The following is an "off-line" Q&A conducted with questions from fans submitted by e-mail.

Question: Hello, Mr. Wise. How did you get involved in directing the very FIRST Star Trek feature?
Templar

Robert Wise: In early 1978 I was approached by my friend Tom Parry who was working at the studio as a production executive under Michael Eisner. Tom knew that Paramount was looking for a director to turn the Star Trek television series into a big-screen feature. I directed two science-fiction films before that, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in 1951, and "The Andromeda Strain" in the early 70s. Both were stories that took place on Earth, and when Star Trek came along I felt it was a good opportunity to do a science-fiction film set in space. They wanted an epic feeling for the picture, but it had to be made relatively quickly, so I guess they wanted somebody who could meet that challenge.

Q: Why did you revisit the "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" movie? Was there something that bothered you with the end result, after 20 years? P.S. Thank you for a great job on directing "The Motion Picture" (especially the Director's Edition is wonderful)!
Maurice H.

RW: Well, we were forced to start filming the picture with a script that was still being worked on. The studio had pre-sold the movie to theatres in exchange for guaranteeing that the film would be released on a certain date. And so we continued to revise the script as we were shooting, which is not the ideal way to make a picture. Then, later on we ran into problems with the special effects, which weren't working, so we pretty much had to start over with a new team. They did an amazing job, but there just wasn't time to get in everything we were planning. We then had to finish editing the picture without a lot of the special effects in place, and the final shots were coming in right up until the last minute. At that point I normally would have taken the picture out for previews and then go back and give the picture a fine cut. We never had that opportunity. In fact, it's the only picture of mine that I didn't get to preview. But because we had that release date, we had to release the picture without giving it a fine cut and without getting some of the effects shots we'd wanted. We were also agreed that the picture would be about 2 hours and 10 minutes, so if we'd had a few more weeks back then, I'd have recut the picture to improve the characters and gotten some final effects in. We also would have done more work on the sound. After the picture opened, there was some talk about recutting for overseas release, but I just decided to let it stay the way it was and move on. But when the opportunity came twenty years later to finally finish the picture, I immediately said, "Yes, let's do this, and finally get Star Trek finished."

Q: Mr. Wise, how were you approached to do the "Director's Edition" of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and being given a chance to finish what you believed was an unfinished film?
kirk1701a

RW: It was David (C. Fein) and Mike (Matessino) who suggested that we might have the opportunity to return to the film and complete it closer to the way that I originally envisioned it. They also had the unique perspective of watching the film over the years and had some creative ideas about how to bring out the characters better, and add the missing effects shots so that they would complement and blend seamlessly with Doug's (Trumbull) and John's (Dykstra) work to finish sequences the way we originally planned. Dave and Mike showed me what was possible, brought out a lot of the original drawings and storyboards for shots that we didn't complete, and then we had several screenings of the film. We then started going over it and taking notes for a period of several weeks and settled on exactly what we wanted and felt we were able to accomplish. We then went to Paramount with the idea of reopening post-production of the film, and Dave and Mike set up and supervised the entire production.

Q: Mr. Wise, watching "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," one is astounded by its thoughtful and contemplative pace and its metaphysical concerns. Yet one may also be struck by how many longueurs this adds to the script. Was it a dilemma while making the film whether you would portray a more intellectual story on the model of "2001: A Space Odyssey," or whether you would lessen the quality of the story by pandering to the public's desire for "Star Wars"-like shoot-em-up action?
Shane K.
Q: Were you influenced at all by "2001: A Space Odyssey"?
Mark H., Canada

(combined answer)

RW: To be honest, while I was making the picture I felt my job was just to get as much of the script done each day as possible. I didn't really spend much time analyzing what type of story it was. Nobody did, because our main concern was finishing it on schedule. That's why you need to have your script in as good a shape as possible before you start, so that when you're shooting you can just trust the script and get the footage and the performances you need. In retrospect, we did end up with a movie that's reminiscent of "2001," but I think a lot of that had to do with Gene Roddenberry's vision and also with Doug Trumbull, who was our effects director. He'd worked on "2001" and was very inspired by the visual approach to the film, and he'd just come off of "Close Encounters," which was also heavily inspired by "2001," so Star Trek was an opportunity for both he and Gene to explore that kind of story within the Star Trek universe.

Q: Who made the call to redo the Enterprise?
gary m.

RW: As I recall, the Enterprise was already redesigned before I came to the project, when they were planning a new weekly television series. A model had been built, but when I saw it I didn't like it very much. I felt it needed to be bigger in order to get all the angles I wanted and in order for it to really look big on a large screen, so I had a new model built and at that time some additional design changes were made. When Trumbull's team came aboard, they also made some decisions about how it would be lit and so forth. All the designers worked together, including the original series people, to make sure that the ship design made sense and was believable.

