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What was v’ger: star trek’s original movie villain explained.

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  • V'Ger, the unique villain in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was a sentient machine seeking answers about humanity's purpose.
  • The movie's cerebral tone and sluggish pace didn't resonate with audiences as well as the action-packed Wrath of Khan storyline.
  • Kirk and Spock's cinematic adventure faced criticism but set the stage for future Star Trek villains to be more tangible and relatable.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture pitted Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the USS Enterprise against V'Ger, a unique villain in the history of the Star Trek: The Original Series movies. Released in 1979, The Motion Picture was the first live action adventure for Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in a decade, following the cancelation of TOS in 1969. Directed by The Andromeda Strain 's Robert Wise, with visual effects from 2001: A Space Odyssey 's Douglas Trumbull, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a suitably cinematic spectacle .

Despite the cinematic talent involved in its production, the first Star Trek movie was criticized for its sluggish pace and cerebral tone. William Shatner reflected in his book Star Trek Movie Memories that he thought The Motion Picture " wasn't good. " Arguably, Star Trek: The Motion Picture 's "villain", V'Ger contributed heavily to this slightly cold and cerebral tone that put off critics and cast members . Indeed, esteemed movie critic Roger Ebert , while generally positive about The Motion Picture , highlighted the movie's " incomprehensible alien forces ".

There have been thirteen Star Trek movies over the last 40 years, but which is the boldest big-screen adventure to go where no man has gone before?

What Was V’Ger In Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

V'Ger was a space probe that originated on Earth centuries before the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . Shortly after leaving Earth's orbit, the Voyager 6 probe was pulled into an anomaly, and emerged into what it believed to be the furthest region of the galaxy. After falling into the gravitational pull of a planet inhabited by living machines, Voyager was renamed, repaired and augmented with vastly superior data retrieval and defensive technology to that of the 20th century. These aliens then sent V'Ger back to its creators, and on its long way home, the probe collected a vast wealth of knowledge about the galaxy, and gained sentience .

Michael and Denise Okuda's 1993 book Star Trek Chronology suggests that Gene Roddenberry later joked that the machine planet visited by V'Ger was the home of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Borg Collective.

The USS Enterprise intercepted V'Ger on its return to Earth's solar system, to discover a being desperate for answers to the deep philosophical question of " is that all there is? " It was V'Ger's quest for answers that brought it back to Earth, to seek an audience with its creator. If its request was not granted, V'Ger would destroy the planet, forcing Captain Will Decker (Stephen Collins) to offer an alternative solution. Merging with the probe, Decker gave V'Ger the information it was seeking about humanity , and creating a brand-new form of life in the process.

Why Star Trek Movie Villains Became More Like Khan Than V’Ger

Audiences took to the epic action and adventure of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan more than the philosophical tone of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . This meant that future Star Trek movie villains were crafted in the mold of Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban). V'Ger was a vast, unknowable, sentient machine that didn't have much to offer moviegoers in 1979. It's easier for audiences to relate to the Enterprise crew's movie adventures if there's a tangible villain that can face off against Kirk or Spock.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan defined the rest of the Star Trek: The Original Series movies and beyond, because it proved that audiences were willing to look beyond cerebral sci-fi concepts if there was a recognizable villainous archetype. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is the exception, because despite featuring another alien probe intent on destroying the Earth, the pacing and script remembered to let the Enterprise crew have fun. The huge commercial success of Voyage Home suggests that the real problem with Star Trek: The Motion Picture was its characterization of Kirk and the crew, rather than its choice of V'Ger as a villain.

All six Star Trek: The Original Series movies are currently available to stream on MAX.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series follows the exploits of the crew of the USS Enterprise. On a five-year mission to explore uncharted space, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) must trust his crew - Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Forest DeKelley), Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Sulu (George Takei) - with his life. Facing previously undiscovered life forms and civilizations and representing humanity among the stars on behalf of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise regularly comes up against impossible odds and diplomatic dilemmas.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Ending Explained: Something Bigger Than The Cosmos

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The late author Douglas Adams succinctly wrote in his 1979 novel " The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ," that, "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." Adams wrote science fiction stories with the vastness of time and the cosmos in mind, albeit for a comedic effect. In one of his novels, characters could travel forward in time to the very end of the universe and find that a restaurant had opened near the point of universal collapse so that the wealthy could witness it as part of an evening's light dinner entertainment (repeat visits were possible through a complicated temporal something-or-other). For Adams, the infinity of time and space was fodder for humor, as he would insert the mundane into any potential moments of awe. 

The same year "Hitchhiker's Guide" was published, Paramount produced "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," the first feature film to be based on the low-budget sci-fi series that hadn't seen TV screens since 1974, and hadn't been seen in live-action since 1969. Taking aesthetic cues from Stanley Kubrick's " 2001: A Space Odyssey ," "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was "Star Trek" writ large. No longer constrained by rinky-dink television budgets, the feature film was now permitted to depict the show as massively as it always felt. For instance, the U.S.S. Enterprise was luxuriated over in a four-and-a-half-minute sequence that many people now find risibly indulgent. 

But the length and scope was the point. "Star Trek," in the best of cases, brushed up against some of philosophy's larger questions. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" had ambitions no smaller than to unlock the meaning of life and humankind's place in the heavens. 

Voyager VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

They briefly recount the film's story: It has been years since the Enterprise crew was assembled. A mysterious space cloud, hundreds of light years across, is slowly drifting toward Earth and swallowing up any starships or space stations it happens to run across. It has no definite shape and is not communicating. Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) is re-assigned to the starship Enterprise, currently commanded by Capt. Decker (Stephen Collins), and ordered to take it out to the cloud to investigate. The entire cast of the original show joins in, as does a bald, stoic Deltan named Ilia (Persis Khambatta). The Enterprise is able to penetrate the cloud and sail inside. They find chamber upon chamber of what might be machines, but it is difficult to comprehend. Whatever the cloud is, it's far beyond human understanding. A lot — a lot  — of " Star Trek: The Motion Picture " is devoted to scenes of the Enterprise floating through the cloud. 

In order to communicate with the humans on the Enterprise, the cloud abducts Ilia and replaces her with a robot-like clone that speaks as its emissary. The robot clone explains that the cloud is called V'Ger and that it aims to return to its maker. Students of science fiction will perhaps recognize that V'Ger was once of Earth origin. 

To skip ahead a bit V'Ger was the bowdlerized name of the Voyager 6, a fictional NASA probe launched from Earth a century before. It was initially just a machine, sent out into the cosmos to retrieve information and return it. Something unexplained happened to the Voyager 6 in the ensuing century, and it grew to contain all knowledge in the galaxy, growing to enormous size in the process. It was now fulfilling its mission to return its findings. 

The sexual politics of The Motion Picture

Sytar Trek: The Motion Picture

It's worth noting that a lot of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" has been devoted to a certain degree of romantic and sexual tension between Ilia and Capt. Decker. Ilia is a Deltan, which causes a few of her crewmates to raise their eyebrows. Ilia makes mention of her vow of chastity, a curious thing to announce on the bridge. According to the novelization of the film written by Gene Roddenberry, Deltans are known to be highly sexual and have intercourse quite freely. In order to curtail fraternization, Deltans take their vow before entering the Academy. Although Ilia was replaced by a robot clone, Dr. McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ) notes that Ilia's brainwaves were replicated as well, leaving her lust and her love for Decker intact. 

