Ideas and Suggestions for :Star Trek The Motion Picture (True Fan Edit) — Page 15

FanFiltration said:

And what happened to the guy in the window? I take it that the person in the window is standing on the gang plank just inside the door, so why is he not there when Kirk and Scott walk onto the Enterprise? Where did he vanish to? It's not the young officer that greets Kirk. We clearly see him arrive in the turbo lift.

Yeah, I circled him in yellow because he looks too big for the window, and yeah, he's not there when they arrive.  Maybe he scampered off.  He doesn't look like he belongs, just staring out at the approaching Admiral. ;-)

If there's a single disc DVD of the TMP theatrical cut out there, I'd like to see a photo of it. Maybe you're thinking of TWOK?

The DE came out last, then Paramount remastered/reissued all the sequels in chronological order as two disc sets. Several of the early single disc sets were from non-anamorphic LD masters.

When TMP came out on tape in the mid 80's it was only the "Special Longer Version", adding about 12 minutes.  The LD was the same as this version.  This was only pan-n-scan.  The theatrical cut didn't become available until 1991.  That was when they finally released the films in Letterbox in the 1-5 box set that came out as part of the promotional run-up to Trek 6 hitting theaters that December.

I'm glad there wasn't a DVD I missed out on then!

The LDDB says the theatrical cut was out on LD in 1981. I'm pretty sure I saw  VHS and Beta copies around before the SLV replaced it after '83. Paramount kept the catalog numbers the same.

The story circulating at the time the Letterbox LD's came out was that Robert Wise preferred the theatrical version. It was also rumored that the footage added to the 1983 ABC broadcast, (which became the SLV on video) had been tossed, making a widescreen version impossible.

Imagine the surprise when all those extra scenes popped up on disc 2 of the DE in widescreen!

SilverWook said:

I'm glad there wasn't a DVD I missed out on then!

The LDDB says the theatrical cut was out on LD in 1981. I'm pretty sure I saw  VHS and Beta copies around before the SLV replaced it after '83. Paramount kept the catalog numbers the same.

The story circulating at the time the Letterbox LD's came out was that Robert Wise preferred the theatrical version. It was also rumored that the footage added to the 1983 ABC broadcast, (which became the SLV on video) had been tossed, making a widescreen version impossible.

Imagine the surprise when all those extra scenes popped up on disc 2 of the DE in widescreen!

And I hope you have seen my personal restoration of the SLV version, now in letterbox format for the first time ever.

O.k., we need some ideas on how to better end this turd. The way this film ends is so obscure.  I think that the writers had a very difficult time trying to come up with a way to communicate what was happening to Decker and the Ilia Prob at the end. Any ideas how to better end this film? I'm starting to lose enthusiasm knowing that no matter how hard we try, this sucker is going to end badly.    

Bingowings said:

I rather like the ending but if you want a more ballsy action packed coda why not have V'ger send a signal to the machine planet (basically telling them Carbon Unit+Machine = World of cool) and cut to a Borg Cube being built in orbit.

You know, that would be kind of neat.

Edit: My friend just told me that is how Star Wars Episode III ended.

The only problem with that is there's ample evidence from TNG and First Contact that the Borg were around centuries before the events of TMP.

How about a closeup of a Borg style display with V'Gers transmission being intercepted/received, combined with the opening shot from FC of the massive Cube interior? Picard would have to be erased from the shot somehow...

Is there any way to morph the starchild from 2010 into a Decker/Ilia/V'Ger hybrid? ;)

Not sure on the ending.  I think the vague 2001-esque ending works well enough.  They join, they evolve to a higher plane of existence.  I'm not sure we need teasers or anything attached it it.

I found some incredible work I had to share with you guys.  I've been lurking on scifi-meshes.com, seeing what people can do with enough CG, and then I found this:

TMP drydock scene

This guy recreated the E leaving drydock scene and it is incredible.  Jump directly to the video.

I looked for other stuff he's done, and he's made a 3D model of the flightdeck!  It's even to scale to the interior of the E.  With some further detailing so it better matches the live action plate, we might be able to use it.

I can't do anything with it, but others might.  It's available for download (along with other models, including the TMP Rec Deck, Engineering, and Bridge) here.  They are 3D Studio Max files, I believe.

I messaged him about his models, and he told me of a fan edit he is currently working on, a Star Trek V edit replacing every visual effect in the movie.  Some of this is incredible.  YouTube Channel

I'm not saying we should try replacing all of the effects, but someone theoretically could.

If we're worried about a confusing ending, how much more confusing will adding the Borg make it?  How can we make it clear that V'ger helped create the Borg?  I like the idea for maybe a post-credits sequence (looks like we're going to have a lot of pre/post credits stuff in this edit!).

Idea: add some kind of morse-code-like sound to the "V'ger Disappears" sequence, fading out as the E appears.  Then, after the credits, have that sound fade in as the music fades, then show a cube under construction or alone in space.  Signal stops suddenly, maybe have the picture cut at the same time.

If the sound is subtle enough in the main film, it might work!

Bingowings said:

Why not have V'ger launch a log probe while de-rezzing and as the coda see it whiz through space and fall into "what they used to call a Black Hole".

Then have a caption saying "In the 13th Century... Delta Quadrant " and show the probe exit a White Hole and enter the orbit of the Machine Planet (or you could even adapt the temporal distortion effect seen in First Contact.

The location and the time would be enough to link the data to the formation of the Borg and that the probe has fallen backwards in time.

You could add a Borg cube for added fan service if you want.

That would seem more like V'ger was creating itself.  The transmission can't go too far back in time, as then the machine planet would have the message BEFORE it got Voyager 6, which means they would already know how to try to achiever perfection and wouldn't have sent it on its way to

*HEAD EXPLODE*

Here's another crazy idea. Have one of the other Voyagers be captured and studied by whoever sent the probe to talk to the humpbacks in ST4. There are whales singing on that gold record after all. ;)

IIRC, the opening scenes of John Carpenter's Starman would have most of the footage needed.

I'd say leave the ending as is, aside from some minor tweaks for pacing or continuity, if necessary.  The films main problems are in the middle.  That's where it drags as they get into the cloud and s-s-l-l-o-o-w-w-l-l-y-y discover what V'Ger is.  If you can pick up the pace on some of the "gazing at the viewscreen" stuff and maybe some of the Decker/Ilia-probe interaction, that would help the film more than trying to re-engineer the ending.

wjaspers said:

The guy is standing in the hallway which is inbetween the flightdeck and the hull. That is why you see Kirk and Scotty entering a little passage, and why you do not see windows from the inside out.

That area of the ship is not referenced on the blueprints or the cutaway art as far as I can tell.  

Remember the link I gave to the CG model of the flightdeck and how it fits inside the E? That's the guy who made the model and fit it in there. :-)