That's exactly how I feel about this film, and one of the reasons I love it. I think there was definitely some influence from Ridley Scott's Alien which was just before this and also made space seem forbidding and dangerous, even before the Alien shows up.
It really is a shame that Star Trek was not able to carry that feeling into future projects. Combining the majest of Starfleet/The Enterprise with the depths of the unknown. This particular "version" of Star Trek has been left largely unexplored outside of this film.
That was the beauty of the TOS/Film era. Much of what would become TNG UFP was still largely unexplored around this time and would not become "Familiar" for around another 80 years of exploration. Now do not get me wrong. The TNG/DS9 era was great and Voyager brought back the exploration of unfamiliar territory and meeting new races. Voyager was one huge 1st Contact mission to be sure.
@Cary Groneveldt I was disapointed to see that the universal translator display and audio were removed in the director's cut. It added a cool insight into the Federation's intel technology. I don't know why the directed wanted it left out.
Remember, before this move the only thing of Star Trek had been the original tv series. This opening scene with the sweeping camera long shot lingering over the Klingon battleships, the Klingon theme music, the eerie blue unknown structure and its strange metallic clanging music, the ship disintegration (rather than explosion) effect... this scene delivered everything that science fiction fans waited for!
Yes, I concur, JG's Klingon Theme is perhaps the MOST Badass music since and including Basil Pollydoris on the original Conan the Barbarian. (sorry for any mis-spelling)
Actually, Goldsmith DID invent Klingon music. There was no Klingon-specific music in TOS. This was the first attempt at a Klingon theme and Goldsmith hit the ball out of the park. Absolutely MASTERFUL, but then, he's Goldsmith, so what else could we expect?
Yes indeed. Some of the notes within the use of this music piece gives off a sense of urgency to match the scene and those same notes almost resonating the unfortunate fate to come for these Klingons.
I always forget he is the one who conceived the Klingon theme. Wrath of Khan is in the top 10 greatest soundtracks Just one funky synth seafaring pirate themed space track after another
Someone needs to sit the “Star Trek Discovery” developers down and force them to watch this clip. Explain to them what Klingons look and act like. They don’t look like poorly-painted Orc rejects.
“In case Signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no Captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.” - Lord Nelson
That's Mark Lenard as the Klingon Captain! So he played representatives of the three major alien races in ST, having been a Romulan Commander, and of course Spock's Vulcan dad Sarek.
When this movie came out in December 1979, afterward seeing it the first time I saw it again about a dozen more times. Once, at a theater in Bossier City, Louisiana, during this scene the projector power went out for about 30 seconds; right on cue everyone howled in protest throughout the theater before power was restored. The audience REALLY wanted to see this scene without any interruptions!
and the ships actually manage a sense of scale, not zipping about like a fighter-plane but moving like heavy objects... these battlecruisers move like warships! And that bridge is more of a conning tower, lovely that. the separate gunnery stations and the secondar monitor under the big one, and generally the whole feel... this is a massive warship, that's clearly the impression. Not to mention the fanfare that was so great that they re-used it all the way through first contact and DS9
The Bridge is the football shaped object in front while the sensor tower is right behind it with the red windows, it looks like a round tank that you see in a refinery plant.
I can't praise the aesthetic enough either! The other thing that I do not like about current Trek is how the CGI gives the communications panels, screens and computers this fully interactive and digital look. In other words, it does not look futuristic but like something that the audience wishes for or even little bit like a current PC or Smart Phone. Where as in old Trek, I love how not only does the inside of the bridge look like part of a set that was physically built, but the screens, panels and computers seem difficult to understand. In other words they are something other worldly. I really appreciate because it truly makes the Klingons look alien, the future too far away to grasp and adds to the SciFi feel. The only thing that seems a tad silly is the mist, but who is to say that the Klingons breathe the same gasses that humans do?
@mikeoyler2983 Or maybe they too lazy to fix leaks? "PLUMBING IS NOT A JOB FIT FOR A WARRIOR!" (Lol)😂 And I totally agree with you on the aesthetic. These are, and starfleet are, before anything else, a Navy, and when you look at ANY government equipment, ESPECIALLY for the military, they make it so complicated that it takes LOTS of dedicated training to use, and most common folk couldn’t figure it out to save their lives.
IKR?!? Ships after the films ALWAYS FEEL light and paper thin. Because everything that is BIG always seems slower to human scaled perception, when something is slow, it makes it easier to see something as BIG when it moves slowly. And I feel like in all the original series films, the ships FEEL like BIG SHIPS because their movement has weight to it. These Klingon ships FEEL like deadly 2-300 meter monsters because they seem to move slowly, and even with the federation ships in like "Undiscovered Country", they still have weight to them, but it is also more believable (at least to me) that they WOULD be more nimble because the federation has a (generally) superior technology then the klingons, and they focus more on shielding then armor.
@@TFZ. They never managed that so well after this scene... these ships feel like Dreadnoughts, like Battleships of the World Wars, not like some silly scifi-fighter zipping about like a WWI biplane. They never managed to get the feeling of massive-ness just loiek this ever again. Enterprise was a heavy cruiser in the lore... and she feels like it in ST. VII, aws do the Klingon Battlecruisers. Here they feel like massive warships, staffed by hundreds of people and weighing thousands of tons, and the impact of that is beautiful. The hundreds of the crew, the massive warships, wiped out by VGER in seconds, it's like "Balance of Terror" with the Romulans having a submarine in space. I miss those days of Trek.
It's hard to put into words the impact this had on us back then when this first came out. I mean...literally, all that there was before this was the original show from the 60s and some cartoon episodes! Seeing Star Trek with Star Wars level effects, the new look of the Klingons, hearing their language for the very first time, and then the terrifyingly ambiguous threat of V'ger....Mind blowing is putting it mildly. How I miss these days!!!
It was a remake of Nomad from TOS. And despite what people say the special effects were not that great. The Golden Gate Bridge was a painting on a studio wall, and Vulcan looked like a chemical pot. With a giant moon in the sky painted on a studio wall (of course) when Spock had told the crew on TOS that Vulcan had no moon.
This entire scene in a large theater with good sound was next level cinema for the era - it still holds up. Always loved the tilt, turn, and roll to follow shot of the Klingon Battlecruiser. This and Spock's foray into V'ger - some fantastic special effects. Hearing Klingon for the first time was pretty cool.
Great scene and I love the fact that the lead Klingon ship’s torpedo tube has burn marks on it. Shows what an aggressive species they are. The ol’ shoot first and ask questions later mentality
Interesting bits of trivia: Mark Lenard, aka Spock's father Ambassador Sarek, plays the Klingon Captain. The Klingon dialogue was written by James Doohan, i.e. he created the Klingon words used to express the dialogue originally written in the script. The actor playing Commander Branch was originally hired to play Spock's replacement Xon when TMP was still going to be the TV series Star Trek II.
Don't forget Mark Leonard played the Romulan commander (first ever seen in Trek) in TOS 'Balance of Terror' based loosely on 'Enemy Below' the Robert Mitchum /Kurt Jurgens US destroyer vs U Boat classic flick.
I don't understand why the director's cut removed the translator audio and text screen. I doubt Starfleet personnel would be fluent in Klingon at that time.