Q: What was it like to work with Gene Roddenberry and the original cast of Star Trek? Thank you,
Dan T., West Hartford, CT
Q: As a director myself, I was wondering: Did you feel directorial restrictions while preparing to bring to the big screen an established premise such as Star Trek? Fans already knew the characters, settings and particulars that made/make Star Trek so appealing, so how did you approach creating your own vision while also honoring the established "Star Trek universe"? Your career remains a professional inspiration to me, by the way! Best,
Timothy G., Director/Producer

(combined answer)

RW: I enjoyed Gene and the original cast very much. Gene was very generous and supportive, and he gave me a lot of freedom to do things the way I wanted to, but Star Trek was his creation and he knew it best. The same thing with the cast. They'd all played these roles for three years on television, so I didn't have to give them too much direction on how to play their characters. We all worked together to get the best work on film. What I tried to do, having seen many of the original episodes, was to work on making the Enterprise feel like a completely real place. The ship was obviously a very important part of Star Trek, and what I wanted to do was to provide a completely believable environment for our characters.

Q: Mr. Wise, a lot has remained unclear about your involvement with the scripting of the Star Trek film. How did you deal with the feud between the writers (Roddenberry and Livingston) when you desperately needed a finished script?
Jan S.

RW: Well, Gene and Hal did have some differing opinions about the script, but there was no time to take sides. We were just glad to see script pages coming in; we didn't care who wrote them! Both of them were dedicated to telling a good story, but Harold had written the first script for the proposed television series. When we changed it to a feature, Gene saw a chance to expand some of his ideas even further. We all know that we would have had a much better film if we'd had the time to put the script through its paces before we began shooting, but I think we still ended up with quite a good film. And with The Director's Edition, I think we really made it into a true success.

Q: Was there any friction on the sets, this being the first time the cast was reunited?
Ronan O., Ireland

RW: Quite the contrary. It was more like a family reunion. The atmosphere was very happy, and everyone worked together to get the job done.

Q: Mr. Wise, was there ever any other choice besides Jerry Goldsmith to compose the score for ST:TMP? If so, who were the other composers considered? Thank you! Regards,
Alex F.

RW: I had worked with Jerry (Goldsmith) on my film "The Sand Pebbles" — which I think is one of my best and most personal films — and when I came onto Star Trek I immediately wanted to bring Jerry on board. We did have a false start where he wrote six or seven cues without the Star Trek theme, and we had to redo it, but what we ended up with is, I think, one of the great scores of all time. The music ended up carrying much of the picture. It turned out better than I could have ever hoped.

Q: Dear Mr. Wise, I loved "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" very much, I thought it was a great start for the Star Trek movie franchise, but one thing I did not understand ... Why did you change the uniforms from the great bright-coloured series-uniforms to the dull-coloured pyjama-like motion picture-uniforms? Thank you for your response,
Joost v/d B. from the Netherlands

RW: At the time, it was felt that the Original Series uniforms were designed in order to take advantage of color television, which was relatively new at the time. It wasn't really thought of as realistic, and the science advisors we had on the film insisted that pastels would be more timeless and less distracting on the big screen. They also came up with a design that suggested that the Enterprise crew doesn't dress the way you and I do. Instead, your clothes materialize onto you in the morning!

Q: V'Ger seemed to be quite an impressive spacecraft, yet it was never shown in its entirety, except in its massive energy cloud form. Was this done as a way of making it seem mysterious to the viewer and to maintain the fact that it was impossibly large, or were there other factors, such as the budget?
Brian

RW: We'd always planned on revealing the V'Ger vessel when it arrived at Earth, but we were unhappy with several of the concepts, and the fear was that it would look small. When we finally settled on a concept we liked, we didn't have time to do it. When we started work on the Director's Edition, that was one of the first things Dave, Mike, and I discussed. And when we did some tests with Daren (Dochterman), and we had the same problems we'd had twenty years earlier... it was difficult to make it not look small. This time we were able to keep working until we got it right, because we were determined to show just enough of it so that the audience could finally comprehend the geography of what's taking place once V'Ger gets to Earth. It just shows what one shot can accomplish. Between the new shots and the powerful sound mix, I now think V'Ger comes off as truly threatening as we had hoped.

Q: Why did you not restore the Memory Wall sequence to the movie or as an extra [on the DVD]?
Gustavo L., Brazil

RW: The 'Memory Wall' sequence was abandoned and we decided to go in another — and better — direction entirely. Only parts of the scene were shot, so there really wasn't a complete scene to show. Some pieces of the scene were located and included on the DVD release, but I never really felt that it worked.