The robot — and by extension V'Ger — seems to be experiencing love for the first time. Also lust. V'Ger is, after a century, finally going through a form of cosmic puberty. Sex is most certainly one of the film's central themes.

At the conclusion of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," Kirk and company have found the original V'Ger probe at the heart of the cloud, deciphering its name and discovering its purpose. V'Ger, having felt love, wants to know more, as love and lust, it seems, are the final components of the universe that V'Ger needs to make sense of everything. Decker, declaring his love for Ilia, steps onto a platform, and V'Ger begins to physically absorb him. It's a beautiful, almost spiritual experience. Ilia, feeling the love as well, steps onto the platform with him, and the pair ascend. In a flash, the entire massive V'Ger cloud explodes into the universe. It now knows everything.

Childhood's end

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

After the cancelation of "Star Trek," the show was put into eternal syndication, and it was only then that it found its massive audience in reruns. "Star Trek" gatherings, then conventions, became common, and Gene Roddenberry, as well as the cast, would attend to kibitz. It seems that during this period, Roddenberry finally came to realize the more expansive themes of "Star Trek." Audiences reacted to the show's multiculturalism and optimism about the future. The Prime Directive assured us that "Star Trek" was an anti-colonialist show, and the technology depicted was our friend. The Enterprise was not a battleship, but an exploration vessel. The show, Roddenberry figured after the fact, was meant to be utopian. 

As such, when it came time to make "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," it stood to reason that it would reach far. Roddenberry, ever the free-love hippie, wanted to tell a story where all facets of the universe could come together, scraping the outer edges of the cosmos, and then extending beyond. V'Ger had been traveling for an unspecified time (a time-warp is implied) and knew all the facts it could know. What it lacked, naturally, was heart. Human beings, and their capacity for love, was the missing element of the universe. Our existence, Roddenberry argued, was a vital element holding everything together. 

V'Ger finally learned to love and experienced the glories of sex. Its explosion was, essentially, a galactic orgasm, as if V'Ger was going through puberty. It was the end of its childhood and a passage to a higher plane. V'Ger is, of course, a symbol of humanity as it is seen in " Star Trek ." Like in "2001: A Space Odyssey," the cosmos is our next step of growth. We pass into the stars, and we are no longer children. 

Forgotten Trek

Designing the Living Machine

After the planned pilot of the second Star Trek television series, “ In Thy Image ,” became the basis for Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Richard Taylor as art director assumed responsibility for designing the mysterious entity known as V’Ger (then still written as “Vejeur”). Mike Minor had drawn a few concepts for Phase II . Tony Smith, brought in by Taylor, developed the entity further.

V'Ger concept art

Taylor’s idea was that the whole of V’Ger would never be seen. “It was to be a dark object, not some light-covered mothership from Close Encounters ,” he told Tracy Tobias in 2001 . “It’s always more mysterious to show less and leave it to the imagination.”

There’s a part of V’Ger toward the tail section, where there is a huge sphere that rotates and in the center of that sphere is the old Voyager 6 probe. Our V’Ger design is much more complex and much more mysterious. For one thing, it would have been a lot more interactive with the Enterprise .

Taylor’s philosophy was to make V’Ger a living machine.

V'Ger concept art

It would have “morphed” and on the inside the walls would have been iridescent and changed as the Enterprise moved past them.

Images of the Enterprise would be projected on the walls as V’Ger was analyzing the ship. Parts of walls would break apart like a flock of birds or a swarm of insects.

V'Ger concept art

The swarms would go from one place to another and reassemble. You could think of the particles as digital energy or digital information. I wanted it to be a very metamorphical and very mysterious place. For the exterior of the thing, one of the design concepts I had was to photo-etch thin metal plates so that the outside surface would have multiple levels which would continually move, creating different patterns. We found a material that you could apply like paint that when heated with warm air from a blower would change color. It had an iridescent color quality that I was looking for, like a beetles’ back or butterflies wings. I wanted V’Ger’s skin or surface to change color near the Enterprise as it moved over the surface. I wanted the image of the Enterprise to be left like glowing phosphor images along the walls of V’Ger.

Transformation

At the end of the film, V’Ger would have evolved into a higher being. “What we had storyboarded was that the whole V’Ger craft unfolds and turns into this incredible object in space,” said Taylor.

V'Ger concept art

That effect would have started where Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the Voyager 6 was and would have radiated outward from there through the ship. There would have been this change that goes through V’Ger’s interior and then to the outside, unfolding into a big flower kind of thing with all these radiating colors and such.

The visual effects in 2001 Director’s Edition approximated this vision, but the original 1979 film looked less impressive.

V'Ger concept art

Brick Price, whose company Brick Price Movie Miniatures was brought in by Robert April on The Motion Picture , worked on the V’Ger model, or at least the early stages of it while Taylor was art director.

The model they started on in August 1978 looked like a cigar with a maw that opened up. They disliked the design, feeling it was too reminiscent of “The Doomsday Machine”, and there was already enough trouble with the script being similar to that episode and “The Changeling”.

But we did a lot of tests working with the textures like paint, color and light, things of that sort, and it wound up with a very organic Art Deco look to it. Taylor was an avid deco fan. That one might have been interesting had they gone with it. It would have had a bubble on it and the Voyager craft would have been on an island underneath one of those. The whole skin surface was sort of iridescent. But then Paramount decided to have miles and miles of white and not let people know what it looked like exactly. Ours was really bizarre and all convoluted with things hanging off it. So every time it changed hands it changed completely. Taylor’s original interior concept of V’Ger was extremely complex. You can see all sorts of actual light functions and all sorts of spheres representing the V’Ger concept of life.

Richard Taylor and Gene Roddenberry

Taylor felt the changing of hands compromised the design. “We had built test pieces and had done extensive tests of processes we were going to use when we finally began construction,” he said. But Douglas Trumbull, the movie’s director of “special photographic effects” (as VFX were called back then) was unimpressed. “I was told Trumbull described the exterior as a ‘weird fish’.”

V'Ger in the 2022 Director's Edition

A new approach

Trumbull was brought in by the studio with less than a year to finish the effects. He told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014 that Robert Abel and Associates — the company Taylor worked for — had made some fundamental mistakes by using technology that wasn’t ready for primetime. They also had no motion-picture experience. A desperate Paramount gave Trumbull carte blanche .

He divided the work between two teams: his would work on the interior while John Dykstra was put in charge of V’Ger’s exterior.

The work that the Abel studios had done was abandoned, and the teams set out to develop entirely new concepts. Famed illustrators Robert T. McCall and Syd Mead were hired to design a new version of the giant spacecraft, with Mead’s concepts having the biggest influence.

V'Ger concept art

The model of V’Ger they built was never seen in its entirety, but it was an incredible beast, 60 feet long. Dykstra remembered that constructing it in time posed logistical problems:

We were building the model on one end of the stage and photographing it on the other with a black curtain between the two — that was the unique approach to doing the work. We had three crews working 8-hour shifts in order to get that work done.

The situation was complicated because the camera had to record several passes over the model at slow speeds. Some of the passes took as long as 18 hours, and if the motors failed (which they often did) they had to be recorded again from the beginning.

Lisa Morton

Trumbull’s team, handling the interior of V’Ger, considered several approaches — possibly using matte paintings or some kind of laser-scanning effect — before settling on a conventional model.

When it was filmed, the model was filled with smoke to give it a sense of scale. The walls were originally illuminated with miniature light bulbs, which were built into the model. However, when it came to filming they were too big to be convincing. Greg Jein, who had built the model, suggested a solution: drill hundreds of holes in the model and run fiberoptic lights behind them.

