Enjoy a better view of ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Above: A newly remastered version of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" will screen beginning Sunday. (Photo/Paramount Pictures) 

The first episode of “Star Trek” – popularly known as “The Original Series – premiered on U.S. television on Sept. 8, 1966.

The final episode aired on June 3, 1969.

Since then, “Star Trek” has shown up fairly steadily in one form or another. Other series include everything from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” to most recently, Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” There was a short-lived animated series along with videogames.

And then came the films, the first of which was “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which premiered on Dec. 7, 1979.

It wasn’t well received, at least not by most critics.

Judith Martin of the Washington Post wrote, “There are only so many ways to photograph black starry space and the under-bellies of spaceships, and the films that got there first used them all up.”

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “What you see is what you respond to, and what you see is a unique cultural phenomenon, and a film that for all its visual splendors falls well short of its aspirations.”

Worst of all, Richard Schickel of Time magazine described the film – directed by Robert Wise – as “Nothing but a long day's journey into ennui.”

But others did like it.

Arthur Knight of the Hollywood Reporter wrote, “No mistake about it, ‘Star Trek’ is a big movie – big in scope, big in spectacle and, most important, big in entertainment values.”

Not pleased with the results, Wise in 1997 began the process of trying to fix the film. His remastered version was released on DVD in 2001, just three years before his death.

Now, for the first time, a new remastered version of the film – one called Wise’s “definitive vision” – is being released. It will screen at two Regal Cinemas locations, Northtown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium –at 3 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, and at 7 p.m. on both Monday and Wednesday.

Maybe time and technology have improved things. It should be fun to find out.