Coming up on April 5th (also known as Star Trek Day) Paramount+ is releasing a 4K UHD upgrade of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition, with a physical media release coming this fall. This has been a highly anticipated legacy Star Trek project ever since it was teased back in 2019. Work on the new edition reunited the original 2001 DVD DE production team of producer David C. Fein, restoration supervisor Mike Matessino, and visual effects supervisor Daren R. Dochterman. TrekMovie had a chance to talk with producer David C. Fein about bringing director Robert Wise’s “final cut” into the modern era.
Can you talk us through how difficult it was to make this project finally happen?
There is no better time for this to have ever happened, as now. Now is the time when the breakthroughs that we’ve had technologically really delivered on what we could do, and how we can make it so much better than it ever was before. So how it happened? Of course, we did the original work in 1999, and the film [The Director’s Edition] came out in 2001. That was always intended as the work cut to show the studio to go back and do it on film. We were thrilled with it, but it couldn’t hit everything. It could hit what would be possible from DVD standards, and the studio was thrilled because that’s where the studio was making the money at the time. We presented it to them, and they said: “This is beautiful. This is wonderful, thank you. But we don’t see a reason to go to high def right now.”
So things change over the years. It was incredibly important to [Robert Wise] that his legacy be The Director’s Edition, because he always was very upset that the theatrical wasn’t finished, and it meant the world to him that The Director’s Edition was. So having to watch the theatrical come out again, in high def, because there was no Director’s Edition, he took me aside at his condo, sat me down, and said, “You know, Dave, I need you to promise me something, Never give up. This film has to be The Director’s Edition. And it has to be on film or at least film master quality.” And I gave him my promise that I would never stop.
Over the years, I’d go back to the studio and say, “Hey, now it’s time for us to go back and do it again.” And they’d say, “Well, you know, the high def [Theatrical version] is still here, we don’t really see putting in the time and it isn’t cost-effective.” So we kept going and kept going. There were two important breakthroughs that happened around the 40th anniversary of the film. Number one, this film seems to have this 20-year cycle, we had the renewed interest from the 40th anniversary, and [number two] we finally reached a place where I knew we could also do it cost-effectively, at film [quality] level. Originally, we could never have done the production, even close to the budget we had today, which was still reasonable, anytime sooner, and at this quality. And that was my goal.
When I went to the studio, I said, we are producing a new digital negative. That’s what my goal is, I’m going to do a new digital negative so that it will be timeless and available in all formats for the future. And now it has been finished in a way that is able to be used in every format for the future as well. So speaking to them, they understood, they loved it, and it was just a matter of going within the studio to figure out where we get the budget, how we worked it out, and it took a while to do it. And Paramount+ were our wonderful saviors, who came in and said, “Of course, let’s do it for Paramount+.” And I said, “So long as we get our film negative, let’s go for it.” Paramount+ has been incredibly supportive and helped get the job going.
What has changed specifically in the technology in the last 20 years? And how did that change the way you approached it, compared to how you and the team did 20 years ago?
What’s changed over the 20 years really has been computer technology, because one of the ways that we were even able to do The Director’s Edition originally was we were able to bring it into the editing system and really have the ability of adjusting everything in the project as we went along, having it freely there to work on it. And really, it wasn’t until the invention of Thunderbolt 3, if we’re going to start talking about real technology levels, that we got to the point where we could bring the film into a computer and keep it as an uncompressed negative, and do the assembly, but also do work on every shot, sitting in front of an editing system. And not only do the edit but also be able to adjust everything. And pretty much just about every shot in the film has had some alteration or touch to it. A lot of that is just going in to bring out the subtle details in the negative, but also going shot-by-shot multiple times, being careful to get that dirt and excess grain out of it. Because that was my big focus with Daren and everybody involved that we needed to take out every problem that drew people out of the story. My focus now was, as encouraged by Bob, to make it the best story it can be, not the best restoration of something old. So my goal was to focus on the storytelling and use every tool available — color, sound effects — to make it compelling, cohesive, and engaging more than ever, and the edit hasn’t changed. But there’s so much more going on now in the background, and even visually than ever before, to really amplify that and give it an exhilarating experience.
