Bingowings said:
I love TWOK but it feels more like a really good television episode, TMP may be highly derivative of OS episodes (but so is TWOK) however it is more true to the mission statement of Star Trek, exploration.
V'ger may be a threat but the crew have to explore and investigate the alien technology and rationale of V'ger, something that's lacking in pretty much every other Star Trek film.
The special edition of TMP I think got the balance between special effects and characterisation right.
Those long slow effects shots serve a purpose in the same way that the opening shot of ANH does.
Kirk is in love with The Enterprise (so we see him slowly caress her curves in the shuttle approach). The entrance into the cloud is like the approach to Castle Dracula, it's a bewildering alien environment and exactly the sort of thing the ship and the crew were assembled to investigate in the first place. Finally you have the survey of the V'Ger vessel which not only establishes how huge V'ger is in comparison to The (already shown huge on a human scale) Enterprise but also how unlike The Enterprise it is. If The Enterprise is Kirk's female love interest the V'ger vessel is a sharp gothic dragon a giant vampire bat. It is also a sign of Kirk's daring that he flies so close around it. If V'ger were a Klingon it would be like him walking around it and getting into a staring contest.
TMP is a much more cinematic experience than any of the other films (including the most recent which is pretty much a remake of Nemesis with much of the plot of ANH shoe-horned in, though Chris Pine did an amazing job with Kirk).
The Motion Picture is the most unmitigated crap.