What a crazy life Star Trek has had.

When the series was first conceived, it had opposition from the studio. Changes were made and a pilot was eventually aired. Even after that, however, things did not go smoothly. It's been well-documented that the only thing the kept the show on the air was the enormous support from fans. Even then, Star Trek couldn't be saved and it was canceled in its third season.

Not wanted to just let the show die, syndication was considered, but even then there were troubles. The rule was that a show had to have 100 episodes before it could be syndicated. Star Trek had only 78 episodes (79 if you count the unaired pilot). The rule was bent and the show went on to become immensely more popular in syndication than it was originally.

Years later, when Paramount was considering starting their own network, they wanted to develop a new Star Trek series as the flagship show. Amazingly enough, Gene Roddenberry had to be convinced. While he still loved Star Trek, he wanted to move on. In the end, though, he signed up and a new show was conceived, called Star Trek: Phase II.

As the scope of the project grew, Paramount's hopes for a new network faltered and eventually died out entirely. Not giving up on what they considered a bankable franchise, they gave the green light for Phase II to be redeveloped as a feature film.

In 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters...and many filmgoers promptly said, "huh?"

The film turned out to be well over 2 hours long and consisted of far too many scenes of actors staring off screen in amazement and of too many pondering shots of starships and shapeless clouds.

Somewhere along the way someone forgot there was a story to tell and the movie degenerated into little more than eye candy. Take for instance a scene early on in the film when Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Scott (James Doohan) are shuttling over to the newly refit Enterprise. Granted, this is the first time audiences have been treated to what the ship should really look like, but scene winds up being little more than well over 5 minutes of explorations into how to photograph a model. We spend so much time flying around the back and sides of the ship that by the time we get to the front view "money shot," the sense of awe has been replaced with a feeling of relief that now we can get on with the story.

The entire film is like this. Yes, there is something to be said for taking the time to experience all of the sights in a film like this, but there must be a careful balance. Equally important is the plot and the sense of urgency that we are supposed to feel from it. Yet all urgency is lost because any time something happens, rather than take action, all the crew (and camera) does is stand around and look at it.

This is a shame because trim a half hour or more out of the film and the plot would really be interesting. As the film opens, a trio of Klingon ships are approaching a huge, mysterious cloud that seems to have a gigantic space craft at its center. Being Klingons, their first reaction is naturally to shoot at it. Not only do they fail to have any effect, but the alien ship fires a weapon at the Klingons that seems to digitize them into its database.

Back on Earth we meet James Kirk, who has been promoted to Admiral since the days of the original 5-year mission. Not only was their mission a success, but the Enterprise has been adopted as the flagship of the Federation and has been completely refit and updated. Unfortunately, Kirk will no longer be at the helm.

The Federation learns that this alien spacecraft is heading right for Earth and the not-quite finished Enterprise is the only ship close enough. Kirk sees this as his chance to get back his command.

Meanwhile, on Vulcan, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is striving to achieve Kolinahr, a state that will purge all emotion from his mind. His training is interrupted when he experiences a telepathic link with the alien ship. Not able to complete Kolinahr, he leaves Vulcan.

This allows the entire original crew to be reunited in a mission to discover what this alien ship is and why it's heading for Earth, destroying (digitizing) everything in its path.

A subplot in the film involves Admiral Kirk butting heads with Captain/Commander Will Decker (Stephen Collins). Decker is set to take the helm of the Enterprise when Kirk steps in to handle the new threat. Kirk is experienced and knows the crew, but Decker has been through the entire refit of the ship and knows it in and out.

I have to be honest in saying that Star Trek: The Motion Picture bored me when it first came out. After the brilliant The Wrath of Khan was released, I truly despised it. However, time has a way of changing perspectives. Given some of the other Trek films that have been released and the way this one fits into the grand scheme of things, I have to say that it really isn't all that bad. As I mentioned above, its primary failing is one of pacing. Tighten things up and it has the potential to be one of the better films of the series.

The release of the DVD, a director's edition no less, offered up just the chance to fix the pacing. Unfortunately, rather than tighten the film, even more was added to it. The running time now is actually longer than the original release! Granted, none of the new scenes take away from the film and some are genuinely worthwhile, but the movie remains dangerously on this side of boring.

Still, a stellar job has been done of bringing the film to DVD. Paramount really spared no expense in getting this production done. Not only did they allow director Robert Wise the chance to put together his own cut of the film, but they allowed for the expense of cleaning up and fixing some of the effects work. The interesting thing about the new effects is how seamlessly they fit into the film. Foundation Imaging really outdid themselves by painstakingly matching grain and dust elements in the original print. The idea wasn't to create effects by today's standards, but rather to recreate the sorts of effects that could have been done back then, but that couldn't be completed to to time or budget constraints. The results are wonderful and, for the most part, as seamless as intended.