Did He Boldly Go?

 1979 must have seemed the perfect time for a big-screen adaptation of Star Trek. Afterall, it was only two years after the phenomenal success of Star Wars which proved that Science Fiction could make money at the box office. Frightening to think, isn’t it, that there are people out there who view Star Wars only as an indicator of financial success? And, considering that 8 of the 10 biggest grossing movies of all time are Science Fiction films, it is kind of strange to think there was a time when studio execs needed such reassurance. 

Worryingly, however, more than anything, this situation seems to show a complete lack of understanding of film by those studio bosses. Who, in their right mind, would green light a film like Star Trek: The Motion Picture based on the receipts of a film that was more Western than Science Fiction? Hadn’t they read the script? Of course, if they had the TV series more in mind (rather than the actual film released), maybe they can be excused a little. At least, they could be if they hadn’t then appointed Robert Wise as director.  

Purely by chance, it seems, Robert Wise turned out to be the perfect choice as director of this particular incarnation of Star Trek. Wise has an impressive track record as a director, which includes the likes of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Sound of Music (1965) and (one of my favourite Steve McQueen movies) The Sand Pebbles (1966). He also has earlier experience in the genre with the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and The Andromeda Strain (1971). With such genre success behind him, how could Wise not be the right choice for the big-screen adaptation of Star Trek? 

There are two points that should catch one’s attention even from such a cursory overview of the great man’s career.  

Interjection: I must point out that I am more than a couple of years past my Sixtieth birthday. I reveal this tidbit so as to alleviate any concerns over what I am about to say about Robert Wise (a director for whom I have the utmost respect). 

In 1979, the year Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released, Robert Wise was 65 years old. Keeping in mind the peculiar zeitgeist of the Seventies, that this was the decade which gave us Scorsese, Ashby and Spielberg as well as what is now derisively termed the Summer Blockbuster and one is left wondering if Robert Wise was indeed the best man for the job? Not forgetting, of course, that this was to be a Seventies adaptation of a Sixties phenomenon and Mr Wise looks less and less ideal. Certainly, if one was hoping to capture the spirit of the original TV show and transition it into a successful franchise for the soon-to-dawn Eighties, the choice seems at least somewhat odd. 

This latter point seems to have dictated the popular response to the film. Which in turn seems to have had a significant impact upon those studio execs who found themselves having to perform an about-turn for the sequel Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982).  

The second of my points is that Robert Wise was absolutely the right choice as director of The Motion Picture if it was the intention to transform Science Fiction fluff from the 60s into high-brow cinema for the next generation. While he was more than capable of injecting warmth and personality into his movies – as evidenced by The Sound of Music, for example – as a director of Science Fiction, Robert Wise was something of an auteur. Star Trek: The Motion Picture fits very well into the oeuvre of the man who directed The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Andromeda Strain, both of which, while being accessible to a popular audience, contain some fairly philosophical questioning of the human condition. One could almost package these films as The Robert Wise Sci-Fi Trilogy. 

Robert Wise may well have thought that this was his opportunity to turn a Trek into an Odyssey. Certainly, his Star Trek has more in common with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey than it does with the TV show from which it sprang. One limitation of making a TV show in the 60s was the matter of size. Never do we really gain an idea of just how big the starship Enterprise would need to be to house a crew 430, nor do we ever get a sense of the immensity of the space through which it boldly goes. This is something that Kubrick is able to convey in his 1968 film and which Wise goes out of his way to convey in The Motion Picture. More than this, however, both films ask about human origins and what it means to be homo sapiens sapiens. Just as he did with the other two films in his “Sci-Fi trilogy”, Wise demonstrates his ability to take what might appear to be popcorn and turn it into caviar.  

Going out on a limb, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture is hands down the best instalment of the entire franchise. Unlike Roger Ebert, I like the juxtaposition of these familiar characters and the defamiliarised Trek universe in which they are placed. For all Wise’s emphasis of size and strangeness, the presence of these characters reassures the viewer that not only is it navigable – these are the people who spent five years boldly going out there, after all – it is also, ultimately, understandable – if only to the extent we need to comprehend before we can solve. This might not be full understanding, but it does not need to be. Jim Kirk’s intuition is often more valuable than Spock’s logic precisely because it has never been necessary for humans to fully understand in order to comprehend. This goes to the very heart of V’ger’s quest. Being a machine – albeit a “living” one – V'ger lacks this ability to intuit its origins so, like Mary Shelley’s creature in Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818), it throws a tantrum and destroys everything in its path.  

For all this destructive power, V’ger is quite limited in its very being. Spock is wrong when he says that V’ger’s “knowledge has reached the limits of this universe”. Rather, its knowledge has reached the limits of its understanding. As a “living” being, V’ger has the power of creation (for want of a better word) and, like all creators, creates in its own image. Hence Lieutenant Ilia is made over in V’ger’s idea of life. Only by incorporating the human in the form of Capt Will Decker is V’ger’s evolution possible.  

While it is true to say that the plotting of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is hardly original, it is just as accurate to say that this is Robert Wise’s - as opposed to Gene Roddenberry’s - Star Trek and, seen from that perspective, the film quite easily is both a truly entertaining Science Fiction film and one of the best transformations of TV into film.  

In the end, then, for my money, Robert Wise was the perfect choice for this film.