barry@ames-lm.UUCP (Kenn Barry) (06/26/84)
[************=8>:)]=8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] =8>:)] +------------------+-----------------+ Anyway, I knew there had to be someone else out there who liked ST:TMP besides me, I must admit when I saw it the first time I was simply awestruck...I really thought it was great, but then I felt guilty for liking it when all the critics said it was so awful...(the critics didn't like 2001 when it came out, either) Has anyone seen the "special extended version" of ST:TMP?? I got the tape of it, and it really improves the picture...(characters and continuity...all that) +-------------------+----------------+ I can offer you some comfort. I can't say I think ST:TMP is great, but I do agree that the critics were much too hard on it (and much too kind to ST:TWOK, incidentally). The opening scene with the Klingons is quite riveting, and the SFX work on V'ger toward the end of the film was absolutely incredible. It transcended the mere believability that most SFX aim for, and was a thing of great artistic beauty. I also give ST:TMP points for aiming higher than the two more recent ST films. Its cosmic plot continued the tradition of the series, "to boldly go where no man has gone before." The last two films have been more prosaic, concentrating on familiar features of the Star Trek universe, like Spock, Klingons, and Khan. I also recently acquired a tape of ST:TMP with the extra footage restored, and I agree it improves things. Without this footage, baldy's reference to her celibacy oath only made sense to those who had read the book. The added footage generally made the plot clearer, as well as giving us a longer look at some of the SFX. I guess I would rate ST:TMP slightly lower than ST:TWOK, overall, but only slightly. I liked both pictures, but I was also disappointed by them. I was really bothered by Khan in ST:TWOK. In "Space Seed" he was quite a classy villain, intelligent and cultured; in ST:TWOK he seemed so irrationally possessed by his hatred for Kirk that he lost all charm, and no longer acted intelligently enough to be a worthy opponent. Did he cripple the Enterprise by cleverness? No. Instead we have Kirk stupidly neglecting to raise his shields when he's already been warned something is amiss with the Reliant. And at every turn we see Kirk's bacon saved by more obsessive silliness from Khan. It made me think one of Khan's little pets got into *his* ear one night, and ate most of his brains. As I have only seen ST:TSFS once, I am still making up my mind about it. I guess the bottom line is that the Trek movie *I* want to see hasn't been made yet. As far as I'm concerned, none of the films even comes close to equalling "City on the Edge of Forever". Kenn Barry NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Electric Avenue: {dual,hao,menlo70,hplabs}!ames-lm!barry