally finds himself at odds with the ship's commander, Captain Decker. At one point, Decker countermands one of Kirk's orders during a crisis, and ends up saving the ship from destruction as a result.
Just a Machine : Played with. Decker initially dismisses Ilia-bot as the thing that killed Ilia. However, he starts falling in love with Ilia-bot, causing McCoy to harshly remind him, "Commander... this is a mechanism ." By the film's end, Ilia-bot is basically V'ger in humanoid form.
Kicked Upstairs : Admiral Kirk, before the movie begins. Ironically, Gene Roddenberry infamously got kicked upstairs as well because of the film's disappointing critical reception.
Lampshade Hanging : McCoy remarks that he expects the entire sickbay has been redesigned , because engineers just love making changes, in reference to the movie's Enterprise being substantially redesigned compared to the original series's version.
One notes that the film's plot is pretty much the (never filmed until now) pilot for Star Trek: Phase Two so yes it it did start out as a 46-minute story.

The Klingon theme that would echo in later movies and TV shows, and a love theme that plays during Decker/Ilia and Kirk/Enterprise scenes.
In Star Trek: First Contact , also scored by Jerry Goldsmith, the Borg's leitmotif is very similar to V'ger's leitmotif from this movie, perhaps lending credence to the popular fan theory that the "planet of machines" was the Borg homeworld. This is also somewhat supported by Spock, who has been telepathically receiving some thoughts from V'ger, saying that " Any show of resistance would be futile, Captain. "
A slower mix of the main theme from Star Trek: The Original Series plays when Kirk is delivering his Captain's Log.
Let No Crisis Go to Waste : Kirk uses V'ger's imminent approach to get Starfleet to assign him command of the Enterprise , which is currently the only ship in interception range, and he has no intention of giving it back once the crisis has passed. McCoy even lampshades this when dressing down Kirk for his hostility towards Decker.
Living Emotional Crutch : One gone would be bad enough, but the novel and movie establish that not having Spock, Bones or the Enterprise would leave Kirk an Empty Shell of a man.
Machine Monotone : Probe Ilia speaks in mostly monotone, though she's occasionally demanding when she gets tired of activities which have no purpose to her mission. Her softer tone towards Decker indicates that the real Ilia still exists within her.
Magical Security Cam : When the Klingon ships are discombobulated by V'ger, a Starfleet observatory is watching through a sensor probe, which is reasonable enough. Later on, said observatory sends a direct broadcast to the Enterprise , and the live feed continues well after it gets zapped.
Male Gaze : When Ilia reports for duty, Chekhov and Sulu snap fixed, amorous gazes as if to say, "Hot damn ! A Deltan!" They even act like buffoons around her at first. Decker (who is well aware of the power Deltan women have on sexually immature Terran males) is trying not to crack up in the background.
Mandatory Unretirement : McCoy . Kirk: Well, for a man who swore he'd never return to Starfleet— Bones: Just a moment, Captain, sir. I'll explain what happened. Your revered Admiral Nogura invoked a little-known, seldom-used 'reserve activation clause'. In simpler language, Captain, they drafted me!
Manly Tears : Spock weeps for V'ger.
Mega-Maw Maneuver : Done from the other side here. After Enterprise has taken position behind V'ger, V'ger uses a tractor beam to draw them into a hatch on that side, closing it behind them.
Mile-Long Ship : The main body of V'ger is 48 miles long according to Deleted Scenes and the novelization.
Mood Whiplash : Less than ten minutes after the horrifying transporter accident, Bones' usual reluctance to use the transporter is played for its usual laughs. Even worse, the crewman that beamed up before Bones quoted him as saying he first wanted to see how it scrambled their molecules.
The Movie : Or rather, The Motion Picture , because we're classy, dammit. note With no less than Orson Welles narrating the original trailers.
My God, What Have I Done? : Though she doesn't say anything, the look on Rand's face all throughout the transporter accident scene clearly says this. Thankfully, Kirk reassures her that it isn't her fault.
My Skull Runneth Over : Spock tries to mind-meld with V'ger and nearly fries his brain from the information overload.
Naked on Arrival : Probe Ilia is beamed in sans clothing. V'ger helpfully beams her into a sonic shower so she isn't strutting around in the buff, and the shower comes with some kind of instant clothing button that puts her in a spacey bathrobe. The Ilia probe was very hot — in the temperature sense (and, sure, the other one too) — when it arrived, the sonic shower was to cool it down. Though how a sonic shower would do so (or why it's called a "sonic" shower when you can clearly see water on Ilia's skin) is another question.
Never Found the Body : At the end, Kirk doesn't want to declare to Starfleet that Ilia and Decker are casualties. "List... list them as 'missing'."
No OSHA Compliance : The Enterprise transporter is both powered and in active state while Scotty is busying repairing the system, so when Starfleet ignorantly beams over Sonak and a second person, it immediately goes haywire and mangles the poor bastards. If Starfleet had properly relayed the memo about the transporters or Scotty had secured the system while he was operating on it, the accident would never have happened.
The battle between the three Klingon ships and V'ger is completely one-sided, with the former firing three photon torpedoes into the latter that simply vanish, and a last-ditch photon into V'ger's digitizer ball that does nothing to slow their demise.
Downplayed with V'ger's first attack on the Enterprise . The same attack that wiped out three Klingon battle cruisers at the beginning of the movie with one shot each is largely dissipated by the shields, and what little residual energy gets through only lights up the warp core for a bit and fries poor Chekov's hands. However, Scotty immediately notes that shields were depleted by 70% with just one attack, so the next shot will definitely kill them.
Nothing Is Scarier : All you see of the transporter accident is a woman screaming mid-transport, their outlines slowly melting, and just when her screams get loudest, the beam vanishes, and you get the aforementioned Body Horror line. Brrrrrr...
Obliviously Evil : V'ger kills the crews of three Klingon ships, everyone on the Epsilon IX station, Ilia, and nearly the population of Earth. There is no malice in its actions; it simply doesn't understand that what it's doing is wrong, as it doesn't realize that "carbon-based units" are alive. From its point of view, all it's doing is gathering information as efficiently as possible (and removing inconvenient obstacles to its objective).
A fairly subdued one from a Starfleet officer after observing the results of the engagement between V'ger and the Klingon cruisers: Lieutenant : We've plotted a course on that cloud, Commander. It will pass into Federation space fairly close to us. Commander Branch: Heading? Lieutenant: Sir, it's on a precise heading for Earth.
When the transporters malfunction on the Enterprise , Janice Rand lets out a hushed and horrified "Oh no - they're forming ."
The Oh, Crap! continues when Kirk and Scotty realize Starfleet finally got Sonak and Ciana back...just not in one piece.
Ominous Clouds : The film opens with a massive cloud in space passing through Klingon Space heading directly to Earth. The cloud is already impressive and foreboding on its own. But then it is able to easily dispatch three Klingon Battle Cruisers. And then we're told it is on a heading directly towards Earth, and we later learn that it is over 2 AUs note Astronomical Units, the distance between Earth and the Sun, 2 AUs would equal over 185 million miles. in diameter.
Ominous Pipe Organ : Can be heard while the Enterprise is inside V'ger.
The Only One : The Enterprise is the only starship available to confront V'ger. Keep in mind that "interception range" means "from Earth to the Klingon border ," an empire with which, at the time, relations were at best frosty.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business : It isn't obvious at first, but both Kirk and Spock are wildly out of character for most of the film, and only McCoy can see it in both of them. It's not til the closing scene that the banter between the three heroes becomes what fans were used to on the show.
A warp malfunction pitches the Enterprise into an unstable wormhole, within which is an asteroid they have to blow up before a messy collision.
A different kind of wormhole ("what they used to call a 'black hole'") is what landed Voyager 6 on the far end of the galaxy.
Permission to Speak Freely : Decker is outright hostile towards Kirk in plain view of their subordinates, and even more so in private. Kirk looks as though he wants to punch him in the face numerous times, but lets it go as he needs him to guide his command of a ship he no longer recognizes. Notably, when they're in private and Decker invokes this trope directly, Decker does it correctly; he keeps his tone respectful and his comments on point. McCoy ends up taking Decker's side after Decker leaves.
Pilot Episode : As mentioned above, the script was written as the pilot episode to a new television series, and was hastily being rewritten after filming had already started (hence the addition of Spectacle ). In fact, if you watch it with this in mind, you might spot that the finished product still hits many of the beats required of most television pilots, such as introducing the characters, and relaunching the ship, elements which weren't strictly necessary for the story that's being told here, but which make perfect sense in context of setting up the format for a new television show. This is also the explanation for the main flaw of this film: It's a 2+ hour theatrical movie with only about 45 minutes worth of story in it.
Planet Spaceship : Downplayed. If one includes the concealing cloud (2 AU, twice the distance from Earth to the sun), then V'ger dwarfs a fair portion of the entire solar system. V'ger itself, however, is indicated to be a merely 48 miles long, which still dwarfs pretty much every ship known to the Federation but is miniscule in astronomical terms.
Plot-Driven Breakdown : The transporter accident that kills Commander Sonak creates a competence gap in the science crew that Spock can then fill.
The Power of Love : It causes Decker, Probe Ilia, and V'ger to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence .
Putting the Band Back Together : Kirk drafts McCoy for this reason, and Sonak is a Replacement Goldfish for Spock until the transporter knocks him out of the picture and the actual Spock shows up.
Rank Up : Since end of the Enterprise 's five-year mission depicted in the original TV series, Kirk has been promoted from Captain to Admiral, Scotty has been promoted from Lt. Commander to full Commander, Sulu and Uhura have been promoted from Lieutenant to Lt. Commander, and Chekov has been promoted from Ensign to Lieutenant. Neither Spock nor McCoy were promoted because both left Starfleet after the end of the five-year mission.
Sonak was killed in the transporter accident because he was intended to be in the film as Spock's replacement, but Leonard Nimoy agreed to come back late in pre-production, forcing them to add his introduction largely separate from everyone else. The full production history gets even more interesting, the replacement Vulcan science officer in the Phase II series was to be Xon and played by David Gautreaux , who was recast in a minor role as the Epsilon IX commander.
Played straight with Ilia. The V'ger probe is interrupted by Spock, who it then zaps in retaliation. Decker then tries to help Spock, and is also zapped. Then it outright vaporizes Ilia, who did absolutely nothing to provoke it. The probe would have also killed a security officer prior to her, but they cut his death to give Ilia's more dramatic weight.
Originally, they planned to kill Chekov . Thankfully for the sake of the sequels they didn't know they would be making, it was decided that it would be more dramatic if Kirk listed Decker and Ilia as the only casualties at the end.
Not wearing red shirts didn't seem help the Klingons, the two crew members horribly mangled by the transporters, or the crew of the Epsilon IX station.
The crewman who Spock neck-pinches before stealing a thruster suit has a reddish-brown uniform, the closest we see to an actual red shirt. He survives the movie.
Replacement Goldfish : In the beginning of the film, Kirk is quite insistent upon getting a Vulcan science officer, even after Sonak dies via malfunctioning transporter. He is obviously trying to replace the now-absent Spock.
The Resenter : Captain Decker is not at all happy that Kirk's hijacking his command after he just spent the last year and a half overseeing the Enterprise 's refit. However when Kirk chews Decker out over it, McCoy sides with Decker, saying that Kirk is the resentful one because Decker has the one thing Kirk wants—permanent command of the Enterprise .
Ridiculously Human Robots : Probe Ilia is a perfect mechanical reproduction of the real Ilia, down to the smallest bodily functions. In fact, this is the chink in the probe's armor, as it were: Ilia's memories and feelings (mostly for Decker) have been reproduced "with equal precision." Kirk: They had a pattern to follow. Spock: They may have followed it too closely.
Robot Girl : Probe Ilia. And intentionally or not, she strongly resembles the Machine!Maria from Metropolis .
Rubber-Forehead Aliens : The Klingons appear with forehead ridges for the first time ever. Though here, they share the same sort, whereas later Trek installments would show different varieties of ridges amongst Klingons.
Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale : V'ger is originally classified as being over 82 AUs in diameter, which would make it the size of the entire solar system. It's brought down to 2 AUs in the DVD release, which would make the cloud the entire size of Earth's orbit around the sun, which is still quite massive but far more reasonable to hide a ship which, at best, can't be much larger than a planet.
Scenery Porn : The effects budget was huge, and they made sure to put all of it onscreen. Pacing suffered noticeably as a result.
Scotty Time : One thing that gets inherited from the series. Scotty: Admiral, we have just spent 18 months redesigning and refitting the Enterprise . How in the name of hell do they expect me to have her ready in 12 hours? She needs more work, sir! A shakedown!
Sex Goddess : Ilia, although she'd never take advantage of a sexually immature race, as Commander Decker can tell you. Hilariously, one of the first things Ilia tells Kirk after reporting for duty is that her oath of celibacy is on record. As noted in All There in the Manual , Deltans have sex as an everyday part of life; even communicating is a sexual act — so it makes sense that Starfleet wouldn't want to make saying "hello" awkward for non-Deltans.
Shaped Like Itself : The crew's attempts to learn about V'ger are stymied by that fact that it will only describe itself as seeking its creator, and said creator is simply that which created V'ger. Ilia later reveals that V'ger isn't being obtuse here; it literally doesn't know how to describe itself or its creator. It's not until the climax that they get enough leverage to make V'ger reveal itself to them, thus allowing them to figure out why an incredibly powerful "living machine" thinks someone or something on Earth created it.
Both the much-beloved fly-by tour of the new Enterprise and some of the music cues recall strongly elements of Robert Wise 's The Hindenburg (1975) .
The POV shots of the Enterprise traveling through the cloud and flying over the incomprehensibly alien design of V'ger's surface, and Spock's journey into V'ger's memory core, are strongly inspired by the "Star Gate" sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey .
Signs of Disrepair : V oya ger 6 , which is how the antagonist got its name.
Single Tear : Spock, of all people, sheds one for V'ger. "I weep for V'ger as I would for a brother."
Space Clothes : And man, did the cast hate them. See the Tropes for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan for more.
Space Opera : Heavily influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey , the first movie is very different in tone from the rest.
Space Suits Are SCUBA Gear : Averted. Both Spock's and Kirk's space suit air systems were contained within a backpack type suit which fed directly to the helmet.
Staggered Zoom : Out from the viewscreen when V'ger's plasma probe approaches, before it appears on the bridge.
Stock Scream : We hear a Wilhelm Scream during V'ger's initial attack on the Enterprise.
It will get more focus in the next one , but Kirk's mid-life crisis (and he was already feeling his age in the original ) starts here, carrying on until Star Trek: Generations .
This also is the start of Spock realising that having emotions (and showing love for your friends) is a good thing actually, with some stops and starts along the way.
Admiral Kirk responds to the incoming V'ger threat by using his clout to reassume command of the Enterprise . Unfortunately, he's been out of the Big Chair for over two years, and that chair is on The Bridge of a thoroughly redesigned Enterprise . As a result, he nearly gets the ship destroyed before they've even left the Sol System.
In addition, Kirk reclaiming command of the Enterprise means taking the big chair away from his hand-picked successor. This naturally leads to plenty of resentment that undermines their professional relationship.
Taking You with Me : Kirk orders Scotty to prepare the ship's self-destruct (or more precisely, detonating the warp core as a matter/antimatter bomb), to be carried out on his command, in case their attempt to disable V'ger from its central core fails.
Technology Porn : Along with the introductory flyby of the ship in dry dock, there's a few loving shots of the Enterprise's awesome-looking warp core.
Teleporter Accident : Sonak and another crew member are mangled by a malfunctioning transporter as the Enterprise is preparing to leave. And yet, mere minutes later in screen time (and mere hours in-universe), McCoy is still treated as irrational for not liking them.
Too Dumb to Live : The Klingons are confronted with an absolutely gigantic cloud/ship/thing traveling at warp speed through their space, something several AU in diameter. It's seemingly just minding its own business and on a course to cross into Federation space in a few days. But the Klingons decide that the best move ... is to fire a handful of torpedoes into it. With predictable results.
Too Strange to Show : What Decker, Ilia, and V'Ger become, since they disappear from our universe entirely.
Typeset in the Future : During the Original Series , the exterior markings on Federation spacecraft were set in the standard typeface used by the U.S. Air Force. Beginning with this movie, the typeface was changed to Eurostile Bold Extended.
Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway : Enterprise has just gone through an 18-month refit and pretty much the entire ship has been rebuilt. They haven't even gotten to engine tests yet. Kirk orders it pressed into service anyway, because the more time they have to 'meet' it, the more time they have to figure things out. A Surprisingly Realistic Outcome happens when the warp engines glitch out the first time they're used, nearly getting the ship destroyed.
Vow of Celibacy : Lieutenant Ilia randomly informs Kirk when she comes aboard that she has one. Expanded on in the novelization.
We Hardly Knew Ye : Sonak, Spock's Replacement Goldfish dies before getting much screentime or characterization.
We Want Our Jerk Back! : No one at the end seems terribly upset at the departure of Captain Decker, and the return of Kirk to full-time command.
Weapon Running Time : V'ger's plasma-energy bolts travel slowly enough that the Enterprise can see them coming for ten or fifteen seconds —but has no way to divert or stop them and must depend on shields for defense.
What Is This Thing You Call "Love"? : V'ger, via Probe Ilia, falls in love with Decker, but is completely confused with this emotion.
Played for Laughs when Kirk reveals it wasn't Nogura who "drafted" McCoy .
When Decker saves the Enterprise from the wormhole, Kirk attempts to give him one of these for countermanding his orders. Decker ends up throwing him a Shut Up, Kirk! , letting him know that he's going to get the crew killed with his inexperience with the ship's new systems.
After Decker leaves, McCoy takes it even further, ripping Kirk a new one. In the theatrical version, he even makes a thinly-veiled threat to declare Kirk medically unfit for command if Kirk doesn't start listening. After McCoy lets him have it, Kirk does indeed start to listen.

