I am a huge trekkie, and I have found watching this documentary extremely strenuous. I don't know who was in charge of the music mixing and editing, but I do not thank them. Not only the same themes are endlessly repeated but because they are short, there is a feeling of music brain washing in the repetition. And they are soooo loud ! Really hard to make out what the participants are saying sometimes. Painful !
That said, the doc is very interesting, though we already saw and heard some of the things on it in previous docs.
Always a delightful journey down memory lane to see all the elements that remind us of how and why we loved Star Trek.
Nothing really new but a sweet bit of nostalgia.
Live long and prosper.
F.
ps: I would have rated it better if the music hadn't been so annoying.
8 Reviews
Music too loud
guympilon28 June 2020
I tried to watch this. I really did. I made it about halfway until I couldn't take it any longer. The background music was actually the foreground music. The music was overpowering the people speaking. The sound editor of this movie should be immediately fired.
Informative, but the music will drive you insane
jfmacdonald-2855025 August 2021
A fascinating retrospective on Star Trek. Interesting interviews, some never before revealed facts, but oh god, the music. Every second of the nearly 90 minute runtime has this god awful, repeating every 30 seconds soundtrack. On top of this, they couldn't get the rights to the original music for any of the Star Trek series so they tried to make it sound as similar as they could, so it all comes off as sounding wrong. If you have the time, read the books by Gross and Altman instead. Way more in-depth, honest, and you can listen to better music.
Bad use of sound
karla-perry9 January 2019
The end is just the beginning
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews21 January 2017
This is a documentary made up of interviews(from different times and places) with franchise(and outside ones who are fans) cast(albeit Shatner's absence is hard to ignore. They do talk about him, and it's almost all positive. Well, the other captains aren't there, either. I could go into the many smart, thoughtful people's names, but it would quickly become a list, and a lovefest), crew, scientists, etc.(they of course don't get equal time), show and film clips, zooms on stills, and historical footage. It goes into, well, see the title. It's 1 hour and 24 minutes without ads. According to what I read on here. I watched it with, and couldn't tell you for sure. For me, it was 117 min.
They discuss a lot of subjects. Diverse people working together to solve problems: women, Asians and African-Americans: right there next to white men, with responsibilities, receiving respect. The technology and how much of it we have today. Inspiring generations. Everyone has something to say and is interesting to listen to. It's edited well and goes into the right amount of detail. Here and there they dive deep into a certain special effect, scene or important conversation. And yet they manage to cover half a century's worth of series and movies. It doesn't really touch on J.J.'s reboot and its trilogy. So, you know, all of Star Trek is gone into. They're fairly honest, admitting when there were missteps.
This contains some disturbing content and two bleeped swears(you know exactly the words used). It spoils countless of the big plot points in the many hours of ST. Keep that in mind. I recommend this to anyone, Trekkie or otherwise. 8/10
They discuss a lot of subjects. Diverse people working together to solve problems: women, Asians and African-Americans: right there next to white men, with responsibilities, receiving respect. The technology and how much of it we have today. Inspiring generations. Everyone has something to say and is interesting to listen to. It's edited well and goes into the right amount of detail. Here and there they dive deep into a certain special effect, scene or important conversation. And yet they manage to cover half a century's worth of series and movies. It doesn't really touch on J.J.'s reboot and its trilogy. So, you know, all of Star Trek is gone into. They're fairly honest, admitting when there were missteps.
This contains some disturbing content and two bleeped swears(you know exactly the words used). It spoils countless of the big plot points in the many hours of ST. Keep that in mind. I recommend this to anyone, Trekkie or otherwise. 8/10
ST50 cash-in special that can lightly garnish an existing ST disc collection
alerter11 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this when it was originally broadcast and revisited it on disc the day after 08 Nov 2016. It's a quickie morale booster for someone who wants to live in a real Star Trek universe.
When this cash-in, ST50 special cleaves closest to the art/craft and sociology of Star Trek, it's marginally better than the other ST50 cash-in special, BUILDING STAR TREK. But it's best to think of this as a slap-dash ST50 birthday party that none of the "Captains" attended. It's not as bad as it sounds.
The opening panel of talking heads assembled in the Leonard Nimoy Theater wasn't that bothersome, to me. I can ask, "Why those guys and nobody else?" But it was very nice to see Jeri Ryan up in that mix.