The book version explained that the Federation was intercepting the Klingon's transmission. A UFP sensor drone managed to move into the Klingon formation (unnoticed) and was providing the exterior view.
I watched this movie when I was seven years old and those deep bass-ey tones when they showed that energy cloud haunted me in my nightmares for weeks, and oddly enough I'd watch it again and again. Whoever did the score to this movie, kudos!
The bar was set high with this opening scene... one of the best opening scenes in the history of cinema.. I saw this on a big screen in the seventies and it was mindboggling.. Star Wars was still fresh on everybody's mind.. and the expectation of this movie was intesnse.. I wish they had put more of the fighting scenes the movie.... the audience would have left the movie drained and wanting more...
Too bad the rest of the movie was so flat. The characters of the crew didn't have the commraderie of TOS, and I thought they made too many changes from TOS. The special effects were not that great. The Golden Gate Bridge was an obvious painting on a studio wall, and Vulcan looked like a chemical pot. With a giant moon when Spock stated Vulcan has no moon in TOS. Terrible acting, terrible story. Copied out of Nomad in TOS. I find it puzzling that a ship under retrofitting was the only available Star Ship to defend the Earth? I mean no other ships available?
Yes for a first Star Trek movie the lack of combat was disappointing but they sure made up for it in Wrath Of Khan which has some of the best Star Trek battles ever.
@@DylansPenYes, except they forgot one thing Star Trek had that separated it from other franchises. In Star Trek TOS the ships almost always engaged in combat at warp speed, in fact it was the preferred mode of combat. (See the episode "Eylaan Of Troyus"). In the "Wrath Of Khan" the ships only fought at sublight speed.
@@LSOK38kahn was ambushing enterprise at impulse and crippled her enough to prevent a warp maneuver battle he would have lost, due to being a novice. Its a shaky justification but hey....
Go to warp to escape even after two of our finest ships were evaporated before our very eyes? Never! Keep firing until we die which we obviously will! Yay!
@@gmork1090 They were at warp the entire time. They HAD to be, because V'GER was traveling at warp when they encountered it. V'GER didn't drop out of warp until it entered the Solar System and encountered the Enterprise.
I remember watching this in the cinema with my oldest brother in 1978 it was the 3rd science fiction film I ever saw in the cinema and the one that made me love Star Trek. For those who are interested, the 1st film was Logan's Run, and the 2nd was Star Wars.
This scene still stands out as a movie great that even modern methods can’t really improve. Together with the movie score, for me, it doesn’t get better. Flawless
Mom and Dad took my sister and I to see this in 1979. This was my first exposure to Star Trek as I was only 6 years old at the time. This sequence was my favorite part of the movie, but everything afterwards I couldn’t wrap my brain around. V’Ger itself was far beyond my then level of comprehension.
A shot accomplished, to be fair, with a second, much larger-scale model than was used elsewhere in the scene. Same for the close view on the nacelle later in the sequence.
Iconic opening for Star Trek TMP that cemented the idea that Star Trek could work on the big screen. Really ushered in a new era. Wonderful stuff here.
I imagine fans who saw this in theatres when it came out were confused as to why the Klingons had forehead ridges as the ones in the Original series didn't.
@@girlgarde Nah. We understood intuitively that this is what they looked like all along, and that the movie had enough money to show it. Same with the additional fantastic detailing on the battlecruiser. It wasn't 'old Klingon' vs 'new Klingon', or D-7 vs. K'tinga class; it was TV budget vs movie budget. Nothing more. Of course in the intervening decades anal-retentive fans had plenty of time to make stuff up, LOL.
Great scene. I remember being impressed at the time (1979) with the cuneiform-style writing coming up on the Klingon read-outs. I also recall feeling like I was on board with them during the attack.... I took the whole thing very seriously.
I've really leaned to respect this movie a lot over the years. It wasn't a huge fan favorite but the more I watch it now the more I like this film. It really is very well produced.
Agreed; a couple of years after the movie came out, I was able to afford my first VHS recorder/player (it was a General Electric top loading machine) and rented the movie from a mom/pop video store in the small town I lived at; after watching it a few times, I decided to purchase that VHS rental to keep for myself; the owner was astonished that I would gladly buy a used VHS movie outright. No need to mention that I'd rewatched it countless times. It even included a few scenes shot that was cut from the theater version. And yes, I still have that VHS movie.
Yes the old optical effects and models have aged far better than early CGI effects for example. Just look at the final battle of Return of the Jedi for example even though reportedly the Industrial Light & Magic crew got PTSD from making it.
@@donarthiazi2443 You're out of your mind. The SFX in ST:TMP was hugely superior to TOS. It was ten years later and absolutely state of the art in 1979, using new techniques never done before. And BTW, movie tickets in 1979 averaged $2.50 for new big releases. You could see matinee showings of older films for a buck in many places.
I remember seeing this at the movies. I was around 8 or 9. It was very, very big on the screen. The way it was shot made you feel so small next to the action and the vast emptiness of space. Amazing storytelling.
I remember watching this opening scene as a kid and being mesmerized on how menacing and lethal those Klingon ships looked with their poisonous snake command decks with those struts in command center.
Blame editing. To speed the process, directors have the action scenes cut to a "test track." Then the composer has to write "new" music to match the existing editing based on the "test track." That stifles creativity. In the past, the composer made the soundtrack and then the editors cut the action to match the cadence and emphasis of the soundtrack. Consider the destruction of the Death Star in "SW IV", and how the orchestra hits the perfect note. It was cut to match the music.
4:08 YES! YES! This clip has the original V'ger torpedo sound effects!! Every other release changed the torpedo's sound to a harsh shriek instead of this hauntingly hollow wail.
The best scene in the film and the best theme of any of the series!Just awesome in every way!! It blows me away every time I watch it! The awesome power of the cloud and the vessel hiding beneath it.
TMP was a great film overall, but it was made for existing Star Trek fans who had been waiting ten years for a movie to be made, and other fans of serious science fiction, and was received by them very enthusiastically. Most of us thought it was magnificent in almost every aspect. The problem was it was a too cerebral and had insufficient action for the general public. It was serious science fiction instead of space opera, and that's not the general public's cup of tea.
@Cary Groneveldt What I was saying is that it was only 'too cerebral" for the general public, not for Trekkers and other fans of serious science fiction. We thought it was awesome, even though it was essentially a greatly expanded remake of the TOS episode "The Changeling" (V'ger is a phenomenally souped-up version of Nomad). The basic plot is the same.
All true, it was a good story. However it was not the kind of film required the launch Trek into the big screen. Fortunately Khan came along next and saved the series.
As a kid, I about wore the grooves smooth for this piece on the soundtrack album. Bass cranked way up. And the absolute BEST photon torpedoes (and warp sequence) came from ST:TMP. Just awesome.
Fun Fact the flyover sequence from 0:15 to 0:40 is exactly what George Lucas wanted for ther scene in A New Hope where the X-Wings are approaching the Death Star and then open their wings, only he wanted the flyby from the side, but the FX camera operators couldn't figure out how to do it in time to finish the production schedule so the shot was scrapped until Lucas did the "special editions", however when John Dykstra who had a significant role in creating the FX in SW, was contracted to help finish this, he remembered the planned SW shot and they were able to figure out how to do it for the opening shot here, only overhead. So we get it here, but SW had to wait until it could be reimagined in CGI.
