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Return to Tomorrow
Creature Features Publishing presents a legendary, long-lost Making-Of movie book—RETURN TO The Filming of Star The Motion Picture, written by Preston Neal Jones. RETURN TO TOMORROW is a stunningly detailed and candid oral history, going behind the scenes of one of the most famous films in not only Star Trek history, but all of science fiction and cinema. In 1979, Preston Neal Jones was given unparalleled access to the cast and creators of Star The Motion Picture for what was intended to be a cover story for Cinefantastique magazine. Owing to the late completion of the film and ambitious scope of the manuscript, it was never published—until now. This book is a priceless time capsule, an epic, 672-page oral history in the words of sixty of the film’s cast and creators, interviewed as the film was being prepared for release—and nobody had any idea if it would succeed or even be finished on time. From the stars (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the entire cast) to the filmmakers (Gene Roddenberry, Robert Wise) to the brilliant visual effects artists, illustrators, model builders and technicians who realized the 23rd century on screen (costumes, sets, props, models, music, sound FX and more), no aspect of the film’s creation is overlooked. The entire manuscript has been laboriously fact-checked and prepared for modern publication, while retaining all of the candid comments from 1979-80. The gorgeous cover art is the original painting by Roger Stine intended for Cinefantastique, courtesy of the Daren R. Dochterman Collection. Go behind the scenes of this pivotal sci-fi masterwork and hear the unvarnished, uncensored truth of how it was created.
- GenresStar TrekNonfiction
672 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 18, 2022
Return to Tomorrow is a fascinating (sorry) and comprehensive oral history of the making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. For me, it was too comprehensive. The book is heavily weighted toward visual effects, which some will enjoy, but for me it was far, far too much detail. Also, an exhaustive wrapping-up section ping-pongs endlessly between opinions of those who liked the final film and those who did not. For this reader, if RTT had been about a hundred pages shorter, it would have been a more compelling read. Still, for fans of ST:TMP picture, there is a lot here to appreciate.
October 24, 2015
This is a mammoth undertaking, comprehensive oral history of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, conducted during and immediately after the 1979 film's release. As a result, there's no revisionist history and the opinions are, at times, brutally honest. Intended for an issue of Cinefantastique, Preston Neal Jones spoke to everyone before and behind the cameras.
At 672 pages, that's almost too much. If the book suffers from anything, it is organization so you read a technician's comments then Susan Sackett the DeForest Kelley and then another technician. There needed to be more organization so things flowed better. Additionally, so many things overlapped that a timeline of some sort would have been most welcome.
The key takeaway from this history is that while Robert Wise was a beloved, calm figure amidst a maelstrom, NO ONE was really taking charge and wrangling the myriad visual effects teams. Money and time was wasted while effects were created that proved unnecessary.
Gene Roddenberry was in over his head with the new generation of special effects and knew enough to ask for help. As producer, he should have fired Robert Abel and company a year before it happened but he was way too hands off for that. On the other hand he should have had a much stronger hand on the story and screenwriting process so we wound up with a sharper movie.
The biggest culprit, as usual, is Paramount, not understanding what made their property unique and then hamstringing them with an immutable release date that forced costs up and left us with an inferior feature film. The potential for greatness was always there but far too many compromises needed to be made.
An exhausting read at times, it remains an important volume in your Star Trek nonfiction library.
At 672 pages, that's almost too much. If the book suffers from anything, it is organization so you read a technician's comments then Susan Sackett the DeForest Kelley and then another technician. There needed to be more organization so things flowed better. Additionally, so many things overlapped that a timeline of some sort would have been most welcome.
The key takeaway from this history is that while Robert Wise was a beloved, calm figure amidst a maelstrom, NO ONE was really taking charge and wrangling the myriad visual effects teams. Money and time was wasted while effects were created that proved unnecessary.
Gene Roddenberry was in over his head with the new generation of special effects and knew enough to ask for help. As producer, he should have fired Robert Abel and company a year before it happened but he was way too hands off for that. On the other hand he should have had a much stronger hand on the story and screenwriting process so we wound up with a sharper movie.
The biggest culprit, as usual, is Paramount, not understanding what made their property unique and then hamstringing them with an immutable release date that forced costs up and left us with an inferior feature film. The potential for greatness was always there but far too many compromises needed to be made.
An exhausting read at times, it remains an important volume in your Star Trek nonfiction library.
