2018-07-02, 05:43 AM
![[Image: oe7WZwy.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/oe7WZwy.jpg)
In the vein of my earlier Where Eagles Dare project, this reconstruction attempts to recreate the experience of viewing Star Trek: The Motion Picture at a UK cinema from 1979 to 1980. The video and audio sources used for the main feature are as close as possible to those originally seen and heard on release, and the movie is preceded by a reel of vintage ads and trailers to recapture the feel of a cinema visit in the late 70s.
The Film
Paramount's 2009 Blu-ray of ST:TMP was clean and reasonably detailed, but excessive DNR left a very digital-looking finish, with colour that was either revisionist or simply ignorant as to the original look. Fortunately, Sky's HDTV broadcasts come from an altogether different master, whose grain and colour (as well as a fair bit of print wear and dirt!) present a considerably more authentic experience (see various other threads for discussions of these sources' relative merits, most recently iguanaclerk's sterling work on the DC version).
Aside from moderate compression artefacting, Sky's broadcast has one other major shortcoming: the subtitles for the alien language scenes, which have been cheaply rendered in a generic Trek-ish font. Fortunately, the Blu-ray - while no more authentic in this regard - uses softsubs for those scenes, so it was possible to replicate the original font and placement using the 1991 widescreen laserdisc (https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/11219/LV8...on-Picture) as a reference.
The same laserdisc provides the main audio track for this release, a stereo PCM transfer of the theatrical Dolby Stereo. The TrueHD 7.1 from the BD is included as a second track for those who prefer a more modern soundfield. (It's worth noting that, while 70mm 6-track prints existed, they weren't used during the original run - the best experience available at the time would have been the 35mm Dolby Stereo).
Naturally, this is the theatrical edit.
The Intro
The original Star Trek movies were initially distributed by CIC in the UK (UIP for the later instalments). The ABC cinema chain had priority for this series, so those cinemas (along with the Empire in Leicester Square) would have been the most likely places to have seen TMP in December 1979.
Along with ads and trailers, I've also included one of the last Movietone newsreels from that year.
Big thanks:
Chewtobacca for help with the framerate-corrected Sky HD source
ILoveWaterslides for the CIC logo recreation
Now up at the 'spleen.