Yeah , the movie was sposed to be released Christmas 1976 but the effects weren't finished . They were way behind , because the stop-motion camera was brand new and it took hrs just typing everything in .
I never get tired of watching this scene. Those special effects were ahead of their time, for 1979. That music is unforgettable. Jerry Goldsmith was a legend. Despite its flaws, I still love this movie.
These special effects were not very good! 2001: A Space Odyssey was filmed in 1968 and the special effects in that movie were much better than this film. One example is when Admiral Kirk lands at Starfleet Command the Golden Gate Bridge is an obvious painting on a studio wall. That's The Wizard of Oz kind of special effects. The scene on Vulcan just looked terrible. I gave the movie a D+. The plot was taken from Nomad in TOS.
I love the evolution of the Klingons, from the original episodes (TOS) where they just looked human, then you notice these guys, their's no subtlety in their design, their head ridges are exactly the same, making them almost indistinguishable from each other. But later, from Star Trek 3, 5 and 6, the head ridges, lumps and bumps, are now finally personalised for each character, Undiscovered Country has a great variety, just look at General Chang, Chancelor Gorkon, and finally his daughter. And then later Worf. They've come a long way, such a great alien race, probably one of the best in the Star Trek universe.
I see so many people below asking why the Klingon's didn't go to warp. That is because they were already at warp, trying to keeping up with V'ger. I read the novel right before the movie came out back in 79 and it said the V'ger was moving so fast across the Klingon's space that these were the only ships that were able to respond.
No. And if that was supposed to be true, they did a TERRIBLE job at conveying that to the viewer, I don't care what's in the novel. I always just headcanoned it that they couldn't form a stable warp bubble so close to the anomaly. EDIT: This argument makes NO SENSE anyway. Even if it was at warp, all the Klingons would have to do then would be drop out of warp, or even just go Warp 1 in the other direction. The anomaly would be INSTANTLY gone and so would the projectile. I'll stick with my headcanon. 🤣
@@stab74 The book, written by Roddenberry, was a novelization of the screenplay and he apparently tried to backfill some details. I agree with you, it was unclear in the movie.
@@stab74 I go with you on that. I believe several times in shows they showed that a significantly strong enough gravity well keeps a ship from going to warp until they move far enough away. V'Ger was supposed to be like several A.U.'s in size, so there must be plenty of mass there for a strong gravity well.
The only time you ever see what the Bridge looks like on a Klingon battle cruiser. From Star Trek three on they mainly used the bird of prey in movies and series . There was a battle cruiser in Star Trek six but you didn’t see the bridge
@@billseely991 The TOS episode where he played a Romulan (before he was Spock's father) was called the Balance Of Terror. It was basically an homage to the movie The Enemy Below.
Great setup of the threat in this movie - showing the scale of the Klingon ships, showing the power of those torpedoes they fired and the threat just...swallows them and then disintegrates those same massive Klingon ships like they are nothing despite the Klingon best efforts, really illustrates what the cast will be up against without any long exposition.
I still remember seeing this movie with my dad in the theater. Awesome. I still love this movie and think it got a bad rap in the reviews. I do think that it should've been about 20 minutes shorter but this movie didn't deserve the beating that it got. Considering the pain and bloodletting during the making of it, it's actually amazing that it even made it to release. The special effects chief, Douglas Trumbull, came on in the middle of production, the movie was in trouble, and he poured his life into getting this movie back on track. He and his crew worked unbelievable hours for an extended time and lived on a lot of delivered fast food, coffee, and Mt. Dew. Immediately after he finished his work and delivered it, he was diagnosed with multiple ailments including gall stones, stomach ulcers, and extreme exhaustion. He spent two weeks in the hospital and took long enough in home rest and recovery that he almost missed the movie premier. Nobody can accuse this guy of not giving his all. Whatever they paid him, he earned every penny.
Yep. Proper intelligent and sophisticated Klingons before The Next Generation ruined them by turning them into barbaric savages obsessed only with war and honor.
One of the biggest, baddest aliens in sci-fi history, is the life form who achieved its prime directive, and defensive powers... on a cosmic scale, undreamt of. A living machine, whose cosmic powers and consciousness, were nothing short of godhood, in search of meaning. All hail, Vejur
Trivia of the day.......the bridge set for the IKS Amar here cost $175,000 to build.... that's $714, 163 in 2022 dollars!!! In addition, the scene was shot in postproduction, and due to the lighting involved Mark Leonard said shooting was unbearably hot in the thick Klingon makeup costumes.
Sort of like being a real Klingon in a real cruiser with a disgusting, hot recycled atmosphere, eh? That seemed to be the director's intent based on the dark, smoggy bridge...like being in a submarine where everybody smoked. Certainly not built for comfort!
That set was re-used for a decade, turning up as the photon torpedo bay on the Enterprise in Wrath of Khan, and several times as alien ship bridges in Next Gen.
Definitely my favourite scene in TMP, and except for the "new Klingons", was the most spectacular thing we had ever seen in Star Trek. For 43 years we have complained that The Trouble With Tribbles demonstrated that a Klingon can be mistaken for human.
Saw this upon release in 1980- the reason why it’s so spectacular is Jerry Goldsmiths film score Isaac Asimovs technical consultation and the Klingon battle ready red alert bridge and that language translation director Robert Wise made this one for all time . 👑💀👑💀
Even as a child, I found it strange that they didn't just flee with warp. This torpedo battle lasts what feels like an eternity. But for 1979 really good VFX! In my opinion one of the most abstract films in the series.
I like the grimy look these ships have. I loved when they fixed up Discovery season two, and bought the REAL D-7 back, only with even cooler weapons. I also like the more vintage and straightforward look the computer displays have in this one, and how that carried into the next couple films. I’ve heard they used TRS-80s for some scenes.
The Voyager program kicked some major ass, Ed Stone will be giving some amazing press conferences on the science collected after Voyager 6 downloads all its data to the DSN.
The goal was clearly to crush Star Wars opening sequence. Success. This was the best music, drama, and alien race language/makeup seen on screen to that time.
This is the best opening to any Star Trek movie. The V'Ger effect. The Klingon music. The K'Tingas. Just awesome. Unfortunately, it's also by far the best scene in this movie.
So good to finally find the original version. The 'enhanced' version on the later DVDs with all the added sound effects on the bridge and the deletion of the computer voiced narration just doesn't seem right.
I never noticed this. At 3:55, Mark Leonard is flung from his chair. It's the same move he used in Balance of Terror when he set the auto-destruct on the Romulan Bird of Prey. 😃
This really is great in my opinion, somehow I think, everything works here. The music, the SFX moviemaking as Robert said and all, actors also in my opinion. This is just... heh, sorry me laughing but I sometimes come "back" checking to see this scene and of course the movie itself is great also , but this... is well, take care all!, sometimes life is worth living. PS. Repeating this scene and thank you poster! Cheers ...
Almost perfect. The musical sting on a shot of the could after the scene on Epsilon 9 was clearly meant to be a dematerialized battleship, it just kinda hangs.
The only Star Trek film that has a dark, foreboding element to it. More psychological, intellectual and serious in tone. This is a very rare film made during a time when Hollywood more than accepted new ideas. Out of all the Star Trek films, I usually only watch TMP and Khan. They're timeless!