July 10, 2020
This is a behind the scenes series of interviews depicting the creation of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', from the failed launch of the TV series 'Star Trek: Phase II' through to the cinema release.
Jones' book redefines the term "in depth". Never critical, he has edited the interviews with his subjects to create a narrative that should help viewers understand the inherent difficulties of movie making.
Recommended. If you are willing to plough through the 900 page saga, you will come away with an appreciation of this overlooked experiment.
Jones' book redefines the term "in depth". Never critical, he has edited the interviews with his subjects to create a narrative that should help viewers understand the inherent difficulties of movie making.
Recommended. If you are willing to plough through the 900 page saga, you will come away with an appreciation of this overlooked experiment.
April 24, 2022
Just finished reading a few days ago “Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture” by Preston Neal Jones (2014).
This mammoth book (672 pages in the print edition; I read the eBook version) has to be by far the most in-depth accounting of the making of the first Star Trek film (although there are others that I have also recently read, such as “Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects” by Gene Kozicki (2020) and “These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s Volume 3, 1978-1980” by Marc Cushman (2020), plus quite a bit is also covered in “The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First Twenty-five Years” by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman (2016)).
This is definitely the source for information on the subject recorded most closely to the time of the filming of the movie and its release in December 1979 as Jones did his research and conducted his interviews at that time, intending it to be released as a special double-sized issue of “Cinefantastique” magazine to come out along with (or soon after) the film’s release. It took too long for Jones to complete the project and so it missed coming out then, and also subsequent efforts to still release it as a Star Trek themed special issue of that magazine or as a book of its own didn’t bear fruit (until now).
It is difficult to really rate a book like this as it very well much depends on the audience you are speaking to. For the casual Star Trek fan (or non fan), this is way too much information. It would completely overwhelm them and they would likely not make it very far into the book (especially due to the way it is organized, which I’ll get to in a moment).
However, for the die-hard Star Trek fan, even though much of this information they are probably already at least somewhat familiar with—and, as I already said, has already been written of extensively in other books and also covered in various television documentaries like last year’s “The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek” series on The History Channel)—this is a proverbial gold mine of in-that-moment personal reflections on the creation of the film that in essence restarted the entire Star Trek franchise (leading not only to subsequent Star Trek films but also the spin-off television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, and all the ones that followed).
Not just the obvious “big names”, like Star Trek creator and film producer Gene Roddenberry, director Robert Wise, script writer Harold Livingston, and cast members William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, etc, but also Paramount executives like Jeffrey Katzenberg, musical score composer Jerry Goldsmith, and loads of behind the scenes crew and visual effects and sound effects artists (way more than I can list here, but ones who worked both in conjunction with the film’s initial visual effects company, Robert Abel & Associate; Magicam, Gregory Jein, and Brick Price Movie Miniatures (responsible for the creation of the studio models of all of the starships like the brand new “refit” USS Enterprise, the Klingon ship, the spacedock, orbiting space stations, and elements of V’ger’s appearance), and the ones ultimately hired to take over the huge job of getting the film’s visual effects completed on time after the firing of Abel, Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra (and their respective effects companies).
This is also a great source for those interested in how films were created in the late 1970s, from the earliest stages like getting the film green lit and the script written and approved, through all parts of preproduction, to the actual filming with the director and the actors (including coordinating with on set special effects personnel to get what would later be needed to merge with visual effects elements later on), through the long and oftentimes back breaking post production process (when most of the visual effects are created, the sound effects, the musical score, the sound mixing, and the editing), and, ultimately the rush to get everything done jn time to strike film prints for the premiere date and hundreds more to be shipped to theaters nationwide and worldwide.
And *this* is the continual refrain throughout the book, about how the film’s release date of December 7, 1979, a date contractually agreed upon between Paramount Studios and hundreds of film exhibitors, was ironclad and could *not* be changed/extended to give them more time, regardless of all of the unexpected happenstances (such as the failure of Robert Abel’s company to produce any useable visual effects work after nearly a year of the film’s production schedule and the subsequent hiring of Trumbull and Dykstra with only a few months left).
Much of the effects work done in a very short amount of time ended up turning out amazingly well considering the shortness of time given them and also the level of film visual effects technology at the time. However, there were many elements that the artists wished they could have just a bit more time to perfect or redo but could not due to the deadline.
More importantly, the necessity to get hundreds of visual effects elements all completed right at the end of the film’s production schedule effected other elements such as Jerry Goldsmiths writing the score (because so much of the visual effects were still not completed), and, ultimately, the editing of the film.
