4. Jerry Goldsmith's Musical Composition As V'ger, (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one of the most misjudged movies in the franchise; it's one of the last movies that fitted the 70s mould of slow sci-fi that didnt treat the audience like they were morons. The return of the original crew after a 10 year break was a big deal and the film was a huge commercial success, even if it missed the mark with some of the audience. In true original series tradition, the villain of the movie was a massive energy cloud. At the center of the cloud was Vger, and it turned out Vger was actually Voyager 6, an old NASA satellite that ended up on the far side of the galaxy where an alien species gave it a conscience and sent it back to Earth to get answers. Answers to questions like who its creator was and where it came from. Big questions that everyone has asked at some point in their life. Having a satellite as a bad guy might sound like a difficult character to translate to the audience, but with the combined efforts of the cast, composer Jerry Goldsmith and special effects by ILM; the combined effort produced a villain with enough menace and presence that it left you genuinely wondering how the Enterprise crew were going to deal with it. Obviously Vger couldn't spurt out a long monologue about how it was going to destroy Earth so through Jerry Goldsmiths brooding soundtrack, Vger got a voice. Using instruments like an advanced synthesizer known as the ADS 11, Goldsmith created truly alien sounds to give Vger an identity. Goldsmith debuted the Blaster Beam, a 15ft long electronic instrument that creates sounds that definitely can be classed as dark, moody and sinister. The Blaster Beam represented Vger talking and even though there were no words, you got the message that this cloud means business. Visually, the Vger cloud was immense with the Enterprise tiny in comparison. The size difference can be seen during the 10 minute sequence where the Enterprise enters the cloud. With hardly any dialogue, the Enterprise moves slowly into the cloud and you see objects, lights and shapes that make no sense but leave the crew in awe of how dominating Vger actually is. This sequence gets ridiculed as just a series of reaction shots to fill up screen time, but that is totally missing the point and part of the reason why all modern films have pretty much jettisoned the idea of character development in favour of squeezing in another car chase and explosion. Vger is more than just a cloud, it is an alien you cant understand or communicate with, and with Goldsmiths awesome soundtrack, this sequence drives that message home. If it could talk, this is the part where Vger would tell you how insignificant the Enterprise is in its quest to get answers. With no talking and through music and outstanding visual effects, you get Vgers message that the Enterprise is no more of a significance than a flea on a dog. And finally we have Persis Khambatta who plays Lieutenant Ilea. She is killed by Vger and transformed into a probe to learn about the Enterprise and how it works. Cold, dead and mechanical, she is no more alive that Vger but just as deadly. Initially she offers the crew a way to talk to Vger but trying to manipulate it is impossible. She thinks like a computer and her questions and answers represent the straight forward logic of a machine trying to make sense of the situation it finds itself. It trying to work out how to get its answers and its a mechanical, logical process to get to that point. It might not be a performance in the traditional sense but with the combined efforts of people in front and behind the camera, Vger gives a performance that is far more memorable than the standard set of antagonists we are presented with now. Cinema audiences have been conditioned to expect a certain type of bad guy depending on the type of film. We will never see a villain like Vger again in a mainstream movie in the same way no director of a blockbuster will be allowed to indulge in a 10 minute sequence to develop a character that cant talk. Out of all the Star Trek villains, Vger is perhaps the most alien of them all.