Watch: Original Star Trek: The Motion Picture Commercials – Now In HD

Our old friend visual effects artist, and super Trekkie, Daren Dochterman is up to his old tricks again. This time has has lovingly recreated the original commercials for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but now in HD. Check them out below.

 

The Human Adventure is Just Beginning – In HD

In 2000 life-long Star Trek fan and visual effects artist Daren Dochterman got the dream job of working with director Robert Wise on the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Directors Edition DVD. Daren, along with producer David Fine and Michael Matessino essentially "finished" TMP and produced the version Wise had originally hoped to put into theaters in 1979. Daren was responsible for creating much of the new digital effects for the project.

Unfortunately all of the effects done for the project were done in standard definition so when it came time to release all the Star Trek movies on Blu-ray in 2009, Paramount released the theatrical cut. The world of Trekkies still hopes that some day Paramount decides to give the Director’s Edition the Blu-ray treatment.

Until then, Daren decided he would go back to the original 1979 commercials for the film and "remaster" them in 1080i. While the Blu-ray featured original commercials, they were just upscaled to HD. Daren has actually re-cut the commercials using bits of the 2009 Blu-ray release. These new edits were exactly spliced together with the original audio track, including Orson Welles famous narration. He even replaced the mono music track with stereo! The result is a new set of commercials in HD.  

Dochterman tells TrekMovie he "just felt like doing it." And we are happy that he did.

So far Daren has done six of the commercials. Here they are with all there Orson Welles HD awesomeness.

Daren tells TrekMovie he will finish up the last two original commercials, but probably not the full trailers as those contained some graphics not seen in the films. Daren has also created a special playlist, so tune into that for more additions.

For those who are curious, Dochterman says there has not been any movement on Blu-ray version of the Director’s Edition for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He says he and the team are ready to jump into the project if/when Paramount decide to do it.

Keep up with Daren and learn more about his projects (including Star Trek: The Motion Pictures Directors Edition) at DarenDoc.com.

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ST;TMP in HD?

SUH-WEET!

I love this music but i wish they hadnt used a reworking of it for the next generation.
Greg
UK

You know, I actually got goosebumps from those trailers. The grandiose narration, the swelling and epic music, and the fantastical science fictional elements all work well really well together. I also liked the slower pace of the trailer — it felt well cut so you knew what you were looking at but without giving too much away — allowing you to really grow that anticipation.

I think this is what it may have felt like as a Star Trek fan in 1978 and being on the cusp of seeing returning old friends in a new adventure after years of reruns.

TMP may have its problems, but it still holds a special place in my heart because it was the only film to really focus on being a sci-fi adventure rather than an action-adventure movie. Which is not to say I don’t like the other movies, TWOK, TVH, TUC are all excellent Trek films, but TMP stands out as a unique entity compared to the rest of the movie canon.

The Enterprise looks great. Everything else looks… OK.

Great music and V’GER is still one of the most awesome things ever put on film.

Oh boy, do I remember these! Used to have them on beta tape, recorded off the TV when ST:TMP premiered. Nice to see them again in such clarity. :-)

FlyingWok: “I think this is what it may have felt like as a Star Trek fan in 1978 and being on the cusp of seeing returning old friends in a new adventure after years of reruns.”

You’re exactly right. I was there. :)

I got a question/comment, and since I don’t know any other place to post it, I will post it here:

What’s going on with the current production?????

Is it just me, or is there far less information about this production than the 2009 production?

Over a month into production and not one spy photo, no location information leaked from extras, or news helicopters, or passers by, not one “chat” from the set, no casting calls for extras, no information about locations being used or finished with, just no information at all really.

Is it just me? Seems like we were getting more tidbits of gosspe last time around.

What I find really interesting is to see the difference in the film’s rating over the years. When it was released to the theaters in 1979 it was rated G. When it was released on video and since, it’s been labeled as rated PG…

Makes me want to watch it again ASAP. Love this movie.

These are bad-ass! For those who don’t know, Orson Welles does the narration!

The ST:TMP Enterprise has never looked more beautiful before or since.

