******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!******

After seeing “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (TMP) theatrically in the late 1970s at age 13, the last thing I would’ve labeled it was a love story. There are no cute-meets of characters spilling coffee on each other in turbolifts. We don’t even see Captain Kirk romance a single green-haired alien woman. In fact, many critics at the time thought TMP was, in Spock’s words, “barren…cold.”

The story of TMP goes like this:

Kirk and his reassembled crew (including a resigned but returning Mr. Spock) depart in a sleek, refurbished USS Enterprise to intercept a massive, mysterious, destructive energy-cloud that has already destroyed three Klingon ships as well as a Starfleet listening post. The ‘cloud’ is on a direct course to Earth.  As the Enterprise slowly penetrates the massive cloud’s many layers, it discovers a colossal alien vessel that carries a wayward NASA space probe, Voyager Six, at its nucleus.  

On its journey home, Voyager has mutated, become self-aware, and now calls itself “V’ger” (thanks to a bit of cosmic schmutz on its nameplate).  V’ger seeks to find and join with its ‘creator,’ seemingly incapable of believing we lowly humans (“carbon units”) could be its makers. Kirk orders the Enterprise to transmit the old NASA code reply to V’ger’s radio signal, but V’ger refuses reception. First officer Decker–along with V’ger’s android probe made in the image of Decker’s dead ex-girlfriend Ilia–connects with V’ger directly, in an effort to ‘join’ with it, creating a fusion of organic and artificial life. The new life form vanishes in a blast of energy, and exits our dimension. Earth is saved.  

While that brief synopsis doesn’t exactly scream hearts and flowers, time and experience changes perspective, particularly with movies from our youth. Despite criticisms of TMP being “The Motionless Picture,” or “The Emotionless Picture,” I really love the movie, and saw it multiple times theatrically before buying it on various tape and video disc formats (most recently, the the remastered Director’s Cut on Blu-Ray). Under the direction of the late Robert Wise (“The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “The Andromeda Strain”), TMP was one of the few Star Trek movies to impart a real sense of scale to the cosmos. With its epic scope and quality, this was truly a motion picture, not a one hour TV episode (even if its story superficially resembles TOS’ “The Changeling”). Even now, 46 years later, I’m still discovering new aspects of it.

Granted, most Star Trek movies aren’t exactly known for an abundance of amore, but TMP features several layers of love hidden within its once G-Rated matrix that are uniquely and nontraditionally expressed within Star Trek’s own philosophy of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations).

Kirk and the Enterprise

Captain Kirk’s ardor for the starship Enterprise (“No bloody A, B, C or D”) is well known in Star Trek. In the episode “The Naked Time,” the crew are infected with an illness that dramatically lowers inhibitions, and Kirk (William Shatner) confesses to Spock (Leonard Nimoy) that he sees the Enterprise as a demanding mistress; “I give, she takes. She won’t permit me my life. I’ve got to live hers!” In that same episode, Kirk sees Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) on the bridge, and quietly laments, “No beach to walk on…”

When TMP opens, a rather brusque Admiral Kirk has been Chief of Starfleet Operations for several years, when a massive energy-cloud in deep space directly threatens Earth. Kirk strong-arms Admiral Nogura into giving him command of a newly-refit USS Enterprise. With the ship’s transporters offline, Chief Engineer Scott (James Doohan) escorts Kirk to the Enterprise via travel pod. Our first onscreen appearance of the sleeker, yet recognizable Enterprise is teasingly glimpsed from behind its orbital drydock latticework–almost like an alluring seductress, emerging from behind a dressing screen…

We’re told time is of the essence as the massive cloud approaches Earth, yet Scotty takes a circuitous route to the ship–allowing Kirk to savor the moment. Scotty gauges Kirk’s reaction to the revamped Enterprise with an almost impish grin, as he reunites Kirk with his beloved ship, now more beautiful than ever. We see Kirk almost hungrily shifting his stance to get a better look from within the travel pod window, like an eager child at Christmastime pressing against a storefront display, hoping to see their favorite new toy…

Scotty’s trip around the Enterprise consumes roughly six minutes of screen time, and we hear a lush musical score from Jerry Goldsmith that is far more romantic than nautical. That same music could almost be used for two long-lost lovers reuniting in a “Dr. Zhivago”-style winter wonderland, or on an exotic tropical beach at sunset. Goldsmith’s music for this scene isn’t for a hurried captain anxious to assume his command; it’s for a man reuniting with the love of his life. Just look at Kirk’s face in that scene–he’s in love. Nontraditional love, granted, but love all the same. To his credit, Shatner plays it perfectly.