Its awesome, and eerie, but theirs no series that has a space battle that tops the Death Star 2 battle at Endor, I think Robotech does have a few that beats the first Death Star battle though.
I have a CD with this track on it. Coincidentally, it was timed to come on just as I was entering the onramp for I-5 N going to San Diego. Great score for freeway combat.😉😄
An exciting scene doesn’t have to be fist fights and exchange of phaser fire. What makes The Motion Picture exciting from start to finish is the suspense and the mystery.
@@stab74 What a shit take. And no a vast majority of people don’t think that obviously since TMP’s success led to the revival of the franchise. Without TMP there’d be no Wrath of Khan no The Next Generation and so on. Let me guess, your favorite Star Trek is the braindead alternate reality movies…
@@Woopaloops Everything took way too long, e.g. the flyby montage of the refitted Enterprise that took over five minutes - there's a reason the film got the moniker "The Slow Motion Picture"!
I love how at 2:25 after the Klingon commander looks at the screen he turns to his officer with a look of WTF? Shouldn't these photon torpedoes we just fired have hit something, and caused a response by now? Puzzled, the officer responds with a look on his face like, I don't know what to tell you sir?
That Klingon music has become one of the most iconic tracks in Star Trek history.
Agreed! I love the music too!!
Gooseflesh fuel
its one of those iconic pieces that as soon as it plays you know the klingons are coming lol unlike the other races who have random tunes
exactly how I’ve always imagined Klingons going into battle, with harps and snappy jazz fingers!
Listen to Jerry Goldsmith's score for the movie "The Wind and the Lion" and you will hear how his own work likely inspired the Klingon's theme.
Gotte love the Klingon attitude of just attacking anything unknown, even if it's a thousand times their own size.
Shoot 1st & ask questions later!
Klingon Philosophy: Shoot first, ask questions while shooting.
@@Jus7aguy Seriously. I know the Klingons are warriors by nature, but that kind of mentality makes me wonder how the heck did the Empire survive!
Warbirds
@@chrisconnors7327 A Klingon Bird of Prey can only do so much.
Later Trek series made space feel familiar, but in this movie, space feels alien and dangerous in ways we don't understand. I love it.
That's exactly how I feel about this film, and one of the reasons I love it. I think there was definitely some influence from Ridley Scott's Alien which was just before this and also made space seem forbidding and dangerous, even before the Alien shows up.
It really is a shame that Star Trek was not able to carry that feeling into future projects. Combining the majest of Starfleet/The Enterprise with the depths of the unknown. This particular "version" of Star Trek has been left largely unexplored outside of this film.
Exactly this.
That was the beauty of the TOS/Film era. Much of what would become TNG UFP was still largely unexplored around this time and would not become "Familiar" for around another 80 years of exploration. Now do not get me wrong. The TNG/DS9 era was great and Voyager brought back the exploration of unfamiliar territory and meeting new races. Voyager was one huge 1st Contact mission to be sure.
Almost like the sea
A truly magnificent piece of SFX moviemaking workmanship. Even after 40 years, still a thrilling scene, aided of course by the superb Goldsmith score.
@An Accessory to Mordor Yes, of course. That's exactly what was happening.
Yes,the music and instruments...pure imperial and .still gives me thrills to this day.
@Cary Groneveldt I was disapointed to see that the universal translator display and audio were removed in the director's cut. It added a cool insight into the Federation's intel technology. I don't know why the directed wanted it left out.
This film leaves me a little cold but this scene is just absolutely spine-tingling. A perfect five minutes of cinema.
Absolutely
Remember, before this move the only thing of Star Trek had been the original tv series. This opening scene with the sweeping camera long shot lingering over the Klingon battleships, the Klingon theme music, the eerie blue unknown structure and its strange metallic clanging music, the ship disintegration (rather than explosion) effect... this scene delivered everything that science fiction fans waited for!
Well said
There was also the animated series
the sound was some big coil spring they used.
Saw this at the cinema when it came out. The grandeur was impossible to put into words that mean anything now.
Indeed. I remember going to see Star Wars at the movies what it first came out in the late 70’s. Similar experience. Impossible to repeat now days.
So cool 3 klingon battlewagons getting their asses kicked !.
I can't even imagine how incredible the interior of V'ger must have looked on a big screen
3 friends of mine in high school skipped and went to Detroit to see the premier..lucky bastards
Hollywierd will never be able to exceed this.
love how true Klingons don’t mess around. Straight into attack mode.
Shoot first, say 'hi' later.
For all the good it did them.
@@MaskedMan66 ha true
Not to sure why the Klingon battle cruisers didn't jump to warp at the end🤔. Maybe seen as dishonourable if they didn't fight back?🤷
@@adriantindall2629 Or V'ger disrupted their systems before they could manage it.
Great sequence and it just goes so well with Jerry Goldsmith’s impressive score. He practically invented Klingon music.
Yes, I concur, JG's Klingon Theme is perhaps the MOST Badass music since and including Basil Pollydoris on the original Conan the Barbarian. (sorry for any mis-spelling)
Actually, Goldsmith DID invent Klingon music. There was no Klingon-specific music in TOS. This was the first attempt at a Klingon theme and Goldsmith hit the ball out of the park. Absolutely MASTERFUL, but then, he's Goldsmith, so what else could we expect?
Yes indeed. Some of the notes within the use of this music piece gives off a sense of urgency to match the scene and those same notes almost resonating the unfortunate fate to come for these Klingons.
Dykstra brilliance!!!!! Before CGI !!!!!
I always forget he is the one who conceived the Klingon theme. Wrath of Khan is in the top 10 greatest soundtracks
Just one funky synth seafaring pirate themed space track after another
Someone needs to sit the “Star Trek Discovery” developers down and force them to watch this clip. Explain to them what Klingons look and act like. They don’t look like poorly-painted Orc rejects.
What’s Star Trek Discovery 😜
@@braxxian The graveyard of Star Trek
just nuke them from orbit, only way to be sure
Klingons with no beards, how savage!
Augment virus.
Klingons: "It's huge and we don't know what it is, so let's just attack it. What could go wrong?"
We shall meet in Sto'vo'kor.
“In case Signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no Captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.”
- Lord Nelson
That's Mark Lenard as the Klingon Captain! So he played representatives of the three major alien races in ST, having been a Romulan Commander, and of course Spock's Vulcan dad Sarek.
To attack first is illogical and an emotional response
@@mikemickypeterdavy KLINGON: So what's your point?
@@MaskedMan66 it's something Sarek would say. Since Mark Lenard was both a Vulcan and a Klingon.
@@mikemickypeterdavy Yes, and I gave the Klingon's response. 🙂
He is a sorcerer, that one!
Jerry Goldsmith nailed the music.
Doesn't he always?
No matter how noisy the audience, the theater was always dead silence during this scene.
… some people, some things, simply command respect.
When this movie came out in December 1979, afterward seeing it the first time I saw it again about a dozen more times. Once, at a theater in Bossier City, Louisiana, during this scene the projector power went out for about 30 seconds; right on cue everyone howled in protest throughout the theater before power was restored. The audience REALLY wanted to see this scene without any interruptions!
and the ships actually manage a sense of scale, not zipping about like a fighter-plane but moving like heavy objects... these battlecruisers move like warships! And that bridge is more of a conning tower, lovely that.
the separate gunnery stations and the secondar monitor under the big one, and generally the whole feel... this is a massive warship, that's clearly the impression.