Q: Mr. Wise, what was the hardest shot you ever had to make during filming of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"? Peace,
Brendan

RW: There wasn't any particular 'hard shot' in Star Trek, but there were a lot of sequences that were very time consuming, especially the wormhole sequences because of the animation effect that was added. We spent at least a week just on that one sequence.

Q: Had you ever seen any "Star Trek" show before Paramount asked you to direct the Motion Picture?
Romain NIGITA

RW: I wasn't very familiar with the series, but when Tom Parry approached me I asked him to send over a dozen or so of the best episodes for me to watch. So the studio sent over some 16mm prints, and I screened them. I was impressed by the show and thought it would be a great project to work on. So I spoke to the studio about directing the feature. Paramount told me that everyone from the original was on board except Leonard (Nimoy). They had plans to replace him with another Vulcan character played by David Gautreaux. When I discussed this with my wife Millicent — who had been a fan of the show for years — she told me that Spock needed to be in the film. She made a great case for him, so we went to see Leonard and asked him to reconsider doing it. I'm glad she did because I then saw what she was talking about ... we couldn't have done Star Trek without Spock.

Q: Mr. Wise, did you have anything to do with the 1983 TV version, aka the Special Longer Version? Did you re-edit the film specifically for television and video? What prompted the 1983 longer version? Thanks,
James B.

RW: At the time it was standard for studios to have the ability to add or remove footage for the television version of a picture in order to fit into a specified time slot. In order to fill a three-hour broadcast they needed about 10 or 15 minutes of additional footage. So what they basically did was find several sequences that we had set aside during editing. We call those "lifts." In our case, they were set aside while we waited for special effects to come in because we knew we had to bring the film in at about 130 minutes. The lifts were still in rough form, but that sufficed for what I thought was going to be a one-time broadcast. At the time, I wasn't paying much attention to Star Trek, so I was very surprised to find out years later that this television version had been available on video for many years. Although there were scenes in there that I liked, overall the TV version was further away from what I wanted to release. If we'd previewed the picture, knowing that we needed to end up with a 130-minute picture, I would have opted to reinstate some of the lifts and trim some of the effects. That is precisely what we did with The Director's Edition, and I'd really prefer it if that were the only version of the film available.

Q: Mr. Wise, were you surprised or disappointed that Paramount decided not to re-release the new edition of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" the way "Alien" or the old "Star Wars" trilogy were? Was [a theatrical release] supposed to happen at all?
JF, Montreal Canada

RW: My return to the picture was always intended as the final cut of the film, and for it to be released theatrically. Paramount offered to only support the project for home video, so given the options we accepted. I still believe that the film deserves a theatrical re-release, and that my team, David, Michael, and Daren need to be back at the studio to accurately restore and create the new negative I always intended. In the future, my "Director's Edition" should be the only version that people see, on film theatrically and video in the home.

Q: Thank you for the Director's Edition! Well done! Was there ever a consideration of changing the title of "The Motion Picture"? Maybe something like "The Prodigal Son"?
Challenger Dyer

RW: Thank you for your kind words. No, the film was always "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

Q: Hi Mr. Wise. I love the new DVD, it's fantastic — the new sound mix really engaged me. My question is, what were your impressions and input about updating the original sound track from the audio system of the time to 5.1-channel surround sound that is standard today? Did you have any input on the new sound track?
Paul M.

RW: David, Michael, and I had many discussions about what we wanted to do with the 5.1 sound mix. We really didn't have an opportunity to complete the sound mix originally, because the sound editors can't work until the picture element is finalized, and the minute it was finished it went to the lab to have prints struck. The designers created a whole library of sound effects, and all of that material was still available. So I didn't have to pick and choose every little sound, but David and Mike played sequences for me as they were finished, in some cases giving me one or two other choices. Sound plays a very pivotal part of any motion picture, and we knew that it would be necessary to update the sound mix to help carry the story and flow of the picture. I believe that it was at least fifty percent sound that helped the film gain a 'PG' rating over its original 'unthreatening' 'G'.

Q: Hello Mr. Wise, I think ST:TMP is brilliant! I watch the Director's Edition at least once a month! What is your opinion of the people, or critics who believed that the movie was too slow or lacked action? Why is it so difficult to make an audience think or stimulate their senses?!?
Jason

RW: People are always welcome to their opinions, and you have to respect that. Prior to the Director's Edition, the film was slower than I would have wanted. I think we finally nailed the pacing, but that doesn't mean it's suddenly going to become an action film. The great thing about Star Trek is that there is room for all kinds of stories. This just happens to be one that is about exploring a mystery in space.

Q: Even with the release of the Director's Edition, is there anything about the film that you would like to have changed if you could?
Timothy H.

RW: You can work on these things forever and never feel finished. You reach a point where you just have to let it go. Once I'm finished with a film, I release it and let it have the life it was intended to have. Star Trek was the only film I returned to because it was the only one I truly felt was unfinished. There might be a minor change here and there I would want to do if I looked at it again, but overall, the Director's Edition is the finished film.