The chief complaint about “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” over the years, pretty much from when it first came out all the way to today, has been primarily about its slow pace and overly long visual effects sequences (in particular Kirk’s journey in a shuttlepod out to the new Enterprise near the start of the film and, later, the long journey into and through parts of the massive V’ger).
Even the film’s director, cast, and other creators mostly agree with these criticisms, along with not enough actual clear looks at what V’ger really was supposed to look like, and also the lack of the personal interactions between the characters that made the original television series so enjoyable (aside from a few good Dr. McCoy moments in the film).
However, according to all (including Robert Wise), the incredible time crunch they were under had a lot to do with these problems in the final cut if the film because they had no time to do any test audience screenings or to do a second pass on the cutting (editing) of the film. The first cut was finished literally with no time to spare, just in time to make the film prints for the premiere in Washington, D.C, and to ship out to the theaters across the country.
All things considered, it’s amazing that “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” made its scheduled release date at all (many working on it felt it would be impossible at times) and that it came out as well as it did.
Again, this is a must have book for many Star Trek fans. I give it five out of five stars on GoodReads.
I must, however, say a bit about the book’s overall organization. While it takes you through the course of the film’s production pretty much chronologically (from the decision to make the film instead of a television series and what had already been done for the tv series prior to that through everything I’ve already talked about above), the actual interview remarks from each speaker are broken up and interspersed with each other through out the book.
It can be a bit confusing, going from a remark by the director, then several paragraphs from a visual effects artist talking about moire patterns and matte paintings, to another visual effects artist, back to the director, then *another* visual effects artist, then an actor like DeForest Kelley, and so on. Not only is it difficult to maintain a consistent train of thought but at times one also loses track of just where they are in the overall film production timeline of events.
And the second half of the book (where it gets into the bulk of the film’s post production visual effects work) gets at times *very* technical. I’m as big a geek about this sort of thing as just about anybody and even I had a hard time getting through some parts detailing difficulties they were having with those moire patterns, matte paintings, compositing of different effects like practical effects shot on the actual V’ger stage with the actors with power surge lightning effects needed in the backgrounds, etc. The difficulties caused by the tight deadlines, but also the limitations of the hardware they were using, which at times produced work not compatible with other elements needing to be merged all together in the same shot.
And that whole sequence where Leonard Nimoy/Spock flies on his extravehicular jet pack through the inner workings of V’ger’s “brain”, all of the amazing lights and color patterns and digitized information given various forms, etc. Much of it I had to read through more than once to try to grasp just what they were saying.
It all made for a very *long* read (after awhile I was only reading a few pages each night, which is why it took me six months to read it all. But, while at times a challenge to get through, I loved the overall experience and highly recommend this book. To certain people. Ones who are into Star Trek as heavily as I am. 🙂
This mammoth book (672 pages in the print edition; I read the eBook version) has to be by far the most in-depth accounting of the making of the first Star Trek film (although there are others that I have also recently read, such as “Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects” by Gene Kozicki (2020) and “These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s Volume 3, 1978-1980” by Marc Cushman (2020), plus quite a bit is also covered in “The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First Twenty-five Years” by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman (2016)).
This is definitely the source for information on the subject recorded most closely to the time of the filming of the movie and its release in December 1979 as Jones did his research and conducted his interviews at that time, intending it to be released as a special double-sized issue of “Cinefantastique” magazine to come out along with (or soon after) the film’s release. It took too long for Jones to complete the project and so it missed coming out then, and also subsequent efforts to still release it as a Star Trek themed special issue of that magazine or as a book of its own didn’t bear fruit (until now).
It is difficult to really rate a book like this as it very well much depends on the audience you are speaking to. For the casual Star Trek fan (or non fan), this is way too much information. It would completely overwhelm them and they would likely not make it very far into the book (especially due to the way it is organized, which I’ll get to in a moment).
However, for the die-hard Star Trek fan, even though much of this information they are probably already at least somewhat familiar with—and, as I already said, has already been written of extensively in other books and also covered in various television documentaries like last year’s “The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek” series on The History Channel)—this is a proverbial gold mine of in-that-moment personal reflections on the creation of the film that in essence restarted the entire Star Trek franchise (leading not only to subsequent Star Trek films but also the spin-off television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, and all the ones that followed).
