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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Written by: Gene Roddenberry
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
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About this listen

A novel by Star Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry - based on the screenplay by Harold Livingston and story by Alan Dean Foster.

The human adventure is just beginning.

The writer-producer who created Mr. Spock and all the other Star Trek characters - who invented the Starship Enterprise, who gave the show its look, its ideals - puts it all together again here in his first Star Trek novel!

Their historic five-year mission is over. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and all the crew have scattered to other jobs or other lives. Now, they are back together again on a fabulously refitted USS Enterprise as an incredibly destructive power threatens earth and the human race.

©1979 Gene Roddenberry (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio Adventure Fiction First Contact Genre Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Star Trek
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Loved the movie, which puts me the lower percentile of Star Trek geeks. Loved the book even better which I think allows me to break even, After listening, I'm an even bigger fan of the audiobook. So glad I bought it. It was a fresh look back on The Motion Picture. Mr. Petkoff does an admiral (see what I did there?) job of imitating the familiar voices of the cast in much the same way that Marc Thompson did so well in his readings of the Star Wars Thrawn trilogy audiobooks, Because most of us will have already seen the movie before listening, this rendition plays out like a producer's cut. When he hear what sounds like Kirk or Spock or McCoy in our ears saying the same words that appear in the film, we see Shatner and Nimoy and Kelley in our minds going through the motions and then going beyond the frameline to show a deeper side of their characters. In the movie, a big deal is made out of McCoy stepping out of the elevator and on to the bridge at crucial moments only to look around wordlessly then return to the elevator and leave the scene. I never understood the motivation for staging the action this way (perhaps he had some dialogue that was cut for timing). In the novel, these moments appear but Roddenberry gives McCoy the purpose and usefulness that was, I felt, wasted by Robert Wise.

One thing about this book that I should flag for future readers/listeners is that it is about as racy a Star Trek novel as you will ever encounter - at least in terms of the Original Crew. Roddenberry reminds us over and over again how beautiful and sexually alluring Lieutenant Illia is whether as a Deltan or as an alien probe (oops, did I just spoil something? Surely not after 30 years people!) After listening to certain passages, a couple of thoughts came to me...#1. Do Deltan women have any power over lesbians or is it just men? I'm only asking because Deltans seems to cast their hootchie-mama powers out into the world without a care for whom they might catch. Okay, on to #2. We've all very familiar with the form-fitting uniform that male crew members are required to wear while on duty. Once you've stuck a Deltan woman in their midsts, don't you think there'd be a 20-30ft wave of "made-you-look" boners as the men go about their starship business? All kidding aside, Roddenberry - as well as the writers and the director of the film - cares more about the male gaze than the male response. It's embarrassing to witness these wise space explorers confronted with such obvious sexual potency yet dim-wittedly ask of each other "Hmm, what do you make of that?"

It's great, I guess

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This demonstration of the potential in Gene Roddenberry's vision is enlightening. I am one of those Star Trek fans who was disappointed with this first treatment of the reconstituted Enterprise crew years after their original 5-year mission (The "please forget odd-numbered Trek films" position taken by aficionados is legit, imo).
That said, this audiobook treatment is better than the movie. Roddenberry writes with capable vocabulary/prose, thoughtful Science Fiction considerations, and workable pacing. The increased attention to motivations and inner dialogue render this iteration an improvement on what Paramount Pictures offered in 1979.

As to presentation: Robert Petkoff should read every single Star Trek novel that needs the audiobook treatment. His voice-acting interpretations of Shatner/Nimoy/Kelley/etc are spot-on (I find his James Doohan is a little bit over-the-top, but he clearly loves the characters and strives to do them justice. His George Takei is incredible). My main complaint with the performance here is an occasional "I am reading a text sitting open on my lap" tonality.

Altogether, this interpretation of the 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' screenplay merits 6 stars out of 10. It was an entertaining distraction for free, but you should spend your Credit elsewhere if they ask for one.

[Note: the sexual innuendo infused throughout the story is striking. Roddenberry overdoes it almost uncomfortably (including an often naked sex pheromone-soaked Space-Aphrodite "Deltan" - Lieutenant Ilia - in the crew, for example). Describing the Spock-Kirk brotherhood as quasi-romantic is kinda weird, too]

Not A Great Film.. but "Decent" Hard SciFi

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Well acted and nothing really left out of the overall story. It would be great to have this kind of adaption on all of the TOS films.

Solid adaption of a classic film.

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