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Posted: |
Dec 3, 2017 - 10:02 PM
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By: |
Jeyl
(Member)
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TMP and I have a very awkward relationship. It's the one Star Trek movie I watch the most but it's one of the weakest entries in the whole franchise. I just... Gah! Every criticism aimed at the film is true, but I can't stop watching and enjoying it! The score is so grand, the visuals so epic. But what exactly does this film accomplish? I don't know.
One gripe that is seldom mentioned is that Spock is given the most to do even when it's not necessary. Now I know what you're thinking. "People want to see Spock do awesome stuff! He's the iconic character!" Sure, but what about the other characters? Take the scene where the Enterprise is attacked by the V'Ger cloud. You have a moment that deals with communications and the person who handles it and saves the day... IS NOT UHURA. Really? First you let Spock take over Scotty's job at fixing the warp engines, now he's taking over Uhura's job at communications? And I thought JJ's Trek09 treatment of Uhura was bad. I know we must establish that Spock has a connection to V'Ger, but this could have been so much better. Like have Spock detect that V'Ger was attempting to communicate telepathically and have Uhura be the one to confirm it and send the signal.
Speaking of treating the non-central characters of TOS like garbage, Star Trek V. So you're telling me that after taking away some 'pain' that these characters have it automatically means they'll turn on Kirk? No. Two movies ago these same characters put their careers and lives to help Kirk in his mission to bring Spock to Vulcan, but one therapy session is enough to want to backstab him for a Vulcan they never met? No. Fudge no. That's stupid, out of character and completely disrespectful.
In my head canon, V never happened. I'm so happy VI makes that notion easy by not acknowledging anything from V at all.
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The thing of it is that TMP is markedly different from the other films in that it is primarily science fiction about big ideas. This is reflected in the score, which is a score about high concepts and big ideas. Goldsmith illustrates the expansive world of the 23rd Century, the immense threat and enigma of V'Ger, the Klingon culture (most takes on these characters have taken their cues from his work on this score), and the love story, such as it is, of Decker and Ilia, with Ilia's theme inextricably linked to that of V'Ger, foreshadowing what is to come.
The film series became much more action/adventure oriented after the first film, which contributed immensely to the success of the franchise, but meant that the science fiction element was significantly lessened in future installments. This in and of itself isn't so awful — the series could veer from subgenre to subgenre, that was part of its “anthology series with continuing characters) design — but unfortunately it also meant that the Trek movies have often (though not always) followed a more aggressive path and been a lot less concept-driven than perhaps they could have been.*
The fifth film itself, despite its lofty aspirations, ended up being a much more conventional adventure movie, and so the score itself ends up being a much more conventional adventure score of the type Goldsmith was doing at the time. As such, I do enjoy it, but, as the tagline says, “There is no comparison.”
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* The TNG movies suffered more from this than the TOS films did, in my opinion, as there was always more of an action element to TOS, and the TOS movies did other genres, such as a comedy (TVH) and political thriller/prison picture (TUC), adding much more variety to their features.
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TMP and I have a very awkward relationship. It's the one Star Trek movie I watch the most but it's one of the weakest entries in the whole franchise. I just... Gah! Every criticism aimed at the film is true, but I can't stop watching and enjoying it! The score is so grand, the visuals so epic. But what exactly does this film accomplish? I don't know.
One gripe that is seldom mentioned is that Spock is given the most to do even when it's not necessary. Now I know what you're thinking. "People want to see Spock do awesome stuff! He's the iconic character!" Sure, but what about the other characters? Take the scene where the Enterprise is attacked by the V'Ger cloud. You have a moment that deals with communications and the person who handles it and saves the day... IS NOT UHURA. Really? First you let Spock take over Scotty's job at fixing the warp engines, now he's taking over Uhura's job at communications? And I thought JJ's Trek09 treatment of Uhura was bad. I know we must establish that Spock has a connection to V'Ger, but this could have been so much better. Like have Spock detect that V'Ger was attempting to communicate telepathically and have Uhura be the one to confirm it and send the signal.
That's funny, because The Changeling did the exact same scene as a ping pong between Spock and Uhura. Uhura did the "communications" and Spock did the "science".
Of course at the time of TMP it was three and half guys (Scotty) and a bunch of regular extras. (Hell, Uhura has more to do in TMP than she does in TWOK!)
And as said: TMP is one of two amazing Star Trek films (with TWOK being the other one). The others range from really good to pretty bad.
I'm not sure Star Trek V is THE worst (including TNG and JJ) but I won't argue against it.
And the score to TMP is one of the greatest scores ever. (Sorry, I may have just summed up most posts before mine.)
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Speaking of To Start a Nerd War...
"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" is a better film than "Star Trek: Nemesis". Score wise, too.
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Speaking of To Start a Nerd War...
"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" is a better film than "Star Trek: Nemesis". Score wise, too.
It's a valid argument.
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If TMP is a reflection of what future Star Trek films were going to be, I'm glad it got phased out. That's not saying the science fiction element of TMP was the problem. No. The problem was bad execution by spending a lot of time doing nothing. We spend more time looking at our characters looking at things than actually developing a story. Visual effects and score should compliment the story and the characters, not the other way around.
I'm not saying that future installments should have been like TMP — after all, TWOK is not only my favorite Trek feature, but one of my favorite movies of all time — but there is a certain amount of throwing out the baby with the bathwater in terms of the BIG IDEAS that TMP aspired to; if it didn't quite achieve its ambitions because of the complete disaster that was the production of that film (including the pre- and post-). And while I think the 2000 cut is an improvement, it doesn't really solve all of the movie's problems.
The irony is, of course, that TFF is almost as ambitious in concept as TMP, but the high concept and low comedy don't always mix well, and William Shatner.
BUT… TMP is the only one of the Trek films to be deliberately majestic.
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Count me as another never to have understood the downer STtMP gets. Loved on first viewing and still do. The score is as we know awesome. And there's much to enjoy catching up with the old crew. I didn't have a problem with TFF and was pleased to hear Jerry's great music again.
This is quite a timely thread for me because I looked in on the animated series on Netflix last night, and watched about three episodes. Not seen it since the 70s, and I wrote to the BBC's official tv guide - Radio Times - in 1973 asking for it to shown after seeing the premier episode whilst on holiday in Canada as a mere 12 year old.
I happened to watch an episode called One of Our Planets is Missing. WTF?! A cloud going around eating planets? Totally (as we say in the UK) gobsmacked. I've always seen The Ultimate Computer and The Doomsday Machine mentioned in the same breath as TMP, but this was a shocking first for me. What's more I got to the third website before anyone mentioned the connection.
Not to mention that damn cartoon music is playing in my head all the time now!
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