Celluloid Heroes

Day four of my own little Robert Wise Film Festival

It’s life, Captain, but not life as we know it.

The most common complaint about the more recent Next Generation Star Trek movies is that they seemed more like run-of-the-mill TV episodes shot on a big-screen budget. While a valid criticism, this is most literally true of this first cinematic outing for Gene Roddenberry’s then-cult television hit.

The plot for Star Trek: The Motion Picture borrows liberally from the original series episode called “The Changeling,” about a space probe named Nomad that comes back, vastly enhanced by some alien race and programmed with a low tolerance point for human imperfection. At the time of its release, some wag retitled the film, “Where Nomad Has Gone Before.”

The similarity to an existing story is only one weakness. (more…)