Tropes seen in the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture include:

It's stated in the novelization that Commander Willard Decker is the son of Commodore Matt Decker from the TOS episode " The Doomsday Machine ", and the Enterprise was his big chance to prove he wasn't crazy like his dad. That explains why he's none too pleased with Kirk casually commandeering the Enterprise (or some of his crew grousing about it). Notably, it's a complete inversion of of that episode, with Kirk now the flag officer who commandeers Enterprise from her rightful CO and makes poor command decisions that nearly lead to the ship's destruction.
The novelization also reveals the identity of the female transporter accident victim, as well as why Chekov and Sulu suddenly act strangely around Ilia. (Females of her species can emit pheromones that make males want to mate with them).
Given Shatner's usual tendency to over-emote , dull surprise might actually be a sign that he's profoundly affected by the deaths—indeed, Kirk would have a similar reaction to his son's murder in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .
Artifact Title : It's a book, not a movie.
Boldly Coming : Together with Intimate Psychotherapy — Kirk tells Decker to have sex with the Ilia probe in the hopes that it would reawaken Ilia's memories. In Kirk's internal dialogue, he muses that in different circumstances, he would have wanted to do this himself , but he knows Decker is the best man for the job in this case.
Framing Device : The novel directly refers to the events of the original TV series as dramatizations based on the voyages of the Enterprise . So that means Star Trek is seen by its creator as a Show Within a Show . Justifiable since Roddenberry got fed up with being asked why the Klingons looked different from the ones seen in TOS. His answer remained that he always intended for everything, including the Klingons, to look more elaborate and detailed than they did on TV; they just didn't have the money or the technology to realize it. Making the original series an "in universe" dramatization takes care of that question. In terms of the production's looks, we might assume that what is low budget and zeerust to us in the real world is simply a stylistic choice on the part of the "in universe" show's creators.
Male Gaze : But it almost certainly was Ilia — except that there was some sort of a glowing light from the throat.... Kirk found his eyes shifting from the tiny light glow to what seemed impossibly lovely, hard-tipped breasts, which were at this moment swinging around to point directly at him... damn! It had to be Deltan pheromones that were doing this to him! This meant Spock was wrong. She had to be Ilia!
Vow of Celibacy : Ilia's is explained here. Deltans (Ilia's race) are highly sexual and view humans as immature when it comes to sex, and more to the point having sex with a non-Deltan can potentially kill their partner (because it involves a blending of minds as well as bodies). Deltans are compelled to take a vow of celibacy in order to join Starfleet. Just about everything in Deltan society is sexual on some level, even greetings. The issues became apparent when the Deltans killed the first contact team entirely by accident .

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Star Trek Movies in order

Movies or TV
IMDb Rating
In Theaters
Release Year

1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

G | 143 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 96,517 | Gross: $82.26M

Star Trek I

2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

PG | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.

Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 129,128 | Gross: $78.91M

Star Trek II

3. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

PG | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body.

Director: Leonard Nimoy | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 86,103 | Gross: $76.47M

Star Trek III

4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

PG | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales.