Not just the obvious “big names”, like Star Trek creator and film producer Gene Roddenberry, director Robert Wise, script writer Harold Livingston, and cast members William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, etc, but also Paramount executives like Jeffrey Katzenberg, musical score composer Jerry Goldsmith, and loads of behind the scenes crew and visual effects and sound effects artists (way more than I can list here, but ones who worked both in conjunction with the film’s initial visual effects company, Robert Abel & Associate; Magicam, Gregory Jein, and Brick Price Movie Miniatures (responsible for the creation of the studio models of all of the starships like the brand new “refit” USS Enterprise, the Klingon ship, the spacedock, orbiting space stations, and elements of V’ger’s appearance), and the ones ultimately hired to take over the huge job of getting the film’s visual effects completed on time after the firing of Abel, Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra (and their respective effects companies).
This is also a great source for those interested in how films were created in the late 1970s, from the earliest stages like getting the film green lit and the script written and approved, through all parts of preproduction, to the actual filming with the director and the actors (including coordinating with on set special effects personnel to get what would later be needed to merge with visual effects elements later on), through the long and oftentimes back breaking post production process (when most of the visual effects are created, the sound effects, the musical score, the sound mixing, and the editing), and, ultimately the rush to get everything done jn time to strike film prints for the premiere date and hundreds more to be shipped to theaters nationwide and worldwide.
And *this* is the continual refrain throughout the book, about how the film’s release date of December 7, 1979, a date contractually agreed upon between Paramount Studios and hundreds of film exhibitors, was ironclad and could *not* be changed/extended to give them more time, regardless of all of the unexpected happenstances (such as the failure of Robert Abel’s company to produce any useable visual effects work after nearly a year of the film’s production schedule and the subsequent hiring of Trumbull and Dykstra with only a few months left).
Much of the effects work done in a very short amount of time ended up turning out amazingly well considering the shortness of time given them and also the level of film visual effects technology at the time. However, there were many elements that the artists wished they could have just a bit more time to perfect or redo but could not due to the deadline.
More importantly, the necessity to get hundreds of visual effects elements all completed right at the end of the film’s production schedule effected other elements such as Jerry Goldsmiths writing the score (because so much of the visual effects were still not completed), and, ultimately, the editing of the film.
The chief complaint about “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” over the years, pretty much from when it first came out all the way to today, has been primarily about its slow pace and overly long visual effects sequences (in particular Kirk’s journey in a shuttlepod out to the new Enterprise near the start of the film and, later, the long journey into and through parts of the massive V’ger).
Even the film’s director, cast, and other creators mostly agree with these criticisms, along with not enough actual clear looks at what V’ger really was supposed to look like, and also the lack of the personal interactions between the characters that made the original television series so enjoyable (aside from a few good Dr. McCoy moments in the film).
However, according to all (including Robert Wise), the incredible time crunch they were under had a lot to do with these problems in the final cut if the film because they had no time to do any test audience screenings or to do a second pass on the cutting (editing) of the film. The first cut was finished literally with no time to spare, just in time to make the film prints for the premiere in Washington, D.C, and to ship out to the theaters across the country.
All things considered, it’s amazing that “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” made its scheduled release date at all (many working on it felt it would be impossible at times) and that it came out as well as it did.
Again, this is a must have book for many Star Trek fans. I give it five out of five stars on GoodReads.
I must, however, say a bit about the book’s overall organization. While it takes you through the course of the film’s production pretty much chronologically (from the decision to make the film instead of a television series and what had already been done for the tv series prior to that through everything I’ve already talked about above), the actual interview remarks from each speaker are broken up and interspersed with each other through out the book.
It can be a bit confusing, going from a remark by the director, then several paragraphs from a visual effects artist talking about moire patterns and matte paintings, to another visual effects artist, back to the director, then *another* visual effects artist, then an actor like DeForest Kelley, and so on. Not only is it difficult to maintain a consistent train of thought but at times one also loses track of just where they are in the overall film production timeline of events.
And the second half of the book (where it gets into the bulk of the film’s post production visual effects work) gets at times *very* technical. I’m as big a geek about this sort of thing as just about anybody and even I had a hard time getting through some parts detailing difficulties they were having with those moire patterns, matte paintings, compositing of different effects like practical effects shot on the actual V’ger stage with the actors with power surge lightning effects needed in the backgrounds, etc. The difficulties caused by the tight deadlines, but also the limitations of the hardware they were using, which at times produced work not compatible with other elements needing to be merged all together in the same shot.
