"Other people have birthdays..."

"...why are we treating yours like a funeral?"



25 years ago today. Wow. (Poltergiest is also today, E.T. is next week.) I had a cousin who bet me that I couldn't get up in the morning before he did, and if I did he'd take me to Star Trek. Fool.

James Horner opens the film with Alexander Courage's fanfare. This IS Star Trek. (Of course, now when kids watch The Motion Picture they just assume that they've redone the music with the Star Trek: The Next Generation theme.) Then, since we all heard Spock was going to die (this is before the internet, remember?), well, they kill Spock. Right up front. Suckers. Then Kirk gets his ENTRANCE. I mean his entrance in TMP was pretty cool, but this was IT. Picard never got an entrance like this. Ever.

Kirk turning 50 made him ANCIENT. 15 years since the TV show (THE TV show, mind you) was FOREVER. And let us not forget (*SPOILERS*) THEY KILLED SPOCK. This was a big deal back then. Now... Well, it's a lot more run of the mill than it should be. Sometimes you get Captain Jack Sparrow, sometimes you get Jean Gray. (Speaking of which, Bryan Singer totally lifted the end of Trek II for X2. And it still worked.)

This was the movie that really got the Star Trek movie series going. I loved The Motion Picture (The Motionless Picture, The Slow Motion Picture, Where Nomad Has Gone Before, etc.) but this is the one that put the spark back in the whole thing and got it moving again. Sadly, they never got this good again. Ah, well.