Star Trek: Reunion

The biggest tragedy regarding Star Trek: The Motion Picture is that it had the potential to be a masterpiece. If it hadn't been for its slow pace and 130-140 minute running time, I truly believe TMP could've been a worthy theatrical entry for the Star Trek franchise. Some people feel that the reason for the excessive length was because it was trying too hard to be the next 2001. I'm not so sure about that, as the logic that goes on in this movie is pretty faithful to the show. My personal opinion is that Robert Wise was simply the wrong person to direct a film about the Enterprise crew, talented though he may be. Musicals like The Sound of Music and West Side Story are Wise's bread and butter, and while the slow pacing may work for a musical, it wasn't necessary or appropriate for an adaptation of a popular sci-fi TV show.

Whatever the reason, the 103-minute runtime of TM2YC's edit was a big drawing factor for me in deciding to see this edit. Did TM2YC's cut finally give this film the justice it deserved? Well, in answer to my own question, just about.

I should note, though, that even in this edit's truncated form, there are still a few instances where the scenes go on for longer than they should. The introduction to the enterprise, for example, now only contains 6 wide establishing shots of the Enterprise, and yet, I still felt like the scene only needed two. There's another scene that occurs later on that suffers from the repetitive reaction shot/establishing shot/reaction shot/establishing shot/reaction shot/establishing shot editing pattern that was so deadly to the original cut. Still, these incidents happen so much less that it's hard to call it a problem anymore. I'm also curious to see if a second viewing will make these two issues invisible.

Overall, this is a true improvement over the original version, and if I want to prove that Star Trek: the Motion Picture really could've been a watchable movie, Reunion is one edit I'm happy to use as proof.

Fascinating, Captain. It appears that our first reunion on the big screen was more interesting than the original Starlogs suggested. TM2YC has imperceptibly yet compellingly improved the narrative of our journey.

Well, damn it, Jim. Give TM2YC a medal or something. This ensign has saved our audience from falling asleep during the movie!

Aye, sir. We've got warp speed now. She still has technical difficulties, including some blurring on the bridge and obvious resolution changes, but she'll deliver where it matters.

Course heading, captain?

Thataway. (Or, to paraphrase Kirk, when choosing between this edit and the theatrical release: THISaway.)

Note: The source material has serious flaws, both narrative and technical, which prevent perfect marks for this outstanding edit. One detail that could have been improved is the flatness of the (compressed) audio. The clarity of separation between dialog and sound effects could have benefited from higher-resolution audio rendering.

Note 2: Thank you turntheradioxoff for adding subtitles.

I really liked the Lovecraftian elements of the original film, but I also thought the movie was too slow paced for my taste, this version is much more straightforward but without losing character development and narrative.

Right from the opening titles, I knew I'd like this edit. The V'ger cloud is cleverly used, and opening on Vulcan makes a lot of sense. The only thing I found jarring in the first 30 minutes was the Enterprise Introduction, since there were some unfortunate musical cuts and visual effects of Kirk in the pod that haven't aged well.

But the color! I went into this dreading another drab, lifeless experience, but I found myself largely without complaint. Brilliant!

There's one small issue I take with the final card - 'The Human Adventure is just beginning' perfectly encapsulates the spirit of this film (The Human Adventure should have been the title), so to immediately connect it to The Wrath of Khan shakes me out of the introspection that was clearly intended with that cerebral ending.

Other than that, this is just about perfect!

Star Trek: Reunion

First off, the editor removed the prelude--this is actually the only edit I disagree with, and fairly strongly. The prelude sets the tone for the whole movie, setting it apart from that other adventure/space opera franchise. It gives it an introspective 2001 feel and I really miss it. Fortunately, that's easy enough to fix, and even more fortunately, that's the only negative I really have for this edit!

The credits have been re-worked and instead of text on a black background, the text is now overlayed on top of the moving V'ger cloud visuals (no doubt cut from elsewhere in the movie). It's a nice touch and modernizes things a bit without looking out of place.

The next change is one of the more major ones. The main feature opens with Spock on Vulcan instead of the Klingon encounter with the cloud. There are several reasons why I like this change--it allows the movie to continually build from Vulcan to the Klingon encounter instead of leading with Klingons and then dropping the pace back down for Spock and Starfleet HQ (which has also been cut). We now progress from a dose of mystery to a little more mystery with some action on top. Opening with Spock also instantly places the focus of the movie on his journey.

The Vulcan sky is completely repainted and looks great, and I appreciated the cuts to the cloud to emphasize spock's connection, even at this stage, with V'ger.

Several more cuts ensue, the most important of which is the transporter accident. The music was a little jarring at the top of Kirk's leaving the space dock scene, but it works alright. (The original feature had much more subdued music, very slowly building to the introduction of the gorgeous new Enterprise). There's a really nice shot of the sun rising behind the Enterprise as it departs which has been cut. I miss that shot, but conceptually, I understand why this was done and don't exactly disagree with it.

I should mention that I'm a fan of this movie even in its original, unedited form--I love all the drawn out visual scenes, but the editing has been tastefully done. So well, in fact, that despite knowing it had been shortened, I couldn't really tell just how. The end results are clear, though: the Enterprise leaves space dock a scant 22 minutes into the movie. The original version? 33 minutes! (That's 36 including the prelude!)

Ilia's character has been significantly edited, and considerably for the better. There is nothing (ok, other than "she's bald!") to say she's anything other than a normal humanoid female, who aparrently has a bit of history with Decker. No more healing powers, wierd over-sexualization, etc. A very welcome change.

The wormhole sequence has been significantly trimmed, the most noticeable part being Chekhov's line "tooooorpeeeeedooooooo... awayyyyyyyy!", which I always found a bit humorous (and thus distracting from what was supposed to be a very tense situation).

There are several other changes, many of them subtle modifications to characters rather than visuals--you can read about them in the changes log. The bottom line is, if you wanted to love the original version of this movie but couldn't get past the pacing, give this edit a try--it may be just what you're looking for. If you're looking for an action-packed adventure, I'm afraid Star Trek 1 will never be that, no matter how much editing you throw at it.

This is a near flawless edit, both technically and artistically. It tightens things up while staying true to the original concept. Highly, highly recommended.