The major reason Trumbull took on the shots inside V’Ger was that he was also filming a new sequence in which Spock explored the inside of the vast machine . His Spock spacewalk replaced the memory wall sequence that Abel studios had planned, and which had been filmed during first-unit photography. Trumbull did not feel he could make the sequence work. The wire work that had been filmed on the stage was awkward and unwieldy. There were problems with reflections in the spacesuit faceplates.

Trumbull convinced Director Robert Wise to let him shoot a new sequence, which he designed himself. The storyboards were worked up by Tom Cranham, with several artists, including McCall and David Negrón, developing concepts for the things Spock would see. The spacesuits were completely redesigned and built at Apogee.

The final effect — when V’Ger disappears leaving the Enterprise in orbit around Earth — was specially designed so that it only expanded horizontally, insuring that it could not be mistaken for a conventional explosion.

Incredibly, all these shots were completed in time for the movie’s premiere and the world was so impressed with what it saw that the Trumbull/Dykstra team was jointly nominated for an Academy Award.

V'Ger's transformation in the 2009 Blue-ray theatrical cut

12 comments

I believe that the image shown here is Mike Minor’s concept of V’Ger for the Phase II television pilot. If you look at the enlarged image, you can see Minor’s signature at the lower right. For certain, this image pre-dates the production of The Motion Picture , because Starlog published a photo of Minor in front of this rendering back in 1977 or so.
Hey Pierre. You mean this one? The signature is difficult to read, but I think you may be right.
Hi Nick, Yes, that’s the picture I meant. By the way, I love the website and am astounded at all the images that I’ve never seen before. I really am interested in the production of the Phase II series and wished there was more imagery available of the sets as they stood before the switch-over to The Motion Picture . I’ve found some very nice photos in old issues of Fantastic Films as well as poorly reproduced images from the Enterprise Incidents fanzine and wished that better versions were available! No matter, your website is great and will keep me entertained for a good long time!
I think you may be right. Let me correct that in the article. Thanks for the kind words about the site! It is hard to find quality pictures of the Phase II sets. There is some test footage from 1977 of the engineering set, but of the bridge I’ve only seen a couple of photographs and no photos of the sickbay set, as far as I know.
Hey Nick, Yes, that illustration of V’Ger is definitely the Star Trek: Phase II version as designed by Mike Minor. His signature is on it in fact. Hope you are doing well, my friend!!
Do any elevation-type drawings exist anywhere of V’Ger’s “core” the ‘amphitheater” where the original Earth-based space probe was anchored? It doesn’t have to be fancy, just some kind of cross-section outline showing the relative width of the base to the sloping sides (and their angles) as well as the relative height of the “pillars” surrounding the complex. “Fan” illustrations would serve well enough.
You would need a drawing or schematic of the set, I guess. I checked my archive, but I don’t appear to have such a drawing myself, sorry. Maybe somebody reading this can help.
I’ve always been intrigued by Abel’s concept of V’Ger. It would be amazing to see an “alternate” version of the movie made with CG renderings of the Abel version of the “living machine” replacing the Trumbull version.
Completely agree with you. I would love to see that version of V’Ger. It sounds so amazingly creative, and totally different to the one of the film. Much more organic, like a true living organism. Thank you so much for this website, photos, interviews, etc. I never came across all this information before and it is outstanding!
An amazing site, thank you so much for the background and detail to one of my favorite films.
Thank you for the kind words!
I’m in love with all this amazing never seen before content! Thank you so much for sharing it. How I would LOVE to see this version of V’Ger done nowadays… and as close as possible to these wonderful concepts and ideas. I love the iridescent texture idea as well the micro components and the “island” where the Voyager is. Such a pity it was not done…

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Character Analysis

Despite V'Ger's penchant for wanton destruction, we can't help but like the little weirdo. It might be acting out, but we can certainly relate to the feeling of not knowing what you need, but simply knowing that you need something .

It's kind of like every time we stand in front of a vending machine. We don't know if we need Doritos or Skittles…we just know that we need.

Started From the Bottom

In a way, V'Ger has a classic rags-to-riches tale. Born Voyager VI, a poor unmanned space probe from the planet Earth, it was caught in a black hole before being saved by a society of sentient machines.

And these guys didn't just nurse him back to health—they gave him a major upgrade. From there, V'Ger continued its travels, now armed with this pesky thing called "self-awareness" and an overwhelming desire to reunite with its Creator.

That's about when the movie starts. If we accept Spock's claim that V'Ger is nothing more than a "child," then its destruction seems a lot like a temper tantrum. It's a way to get attention.

Like a tween experiencing the blinding rage of hormones, V'Ger is no longer content with simply doing what it's told. It wants to understand why .

Learning the Ropes

What's more, V'Ger doesn't seem to understand these strange biological creatures it keeps encountering—they're nothing like the form of life it's used to. So you can understand its shock when it discovers that humanity is its Creator. How is V'Ger supposed to comprehend that with all of its "pure logic?"

As it turns out, the answer is "by merging with humanity." This presents a bold leap forward for V'Ger—an entity that's no stranger to bold leaps. From unmanned probe to self-aware machine to robot-human hybrid, V'Ger is making moves and rising up the pecking order in the universe.

Good for you, little buddy.

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May 5, 2022

Star Trek The Motion Picture-A Complete History of V'Ger Origins

 At over 97,000 meters in length, the entity known as V'Ger is not something any race can ignore. When it entered Federation space, it eliminated everything that scanned or approached it. Though, its origins would not be discovered until the climax of the movie.

Although did you know that further media would reveal more about this lifeform's strange creation? We have collated the information available about all the V'Ger origins and how they unfold into its story. Below, you can learn everything there is to know, so when you see it on-screen, you can do so with a full understanding of the events that led to its arrival.

V'Ger's Canon Origins

In the real world, the entity called V'Ger first appeared in the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture. A Director's Edition 4k streaming version of which is currently available on Paramount Plus.

By the end of this movie, you discover V'Ger's fictional origins. In the universe of Star Trek, the Voyager spacecraft missions did not end with Voyager 2. Instead, the probes continued for at least six iterations, with the last launching in 1999.

Voyager 6, the last of the probes, traveled as the others did through the solar system before Earth lost all contact. The Earth governments of the time did not realize that it was not destroyed. It had in fact, fallen through a black hole and re-emerged in another area of the universe.

Star Trek canon is unsure of where this area is. Speculation suggests that it could be anywhere from the other side of the galaxy to a different, extragalactic space.

First Contact

After emerging from the other side of the black hole, V'Ger encountered a planet of what it described as "living machines." These beings saw that Voyager was damaged and, seeing only the letters V, G, E, and R on its side, called it "V'Ger." The other letters were not visible due to damage to the spacecraft.

The living machines saw V'Ger as a primitive machine, but a member of their own kin. They also read Voyager's programming and understood that its creators had programmed it to learn everything that it could. These living machines took these instructions literally.

They rebuilt V'Ger, giving a sense of sentience as they understood it. They also reformed V'Ger's metal "body." This gave it highly advanced sensory equipment and data storage devices.

To protect it, these living machines also augmented V'Ger with the capability to defend itself. This would allow it to travel in relative safety.

As V'Ger began its long journey, it began to think for itself. As a machine, it could not think in terms of emotion, but only logic, and began to question its existence. It decided that it must find its creators to answer this question, and so started its journey back to Sector 001 , the Terran system, and Earth.