Unfortunately HD shows the flaws in the special effects.

There must be less than a dozen FX scenes in these spots. It was known that the FX were done pretty close to deadline, so these must have been the ones which were more or less complete. Nice job re-compiling the scenes in up-converted HD.

Orson Welles did not sound drunk, thank goodness, like he is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5LkDNu8bVU

They look awesome – wow!!! Thanks to Daren Dochterman. I hope he gets the nod to do the director’s cut HD effects.

Cool. Dig it.

looks great love the enterprise

I miss Orson Welles.

Those included on the Blu ray disc do bug me! Don’t appear to be in the correction preportions. A 4:3 image stretched to 16:9, with no way of correcting it. Unless you go back to the Director’s Edition Disc 2.

Anthony, heads up:
“In 2000 life-long Star Trek fan and visual effects artist Daren Dochterman got the dream job of working with director Robert Wise on the Star Trek: The Next Generation Directors Edition DVD.”

It was a Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition DVD.

18. Correction – “Don’t appear to be in the correct proportions.”

I liked the Director’s Edition of TMP….but I have a gripe and a question which I don’t think was ever answered? My gripe with the DE is that they replaced the Enterprise’s klaxons with a cheap sounding one that mimicked the TOS one. I actually liked the klaxons and the Enterprise’s “voice” in the theatrical version. Maybe if Darren reads this he can expound on this on the reasoning to eliminate the origInal klaxon and voice and replace it. Also, why weren’t the new visual effects rendered for 1080p?

To me “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” is just a rework of TOS episode “The Changeling.” The FX on these are awesome. Great job.

They should do a remake of this movie with the Jonas brothers!

Terrific stuff. TMP was so innovative. Not without flaws, but, dammit, I love it.

@21 I thought I was the only one that liked the original voice and claxons better than the 2001 version. I was kind of hoping that I could get both on blu-ray and make an ultimate version that gets the best of both worlds at some point. too bad we’re still not getting the 2001 version.

Challenge my intellect? I still think this is one of the best, but it wasn’t all that challenging.

@23. Only if the Jonas Brothers are remade with Shatner and Nimoy on lead.

@ 3. FlyingWok

Well said. My sentiments exactly. ST:TMP stands as my favorite of the movie series mainly because of this.

Great job, and I urge Paramount to commission TMP:DE HD!

TMP should be re-released in 3D rather than TPM.

Slice it any way you like, as a Trek fan who saw it at the theater on it’s opening night, for those of us who had, at that time, only the 79 TOS episodes and the 22 animated episodes committed to film, it was gratifying to see Trek finally get the Cadillac treatment from Hollywood. Today, the inmates run the asylum, and run it damn well…..the movie artists of today grew up with “Trek”, “Star Wars”, and so much more….they know what we like because they like it too.

“Star Wars” completely blindsided Hollywood in 1977. Consider that “Logan’s Run” had come out only a year before, and the big SF hit of 1977 was supposed to be “Damnation Alley”. Movies were product they moved. Movies were business. The holders of the means of production had no idea what we’d like, because had no way to know WHY.

TMP has its problems, but in context, it proved “Star Trek” could earn. It pulled it from the attic and kept it alive long enough for those with a counter-cultural sensibility to have grown up enough to produce it for themselves.

“Red alert red alert….ship is on red alert ..”

I can well remember the 70s no trek except for TAS…then the news conference…and finally the film…I was much like the portrayal in Free Enterprise..We (the fans) had n o say back then what you saw was what you got..I remember o pening every issue of Starlog to Susan Sacketts column. (Thank you Kerry Oquinn and Susan Sackett).
One comment everyone had their introduction scene..and the Enterprise had hers …if not for that exposition the original fan would have felt cheated,and I still remember my heart thumping at the sight of Kirk in the tram window.
Love my trek

I’ve grown to love this movie.

But rated G? I remember seeing this on video when I was a kid and being disturbed, borderline terrified by the transporter accident. PG is more like it.