There’s a line from the 1979 novelization of TMP–written by no-less than Star Trek creator/producer/writer Gene Roddenberry himself–that describes Kirk’s feelings about this sleek new Enterprise:

She was as Aphrodite must have been when Zeus first raised her out of the sea, naked and shockingly beautiful.

After that passage, Scotty asks aloud, “Raised up who, sir?” Kirk’s interior monologue had been spoken aloud, as someone might absentmindedly do, when overwhelmed by an astonishingly beautiful person. The drydock scene is about sooo much more than a captain reporting for duty…

The melodious, majestic sequence ends with the travel pod mating with the Enterprise–its docking ring slowly and gracefully slipping into a port side airlock. One doesn’t need to be steeped in Freud to find a deeper meaning in that moment.

The Kirk/Spock/McCoy Troika

In TOS Star Trek, Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy (De Forest Kelley) functioned as more than a team–they were three aspects of a combinant person. Spock was the intellect, McCoy was the heart, and Kirk was the soul, who grappled with his other two sides to make the right decisions. Granted, that’s not exactly a hot take, but true, all the same.

As TMP begins, we see Admiral Kirk tense, irritable, and anxious to get back into space. Even the demoted Captain Decker (Stephen Collins) recalls Kirk telling him, “I remember when you recommended me for this command. You told me how envious you were, and how much you hoped you’d find a way to get a starship command again.” But it’s not just command Kirk craves; he needs those other two parts of himself to fully function as captain.

The second member of the troika, Dr. McCoy, reluctantly beams up to the ship after he’s “drafted” back into Starfleet by a “little known, seldom-used, reserve activation clause” on Kirk’s recommendation. In retirement, the ‘old country doctor’ has gone a bit wild, with a thick beard and more casual attire (including a seriously huge medallion). Once back as Chief Medical Officer, McCoy grumpily gripes about the the ship’s new look: “And they probably redesigned the whole sickbay, too. I know engineers, they love to change things…”

Note: The novelization of TMP includes a scene that occurs right after the Enterprise’s departure from drydock. McCoy and Dr. Chapel (Majel Barrett) are looking over biometric data from Kirk’s uniform biosensor (the “perscan device”), and they realize Kirk’s craving for command is analogous to drug addiction, which leads to McCoy’s later confrontation with Kirk in his cabin (as seen in the film). That drug addiction analogy might’ve been too heavy for a formerly G-rated movie…

After the Enterprise’s malfunctioning warp drive leaves the ship stranded in space, Spock dramatically arrives from a long-range Vulcan shuttle. The final third of the troika is back, but he’s changed. After months spent shedding the last vestiges of emotion for the Vulcan Kolinahr ceremony, Spock’s is unexpectedly (and profoundly) moved by the powerful mind of V’ger, which somehow reaches out to him–perhaps as another conflicted being searching for meaning to its existence. Ironically, V’ger needs precisely what Spock had been laboring to expel–the emotional capacity to think beyond logic.

Kirk and Spock return to the Enterprise because something was lacking in their lives. Perhaps McCoy was missing something as well. By reuniting, they fill those gaps in their lives. While many pieces of Star Trek fanfic speculate Kirk and Spock were offscreen lovers (not impossible, though unlikely), it’s clear they need each other; and together, they need McCoy. When Spock’s unauthorized mind-meld with V’ger puts him in a state of near-catatonia, Kirk and McCoy are there to catch him. In fact, Kirk dons a thruster suit to retrieve Spock’s unconscious body. Once returned, McCoy (and Chapel) work quickly to make the traumatized Spock whole again.

When one of the three falls, the remaining two will catch them. We see this later in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” when Kirk slips and falls while scaling Yosemite’s El Capitan. Kirk is saved when Spock uses ‘gravity boots’ to grab him just before impact. Granted, the love between Kirk, Spock and McCoy is more like the love seen in found families, but no less legitimate.

The Decker/Ilia/V’ger Triangle

In TMP’s more traditional love story, the characters of Commander Decker and navigator Lt. Ilia (Persis Khambatta) became involved with each other when Decker was stationed on her home planet of Delta IV, several years earlier. However, Decker broke it off without so much as a goodbye when Ilia’s pheromone-enhanced Deltan sensuality overwhelmed the career-minded officer. When Ilia and Decker are reunited for the V’ger crisis, it’s a bit awkward, but there are some fleeting, affectionate glances. The backstory for the two characters was sort of a first draft attempt at the more successful Will Riker/Deanna Troi relationship we’d see in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), eight years later.