And that whole sequence where Leonard Nimoy/Spock flies on his extravehicular jet pack through the inner workings of V’ger’s “brain”, all of the amazing lights and color patterns and digitized information given various forms, etc. Much of it I had to read through more than once to try to grasp just what they were saying.
It all made for a very *long* read (after awhile I was only reading a few pages each night, which is why it took me six months to read it all. But, while at times a challenge to get through, I loved the overall experience and highly recommend this book. To certain people. Ones who are into Star Trek as heavily as I am. 🙂
February 28, 2015
The first Star Trek movie has always been a sentimental favorite of mine for its scope, ambition, and spirit, and it was fascinating to read this book, constructed from interviews completed shortly after the film's release. In format, it's like nothing so much as a transcript of a documentary, but I appreciated that it was made entirely of fresh, first person recollections, without hindsight to comment on or obfuscate what happened (there was more than one part which unintentionally corrected some misinformation that I'd seen in subsequent sources talking about the film).
Additionally, as someone with an interest in film beyond Star Trek, I don't think I've ever seen such a comprehensive record of how a movie was made from beginning to end. If I were a teacher, I'd be tempted to assign it for a class on film production.
The only drawback is, because of its roundabout publication history, all of the photographs and illustrations that were intended to be included have been lost. Considering how little production material from Star Trek 1 has been released (and most of it from its early days as a TV pilot and from the initial visual effects team, with very little about the sets, models, and effects that actually ended up in the film), I would've loved to see that kind of teasure trove.
Additionally, as someone with an interest in film beyond Star Trek, I don't think I've ever seen such a comprehensive record of how a movie was made from beginning to end. If I were a teacher, I'd be tempted to assign it for a class on film production.
The only drawback is, because of its roundabout publication history, all of the photographs and illustrations that were intended to be included have been lost. Considering how little production material from Star Trek 1 has been released (and most of it from its early days as a TV pilot and from the initial visual effects team, with very little about the sets, models, and effects that actually ended up in the film), I would've loved to see that kind of teasure trove.
June 19, 2016
Begun as a double-sized issue of "Cinefantastique" but completed as a complication of interviews, "Return To Tomorrow" is a thorough production portrait of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". Like its subject, "Return" is a mixed bag. On the one hand, nearly everyone you would want to hear from is interviewed - and the sound bites are grouped together to form a timeline: Development, Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, Release and Reception. On the other, it's a fragmented read by its nature - bogging down a bit in the effects section. The best sections are surprisingly frank, viewed in this post-internet era of carefully controlled publicity. Not every Trek fan may like it, but those curious for more detail concerning the film's frantic production schedule will be more than satisfied!
May 13, 2021
Man, but was this a gargantuan tome. I dislike dropping the "O" word, but it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that Return to Tomorrow is objectively *the* retelling to beat in regards to TMP's production. It meticulously covers everything; the real-world impetus for the film's creation, all the different story concepts that passed in and out of pre-production, the many, *many* issues faced when they were shooting the thing, and more. Why it's a 3-star for me, though, is the pages upon pages spent dissecting the more technical aspects of the production, like the cinematography and VFX. For better and worse, it's all super non-laymen-y and had me glazing over and skipping pages. Of which there are a lot. Still, it's all very impressive.
November 30, 2020
There are about 100 pages of good, interesting material in this book .... buried in over 600 pages that you need to slog thru to get to 'em because the book is comprised of (as far as I can tell) a number of completely unedited verbatim interviews with cast and crew, and desperately needed the skill of an editor. I'm not sure that the author can even been called an author, he just audio taped the interviews, transcribed said interviews and published it all. And ... Far, Far (Far) too many details regarding the special effects, too little about other areas of the film.
February 10, 2016
This book details the making of Star Trek the motion picture. The interviews were done during and after the production of the film roughly 1978-1981 ish. It was an amazing accomplishment getting the film done on a set deadline, overcoming script and effects problems. This film set the look and feel of Star Trek in the decades that followed. This book ranks as one of the best behind the scenes looks at Star Trek. It's a must read for fans.
April 9, 2021
I REALLY wanted to love this book, but it was just TOO long and detailed. While it was nice to gain insights into this troubled production, I really didn't want to get quite THAT much into the weeds! I actually found myself skipping over large parts of it to try to get to the "meat", so I'm sure I missed some good stuff.
