The 4k Blu-ray arrived yesterday, so Mitzi and I watched it after Slow Horses. Well, I watched it. Mitzi slept through it.

I don't recall ever watching the movie again after seeing it in the theater in December 1979 in Newport, Rhode Island. I think I'd completed Surface Warfare Officer School, and was in the Communications Officer course by then. Anyway, I do recall looking forward to seeing the movie, and maybe even standing in line.

I suspect that I may watched it on the small screen on something like HBO back in the 4:3 standard definition days.

In any event, this 4K restoration, with new(er) digital effects is a much better looking film than I recall from the original.

It's held up ok. I don't think it's a great movie, but it holds one's interest at least in the context of the Star Trek universe. I think I actually understood the movie better this time around, at least in terms of the origin of V'ger. (I did recall what V'ger was, I didn't recall how it had become semi-sentient.)

We'd watched The Wrath of Khan the night before, and one of the things that stood out to me was when Kirk handed things he was carrying to people, and doing so in a very natural, very entitled way. On The Center Seat, Nicholas Meyer related that William Shatner hated the first draft of Khan. It's a very interesting part of that series; suffice to say that he learned that Shatner wanted to be "the first through the door." That he wasn't just writing a part for a character, but he was writing a script for a star. It took him a few hours to fix the script.

So I was kind of surprised, but then not, in this movie when he first boards ENTERPRISE and he hands the book he's carrying to Uhura without so much as a word, and heads off to the bridge.

He's an admiral in the first two movies, and they usually have an aide whose job is to receive things flag officers hand to them. So maybe he's just been an Admiral for a couple of years, and they wouldn't allow his aide to come with him because of bunk space or something, so he's just used to not having to personally look after his own belongings.

Or maybe that's how they treat "a star."

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing this "director's version," with the updated effects, and surprised at how young everyone looked, even in 4K.