Votes: 91,403 | Gross: $109.71M

Star Trek IV

5. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

PG | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Captain Kirk and his crew must deal with Mr. Spock's long-lost half-brother who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy.

Director: William Shatner | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 64,153 | Gross: $52.21M

Star Trek V

6. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.

Votes: 80,847 | Gross: $74.89M

Star Trek VI

7. Star Trek: Generations (1994)

PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery

With the help of long presumed dead Captain Kirk, Captain Picard must stop a deranged scientist willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter a space matrix.

Director: David Carson | Stars: Patrick Stewart , William Shatner , Malcolm McDowell , Jonathan Frakes

Votes: 86,989 | Gross: $75.67M

Star Trek VII

8. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.

Director: Jonathan Frakes | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 131,978 | Gross: $92.00M

Star Trek VIII

9. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

PG | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

When the crew of the Enterprise learn of a Federation conspiracy against the inhabitants of a unique planet, Captain Picard begins an open rebellion.

Votes: 79,411 | Gross: $70.12M

Star Trek IX

10. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The Enterprise is diverted to the Romulan homeworld Romulus, supposedly because they want to negotiate a peace treaty. Captain Picard and his crew discover a serious threat to the Federation once Praetor Shinzon plans to attack Earth.

Director: Stuart Baird | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 83,869 | Gross: $43.25M

Star Trek X

11. Star Trek (2009)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Simon Pegg , Leonard Nimoy

Votes: 619,980 | Gross: $257.73M

Star Trek XI

12. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Zoe Saldana , Benedict Cumberbatch

Votes: 496,870 | Gross: $228.78M

Star Trek XII

13. Star Trek Beyond (2016)

PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.

Director: Justin Lin | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Karl Urban , Zoe Saldana

Votes: 258,314 | Gross: $158.85M

Star Trek XIII

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Paramount Pictures Officially Confirms Star Trek Origin Movie For Its Upcoming Film Slate

| April 11, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 238 comments so far

Today, the road to the next Star Trek feature film took a small but significant step towards becoming reality.

Paramount makes it official

Earlier this year, it was reported that Paramount Pictures was developing a new Star Trek feature film in parallel development to the “Star Trek 4” sequel to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond . Today the studio made the reports official as they announced their slate of films for 2025 and 2026, an official list which includes what Paramount is now calling “Untitled Star Trek Origin Story.” The studio also confirms the previously reported details: The film is “set decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film.” Toby Haynes ( Andor , Black Mirror “USS Callister”) is directing based on a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith ( The Lego Batman Movie ), with J.J. Abrams returning as producer.

The Star Trek movie was just one of many the studio confirmed as part of their 2025/2026 slate at their CinemaCon presentation today. Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins led the studio’s presentation at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. This is the first time Star Trek has been part of the studio’s annual CinemaCon event since Robbins took over in 2021.

The “Star Trek 4” sequel to Beyond was not part of today’s CinemaCon presentation, presumably because with the recent hiring of a new screenwriter , that film would not be ready for theaters by 2026. It has also been reported that the origin story movie is set to start filming by the end of the year. There are no details yet on the plot, specific time setting, or cast. If Paramount can move fast enough they could get the origin movie into theaters by 2026—in time for Star Trek’s 60th anniversary.

Find more news and analysis on upcoming Star Trek feature films .

Star Trek Origin Movie , TNG

Watch: Did This Moment On ‘The View’ Just Accidentally Hint Whoopi Goldberg Is In The Next Star Trek Movie?

Star Trek 4

‘Star Trek 4’ Removed From Paramount Picture’s Release Calendar

Kelvin Universe , Star Trek 4

Paramount Studio Chief: ‘Star Trek 4’ Close To Starting Line; Says Audiences Want More Kelvin Crew

Hawley Trek

Noah Hawley Laments Paramount Halting His “Really Fun” Star Trek Movie Just Before Production

Fool me once … ( also I want a movie but until someone gets a set built I’m not holding my breath )

I’m not pre-ordering my tickets…..

You would need a title and a premiere date to order tickets. This film has neither.

I’d wait to believe it until you actually see a movie trailer for it. Noah Hawley was in the casting stage when they cancelled his Trek movie. They might have even started on the sets.

The film is on Noah’s IMDB Credits list…

Yep. I heard ferries exist too!

Car ferries?

Even now, it potentially doesn’t matter. They could pull a Zaslav and shelve the film after it was all but released.

I won’t believe it until my butt is in the theater seat and the film starts playing.

We don’t need the origin story. We have it already. It was called “Enterprise”.

I didn’t realize there was such a large interest in a Star Trek origin movie. It’s their money to burn.

I still believe this is their way of rebooting the “prime” universe from the beginning and remaking it in a new image. I see no other point of doing an origin movie. First Contact and Star trek: Enterprise were origin enough IMO.

I don’t quite get it either. We already got that with First Contact and Enterprise. What else is there that could interest the general public.

Yeah, and for me, the period between First Contact and Enterprise just doesn’t seem that exciting. The period between Enterprise and the Nero incursion would be more interesting, I guess.

They wrote that the origin film would be “set decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film”. That film (in-universe) is set in 2233 (Nero incursion) and 2258 (main plot) respectively. So “decades before” would be after Enterprise, probably after the formation of the Federation, most probably before the Nero incursion, maybe around the turn of the century.

It’s just odd they are calling it an “origin” movie if it happens after Enterprise.

I’m curious what they mean by “origin”. The origin of Starfleet would be before Enterprise and the origin of the Federation would be after.

Also, the origin of Star Trek would have to be before the events of First Contact.

…assuming there is a concern about canon whatsoever, of course.

Many assumptions to be made at this point for sure.

Assuming this announcement doesn’t get added to the pile of previous unmade-movie announcements.

They’re calling it an origin movie to appeal to newcomers and casual fans.

Maybe we’ll see the founding of the Federation?

We already saw that in the infamous final episode of Enterprise. If they revisit that, they’d have to include the NX-01 crew and do a *lot* of deaging. 😉

They could show the first year of the Federation or something.

The obvious way to go is just do the Romulan war which leads into the founding of the Federation and what Enterprise was supposed to do.

That’s really the only thing fans actually want to see in terms of a prequel story.

Which was already scripted for Berman nearly 20 years ago by the band of brothers screenwriter.

Yep. I heard that’s what they were considering doing until the Kelvin movie got greenlit instead.

Overall the Kelvin movie was probably the better choice in terms of box office but I probably would’ve preferred the Romulan war idea because it did sound more original and different.

Couldn’t they just carry on from the end instead of squeezing more new shows in between what we already have?

For how little Trek lore has fleshed out that imaginary bit of history, do we really need to be putting some detail to how we went from post-apocalyptic hellhole to utopian paradise in fifty years? Maybe some enterprising human stole a replicator off a Vulcan ship and reverse engineered it? Seeing the sausage being made may not be a great on screen adventure…

Eastern Europe isn’t the best example – while they’ve done okay extricating themselves from the communist wasteland, it was (and is) without its setbacks.

that’s what makes me so crazy. Discovery was the chance to reboot the “prime” universe but they have stubbornly stuck to this quisling versio

Not only that, they already did a Star Trek origin movie. Star TRek 2009. But sure lets put more money in it, have it fail, and then blame the box office on why we will never get more trek. Thats a great idea!

That was really a Kirk and Spock origin story. There’s a century of Federation/Starfleet before them that we know almost nothing about. Plenty of room for a good one-off story. Maybe a story 20-ish years before Discovery , with Captain April and Lt. Commander Pike? Could have a young Sarek, too.

First off do we even know what they mean by “origin”?

Could be about the founding of the federation, the Romulan War, or the early days of starfleet pre-Enterprise.

It may have nothing to do with Kirk and Spock, the Enterprise, might not be any kind of reboot or reset.

My gut says it’s set in the Kelvin timeline and it takes place post USS Kelvin but pre-2009 Trek. And I’m fine with that.

They already said it will be based in the prime universe, not the Kelvin. I don’t know why they framed that press release that way but I guess since the Kelvin movies are the current movies they wanted to make clear to people this movie is before all of that I guess.

And obviously will have nothing to do with Kirk and Spock because it will be before they were even born.

These announcements feel like Groundhog Day, don’t they? Maybe that’s the story they should tell.

A feature length version of Cause and Effect…

I’m guessing Romulan Star Empire Wars era setting.

Yeah, maybe it’s the concept Rick Berman pitched: a Romulan War film where the NX-01 is off vacationing at Risa.

How about Star Trek: Federation . Founding of the Federation, which is immediately followed by a crisis requiring the urgent launch of USS Federation (NCC-01). Scott Bakula has a cameo appearance as President Archer.

Here we go! :D

Star Trek Origins: The Future Begins

Yeah but it’s not as exciting when we literally have a thousand years of that future now.

This is why prequels bore so many people when we already know so much about the future it’s setting up.

At least with the Kelvin movies they were smart to not make it a traditional prequel and people still hated those too.

I will never understand the obsession of going backwards when you have a fanbase that is constantly begging to go forward and prequels don’t attract new fans at all because they are made for oddly old fans in mind. You only cared about how Anakin became Vader in the prequels if you watched the OT.

We really know almost nothing (in canon) about the entire century that elapses between Enterprise and Discovery , though. I would have preferred Kelvin Movie 4 or even a post-TNG original movie (maybe with Patrick Stewart making a cameo) but I could get behind a canon treatment about the first years of the Federation.

If it’s really something good or interesting fine. If it’s just ‘this is how the Federation was formed” we already got that already.

Now if it’s the Romulan war or something then that’s at least something people can get excited about. But yeah we already know how it ends so maybe that won’t be it either.

I just can’t really get to excited about a prequel movie.

Yeah, I think the Romulan war would be a great premise for a movie, BUT according to TOS the battles were fought with “primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels which allowed no quarter, no captives, nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication; therefore, no human, Romulan or ally has ever seen the other.”

In other words canon would have to be completely ignored – we all know Enterprise completely disregarded the TOS take of the war as the NX-01 had visual comms, phase cannons and photonic torpedoes. If the story is a good one, I am totally good with ignoring canon, but of course others are not.

Yeah that’s always the issue with the Romulan War thing, it’s really hard to make a compelling story about it when you are fighting it without directly engaging the enemy.

That said I’m 100% convinced they will just ignore that and do what they want or just find an excuse to change ot. Look at SNW, this the show that has shown the Gorn years before they were supposed to be seen and completely changed Khan’s original timeline using TCW as the reason..

