I think it is a very good cerebral story, very reminiscent of roddenberry trek before the action film took over. Alan Dean Foster wrote the original script for the then star trek phase II t.v. series, called "in thy image". He got the idea from the classic episode with the robot called nomad. roddenberry's idea for the first star trek to be about going back in time to stop the assination of j.f.k., or his script "the man thing" where kirk meets god, never happened. But i think some of the religious overtones of the first movie, and star trek V were liberally borrowed from his ideas for the first film.

Anybody out there who does'nt know who alan dean foster is? he wrote the novelization for the first film of the star wars trilogy.