14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek The Motion Picture

Star Trek—The Motion Picture is the film that fans demanded and yet almost didn’t happen. It’s troubled production is legendary and nearly trainwrecked multiple times. The final result was a compromised edit and missing some special effects completed after the drop-dead deadline. That it got released at all was a miracle.

But as with many Star Trek firsts it missed the mark in many ways. Like Star Trek’s original pilot, “The Cage”, which was sometimes characterized as “too cerebral”, so too was Star Trek—The Motion Picture by both fans and detractors. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey it lingers on its images of spaceships, and bizarre space phenomenon, playing up their verisimilitude. It’s arguably the most scientifically rigorous production of the entire franchise, complete with a NASA science advisor who wrote detailed memos about wormholes, warp drive, and spray-and-wear clothing.

But despite all this brainpower it’s sometimes downright dumb. It’s certainly not as full of plot holes as The Wrath of Khan, or outright dumb as The Final Frontier. You can tell some thought was put into a lot of it.

And yet...

A number of really dumb things happen in this smart movie. Here are 14 standouts.

KIRK: Mr. Scott. An alien object of unbelievable destructive power less than three days away from this planet. The only starship in interception range is the Enterprise. Ready, or not, she launches in twelve hours.

So, at the heart of the Federation there’s only one—unfinished and untested—ship that can race out and meet this incredible force threatening Earth.

Find that hard to swallow?

The Enterprise’s bridge plaque on the Original Series says “Starship Class”. Some have argued that “starship” is a special kind of, er, starship, and only a dozen or so exist. If that’s what Kirk meant, it’s a lot more believable that none of such a small number of special ships might be able to get in the Intruder’s path.

But even if that were the case is there no Federation ship that could intercept? How about getting close enough to gather information or shout linguacode friendship messages at it as it goes by?

In fact, in earlier drafts of the movie’s script there was indeed another ship which could intercept the Intruder (aka V’ger), as in this from a scene dropped from the shooting script:

KIRK: Then what chance does the Enterprise have?!

[Admiral] Nogura indicates one of the blinking lights on the map, under which reads: ASWAN.

NOGURA: The only ship in position to intercept: a light cruiser. What chance does she have...?

Turns out, not much, as the Aswan is instantly destroyed, with the Enterprise only 1.6 hours behind. So why even bother letting a lesser vessel take the risk when the big guns will be there so soon? That’s pretty

This dumb thing is sort of forgivable in one movie, but, whoops, happens again in Star Trek II, when the Enterprise is “the only ship in the quadrant.”