It’s amazing how much movie trailers have changed in the last few decades!
Three months ago, I shared a link to a fan video from 2016 that featured a modern take on the trailer for STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. The updated trailer was created by JONATHAN WORMAN, a talented video editor based in Toronto, Canada who has worked on commercials, music videos, shorts, and documentaries over the past eight years. Posting under the name “Orange Band,” Jonathan’s Wrath of Khan trailer has already garnered more than 100,000 views on YouTube.
Then, last month, Jonathan Worman did it again! This time, he tackled STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. And…wow! Considering how relatively slow the pacing was for the first Trek feature film (I still think it’s a good movie…just slow), this new and updated trailer makes the film look like a real thrill ride!
As with the modern Khan trailer, I can only imagine the excitement from fandom had this been the trailer released in 1979. (That said, we were all still pretty ecstatic anyway when The Motion Picture premiered—our first new live-action Star Trek in over a decade!)
And while the Khan trailer has taken nearly a year to reach 100K, this Motion Picture trailer has already surpassed that total Modern Trailerin just five weeks! (Amazing what happens when a video goes viral.) So take a look at what all the excitement’s about…
And for comparison, here’s what the original 1979 trailer looked like…quite a difference!
Star Trek (the Lost Series) 1979 – 1986
As interesting as recasting, or reimagining trailer are.. I would like to think about what could have been.. had TMP actually become the fabled renewed series in launching in 1979.
We know a lot about the designs and themes around those times, even the style of music and costumes. Computer CGI was in its infancy.. but movies like The Last Starfighter were still being released. ST-Series-II probably would have relied on actual models, predating Next Generation.. assuming Next Generation has been released on the same timeline, ala DS9.
Douglas Trumble was still at work and could have lent a hand.. Alien (the original) gives us as ideas of what realistic planet sets would have looked like.. had the money been poored into it.
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan would have probably been a two part feature of the Week.
Hostage situations, Energy Crisis and Environmental issues would have played promently.. as they did later in Next Gen.. but probably with more force.
Personal computers were just getting powerful enough, and it takes a village could have brought the Well and Compuserve even AOL mainstream a few years earlier.. probably by visiting alien civilizations on the cusp of the “Global Village” concept.. and shared cultures and culture clashes would have been probable. Social Media might have arived 5 to 7 years earlier to interact with cast and crews online which really waited for Babylon 5 a few years after Next Generation was wowing us.
I’m confident somewhere down the line voice impressionist computer synthesis will let use revist these decades with Synthetic Animation series with original voice impressionist virtual actors fullfilling the parts.
Some interesting things to ponder, Mr. Willis! 🙂
TMP gets a bad rap, but I loved it – still do! I love both of these modern era trailers and hope he does more.
Me, too, George. Me, too. 🙂
Once again we see the genius and glory of a fan in action. I salute the creative energy that this new trailer exhibits.
The new trailer is better than the movie…..Sadly. Robert Wise was a poor choice to direct the first Star Trek movie. He was a great artist–just watch “The Sand Pebble”– but unsuited to direct Star Trek. He had never seen an episode of Star Trek, barely knew it existed. Star Trek, just like Star Wars, is not some generic sci-fi concept that any director–or writer–can just waltz in and do a good job with. By comparison, Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer–who both knew something about Star Trek–sequestered themselves in a Paramount Studios theater and watch EVERY episode. They wanted TWOK–and knew, that after STMP, it had to–FEEL like Star Trek. And they succeeded. Its also the case that the editing process for STMP was rushed; Paramount insisted that the movie be out by Christmas. Wise claims that the movie would have looked a lot different had he been given enough time(and money).
Lots of things went wrong with TMP long before Bob Wise was ever involved. I don’t blame him. Also, I’ve grown to like and appreciate TMP more and more as I’ve gotten older. I just watched it again with my 7-year-old son (it was his first time). We watched in half-hour chunks while I exercised each night. Jayden really enjoyed it, and I appreciated the crafting of the film more than I originally did. Yeah, they still spent way too long flying through VGER, but Bob Wise himself said that was a mistake that would have been fixed had there been more time for test screenings.
As for Nick Meyer, he came into the STII project mostly cold. He had to watch all the Trek episodes (most for the first time) in order to “get” it. But even so, Nick maintains that it was his outsider status that allowed him to better craft a Star Trek film that felt like Star Trek…as he was able to binge-watch and distill Trek down to certain core elements. Long-time fans likely couldn’t wade through all the diverse aspects of Star Trek and come up with only a few to focus on. So in many ways, it was a good thing Nick Meyer came into the project cold.