A big-scale episode of the television series

The Motion Picture is, on several levels, a big budget, big-scale episode of the television series. The trick when adapting a show like Star Trek to the silver screen is to pay respects, and preferably adhere, to the spirit of the source material whilst providing general movie going patrons reason enough to spend two hours in the theatre with the crew of the Enterprise. On the whole, Robert Wise’s picture is a serviceable, occasionally inspiring cinematic rendition of the 60s series. What it lacks, to a degree, in thematic pathos, it makes up for in characterizations. The planetoid gas-like entity, eventually known as ‘V Ger’, is an appropriately threatening menace, albeit one that doesn’t inspire much that relates to modern society, unlike so many antagonists from the show. http://www.cutprintfilm.com/features/star-trek-retrospective/