Speaking of the visual effects. There are a few subtle things that weren’t in the 2001 edition. So were these things that weren’t possible but Bob wanted them or things you guys feel were in the spirit of what he wanted? Like the addition of the travel pod.
That was actually something that was intended to be done in the 2001 version, we actually always wanted to put the travel pod on the front of the office complex. And frankly, that was more a matter of time. And it wasn’t something that was essential to get in originally, because it didn’t change the story as much. The goal was to get everything that we wanted to get in originally into it this time. And we did. And just finding the original elements made it even more possible and beautiful.
Let’s talk about that. You had the original camera negative, and you had Trumbull’s 65mm elements.
Not all of it, much of it, there were still a lot of holes of things that were missing. The Paramount archive did an incredible job of cataloging and storing everything that they had. A lot of materials have been lost over the years. Trumbull’s 65mm material was scanned at 8K, Dykstra’s VistaVision material was scanned at 6K and the 35mm anamorphic was scanned at 4K.
Were Trumbull and Dykstra involved with you guys?
Trumbull was a consultant on the project. We spoke to John [Dykstra] about it, but he wasn’t directly involved in reviewing anything we’ve done. Unfortunately, it breaks my heart that Doug [Trumbull] didn’t get a chance to see the final work, but I know that he was thrilled with the quality and what was coming together. I’ll tell you the original composites for the film, I never realized that they were not nearly as sharp as I would have expected them to be. And when we were getting in those 65-millimeter elements, I fell off my chair, it was so gorgeous, just unbelievable, and clean. The clarity and sharpness. And then it would be sad because we’d find a shot in the film where we didn’t have the elements to work on it. And that’s why it was important that also over the past 20 years, I’ve been studying every single tool that’s out there that does not cause any picture loss, but is able to just bring out more of the details and found a good balance so that even the shots we didn’t re-composite, we were still able to bring them to a level that at least balance and generally match with what the other shots are, even though the other ones are a little bit clearer and better. Another benefit, in shots like the Enterprise leaving drydock, we found the Earth element that was always intended to be there, but wasn’t part of the composite. So that was an absolutely thrilling moment of putting that back in. And Daren did a beautiful job on it.
Now, this goes beyond what we see, it sounds different as well. It’s more intricate. There are some elements that we didn’t hear before, but you’re not creating anything new, I assume. So what can you talk us through about how you updated the sound for The Director’s Edition?
Well, this is not polishing, it’s working on the storytelling. So yes, there is a tremendous amount of improvement in the quality of what we had before. Because we have the ADR [dialogue replacement] tapes, we’re able to digitally transfer them. Paramount did a digital transfer for us, so zero generation loss, we were able to go back in and take all of those lines that have been muffled and adversely affected, you know, there were problems with most of the dialogue, because of the dubbing over and the rush. All of those pieces that were ADR have been put back into the film over the muddy ones. So they sound beautiful. What’s also wonderful is because we didn’t have the ADR before, we didn’t realize that some of the scenes that were put back in where we used the sound originally from the Special Longer Version because that’s all that was available to us. Well, Bob directed the actors to loop the dialogue for a number of those scenes. So now, we’re able to have [Wise’s] choice for the performances of the way that the lines are stated, for scenes that were restored to the film, but didn’t have the ADR dialogue originally.
So can you give us an example? Isn’t there a scene with Scotty and Decker and the Ilia probe that was deleted?
It is a deleted scene, it’s not going back into the film, it’s going to be put on the physical media [as a bonus]. It was a scene that we found 22 years ago, but there was no audio for it. And what we found was obviously, that at the late stage of the game, they were still considering leaving it in the film, so those volumes of dialogue were looped for the scene, and we were able to go back and put the lines in. So now the scene plays. And we actually finished the scene, we went back and did foley and sound effects and everything to make the scene really work now, even though it’s a scene that doesn’t belong back in the film, and that actually started out with Kirk making an announcement just to engineering. And that announcement would be played so that they could ask the probe questions, and that starts out with Scotty angrily saying something to her. But what’s great is we also found, this time around, that because we knew we were putting the scene back together, we didn’t have Scotty’s angle. Now we do. But that’s a perfect example of where the fact that there is looping existing, that there’s something more that can be seen from it.
