Star Trek: The Journey to the Silver Screen

Star Trek: The Journey to the Silver Screen was a newly-created 150-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, produced in 1080p HD as a special feature for inclusion in the 2016 Star Trek 50th Anniversary TV and Movie Collection Blu-ray Disc home video set release. Created on the occasion for Star Trek's 50th anniversary, the documentary deals exclusively with the genesis of the first six Star Trek films, aka the "Original Crew" film franchise.

Producer/Director Roger Lay, Jr. decided to embark on a slightly different approach for this outing; the focus of the documentary was entirely on the inception of the six films, and the impact they had had on popular awareness. In service of that goal Lay only had production staffers, writers, studio executives and fans/influencers newly interviewed for his documentary, addended with archival interview footage of people no longer able or willing to participate.

While referenced, conspicuously absent from the documentary therefore were any of the performers – including William Shatner, even though he was the Writer/Producer/Director of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – as well as creator Gene Roddenberry (who only had a honorary title/function on the film franchise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture excepted), contrary to the plethora of prior Star Trek documentaries and specials of a similar nature. Likewise, the one-year earlier deceased Leonard Nimoy has not been featured in the documentary either, despite his production roles he played for three of the six films. But in his case, son Adam Nimoy acted as his spokesperson, whereas Susan Sackett, Richard Arnold and Fred Bronson (a personal friend) more or less spoke for Roddenberry, who had already died in 1991. No one spoke for Shatner.

As usual, special features specialist Lay was aided for his production by franchise mainstays Mike and Denise Okuda, who served as co-producers.

Summary[]

In celebration of Star Trek's 50th anniversary, this newly-produced two-hour documentary explores the resurrection of this enduring franchise by offering viewers an unprecedented, candid exploration into the original series cancellation and subsequent resurrection as one of the most successful series of motion pictures in Hollywood history. Features new interviews with key creative and production personnel as well as never before seen images from the production of all 6 classic Star Trek films along with details on all the un-produced Trek theatrical projects including The God Thing, Star Trek: Planet of the Titans, Star Trek: The Academy Years, and many other aborted big screen voyages for the crew of the USS Enterprise.

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Contents[]

Included in the set on a separate Blu-ray "bonus" disc, the documentary is broken up in five 30-minute chapters for ease of accessing,

Chapter 1: "The New Frontier: Resurrecting Star Trek"[]

This part of the documentary concerns itself with the various attempts to bring Star Trek back on the silver screen after the Star Trek: The Original Series was cancelled in 1969, after its resurgence in syndication and the Star Trek convention circuit. Projects like The God Thing, Planet of the Titans, but most conspicuously Star Trek: Phase II (as it is the direct predecessor of The Motion Picture) are discussed in this chapter.

Chapter 2: "Maiden Voyage: Making Star Trek: The Motion Picture"[]

This part deals with The Motion Picture, once the decision was made to upgrade the pilot episode of Phase II to a full-blown theatrical release, and all the problems the hasty and ill-considered decision entailed for the production as a result.

It was not until 6 September 2022 that this and the preceding chapter saw a subsequent release on another home video format, when they were included on both the 3-disc Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition Complete Adventure 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray limited edition, as well as the concurrent individual 4K UHD/Blu-ray Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition releases. [1]

Chapter 3: "The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan"[]

This chapter deals with the film that became a triumph, and in doing so saved the Star Trek film franchise as a whole, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It is to date not only the most successful of all the Star Trek films in terms of gross profitability, but also the best known Star Trek film among the non-fan society at large, in the process becoming a pop-culture phenomenon in its own right – as is also amply demonstrated elsewhere on the site, having become the most referenced of all Star Trek productions by parties beyond the Star Trek community. The film has even become plagiarized by the franchise itself in 2013. This chapter also addresses the beginning of creator Roddenberry's resistance to all films he was not creatively involved with, which happened to be all of them after he was permanently removed from creative control over the film franchise during the production of The Motion Picture.

Until 2022, it was the only part of the documentary that has seen a release elsewhere on another home video format, when it premiered as a special feature on the newly remastered Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director's Cut) Blu-ray disc, released earlier in 2016.

Chapter 4: "The Dream is Alive: The Continuing Mission"[]

The remaining three films produced under the auspices of Executive Producer Harve Bennett, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, pass the revue in this chapter. Despite the bad reception of The Final Frontier, the Bennett-era films were produced with great efficiency and without any problems to speak of, though were still faced with great and unabating resistance from an otherwise toothless and impotent Roddenberry.

However, Bennet's (studio-encouraged) departure from both the franchise and Paramount Pictures is also discussed, pursuant the circumstance that his Star Trek: The Academy Years project failed to launch as the sixth Star Trek film on the studio's insistence.

Chapter 5: "End of an Era: Charting the Undiscovered Country"[]

The troublesome production of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – the second-most troublesome of all Star Trek films – is discussed in the last chapter of the documentary, and had actually resulted in its cancellation at one point. The problems were entirely studio-caused this time around, because of the severe financial situation the studio found itself in at that point in time.

Production credits[]

External link[]

• Star Trek: The Journey to the Silver Screen at the Internet Movie Database