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STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979)
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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:34 pm    Post subject: Scenes Cut From Star Trek: The Motion Picture Reply with quote

Scenes Cut From Star Trek: The Motion Picture
By Nick Ottens, Forgotten Treks


Persis Khambatta in a rare publicity photo

There were several scenes shot for Star Trek: The Motion Picture that have never been seen in their original or uncut form. This articles describes the cut footage of the film in the order in which they were meant to appear.

On Vulcan, Spock was to have been introduced by the female master as Son of Sarek of Vulcan and Amanda of Earth, anticipating the return appearance by Sarek later in the series of films.

After Kirk first arrived on the Enterprise and left the bridge for his initial confrontation with Decker, there was to have been a brief sequence involving Uhura, Sulu and the alien ensign in which the alien's loyalty to Decker is established. Uhura observes: Our chances of coming back from this mission in one piece may have just doubled. This entire scene was restored in the longer version (not to be confused with The Director's Edition).

When Uhura first hears that Lieutenant Ilia is a Deltan, she expresses some surprise, leading Kirk to respond that the Deltans are so good at their job that there are no finer navigators in Starfleet, commander.

Ilia would have been the source of other comments, some of which are heard in the longer version. Sulu, upon being told by Decker to take Lieutenant Ilia in hand, proceeds to act like a schoolboy while attempting to show Ilia the navigation console (with which she is quite familiar). This shows us some of the effect that Deltan women have on Terran males. When Decker questions his Deltan friend, she responds by assuring that she would never take advantage of a sexually immature species, informing us in no uncertain terms that she has a certain amount of impatience with Kirk for relieving Decker of his command. This is why she has told Kirk about her oath of celibaty being on record: she wanted him to know that even if it was not, she would never be interested in anyone who would embarrass Decker in this manner (regardless of Kirk's reputation where women are concerned). This exchange is present in the longer version.

Also restored in that version is Dr McCoy's full entrance, including the yeoman's observation that he insisted we go first, sir. Said something about first seeing how it scrambled our molecules. In the first version shot, McCoy beamed up while carrying a riding crop, indicating that he had been snatched by some Federation transporter without a moment's advanced notice. This is absent from the available version.

Just after McCoy's line about how engineers love to change things, in an unrestored cut, Kirk gazed after the retreating doctor, went to the wall intercom and announced: All decks, this is the captain. Prepare for immediate departure. Had this scene remained as it was, it would have lessened the chances of McCoy's line being cut (as it accidentally was in many prints of the film).

Also present in the longer version is Ilia's concern after Kirk summons Decker to his cabin. As Sulu introduces new figures into his console, he must gently remind Ilia to listen to him. After he finishes speaking, Ilia again stares at the door, which leads neatly into the scene in Kirk's quarters.

Some cuts were put into effect to improve Dr McCoy's disposition. For instance, after Spock comes aboard the Enterprise and is welcomed aboard by Kirk, McCoy observes: Never look a gift Vulcan in the ears, Jim. Spock must have known what kind of an attitude to expect from his old friend because before the scene in the Officers Lounge, he requested of Kirk: Sir, I would appreciate Dr McCoy absenting himself from this interview. Remaining at the conversation, McCoy causes Spock to show a certain amount of anger, at which point McCoy seriously observes: If you achieve perfect logic, Spock, you'll pay a price. It's given your planet ten thousand years of peace but no poetry's been written since then, no music. This comment causes Spock to turn menacingly toward McCoy, until Kirk calls a halt to the dangerous situation.

The observation about Vulcan might not have been too carefully thought out and perhaps Gene Roddenberry was concerned about the fans image of Vulcan becoming totally colorless. Whatever the reason, these exchanges were eliminated and not restored to any version of the film shown so far.

We learn more about Ilia in a sequence restored to the longer version. After Chekov is injured by VGer's energy blast, Ilia approaches the ensign and, through contact with Chekov's nerve centers bring about instant relief for the officer. Arriving on the scene with a medical technician, Dr Chapel and Ilia exchange friendly glances.


Another casuality of VGer's invading energy probes was not as lucky as Chekov. When the blinding light probe materializes on the bridge, two security men advanced upon it with drawn phasers and, before Chekov could warn them not to fire, the first man does. In retaliation, VGer's probe envelopes the man in a purple glow. He vanishes, causing the second security man to holster his weapon and Chekov to request that security send no further men to the bridge. This entire sequence has never been seen.