Those extra scenes on the bridge or within the film that were intended to be looped and used in the film were just used based on what we had available before. Now the dialogue is improved. Now, as I said before, Bob’s focus, and what he told me from the start, was always focus on storytelling and use every tool available. We used The Director’s Edition audio as a base. And yes, there is new sound, because we even found additional dialogue that was intended to be used in the background from the actors that are now in different places within the film to fill in those holes. Aurally, this is a different film from 2001, the new Atmos mix is marvelous.
So if you’re a casual fan, and you’ve seen this film, what do you feel people will take away watching and listening to this, who maybe have dismissed the film in the past?
What I’m excited about is that even when they made the film originally, it never reached the potential of where it was going to go. Even the color is taking a major role this time. When they did the color grading, it was just as rushed in ’79 as everything else. It takes a while to time and carefully plan out the color for a film — they had four days, the whole film was colored in four days in ’79, and that remained what everybody matched to in every video transfer all along until 2001, where we did the best we could to kind of get it closer to the way that it should look. But at that time for home video, you color graded at the start, not at the end. Because you have that mastered, then you worked on assembling. When you’re doing it on film you’re working on the negative, then you go in and you start working on the color grading. So now with the new digital master, the Klingons are a darker, more gritty space, whereas when you’re on the Enterprise the lighting can change for the scenes, to keep it focused on the moment that’s happening and on the characters. There’s subtlety, your eyes are drawn into the characters through the color. Plus with HDR, where you can have the brightness and darkness and color levels that are amazing, we have the scene of the probe on the bridge, we see it now it is amazingly bright, because that’s what’s happening in the film. That’s the purpose of it being bright, because it can be, and the sound is so much more powerful to carry those scenes. Like the wormhole sequence, where the sound now moves with it, because the whole experience and the whole concept is to make sure that the story draws you in. Because that’s what we want. We want to be taken into an adventure and be pulled into it. All of these little aspects of ways that are compelling and storytelling were lost when they did it originally and lost all these years. And it wasn’t until now that we’re able to bring all of this back in and make it be a coherent film. It’s a different movie now that works so much better. I’m excited for people to see it because it is compelling.
And now with the sound. There are things going on in the film now, that happen, basically off-screen, or were happening that you don’t really consciously acknowledge. But for the first time, they’re suggested. And there’s so much happening to give it a more rich experience and a rich delivery of that story. It was all about making it this new experience that draws you in and takes you and gives you that film joy of just floating into it and doesn’t have any of the flaws over the years, other shortcomings that were there. It’s cleaned up, and one of my goals was, early on, I told everybody: let’s do everything we can to take anything that’s in the film that takes you out of the film out, like the huge grain, that’s suddenly all you’re looking at is grain going by. It can’t lose the detail because there’s so much beauty in what we’re seeing. But that grain distracted you. Like the big shot where the Enterprise is coming out of V’Ger and all you saw is blue with lots of grain. Now it’s smooth, it works without losing the quality. That’s the thing. There’s so much love in it, and giving us the experience of exhilaration at moments, that’s not the word that I ever would have used for the film before. So my greatest hope is that people will see it for what it is. It’s a film for 2022 and I’m so excited for everyone to be able to see it.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition debuts on Paramount+ April 5, 2022, with a disc release coming in September.
Find more news about TMP-DE and other Star Trek home media and streaming at TrekMovie.com.
Seeing this sucker on opening day in ’79 is still a great memory for me, especially being in awe of the Klingon ships and NCC-1701 updated for the time, and beautifully so. It’s nice that the rushed original film is getting the care it’s getting, as it’s a solid and serious Trek story. However, having seen all the versions several times, it’ll be tough to watch again, honestly, without just flipping around to favorite scenes. That’s just me. I’m glad the new version exists, and I’ll get a physical copy to own.
I don’t care what the majority say or feel about it. Despite it’s flaws, I absolutely LOVE TMP and the magic has never faded for me after all these years. The DVD is one of my most treasured, so it goes without saying that I am counting down the days to the release of this updated version.
