Star Trek: The Motion Picture (4K Ultra HD)

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a two-disc 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray Disc/Digital boxset, released on 19 November 2024 in North America, featuring the 4K UHD release of the theatrical cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. As is currently usual with UHD/Blu-ray double releases, all special features (excepting the audio commentaries and isolated music score tracks) are only included on the Blu-ray disc of the release.

The set was released on the occasion of the film's 45th anniversary and was issued as a "Limited SteelBook® Collector's Edition" release. Included as a bonus exclusive was a booklet exploring the original marketing materials and behind the scenes images from the Paramount Pictures archives. As usual with these releases (geo-restricted to North-America only, as the – former Blu-ray Region B^[1] – European/Australian releases do not have these) a redeemable code is included to download the Theatrical Cut of the film in 4K resolution digitally.

Though issued in North America only, by having become a standard free, non-region encoded format, the release can be imported anywhere else in the world and played without any hindrance, typically through online retailers such as, most specifically, Amazon.com.

The release came about as a result of the completion of the long awaited^[2] in 4K HD 2160p resolution remastered version of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) in 2022,^[3] and was already issued previously as part of the 2021 Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection, as well as the concurrent 2022 Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition Complete Adventure and Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture 6-Movie Collection followup 4K UHD boxset releases. Contrary to the 2021 release, which only only contained the "Theatrical Cut" version, the "6-Movie" and "Complete Adventure" sets contained all three versions of the film. But at the time of the latter two set releases, only the "Director's Edition" was also issued in a standalone 4K UHD release; neither the "Theatrical", nor the "Special Longer Versions" had a standalone 4K UHD release up until that point in time, and remained 4K UHD exclusives to all three boxsets for the time being. The eventually in 2024 released 45th anniversary "Theatrical Cut" 4K UHD standalone edition is essentially a repackaged reissue of the discs as included in the 2021 "4-Movie" boxset release.

As is increasingly becoming commonplace, no DVD counterpart was issued for this particular release, with the dwindling number of DVD customers still wanting one, having to make do with the older Star Trek: The Motion Picture DVD release from 2010. However, an individual downscaled Blu-ray counterpart standalone release of this newly remastered version had already been released in 2021 as a spin-off of the "4-Movie" 4K UHD set.

Contents[]

From the back cover,: Celebrate the 45th Anniversary of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE with this limited-edition Steelbook featuring the original theatrical cut in 4K Ultra HD, and a bonus remastered Blu-ray. This bold blockbuster launched one of the longest running movie franchises, reuniting the cast of the original STAR TREK series, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and James Doohan. The adventure begins when an unidentified alien intruder destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers. Captain James T. Kirk returns to the helm of a newly transformed USS Enterprise to take command. As a bonus, an exclusive booklet boldly explores the original marketing materials and behind the scenes images from the Paramount archives.

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

Disc contents,

Disc 1
- 4K UHD feature presentation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- Special Features
  - Audio commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Daren Dochterman (carried over from the 2009 Star Trek: The Motion Picture Blu-ray Disc)
  - Isolated Score Track (Dolby Digital 2.0).
Disc 2 (improved 2021 Blu-ray disc reissue)
- Blu-ray feature presentation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture & audio commentary
- Special features (carried over from the 2009 Blu-ray Disc)
  - The Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture
  - Special Star Trek Reunion
  - Starfleet Academy: Mystery Behind V'Ger
  - Library Computer
  - Deleted Scenes (taken from the 1983 Television, aka "Special Longer Version" of the film)
    - Sulu and Ilia #1 (0:56)
    - Sulu and Ilia #2 (0:30)
    - Kirk's Quarters (0:24)
    - Officers' Lounge (0:13)
    - Attack on the Enterprise (1:08)
    - Intruder Transmission (0:35)
    - A Huge Vessel (0:47)
    - Kirk Follows Spock (1:13)
    - Ilia's Quarters #1 (1:05)
    - Ilia's Quarters #2 (1:20)
    - It's Creator is a Machine (0:17)
  - Storyboards
  - Trailers and TV spots

Footnotes[]

↑ The Region geo-restricting encoding had, for all intent and purposes, been dispensed with all together by the industry upon the advent of the UHD format, even though that policy change has never been made public officially. This incidentally, has also applied for the Blu-ray disc format, whose region encoding was since late 2009 silently, but gradually, abandoned as well – which in Star Trek's case started with the Blu-ray releases of TOS Season 2 and Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection [1]^(X) – only to pick up speed from the mid-2010s onward.
↑ Talks of a High Definition release of the Director's Edition had been floating around since April 2013, but various reasons conspired against such a release for nearly a decade. For further background information on this subject matter, see main article.
↑ Essentially the High Definition (HD) upgrade of the original 2001 DVD release, the same David C. Fein, Michael Matessino and Daren Dochterman production team responsible for that release was re-assembled again for the HD upgrade oversight, and who on that occasion took on the other two film versions as well. According to Star Trek.com, the upgrade took over six months to complete.

External link[]

Announcement at TrekMovie.com
Review at Blu-ray.com

Previous release:
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (40th anniversary "Limited SteelBook® Edition")

Star Trek films
4K Ultra HD

Next release:
Star Trek: Section 31

Super 8 • Betamax • Special Longer Version Beta • VHS • Special Longer Version VHS • The Director's Edition VHS • CED • LaserDisc • Special Longer Version LD • VCD • VHD • The Director's Edition DVD • DVD • Blu-ray • The Director's Edition Complete Adventure 4K Ultra HD • The Director's Edition Blu-ray • The Director's Edition 4K Ultra HD • 4K Ultra HD • 2021 Blu-ray • Digital

[1] The Region geo-restricting encoding had, for all intent and purposes, been dispensed with all together by the industry upon the advent of the UHD format, even though that policy change has never been made public officially. This incidentally, has also applied for the Blu-ray disc format, whose region encoding was since late 2009 silently, but gradually, abandoned as well – which in Star Trek's case started with the Blu-ray releases of TOS Season 2 and Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection [1]^(X) – only to pick up speed from the mid-2010s onward.

[2] Talks of a High Definition release of the Director's Edition had been floating around since April 2013, but various reasons conspired against such a release for nearly a decade. For further background information on this subject matter, see main article.

[3] Essentially the High Definition (HD) upgrade of the original 2001 DVD release, the same David C. Fein, Michael Matessino and Daren Dochterman production team responsible for that release was re-assembled again for the HD upgrade oversight, and who on that occasion took on the other two film versions as well. According to Star Trek.com, the upgrade took over six months to complete.

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