Star Trek: Reunion

As others here have done, I'm now adopting this is as my go-to version of the film. It's about as definitive as I'm ever likely to see it.

So much so that I just re-watched in lieu of the fancy (and expensive) 4K UHD copy I've had sitting, unwatched, on my shelf for many months now.

I'm old enough *Sigh* to remember the pre-Star Wars Days when there was NO Trek other than the original show. Sure, there were some comics, a couple of books and a few toys and models...but that was it. For fans of the fantasy and sci-fi in the UK there was mostly just Doctor Who, Blake's 7, the odd Trek repeat and whatever Hammer Horror or vintage monster movie you could catch late on Friday BBC 2.

Its funny to think of now but in the pre-VHS days I would ask my school librarian to order in the ST Episode 'Fotonovels' and (like many other fans) record the occasional repeat on these things called ''Cassette Tapes.' Then I could experience a full-length audio episode whenever I wanted - better still, be lucky enough to have an audio recording COMBINED with a Fotonovel...Audio Visual heaven!

As Long as you didn't mind instances of your dad piping up about how this was 'A lot of rubbish' as he passed through the room!

I waited with GREAT anticipation for the Motion Picture to the reach our local screen and when I finally saw it my reaction was, well, complicated, to say the least. It was certainly great to see the old cast back and it really did look great. It felt bigger and more epic. But I was still a kid and, once you'd seen a Death Star trench battle, the pace just felt waaaay too sloooow.

Growing up, my appreciation of the film has grown considerably. I've read a great deal about its troubled, time-constrained production and very much enjoyed Wise's Director's Cut which was a step in the right direction. Especially as I was now ready to view the MP not as a long-form episode of the TV show but as a cerebral 2001-esque science fiction film in the truest sense.

TM2YC has perfected STMP for me and its now fulfilled its potential. THIS was the way it should have been seen originally. Its been tightened up even more and there are all sorts of subtle touches and grace notes which enhance it while keeping its DNA related to the original show. I loved this and if you've always been sniffy about the first ST movie then you should see this and consider a serious re-appraisal.

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.

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.

An absolutely delightful edit. I haven't yet managed to convince my wife that there's a good movie hidden inside TMP, but I have at least proved it to myself. I watched the original once more simply to make sure I knew what I was losing, and I don't think I will ever watch it again. This is a superior product, for all the many reasons others have enumerated.

I gave a few points off in the audio department, because a number of the sfx the editor added were wrong -- really, really wrong. Why is an Enterprise-D beep sequence playing on the bridge? Why is the computer console in Engineering making the beepboops from Voyager? (And not just Voyager, either -- a few of those sfx are from one specific episode of Voyager, though I've forgotten which one, and are never heard again.) I don't expect most other people will notice or care, but I found it profoundly jarring, and I just had to train my ear not to care anymore.

But, before my qualms cause you to hesitate in your decision to watch this edit (and, make no mistake: you SHOULD watch this edit!), you should know that I am a producer for a Star Trek fan audio drama (Starship Excelsior), and so I am more attuned to this sort of thing than sane people are. And you should know that most of the sound effects the editor used were downloaded from TrekCore... which obtained most of their sound library from me in the first place, which is why I know them very, very well. And you should know that it is almost impossible to get this stuff right: even my show sometimes makes a mistake, or simply uses the "wrong" effect because it sounds better in context. We know that only the most anal-retentive Trek audio nerds out there will notice or care, and that's a price we're willing to pay for a rich audio soundscape.

So, if you're not a huge Trek audio nerd, don't worry about it. If you are, just prepare yourself going in for some jarring moments. But don't turn it off the first time it annoys you! You'll get used to the anachronistic fx, and, by the time the Enterprise reaches V'Ger, you won't notice them at all anymore. The important thing about this fanedit is how it streamlines and reshapes the narrative of Star Trek TMP, while staying true to its feel and intent. If you own a copy of TMP, watch this.

I'm old enough to remember this movie when it was released although I never saw it at the cinema. I've seen it many, many times over the years and can pretty much spot any change as it occurs in a fan edit of ST:TMP. What this faneditor has done is nothing short of miraculous. He has improved on the original and made me look at it in a fresh light.

The big change here is the colour timing. There's a very warm push in the colours which make the colour scheme pop and look vibrant in HD. In particular, the external shots look absolutely gorgeous. Some facial tones can look a little too warm at times and unfortunately Spock loses some of his yellow pallor in some close ups, but on the whole the editor has made the film look gorgeous.

Speaking of the editing, the first thing you notice is the V'ger first person journey created by Douglas Trumbull over the beginning credits. Simply put, this looks stunning! Why they never thought to do this originally or even in the directors edition is beyond me. Also it helps connect V'Ger to Spock in a much stronger way than was originally done. This for me this is an inspired choice from the editor.

Personally, I would have preferred either an external shot of Vulcan from space (either taken from the 2009 movie or STIII:TSFS with a caption to place the movie after the credits, or a title card over the fantastic new matte shot created by the editor for this version. I believe the Spock Kolinarh scene could have been stronger if it was edited back to front. For example, after the titles and I would have like to have seen Spock looking up immediately to make that connection between him and V'ger stronger. Then have the matriach watching him and him approach and then leave Spock after the mind meld where he bends to pick up the trinket and then looks up again. I had a tinker with the scene myself and it can be done convincingly, but it is a matter of taste and I applaud the editor for the work he did here.

Then we have a jump to the dry dock completely omitting Kirk's journey to Starfleet HQ. I didn't think this would work at first but actually it works incredibly well. The only problem I had with it was again I didn't know where I was and feel a shot of the Earth or of a Starbase from III or VI would have helped or even a title card with "Earth, Stardate blah blah" etc. Its a matter of taste but I was aware that someone not familiar as I am might not necessarily know where they are at that point in the movie as we were just on Vulcan seconds before.

There are some great music cues, some TOS sound queues that will make old Trekkers smile and some great tightening of editing throughout the movie but Act 2 and 3 pretty much play out as they did originally.

Some of the directors edition footage has made its way into the film and all the choices here are good ones. Some of the footage is barely noticeable as being of a lower quality but some of it towards the end doesn't fare so well. I wonder if it's possible to transcode that stuff and a very high bitrate to improve the quality. Perhaps the editor already tried that and what we get is the results of the encode.

All in all, this fan edit is my preferred version of this movie and one which I will watch whenever I feel like watching ST:TMP.

Highly recommended for Trek fans.