Not to mention the fanfare that was so great that they re-used it all the way through first contact and DS9
The Bridge is the football shaped object in front while the sensor tower is right behind it with the red windows, it looks like a round tank that you see in a refinery plant.
I can't praise the aesthetic enough either! The other thing that I do not like about current Trek is how the CGI gives the communications panels, screens and computers this fully interactive and digital look. In other words, it does not look futuristic but like something that the audience wishes for or even little bit like a current PC or Smart Phone. Where as in old Trek, I love how not only does the inside of the bridge look like part of a set that was physically built, but the screens, panels and computers seem difficult to understand. In other words they are something other worldly. I really appreciate because it truly makes the Klingons look alien, the future too far away to grasp and adds to the SciFi feel. The only thing that seems a tad silly is the mist, but who is to say that the Klingons breathe the same gasses that humans do?
@mikeoyler2983 Or maybe they too lazy to fix leaks?
"PLUMBING IS NOT A JOB FIT FOR A WARRIOR!" (Lol)😂
And I totally agree with you on the aesthetic. These are, and starfleet are, before anything else, a Navy, and when you look at ANY government equipment, ESPECIALLY for the military, they make it so complicated that it takes LOTS of dedicated training to use, and most common folk couldn’t figure it out to save their lives.
IKR?!? Ships after the films ALWAYS FEEL light and paper thin.
Because everything that is BIG always seems slower to human scaled perception, when something is slow, it makes it easier to see something as BIG when it moves slowly. And I feel like in all the original series films, the ships FEEL like BIG SHIPS because their movement has weight to it. These Klingon ships FEEL like deadly 2-300 meter monsters because they seem to move slowly, and even with the federation ships in like "Undiscovered Country", they still have weight to them, but it is also more believable (at least to me) that they WOULD be more nimble because the federation has a (generally) superior technology then the klingons, and they focus more on shielding then armor.
@@TFZ. They never managed that so well after this scene... these ships feel like Dreadnoughts, like Battleships of the World Wars, not like some silly scifi-fighter zipping about like a WWI biplane. They never managed to get the feeling of massive-ness just loiek this ever again. Enterprise was a heavy cruiser in the lore... and she feels like it in ST. VII, aws do the Klingon Battlecruisers. Here they feel like massive warships, staffed by hundreds of people and weighing thousands of tons, and the impact of that is beautiful. The hundreds of the crew, the massive warships, wiped out by VGER in seconds, it's like "Balance of Terror" with the Romulans having a submarine in space. I miss those days of Trek.
It's hard to put into words the impact this had on us back then when this first came out. I mean...literally, all that there was before this was the original show from the 60s and some cartoon episodes! Seeing Star Trek with Star Wars level effects, the new look of the Klingons, hearing their language for the very first time, and then the terrifyingly ambiguous threat of V'ger....Mind blowing is putting it mildly. How I miss these days!!!
It was a remake of Nomad from TOS. And despite what people say the special effects were not that great. The Golden Gate Bridge was a painting on a studio wall, and Vulcan looked like a chemical pot. With a giant moon in the sky painted on a studio wall (of course) when Spock had told the crew on TOS that Vulcan had no moon.
@@hamilton9651 In other words, it was glorious.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 If you say so ...
@@hamilton9651 It is glorious! End of story
This entire scene in a large theater with good sound was next level cinema for the era - it still holds up. Always loved the tilt, turn, and roll to follow shot of the Klingon Battlecruiser. This and Spock's foray into V'ger - some fantastic special effects. Hearing Klingon for the first time was pretty cool.
Took me a while before I realized the last Klingon ship gets another shot off right before it gets hit
Wait was there not 3 Klingon ships. Did not show what happened to the third ship. Saw this at Fountain Valley drive inn, in my 79 Plymouth Arrow!
I never noticed that either. Had to slow the play back speed all the way down. Thanks.
@@ste309w The Klingon ships were hit by the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished.
@@NPCSingularity And became driven by an unknown force to change history for the better.
@@ste309w I wonder who their holographic observer would be? 🤣
Great scene and I love the fact that the lead Klingon ship’s torpedo tube has burn marks on it. Shows what an aggressive species they are. The ol’ shoot first and ask questions later mentality
Interesting bits of trivia:
Mark Lenard, aka Spock's father Ambassador Sarek, plays the Klingon Captain.
The Klingon dialogue was written by James Doohan, i.e. he created the Klingon words used to express the dialogue originally written in the script.
The actor playing Commander Branch was originally hired to play Spock's replacement Xon when TMP was still going to be the TV series Star Trek II.
All this time and I never knew that. Thanks.
Don't forget Mark Leonard played the Romulan commander (first ever seen in Trek) in TOS 'Balance of Terror' based loosely on 'Enemy Below' the Robert Mitchum /Kurt Jurgens US destroyer vs U Boat classic flick.
Awesome. They sounded more German than Canadian. Macht!
Memories. I miss those days so much.
I don't understand why the director's cut removed the translator audio and text screen. I doubt Starfleet personnel would be fluent in Klingon at that time.
My hat is off to Federation Intel for getting those video cameras on board the bridges of Klingon cruisers.
Section 31 was trying to get upskirt/downblouse shots of the Duras sisters. But this is all we got.
The book version explained that the Federation was intercepting the Klingon's transmission. A UFP sensor drone managed to move into the Klingon formation (unnoticed) and was providing the exterior view.
I watched this movie when I was seven years old and those deep bass-ey tones when they showed that energy cloud haunted me in my nightmares for weeks, and oddly enough I'd watch it again and again. Whoever did the score to this movie, kudos!
Whoever did the score? I believe they mention his name in the opening credits of the film.
Jerry Goldsmith. Absolute legend. See also: OG Planet of the Apes, Logan's Run, Patton, The Omen, Alien, Gremlins, among others.
Epic scene. I’d argue the first two Trek films are true classics of cinema. This scene, from the score to the sense of dread, is perfect.
The bar was set high with this opening scene... one of the best opening scenes in the history of cinema.. I saw this on a big screen in the seventies and it was mindboggling.. Star Wars was still fresh on everybody's mind.. and the expectation of this movie was intesnse.. I wish they had put more of the fighting scenes the movie.... the audience would have left the movie drained and wanting more...
I remember watching this movie as a kid and missing most of the plot.
Too bad the rest of the movie was so flat. The characters of the crew didn't have the commraderie of TOS, and I thought they made too many changes from TOS. The special effects were not that great. The Golden Gate Bridge was an obvious painting on a studio wall, and Vulcan looked like a chemical pot. With a giant moon when Spock stated Vulcan has no moon in TOS. Terrible acting, terrible story. Copied out of Nomad in TOS. I find it puzzling that a ship under retrofitting was the only available Star Ship to defend the Earth? I mean no other ships available?
Yes for a first Star Trek movie the lack of combat was disappointing but they sure made up for it in Wrath Of Khan which has some of the best Star Trek battles ever.
