'Star Trek': The year's most The Michigan Daily-Saturday, January 25, 1980-Page 5 abused ilm By CHRISTOPHER POTTER s it already time for a revisionist wpoint on Star Trek - The Motion Picture? So much sentiment has already been bounced around the prin- ted page - almost all of it stridently negative - that a backlash of sorts already seems in order. So, lonely believers, here goes: I both enjoyed and admired Star Trek, not just for the film itself but for the very real courage that went into making it. If there's one thing Star Trek is not, the piece of huckster cynicism that many of its detractors accuse it of being. I can think of no other motion picture that was fathered in the unflin- ching knowledge that a frightening proportion , of moviegoers would automatically despise the finished product. Abuse would surely spew from the more fanatical Trekkies who, with museum-like devotion, would decry the merest replacement of a nut or bolt on the hallowed starship Enterprise. No s strident would be the "purists" among science fiction zealots, who think celluloid SF began 'and ended with Kubrick and would regard any Star Trek movie as a hokey, TV-oriented imposter to the art of science fiction. But surely the most .unctious venom would emanate from the John Simons of film criticism who see no "art" in science fiction at all, and thus automatically dismiss any such nematic visualization as a low-IQ erration barely worthy even of acknowledgement, much less serious analysis. A CANNY observer like producer Gene Roddenberry surely foresaw this is a singular tribute to his decade-long shepherd's tenacity that we indeed ,BALD BEAUTY Persis Khambatta leads (left to right) Leonard Nimoy. Stephen Collins, William Shatner and DeForest Kelley to a rendezvous with one of those mysterious alien forces in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." The TV-series spinoff has become a dartboard for criticism from the press and public, but the movie is hardly deserving of such a fate. have a Star Trek movie, and moreover,' one which weathers its enemies' slings and arrows with a solid if not sen- sational finesse. Considering the G-rated Christmas straitjacket imposed on it, the Enter- prise's new journey proves relievingly flightworthy. Its by-now familiar plot involves the impending menace of a cabalistic, almost incalculably large cloud-like somnehing emerging from the darkest reaches of space and headed straight on a collision course for Earth. Predictably, the "thing" seems utterly invincible, as it effortlessly vaporizes MeCartney deported, ex-Beatle heads home any objects or beings which happen to cross its path. SPEEDING TO meet this dark ad- versary is an enlarged, lavishly refur- bished Enterprise manned by the sur- prisingly well-preserved crew many of us (myself included) grew to know and love during Star Trek's endless TV- syndication cycles, long after the prime-time version had gone down for the count. Upon reaching (and being swallowed up by) their antagonist, Captain Kirk & Co. discover a massive, hulking planetoid at the center of the cloud, a strange non-organic consciousness simply called "Veger," an entity that knows only that it must seek and find its "creator" -who, it assesrts, emanates from the planet Earth. If the creator is not forthcoming, Veger calmly declares its intent to rid the planet of all "carbon-baseci'units" - i.e., all living beings. E XER('ISING TEIIR traditional humanistic ingenuity, Kirk, Spock and the rest attempt to unravel the mind and mystery of Veger rather than trying futilely to destroy it. Through an ironic discovery followed by what amounts to a voluntary human sacrifice, our heroes ultimately tran- sform t'eger from a soulless automation into a passionate, tempered (though apparently still all-powerful) life form, eliminating - by barest seconds -the threat to humanity. So what's so bad about this movie? Aside from the unavoidable stylistic crossfire ("It's not enough like the TV show," moan the Trekkies; "It's too mwih like the TV show," sneer the purists), the film's detractors seem to coalesce in three basic objections: 1) its plot is carped from specific Star Trek TV episodes; 2) there's no real action in the movie; 3) it's special effects are disappointingly dull._ OF ThESE accusations, Star Trek, seems mosi vulnerable to the first. There is indeed a disturbing similarity to at least two TV installments - "The Changeling" and "The Doomsday Machine". One might well have hoped for a more original approach, vet reports have it that a far more am- bitious, messianic script by Rodden- berry and co-creators Harold Livingston and Alan Dean Foster was rejected by Para mount as "too serious" for the holiday season. Such dorkish interference may have panicked the writers into treading more familiar celestial waters; yet Star Trek's story remains intellectually in- triguing and philosophically laithfurl to the series raditional commitment to mediation over violence as a probl. m solver. - This also ties directly into objections two and three: rather than basking in the Pow!