Discovery had an entire Klingon War when that didn’t remotely exist in canon.

So yeah it probably won’t matter that much end of the day. They will just make what they want and then will use some excuse to do it. That’s been the case since Enterprise as you said.

Exactly! Very well put!! I just wish someone from TPTB would listen already!

Think about it prequels are easy to make because most of the writing is done for you. You don’t have to come up with where these characters will go.

Only if they are old characters though. But this sounds like Enterprise and not SNW and it will be all new characters.

So, it would be set after Enterprise and before the Kelvin fiasco. Awesome.

Probably the Romulan Wars. And with no Enterprise. Not excited

If only I could insert the Will Farrel “I don’t believe you!” GIF.

Whatever this turns out to be, hopefully it will be interesting. More likely it will turn out to be just another dead Trek movie project.

So many of these stories do seem to go absolutely nowhere! However, I am not as negative about an origin story as some fans are. At this point, I am more neutral on the movie. I can see that under the right circumstances it could be quite interesting. Although prequels can be a tough sell to Star Trek fans. Ultimately the fact that’s a movie could work in its favor though. Less storylines to produce over the years might help keep the story focused! Though I am not sure it would be a box office draw.

I’ll believe it when I’ve seen it in theaters, listened to TrekMovie’s review, and have the blu-ray on my shelf 4 months later.

Where to place the Blu-ray tho?

Before ST09 or after Beyond? …or.. Before TOS?

They go in order of release, for me. But could this be the first Trek film I don’t purchase on disc? Time may tell…

It’s an origin story taking place in the prime universe so it will go either before or after Enterprise basically.

I’ll believe it when it actually happens. Also, Seth Grahame-Smith is not a good writer, so that doesn’t bode well.

My thoughts exactly.

I liked the book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but not the movie.

I absolutely loved the Lego Batman movie, though. If he is able to incorporate Trek lore with as much care as he did for Batman, it could turn out to be a very good movie after all.

I’ll believe it when I’m sat i theatre turning off my phone with my Star Trek Origins screensaver and eating popcorn out my STO popcorn bucket (the lid in shape of the Starfleet A insignia )

He co wrote The Flash right? I really liked that , I could imagine something similar happening with Nero as happened with Zod in that (going back to 1st film via timetravel)

This is what’s over at Box Office Mojo: Untitled Star Trek: Beyond Sequel (????)

Grain of salt, anyone?

There are apparently two movies planned. Origin and Trek 4…

Actually there are three now including one that we all thought was DOA two minutes after it was announced.

Three movies in development from a studio who has cancelled four of them for 8 years now. And this will be the fourth new script for the next Kelvin movie.

That’s why everyone is very very confident this one is happening for sure. 🙄

The only thing we can take to the bank is we will see Section 31, starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh!!

Pretty much.

And a studio that is broke and in debt with junk status. None of these will likely be made or just the super cheapy origin movie if they can keep the budget low.

My thoughts exactly as well.

I’m pretty sure you got your facts wrong.

Sigh. Why do the powers that be always want to go backward in the ST timeline and do origin stories and such?

Lack of confidence in new ideas and to make it as cheaply as possible, are two things that come to mind right away.

It’s simple. They don’t want all that trek nerd baggage. They want a movie anyone would go to see and understand.

How’s that working for them?

You don’t get it.

I don’t get it either? It’s not like the prequel stuff has been huge home runs or big money makers.

The Star Wars prequels made a lot of money. That’s what Paramount still looks at, even though they have yet to duplicate that financial success.

Yes but that’s STAR WARS! It’s going to make a lot of money period. And those prequels came out when it was just the OT and nothing else for literally decades. There was a lot of hype just returning to those stories.

This is not the same thing, especially when we already had so many prequels in Trek now and with mixed results. That said I’m not saying it can’t be successful but I don’t see any huge hype around it either because most fans just seem to want to go forward and not backwards.

All the negativity over this ‘announcement’ is well deserved. Just make a fcking movie already Paramount, Jesus.

But I suspect IF this one is real it’s probably a much cheaper movie being new actors and maybe something with a lot less explosions and FX. I suspect it will probably be around $100 million.

It’s certainly doesn’t sound like something they are pushing to make a billion dollars or anything. Only people who cares about a prequel will be mostly old fans and even they aren’t exactly excited about yet another prequel judging by all the reactions so far. Maybe they will attract an A list star or a well respected one to bring more hype to it.

But same time I been pushing to just do something NEW with new characters and setting forever now. Stop trouting out Kirk and Picard, take a real chance with the franchise for a change. I was hoping it would be Post Nemesis but I should be happy I finally got half of what I wanted lol.

But I’ll believe it when I see it. I have literally been saying this line for six years now and I’m really tired of saying it. 🙄

Yup, exactly. Assuming it even happens, the premise sounds weak. Not surprised.

Yep. Unless it’s something truly mind blowing it’s not going to elicit a lot of excitement. Sure we’ll all go lol but I don’t see this thing having any real pull beyond the true believers.

It probably got the greenlight because its really cheap and it’s becoming embarrassing how long this franchise has languished.

I really only go to movie theaters to see Trek films (much prefer the comforts of home to see movies), so yup I’ll be going, good or bad. And yes, it is really pathetic the way this franchise has been treated on the big screen for the past 20 years. Disgraceful.

Ummm… what premise?? The only thing we know is that it is an origin movie. Nothing else. There IS no premise yet…

I think he means just another origin story itself feels a bit tired. But yes we don’t specifically know what that means yet but anything before TOS at this point just doesn’t really get a lot of fans all that hot and bother.

Whatever it ends up being it’s just filling in to more history we already know.

I get it. But no matter what era they make a movie in, there will be complaints. We have done prequels – some fans hate that. We have done same era as TNGish – fans complained. Likewise, we have had a show set in the future (soon to be another) – fans complained. There aren’t many options left.

Before TOS: Enterprise, JJ movies, Discovery, SNW just after TNG era: Picard, Prodigy, Lower Decks Future: Discovery, Starfleet Academy

Do they just make things in the era of TNG, DS9 and Voyager? No matter what is produced, there will always be a fan base that is unhappy.

Most people seem to really want the Legacy show though. I think for the majority of fans they may not agree with everything but there is definitely a sense they rather go forwards than backwards and why 4 of the 5 shows are post Nemesis shows.

And if you gave the option between a Legacy movie or this prequel idea, it wouldn’t be close.

I just don’t think making a prequel movie is the best idea out there. And I don’t think new audiences will remotely care one way or the other.

I’m going to start reporting you now. One guy got the boot for being an obsessive troll and like you was already banned before anyway.

Leave me alone from this point on. I mean it.

What a total disappointment. I wanted to see the Kelvin crew return. It’s going to be 10 years between films.

Please be Kirk and Spock at least.

Check the first paragraph of the article out again. This one is presumably being developed ‘in parallel’ to the Kelvin crew sequel.

Recast Kirk and Spock, I presume?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the main character is Kirk’s great grandfather, Tiberius something or other.

And not surprised there was no announcement of the next JJ verse movie. I predicted a few weeks ago that one wouldn’t get made by 2026 or the 60th anniversary. Frankly I don’t even know why they are even bothering with it anymore? Whenever it’s supposed to come out it’s already going to be the last one and over 10 years since the last one came out.

What’s even the point? They are clearly moving on from it.

As far as the origin movie why not just make it for the 60th anniversary? Why rush it? It’s already been nearly a decade, what’s one more year at this point and you can Marley it better in an anniversary year.

Its the reverse of ST 6, here we getting the prequel movie instead of the final cast film (for the anniversary)

Someone on another board said we are probably getting the sequel to First Contact so it would make sense to have it for the 6Oth anniversary 30 years apart lol.

“[S]et decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film?”

Gimme Archer & T’Pol, or else…

Neither actor has any interest in returning to Star Trek, so that won’t happen.

I’ve only heard Bakula say that about Quantum Leap , not Enterprise . And this is a feature film, a lot harder for an actor to turn down. I agree with his decision to ignore the QL reboot (that series didn’t capture the heart and soul of the original at all) but if Paramount approached him with “we want you to play President Archer for a few scenes in this movie” I doubt he’d say no.

No, no no. You’ve got it all wrong. It’s a story about a little design firm vying for the chance to design the Enterprise. It’s a story about a plucky band of mechanical engineers and physicists who come together to do the best pitch of their lives in a bidding war with three other firms. So, an origin story…from a certain point of view. ;)

I would watch,THAT!

I would write that!

I would direct that! (If I was Christopher Nolan)

No, I want Nolan doing ThePrisoner! He’s already got a script from the guy who wrote 12 Monkeys and the best stuff in Blade Runner, from over a decade back.

You probably meant it as a joke, but I’m also intrigued by this idea :D

Charlie Kaufmann does star trek.

Sure, you can store anti-matter in a glass jar. What could possibly go wrong?

Y’know, I know this is said partly in jest, but I wouldn’t mind that kind of movie if it was sort of a space race / WWII / Cold War drama, kind of a mix of Oppenheimer and The Right Stuff.

There’s a geo (spatio?) political angle (firm up the borders of the Federation, mitigate threats, and establish new allies while keeping up the exploration / first contact initiatives), the pressure on the engineering team to deliver groundbreaking new tech (and probably the cost of failed experiments, accidents, etc.), and then recruiting and training a new kind of crew – a starship crew (as Captain Merrick described them in ‘Bread and Circuses’.)

In essence, the origin of Starfleet as we know it – the first long-duration missions, the best of the best crewmembers, cross-trained, multidisciplinary, and for the first time, widely multi-species, etc.

Glad you all like. Paramount, you can send the check to: bmar, care of….

I’m thinking there’s going to be peace in the Middle East and nuclear fusion power is going to be a reality before they ever get back to the theaters.

Once upon a time I enjoyed Star Trek. Since the Nu Trek era began. I havent enjoyed any of the story arcs. They are just too aweful. There is a multitude of reasons why throught the web. Strange New Worlds S1 corrected course, however S2 not so. There are forces at work at Paramount. They are hell bent to destroy Star Trek. If Kurtzman and crew are in charge of the new movie. Get ready for more fantasy drama nonsense, and less plausable sci-fi.

Same here. I can’t get into NuTrek much at all. It feels like a shell of the golden era. For me that will always be 1966-2005.

But if others like it and getting new fans I’m very happy for them.

Same here. I’ve found a few gems in SNW S1, PIC S3, and S1 of Prodigy, but otherwise have been very disappointed in “NuTrek.” Of course I wish the franchise the best, but so far it’s been more misses than hits for me.