50 YEARS OF STAR TREK (aka STAR TREK ANNIVERSARY) does feature a chopped- up interview with Nimoy along with remembrances/comments from a hodge-podge collection of non-Captain actors and others behind the scenes. Among those others, it was very nice to see and hear DC Fontana, who is not well enough celebrated for her prodigious contributions to ST:ToS and ST:TNG.
50YoST attempts a full franchise retrospective, which is flat-out impossible in a meager 85 minutes; but correctly, I think, places more emphasis on ToS & TNG.
While Roddenberry was the visionary who conceived of this enduring "Wagon Train to the stars," he could never have kept his Enterprise afloat without the team that executed and delivered on tight timelines and even tighter budgets. Not enough of that off-camera drama was touched on here.
What we do get are a number of decent slices of and perspectives on what ST has meant to many of the familiar, yet rarely featured, faces who brought ST to TV and movie theaters.
One ST story that deserves its own Ken Burns-style documentary is the making of ToS' City on the Edge of Forever. That production, behind the scenes, might be the closest that ToS ever came to the anarchy that eventually produced (the Bogart/Bergman incarnation of) CASABLANCA. It's an episode that went way overtime and over budget to the point of almost not being made -- and, being made, with many compromises, generated considerable fallout for years to follow.
And I wished that 50YoST managed to say anything about Gene ("the lost gene") L Coon's contributions to ToS, rather than nothing, at all.
When this cash-in, ST50 special cleaves closest to the art/craft and sociology of Star Trek, it's marginally better than the other ST50 cash-in special, BUILDING STAR TREK. But it's best to think of this as a slap-dash ST50 birthday party that none of the "Captains" attended. It's not as bad as it sounds.
The opening panel of talking heads assembled in the Leonard Nimoy Theater wasn't that bothersome, to me. I can ask, "Why those guys and nobody else?" But it was very nice to see Jeri Ryan up in that mix.
50 YEARS OF STAR TREK (aka STAR TREK ANNIVERSARY) does feature a chopped- up interview with Nimoy along with remembrances/comments from a hodge-podge collection of non-Captain actors and others behind the scenes. Among those others, it was very nice to see and hear DC Fontana, who is not well enough celebrated for her prodigious contributions to ST:ToS and ST:TNG.
50YoST attempts a full franchise retrospective, which is flat-out impossible in a meager 85 minutes; but correctly, I think, places more emphasis on ToS & TNG.
While Roddenberry was the visionary who conceived of this enduring "Wagon Train to the stars," he could never have kept his Enterprise afloat without the team that executed and delivered on tight timelines and even tighter budgets. Not enough of that off-camera drama was touched on here.
What we do get are a number of decent slices of and perspectives on what ST has meant to many of the familiar, yet rarely featured, faces who brought ST to TV and movie theaters.
One ST story that deserves its own Ken Burns-style documentary is the making of ToS' City on the Edge of Forever. That production, behind the scenes, might be the closest that ToS ever came to the anarchy that eventually produced (the Bogart/Bergman incarnation of) CASABLANCA. It's an episode that went way overtime and over budget to the point of almost not being made -- and, being made, with many compromises, generated considerable fallout for years to follow.
And I wished that 50YoST managed to say anything about Gene ("the lost gene") L Coon's contributions to ToS, rather than nothing, at all.
Good interviews, obnoxious music
cavaroc18 October 2022
The interviews are great and wonderfully interesting, but the background music is constant, distracting, and way too loud. All the music is just a handful of tracks that try too hard to be reminiscent of the shows and the volume is, for whatever reason, louder than anyone talking. As a result, it becomes incredibly repetitive, and thus, overly obnoxious. It also makes the scene changes that much more noticeable and causes you to crave the rare clip they show just to shut the music up. The music completely ruined what could have been a really endearing compilation of interviews telling a great story. As much as I wanted to hear what everyone had to say, it was a serious struggle to get through this entire documentary, causing the roughly hour and 20 minutes to feel more like 3 hours. Watch it if you can, but don't feel bad if you can't make it to the end. How this was released without somebody calling out the never-ending overly loud music is a failing on the entire studio that released this.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