@@DylansPenYes, except they forgot one thing Star Trek had that separated it from other franchises. In Star Trek TOS the ships almost always engaged in combat at warp speed, in fact it was the preferred mode of combat. (See the episode "Eylaan Of Troyus"). In the "Wrath Of Khan" the ships only fought at sublight speed.
@@LSOK38kahn was ambushing enterprise at impulse and crippled her enough to prevent a warp maneuver battle he would have lost, due to being a novice.
Its a shaky justification but hey....
Still the Best opening, even after 40+ years. And the music is simply iconic...no other word for it.
getting the impression, klingons are the type to shoot first ask questions later
Shoot first, if that doesn’t work, SHOOT AGAIN!
That's putting it mildly. This is one of rare cases where there is no dishonor in turning tail and running.
Just keep shooting
Jaah juk open fire
I'd say working in one of their HR departments id a fairly easy number though.
Oh, that wonderful musical score, my goodness!
The Klingons after their first torpedo did not stop the energy weapons.
“And I’ll fucking do it again!”
Go to warp to escape even after two of our finest ships were evaporated before our very eyes? Never! Keep firing until we die which we obviously will! Yay!
@@gmork1090 They were at warp the entire time. They HAD to be, because V'GER was traveling at warp when they encountered it. V'GER didn't drop out of warp until it entered the Solar System and encountered the Enterprise.
I remember watching this in the cinema with my oldest brother in 1978 it was the 3rd science fiction film I ever saw in the cinema and the one that made me love Star Trek. For those who are interested, the 1st film was Logan's Run, and the 2nd was Star Wars.
44 years later, the effects still impress. And the music... it's everything!
what a scene. those torpedoes were beautiful
I like the quantum torpedoes in the new star treks..they just plow through everything
Macht!..sound German
@@billseely991 The word is "baH", shortened from "yIbaH".
Luv that red glow and the high pitched scream the torpedoes make whenever they get fired.
This scene still stands out as a movie great that even modern methods can’t really improve. Together with the movie score, for me, it doesn’t get better. Flawless
Mom and Dad took my sister and I to see this in 1979. This was my first exposure to Star Trek as I was only 6 years old at the time. This sequence was my favorite part of the movie, but everything afterwards I couldn’t wrap my brain around. V’Ger itself was far beyond my then level of comprehension.
the rest of the movie was kinda a dud and boring imo.
When 45 year-old models look better than modern CGI. The close-up at 0:59 makes the bridge section look as big as an office building.
A shot accomplished, to be fair, with a second, much larger-scale model than was used elsewhere in the scene. Same for the close view on the nacelle later in the sequence.
"Tactical, stand by on torpedoes." in human terms is ''Hailing frequencies.'' "Evasive!'' in human terms means ''Get us the HELL out of here!"
Iconic opening for Star Trek TMP that cemented the idea that Star Trek could work on the big screen. Really ushered in a new era. Wonderful stuff here.
Just a shame the story and character work in TMP didn’t reach the same standards as the visual elements and score
Saw this in the theaters when I was 10 years old. I thought, geezh it just started and it's the most kick ass episode of Star Trek ever made already.
Classic Trek then and still now after 44 years. Sends one into Trekspasia. 🤩
I saw this in the cinema back in the day, is it really 44 years ago 😮
Don't you mean Spockpasia...a...a..a..a.a.a.a........w.w..w.w....uurp?
@@toonrog9957 Now, that works just as well. Space Friend.😀
the first time we saw forehead ridged klingons
I imagine fans who saw this in theatres when it came out were confused as to why the Klingons had forehead ridges as the ones in the Original series didn't.
Also the first time the klingon language was heard, I think?
@@girlgarde Nah. We understood intuitively that this is what they looked like all along, and that the movie had enough money to show it. Same with the additional fantastic detailing on the battlecruiser. It wasn't 'old Klingon' vs 'new Klingon', or D-7 vs. K'tinga class; it was TV budget vs movie budget. Nothing more. Of course in the intervening decades anal-retentive fans had plenty of time to make stuff up, LOL.
@@Shoofgamergaming There is a two parter in Enterprise where they explain why they don't have ridges in TOS. it's episodes 15x4 and 16x4
@@Rivenshield anal-retentive fans... like the fans that made it cannon that the lack of cranial ridges were due to the augments virus?
Great scene. I remember being impressed at the time (1979) with the cuneiform-style writing coming up on the Klingon read-outs. I also recall feeling like I was on board with them during the attack.... I took the whole thing very seriously.
A fan would.
I've really leaned to respect this movie a lot over the years. It wasn't a huge fan favorite but the more I watch it now the more I like this film. It really is very well produced.
Agreed; a couple of years after the movie came out, I was able to afford my first VHS recorder/player (it was a General Electric top loading machine) and rented the movie from a mom/pop video store in the small town I lived at; after watching it a few times, I decided to purchase that VHS rental to keep for myself; the owner was astonished that I would gladly buy a used VHS movie outright. No need to mention that I'd rewatched it countless times. It even included a few scenes shot that was cut from the theater version. And yes, I still have that VHS movie.
imagone having a best feind like spock, whil you kickass and ounch everyone out
Damn was this made in 1979?! Looks amazing
Back when they used models
Yes the old optical effects and models have aged far better than early CGI effects for example. Just look at the final battle of Return of the Jedi for example even though reportedly the Industrial Light & Magic crew got PTSD from making it.
It looks little better than TOS. Were people pissed that they had to spend $4(?) to see this?
@@donarthiazi2443
I agree. Maybe it was good for its time, but other than the Klingons looking really good it was pretty lame.
@@donarthiazi2443 You're out of your mind. The SFX in ST:TMP was hugely superior to TOS. It was ten years later and absolutely state of the art in 1979, using new techniques never done before. And BTW, movie tickets in 1979 averaged $2.50 for new big releases. You could see matinee showings of older films for a buck in many places.
"...what appeared to be a lightning-storm in space."
I remember seeing this at the movies. I was around 8 or 9. It was very, very big on the screen. The way it was shot made you feel so small next to the action and the vast emptiness of space. Amazing storytelling.
The blaster beam in the score adds such power to the scene
At the 4-minute mark, that sound of the "blaster beam" along with the flashes never fails to bring a sense of just how powerful V'Ger is.
I remember watching this opening scene as a kid and being mesmerized on how menacing and lethal those Klingon ships looked with their poisonous snake command decks with those struts in command center.
Thanks for keeping the Epsilon 9 computer voice! That was important because it mentioned the name of the Klingon ship!
Any idea who's the voice?
I absolutely LOVE this sound track! Why does modern movies have such crappy music when compared to classics like this?
Blame editing. To speed the process, directors have the action scenes cut to a "test track." Then the composer has to write "new" music to match the existing editing based on the "test track." That stifles creativity. In the past, the composer made the soundtrack and then the editors cut the action to match the cadence and emphasis of the soundtrack. Consider the destruction of the Death Star in "SW IV", and how the orchestra hits the perfect note. It was cut to match the music.
First SF movie I saw in an actual movie theater. Still looks (and sounds) pretty good after all these years.
4:08 YES! YES! This clip has the original V'ger torpedo sound effects!! Every other release changed the torpedo's sound to a harsh shriek instead of this hauntingly hollow wail.
