The documentary series chronicling rare and fascinating details of Star Trek takes a look at how it made its move to the big screen.

The episodes of this fascinating series that cover the ‘wilderness years’ are proving to be the most informative, featuring much footage and facts that I’ve not been privy to before. We start in the early 70s where over $12m of toys were annually being sold based on a show that had been off the air for half a decade. There was a demand for new content – the original three seasons had been on hard rotation in syndication – and a new series, Phase II, was planned to launch a fourth network. Plans for a movie had already fall by the wayside.

There was one big Vulcan-shaped problem – Nimoy did not wish to return due to unresolved issues relating to the use of his likeness. In came David Gautreaux as Vulcan Xon, and then the fun really started. Paramount looked at Star Wars and Close Encounters and decided that they too wanted a piece of the sci-fi film pie, and it became a movie again… and Nimoy returned.

There’s a lot of the behind-the-scenes drama covered off in this hour, and it’s great to see that writer Harold Livingston is still with us, sharing details of his ongoing spats with Roddenberry. It’s to the show’s credit that this isn’t glossed over, and specific reference is made to the producer’s substance abuse as well as his troublesome meddling. Cringe as you hear that the movie started shooting without a final act, that the visual effects weren’t good enough and that the final print was delivered at the eleventh hour.

Verdict: The fact that Star Trek: The Motion Picture made it to the screen at all is something of a miracle – its  journey is fascinating and unbelievable in equal measures. 8/10

Nick Joy