Looking at my compulsion to collect DVDs... like movies I don't want to own, even to complete the set.
Every odd numbered Star Trek film sucks, they say. But they usually have all the films in their Star Trek collection.
I don't fully agree with that rule, but I do have Star Trek films that I don't like. And I have stopped myself from buying them. But when I look at my DVD collection it hurts. One of the gaps is Star Trek: The Motion Picture...
Part Gene Roddenberry's failed Star Trek II script, part episode idea for the failed Genesis II (Genesis II
DVD) TV series (which became the unproduced pilot for Star Trek II, the TV series) the motion picture Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as the same suggests, takes the Enterprise and its crew from the small screen to the big screen.
The eternal problem with adapting TV to cinema is how do you make it more than just a really long episode with better FX without making it too different from the series?
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition (Remastered)
) was made after years of fail movie attempts due to the success of Star Wars (Star Wars: A New Hope
). However, rightly or wrongly rather than attempt to replicate that film they modeled themselves after 2001: A Space Odyssey (2001: A Space Odyssey
DVD). Now, I love Odyssey. I own it on DVD. Some people think it's slow. I get that, but it's still an amazing experience. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is just slow. There's none of the brilliance of Stanley Kubrick to make it amazing. It really is a long episode (a two hour pilot stretched) put on the big screen and in love with its own better FX.That, obviously is my opinion. But the consensus is that all odd numbered Star Trek films suck and 1 is an odd number so I'm not alone on this.
So how did it get a sequel? It cost $35 million to make and eventually made $82 million back. Not bad but not good either. However, Paramount knew that it never really cost $35 million to make. For much of the period between the end of the series and the making of this film Gene Roddenberry had an office at Paramount working on a film, writing himself, getting pitches, buying scripts and hiring directors. Then Paramount wanted a new Star Trek series for the network that were about to start... which never happened, but 13 scripts were written, actors hired, models created. All this was written off by Paramount as part of the cost of The Motion Picture. So they knew that another film would cost a lot less (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Director's Cut
) ended up costing $11 million) and could be a success even making a lot less than the first film.So important to the franchise, but I can barely watch the thing. So I'm not buying it on DVD. Not to complete my collection.
No way.
~ DUG.
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