Note: I don’t want to use this column to delve into the horrible sexual offenses of actor Stephen Collins. Though never formally charged or convicted, Collins confessed to inappropriate sexual conduct with minors. That’s the only oxygen I’ll give that man’s ugliness. Moving on…

As the Enterprise moves into the V’ger cloud, there’s an intruder alert. Ilia is zapped and absorbed by a visiting energy probe. Decker is angry at Kirk for ignoring his earlier warning to tread cautiously (“This is how I define unwarranted”). As Enterprise is pulled via tractor beam into the massive V’ger complex within the cloud, there is another intruder alert. Someone, or some thing has appeared in the sonic shower of Ilia’s quarters. Kirk, Spock and McCoy rush to investigate, while Decker has the bridge.

In Ilia’s quarter’s, the late navigator seems to have reappeared in her shower, but with a glowing, pink sensor below her throat. This “Ilia” is the returning energy probe in disguise; assuming Ilia’s form to “more readily communicate with the carbon-based units infesting Enterprise.” Given V’ger’s impeccable duplication of Ilia’s body, Spock speculates that Ilia’s mind might’ve been duplicated with equal precision. As McCoy examines the Ilia-probe in sickbay, Kirk wonders if Ilia’s feelings of loyalty and friendship might be awakened from it/her, in order to gain information about their captor (it’s through the Ilia-probe we first learn that the invading entity calls itself ‘V’ger’). With only hours before V’ger arrives at Earth, Kirk decides this is a job for Decker…

Officially, Decker’s task is to awaken Ilia’s memories within the probe to help it/her better understand humans, and for a better understanding of V’ger. Unofficially, Decker hopes to reawaken the soul of the woman he loved. First, Decker takes the Ilia-probe to the recreation deck to play some of Ilia’s favorite games. Later, they head back to her quarters, where she tries on a Deltan headband worn by the late navigator. During these moments, the Ilia-probe seems to respond emotionally, as if Ilia herself is struggling to emerge from V’ger’s influence. However, as V’ger reasserts control, the Ilia-probe’s voice turns sharply mechanical.

Note: The late Persis Khambatta (1948-1998), who died tragically young from a heart attack, delivers a understatedly excellent performance as the mechanical Ilia-probe, giving an unblinking stare whenever she’s in full V’ger-mode, with flickers of the real Ilia emerging whenever her latent personality reasserts itself.

In the movie’s final act, V’ger launches orbiting bombs around Earth to call Kirk’s bluff and set up a meeting between V’ger and its creator, whom V’ger desperately seeks. At its nucleus, we find that “V’ger” is a mutated version of the NASA probe, Voyager 6 (a fictional successor to the real-life Voyagers 1 and 2 probes). Voyager 6 disappeared into a black hole, and emerged near a ‘machine planet’ on the far side of the galaxy. The machine inhabitants recognized Voyager as one of their own, and sent it back to Earth in a massive spaceship in order to fulfill its prime directive of ‘learning all that is learnable.’ After amassing a galaxy of knowledge, Voyager/V’ger became sentient itself, and began to question the parameters of its existence. To that end, V’ger sought its creator, which it assumed would be found from its departure point on Earth.

Note: In the novelization of TMP, the Ilia-probe makes love to Decker during their tour of the Enterprise. As she tears away at his clothes, Decker wonders if it’s really Ilia, or is it V’ger? In the final act of the movie, that won’t really matter so much…

As Decker’s feelings for the Ilia-probe become more entangled, he has a eureka moment–V’ger needs to physically join with a human… to touch its creator. With the silent consent of the Ilia-probe, Decker quickly volunteers for the job. Keying the final response code to V’ger’s radio signal manually, Decker gazes upon the Ilia-probe (which acts more like Ilia now), and realizes their joining might create an entirely new being; a fusion of human and machine. The V’ger/Decker combinant won’t be some bionic zombie like the Borg, but a transcendent being across multiple dimensions. V’ger was previously limited by the constraints of pure logic, but thanks to Decker, it is now open to the unbounded possibilities of human imagination.

Note: There is another brief moment in Roddenberry’s novelization that takes place in the Voyager 6 nucleus, as Ilia’s own consciousness briefly but fully reawakens within her now mechanical body, just before V’ger regains control.

