Shatner’s ability to jack-off billionaires for personal benefit and then reflect this profoundly hard about it without ever nudging into self-reflection is why only he can be Kirk.

Just watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the first time in......40 years? This was the Director's Cut. Like Star Trek 5 it's been consigned in my mind after a viewing or two as one of the not good ones. I could never bring myself to say bad. After a fresh viewing its still not one of the good ones but like Star Trek 5 it has its moments. Almost if not exclusively when the Kirk, Spock and McCoy are together. What a magic combination those three. I had forgotten, or it went over my head when I was a little kid how important Spock's realization that pure logic was ultimately unfulfilling and how profound that moment was to his character arc. The movie is vital if only for that moment. The Motion Picture was certainly....by far....the most Star Trek of the big screen efforts. Most cinematic too though I think to its detriment. The following films because of their budgets felt more intimate and the universe more lived in. Everything here feels way too cold. The awe and wonder on the characters faces never matches the visuals. It never really occurred to me that Star Trek 4 was basically a rewrite of the first movie but The Voyage Home felt like a movie this feels like a long TOS episode. Still it's worth a watch. I'll give it a clearly compromised and biased 3 out of 5 stars but I don't see myself watching it again for another 40 years.