Not only is TMP great Star Trek, but it is also one of the best space based, science-fiction classics of all time (my opinion).
Thank you David Fein and team. And TrekMovie for coverage of this release. At 59 this movie is still one of my most favorite and moving STAR TREK experiences.
My god this is amazing! This is the level of quality remastering I eventually expect with every Star Trek film, well maybe not this level but close to. I am so grateful this happened. And they’re correct in saying the flaws that took you out of the film. When the enterprise is leaving space dock in the 2009 blu-ray all I’m fixated on are those dirt spots over the saucer section.
Pretty sure those are as a result of the limitations of the makeshift snorkel camera created by Howard Preston for the film. I’ve read it was barely held together by tape and cardboard, but at least it was ready, as opposed to the expensive snorkel rig that everybody kept waiting for (don’t know if that ever actually arrived.) I don’t recall seeing the defects on one of the other big snorkel shots, that one just inboard from the port nacelle as the E starts to pull out of dock, but that could just be due to space being black and that hiding the image defect.
There are only a handful of times where I remember being in a theater to see a movie, and TMP was one of them. Because it was near my birthday, I *begged* my parents to take me to see TMP the weekend it came out, and I distinctly remember sitting in the theater as the overture played before the start of the film.
I was gobsmacked by the visuals, and the opening scene with the Klingons was awesome, but I do remember feeling ambivalent about the movie when it was over. I didn’t hate it, but I so bought into the pre-release hype in Starlog (in particular, a Susan Sackett article) that I was pretty underwhelmed. At that time, the hardware and effects kept the film engaging for me. But the story left me cold.
My dad was highly negative. He thought the film was boring and he criticized the actors for looking like they had been on a “bender for several months.” (Hey, people age.) Later, when the “Special Longer Version” was promoted for its first airing on TV, my dad laughed and though the film was already too long as it was. My mom was a devout “born again” Christian, so she loved it, interpreting the film as a Christian allegory. (I’m sure Gene Roddenberry would be horrified by that.) She also liked the fact that the film was about ideas and “wasn’t violent.”
In the years since, I really have taken to the Director’s Edition, and I appreciate the story much more now that I’m older. I have to wonder what my parents would have thought if that was the version released to theaters. What if that version had done even greater box office? Would the follow-up Trek films have looked more in line with the costume and production design of TMP? Would Wrath of Khan have ever been made? I wonder.
I can’t wait to get this on Blu-ray.
Really looking forward to seeing (and hearing) the new differences in this. I just hope I like the new color grading overall, as HD releases have messed up on that front too many times in the past, and darkened/differentiated too much from their previously good-looking SD versions.
But it’s great that the Director’s Edition is finally getting put out there in a high quality format after all this time. Good luck to all those involved with this, and it’s just a pity the great Douglas Trumbull didn’t get to see this release of his fabulous efforts.
I’ve always been a huge fan of TMP and will be looking forward to the upgraded visuals and ATMOS mix, but I found the new ‘red alert’ sound fx robbed any of the scenes the were used in of any sense of emergency or pace. Might sound trivial, but it takes me out of the movie every time.
For his reason i tend to go back to the theatrical cut every time.
Agree..whole heartedly about the new klaxon in the 2001 release. I liked the ‘79 klaxon and the Enterprise’s voice. I hope these are brought back for the new release. You can tell the new klaxon just overwrites the audio mix and it sounds sloppy. Plus it goes on and on and on. Fingers crossed.
Yeah, that is one of the things that really sticks in my craw about the DE, the alert sound in the wormhole scene is so monotonous when before in the theatrical it was engaging. Somehow the new sound mix got it uprated from a G to to a PG in 2001 (does anything actually sound more scary?), but I gotta figure the PG was for Pain-Go’way.
Plus, Wise wrote commendations to the theatrical sound crew, including one specifically for how good the wormhole sounded in the original. So why mess with something that he liked this much, unless it was just somebody else’s idea to homogenize the film into sounding more TOS-like (which hardly works, given nothing looks remotely TOS-like about it.)
