No Unseen Footage On 'Motion Picture' DVD

For months, fan anticipation has been building for the upcoming Special Edition DVD of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', which was rumoured to include a great deal of previously unseen footage, including all-new scenes. Unfortunately, according to a new article published by the New Times, this may not actually be the case.

Several internet reports that appeared over the past few months suggested that the film would feature restored versions of scenes that did make it to Gene Roddenberry's script and novelization of the film, but were never actually shown on-screen. These included a 'memory walk' Kirk-Spock spacwalk sequence, during which the two travel through the inside of V'Ger, and a meeting between Kirk and an admiral.

However, according to the article most of the additions to the film are in fact taken from twelve minutes worth of footage that were put back in the film when it aired on ABC. These include several Kirk-Spock scenes that the actors added to humanize the tale, but no major unseen scenes. In fact, the new special edition actually features trimmed versions of several scenes, removing superfluous dialogue, while the most major enhancements are several new effects scenes and a new sound mix.

"There is very little in this version that has not come from an original storyboard," said David C. Fein, the special edition's producer. "This was not us going, "How can we reinvent the wheel?' We're going back to the original storyboards and turning those ideas into reality. Bob Wise is not a supporter of revisionist history. It's not a matter of revising the picture; this is not an alternate version...But if people sit down and watch this version and say, 'I don't remember it being this good,' I will be thrilled."

More on the work being done on the special edition and the motivations behind it can be found in the full article, which features quotes from people such as director Robert Wise and Leonard Nimoy (Spock).

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