The best scene in the film and the best theme of any of the series!Just awesome in every way!! It blows me away every time I watch it! The awesome power of the cloud and the vessel hiding beneath it.
Can't get over that Blaster Beam sound. Best. Sound. Ever.....
This is arguably the best scene in Star Trek TMP - thanks!
You're welcome.
Wow, splendid. TMP was not as bad as its reputation suggest.
The execution was flawed, but the story and effects were pretty good.
TMP was a great film overall, but it was made for existing Star Trek fans who had been waiting ten years for a movie to be made, and other fans of serious science fiction, and was received by them very enthusiastically. Most of us thought it was magnificent in almost every aspect. The problem was it was a too cerebral and had insufficient action for the general public. It was serious science fiction instead of space opera, and that's not the general public's cup of tea.
@Cary Groneveldt What I was saying is that it was only 'too cerebral" for the general public, not for Trekkers and other fans of serious science fiction. We thought it was awesome, even though it was essentially a greatly expanded remake of the TOS episode "The Changeling" (V'ger is a phenomenally souped-up version of Nomad). The basic plot is the same.
It's actually worse. The film is awful.
All true, it was a good story. However it was not the kind of film required the launch Trek into the big screen. Fortunately Khan came along next and saved the series.
Gives me goosebumps, and a shiver whenever I watch this opening scene!
I love that battle music and the ships of the Klingon Empire! Loved at the theater, when it came out!
As a kid, I about wore the grooves smooth for this piece on the soundtrack album. Bass cranked way up.
And the absolute BEST photon torpedoes (and warp sequence) came from ST:TMP. Just awesome.
Fun Fact the flyover sequence from 0:15 to 0:40 is exactly what George Lucas wanted for ther scene in A New Hope where the X-Wings are approaching the Death Star and then open their wings, only he wanted the flyby from the side, but the FX camera operators couldn't figure out how to do it in time to finish the production schedule so the shot was scrapped until Lucas did the "special editions", however when John Dykstra who had a significant role in creating the FX in SW, was contracted to help finish this, he remembered the planned SW shot and they were able to figure out how to do it for the opening shot here, only overhead. So we get it here, but SW had to wait until it could be reimagined in CGI.
I'm guessing the reimagined shot was in Attack of the Clones?
Yeah , the movie was sposed to be released Christmas 1976 but the effects weren't finished . They were way behind , because the stop-motion camera was brand new and it took hrs just typing everything in .
I never get tired of watching this scene. Those special effects were ahead of their time, for 1979. That music is unforgettable. Jerry Goldsmith was a legend. Despite its flaws, I still love this movie.
For me,the only bad one out of the 6 films was the 5th
@@MrJobsworth1979 It did at least have one good quote though "What does God need with a Starship?"
@@MrJobsworth1979 Yeah, episode 5 is the only Star Trek movie that I only watched once. lol
These special effects were not very good! 2001: A Space Odyssey was filmed in 1968 and the special effects in that movie were much better than this film. One example is when Admiral Kirk lands at Starfleet Command the Golden Gate Bridge is an obvious painting on a studio wall. That's The Wizard of Oz kind of special effects. The scene on Vulcan just looked terrible. I gave the movie a D+. The plot was taken from Nomad in TOS.
@@bunter6spock blasting yosemithe god with disruptors.
I love the evolution of the Klingons, from the original episodes (TOS) where they just looked human, then you notice these guys, their's no subtlety in their design, their head ridges are exactly the same, making them almost indistinguishable from each other.
But later, from Star Trek 3, 5 and 6, the head ridges, lumps and bumps, are now finally personalised for each character, Undiscovered Country has a great variety, just look at General Chang, Chancelor Gorkon, and finally his daughter. And then later Worf.
They've come a long way, such a great alien race, probably one of the best in the Star Trek universe.
I see so many people below asking why the Klingon's didn't go to warp. That is because they were already at warp, trying to keeping up with V'ger. I read the novel right before the movie came out back in 79 and it said the V'ger was moving so fast across the Klingon's space that these were the only ships that were able to respond.
No. And if that was supposed to be true, they did a TERRIBLE job at conveying that to the viewer, I don't care what's in the novel. I always just headcanoned it that they couldn't form a stable warp bubble so close to the anomaly. EDIT: This argument makes NO SENSE anyway. Even if it was at warp, all the Klingons would have to do then would be drop out of warp, or even just go Warp 1 in the other direction. The anomaly would be INSTANTLY gone and so would the projectile. I'll stick with my headcanon. 🤣
@@stab74 The book, written by Roddenberry, was a novelization of the screenplay and he apparently tried to backfill some details. I agree with you, it was unclear in the movie.
@@stab74 I go with you on that. I believe several times in shows they showed that a significantly strong enough gravity well keeps a ship from going to warp until they move far enough away. V'Ger was supposed to be like several A.U.'s in size, so there must be plenty of mass there for a strong gravity well.
@@ronbouley4616 It is described as "over 82 A.U.s in diameter" at one point. That's bigger than the orbit of Neptune.
@@TinySpongey yup, and likely a huge gravity well.
The only time you ever see what the Bridge looks like on a Klingon battle cruiser. From Star Trek three on they mainly used the bird of prey in movies and series . There was a battle cruiser in Star Trek six but you didn’t see the bridge
There's also a Klingon Battlecruiser (D7) in the VOY season 7 episode "Prophecy", in which we see its bridge.
That set was repurposed as the the torpedo room in Wrath of Khan--
And to think that’s Mark Lenard as the Klingon Commander. He always played Spock’s father. Fantastic!
Except when he played a Romulan.
but he was voiced by Jimmy Doohan (Scotty).
Fuck really? Kinda of a character dynamic change...vulcan to nazi..i mean klingon
@@billseely991 Klingons aren’t Nazi though…
@@billseely991 The TOS episode where he played a Romulan (before he was Spock's father) was called the Balance Of Terror. It was basically an homage to the movie The Enemy Below.
Great setup of the threat in this movie - showing the scale of the Klingon ships, showing the power of those torpedoes they fired and the threat just...swallows them and then disintegrates those same massive Klingon ships like they are nothing despite the Klingon best efforts, really illustrates what the cast will be up against without any long exposition.
Still some of the most exotic environments out of any Star Trek film.
Vader: "I have my own theme!"
Klingon: "So what, my ship has it's own theme!"
The Computer Voice has been removed from subsequent Director's cuts .... pity
The computer translation voice explained a LOT as to what was happening. Don't know why it was removed from the director's cut.
I still remember seeing this movie with my dad in the theater. Awesome. I still love this movie and think it got a bad rap in the reviews. I do think that it should've been about 20 minutes shorter but this movie didn't deserve the beating that it got.
Considering the pain and bloodletting during the making of it, it's actually amazing that it even made it to release. The special effects chief, Douglas Trumbull, came on in the middle of production, the movie was in trouble, and he poured his life into getting this movie back on track. He and his crew worked unbelievable hours for an extended time and lived on a lot of delivered fast food, coffee, and Mt. Dew. Immediately after he finished his work and delivered it, he was diagnosed with multiple ailments including gall stones, stomach ulcers, and extreme exhaustion. He spent two weeks in the hospital and took long enough in home rest and recovery that he almost missed the movie premier. Nobody can accuse this guy of not giving his all. Whatever they paid him, he earned every penny.