The stuff about original film elements is the only aspect that has got the hook into me — well, that plus the idea that you might NOT have the fuzzed-up VFX issues in the theatrical 4k — but I admit that bites very deep. I’ve read about how the original 65mm cloud elements for the flythrough contained immensely subtle detail that didn’t survive compositing, and I really can’t imagine how much cooler that could look than it already does on the 09 blu.
Oh, and if they actually retimed the San Francisco scene so that it is warm like pre sunset, that would be another thing, but we can already see from the trailer they didn’t do that. Shoot, if they had, they’d have no excuse to replace the original theatrical shots, which would have looked fine if the lab hadn’t freaked out about the color orange and dialed the prints to blue and killed Yuricich’s work dead, rendering the clouds looking like a bad painting instead of his usual mastery.
I think it was just re-submitting the film that got it the PG rating; I don’t think it had anything to do with the changes.
I think the G rating allowed a lot more in the sixties and seventies than it does now. For example, go back and watch the 1968 Planet of the Apes again: It had profanity, (non-sexual) nudity, and bloody bullet wounds. If it was released today it would be a PG at minimum—maybe even PG-13. And Beneath the Planet of the Apes had bloodier violence, stronger profanity, and darker plot developments, and it still managed a G rating.
That said, I feel pretty confident the TMP director’s edition mainly got the PG rating for mild profanity and occasional moments like the transporter accident or Chekov’s burned hand.
ST:TMP was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater and the Director’s Edition remains my favorite Star Trek movie. Really looking forward to purchasing this on physical media when it is released in September and checking out a true hi-def version on my plasma TV.
I’m not a fan of the theatrical version but I did enjoy the director’s cut. I will watch this asap.
TMP aged the best of all ST. Not to mention it is the most mature of all ST movies. The new DE 4K just looks out of this world. And reading the interview I can barely hold my excitement. Tuesday can’t come soon enough.
Great article. Reading the article in anticipation of the release is almost like the original pre-release hype back in ’79. While watching it next Tues on tv will be great, I’m anxious to see it in theaters with an audience to experience it all over again. They don’t call it The Motion Picture for nothing.
For all the rushed efforts to get prints out, its interesting to read about the flaws with the color. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t notice anything of mention opening weekend. Vulcan had a dark/reddish hue to it that has been lightened up for the original video release. The subtitles didn’t have the TMP font! Even the prints for for the ’91 movie marathon had to have used the same video master.
I’m wondering if they’ve fixed that torpedo shot that hits the asteroid in the wormhole. Even in the Director’s Edition, there’s no torpedo impact with the asteroid. The torpedo just disappears and the next shot is the asteroid explosion and the wormhole disappearing.
No mention of the Vger probe’s visit to the other side of the bridge and the guard being zapped! Now, that would’ve been a cool scene to have seen properly finished!
I wonder if reviewers will complain about the lack of grain. Few people understand the technology behind digital remastering from camera negatives.
‘stop competing with me, decker!’
‘absolutely i will not interfere!’
Tomorrow night!!! I can’t wait. :)
I wonder if they corrected the CGI flaw: where earth’s cloud passes OVER the shuttle bringing Kirk + McCoy to the ship!
They even fixed that for the DE in 2001, though that was pretty modest compared to all the stuff they didn’t fix. (not that it was CGI, which was in its infancy and nowhere near use on TMP.)
Indeed you are correct on both points!
Visually for me Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the gold standard for Star Trek movies and TV so I am really looking forward to popping some popcorn and watching this classic again for the first time anew.
I like how Bob Wise was adamant that this be the definitive version of TMP – because he understood its legacy, and how his was tied to it. Star Trek quite literally changed the course of human history, and his role in its longevity is central to that success. Unlike George Lucas tweaking his revolutionary film in trivial ways, TMP DE truly improves the film, and I think it’s really touching to know how many people waited so long for this opportunity to give Mr. Wise what he wanted – and frankly most of us have wanted for a long time. Streaming it is gonna be great, and I can’t wait to see it in theaters!