As V'Ger encountered the beings of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, it caused immense damage in its attempts to learn more. It considered carbon-based life to be an infestation. As such, it would remove it from its path as it continued inexorably towards the capital of the Federation.

Because of this, and not knowing what the entity was, Starfleet ordered the USS Enterprise to intercept and stop it. The Enterprise's V'Ger mission is cataloged in the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The Borg Theory

Several places in Star Trek lore suggest that V'Ger and the Borg share a connection. You should note that these sources are not the same as the canon of Star Trek movies or TV. As such, they may be contradicted elsewhere.

In the 90s and 00s, William Shatner penned a series of Star Trek novels alongside a team of other writers. These "Shatnerverse" stories depict events after Star Trek: Generations. Despite his death in that movie, they deal with the ongoing legacy of Captain James T. Kirk .

Within them, we learn that V'Ger landed on the Borg homeworld of the Delta Quadrant. Here, an early iteration of the Borg are the ones who create V'Ger and sent it back towards the Alpha Quadrant.

Star Trek: Legacy

While not an origin of V'Ger per se, this depiction does contradict other depictions of the Borg and V'Ger. In the video game "Star Trek: Legacy" - V'Ger created the Borg.

After Captain William Decker merged with V'Ger, it moved out into the galaxy. Here, it used this merging as a pattern for the creation of more cybernetic creatures.

As V'Ger's Borg expanded, they needed a single unifying voice to calm their collective consciousness. Out of that need, a Borg Queen was born who soon overruled V'Ger's demands.

Star Trek: Nero

Shortly before the movie "Star Trek" was released in 2009, several prequel comics emerged that talked about the character Nero. Nero, a Romulan, along with the help of the Tal Shiar, had retrofitted his mining vessel Narada with Borg nanoprobes.

While not specifically confirmed in the TV show, Star Trek: Picard did reveal that the Romulans had access to Borg technology. This was in the form of a disabled Borg cube that they performed research on.

After the Narada is upgraded, it takes Nero to V'Ger in this alternate timeline. V'Ger recognizes the Narada as kin , suggesting that the Borg connection is more than only due to being electronic in nature.

Many fans have taken this to mean that these apocryphal sources are accurate. Thus, they believe the Borg are the "living machines" that V'Ger encounters.

More on V'Ger Origins and Other Trek Facts

As a Star Trek fan, you should now have a much denser understanding of Star Trek theories and lore. Maybe now you are a big fan of V'Ger or the original Constitution-class Enterprise. Either way, you probably want to show off your love for the Trek universe.

We supply memorabilia from every corner of the world. You may even want your own V'Ger model now that you understand the V'Ger origins. If so, we have them available, so grab one today .

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V'Ger (with the alternate spelling of Vejur [4] ) was an extraordinary machine entity encountered by the Federation in 2273 . The entity's surrounding energy cloud was over two AUs in diameter and generated amounts of radiation rivalling the heliosphere of Sol . The luminescent cloud interior was measured to be a level of 12th power energy.

  • 3 Aftermath
  • 4 Alternate reality
  • 5.1 Connections
  • 5.2 External links

History [ ]

The size and power of V'Ger worried all in the Federation, when it was detected on a direct heading for Earth , at a sustained velocity of Warp factor 7. The interior of the spacecraft seemed to be capable of holding a crew of tens of thousands or a crew of a thousand-each ten miles tall.

With the entity being over 54.3 hours from Earth, Starfleet rushed the refit of the USS Enterprise , so that it could be launched in time to intercept V'Ger . After penetrating the huge entity and traveling to the center, Admiral James T. Kirk and his crew encountered V'Ger, who proceeded to send a probe that "absorbed" Enterprise navigator Ilia ; with all of her memories and personality. "She" returned in the form of the now-deceased Lieutenant : wearing her casual attire and equipped with a transmitter /receiver (or, tranceiver combination). Soon after, the Enterprise crew discovered that V'Ger was actually the NASA probe, Voyager 6 , which had been launched from Earth in 1999 , entered a black hole which transported the probe across time and space to another part of the universe, where it was encountered by an advanced civilization of living machines. These sentient machines turned Voyager 6 into a like member of their race, giving V'Ger sentience and sending it off to complete the mission which the once Voyager 6 was originally assigned to.

Decker V'Ger

Decker joining with V'Ger

V'ger and C'qer

V'ger and C'qer in 2411 .

Over the hundreds of years it took to return home, V'Ger took its mission to heart and learn everything it could to extremes, as it absorbed everything it was exposed to, and having learned everything, wanted to return to Earth to impart its knowledge (by old-style radio waves) and join with its Creator . Realizing that the fate of Earth was in their hands, Commander Willard Decker joined with the entity and programmed the information it needed to transmit its data. Once the two were joined, the entity evolved onto another plane of existence and headed for the Andromeda Galaxy . ( TOS movie : Star Trek: The Motion Picture ; TOS - Star Trek II Short Stories short story : " To Wherever "; TOS novel : Ex Machina )

After encountering the Borg , it was believed that the planet V'Ger landed on was the Central Node and that V'Ger was simply another branch of the Borg Collective that assimilated through the use of energy. ( TOS novel : The Return )

Voyager6

V'Ger's core.

However, the Vulcan scientist T'Uerell , after deciphering the secrets of the Borg Collective , uncovered evidence that it was V'Ger who first created the Collective to serve as heralds in its search for its Creator. However, the Borg strayed from their original purpose as the Borg Queen assumed more power. ( ST video game : Legacy )

It is believed that Leviathan , another massive sentient machine, was related to V'Ger and possibly from the same machine planet. ( VOY comic : " Leviathan ")

Aftermath [ ]

Starfleet termed this crisis the V'Ger mission .

The evolution of V'Ger had some wide ranging effects on the rest of the Federation and beyond. On Daran IV , Dovraku and his "Faithful" viewed this as a Sign that the time had come to reinstate the Oracle of the People 's control over the Fabrini . ( TOS novel : Ex Machina )

On planet Mestiko , the defeat of this threat to Earth was used as proof that the Federation could have defended their world from the destructive effects of " the Pulse " and opted not to in order to subjugate the Payav race. ( TOS - Mere Anarchy eBook : The Darkness Drops Again )

The entity known as the Leviathan was believed to have had some connection with V'Ger. ( VOY comic : " Leviathan ")

Alternate reality [ ]

Narada and VGer

The Narada meets V'Ger .

In the Kelvin timeline , V'Ger detected the arrival of the Narada when it emerged in 2233 . Still in the Delta Quadrant as of 2258 , V'Ger, seeing the sentient Narada as a kindred spirit, made contact with the vessel when it was moored in orbit of Rura Penthe , summoning its kin to itself. As V'Ger communicated with the Narada , Nero exploited his own telepathic link with the Narada to commune with V'Ger. After scanning the Narada , V'Ger brought Nero to its core where the two learnt of the other's life. Though V'Ger attempted to assimilate Nero, it found itself unable to process his hatred. Nero however was able to exploit this connection in order to use V'Ger's powerful computers to calculate where and when Spock would emerge from the black hole. From V'Ger memory banks, he noted that the technology that the living machines had used to enhance Voyager 6 was related to the Borg in some way and that both were "children of an ancient, unknown civilization." ( TOS - Nero comic : " Number Three ")

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ], external links [ ].

