STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE

Cert PG

137 mins

BBFC advice: Contains brief mild horror, sex references

With an estimated $10.6 billion in revenue, Star Trek is recognised as one of the most recognisable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

Thus, it is hard to reconcile that the original TV series was dumped after four years back in the 1960s.

Indeed, only its worldwide syndication success during the 1970s prompted studio bosses to take up the proposition put forward by its creator Gene Roddenberry to make a movie.

I remember being shocked by how the cast had aged significantly when Robert Wise's film was released in 1979 but it was actually a decade since they had previously worked together.

Nevertheless, William Shatner was only in his 40s when he returned to play Captain James T. Kirk, the most famous space explorer cinema has ever seen.

Kirk had been promoted to admiral by now but found the lure of taking the helm of the refurbished USS Enterprise too great as it set out on a mission to save the world.

They needed to cut off a giant cloud which has been destroying everything in its path and was just days away from earth.

The old favourites all returned for the movie - James Doohan as Scottie, Walter Koenig as Chekov, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, George Takei as Sulu, DeForest Kelley as Dr McCoy and, of course Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

Star Trek The Motion Picture is a curiosity because it has more in common with 2001 A Space Odyssey than the films it has spawned.

The movie has relatively little action, lingering instead over set pieces such as the reunion with The Enterprise and the up-close reactions of Kirk and Scott.

Meanwhile, it plot is unambitious - the enemy is never seen and not a drop of blood is spilt during this low-key beginning to a story which would span nearly half a century.

Its acting may be terribly stilted and its special effects stuck in time but it still holds a soft sport for Star Trek fans and was worth revisiting.