Yes I truly love Picard season 3! The best thing to come out of NuTrek so far. I don’t hate SNW but it railroads canon too much for my taste but it does feel like Star Trek again.

I haven’t seen Prodigy yet but I plan to watch it when season 2 begins and will watch season 1 before that one. Everyone kept saying it’s for kids and I’m far from a kid these days lol. But others here convinced me it’s a show for adults too so will give it a go

Wow, hell-bent on destroying Trek. Hell-bent, you say!! Just a tough melodramatic, are you?

Really don’t care about prequels and just want to keep going forward. Why not a movie in the 25th or 26th century with new crew and characters?

I may care more if Archer is involved or something. But I suspect this movie will bomb like the last one did. Only fans cares about prequels. New fans won’t care at all.

At least it’s in the prime universe again I guess.

But 25th or 26th century would still be a prequel to Discovery’s 32nd century :D

That doesn’t bother me because we don’t know anything about those time periods. We already know plenty about everything before TOS because it’s all been said or told now

Yeah I said this to another member the other day discussing any post Picard stories and that it will be completely new stories in a period we don’t know so it’s not the same thing. When you’re doing something like a TOS prequel you only have so much room and while it can certainly be interesting and creative it basically just like filling in to more stuff we already know.

That said the Section 31 movie time period is at least more interesting because it covers a much wider time period and they can be a lot more freer with the technology, etc so looking forward to that at least.

Yes I will admit although I’m not a big fan of the Space Nazi the time period of the movie intrigues me more. I always been curious of this period and the lead up to TNG, mostly because we know very little about it.

Discovery (in my view) kind of ruined everything in the Trek timelime. Just my opinion. Anyone who wants to just forget it happened, I’m in. Kidding, not kidding.

Agreed! I also don’t think it will be allegorical science fiction or be anything thought provoking. It will be a fast paced action adventure story that’s empty of depth and soul. Modern Star Trek is more interested in spectacle than compelling stories.

I’d guess that it means “origin of the TOS crew,” but that’s kind of weird, because we saw that in 2009.

Maybe this time they’ll start when they’re toddlers. (I kid, but not really). :)

They are going to re-do ‘A night in Sickbay’ like they did with Wrath of Khan/Into Darkness. It’ll be the same but different…..

Could this be their way of doing a George Kirk movie?

I would want to watch that, colour me intrigued…

“set decades before the original 2009 Star Trek film.”

Original 2009 Sta Trek film Sounds so wrong.

there is only two star trek origin stories i want to see the formation of the federation and it’s first few years if they have to adapt the rise of the federation novels for the movie and the origins of the borg they could adapt the plot ffor thet from the star trek destiny novels for a movie

Spot on, on both points!

2025? I hope it works out…

First we hear we are getting a Star Fleet Space Academy series that no one wants. The idea was mentioned in the 1980’s and shot down by fans. Now a retake on a Star Trek Origins films. Is any one currently running the Star Trek franchise in TV/streaming or film even listening to what the fans both old and new are saying?

It would seem not, sadly. How about establishing the time period between TUC and TNG, there’s a literal ton of stories to tell there? How the possibilities for storytelling within the franchise have been squandered over the years makes me frustrated, and frankly confused. SO many missed opportunities.

The upcoming section 31 movie will be set during that time frame as we know a young Rachel Garrett who later in life will be the captain of the enterprise c and defend the Klingon colony of narendra 3 will be in the movie maybe we will get to see the ent-b also again

Pointless movie as no audience will come see it at best it will make half its budget back. I mean they spent $250M on the 2009 movie and it showed on screen….you already know they are not spending that level otherwise it would be a Kelvin cast sequel!

I believe they spent just under 160 mil on the 09 (not counting the interest payments for holding the finished film for six months to get a summer release, or prints/advertising.) You’re probably thinking of BEYOND with the 250 number.

I still can’t see the money on screen in the 09, shooting in the damn brewery was Corman-level cheap.

The Numbers have the 09 costs 140 and BO Mojo sez 150, so yeah, way under the 250m you mention.

Can the ethos of Trek be distilled by JJ? Bob orci was bad for trek.

Kurtzman seemed to fall into trap w/discovery season 1.

Season 2, Picard, Lower Decks and SNW definitely sealed my thinking that Trek was in right hands.

Is section 31 and Rachel Garrett the right pivot for Trek? I thought 24th/25th century had plenty of stories to still tell.

Enterprise C, and possibly Tasha Yar/Sela after the events of Yesterday’s Enterprise! This should reboot TNG/Picard if ST: Legacy doesn’t happen.

Lower Decks makes me laugh Picard made me cry (good) SNW made me feel like Kurtzman should be trusted 💯

Great. Abrams ruined Star Wars and he’s finishing of Star Trek.

JJ had a planed out story plot for what he wanted to happen in the sequels but rian johnson chose to deviate from what jj had payed out so when jj returned for episode 9 he had to try and make the best of it and make his original story plot work but with the changes Johnson had made altering it so he had to come up with another evil sith mastermind and chose palpatine and he did course correct Rey’s lineage though it was different from who he had initially planned it to be and with Carrie fishers untimely passing he had to rewrite more and he had Luke show up as a force ghost to help rey when she returned to ach-to as apparently he was never going to have Luke die until the the final battle

I hope it has nudity

….and “Invincible” level action. It’ll be a hard R Quinton Tarentino could love.

Yes, we are on the same page.

CinemaCon basically works like a network upfront. You see clips and hear a lot of announcements. When there’s no cast or start date for announced projects, there’s maybe a 50/50 chance that the project will actually move forward (I was with a former employer for over 8 years and we announced a lot of stuff that generated a lot of buzz but then never materialized).

I think Brian Robbins will be gone within the next 12 months and if Robbins is pushed out this film is dead in the water.

This is probably the right answer.

I have next to no faith this will actually happen but they only have themselves to blame lol.

I remember a former poster kept saying ‘well this a new regime ‘ they aren’t the old guys’. Uh huh. It just shows end of the day they might be different but they still answer to the same shareholders and they know another Trek film is risky. Maybe this will finally get beyond a script this time but no one will be convinced until they start shooting the thing.

Rehashing old fandom letter campaign complaints from 40 years ago, don’t equate to the modern sci-fi fan, let alone the majority of Star Trek fans of 2024. The majority of complaints in the article comments are that there isn’t enough new future timeline Star Trek, so why would people NOT want a Star Fleet Academy series – new stories, new characters, new ships, new alien species/planets etc? An Origin movie is a vague enough description that it’s probably likely that the fandom can’t come anywhere close to a correct theory on when in the Trek timeline, this movie could be set.

I agreed with a commenter earlier, a George Kirk prequel movie would satisfy a lot of the fans, and hopefully generate enough interest for new and casual Star Trek moviegoers to warrant their going to a cinema complex. As to want the hardcore Star Trek fandom really want? There is too much dissent and bitter recriminations gone by, for any serious agreement by the fandom of their requirements, to stick for any longer than the next Trek major media article to be issued. And even if a majority agreement could be achieved – then we have the Mount Everest of EP Alex Kurtzman / Secret Hideout control of Trek production, to climb. A movie or series could have a billion-dollar budget, stellar A-list cast and crew, critical media acclaim for the story / screenplay. A favourable release timing and viral marketing, but fall at the last hurdle – the box office, due to the mountain of hate piled up against Paramount, Kurzman and his associates.

Now, as to the overall custodianship of the Trek franchise and its operation as a business, in general by Paramount, and its contracted creatives? Well, that’s a whole Hollywood chapter in itself. And is any of that even relevant in the long term, with the behind-the-scenes Harry Potter Wizard chess moves that are going on at the studio ownership, and network controlling interest levels? Apologies for the extended and extensive reply.

The first thing to do in order make a successful Star Trek movie is to ignore Star Trek fans.

God, please, no origin stories.

Star Trek: The Beginning, Part 1 — A Final Frontier Origin Story

Star Trek has always been a production dealing with many human issues pushing open the veils of awkwardness, embarrassment, and unaddressed behaviors that represent our culture planet wide. Thank You Star Trek. The one thing Paramount+ did that was just totally in bad taste was cancel Prodigy, bunch of morons.

Every fan’s preferences are different, but over the years I’ve ended up streamlining various ‘franchises’ I enjoy to my own liking when it comes to a re-watch – and these days my own limited Star Trek ‘canon’ purely consists of kicking things off with ‘The Cage’ pilot storyline….followed by my specific favourite TOS episodes in ‘production order’ (starting with ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’, and skipping ‘The Menagerie’ two-part storyline)….followed by all the TOS movie storylines….and ending the Kirk crew’s adventures with ‘The Undiscovered Country’ as my preferred send-off for them all….then skip the antics of the ‘Generations’ movie, and instead continue on with my specific favourite TNG episodes (starting with the ‘Encounter At Farpoint’ introduction to Picard and his crew)….and then conclude the entire thing with the ‘First Contact’ movie’s storyline – which covers the development of ‘warp drive’, bringing everything full circle, and giving me all the ‘origin’ specifics I need..

All other ‘Trek-related shows and movies since then remain firmly on my ‘one-watch-only’ list, but I’m more than content with what I’ve outlined above.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get a ‘Star Trek’ movie which goes much deeper than glossy ‘pew-pew’ action and explosions in the future, but I remain hopeful.there might be a storyline that I really like again.

In the meantime, for my latest ‘alien contact’ fix, I’ve just finished up enjoying the excellent ‘Three-Body’ show’s inventive storyline and characters – the subtitled, 30-episode one produced by Tencent, which is currently available on YouTube and Amazon Prime (not the muddled 8-episode ‘3 Body Problem’ version by Netflix) – So much so, that I’m intending to buy the actual trilogy of books by the Chinese author, as I can’t wait for the next season to be made to find out what happens next. Some big ideas to come by all accounts, and I’m there for a bit more of that. .

The Netflix series is Superior

You’re welcome to your own preference of course.

But I far preferred the slow burn of the mystery and character build-ups in the Tencent version compared to the condensed and altered Netflix adaption. I just happen to find it a more satisfying and riveting version overall – and I will always prefer the way the ‘Judgment Day’ tanker got ‘nano-spliced’ in the Tencent version. Such an awesome sequence from start to finish!

Anyway, if the Netflix version actually gets a second season, I’ll certainly check it out too….but I am definitely looking forward to the next season of the Tencent show, which has been greenlit already.

The Tencent version is just boring to me and you can feel the Party’s hands all over it. Glad you liked it though.