  • V'Ger article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
  • List_of_Star_Trek_characters_(T–Z)#V'Ger article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.
  • ↑ TOS movie : The Motion Picture .
  • ↑ ST reference : Star Trek Chronology .
  • ↑ STO - Terran Gambit mission : " The Fujiwhara Effect ".
  • ↑ TOS novelization : The Motion Picture by Gene Roddenberry .
  • 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
  • 2 Achilles class
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V'Ger is the main antagonist of the 1979 science fiction film Star Trek: The Motion Picture , the first installment in the Star Trek film series.

Biography [ ]

V'Ger was one of, if not the most powerful alien entity ever encountered by the Federation. The entity itself was the size of the island of Maui on Earth, while it generated a cloud measuring in at a staggering 82 AUs, making it large enough to envelope the entire solar system.

V'Ger was first identified in deep Klingon space, hidden in a massive cloud of energy, moving through the stars towards its final destination: Earth.

The cloud easily destroyed three of the Klingons' new K't'inga-class warships and the Federation monitoring station en route. Later on in the film, the newly refitted starship Enterprise intercepts the energy cloud. After getting the cloud to break off its attack on the Enterprise , Admiral Kirk orders the vessel to penetrate the cloud and discovers the massive vessel residing within. They then reach the front of the vessel and V'Ger then suddenly attacks the Enterprise. A probe appears on the bridge, attacks Spock and abducts the navigator, Ilia. V'Ger then uses its powerful tractor beam to move the Enterprise into its interior. Ilia suddenly reappears on the ship, now replaced by a robotic doppelganger, a probe sent by "V'Ger" to study the crew. Later, Spock takes an unauthorized spacewalk into V'Ger's core. He then minds melds with a massive model of Ilia in the center. Overloaded by information, Spock is knocked out. Later, after being rescued by Kirk, Spock reveals that V'Ger itself, is a living machine.

At the heart of the massive ship, V'Ger is revealed to be Voyager 6, a 20th-century Earth space probe believed lost. The damaged probe was found by an alien race of living machines that interpreted its programming as instructions to learn all that can be learned, and return that information to its creator. The machines upgraded the probe to fulfill its mission, and on its journey the probe gathered so much knowledge that it achieved consciousness.

Spock realizes that V'Ger lacks the ability to give itself a focus other than its original mission; having learned what it could on its journey home, it finds its existence empty and without purpose. Before transmitting all its information, V'Ger insists that the Creator come in person to finish the sequence. Realizing that the machine wants to merge with its creator, Decker offers himself to V'Ger, as he merges with the Ilia probe and V'Ger, creating a new form of life that disappeared from the physical realm.

A few weeks later, Spock had mental contact with Voyager while working to defuse a crisis on the Fabrini world ship Yonada . Afterwards Spock reported to Kirk that the part of Voyager that had been Decker seemed to be happy in his new life.

  • V'Ger is one of the few principal villains of the Star Trek movies to not be killed by the end of the movie. The others are the Whale Probe and Khan Noonien Singh (in the alternate reality).
  • V'Ger is memorable for being the first ever main antagonist in a Star Trek film.
  • For the 2001 Director's Edition of The Motion Picture , the size was scaled down from 82 AUs to 2 AUs. While this seems drastic, 1 AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun, which still makes V'Ger one of the largest villains in Star Trek . In the novel Ex Machina the vessel itself is mentioned to be the size of Maui.
  • In the non-canon novel The Return , V'Ger is revealed to be upgraded with Borg technology, which would make it the first Borg introduced in the Star Trek series.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Leonard nimoy: spock.

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Photos 

Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and DeForest Kelley in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Quotes 

Commander Spock : V'Ger must evolve. Its knowledge has reached the limits of this universe and it must evolve. What it requires of its god, doctor, is the answer to its question, "Is there nothing more"?

Commander Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D. : What more is there than the universe, Spock?

Commander Willard Decker : Other dimensions. Higher levels of being.

Commander Spock : The existence of which cannot be proven logically. Therefore, V'Ger is incapable of believing in them.

Captain James T. Kirk : What it needs in order to evolve... is a human quality. Our capacity to leap beyond logic.

Commander Willard Decker : And joining with its creator might accomplish that.

Commander Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D. : You mean this machine wants to physically join with a human? Is that possible?

Commander Willard Decker : Let's find out.

[Kirk sees Spock crying for V'ger] 

Commander Spock : Each of us... at some time in our lives, turns to someone - a father, a brother, a God... and asks..."Why am I here? What was I meant to be?"

[after Spock comments that, mentally, V'ger is a child] 

Commander Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D. : Spock, this "child" is about to wipe out every living thing on Earth. Now, what do you suggest we do? Spank it?

Commander Spock : It knows only that it needs, Commander. But, like so many of us... it does not know what.

Commander Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D. : Spock, you haven't changed a bit. You're just as warm and sociable as ever.

Commander Spock : Nor have you, doctor, as your continued predilection for irrelevancy demonstrates.

Captain James T. Kirk : Mr. Scott! Shall we give the Enterprise a proper shakedown?

Cmdr. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott : I would say it's time for that, sir. Aye. We can have you back on Vulcan in four days, Mr. Spock.

Commander Spock : Unnecessary, Mr. Scott. My task on Vulcan is completed.

Captain James T. Kirk : Mr. Sulu, ahead warp 1.

Commander Willard Decker : [1:19:01]  Why bring us inside? Not to destroy us. They could have done that outside

Captain James T. Kirk : They still can

Spock : Curiosity, Mister Decker. Insatiable curiosity

Commander Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D. : [referring to Spock's time on Vulcan]  Yes, you were undergoing the "Kolanear" discipline.

Commander Spock : If you are referring to the Kolinahr, Doctor, you are correct.

Commander Spock : Jim... This... simple feeling is beyond V'ger's comprehension.

[the Ilia-probe sees Decker for the first time] 

Lt. Ilia : Decker?

Spock : [aside to Kirk]  Fascinating. Not "Decker-unit".

Commander Willard Decker : [1:17:57]  Captain, a maximum phaser strike directly at the beam might weaken it just enough to break free

Spock : Break free to where, Commander? Any show of resistance would be futile, captain

Commander Willard Decker : We don't know that, Mr. Spock. Why are you opposed to trying?

Spock : [49:17]  Permission to come aboard

Lt. Pavel Chekov : Permission granted, sir! Permission... granted.

Captain James T. Kirk : Evaluation, Mr. Spock.

Spock : Fascinating.

Captain James T. Kirk : Spock.

Commander Spock : Jim. I should have known.

Captain James T. Kirk : [seeing the incoming energy bolt approaching]  Analysis, Mister Spock?

Spock : Alien weapon is a form of plasma energy, Captain. Exact composition: unknown. Guidance system: unknown.

Captain James T. Kirk : Will our deflector screens hold it?

Spock : Impossible to calculate.

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

star trek the motion picture v'ger

Star Trek: The Motion Picture ( Paramount Pictures , 1979 ) is the first feature film based on the popular science fiction television series , Star Trek: The Original Series .

Versions and dialogue

Transporter chief.

  • Enterprise, what we got back didn't live long... fortunately.