Proper klingons 👍 Now i will be whistling this tune all day 😂
Yep. Proper intelligent and sophisticated Klingons before The Next Generation ruined them by turning them into barbaric savages obsessed only with war and honor.
The klingon's reaction witnessing their comrades literally getting deleted from the reality is what sold that off to me
Klingon logic. If you don't know it, just try to blow it up.
I don't think so, Vger may have gobbled up some of their colonies already.
One of the biggest, baddest aliens in sci-fi history, is the life form who achieved its prime directive, and defensive powers... on a cosmic scale, undreamt of.
A living machine, whose cosmic powers and consciousness, were nothing short of godhood, in search of meaning.
All hail, Vejur
I get pissed off when I hear trekkies rag on this film. It has more soul, more grandeur than any other Star Trek film.
The real term is they are called Trekkers.
Trivia of the day.......the bridge set for the IKS Amar here cost $175,000 to build.... that's $714, 163 in 2022 dollars!!! In addition, the scene was shot in postproduction, and due to the lighting involved Mark Leonard said shooting was unbearably hot in the thick Klingon makeup costumes.
Sort of like being a real Klingon in a real cruiser with a disgusting, hot recycled atmosphere, eh? That seemed to be the director's intent based on the dark, smoggy bridge...like being in a submarine where everybody smoked. Certainly not built for comfort!
That set was re-used for a decade, turning up as the photon torpedo bay on the Enterprise in Wrath of Khan, and several times as alien ship bridges in Next Gen.
@@stevetheduck1425 And Kirk's apartment...
Definitely my favourite scene in TMP, and except for the "new Klingons", was the most spectacular thing we had ever seen in Star Trek.
For 43 years we have complained that The Trouble With Tribbles demonstrated that a Klingon can be mistaken for human.
It was addressed in Enterprise tho
Saw this upon release in 1980- the reason why it’s so spectacular is Jerry Goldsmiths film score Isaac Asimovs technical consultation and the Klingon battle ready red alert bridge and that language translation director Robert Wise made this one for all time . 👑💀👑💀
Even as a child, I found it strange that they didn't just flee with warp. This torpedo battle lasts what feels like an eternity. But for 1979 really good VFX!
In my opinion one of the most abstract films in the series.
Perhaps vgers influence mucks with warp, travel locally
klingons don't flee
Most probably this was happening in warp, but I don't know the ST lore well :)
I remember watching this back when I was 10 years old, just over 30 years ago - completely blew my mind.
3:55 they jumped out of their seats!Lol 😃😄😂
I like the grimy look these ships have. I loved when they fixed up Discovery season two, and bought the REAL D-7 back, only with even cooler weapons.
I also like the more vintage and straightforward look the computer displays have in this one, and how that carried into the next couple films. I’ve heard they used TRS-80s for some scenes.
TRS-80 (Trash-80) -- really??
“What is that?”
“It appears to be someone playing a gigantic bass.”
Those Klingon Bastards Didn't Kill My Son, but V'ger showed them who's boss.
The Voyager program kicked some major ass, Ed Stone will be giving some amazing press conferences on the science collected after Voyager 6 downloads all its data to the DSN.
The goal was clearly to crush Star Wars opening sequence. Success.
This was the best music, drama, and alien race language/makeup seen on screen to that time.
In my opinion, this is the best Klingon scene in all of Trek!
I have to go with "Eeeeemergenceeeee poweeeeeeeer to tha thrusteeeeerssssssss!!!!"
I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out -- the new look for the Klingons was quite a surprise.
saw it opening weekend in 1979. us star wars crazy kids weren't sure what to make of the movie but this scene was riveting
This is the best opening to any Star Trek movie. The V'Ger effect. The Klingon music. The K'Tingas. Just awesome. Unfortunately, it's also by far the best scene in this movie.
So good to finally find the original version. The 'enhanced' version on the later DVDs with all the added sound effects on the bridge and the deletion of the computer voiced narration just doesn't seem right.
I never noticed this. At 3:55, Mark Leonard is flung from his chair. It's the same move he used in Balance of Terror when he set the auto-destruct on the Romulan Bird of Prey. 😃
This really is great in my opinion, somehow I think, everything works here. The music, the SFX moviemaking as Robert said and all, actors also in my opinion. This is just... heh, sorry me laughing but I sometimes come "back" checking to see this scene and of course the movie itself is great also , but this... is well, take care all!, sometimes life is worth living. PS. Repeating this scene and thank you poster! Cheers ...
Almost perfect. The musical sting on a shot of the could after the scene on Epsilon 9 was clearly meant to be a dematerialized battleship, it just kinda hangs.
The only Star Trek film that has a dark, foreboding element to it. More psychological, intellectual and serious in tone. This is a very rare film made during a time when Hollywood more than accepted new ideas. Out of all the Star Trek films, I usually only watch TMP and Khan. They're timeless!
This is even more epic than the Death Star battle in Star Wars.
Its awesome, and eerie, but theirs no series that has a space battle that tops the Death Star 2 battle at Endor, I think Robotech does have a few that beats the first Death Star battle though.
@@lancer737 Battlen of Cardassia: Hello there.
@@aiosquadron As cool as it was, its way to short. In fact the whole Dominion War we don't see enough of.
Brilliant opening ! loved how to torpedos warmed up. Excellent effects and music.
nicely done. Big fan of your channel
I have a CD with this track on it. Coincidentally, it was timed to come on just as I was entering the onramp for I-5 N going to San Diego. Great score for freeway combat.😉😄
If it's the sector of the i 5 that I remember in the early 90's it was more like "prepare for ramming speed" 🤣🤣🤣
Glad this is the non directors cut. I enjoy the longer sequence with the message from the Klingon commander being intercepted and translated
Effects were solid for 1979, not overdone. Did the best with what they had.
The music of the Klingons is so cool and describes them very well as strong race of Warriors.
This opening is amazing. The only problem is I found it to be virtually the only exciting scene in the whole movie.
An exciting scene doesn’t have to be fist fights and exchange of phaser fire. What makes The Motion Picture exciting from start to finish is the suspense and the mystery.
@@Woopaloops The majority of people who watched this movie would disagree. If you are stoned or on LSD, then the rest of the movie is ok.
@@stab74 What a shit take. And no a vast majority of people don’t think that obviously since TMP’s success led to the revival of the franchise. Without TMP there’d be no Wrath of Khan no The Next Generation and so on. Let me guess, your favorite Star Trek is the braindead alternate reality movies…
@@stab74 Something it had in common with 2001: A Space Odyssey. ='[.]'=
@@Woopaloops Everything took way too long, e.g. the flyby montage of the refitted Enterprise that took over five minutes - there's a reason the film got the moniker "The Slow Motion Picture"!
I will always say this is the best Star Trek movie
I love how at 2:25 after the Klingon commander looks at the screen he turns to his officer with a look of WTF? Shouldn't these photon torpedoes we just fired have hit something, and caused a response by now? Puzzled, the officer responds with a look on his face like, I don't know what to tell you sir?
Voyager was made by man. Voyager becomes a god. So religion made by man. Very clever libre earles.
I interpret it as: 'We did not miss, but the torpedoes have not exploded, is the enemy out of range? No! They neutralised our weapons! Evasive!'