Twelve films for Christmas, or at least ones I associate with the Holidays, listed between now and through the New Year. I had originally hoped to complete this list for Christmas Day, but a family emergency changed that plan. These are not in any particular order.

Day 5: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979 dir. Robert Wise)

I always think of Christmas when I see this film probably because I received the LP score album from my Grandmother for Christmas when I was twelve years old. It is my favorite film score even though it’s not by my favorite composer, John Williams. I hear Jerry Goldsmith’s music and I just think of Christmas.

It is not the best of the Star Trek films, but neither is it the worst; that honor lies with The Final Frontier (1989) but even that one has its well-intentioned merits. This one starts well and ends on a thoughtful, though slightly recycled, note of human discovery. The middle drags a bit as the film falls in love with its own spectacular visuals, but I still enjoy it. Premiering two and a half years after Star Wars (1977), it was Paramount’s thrown hat into the ring of big budget space adventures.

An enormous alien cloud of immense destructive power tears its way across the galaxy on a direct heading towards Earth and only the Starship Enterprise is within range to intercept it, naturally. The starship is in disrepair as it finishes refit and its new Captain, Willard Decker (Stephen Collins, enough said about him) may not have the experience needed to solve the mystery of the cloud’s origin and motives, prompting now Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) to wrest command of the Enterprise and speed toward discovery.

The solving of the cloud’s mysterious beginnings helps fuel the incidental drama at work here. Is Admiral Kirk, having been away from starship command for a couple of years, even up to the task at hand? Will Spock, who does return here, find the complete lack of emotion he desires, or is there another answer? Will the Cloud’s mystery help resolve these issues and give some further enlightenment about humanity? Of course, to all of of those questions.

All of these issues are secondary to the fun had in seeing these actors working together again after ten years of syndicated reruns on television. The movie did well financially, which is not only a testament to the endurance at work here but also the launching pad for a film franchise which, with the next film (The Wrath of Khan, 1982), eventually finds its voice and rythm.

While a bit overdone, the visuals are amazing and still hold up after more than four decades. What also remains is the aforementioned score. The music is instantly recognizable and provides at least a measure of an excuse for following the middle section’s laborious journey through the cloud. And what they find at the heart of the cloud, if not entirely surprising, is worth the trip and very much Star Trek.