Star Trek: The Motion Picture reunited the original cast of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan for an adventure that found the U.S.S. Enterprise seeking to save Earth from a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud known as V’Ger. Unfortunately, in the race to get the film to theaters, director Robert Wise wasn’t able to complete it to his satisfaction. Decades later, Wise was able to oversee a well-received director’s cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and a 4K restoration of that cut will reportedly debut on Paramount+ next month.
According to The Digital Bits, the 4K restoration of Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition will make its exclusive streaming debut on Paramount+ on April 5th with Dolby Atmos audio. Now, nothing has been officially confirmed via Paramount just yet, but a trailer did leak yesterday that highlighted the release. If the trailer is officially released soon, we’ll update this post. I’d imagine that we will see a physical release of the 4K restoration at some point, but that all depends on how long the exclusive streaming window will last.
So why has it taken so long to bring Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition into the realm of high-definition? Well, one of the biggest changes to the director’s edition of the film was the addition of new and redesigned CG effects, and although they fit pretty seamlessly into the DVD release, they were only rendered in standard definition. Those standard definition effects obviously wouldn’t work on Blu-ray, let alone 4K, so it took a long time before Paramount was willing to green light a 4K remaster of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. “The restoration will be undertaken by producer David C. Fein, restoration supervisor Mike Matessino, and visual effects supervisor Daren R. Dochterman, all of whom worked previously with director Robert Wise,” read the press-release last year. “The film will be prepared for presentation in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision™ high dynamic range (HDR) and a new Dolby Atmos® soundtrack. The restoration is expected to take 6-8 months and will launch with an exclusive window on Paramount+.” Although I wouldn’t count Star Trek: The Motion Picture as one of my all-time favourite Star Trek movies, I’ve grown to appreciate it more and more each time I watch it, so I can’t wait to check out this 4K restoration!