Star Trek: The Motion Picture Special Longer Version (1979) 4K Dolby Vision review, UK Paramount UHD disc. HDR metadata: Mastering display colour primaries: DCI-P3. Mastering display luminance levels: 4000/0.005 max/min nits. Maximum Content Light Level: 1000 nits. Maximum Frame Average Light Level: 979 nits. Disc type: UHD100.
Okay, so, as this newly minted SLV/theatrical UHD disc (available only in the TMP 'Complete Adventure' boxset) uses the existing theatrical 4K master as its basis then the bulk of my review for the 2021 disc applies here. Give it a read if you've a strong constitution, have an hour to spare and don't mind words and stuff:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=3941. Yes, this means that all the smoothed over VFX and general wonkiness of those 2021 shots are carried over here,
it's the same transfer, and the colour timing etc remains the same. If you hated how a certain VFX shot looked in the 2021 you'll get no relief here.
The questions count amongst the obvious: how do the SLV additions look and is the encode any betterer? Fortunately the extended scenes have been transferred from their OG negative wherever possible so there is no distracting 'bump' between theatrical and SLV in terms of quality, the beautiful fine grain from the 5247 negative is perfectly preserved - unlike the 4K Director's Edition transfer - and they've also been graded to match the existing scenes. It's as seamless visually as you could ever expect and well done Paramount for not being tempted to tinker any further apart from the addition of a new matte painting to the infamous SLV scene of Kirk's space walk, done to cover up the visible set due to the original VFX not having been completed. The painting is decent enough but where it meets the real set looks a bit iffy, they haven't bothered to finesse the edges (reminds me of the new Coke mural they added to Grease) but it's a miracle they did it at all and it gets the job done for such a short shot. The original version of the scene, set and all, is viewable separately as an extra on the disc. It's presented in 4K Dolby Vision but for some reason the highlights are badly clipped and blown out, they look nothing like they do in the scene as included in the main movie.
But another pat on the back is deserved for the inclusion of subtitles for alien dialogue that match the original typeface. On the 2021 theatrical UHD the subtitles are player generated in a typically bland font, there's no effort whatsoever to make them like the OG subs. But now, oh they look fantastic. Still player generated but in a style that is germane to the original, it's a minor thing in the grand scheme but it gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling to have them preserved like this. Some photo examples below, PLEASE don't take the shots as indicative of what the transfer looks like and they're not meant to be the same frames, just check out the subs.
2021 UHD
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2022 UHD
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2021 UHD
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2022 UHD
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Oh, and lookit the disc menus too: on the new UHD they've put in the OG Bob Peak poster art rather than the rejigged DE version used on the 2021 menu. The 2022 menu is now silent however, whereas the 2021 is scored with some of Jezza Goldsmith's glorious music.
2021 UHD
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2022 UHD
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Thankfully Paramount didn't cheap out with their video encoding options, they have seamlessly branched both versions of the movie onto a triple layer UHD100 disc. This results in a healthy bump in bitrate over the previous UHD66 theatrical edition disc, usually running about 10 Mb/s more at any given moment, though different encodes will naturally have different peaks and troughs during the presentation. Does it result in a dramatic difference? No. The 2021 has a competent enough encode, I wasn't amazed by it nor was I disappointed, it got the job done whilst looking a fraction untidy here and there. The 2022 cleans up that untidyness, chroma containment is better still than the 2021 (though I mentioned it wasn't a problem before) and wide shots are slightly tighter and more coherent. It just turns a good encode into a great one. It's a pity that the SLV's 2.0 stereo audio wasn't encoded losslessly for this version, instead it's at 224 kb/s Dolby Digital 2.0, and yet to my TV speakers and terrible hearing it sounded pretty dang nice. Still a bit 'harder' than the later multichannel or immersive remixes if only by dint of being so old rather than lossy, and the dialogue for the SLV scenes doesn't have the polish of the final sound mix, and yet it's still quite sprightly with some good separation across the sound stage. The theatrical still has the same TrueHD 7.1 as before.
The more time I spend with the TMP theatrical/SLV 4K transfer the more I love it. Not that anything has changed at source level between the 2021 and 2022 versions but the live action portions look
so good, they're gorgeously crisp and filmic and make a mockery of both the original DNR hysteria (guilty) and the varying amounts of "grain management" meted out to the new 4K Director's Edition (more on that another time). Sure, there's no getting away from the fact that several of the VFX shots haven't been treated kindly in the 2021/2022 theatrical/SLV master e.g. the Enterprise leaving space dock looks as tragic as it did before, but not every VFX shot is so badly treated and several were cleaned up whilst still retaining their old-school optical quality (which I explained in the 2021 review). Indeed, it's that old-school quality which is so endearing to me and is why I'm so chuffed with this new UHD. Even if it only had the theatrical version I'd still be gushing over it for the refinements of the OG subs and the further-improved encode (though it could be argued it wouldn't have been redone at all if it was just the theatrical, this ain't Sony!) and so the inclusion of the SLV in such consistent quality is an amazing bonus. As was pointed out by BNex99 it's also got what is basically the OG 2.0 audio for the movie with the SLV bits added in and again, it's a lovely bonus. This disc has now become my go-to version of TMP and personally speaking it was worth every penny spending £55 on the 'Complete Adventure' tat edition to get it. YMMV.