Decker volunteers to merge with V’ger not for his shipmates or even the Federation. Decker wants this, more than anything else in his life up to this point–even more than commanding the Enterprise (a goal which fulfilled Kirk, not Decker). Decker’s commitment to V’ger is an act of love, as he and Ilia are enveloped in a growing vortex of blinding white light that threatens to envelop Kirk, Spock and McCoy as well, as they rush back to the ship. The human Decker embraces the machine V’ger, recognizing that his own humanity might somehow complete it. In the best Star Trek tradition, Decker truly goes where no one has gone before…

We next see a massive stream of light shooting upward–a plasma-energy climax–as the combinant Decker/Ilia/V’ger life-form merges to become what it will become. Decker, Ilia and V’ger’s combined differences have physically created something new. The new life-form’s potential can’t even be contained within our universe, so it exits. This action frees the Enterprise, and removes the orbiting devices surrounding Earth. The threat ends, and in the best Star Trek tradition, it ends benignly. Unlike the Borg, this fusion of human and machine is born through love.

Few things illustrate Star Trek’s lofty philosophy of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations better than Decker’s union with V’ger, as a human embraces the unknown (in this case, machine intelligence). One may rightfully and deservedly criticize its shortcomings, but for me, TMP remains the truest to Star Trek’s core principles.

Humans and Machines

A recent poll in Newsweek said 28% of Americans admit to having intimate relationships with AIs (artificial intelligence, for those living under a rock for the last 20 or more years). The Spike Jonez sci-fi drama “Her” (2013) was ahead of that curve, as it featured a lonely, divorced man (Joaquin Phoenix) entering into a fully committed relationship with his computer’s new operating system (voice of Scarlett Johansson), which is also mobilized in his phone. What was science fiction a dozen years ago is reality. I’m certainly not judging this phenomenon, any more than I’d presume to tell someone with a parakeet or goldfish those creatures aren’t ‘real’ companions, either. Of course they’re real companions. Any person, creature, or thing that helps humans to mitigate loneliness is fine by me, so long as no one is threatened, harmed, or otherwise held against their will.

While Star Trek pioneered a lot of firsts in its TV run, TMP forecast the acceptance of machines as not simply tools, but also as love interests, and perhaps even progenitors for new kinds of life. While that final forecast still seems a long way off, Star Trek has been evolving its relationships between humans and artificial intelligences. The franchise has come a long way since the body-horror days of TOS’ “What are Little Girls Made Of?” when Nurse Chapel reunited with her presumed dead fiancé, Dr. Roger Korby (Michael Strong), only to learn his consciousness now resides in an android body–something absolutely unacceptable back in 1966, as it depicted the mandroid Dr. Korby as some kind of maniacal Frankenstein’s monster.

Decades later, TNG would feature an android crew member, Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), who, like Pinocchio (and V’ger), seeks to be more than the sum of his mechanical parts. In the 4th season episode “In Theory,” Data begins a cautious, often-fumbling relationship with security officer Lt. Jenna D’Sora (Michelle Scarabelli). D’Sora initiates the relationship, but ultimately ends it as well. While Jenna had no issue with an artificial lover, she found Data’s hardwired lack of emotion (beyond mere emulation) too frustrating. At the end of the episode, Jenna leaves Data’s quarters, and Data simply deletes the subroutine he’d created for their relationship. For Data, breaking up with a human lover is little more than deleting an app. Easy-peasy.

In “Star Trek: Discovery” (DSC), we see non-binary Adira (Blu del Barrio) helping their transgender male Trill lover Gray Tal (Ian Alexander) phase from a non-corporeal state into a newly-made synthetic body (“Choose To Live”). What’s remarkable about this story is that none of the prejudices we saw with synthetic beings in previous episodes like “What are Little Girls Made Of?” “I, Mudd,” or “The Measure of a Man” are present. Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) fabricates the body in sickbay and Gray’s consciousness is downloaded into it. Simple as that. While the episode uses Gray’s transition to a synthetic body as metaphor for trans persons achieving wholeness, its embracing of synthetic bodies feels closer to where we are today, as we accept machines and AI as inextricable parts of 21st century life.

In 1979, the possibility of a merging between humans and machines was a daring idea for a love story, and it was one which “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” told first. Aided by opulent production values, elegant direction by Robert Wise, incredible visual effects and a lush, romantic Jerry Goldsmith score, the physical merging of human and machine in TMP boldly went where no one had gone before…

Where to Watch

“Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Director’s Cut” “Star Trek,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Discovery” are available to stream on Paramount+. Both the Director’s Cut and theatrical versions of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” are also available on Blu-Ray/DVD, via Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com and eBay (buyer beware).