Robert Wise, the legendary director of many Hollywood classics including "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "West Side Story," "The Sound of Music" — and, of course, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" — has given what could amount to his final interview regarding the first big-screen Trek adventure, from questions submitted directly by fans.

The 89-year-old filmmaker originally created "ST:TMP" in 1978-79, but then revisited it 20 years later (from 1999-2001) for the "Director's Edition," a complete re-envisioning of the film that included many new visual effects, a re-edit and a new sound mix. In the interview (posted as a Chat Transcript), Wise explains that "ST:TMP" was the only film he ever returned to and revised, because it was the only one he truly felt was unfinished. That happened because of an extremely tight deadline, problems with the script and problems with visual effects.

"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," and that, due to time restrictions, led to sacrificing some of the visual effects he had planned, Wise explains in the transcript. "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."

Despite the problems, though, "I think we still ended up with quite a good film," Wise says. "But when the opportunity came 20 years later to finally finish the picture, I immediately said, 'Yes, let's do this, and finally get 'Star Trek'  finished.'"

The "Director's Edition" premiered on DVD in November 2001, but Wise hopes that audiences someday get to see the finished film on the big screen. "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," he says.

"I'm proud of the film today (in the form of the 'Director's Edition'), something I thought I would never be," he reiterates.

Besides the challenges he faced during shooting of the picture in 1978, Wise also met a hurdle in pre-production that could have changed the face of Star Trek forever — were it not for the influence of someone very close to the director. During the casting phase of the project, "Paramount told me that everyone from the original [series] was on board except Leonard [Nimoy]. They had plans to replace him with another Vulcan character played by David Gautreaux [named "Xon"]. 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."