Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a novel written by Gene Roddenberry. Printed in 1979, it served as a tie-in book with the film of the same name. Since it was the first Star Trek film, it would have been less exciting had it followed the same format as the television series, as many of the fans would have been able to anticipate the storyline making the film less interesting. Consequently, Gene changed some of the formatting, which made the film far more exciting. In this story, there are two new main characters, Commander Decker, played by Stephen Collins, and Ilia, played by Persis Khambatta. In the time-honoured tradition of Star Trek, the new people always meet their end at the hands of an alien entity, and at first, it appears that the new crew would be replacing the central character Spock. However, he makes a more dramatic entrance of his own later as the story unfolds. The paperback version of the book has many laced pages with photographs that are interesting to see.

Gene Roddenberry

Gene's complete name is Eugene Wesley Roddenberry. He was born 24th October 1921 in the town of El Paso, Texas. This film thrust the Star Trek franchise to a new level of Hollywood style large budget movies of a high calibre never seen before.

Message from Gene Roddenberry - Preface

Why STAR TREK again? I suppose the truth is that I have always looked upon the Enterprise and its crew as my own private view of Earth and humanity in microcosm.

If this is not the way we really are, it seems to me most certainly a way we ought to be.

During its voyages, the star ship Enterprise always carried much more than mere respect and tolerance for other life forms and ideas. It carried the more positive force of love of the almost limitless variety within our Universe. It is this capacity for 'love for all things’, which has always seemed to me the first indication that an individual or a race is approaching adulthood.

There may still be long and awkward years for humanity between now and maturity, but we have at last come within some reach of understanding that our future can hold any new dimensions of challenge and happiness we desire and deserve.

While we humans may be a considerable distance from understanding the 'truth' or even being able to cope with it, I believe that we are at last beginning to understand that love is somehow integral to truth.

Back Cover

[Braille Monitors] It came from an unexplored quarter of the galaxy. It ignored all attempts to communicate with it. It annihilated all opposition with energy bolts of unimaginable ferocity. Computer projections showed that it would enter the solar system in precisely three days. The USS Enterprise, refitting in dry dock, was the only craft that Starfleet Command could send to intercept the cloud in time...

Status

Cast / Characters

• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• Persis Khambatta
• James Doohan
• George Takei
• Majel Barrett
• Walter Koenig
• Nichelle Nichols
• Stephen Collins

Specification