[4K Ultra HD Review] ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition’; Now Available From Paramount

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition [4K Ultra HD]

Director: Robert Wise

Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

Release Date: September 6, 2022

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 9.5/10

Synopsis:

The U.S.S. Enterprise boldly debuted on the big screen with the cast of the original Star Trek series, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan.  Meticulously restored and remastered, with enhanced visual effects and state-of-the-art sound, this definitive vision of director Robert Wise has been optimized for a new generation of fans. When an unidentified alien intruder destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Admiral James T. Kirk (Shatner) returns to the helm of a newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command and confront an alien spacecraft of enormous power heading toward Earth.

Please Note: Paramount Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The big-screen debut ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ reunited fans with the cast of the original series for their first theatrical adventure which sees Admiral James T. Kirk return to the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise along with his original crew following an attack by an unknown species that destroys three powerful Klingon vessels. As Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew set out in the newly revamped Enterprise with some additional assistance, they quickly realize that they’re dealing with a force that they haven’t encountered before and that behaves in an odd and dangerously calculated manner.  Now, director Robert Wise’s remastered and enhanced ‘Director’s Edition‘ of the film comes home fully restored and remastered in 4K Ultra HD like you’ve never experienced it before.

‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ accomplished something truly rare by not only reviving a series from a decade prior that never seemed to get the budget or care it deserved, but by doing so in the form of a big screen film that also brought back the entire key cast including William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy on top of it. It also managed to be a success and lead to numerous sequels which at the same time helped to recruit a new era of fans while also providing the older fans with some fresh and much higher budgeted adventures. Yet, even with how remarkable the film happening alone may have been, what might be even more interesting is the fact that it took numerous decades after its initial release for the director to finally arrive at the vision he had intended. It may not be the finest of the original crew’s film adventures but it’s still an enjoyable film that does a capable job of revamping and reviving the series in a whole new and much bigger style that also lead to some truly great sequels (and of course a few slightly less beloved ones).

Now, ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition’ arrives home once again, fully restored and remastered with a spectacular Ultra High Definition video presentation featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10 and a Dolby Atmos soundtrack to further complement it, providing what is surely the best possible home experience that’s ever been made available for the movie. Just in case the remarkable new video and audio presentations might not be enough to excite some, the release also features hours of noteworthy extras on a dedicated Bonus Blu-ray disc which includes multiple all new extras paired with a number of previously released supplements. Fans of the franchise and the original film itself should be truly amazed by this outstanding release that brings the original big screen classic home like never before.

Overall, ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition’ flies home on 4K Ultra HD fully restored and remastered like you’ve never experienced it before. The new 4K UHD release brings home the original big screen classic with a stellar 4K Ultra High Definition video presentation featuring Dolby Vision and HDR-10 which is only further complemented by a great new Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Add to that a bonus disc that serves up hours of enjoyable extras including a number of brand new supplements exclusive to this release and fans of the film should be quite thrilled with what this new 4K UHD release has to offer. If you’re fully 4K capable and are a fan of the film and director Robert Wise’s updated Director’s Edition, then this release is highly recommended for anyone already considering a purchase. It provides a truly impressive offering that should be thoroughly appreciated by dedicated fans.

VIDEO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with Dolby Vision and HDR-10, presented in its original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks magnificent as a whole and provides a beautifully sharp, clean and marvelously detailed presentation from start to finish that never suffers from any unexpected faults or hiccups to be uncovered along the way. It holds up effortlessly even during the darkly lit and heavily populated moments, with nearly every detail down to facial and uniform specifics looking sharper than you might expect. The Dolby Vision addition only improves upon the already solid presentation and contributes a gorgeous color palette with almost blindingly bright light colors that are complemented by deep and seemingly endless blacks. Overall, this is a wonderful Ultra High Definition video presentation that is a real treat and it should easily thrill diehard fans as well as the more casual ones.

AUDIO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack. Please note that this review pertains solely to the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation. This multichannel soundtrack is quite spectacular itself and delivers a clean, crisp and surprisingly immersive audio presentation throughout. It constantly takes full advantage of all seven available channels in order to send the score, along with various ship noises, bits of crowd chatter and dialogue, along with a handful of action effects and plenty more regularly zipping throughout the various speakers, while still assuring that any dialogue or other audio elements that might occur simultaneously never become distorted or negatively affected along the way. Overall, this is a great Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) soundtrack that sounds even better than most will likely expect and it definitely shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition’ features a nice wealth of bonus material, all of which aside from the Commentaries can be found on the Blu-ray bonus disc included within.

The 4K UHD disc includes a few commentary options to accompany the feature. They include a new ‘Audio Commentary with David C. Fein, Mike Matessino, and Daren R. Dochterman’, along with an ‘Audio Commentary with Robert Wise, Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Jerry Goldsmith, and Stephen Collins​’, as well as ‘Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda’.

The Blu-ray ‘Bonus Disc’ included in the release is loaded with noteworthy extras and is separated into two sections: ‘New Features’ and ‘Legacy Features’ which I’ve broken down by section below.

The ‘New Features’ on the Bonus Disc include the 8-part Behind the Scenes Documentary ‘The Human Adventure’ (running approximately 48 minutes in length altogether) which includes Interviews/comments with individuals involved in the Director’s Edition process and others, along with behind the scenes footage and more. We are also treated to a few newly discovered ‘Deleted Scenes’ from the movie (running approximately 4 minutes combined), plus ‘Effects Tests’ (approximately 3 minutes), ‘Costume Tests’ (5 minutes) and ‘Computer Display Graphics’ (3 minutes).

The ‘Legacy Features’ on the Bonus Disc include numerous Featurettes including ‘Phase II: The Lost Enterprise’ (running approximately 12 minutes), ‘A Bold New Enterprise’ (approximately 30 minutes), ‘Re-Directing the Future: Making Star Trek The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition ’ (14 minutes), ‘The Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture’ (11 minutes), ‘Special Star Trek Reunion’ (9 minutes), ‘Starfleet Academy Scisec Brief 001: Mystery Behind V’Ger’ (4 minutes), ‘The New Frontier: Resurrecting Star Trek’ (30 minutes) and ‘Maiden Voyage: Making Star Trek The Motion Picture’(29 minutes). Also included are ‘Additional Scenes: 1979 Version’ (roughly 30 minutes altogether), and ‘Deleted Scenes: 1983 TV Version’ (approximately 8 minutes combined). ‘Storyboards’ for ‘Vulcan’, ‘Enterprise Departure’, and ‘V’Ger Revealed’ are also included, along with the ‘Teaser Trailer’ (2 minutes), ‘Theatrical Trailer’ (2 minutes) and ‘8 TV Spots’ (4 minutes altogether) for the movie.

*Please note: The above stills were not taken by us from the actual 4K Ultra HD release. A standard Blu-ray copy of the film was not included in the release therefore the above 4K publicity stills were utilized. They are all the property of Paramount Pictures and any other respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 9.5/10

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‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD from Paramount Home Entertainment

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