After Spock's spacewalk, the Vulcan describes what he has learned, calling VGer a human machine. McCoy originally commented: We're living machines too: protein mechanisms and when Kirk observes VGer is trying to find its creator, McCoy observed: Isn't that what we're all trying to do? All us machines?

The comparison between man and machine led directly to a scene in Engineering that was spoken about but not seen in the released version. Decker, taking the Ilia probe on a tour of Engineering, hears a message relayed by Kirk:

This is the captain speaking. It appears that the alien ship, VGer, is not a manned vessel. It is a living entity, a machine life form. We are attempting to ascertain its intentions. All personnel will maintain yellow alert status.


Scotty, Decker and the Ilia probe in Engineering

By phrasing this message as a ships announcement, Kirk prevents the Ilia probe from becoming nervous, from realizing that Decker is actually to pump her for information. Scotty, throughout this sequence, is openly hostile to Ilia, at one point addressing her with: Lassie, if I were functioning logically right not, I'd be showing you the inside of our metal scrape compactor.

In a surprising turn of events, Kirk implements a self destruct order to Scotty, in a scene restored to the longer version. In a discussion with an assistant, Scotty reveals that if there is a chance of destroying VGer, a matter-antimatter explosion (which would result if the Enterprise blew up) would be successful in doing this.

Kirk, however, cancels the destruct order in favor of going out and attempting to contact VGer directly. This preserves one of the most essential characteristics of Star Trek; a concern for life all over the universe.

In a sequence partially restored to the longer version, Spock sheds tears for VGer. Still missing, though, is Spocks regret that although he has found some of what he has been searching for, VGer has not and now, because of what we are planning, will not. It is this statement that really causes Kirk to cancel the self destruct order, telling Scotty: We're holding off; there may be a chance (to save Earth, VGer and the Enteprise).

Kirk's original statement at the end, when reporting the missing status of Decker and Ilia, included mention of security officer Phillips, who was vaporized in a sequence discussed earlier. Af for the final scene of the film, there are three variations. First, the one that survives. Second, one in which Spock has the final line: A most logical choice, captain, responding to Kirk's course heading of Out there; that way. Third, and most interesting, is a take that Leonard Nimoy recalls, in which Spock joked about his need to remain on the Enterprise to protect the ship from its erratic, human crew. This was thought to have been too humerous to be included.

From Allan Asherman, The Unseen Star Trek (Part II Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Star Blazers Magazine

LINK:
http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/scenes-cut-from-star-trek-the-motion-picture/


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This certainly demonstrates the many difficult choices that filmmakers must make during the production of a movie.

Thanks, BDT.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also in an earlier version of the script that I saw (and never filmed) Scotty, being the oldest of the crew, was retired and didn't like it. Kirk found him in a bar and re-recruited him. Scotty then said that the way these young so-called engineers were taught ONLY BY COMPUTER SIMULATION they would never solve the engines problems because they didn't have practical experience!
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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 8:32 pm    Post subject: The Design and Reuse of the Orbital Office Complex Reply with quote

The Design and Reuse of the Orbital Office Complex



The space office was the first piece of hardware that Andrew Probert was asked to contribute to as an illustrator for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He told Starlog magazine in March 1980 that he inherited the basics from the work that had been prepared for the Star Trek: Phase II television series, the pilot episode of which was rewritten to become the first feature film.

Probert recalled that Richard Taylor, the movie’s original art director, “asked for something that was multileveled and complex” and that he “was shooting for something logical that would work within the established boundaries of Starfleet technology.”

At his website, Probert adds that the station was intended to have the capacity of “assembling spaceships from prefabricated elements ‘beamed’ to its location.” It therefore made sense to him that the facility could fabricate additional parts needed to repair or refurbish ships although it would seem that this requirement was either dropped or disregarded for it’s difficult to imagine starships being built at what is rather small a station.

“What we ended up with,” said Probert in the Starlog interview, “was, from top to bottom: The dockyard control tower, a hydroponic section, relaxation level, office/domestic level, variable gravity research wheel, factory and power levels. The power level and shaft at the bottom were eventually dropped.”

