Star Trek: The Motion Picture

After Star Trek The Original Series gained new worldwide popularity as reruns in the 1970s, Paramount Studios (who owned the rights to Star Trek) decided to launch a new Star Trek TV series with the original cast sans Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

Production started on the series and then came the huge success of the first Star Wars movie.

The decision was made to make a big budget Star Trek film. Only this time ALL of the original cast signed on-including Leonard Nimoy.

Everything, including the Enterprise and sets had to be re-designed to meet cinema standards for filming. Television at the time did not require high-resolution images while films did.

That movie: Star Trek: The Motion Picture would be the launching point for numerous Star Trek films, TV series and more. Star Trek lives!

Both my wife and I went to the premiere of the movie and were excited to see the original cast back in action.

We were a little shocked when the new soundtrack played, when we saw radically different crew uniforms and the re-designed starship Enterprise.

The movie looked fantastic but it lacked the up-close-and personal feel of the original series. Updates were inevitable-but the film radically changed some things too much-such as the uniforms and some of the technology.

We liked the film, but went away a little disappointed.

In authors Jeff Bond and Gene Kozicki’s book: Star Trek The Motion Picture Inside The Art & Visual Effects, published by Titan Books, readers get an inside look at how the blockbuster film was created.

As I mentioned before everything had to be upgraded for the Silver Screen.

Sets, costumes, weapons, equipment, technology, models, lighting and visual and practical effects took a veritable army to prepare and create-given the film’s tight release date deadline.

The massive hardbound book features a wraparound dust cover with the movie poster art on the front and spot varnished production photos on the back.

Interior pages are dull-gloss paper that gives the gloss photos a nice punch.

Informative and highly-detailed and technical text explain the various stages of the film’s progress as well as offering some personal insights from the production crew.

Concept drawings, costume development, set dressings and design, character designs (including a new look for the Klingons) and starship miniatures and practical and digital effects are all covered in great detail.

Behind the camera set photos, cast photos and the design of V-ger are also included.

It’s an impressive collection of photos, art and text that delves deeply into making a landmark film.

I especially enjoyed seeing the set photos, technology designs and the process by which the model starships and space craft were filmed and photo composed.

Deuteronomy 31:6 - Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.