Star Trek: The Motion Picture Review

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
When a destructive space entity is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral Kirk resumes command of the Starship Enterprise in order to intercept, examine, and hopefully stop it.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1979

Running Time:

126 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The Starship Enterprises' cinematic voyages couldn't have had a less auspicious start, this being unquestionably the worst of all. Failing entirely to tap into the tone of the TV series, it also gave too much prominence, and the captaincy, to dork Stephen Collins (Kirk having being promoted to Admiral) in a scanty plot stretched over more than two rather dull hours.

After the reunion of her crew and a tour of the refitted Enterprise, 23rd century civilisation as we know it is threatened by a fiendish Thingy annihilating all in its path. En route to discovering that said Thingy is an old Voyager probe gone mad, we are obliged to endure the courtship of Collins and Khambatta.

Nor is this exactly Douglas Trumbull's finest two hours of special effects — they look decidedly tacky compared to those in Star Wars two years earlier, and positively prehistoric now.

The big screen was where none of them had gone before, and you can tell.
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