Lucas tweaks ruined the movies, the 2020 4K Empire Strikes Back is garbage. Aka Special Edition 4.0. The movie is unwatchable. Star Wars isn’t nearly as bad except for Han and the Greedo redo. and the new mix which is horrible. Empire and Jedi have been degrained to hell and back though. At least the 97 edit was properly restored and had a multi track mix, and had good colors which hasn’t been a thing since. Recently watched a 35mm print of the 97 edit, it was superior to every home edition since. The only version that is better is a technicolor print of the 77 edit. Which i haven’t seen myself.
SW 4ks were done by disney so its up to them how they were remastered.
lucas was merely updating fx, sound that he deemed sub standard when he did the OT.
wise was finally doing post on TMP that should have been done after the ’79 premiere.
My question is where is the film grain. The trailer on youtube had none. The movie came out in 1979, not filmed digitally in 2022. I’m a stickler for a filmic presentation and for original audio. I guess i’ll have to stick with the theatrical, but even that doesn’t have the original 2 channel mix.
Watched it this morning. I’m kind of in shock and not really in a good way. Seems my fears were validated. It’s like they tried to make this look like a modern film and scrub as much grain out of it as possible…the new colour looks quite washed out at times. Without the grain, the recomposited effects are clearly a studio model. I just don’t know why they went this way. The movie was shot with the film grain in mind….and the new cgi doesn’t work as well anymore.
I don’t know. ☹️
I don’t want the above to sound like it was horrible, it wasn’t, but it is definitely ‘uneven’ and needed a little more tweak and polish. I need to watch it again and jot down notes of all the things that stood out and pulled me out of the movie. It definitely felt like there had been too much grain reduction, that grain really helps blend the new CGI and it also helped make the studio models look less like models.
The rotoscoping in the lounge was really rough too…really rough. I don’t know if they didn’t have access to the original blue screened elements but I think the technology available today must be able to do a better job.
Anyway, happy that the team finally got to complete this in HD but if this is the final version that will appear on physical media, I can’t say I’ll be buying it. :(
I have to agree with you there regarding the scene in the lounge. After Spock leaves and McCoy is talking to Kirk, when looking at DeForest Kelley side on, it looks like his face has been smacked in. Very messy indeed. I personally wouldn’t have cared if they had left that scene as it was in the theatrical release.
Grain can be reduced, but completely removed means less detail. And we aren’t just talking about reducing the grain on opticals where its a dirty multi pass shot that went through an optical printer, we are talking about the live action photography based on the trailer they did the entire thing, scrubbed it. What was the point of going back to the 65mm negative if all they were going to do was DNR it. Maybe they thought it looked better on Paramount plus like a new shiny thing, but you can’t undo the DNR when the physical disc ships.
Might just be me but it feels like they scrubbed it a little too clean. There is still a bit of grain there but I think they went too far in removing it. A little more grain would have helped to blend those CGI shots a bit better and also make the sections where they didn’t have the original elements to recomposite less jarring.
Having watched a few more times. I’m not sure what prompted my initial response. Maybe it was that I just woke up and I watched it at 7am but after having watched this version again a couple of times, I have to say it’s glorious. I think perhaps the print was just so clean and so pristine that it caught me off guard. I still stand by the lounge scene roto scoping and there are a few minor things but otherwise, it’s incredible and a gift to the fans after all these years. Wonderful job to all involved.
I’ll buy it.
Hi, thought I’d voice my opinion!! This is my first review! I’ve read a lot of other comments about this movie, most of them indicate a positive reaction!! I personally have only seen the trailer!! On YouTube!! this is my favourite Star Trek movie and favourite film of all time!!! But going by the trailer, I feel disappointed!!?? Yes the movie has been cleaned up”wow”!!! However there are mistakes that have not been corrected!!! According to the trailer!!! Someone mentioned the torpedo scene in the worm hole!! Doesn’t look as though that was rectified!!! Not a big problem?? My issue is the two warp drive scenes!! When the Enterprise hits warp 7 you see the barrier close behind it! The Doppler effect is out of sink to the bright flash of light and it disappears a split second after the flash occurs!! Has anyone noticed that?? And at the end of the movie, this time the flash of light is to far over to the left when barrier closes!! The has been revisited twice now!! How was these mistakes not corrected??? All this technology as well!!! This of course going by the trailer!! Your thoughts anyone!!!