Probert told Trekplace‘s Greg Tyler in 2005 that the cylinders protruding from the top of the complex were designed to be “botanical tanks, so you could grow fruits and vegetables without needing soil and that in turn would help supply your oxygen as well as some of the station’s food.”


The travel pods which Probert designed in conjunction with the space office were initially to be “shaped exactly like the office units,” he writes at his site, “and, when docked, would be indistinguishable from them.” Gene Roddenberry evidently liked to think of them as “flying offices” at first; an idea that evolved into the much smaller craft that Scotty eventually and famously steered toward the refit Enterprise in drydock.


Following The Motion Picture, the model was turned upside down and modified to become the Regula I base in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan which had to come in on a tighter budget that the first film. “We were given the task of making it look different,” recalled Steve Gawley, who was head of ILM’s model shop at the time the second film was produced, in an interview with Star Trek: The Magazine 3, 5 (September 2002). “We took it apart and put it upside down and then reattached some of the outer pods in a different way.” Another modification his company made was adding an animated sequence of lights to the hangar bay.

The miniature would subsequently end up in a number of television episodes for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Perhaps most famously, the top section, without Probert’s botanical tanks, became Starbase 375 in four Season Six episodes of Deep Space Nine.

Bernd Schneider and Jörg Hillebrand have chronicled the full production history of the orbital office complex at Ex Astris Scientia. All the artwork on this page is courtesy of Andrew Probert.



Space office concept art by Andrew Probert



Probert's "flying office" design

LINK:
http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/the-design-and-reuse-of-the-orbital-office-complex/


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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:11 pm    Post subject: Star Trek the Motion Picture - Ships only Reply with quote

Star Trek the Motion Picture - Ships only
I09



Over at the ThomasHuntFilms YouTube page they have condensed all of the original and Next Generation Star Trek films down to just the scenes with the ships. It's an interesting watch for two reasons. First of all, it really highlights the evolution of effects between the movies starting with the physical models used by Star Trek: The Motion Picture and advancing on to the CGI used in the Next Generation movies. Secondly, it is crazy how little screen time the ships get in some of these movies. The Motion Picture clocks in about 25 minutes of ship time but several of the films have less ten minutes total.

LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHWlccpsYIA#t=82
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2015 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've always felt the Star Trek theme was similar in some ways to Eric Wolfgang Korngold's theme for "The Sea Hawk" (1940).

If you're not familiar with it, give it try right here. Then compare it to the ST:MP theme.

It'll make you feel young again.


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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2015 8:49 pm    Post subject: The design of the drydock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture Reply with quote

The design of the drydock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Forgotten Trek



The design of the drydock that first appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture originated in the aborted second Star Trek television series, Phase II. When the script for what was supposed to be the series pilot episode, In Thy Image, called for a drydock, illustrator Mike Minor came up with a design that closely resembled the final product. A model was created at Magicam in September 1977.

When Phase II turned into The Motion Picture, and due to the increased resolution demands of movie photography, Magicam's model had to be discarded. Andrew Probert, who joined Star Trek as a concept designer for the first feature film, was tasked with redesigning the facility.

Probert told Starlog magazine 32 (March 1980) that his first concept was to have the dry dock fit the shape of the Enterprise as snugly as possible. This would allow the dry dock to unfold and open dramatically to allow the ship to exit, he said.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and director Robert Wise felt the proposed configuration would resemble the shape of VGer too much, which appeared later in the movie. They wanted a design that would not precisely fit the shape of the Enterprise, according to Probert.

Given the variety in shapes and sizes among Starfleet vessels, I thought it would be a good idea to have an all purpose dry dock that would change shape to conform to these other ships as well, he said. In one design, I utilized hinged modular sections.

This was further simplified and eventually, the design came back full circle and we ended up with a box shape again similar to Minor's original idea.

Magicum also built the studio model for the redesigned drydock. At least one other, partial model was built for use in closeups of one side of the facility. This model was larger and considerably more detailed than the main miniature.


An Andrew Probert impression of the Enterprise in drydock, produced for The Motion Picture but featuring the Phase II design of the Enterprise

The drydock reappeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan but due to that movie's limited budget, footage had to be recycled from The Motion Picture.

It also later appeared in Star Trek: Generations when Industrial Light & Magic heavily modified it for the scene in which the Enterprise-B is seen leaving drydock in a scene reminiscent of the one in The Motion Picture.