Leonard McCoy

  • It learns fast, doesn't it?
  • Your child is having a tantrum, Mr. Spock!
  • Spock, this child is about to wipe out every living thing on Earth. Now, what do you suggest we do? Spank it?
  • Well, Jim, I hear Chapel's an M.D. now. Well I'm going to need a top nurse... not a doctor who will argue every little diagnosis with me. And they probably redesigned the whole sick bay, too! I know engineers—they love to change things.
  • This simple feeling, is beyond V'Ger's comprehension.
  • 2001 Director's Edition only.
  • "82 AUs" in 1979 theatrical version and 1983 television version, "two AUs" in 2001 Director's Edition.
  • Preceding dialogue in 2001 Director's Edition. Following dialogue included in all versions of the film.
  • 1983 television version
  • Concluding lines
  • Closing text

External links

  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture quotes at the Internet Movie Database
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture at StarTrek.com

star trek the motion picture v'ger

  • Star Trek films
  • 1970s American films
  • Films based on television series
  • Films directed by Robert Wise
  • Films about revenge
  • Films about artificial intelligence

Den of Geek

Comparing The Three Versions of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Is there a definitive version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture at last? We compared all the different versions of this misunderstood movie to find out.

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The Starship Enterprise in Star Trek; The Motion Picture

Some 44 years after it went into production, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is finally complete.

We don’t say that frivolously. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one of Hollywood’s most famous “unfinished” films. Rushing to meet a December 7, 1979 release date, with many of the visual effects being completed right up until the last possible minute by Douglas Trumbull (who had replaced the previous VFX supervisor), director Robert Wise ( The Day the Earth Stood Still , The Sound of Music ) pretty much just stopped working on the film, carrying the first available print on a plane to the movie’s Washington D.C. premiere.

The complicated story of how ST: TMP – the first major motion picture based on an existing TV series — was developed, written, filmed, and released is a long, winding one that has been told before. It’s also well-known that the original theatrical version of the film – the one that Wise had to deliver finished or not – was not well-received by either fans or critics, although it became a sizable box office success.

Yet Star Trek: The Motion Picture steadily grew in stature over the years, gradually beginning to hold its own with fans even as later favorites like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ascended to the top of the franchise.

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With fans and even critics constantly reappraising the original film, Paramount Pictures – with the encouragement of two members of Robert Wise’s production company, David C. Fein and Michael Matessino – allowed Wise and his team to revisit the movie in 2001, reconstructing it to finally adhere more closely to Wise’s original vision.

The release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition in November 2001 on home video (DVD and VHS) confirmed for many fans that there was a far better film after all hidden inside the “rough cut” (Wise’s own words) released in 1979. Scenes were excised or trimmed, a few were reinstated, and most importantly, the visuals were spruced up with the help of CGI. The legendary Wise, who passed away four years later in 2005, got the chance to finish the movie the way he wanted.

But the story wasn’t over yet.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Reborn

Earlier this year, Paramount+ premiered a 4K Ultra HD (high definition) version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition . Prepared over the course of six months by Fein, Matessino, and a visual effects team with access to Paramount’s archives, this iteration of ST: TMP stayed true to the vision established by Wise for The Director’s Edition in 2001, while doing a further, extensive, HD restoration and upgrade of the entire film.

Now the Ultra HD Director’s Edition , along with 4K Ultra HD versions of the original theatrical cut and the “Special Longer Version” that was created for broadcast television in 1983, are available in a newly released set called The Complete Adventure , which gives us a definitive document of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in all three versions, looking perhaps the best they’ll ever look ( The Director’s Edition is also available on its own or as part of a set containing Ultra HD upgrades of all six films starring the original Trek cast).

Having seen the film in its original theatrical release, then on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray, we were always put off by the seeming drabness of the image and the colors. To our eyes, Star Trek: The Motion Picture – despite the occasionally awe-inspiring visuals it did manage to pull off against all odds – never seemed to pop off any screen or medium we watched it on.

That problem is now solved, and overpoweringly so: the film in 4K Ultra HD looks absolutely magnificent, as if we’re truly seeing the film for the first time.

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Yes, many of the VFX have been digitally enhanced or even freshly recreated, but they’re integrated almost seamlessly into the original aesthetic of the film, while many of the rough spots in the original release have been repaired or replaced. Now the 4K image really does leap off the screen in amazing color and detail. To watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture in this way is to watch a 44-year-old science fiction movie that looks in many ways like it was made last year.

And now that all three versions of the movie are here in this beautiful, pristine form, which one holds up the best and do they differ?

The Original Theatrical Cut

It may look better than it ever has, but the original theatrical cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture still has all the issues it had when it first came out. It’s slow-moving to the point of being inert, it spends way too much time on endless visuals (the first sight of the refurbished Enterprise , the lengthy flyover of the massive V’Ger spacecraft – heck, even Spock’s neck-pinch of some poor slob guarding an airlock takes way too long), and it leaves certain plot information and character motivations ambiguous at best and absent at worst.

What ST: TMP does retain is a sense of grandeur, and occasionally a sense of wonder, that often marked the best of the original series and has been sadly lacking in so much filmed science fiction ever since, including later Trek movies and TV series.

So many of the later movies – especially the J.J. Abrams-conceived Kelvin trilogy , but some of the classic and Next Generation films have the same problem – revolve around fairly simple bad guy/revenge motifs.

The original series had its share of those simple action-adventure episodes, but so much more of it was dedicated to great ideas – whether it be truly alien encounters, mirror universes, or moral quandaries posed by the Enterprise sticking its saucer in a new planet’s business.

And yes, even though Star Trek: The Motion Picture is in some ways a rewrite of the original series episode “The Changeling,” it’s much more expansive and even cosmic in its implications. While several later Trek films are superior in many ways, few of them have matched ST: TMP in its ambitions and pure science fiction concepts.

The acting is inconsistent, to say the least, although all our old favorites each have a memorable moment or two, and the glacial pacing really is at odds with the imagination glimpsed in the storyline and the visuals. In many ways, the theatrical cut remains a slog, but it’s also a one-of-a-kind Trek movie.

The ‘Special Longer Version’

Star Trek: The Motion Picture premiered on American network television – ABC, to be exact – on February 20, 1983. Not only was this the first TV showing of the movie, but it also introduced a different cut of the film that came to be known as the “Special Longer Version.” Running for two hours and 24 minutes (without commercials), as opposed to the theatrical cut’s two hours and 12 minutes, the “SLV” essentially incorporated a number of scenes that were left unfinished and kept out of the picture by director Robert Wise in 1979 – who apparently did not approve of this version.

A lot of the scenes that were added back into the movie for the “SLV” were and are clearly extraneous, although in some cases amusing to watch.

There are a couple of exchanges between Sulu (George Takei) and the Deltan navigator Ilia (Persis Khambatta) – whose species is apparently quite sexually attractive and active – that are possibly meant to suggest Sulu is coming under her spell, although they were jettisoned to focus on Ilia and Decker’s (Stephen Collins) relationship (there is also more of that present in this cut).

Other sequences – like a moment in which Spock (Leonard Nimoy) weeps for V’Ger and a quick scene of Ilia helping to relieve Chekov’s (Walter Koenig) pain after he is injured – actually made it into the Director’s Cut and work well there as improved character moments.

Most infamously, the original release of the “SLV” contained a literally unfinished shot of Kirk (William Shatner) leaving the Enterprise airlock in a spacesuit to pursue Spock as the Vulcan himself spacewalks deeper into V’Ger’s interior. When the “SLV” was first shown, parts of the soundstage around the airlock set were still visible, as a result of the effects for the scene never being completed (the new 4K Ultra HD version of the “SLV” rectifies that, although the incomplete version is provided as a bonus feature).

Importantly, the new version of the “SLV” has restored it to its theatrical matting – the movie was cropped to the old TV screen ratio of 1.33: 1 for broadcast (and for several subsequent home video releases), turning Wise’s widescreen compositions into a nightmare of forced zooms and pan-and-scanning. At least now this version of the film is restored to its proper ratio.

