10 Reasons You Need To Revisit Star Trek: The Motion Picture
6. It's The Perfect Antidote To Star Wars
Releasing Star Trek: The Motion Picture a mere two years after Star Wars and not saturating it with space combat? Whose brilliant idea was that? No, seriously. Where do I send the flowers?
Owing no small debt to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tarkovsky's Solaris, The Motion Picture's meandering pace and pensive tone were almost revolutionary in light of Star Wars' runaway success, at least for an established franchise. In today's era of formulaic blockbusters and Hollywood reboots, the film feels like a breath of fresh air.
Aside from an initial confrontation between the Klingons and the energy cloud, The Motion Picture features no starship battles of any kind. In fact, the only time the Enterprise fires a weapon is a lone torpedo against an asteroid. Was it at least fired in anger? Well, you'll have to ask Chekov.
Paramount could've taken the easy way out and centred The Motion Picture around an epic showdown with the Klingons or Romulans but instead decided to follow a different path. That decision deserves more respect.