Star Trek’s 1970s reboot is a famous example of development hell, with a film first being greenlit in 1975 before having its script rejected. A second script was commissioned in 1976 before the entire project was canceled by a studio wary about whether cinema audiences would go to watch a blockbuster sci-fi film so soon after the release of Star Wars. This was at a time when science fiction was nowhere near as ubiquitous on film as it is now.

Then a TV series called Star Trek: Phase II was commissioned, making it as far as casting and pre-production (including sets, props, and ship models) before being kicked into the long grass. However, the studio soon had a change of heart regarding a film adaptation, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture came into being. On its release, it did well but not spectacularly, and franchise fans know why – leaden pacing, a lack of action, and a bloated running time are among its faults.

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But now that Robert Wise’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Cut has been released in 4K, more than ever viewers will find a rewatch a worthwhile exercise. Here’s why.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Gets a New, Colorful Lease of Life

     Paramount Pictures

The original Star Trek TV series was easy on the eyes, with the bridge officers decked out in primary colors, and the films of the 1980s featured bell bottoms with striking cherry red tunics. In contrast, Star Trek: The Motion Picture’s cast wears pastel-colored uniforms. This unexciting color scheme is also reflected in the starship Enterprise’s interior, which is most picked out in shades of white and silver. Previous cinematic, home video, and DVD re-releases have done little to rectify this state of affairs.

The 4K version changes all that, using the original film negative as its source. Enhanced contrast, elimination of the saturation that has dogged previous releases, subtle changes to the color grading, and sharper definition all combine to make what is on-screen a sharper, more visually arresting viewing experience.

Star Trek’s Special Effects Get an Upgrade

It’s fair to say that The Motion Picture panders to what today we would call fan service. There are endless callbacks to minor characters from The Original Series. This includes Nurse Chapel, played by Majel Barrett, the wife of Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry, who would play a far more prominent role as Lwaxana Troi and the voice of the computer in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney).

But the nods to fans are at their most overt when it comes to the special effect. The gratuitous minutes-long sequences showcasing the admittedly graceful lines of the newly-designed Enterprise added nothing to the plot but served as a tip of the hat to Trekkers’ love for the venerable starship.

They also indicated Wise’s intention to create a space epic along the lines of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was a pity, then, that in haste to get the film into cinemas in order to benefit from what was then thought to be a fleeting popular interest in sci-fi, the special effects were rushed. It shows in tracking shots of the Enterprise, the matte work used to depict Spock’s home planet of Vulcan, the transporter effect, and the entity known as V’ger whose origins are at the heart of the film.

Work on these elements was begun for Wise’s 2001 Director’s Edition, but the 4K version pushes the envelope. It offers new interpretations of iconic special effects – such as the wormhole the Enterprise briefly gets trapped in early in the film’s second act, and the interior shots of V’ger. It far more closely resembles that which the designers were hoping to achieve before the reality of tight schedules and studio pressure got in the way.

A Score to Die For

What The Motion Picture lacked in action, however, it more than made up for in the way of a soundtrack. The use of a synthesizer for the V’ger leitmotifs was pioneering for the 1970s, and Jerry Goldsmith’s majestic opening theme ended up serving as the theme tune for all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Goldsmith, who won an Academy Award in 1977 for his work on The Omen, would go on to provide the scores for four more films in the Star Trek franchise, including Star Trek: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: First Contact.

The audio, too, gets a comprehensive clean-up, with the new release boasting surround sound in Dolby Atmos. The Star Trek: The Motion Picture 4K physical edition is slated for release on September 6, 2022.