That said, the “Special Longer Version” is in many ways the worst version of the film. While it’s always interesting for completists to see footage left out of a theatrical movie, this iteration simply pastes all that material back into the film – ostensibly to fill a three-hour “network movie premiere” slot, back in the day when such things mattered – without any consideration of whether it should be there. If the pacing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture has always been a bone of contention for you, the “SLV” doubles down on that.

Leonard Nimoy as Spock, William Shatner as Kirk, and DeForest Kelley as McCoy in Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The Director’s Edition

Ironically enough, the Robert Wise-supervised “Director’s Edition” of Star Trek: The Motion Picture runs for two hours and 16 minutes – four minutes longer than the theatrical release. It also includes some of the scenes Wise left out initially, which surfaced in the interim in the TV version of the movie (a detailed list of alterations and additions can be found here ).

But while it still suffers from pacing issues, they’re less of a detriment. The Director’s Edition still moves slowly, but doesn’t feel like it drags, and there’s more of a stateliness to it that is befitting the movie’s larger themes – which are also given more clarity in this version.

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Perhaps the most important edition in that sense is the scene in which Spock weeps for V’Ger – a scene that makes it much clearer what V’Ger is seeking as it returns to Earth, and why its quest has reached a potentially catastrophic dead end.

More importantly, the scene also brings Spock’s own character arc in the film into much better focus – he realizes that his desire to purge all remaining emotion from his own life (the kolinahr ritual) could lead him to the same cold, empty existence that V’Ger now faces, which he firmly rejects.

Also retained is Ilia’s healing of Chekov, adding a little more nuance to what is mostly a blank slate of a character, as well as some brief interactions between the supporting crew members.

What is left out are, most notably, the full-length travelogues along V’Ger’s exterior and interior (although we do get a neat shot of the entire V’Ger vessel emerging from its cloud above Earth). The scenes are still there, but this material – and a number of other visuals – is trimmed and sharpened to give the movie a little more forward motion. Along with that, so many subtle visual and audio touches have been added – whether it’s better matte or CG backgrounds or original sounds from the TV series – to create more ambiance and an overall more fulfilling cinematic Trek experience.

When Wise and his team took the movie back into the shop in 2001, they overhauled the visuals and the sound mix with the best available technology at the time – yet the limitations back then in terms of resolution meant that the Director’s Edition was only available on DVD for the next 20 years. With the new upgrade, all the visual and sonic enhancements (plus new ones) have been rendered so that they can now be seen in 4K Ultra HD – thus giving Star Trek: The Motion Picture the most up-to-date restoration possible.

The result is an often eye-popping science fiction spectacle that looks fresher and better than ever before. As rushed as the original production was, it’s a tribute to Wise, Trumbull, and the team that completed the film in 1979 that so much of their work still holds up and was able to mesh so well with the enhancements of both 2001 and 2021.

But just as importantly, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now about as close as it will ever come to being the visionary sci-fi epic that it was first conceived as. The new version of The Director’s Edition retains all the narrative revisions that Wise made more than two decades ago, while adding the visual grandeur that such a cerebral story needed in the first place. Yes, there are still flaws in the film, and it may never replace, say, The Wrath of Khan at the top of Trek movie rankings, but more than four decades after it first came out, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is now finished.

This film’s journey is at last complete, but the human adventure is still just beginning.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition – The Complete Adventure is out now on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.

Don Kaye

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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The accompanying booklet features articles on the design of the ship and filming of the V’Ger sequences and is full of beautiful concept art.

If you’re looking for a striking model of an iconic ship that isn’t often given the model treatment, Eaglemoss’ special edition V’Ger is a good choice — and you can pick it up now for $49.99 in the US and for £24.99 in the UK web shop.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection (Includes: Star Trek IX: Insurrection, Star Trek VII: Generations, S

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All six original STAR TREK big-screen adventures come to 4K UHD in one must-have collection. Starring the original series cast, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan, all have been remastered with HDR-10 and Dolby Vision for optimum picture quality from their original film elements. This new collection includes STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE—THE DIRECTOR’S EDITION, in addition to the original theatrical cut, as well as the Director’s Cut of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN and STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. Packed with hours of special features, it is an essential STAR TREK collection for fans and beyond!

Product details

  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.89 x 5.39 x 2.01 inches; 1.08 Pounds
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ 4K
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ September 6, 2022
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner
  • Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ Portuguese, Spanish, French
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ PARAMOUNT
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B4FV39M4
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 15
  • #331 in Action & Adventure Blu-ray Discs

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Memory Alpha

The 2270s decade covers the period from 2270-2279.

V'ger evolving, remastered

V'ger enters its next evolutionary phase

  • The original USS Enterprise is refitted . ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )
  • V'ger heads for Earth . The IKS Amar and two other vessels attempt to intercept V'ger in Klingon space , but are vaporized out of existence by the energy cloud. ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )
  • Stardate 7410.2 : Admiral James T. Kirk assumes command of the USS Enterprise to intercept V'ger . ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )
  • Stardate 7414.1: The crew of the USS Enterprise encounter V'ger and guide it to enter its next evolutionary phase. ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture )

For information on dating the events of Star Trek The Motion Picture , see: Star Trek: The Motion Picture#Dating

  • Tuvok undergoes training with a Vulcan master in order to control his emotions. ( VOY : " Gravity ")
  • Pardek becomes a member of the Romulan Senate . ( TNG : " Unification I ")
  • Contact with the SS Artemis is lost on stardate 7780.85, and the ship eventually crash-lands on Tau Cygna V . Two thirds of the crew died of hyperonic radiation before the survivors manage to establish a colony , that by 2366 was thriving. ( TNG : " The Ensigns of Command ")

The year of these events was not outright stated, but the launch is said to have taken place ninety-two years before the episode . Since the survivors claimed to have been on the planet for over ninety years, the ship crashed sometime in or after 2274 but before the end of 2276.

  • Starfleet radically changes their uniform by 2278 . ( TNG : " Cause And Effect ")
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture

External link

  • 2270s at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
  • 2 Klingon augment virus
  • 3 Daniels (Crewman)

IMAGES

  1. REVIEW: Eaglemoss STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE V'Ger Model • TrekCore.com

    star trek the motion picture v'ger

  2. REVIEW: Eaglemoss STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE V'Ger Model • TrekCore.com

    star trek the motion picture v'ger

  3. REVIEW: Eaglemoss STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE V'Ger Model • TrekCore.com

    star trek the motion picture v'ger

  4. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

    star trek the motion picture v'ger

  5. REVIEW: Eaglemoss STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE V'Ger Model • TrekCore.com

    star trek the motion picture v'ger

  6. REVIEW: Eaglemoss STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE V'Ger Model • TrekCore.com

    star trek the motion picture v'ger

VIDEO

  1. Star Trek in the style of Alien & H.R. Giger

  2. Encounter with V'ger (Alternate)

  3. Tragic Update! Star Trek TNG's Top 10 USS Enterprise-D Bottle Episodes !Heartbreaking 😭! Shocked!

  4. Киногрехи

  5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture Is Better Than You Remember

  6. Meet V’ger

COMMENTS

  1. V'ger

    The physical size of V'ger has been the subject of speculation from the time Star Trek: The Motion Picture was first released, at the end of 1979. In the original theatrical release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the V'ger energy cloud is given a size measuring eighty-two au in diameter, in dialogue from the Epsilon IX commander, Branch.