Love this film, love the Director’s Edition. Far too underrated for being VERY much a Star Trek movie.

Nice job! Love the bluray of the theatrical release…now they need to let DD work on a high def version of the movie, the way Wise intended it to be.

Still my favorite Star Trek movie of all time — I’d love to see the Director’s Edition get a BluRay release. (So far it looks like only the theatrical version is available).

The Director’s Edition DVD was a nice improvement to the original version, a bit of a shame Paramount didn’t release that one on the DVD.
The flaws in the SFX are really glaring in the current Blu Ray; some of them were irritating when I first saw it in the theater way back when, even though I was thrilled by the simple fact that Trek was back.
In the 1970s, hard information was hard to come by during the hiatus from new productions, almost as hard as it is to come by in this enlightened, communications enhanced age.
TMP was the movie that was the truest to Roddenberry’s vision of Trek, although I sometimes wish that Paramount hadn’t locked so firmly and so early onto ‘In Thy Image’ as the theme for the movie. Paramount seemed to want something to parallel 2001: A Space Oddysey, hence the ponderous pacing and lack of action laden conflict.
The cuts they made to get it a G rating were wholly unnecessary since a PG rating would not have cut revenue and might have actually enhanced it.
Having a finished third act before filming might have been helpful to the final film too.

There’s a long list of classic movies I’d like to see on an IMAX screen.
TMP is one of them.

One of the forgotten taglines for STTMP “A 23rd Century Odessey Now” it had an amazing poster too….

I saw the “Unfinished” commercial as a 12-year-old kid and was never so excited in my life!

First, thank your TrekMovie for these trailers. And WOW. WOW. WOW. Love that Jerry Goldsmith theme. It makes me ready for the human adventure.

I will pre-order a re-done TMP. I know there’s not a lot of love for it, but I still feel it a very under appreciated TREK, and the era between TMP and TWOK a great unexplored series of adventures.

And ditto what #7 said re/”You’re right. And I was there.” Me too.

With the exception of DivinePower, they really seem dated by todays standards, and yet I remember these as making the hair stand up on the back of my neck (I was 14 at the time).

The standout in the way it introduces the world of Star Trek was DivinePower – I think it would hold up today.

That Enterprise just stands head and shoulders over the 2009 Enterprise. Very possibly the most beautiful space vessel ever seen on film.

TMP has it flaws, but the refit Enterprise was not among them.

#44.

Damn straight!

#44-

Totally agree. The refit E is in a class all her own. No subsequent version comes close.

How badass would V’Ger be in IMAX 3D?

I may have to watch TMP tonight-must underrated of all the films and one of my faves.

You know that’s an idea. I would pay to see TMP in 3D for the crazy ass V’GER effects.

The late, GREAT Orson Welles really gives those commercials a gravity they’d have otherwise not had in such abundance. He is one of my all-time idols; so much so, that on Halloween a couple of years ago, he was my costume!

;-D

And kudos to Darren Dochterman and his work. Not only on these spots, but also his exemplary work on ST-TMP the director’s cut. In fact, after I saw these spots yesterday on Ain’tItCoolNews, I watched a bit of the dvd of ST-TMP this morning. The improvements (visually, aurally and editorially) were subtle, seamless and organic to the movie. Everything the increasingly loopy versions of the Star Wars movies aren’t.

Shame they haven’t remastered this version for Blu Ray….

TMP is the movie that is most reverent of the Enterprise. It understands that the ship is one of the most important characters. Khan used it to great effect, but TMP is still the best. Those long, lingering shots as Scotty flies Kirk to the ship are fantastic. Robert Wise really got it.

As for the fixes, my favorite is the slipping matte lines that occur when the probe crosses the ship’s view screen. You could clearly see one side dip below the other and it really bothered me.

Now that’s gone. The rest is “sauce for the goose” and is wonderful stuff as well.

I remember a couple of these commercials. They really got me riled to see the film, and I went to it three times in the theater.

#49

I love TMP, but its biggest problem is that it’s so reverent of the Enterprise it forgot that we’re interested in the people inside of her, too.