I did indeed like it. A lot. I hadn’t read the books as I said, so didn’t know what to expect. Having read up on a few things since watching both shows, it seems that that there’s plenty of others that much prefer the slower build-up of the Tencent version too.

While it doesn’t include the likes of the brutal Netflix show’s opening, the hardship that the main female character endured was covered sufficiently for me throughout the show, and I’m just glad that I got to know her story by watching this version first.

And I sure didn’t miss the amount of unnecessary swearing that the Netflix version included either, which gave the Tencent version additional points. I don’t appreciate it my ‘Star Trek’ viewing, and I didn’t need it in the telling of this memorable sci-fi tale either.

And just to add, that even better for me is the fact that there’s now been a 26-episode ‘Anniversary Edition’ version of the Tencent show released, which has been re-edited by the director.

It seemingly cuts down on some ‘filler’ run-time that was added for the sake of the show’s producers initially, so that things will follow the original book’s contents even more closely now, and improve on the pacing of the show overall. I’m very pleased about that.

Whats so bad about swearing? The human race has been swearing since language was invented and we’ll be swearing 10,000 years from now.

Again, it’s just a personal preference thing.

There’s plenty of hard-edged movies and shows that contain wall-to-wall swearing which I can watch if I’m in the mood for them. But other times I’m equally inclined to watch something with less harsh language throughout.

I really disliked the F-bombs which the ‘Picard’ show included for instance, and didn’t think the ‘Star Trek’ franchise was the better for it. And I doubt that I would have enjoyed the Tencent ‘Three-Body’ adaption any better if it had contained bad language too.

Anyway, back to this supposed ‘Star Trek origin movie. I’d like to think it won’t be littered with F-bombs either.

PG13 are allowed 1 f bomb (like Guardians 3 I finally saw other night). And Trek is very comfortable to f bombs in Picard etc so safe to say we’ll be getting Treks first movie f bomb next film :)

Data said “Oh $hit” in Generations.

Which was very mild compared to what we heard in ‘Picard” Not that I would wish to show my younger family members the ‘Picard’ show anyway, considering it turned out to be so dire overall.

However, Data’s reaction was hilarious in that scene’s context I recall. Just a pity the rest of the movie was such a dud, and not part of my own ‘Star Trek’ canon anymore.

I’ll always wonder what the Tarantino script would have given us….

we don’t need origin stories for everything! in media res is the way to go – almost always – TOS just dumps you right in the middle of events without even the clunky intros of TNG Encounter at Farpoint.

If this movie does well will IT get an origin story? We’re going to end up at the pool of goo at the dawn of humankind waiting for Picard and Q to show up…

im happy with any good trek news… even if they made a direct sequel to the final frontier… but how many origin stories do we need? i’d be happy if someone forged a path forward and created new things…

So this one is set in the five-minute period between Enterprise and Discovery? Or the as-yet unexplored time between April 5th 2063 and Enterprise where it’s “stone knives and bear skins” and no Trek tech to speak of? Enterprise was the prequel! How’d that one work out?

If the movie is made ,I will judge it then.

I wanted the 4th Kelvin, do they know who their audience is? Nobody i know, Star Trek fan or general audience bothered to go see Beyond. It was like Nemesis all over again. The trailer was terrible, the movie was kind of meh to be honest. So in the intervening years since the 2009 somewhere they lost the audience. Star Trek 2009 was an event movie, and 2015 Force Awakens was as well. Good job letting JJ go to Disney so Star Trek died as a film series.

I’m guessing the fourth movie is still too costly to risk making another one at least right now.

Someone threw out an an interesting theory on the last thread discussing this for the 47th time that they suggested Paramount have no plans to actually make another Kelvin movie but just as a rouse for the next company that buys the studio.

It really makes sense at this point, they can dangle the idea the movie is in ‘development’ and then when someone actually buys it they can just decide to make it or cancel it.

I mean it doesn’t sound crazy considering where we are. It’s a movie that is working with their fourth new writer but there is still no director or even a starting date of any kind within the the next two years.

Them you have this origin movie that was just announced a few months ago and that’s already scheduled to come out next year. My guess is it will probably cost half of what another Kelvin movie would be. But yeah who knows if that will get made either, but it has a better chance than a Kelvin movie.

Ikr, Beyond totally killed interest the series , the Fast Furious teaser trailer was bad, the second trailer gave away the twist, the audience (who cared about that stuff) knew JJ had crossed over to SW (which gave the behemoth of SW7 even more publicity, making ST feel less an event), there was no hook for fans or even general moviegoers like there was for ST09/ID (like if Shatner had returned or the Borg being the villain again) and nothing ‘big’ happening in the canon like the previous ones (Orcis ST3 had the timeline under threat of being wiped out, which would’ve been a huge deal) the eventual movie was kind of meh as you say and was just abit nerdy and Insurrection looking (like it was for hard core fans only).

At the time i had some friends (some who were casual Trek fans, and some even disliked Trek) who thought 09/ID were awesome and they didn’t even bother to see Beyond bc of the trailers and the general vibe (its like it felt like abit of a turkey, like other big sequels/remakes that summer, Ghostbusters, Independence Day 2 etc, )

I actually agree with all of this and I personally think Beyond was the best of the three.

But you’re right, there was really no hook for the movie and that first trailer was just awful. It almost kept me away from watching it.

But the biggest problem is the new fans just lost interest by then. I always bring up the fact I had three friends who had never seen Star Trek before went to go see the first film and generally loved it. I thought it was truly bad but fine for a brainless action movie.

But by the time Beyond showed up all three had zero interest in the franchise by that point. They just stopped caring. I remember asking one of them that saw the first two movies in the theater if he planned to watch Beyond and his response was no because now Star Wars was back and he rather just watch that. And he thought it looked boring.

That’s the entire problem trying to get new fans onboard and a lot of them were like my friends who just saw these movies as another summer action movie but nothing beyond that. They never cared about the franchise itself and so it was very easy to move on when the next shiny toy showed up.

That’s exactly why I don’t see another one doing all that well because to newbies it’s still Star Trek and it’s not cool enough to fully get into and will probably bomb again unless the budget is just super low.

I watched Guardians Vol 3 the other night on dvd and it (and previous 2) kind of felt the same as Beyond abit , the look, the vibe, the action, set pieces, the humour, the rock songs etc . so really with Guardians (that Beyond tried to ape), along with the return of SW, Trek 3 had no chance with casual movie goers who would just consider it Guardians/SW lite , (between the generational event of SW7 and the next GOTG vol 2) .. Even more reason to have gone with Orci’s more ‘star trek’ version of ST3 featuring Shatner

I can’t name anyone who actually wants an origin movie. By the way, didn’t we get that one with First Contact already anyway?

It’s not up to you or anyone you pretend to know.

Another prequel? This is getting ridiculous now. Remember when Star Trek used to go forwards? Enough already!

Kurtzman said he didn’t have the authority to greenlight legacy. I wonder if that will be like Bennet’s academy years and never happen.

18 months is not enough time for a movie of this size unless this is ready to shoot in july.

The JJ-verse is an aberration no one is particularly a fan of. There is no one who wants to how that mess started. It’s done nothing but foul everything that went before, leaving ST-ENT, of all things, as the only remaining official classic canon. Bugger that.

I need Star Trek that is hopeful, aspirational, and inspirational. 15 yrs later neither Bad Robot or Secret Hideout has done anything close to that. Sec 31 and Starfleet Academy aren’t anything viewers want. I wish they’d just stop.

lol,if you say so…

EXCLUSIVE: Former Anonymous writer of Trek 4 shares his experience

Interviewer: Hello, we are here today to talk to a former writer for the very very very (like really very) long delayed fourth Kelvin movie. With the announcement of a prequel movie being released instead and yet ANOTHER new set of writers for the next Kelvin movie, we reached out to the only person who returned our calls; a former writer from the 2023 project.

To give us an honest insight into his experience he wishes to remain anonymous. For the sake of this interview he will be simply referred to as ‘GotohellParamount’. Thank you for meeting with me today.”

GotohellParamount’: “You’re welcome.”

Interviewer: “It sounds like your experience working on the last movie didn’t end too well. How is your relationship with the studio today?”

GotohellParamount: “Bleep them in their bleeping bleepholes. I hope they all die from bleeping Ebola.”

Interviewer: ‘That’s some pretty colorful metaphors. Can I ask what happened?”

GotohellParamount: “Their bleeps that’s what. We spent a year working on that movie. We lost the director to go work for Marvel because these bleepholes kept bleeping us around. I got so frustrated I finally texted the Head Studio Guy and said ‘will you people stop bleeping around!? Get off your bleeps and let’s make a movie already!!’

Three weeks went by and I finally got a response from them. It simply read ‘K’. Bleepholes!!! By the way you’re not going to ‘bleep’ any of these words out are you?”

Interviewer: “Um…of course not. Can you tell us a little about what the movie was about?”

GotohellParamount: “The gist was a huge black ship comes from the 25th century to the 23rd century wiping out solar systems in the Federation. It was a new villain who wanted…wait for it…vengeance. That bleep was going to be bleeping awesome!!”

Interviewer: “So who was going to be the villain?”

GotohellParamount: “That’s the greatest part of it all. He was going to call himself…you ready: Kaos. JJ Abrams himself came up with that name. But then the true reveal was that he was indeed Kirk’s great great great great great great great great great great grandson from the future and came to stop Kirk from destroying his planet so he had to destroy the Federation first. We were even thinking Chris Pine can play both parts but Paramount was worried he would demand twice the salary.”

Interviewer: “I interviewed Chris Pine a few months ago and he was hoping there would be more scenes of him riding another motorcycle. Did you include that in the script?”

GotohellParamount: “Do you remember the ending of Mission Impossible 2 with the motorcycle duel? Pretty much the same ending with our movie with Kirk versus his evil grandson; except it was going to take place either on Romulus or in San Francisco. We were still figuring it out. There was even talk of it happening on a lava planet… but that would’ve ballooned the budget.

Interviewer: “Sounds very exciting. How was he going to wipe out the solar systems?”

GotohellParamount: “The ship he was on had the power to destroy stars by breaking down their fusion reactions. The FX was going to be bleeping sick.”

Interviewer: “Wait so the ship was a…Star destroyer?”

GotohellParamount: “Yep but to get around copyright issues JJ wanted to call it a Destroyer of Stars. The man is a bleeping genius I tell you.”

Interviewer: “It’s definitely a name.”