  2. What becomes of V'ger at the end of Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

    The shooting script for Star Trek : The Motion Picture (as written by Gene Roddenberry & Harold Livingstone) makes it pretty clear that at the end of the film, V'Ger has travelled into another dimension; Kirk, Spock and McCoy stand transfixed another instant. Around them, V'ger seems to be TRANSFORMING INTO BRILLIANT, LOVELY PATTERNS.

  3. What Was V'Ger: Star Trek's Original Movie Villain Explained

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture pitted Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the USS Enterprise against V'Ger, a unique villain in the history of the Star Trek: The Original Series movies. Released in 1979, The Motion Picture was the first live action adventure for Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in a decade, following the cancelation of TOS in 1969.

  4. star trek

    Going by Star Trek spacial quadrant charts and information provided in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, V'ger ended up on the far side of the Beta Quadrant, not the Delta Quadrant. According to what was giving, the personnel on the Epsilon 9 station reported the Klingons attacking V'ger in quadrant L-14. This is deep in Klingon territory in the ...

  5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise. The Motion Picture is based on and stars the cast of the 1966-1969 television series Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, who serves as producer.In the film, set in the 2270s, a mysterious and powerful alien cloud known as V'Ger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path.

  6. V'GER's Ship in the Finally Finished Star Trek The Motion Picture

    Star Trek The Motion Picture was an unfinished film until now. Paramount+ commissioned a 4K/Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos upgrade, improved visual effects, and ad...

  7. Star Trek: The Motion Picture ("V'Ger" movie clip)

    About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright ...

  8. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Directed by Robert Wise. With William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan. When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it. ... In the 1979 and 1983 versions, the V'Ger cloud ...

  9. Star Trek: The Motion Picture Ending Explained: Something ...

    Decker, declaring his love for Ilia, steps onto a platform, and V'Ger begins to physically absorb him. It's a beautiful, almost spiritual experience. Ilia, feeling the love as well, steps onto the ...

  10. Designing the Living Machine

    After the planned pilot of the second Star Trek television series, "In Thy Image," became the basis for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Richard Taylor as art director assumed responsibility for designing the mysterious entity known as V'Ger (then still written as "Vejeur").Mike Minor had drawn a few concepts for Phase II.Tony Smith, brought in by Taylor, developed the entity further.

  11. V'Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture Character Analysis

    In a way, V'Ger has a classic rags-to-riches tale. Born Voyager VI, a poor unmanned space probe from the planet Earth, it was caught in a black hole before being saved by a society of sentient machines. And these guys didn't just nurse him back to health—they gave him a major upgrade. From there, V'Ger continued its travels, now armed with ...

  12. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

    Synopsis. In 2273, a Starfleet monitoring station, Epsilon Nine, detects an alien force, hidden in a massive cloud of energy, moving through space towards Earth. The cloud destroys three of the Klingon Empire's new K'I'Inga-class warships and the monitoring station on route. On Earth, the star ship Enterprise is undergoing a major refit; her ...

  13. Star Trek The Motion Picture-A History of V'Ger's Origins

    The Enterprise's V'Ger mission is cataloged in the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The Borg Theory. Several places in Star Trek lore suggest that V'Ger and the Borg share a connection. You should note that these sources are not the same as the canon of Star Trek movies or TV. As such, they may be contradicted elsewhere. The Return

  14. V'Ger

    (TOS movie: Star Trek: The Motion Picture; TOS - Star Trek II Short Stories short story: "To Wherever"; TOS novel: Ex Machina) Legacy [] After encountering the Borg, it was believed that the planet V'Ger landed on was the Central Node and that V'Ger was simply another branch of the Borg Collective that assimilated through the use

  15. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

    V'ger evolves into a higher form of existence after merging with Decker. ... Star Trek: The Motion Picture was one of the last heavily-marketed, non-animated big studio films with just a G rating, and the only Star Trek film to receive this rating (although in 2001, the director's cut got a PG for sci-fi action and mild language). Ever since ...

  16. V'Ger

    V'Ger is the main antagonist of the 1979 science fiction film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first installment in the Star Trek film series.. Biography []. V'Ger was one of, if not the most powerful alien entity ever encountered by the Federation. The entity itself was the size of the island of Maui on Earth, while it generated a cloud measuring in at a staggering 82 AUs, making it large ...

  17. Klingon Fight with V'ger

    More footage of the battle was shown being received by Epsilon IX in the original theatrical cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture than in the director's edition. Deleted from the latter edit was a computer voice which commented on the progress of the battle, including a description of the V'ger cloud and the line, "Imperial Klingon Cruiser Amar continuing to attack.

  18. The Movie Transcripts

    SULU: Forward motion stopped. ILIA PROBE: V'Ger. UHURA: Sir, I have located the source of V'Ger's radio signal, it's directly ahead. SPOCK: That transmitter is a vital link between V'Ger and it's Creator. ILIA PROBE: The carbon units will now provide V'Ger the required information. KIRK: Spock, Bones. Mister Decker. ...

  19. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

    Commander Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D. : Spock, you haven't changed a bit. You're just as warm and sociable as ever. Commander Spock : Nor have you, doctor, as your continued predilection for irrelevancy demonstrates. Captain James T. Kirk : Mr. Scott!

  20. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Paramount Pictures, 1979) is the first feature film based on the popular science fiction television series, Star Trek: The Original Series. Directed by Robert Wise. ... This simple feeling, is beyond V'Ger's comprehension. Dialogue [edit]

  21. Comparing The Three Versions of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture premiered on American network television - ABC, to be exact - on February 20, 1983. Not only was this the first TV showing of the movie, but it also introduced a ...

  22. REVIEW: Eaglemoss STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE V'Ger Model

    Eaglemoss might be able to help you out with that with their special edition V'Ger model. As a special edition, the V'Ger model is on the larger side, almost nine inches long and 3.5 inches wide at the flared center. Even so, at life size (up to 82 AU, if you believe the theatrical cut of The Motion Picture!), V'Ger is the largest in ...

  23. Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture Collection

    This new collection includes STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE—THE DIRECTOR'S EDITION, in addition to the original theatrical cut, as well as the Director's Cut of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN and STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. ... Mystery Behind V'Ger (4 min.)(HD), Deleted scenes (8 min.), Storyboards, Trailers & TV spots, BD ...

  24. Star Trek (film, 1979)

    Star Trek (engelska: Star Trek: The Motion Picture) hade biopremiär i USA den 12 juli 1979 [1] och var den första Star Trek-långfilmen av hittills totalt 12 stycken. ... Vi får då veta att främlingen kallar sig V'Ger och att denne är på jakt efter sin skapare som ska finnas på jorden. Mekanismen säger även att kolföreningarna ...

  25. 2270s

    (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) V'ger heads for Earth. The IKS Amar and two other vessels attempt to intercept V'ger in Klingon space, but are vaporized out of existence by the energy cloud. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) Stardate 7410.2: Admiral James T. Kirk assumes command of the USS Enterprise to intercept V'ger. (Star Trek: The Motion ...

  26. Star Trek, le film

    Star Trek, le film / La Patrouille du Cosmos (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) est un film américain de science-fiction réalisé par Robert Wise, sorti en 1979.C'est le premier film sorti sur grand écran adapté de l'univers Star Trek, créé par la série télévisée du même nom diffusée à partir de 1966.Adaptation cinématographique du pilote prévu pour la série Star Trek: Phase II ...