January 15, 2018
Fans of CINEFANTASTIQUE Magazine in the late 70's, when it would do in-depth double issue articles on films will feel a warm nostalgia, as this was intended originally to be one of those issues on STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. It never got published; however, some 35 years later and utilizing the full interviews conducted, we end up getting a very thorough oral-history on the making of the film, with an emphasis on the tech artists (a mainstay of those CFQ articles). It doesn't shy from the warts of the production, involving the replacement of the SFX supervisor, but it doesn't descend into the level of gossip. The one drawback is the lack of pictures, but that being the cost of having this unexpurgated account is a drawback one can easily live with.
June 16, 2024
loved it!
This is exactly the kind of book I enjoy reading for fun. So many wonderful interviews with every part of the production. For me this is the best way to tell a true story.
This is exactly the kind of book I enjoy reading for fun. So many wonderful interviews with every part of the production. For me this is the best way to tell a true story.
February 27, 2015
This book heralds itself as an exhaustive in depth oral history of what it took to make the original Star Trek motion picture. It is just that. Expect too much knowledge.
With very few exceptions (Robert Abel & Doug Trumbull tops among them) Jones interviewed all the key people involved in getting the picture made.
The book can be tech heavy at times but I believe that it is so only because Jones did not wish to cut out a thing. One man's treasure.... It was fascinating to hear about how much work went into each shot, what the actors felt, the studio pressure, the script changes, the score's evolution. It was a herculean effort to get it done. So was reading it.
I read this book over a few weeks simply due to how much was contained therein. It's quite longer than it's 670+ pages. It is put together quite well. There is not a bunch of jumping back and forth. It is told as linearly as possible with enjoyable anecdotes tossed in. The contribution to the narrative from so many who have passed on serves as a tribute to these people who gave us so much. It was as if they were still here. Also the book does not go back and look at things in hindsight. There is no " this was before CGI" or "they'd do that in the sequel." It is told as if it were published in 1980 with a short afterward.
If you like Star Trek, movies, or glimpes into the past, read this. It may take a while but it is well worth the read.
With very few exceptions (Robert Abel & Doug Trumbull tops among them) Jones interviewed all the key people involved in getting the picture made.
The book can be tech heavy at times but I believe that it is so only because Jones did not wish to cut out a thing. One man's treasure.... It was fascinating to hear about how much work went into each shot, what the actors felt, the studio pressure, the script changes, the score's evolution. It was a herculean effort to get it done. So was reading it.
I read this book over a few weeks simply due to how much was contained therein. It's quite longer than it's 670+ pages. It is put together quite well. There is not a bunch of jumping back and forth. It is told as linearly as possible with enjoyable anecdotes tossed in. The contribution to the narrative from so many who have passed on serves as a tribute to these people who gave us so much. It was as if they were still here. Also the book does not go back and look at things in hindsight. There is no " this was before CGI" or "they'd do that in the sequel." It is told as if it were published in 1980 with a short afterward.
If you like Star Trek, movies, or glimpes into the past, read this. It may take a while but it is well worth the read.
November 7, 2015
An almost overwhelming account of the making of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, as documented by Preston Neal Jones for a special issue of Cinefantastique that due to various reasons was never published. Granted full access to all of the stars, production crew, special effects teams and director Robert Wise this is THE source for how the movie was brought to the screen under a crushing deadline. I'll admit to getting bogged down in sections that related every nuance of how a particular visual effect worked or didn't work, but for the most part, this deserves a place on the shelf with Mark Cushman's three volume set of THESE ARE THE VOYAGES (all books for hardcore Trek fans).
September 7, 2015
A fascinating read. A well organized and transcribed oral history of the making of one of the most rushed films in history.
Everyone that had anything to do with the film is interviewed, and it is NOT updated with later interviews. All the interviews are from the time of the film's making.
The only downside is that (like the movie it's covering) it tends to drag in places, there are just a few too many discussions on the V'GR special effects.
Everyone that had anything to do with the film is interviewed, and it is NOT updated with later interviews. All the interviews are from the time of the film's making.
The only downside is that (like the movie it's covering) it tends to drag in places, there are just a few too many discussions on the V'GR special effects.
November 29, 2015
An incredibly, and at times exhaustingly, detailed account of the making of the first Star Trek film. If you're the kind of Trekkie/er that enjoys the real-world stories and behind-the-scenes info as much as the in-universe fun (and I definitely fall into that bin), this is well worth reading, and a worthy companion to Marc Cushman's three-volume "These Are the Voyages" series diving into the making of the original series.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews