Discuss Star Trek: The Motion Picture
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Title suggestions for this film if you had to give it an apt name?
posted by Midi-chlorian_CountSTAFFMOD on May 9, 2020 at 3:29 PM
I was just thinking "The Motion Picture" doesn't really mean anything does it?
If you had to give it a title following the naming convention of the other TOS cast films, e.g:-
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock
What would you call this one?
My suggestion:-
Star Trek: New Life
(from the TOS opening line, the meta fitting in with a "new life" for Star Trek itself and also the artificial life V'ger itself)
Reply by znexyish
on May 9, 2020 at 5:57 PM
It has already been called by some as
"Star Trek: The Motionless Picture"
Reply by Midi-chlorian_Count
on May 9, 2020 at 7:17 PM
Yes much ridiculed over the years for being boring and the last of the TOS films I bought on dvd / blu ray.
Having said that, I'm coming to appreciate this film now. Completely different from the rest (and I'd say 2-4 is probably my favourite sci-fi film trilogy) but it does have something different / unique among the Star Trek films about it.
Reply by znexyish
on May 9, 2020 at 7:39 PM
I like it too. It was an attempt to put Trek in big screen movie form and it proved that. Sure it comes across as just a longer episode of the television series but it showed what worked and didnt work in the transition. The tech aspect of the story where the villian was a machine was maybe where it got stuck dramatically. Anyways my new title is
Star Trek 1 : Return of Yesterday
Yeah that doesnt make sense. I like your idea better.
Reply by tmdb53400018
on May 9, 2020 at 9:14 PM
How about -
Star Trek: The Bald Babe
?
Reply by AlienFanatic
on May 10, 2020 at 4:02 AM
I think the title works as is, myself. For its time, it was very, very rare for a television show to become a movie. Only a handful of TV shows, most of them from the BBC, were made into movies prior to TMP, most of them low-budget, and none of them even remotely as financially successful. The subtitle "The Motion Picture" emphasizes that this is NOT a TV show and that one should expect the end result to be more grandiose and of higher production value than TV.
For those that didn't live during this time, TV was nothing but sitcoms and episodic TV. The budgets were tiny compared to what exists now. It was considered "light" entertainment, like comparing a mass-market paperback to Dickens. TV was almost exclusively over-the-air, low-budget, and meant to be experienced as background noise while you were doing the laundry.
I think the title is pretty perfect. Yes, it doesn't convey the content--which, let's admit, is pretty routine Sci-Fi stuff written by one of the pulpiest SF writers of all time (Alan Dean Foster)--but it's perfect for priming the audience to move from the low expectations of a TV show to something more cinematic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_television_programs
Reply by Midi-chlorian_Count
on May 10, 2020 at 4:51 AM
That just made me think of this one:-
Star Trek: The Celibate Sentient
Reply by Midi-chlorian_Count
on May 10, 2020 at 5:08 AM
@AlienFanatic - I don't disagree there was anything wrong with the title at the time and given the context but, given the very light script (wasn't this a spruced version of an TOS episode?) it is very difficult to come up with one based on the content...
Re those upscaled TV to film higher production values though, despite the dryness, this film must have blown away fans of the TOS at the time who'd waited years after the series was canned.
Kirk and Scotty's long visual inspection of the refitted Enterprise is brilliant and there's this fantastic shot later on of the Enterprise - practically a tiny speck on the screen - as it tracks across the vastness of V'ger's outer layer. Probably the best visual in any of the Star Trek films.
Reply by sukhisoo
on March 25, 2021 at 5:06 PM
Star Trek I: The Changeling
Reply by bratface
on March 25, 2021 at 7:08 PM
Star Trek: The Dakota
Reply by Midi-chlorian_Count
on March 25, 2021 at 8:37 PM
Ha ha, indeed...
Reply by tmdb82469342
on July 3, 2021 at 3:56 AM
Star Trek: Voyager 😜