I'm watching the boys for six days while Jamie vacations in Mackinaw with girlfriends, and last night they wanted to watch Star Trek on Blu-Ray so we picked up the Blu-Ray with the six original cast movies and settled down to watch TMP (and parts of VI, but not the whole thing - they just like to watch the Enterprise and Excelsior beat hell out of the Klingon ship).
I had read a review of the BR version of TMP, and it thought it was a really good transfer, with good blacks and a terrific sound, but it didn't mention if this was the 2001 Director's Cut. I eventually figured out it was not.
Well, I have to agree that the blacks were good - visually the film looked really good and the special effects once you got into space were stunning. The entire V'ger section the visuals were just amazing, aided greatly by the deep blacks they got. The shots of the V'ger exterior were still good at best and awful at worst, though - but the interiors were unbelievabl. I couldn't believe this film was made thirty years ago. The greater detail also helped tell the story a lot better - I didn't really mind the missing parts added in the 2001 cut as much as I thought I would - what were there told the story well enough. The flaws in the movie really had a lot more to do with what was left in that what was missing. Well, aside from a decent plot. Oh, yes, the drydock scene. This was really pretty good, but the difference in quality depended very much on how complex the shot was. The quality where it was a simple pass of the ship in dock was quite clear (as was the case with the space shots). But where there were other elements composited in - an Earth background, or moving elements, etc. - the image quality dropped way off. And the "over the shoulder" shots inside the travel pod were terrible. But, again, that was the available technology. It's amazing I still care about that scene after 30 years.
The sound on the other hand, was disappointing. I probably don't have the ultimate sound system, but I still thought the sound was bare at best (until the end when they were at V'ger, and then it was pretty good). I'll have to go back and watch the 2001 version, but I seem to recall the sound mix was better - helped a lot my not having the time pressures that caused the original to be a bit of a mess.
Anyway, even though this was just a higher res version of the film (it didn't receive the full restoration that Star Trek II did) I still really enjoyed it, and so did the boys. It benefits particularly well from the larger screen and better resolution. I saw a lot I'd never noticed before. But I would still like to see a Blu-Ray version of the 2001 edition. I think the film just needs more than to be simply cleaned up and presented in higher resolution.