LINK:
http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/designing-the-motion-picture-drydock/


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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The transporter effect for people was one of my favorites.Never saw it done this way again after ST:TMP.
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 3:03 pm    Post subject: Designing The Motion Picture Bridge Reply with quote

Designing The Motion Picture Bridge
Forgotten Trek



The appearance of the refit Enterprise's interiors in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the feature films that came after it combined the design input of the ship's original designer Matthew Jefferies and art directors Michael Minor and Joe Jennings, Andrew Probert, production designer Harold Michelson and director Robert Wise. Control details were developed by set designer Lee Cole and control screen readouts by Cole, along with Mike Minor, Rick Sternbach and Jon Povill.



Michelson disliked the fact that nearly all stations faced the walls. Every section looks too much like every other, he told Starlog magazine 30 (January 1980). To make the set more interesting to the camera, we turned Chekovs station 90 degrees from the wall, which put him in line with the viewscreen. Chekov's cubicle does a lot toward breaking up the scenes and there are lots of them shot on the bridge.



Cole was already working on the sets when Michelson joined the production. She had begun work with Minor and Jennings and had already laid out the bridge consoles. In an interview with Star Trek: The Magazine 2, 8 (December 2001), she remembered that one of the things the art department did was to give the new version of the bridge fully animated screens.



When I was designing the bridge, they were just going to do static things with backlit negatives and a few little mechanical devices that moved. I said, You know, I just don't think that's going to do it. I think we're going to have to project some things here.

Cole put twenty-three screens on the bridge and film was projected onto them from behind. At the time she had no idea how much work she was making for herself.

About a week or so before filming, when we were walking the sets, they said, Well, Lee, we can't wait to see what you're going to put on those screens. I had no idea I was going to do that!



When Michelson came onboard he made very few alterations to the bridge set, although he was responsible for the design of the attitude dome on the ceiling, as well as the redesigning of the Enterprise corridors which had originally been built for the abandoned Star Trek: Phase II......


Roddenberry was also critical of the busy controls that Cole had originally designed. I want it really plain to try to be futuristic. Cut out all this detail and simplify things, she remembered Roddenberry instructing her. We did that, she told Star Trek: The Magazine 3, 5 (September 2002), but it got a little too plain, I think. For Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, many of her original plans made it back onto the set as director Nicholas Meyer's thinking ran opposite to Roddenberry's. He didn't have the budget to construct a new set but, The least I thought we could do was revamp the bridge and make it twinkle.



Meyer also had the bridge painted in darker colors, giving the set a more ominous that was only reverted back to a bright color scheme in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

LINK:
http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/designing-the-motion-picture-bridge/


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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Always liked this version of the Enterprise bridge.

I believe it was later used as the Battle Bridge on ST:TNG.
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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:07 pm    Post subject: Mark Lenard BTS photos Reply with quote



The late Mark Lenard as seen in some rare photos from when he recreated playing a Klingon in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, possibly at a convention.

from Treks in Sci-Fi


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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mark Lenard got to portray a Romulan in the ST (TOS) episode "Balance of Terror."

A Vulcan, Mr.Spock's pop, in "Journey to Babel." And in a number of the ST movies.

And a Klingon commander in ST:TMP.

When Leonard Nimoy was considering not returning to the Star Trek TV show during production, Mark was on the short list as his replacement.

Fine actor.
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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



Another unused and unseen art work for Star Trek the Motion Picture. Imgur.

from Treks in Sci-fi


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PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hardly anyone liked the new Star Fleet uniforms in this film.

I did. Nice design.

Where they dropped the ball was to make 'em drab gray colors. They should have had the same colors utilized on the '66 TV show.

Gold=Command.Although I've read that they were actually a green color but filmed gold in looks under the lighting. Always wondered why Kirk's wrap around green shirt was able to look green.

Blue=Sciences. Red=Technical/Security.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:30 pm    Post subject: Re: Mark Lenard Klingon photos Reply with quote

bulldogtrekker wrote:


The late Mark Lenard as seen in some rare photos from when he played a Klingon (apparently at a convention).
EDITED

from Treks in Sci-Fi


Actually, that's Lenard at a promotional appearance with a pullover mask, not from the filming of the movie.
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