Q: "Sound of Music" question: I have recently read a book by the real Maria Von Trapp and found that many of the events in "The Sound of Music" were nowhere near the truth. (But still one of the greatest movies ever!) What did the real Von Trapp family think of the movie? Thanks. Sincerely,
Keith B., Missoula Montana USA

RW: Baroness Maria wrote to me as soon as I was brought onto the picture. Although she was friends with Mary Martin and with the people who did the Broadway show, there were certain things she wasn't happy about, particularly with how her husband had been portrayed. I was hired to bring that Broadway musical to the screen, and so I didn't read her book or see the German film that had been made from it. Ernie Lehman, my screenwriter, had done all of that, and he had met with Maria as well, so again I just trusted in the script and assumed that he had incorporated all of his research into his screenplay. When the film was finished, 20th Century Fox arranged a special screening in New York for the entire family, and they all came down from Vermont to see it. I then got a letter from Maria, and she thought that we had done a remarkable job and that our film was much more accurate than the stage play had been. So I wouldn't go as far as to say that the movie was "nowhere near the truth," but we're talking about a true life story that became a book, that became a film, that became a Broadway musical, that became a movie. Again, my job was to bring that musical to the screen, and I think part of the success is that we remained true to the spirit of the original story even if the factual details were altered here and there. In recent years the family has come to embrace the film for what it is because of that, and because of people, like yourself, who subsequently discover the original story.

Q: What was your favorite experience in making "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"?
John T.
Q: Thank you for the many great cinematic moments you have given us over the years. I would like to ask, what do you consider the greatest obstacle you overcame in your dealings with Star Trek?
Andy T.

(combined answer)

RW: Completing the film twenty years later is the greatest reward and obstacle of making the film. I'm proud of the film today (in the form of the "Director's Edition"), something I thought I would never be.

Q: As I remember, this was the first time that the present Klingon look was shown. Whose idea was it to change the Klingons' physique from the near-human forms from the original TV series?
Aaron A.

RW: Gene had actually always wanted the Klingons to be very alien in appearance. But he was unable to do it on the television show budget. When we did the feature, we had the opportunity to finally bring his vision to the screen.

Q: Hi Mr. Wise, I would like to know why "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was set about three years after their original five-year mission at the end of the 1960's? Thank you,
Christian R.

RW: We made the picture about nine years after the last episode of the series had been filmed, and so at the time we all just assumed that our story took place nine years after the completion of the original Enterprise mission. Clearly the characters have aged a bit, McCoy is retired, and so on. I don't know where the idea came from that it takes place only three years later.

Q: In the original ST:TMP movie there is a scene where Kirk flies out of the ship, and you can see the scaffolding around the set. Did the team run out of time to rotoscope it out, or did everyone just forget about it until it was discovered in the editing room? Also what was your reaction when you noticed it first; would you have wanted to cut the scene out because it wasn't ready or were you hoping for the audience to be too much into the story at that point in the movie to notice it? (If so, it worked: I didn't notice it until I saw the DVD :-)
Jac G., Mesa, Arizona

RW: The sequence was placed in the televised version of the film only. It was part of the original 'memory wall' sequence, and it shows Bill leaving the ship in a spacesuit which is different from the one he's wearing when he rescues Spock a bit later. I was very surprised when I saw that it had been added to the television version because it was a live action plate for a matte painting that was never even scheduled to be done.

Q: First off, thank you Mr. Wise for helming the first Star Trek feature film. I enjoyed it immensely. Question: Was the security guard vs. V'Ger probe scene on the bridge ever actually filmed? If so, why was it not incorporated into the film?
Avery D., Atlanta, GA

RW: This sequence was filmed, but I cut it because at the end of the picture, when Kirk is reporting casualties, he had to say "Ilia, Decker, and Ensign so-and-so." Including the guard seemed to take away from the impact of what had just happened with Decker and Ilia, so removing it seemed to be the right thing to do.

Q: Hi Mr. Wise. I love the finalized version of your Star Trek movie and the care you took not to 'remake,' yet update the movie. You pointed out (on the DVD commentary) and I noticed that the DoP [Director of Photography] used dioptre focal lens, to have multiple points of focus on a shot. What was the purpose of this? Even on simple over the shoulder shots you had both the face and the back of the head in focus. I am curious to know why you did this.
Paul M.

RW: That was something that Dick Kline, my photographer, used on "The Andromeda Strain." Because we were on some very small sets, we didn't want too many lights, so the diopter enabled us to get better focus than we would have otherwise.

STARTREK.COM thanks Mr. Wise for his time, and David C. Fein for facilitating this interview.