Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1504940
18 FA L L 2 0 2 3 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y b y D a v i d B o n d e l e v i t c h C A S M P S E STAR TREK: The Motion Picture People who know me know that I am a major Trekkie. I am not quite old enough to have watched it in its original run, but I became addicted when the show went into syndication. Given this, when the oppor tunity to take a look at how the restoration of Star Trek: The Motion Picture came about, I was more than happy to volunteer. As you'll read, it was a long and winding road from the end of the original TV series in 1969 to this restoration. The Road to The Motion Picture After suffering development hell in several attempts to reboot Star Trek, creator Gene Roddenberry began attempts to bring Star Trek the show back with the idea of a TV movie that could function as a pilot, or perhaps a feature. Paramount now owned the show and felt that a feature was unlikely to be a box-office draw. But then a little movie called Star Wars came out and changed everything. Paramount was still skeptical and hedged greenlighting the movie until the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind made it clear that audiences were hungry for more science fiction. Finally, the move was a go. Much money had already been spent on the aborted TV series. This would be folded into the budget of the movie, almost ensuring budget problems. In addition, scripts went through many drafts. One of the wisest things that Roddenberry did was hire Robert Wise to direct the movie. The man who had edited Citizen Kane and directed The Sound of Music might seem an odd choice until one remembers that he also directed The Day the Earth Stood Still, a fantastic science fiction story that was also cerebral. Another stroke of genius was hiring Jerry Goldsmith to write the score. Goldsmith, in turn, hired Sandy Courage to orchestrate for him, bringing Star Trek music full circle. With the show going off the air in 1969 and the movie not RESTORATION OF being released until 1979, fans of the show had watched the 79 original episodes dozens of times (if not more) and were very excited to see the movie. Unfortunately, when the movie was released, many in the audience, including fans of the original show, were disappointed. Of course, a decade of buildup would ensure a letdown for many, but there were a number of issues with the film. Roddenberry and Wise had taken a print of the film to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, for a heavily publicized preview screening. Although the audience loved it, he had many notes and wanted to go back and make more changes before the film was released. One thing Robert Wise really brought to the movie was a cinematic feel; it doesn't look like a TV show at all. David C. Fein, who produced the revised versions of the film, explained, "They went back to the studio and said, 'We need to fix this before release.' Because they saw a little bit of time and they were working around the clock. And Michael Eisner [then Chairman of Paramount Pictures] said, 'If we do that and word got out, they would say that the studio doesn't have faith in the film and had to recut it, so we need to leave it the way it was. If there's black leader in sections covering up missing effects, it has to go out that way.' We found memos between Gene Roddenberry and Bob Wise saying, 'We have