-Zap! dynamics of a Star Wars, Star Trek has opted aesthetically for the cool over the hot, to paraphrase McLuhan Director Robert Wise has patiently guided the Eiiterprise on a leisurely, mystique-sheathed journey into the strange, often breathtaking y lovely unknown, a magic, deadly universe w hich impels its protagonists to use their brains instead of their laser guns. 1f1 the hotheads in the audience can't bear the general absence of the gunfight-at-high-noon principle, more's the pity -- I thoroughly enjoyed this contrastiing translucen head trip. ''[H[ SAME KIN) of serenity per- meates the work of master-effects geniuses Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra- (20 1), Star Wars, etc., etc.). They have chosen not to zap us but to softly envelop us in mysterious, purple- hewn netherworlds. Icy blue triumphs again and again over hawkish red as -each wizard does his special thing: Trumbull's dazzling kaleidoscopes of ~ twisting, gyrating lights and colors drift slowly across Dykstra's jagged, agically arcane landscapes and moun- taintops. Their extended trip into the innards of Veger is, visually, quite unlike anything I've seen in a motion picture - it is composed, sinuous, terrifyingly majestic. It is also, alas, a blemished spell. Star. Trek has some very real problems, largely involving the two major ad- ditions to the traditional cast. Capt. Will Decker, Kgirk's temporary second-in- command and often hostile adversary, is woefully underwritten and acte.d with Eagle-Scout smarminess by Stephen Collins; his lover Lt. Ilia (played by In- dia's Persis Khambatta) is a bald- domed alien beauty whose physical and emotional nature remains almost totally incomprehensible without reading Roddenberry's accompany ing novelization of the movie. The film's dialogue occasionally lap- ses into pompons SF cliche, and the climac ic scene in which Veger'- secret is discovered becomes em- barrassingly reminiscent of Hercule Poirot or Nick Charles wrapping up a murder case, complete with all the suspects gathered in the drawing om. You can practically see proverbial light bulbs flashing above our characters' heads as each takes turns imparting and connecting sudden inspirations as to Veger's true nature. YET I"4)R ALL its admitted lapses, Star Trek is still an intelligent, in- volving motion picture - a sharp con- trast to the institutionalized dumbness which enervates its current galac ic competitor, The Black Hole. Director Wise lacks the imaginative inspiration of a Stephen Spielberg, yet he manages to hold admirable reign over a remarkably tight for the genre), no- loose-ends production. There is won- drous little expository fat in Star Trek. a typical trait of an old directoral p o who thoroughly knows his craft. CERTAINLY NO less welcome are the old pros in front of the camera: As Kirk, William Shatner not only seems the best-preserved of the original rep company, but in fact he looks better thaii ever - even the famous bulge at his midriff appears to have et aporated. The others have aged with varying degrees of grace: Deforest Kelley clr. McCoy) looks considerably craggiers while Nichelle \ ichols Lt. Uhura I has filled out rather alarmingly. Truly alarming, though, is Leonard Nimoy. whose w rinkled and rather emaciated Stiock would' seem to give I:e to the medical assertion that Vulcans live longer than humans. We care enough about these charac- ter not to want the'' to grow old; its a concern which transcends nostalgia and cam p to become a form o ' unashamed love. Well, let the perfec.-i tionists scoff I would take a mistake- plaguean's drug laws, it was unlikely he ould be able to come back. Kyodo news service said he sang a ng as he boarded the plane, but no one * as a ble to identify it. TIHE MOST successful of all the 'Beatles, McCartney had been questioned about the 7.7 ounces of marijuana customs officials said they found in his luggage when'he arrived at Narita airport Jan. 16 to begin a concert tour with his group Wings. Japanese authorities said they decided to release him because he had >een punished enough.' He had "shown signs c\f repentan'ce and apologized,'" they said, and had told them the marijuara had just been for his "private use." 'F{lE plOSET('L-'ORS took into con- sideration another factor, Kyodo said "cancellation of his scheduled 11- concert performance ' The can- llat ons cost millions in ticket sales. McCartney, still handcuffed, was taken from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters last evening in a police car, escorted by two officers and by a police patrol. \fter a one-hour drive to Narita Air- part, 40 miles northeast of Tokyo, he was questioned for about three hours at the airport law enforcement office before his handcuffs were removed, Kyodo said. WITII 'I'IE British singer-composer on the plane were his four children and American wife, Linda, who left he h tel "in such a hurry she didn't even pac ," accordi'g o Haruko Minakami. a concert promoter. A rousing welcome. I verpool-style. awaits McCartney ac.cordin to his brother. Mike McGear, in London where he is due today. It was in Liver- pool that McCartney, John Lennon,. George Ilarrison and Ringo Starr got s a rted a The y Beatles the now- dissolved rock group that hanged the style of music in the li0s. AG hetNofour igh horse SUSRIE oin t ats pa Have you ever attended a concert, play, or film only to awaken the following morning to read a review that seemed to be written by soreone who went to a different show of the same name? Ifyou've ever said "I could do that!" after disagreeing with an arts page review, it's time to put your typewriter where your mouth is. The Michigan Daily is looking for new staff writers. The only prerequisites are a specific interest in writing and a general interest in the arts (use your own definition). Beside the usual popular music-theater-film criticism, we have an urgent need for writers interested in classical music, the visual arts, and arts-oriented features. The bottom line here is creativity; if you have some insight or a new approach to offer, the arts page could be your outlet. The meeting for priospective arts staff writers is next Sunday, Jan. 27, up- stairs and to the right at the Student Publications Building, 420 Maynard (right behind the LSA Building) at 3:00 p.m. Please bring a typed, triple- spaced sample of your writing (only a couple of paget in length), preferably representative of the kind of events or subjects you would like to cover. If you can't make it to the meeting, stop in any weekday afternoon and ask for the arts editors. fJ IVEARSITY ctMUSICA L JOCIETY present(S i#'s not too late 764-0558 _ Id HUNGRY? THE SOLUTION IS THIS CLOSE! RogerWagnerChorale Tuesdag, Jan. 29, 830, Hill Auditorium U ThP high Pct Pm fnr the C'hnrale wac c .e ihly hest 1