The Motion Picture

[Thallassa]

I was probably ten years old when my parents took me to see this movie. I was already familiar with Star Trek from the videocassettes I watched with them, but what I couldn't understand was why the uniforms and the look of the ship's interiors was so different!

I still think it's my favorite of the original series movies.

[Mr. Atoz]

I can see why you were surprised. That was the thing I disliked most about that movie. the uniforms looked so terrible! I think they were going for the "astronaut" look, and it ended up looking archaic on Starfleet officers.

[Thallassa]

They looked more like they were all at a sleepover to me. And I hated all the metal surfaces all over the corridors. They looked like a missile silo. And don't get me started on the transporter room. It was hideous!

[Mr. Atoz]

That transporter room! You kept expecting to see Igor stagger through at any moment. I read an article once where the author pointed out that if transporters were used so routinely, the transporter room would normally be like the front door of the ship. Like the lobby of a building, in a way. So it would probably be decorated to look as attractive as possible, to give a good impression.

[Thallassa]

Yes! It should be well-lit and have a beautiful mural or something painted across the wall. Something to say, "Welcome to the Enterprise!"

[Mr. Atoz]

But apart from the costumes and the set design, it did feel like a Star Trek story, didn't it? I grew up watching Star Trek in the 70s, so when the movie came out, I was ready for it. We knew that the characters would have all moved on to other things, and that a good deal of the movie was going to be about bringing them back together again.

[Thallassa]

Oh, yes! I loved seeing McCoy with a beard! And Spock looking so thin and craggy, exactly as if he had been through an intense training course on a desert planet!

The new people, Decker and Ilya, were nice, too.

[Mr. Atoz]

The face foliage was okay, but that huge medallion he wore around his neck was a litle over the top. It made him look like a hippy!

[Thallassa]

I almost didn't recognize Nurse, I mean Doctor Chapel, because her hair was dark.

[Mr. Atoz]

Yes, Majel Barrett's hair was always dark (as you saw from the original pilot "The Cage"). She just bleached it to play Nurse Chapel. And if you really pay attention, you can see in the third season of Star Trek that she was beginning to allow it to darken again.

[Niemz]

Who was the other nurse in TOS?

[Thallassa]

The other nurse? I don't remember another nurse, at least not mentioned by name. There was a Dr. M'Benga, but he only appeared in one episode. What did she look like?

[Mr. Atoz]

It's possible the admiral is thinking of Janice Rand.