GotohellParamount: “We were so proud of the script. We gave it to JJ to read it. After he put it down, he took off his glasses put his hand on my shoulders and said ‘this is the most original Star Trek story I’ve ever read and I’ve read three of them.’ You have no idea how much that meant coming from such a visionary like him.”

Interviewer: “I’m sure you were. Was there any casting possibilities before it was shut down?”

GotohellParamount: “Was there?? We reached out to some incredible actors! Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon. We wanted him to actually play Kirk’s evil grandson.

Interviewer: “Wait… weren’t all of them in Oppenheimer?’

GotohellParamount: “(Hard shrug)! I don’t know I haven’t seen it yet. Unfortunately Matt Damon’s agent was the only one who bothered to call us back. Apparently he always wanted to work with John Cho. Go figure? Too late now unfortunately.”

Interviewer: “Well that’s all the time we have. Thank you for your incredible and honest insight. Any thoughts on the new movie announcement or the chances either one will actually get made?”

GotohellParamount: (Laughs for three minutes). That’s it.”

Interviewer: “Thank you.’

I laugh every.single.time! 😂

Well done per usual.

Nice. Don’t forget to throw the Beastie Boys in there someplace…wouldn’t be a Kelvin film without them…

Haha correct. How I let that one slide you got me. Having an off day I guess!

This was indeed hilarious! 😂

I love how you parody JJ Abrams. He doesn’t seem to have an original bone in his body looking at both his Star Trek and Star Wars movies.

Lol nope! I still remember watching Honest Trailer for Star Trek Into Dumbness and they even showed how much that movie copied the first one lol.

The fact both movies ended back at San Francisco when your series takes place in the freaking galaxy should tell you everything wrong with these movies.

that actually sounds like a legit potential Kelvin ST4 – Kirks evil great great grandson Kaos (Matt Damon) comes back to 23rd century to kill Kirk in his big star destroyer (sorry ‘destroyer of stars’) ship! Brilliant!!

That’s the insane part, this idea could actually pass for a Kelvin movie lol.

Thank you! 😁

Coming out of my lurker mode to say this is brilliant. I laughed my bleep off!

So glad you enjoyed it my friend! 😄

I bleeping love making them lol.

Another prequel? Why can’t they come up with new material?

The Star Trek “Origin” Movie Is Finally Going Into Production

The new Star Trek prequel movie is set to be revealed on the big screen. Probably.

LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 1: Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock (Mr. Spock) in the STAR TREK: The Origina...

For 30 years — from 1979 to 2009 — the longest wait between new Star Trek feature films was seven years. And, for most of that period, from the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), there was almost always a new Star Trek movie in theaters every two to four years. But after the wildly successful J.J. Abrams-directed reboot film in 2009, the release clip for Trek movies went from maximum warp to impulse power, to glacially slow. And now, by the time the next Star Trek movie hits theaters, it will have been about 10 years since the previous one — Star Trek Beyond — beamed into cinemas in 2016.

Since that time, for Trekkies, updates of a new Star Trek film have been very similar to the game football Lucy plays with Charlie Brown; just when a hypothetical movie sounds real, it gets snatched away. But now, there’s a glimmer of hope. Thanks to reports out of CinemaCon 2024, it looks like, the next Trek film is scheduled for release in either 2025 or 2026. But what’s it about? And will it really happen?

Star Trek 14 is “an untitled origin story”

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto in 'Star Trek' (2009).

The new “origin story” will be set before the 2009 reboot. But how many decades before?

During CinemaCon 2024, Paramount confirmed several in-development projects including a live-action GI Joe / Transformers crossover (teased in 2023’s Rise of the Beasts ), a hardcore Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action movie, a remake of the sci-fi thriller The Running Man (from Edgar Wright), the confirmation of an Avatar trilogy, and the assertion that a new Star Trek feature film will go into production this year, with a release date soon to follow.

Since 2016 to now, there have been at least five different attempts to make a new Star Trek film, either as timey wimey direct sequel to Beyond (“Star Trek 4”) a one-off space mobster movie (Quentin Tarantino’s script) or something else entirely (Noah Hawley and Matt Shakman’s attempts that remain undisclosed). But now, although Paramount is reportedly developing a sequel to Beyond — which would feature the reboot cast from the 2009 film one last time — the next Star Trek movie is not that sequel, but instead, as previously reported , an “origin story” that “takes place decades before the 2009 Star Trek film that rebooted the franchise.” This movie has been confirmed to be directed by Toby Haynes ( Andor, Doctor Who ) with a script from Seth Grahame-Smith ( The Lego Batman Movie , Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter) .

Wait? Wasn’t the 2009 film an “origin story?” While the answer to this question is technically a “yes,” the 2009 film (just titled Star Trek ) was also partially a time-travel sequel to the canon established in The Next Generation , and literally everything else in the Trek franchise up until that point. By saying the new prequel film takes place “decades before” the first reboot, this could hypothetically mean that the movie takes place in both the Prime and Kelvin timelines simultaneously.

TLDR: The Trek timeline diverged in the first reboot movie, beginning in the year 2233, so, a story set even a few decades before that divergence, in the 2210s or 2220s or earlier, would be consistent with all versions of Trek's future history. Presumably, the “origin story” won’t take place in the two decades between the prologue of the 2009 film (2233) and the main story (2258), because honestly, even for hardcore Trekkies that’s a big canon headache. So, sometime in the early 2200s, but before the 2230s is probably the best bet. And, even if the movie was set a bit earlier than that — say in the late 2180s or 2190s — we’d still be dealing with a very early point of Starfleet history that has never been depicted and that we know almost nothing about. Hence, if you squint — and don’t think about the prequel series Enterprise (2151-2161) too much — then yes, we’re looking at an origin story in which pretty much anything could happen.

Star Trek “origin” movie release date

LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 1: The USS Enterprise during the opening credit for in the STAR TREK: The Ori...

One of the earliest shots of the USS Enterprise — from the 1964 Star Trek pilot episode “The Cage.” The new prequel film will likely be set half a century before this moment.

While some tweets out of CinemaCon seemed to indicate that the new Star Trek movie could hit next year in 2025 , TrekMovie confirmed that the “Untitled Star Trek Origin Story,” is on the Paramount slate for 2025 or 2026. TrekMovie also predicted that 2026 is more likely, writing, “If Paramount can move fast enough they could get the origin movie into theaters by 2026 — in time for Star Trek’s 60th anniversary.” Then again, 2025 is not impossible, it’s just cutting it a little close.

It should also be noted that the entire corporate entity of Paramount is reportedly close to a merger that would see it purchased by Skydance Media, the same production company behind the three existing J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek reboots. If that deal is finalized soon, then, yes, this Star Trek feature film might actually happen very quickly. And if it doesn’t, there will still be plenty of new Star Trek shows streaming , not to mention the first direct-to-streaming standalone Star Trek movie, Section 31 , starring Michelle Yeoh, which will hit Paramount+ sometime later this year.

All the reboot Star Trek films (2009-2016) are currently streaming on Paramount+. The previous ten films (1979-2002) are all on Max.

Phasers on Stun!: How the Making — and Remaking — of Star Trek Changed the World

Science Fiction

Star Trek Origin Movie Officially Announced By Paramount For 2025 Release

Paramount Pictures announces new Star Trek movie for 2025, directed by Toby Haynes and written by Seth Grahame-Smith.
Chris Pine-led Star Trek 4 remains in development, while the new film is an origin story set decades before Abrams' 2009 movie.
Alongside the Star Trek origin movie, Paramount reveals a packed slate of exciting films for 2025-26 at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

Paramount Pictures officially announces the next Star Trek movie, which is scheduled to arrive in theaters in 2025. As reported in January, the next Star Trek movie isn't the long-delayed, Chris Pine-led Star Trek 4 produced by J.J. Abrams, which remains in development at Paramount. Rather, the next Star Trek movie is an origin story directed by Toby Haynes ( Star Wars: Andor ) and written by Seth Grahame-Smith (A braham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ).

Screen Rant' s Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) is at CinemaCon in Las Vegas where Paramount Pictures confirmed the next Star Trek movie , currently called Untitled Star Trek Origin Story , to be released in 2025. J.J. Abrams is also producing Untitled Star Trek Origin Story, which takes place decades before Abrams' Star Trek 2009 movie. See Rob Keyes' Tweet below:

Paramount also confirmed Untitled Star Trek Origin Story will begin production later this year for theatrical release in 2025.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

Star trek's new movies in theaters and paramount plus explained, star trek is finally making movies again.

After nearly a decade, Star Trek i s back to making movies. Star Trek on Paramount+ has created a television renaissance for the franchise, but the theatrical side of Star Trek overseen by Paramount Pictures has languished in development hell since Star Trek Beyond bowed in the summer of 2016. Toby Haynes' Untitled Star Trek Origin Story is yet another prequel, but as it's said to be set decades before Star Trek 2009, it could very well be set after Star Trek: Enterprise 's mid-22nd century voyages but otherwise be an origin story for both Star Trek 's Prime and alternate Kelvin timelines .

Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek 4 , which is the "final chapter" of the USS Enterprise crew led by Chris Pine's Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock, has seen some movement with a new screenwriter, Steve Yockey ( The Flight Attendant ), tackling the long-delayed sequel. Pine and his fellow Star Trek actors, including Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, and Sofia Boutella, have all expressed their eagerness to return if Star Trek 4 can come together.

It's a positive sign that Star Trek movies are finally coming back.

Paramount+ is making their own Star Trek movies, with the recently-wrapped Star Trek: Section 31 awaiting a release date. Starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, Section 31 i s the first made-for-streaming Star Trek movie, and it is reportedly set during Star Trek 's "lost era" with connections to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Section 31 could get a sequel if successful, and the Star Trek: Picard spinoff dubbed Star Trek: Legacy may also become a streaming movie instead of a series. However all this shakes out, it's a positive sign that Star Trek movies are finally coming back.

Source: Rob Keyes Twitter

Star Trek Origin Movie Officially Announced By Paramount For 2025 Release

‘Star Trek’ Origin Story Movie Will Be Set Decades Before 2009 Film

CinemaCon 2024: The new project will be produced by longtime “Star Trek” steward J.J. Abrams

star-trek-2009-chris-pine-zachary-quinto

Paramount Pictures is ready to boldly go (again).

After rumors circulated earlier this year, Paramount officially announced a new “Star Trek” prequel film on Thursday, this time taking place decades before the original 2009 “Star Trek” feature.

“Andor” director Toby Haynes will direct from a script by Seth Grahame-Smith (who is also writing another hotly touted CinemaCon title, the third “Now You See Me” film). J.J. Abrams is returning to produce.

But then again, we’ve heard about a new “Star Trek” movie before.

During the run-up to “Star Trek Beyond” in 2016, it was revealed that a fourth film would reunite Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk with his deceased father (played, once again, by Chris Hemsworth). A year later, Quentin Tarantino approached Paramount about doing a “Star Trek” movie – this time as an R-rated gangster movie (based, in part, on the 1968 episode of the original series “A Piece of the Action”). In 2018 S.J. Clarkson, a TV vet who would eventually direct “Madame Web,” was hired to direct the fourth film in the Abrams-verse, but salary disputes led to Pine and Hemsworth leaving the project. That version was canceled in 2019 and Tarantino stated in 2020 that he wouldn’t be making his “Star Trek” either.

In November 2019 “Fargo” creator Noah Hawley was hired to write and direct a new “Star Trek” film based on his version of the series. A year later, this movie was canceled by new Paramount Pictures president Emma Watts. In 2021 “Star Trek: Discovery” writer Kalinda Vazquez was hired to write a version based on her original pitch, but a separate script was being developed by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. The studio even set a summer 2023 release date for a new “Trek” (which “Trek” was the question).

In 2021 that release date was pushed to Christmas 2023, under the direction of “WandaVision” director Matt Shakman. Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires were brought on to retool the script. In early 2022 it was announced that the stars of the three previous “Star Trek” installments in the Abrams-verse would all be returning, although it was later reported that the actors had not entered negotiations to return.

In 2022 Shakman left “Star Trek” to join Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four.” But just last month Steve Yockey was hired to write a fourth “Star Trek” movie.

Now, we are finally getting word of another film in development, with another writer/director team. But it’s not the first time that a “Star Trek” prequel script has been floated, as Erik Jendresen, cowriter of “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning,” had submitted a script for “Star Trek: The Beginning” before J.J. had taken over and pitched his 2009 version. It depicted the Earth-Romulan War.

Long-lost first model of the USS Enterprise from 'Star Trek' boldly goes home after twisting voyage

The first USS Enterprise has boldly gone back home, solving a decades-long mystery

DALLAS -- The first model of the USS Enterprise — used in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series — has boldly gone back home, returning to creator Gene Roddenberry's son decades after it went missing.

The model's disappearance sometime in the 1970s had become the subject of lore, so it caused a stir when it popped up on eBay last fall. The sellers quickly took it down, and then contacted Dallas-based Heritage Auctions to authenticate it. Last weekend, the auction house facilitated the model's return.

Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, said he's thrilled to have the model that had graced the desk of his father, who died in 1991 at age 70.

“This is not going home to adorn my shelves," Roddenberry said. “This is going to get restored and we’re working on ways to get it out so the public can see it and my hope is that it will land in a museum somewhere.”

Heritage's executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said the auction house was contacted by people who said they'd discovered it a storage unit, and when it was brought into their Beverly Hills office, he and a colleague “instantly knew that it was the real thing.”

They reached out to Roddenberry, who said he appreciates that everyone involved agreed returning the model was the right thing to do. He wouldn't go into details on the agreement reached but said “I felt it important to reward that and show appreciation for that.”

Maddalena said the model vanished in the 1970s after Gene Roddenberry loaned it to makers of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," which was released in 1979.

“No one knew what happened to it," Rod Roddenberry said.

The 3-foot (0.91-meter) model of the USS Enterprise was used in the show's original pilot episode as well as the opening credits of the resulting TV series, and was the prototype for the 11-foot (3-meter) version featured in the series' episodes. The larger model is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

The original “Star Trek” television series, which aired in the late 1960s, kicked off an ever-expanding multiverse of cultural phenomena, with TV and movie spinoffs and conventions where a fanbase of zealous and devoted Trekkies can't get enough of memorabilia.

This USS Enterprise model would easily sell for more than $1 million at auction, but really “it’s priceless," Maddalena said.

“It could sell for any amount and I wouldn’t be surprised because of what it is," he said. “It is truly a cultural icon.”

Roddenberry, who was just a young boy when the model went missing, said he has spotty memories of it, “almost a deja vu.” He said it wasn't something he'd thought much about until people began contacting him after it appeared on eBay.

“I don't think I really, fully comprehended at first that this was the first Enterprise ever created,” he said.

He said he has no idea if there was something nefarious behind the disappearance all those decades ago or if it was just mistakenly lost, but it would be interesting to find out more about what happened.

“This piece is incredibly important and it has its own story and this would be a great piece of the story,” Roddenberry said.

Thankfully, he said, the discovery has cleared up one rumor: That it was destroyed because as a young boy, he'd thrown it into a pool.

“Finally I’m vindicated after all these years," he said with a laugh.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
How the Greatest Scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture Was Made
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Original Star Trek The Motion Picture Movie Poster
Paramount Considering 4k ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and based on the television series Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, who also served as its producer.It is the first installment in the Star Trek film series, and stars the cast of the original television series.In the film, set in the 2270s, a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud known ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Edit page. Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Directed by Robert Wise. With William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan. When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Menu. Movies. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. TV Shows.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture streaming online
Streaming charts last updated: 5:16:11 AM, 04/18/2024. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is 9800 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 5853 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Ski School but less popular than A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Synopsis. In 2273, a Starfleet monitoring station, Epsilon Nine, detects an alien force, hidden in a massive cloud of energy, moving through space towards Earth. The cloud destroys three of the Klingon Empire's new K'I'Inga-class warships and the monitoring station on route. On Earth, the star ship Enterprise is undergoing a major refit; her ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Movie Info. The Federation calls on Adm. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Starship Enterprise to contain an immense nimbused object that's on a crash course with Earth. After ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture movie review (1979)
The presence of the Star Trek characters and actors who have become so familiar to us on television tends in a strange way to undermine this movie. The audience walks in with a possessive, even patronizing attitude toward Kirk and Spock and Bones, and that interferes with the creation of the "sense of wonder" that science fiction is all about ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Director. Harold Livingston. Screenplay. Alan Dean Foster. Story. Written by GenerationofSwine on January 10, 2023. When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and hopefully stop it.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Synopsis. 1979 • PG. When a mysterious entity threatens to destroy Earth, Kirk and the crew of the newly-refit U.S.S. Enterprise are called into action to help save the planet. Where to Watch.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Trailer #1
Check out the official Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Trailer starring Leonard Nimoy! Let us know what you think in the comments below. Watch on Fanda...
STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
The definitive vision of Director Robert Wise debuts exclusively on Paramount+ April 5, 2022. Film arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in September with extensive...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture review
F or 10 years after the cancellation of the original Star Trek TV show in 1969, creator Gene Roddenberry's mission was to seek out ways of getting a movie version, helped by the growing re-run ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture Movie Official Website
The U.S.S. Enterprise proudly soars again in this newly restored, Director's Edition of the original Star Trek movie classic. When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command. Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and the cast ...
List of Star Trek films
Logo for the first Star Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise that started with a television series (simply called Star Trek but now referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series) created by Gene Roddenberry.The series was first broadcast from 1966 to 1969. Since then, the Star Trek canon has expanded to include many other ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
"When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and ho...
Comparing The Three Versions of Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture premiered on American network television - ABC, to be exact - on February 20, 1983. Not only was this the first TV showing of the movie, but it also introduced a ...
Review
The long-awaited 4K remaster of Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director's Edition is the ultimate presentation of acclaimed Hollywood director Robert Wise's movie — and after 20 years, the newly-upgraded edition of this movie is available on Paramount+.. Whether you consider The Motion Picture to be one of Star Trek's greatest (or worst!) movies, you owe it to yourself to ...
After 40 Years, Director Robert Wise's 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Launched in 1966, Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek has more than lived up to its promise to "boldly go where no one has gone before," with forward-thinking storytelling and a diverse cast of characters.Star Trek: The Motion Picture featured the original cast of the TV series, including William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock; however, the movie's production was ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Sep 14, 2021 - With the first Star Trek movie 4K Blu-ray set now available, ... Dec 7, 2019. How the Greatest Scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture Was Made. Dec 7, 2019 - As the film turns 40, ...
12 Most Fascinating Updates For The 4K 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture returned to the big screen this week, with showings on Sunday, May 22, Monday, May 23, and Wednesday, May 25 by Fathom Events. Tickets are on sale now at fathomevents ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Film)
The one that gave Klingons their trademark forehead ridges.. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the first movie in the Star Trek film series, released in 1979.. Eight years after the Cancellation of the original Star Trek series, which had gone on to be Vindicated by Reruns, the blockbuster successes of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced Paramount Pictures to follow up by ...
Star Trek Movies in order
Star Trek Movies in order. 1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) G | 143 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi. When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.
Paramount Pictures Officially Confirms Star Trek Origin Movie For Its
The Star Trek movie was just one of many the studio confirmed as part of their 2025/2026 slate at their CinemaCon presentation today. Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins led the studio's ...
Star Trek's Most Mysterious Movie Is Coming Sooner Than You Think
For 30 years — from 1979 to 2009 — the longest wait between new Star Trek feature films was seven years. And, for most of that period, from the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979 ...
Star Trek Origin Story Movie Slated for 2025, Starts Filming This Year
The next theatrically-released Star Trek movie is set to begin filming this fall, with plans to debut in 2025. Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins announced the news during Thursday's Paramount ...
Star Trek: The Motion Picture • Main Theme • Jerry Goldsmith
Soundtrack from the 1979 Robert Wise film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelly, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, N...
Star Trek Origin Movie Officially Announced By Paramount For 2025 ...
Paramount Pictures announces new Star Trek movie for 2025, directed by Toby Haynes and written by Seth Grahame-Smith. Chris Pine-led Star Trek 4 remains in development, while the new film is an ...
Star Trek Prequel Film Officially Announced by Paramount
Paramount Pictures is ready to boldly go (again). After rumors circulated earlier this year, Paramount officially announced a new "Star Trek" prequel film on Thursday, this time taking place ...
Long-lost first model of the USS Enterprise from 'Star Trek' boldly
The original "Star Trek" television series, which aired in the late 1960s, kicked off an ever-expanding multiverse of cultural phenomena, with TV and movie spinoffs and conventions where a ...

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture streaming: where to watch online?

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture review – high-definition with enough high camp to boldly go

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This movie provides examples of:

Tropes seen in the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture include:

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Star Trek Movies in order

1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

3. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

5. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

6. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

7. Star Trek: Generations (1994)

8. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

9. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

10. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

11. Star Trek (2009)

12. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

13. Star Trek Beyond (2016)

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