Star Trek Magazine – July 2019

03 Froman

approaching

shuttle,Kirk

feastshiseyes

ontherefitted

Enterprise.

04 Ilia,Spock,

Kirk,Decker,

andSuluon

thebridge.

05 TheMotion

Picture

Enterprise

forward...

06 ...andaft.

Th ree decades later, Abrams paid

suitable homage. He may not have been

aStar Trek fan, but an early memory

ofseeing Th e Motion Picture on the

Paramount lot clearly baked in the

essential epic elements that big screen

StarTrek needs. When the cadets of

hismovie – the still-green Kirk, Bones,

andUhura, plus a more seasoned

Spock – commenced their own shuttle

connection to the Enterprise under crisis

conditions, the camera lingered on the

still-new Starfl eet fl agship. Sweeping

majestically around the vessel, it allowed

us to see the subtle changes in design

from the original Enterprise – the bigger,

fatter nacelles, the swooping contours

of their pylons – contextualized and

fetishized by the wide-eyed admiration

of her (future) captain, all underscored

by Michael Giacchino’s rousing,

symphonic music emphatically stating

that this was the real star of the movie.

It was the heart of the fi lm, and the

connective tissue to Th e Motion Picture.

Th e adulation continued in both

movies – because the next thing the

audience needed to see was the bridge:

aretwoverydifferentmoviesintone
andintent:oneserious,arguably
slow,pretentious,andself-important,
butbrimmingwithbigideasand
delectablesciencefiction;theothera
jaunty,fun,bombasticspaceadventure
hellbentonentrancinga younger
audience.Butbothbrilliantlyfitted
theirmomentanddidtheirjob.Star
Tr e kwasback– twice.

“This is analmosttotally
newEnterprise!”
AstheSeason1 finaleofDiscovery
demonstrated,themostpowerful
toteminStarTrekis theU.S.S.
Enterprise. Wheneveranyincarnation
oftheNCC-1701showsup– but
especiallytheoriginal,itsA sister,or
Doffspring– it immediatelyenergizes
anyspin-off. Forthemovies,it’sflat-
outessential.
AStarTrekmoviemusthavethe
Enterprise– andthatmoviehastolove
thatship.This wasacknowledgedby
J. J. AbramsonhisDVDcommentary
whenheexplainedthattherevealof
the“new”Enterpriseinhis 2009 film
wasa directtributetothe“amazing”
(andnearlysixminuteslong!)shuttle
sequencefromThe MotionPicture.
ThatMotionPicturesequence
performedtwofunctions:it wasa
lovelettertotheEnterprise, allowing
WilliamShatnertodosomeofhis
bestemoting;andit wasa statement
ofscale,a showcasefortopdrawer
VFX– thatStarTrekwasready
andabletogotoe-to-toewithStar
Wars,CloseEncountersof theThird
Kind,Superman, and(importantly)
2001:A SpaceOdyssey. It wasa
straightforward“lookhowbeautiful
thisshipis now!”backedupbythe
majestyofJerryGoldsmith’sscore,
movingfromsmallandflightytofull
triumphalfanfare– a slower-tempo,
weightierrenditionofwhatwould
becomewidelyknownasthetheme
tunetoThe NextGeneration.

Theparallelsbetween

J. J. Abrams’StarTrek

(2009)andRobertWise’s

StarTrek:TheMotion

Picturearestriking.

03

YESTERDAY’S ENTERPRISE