Continuity mistake: In the final scene on the bridge, Spock and McCoy are wearing coloured arm bands which identify their departments: Spock's is orange (for Science) and McCoy's is green (for Medical). In the very last shot, Spock is wearing the green band and McCoy is wearing the orange one (corrected in the 2022 re-release of the Director's Edition).
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Directed by: Robert Wise
Starring: William Shatner, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols
Revealing mistake: When the Enterprise is leaving its docking station and pulling out, two little bugs or debris from the model lands on the camera lens on the lower left corner (corrected in the Director's Edition).
Continuity mistake: In the original series Spock mentioned that Vulcan has no moons. In the movie, when Spock is on Vulcan, he looks up and shields his eyes against the glare of the sun. When the scene changes, it is night and there are moons. (Corrected in the Director's Edition).
Suggested correction: Though the planet had no moons, it did form a binary pair with T'Khut and was considered its sister planet. From Memory Alpha.
Trivia: If you look at the Kholinar necklace Spock was to be given when he was on Vulcan it bears a striking resemblance to the Enterprise, especially when it is laying on the ground before Spock picks it up.
Trivia: In the original cut, the man reporting from Epsilon 9 says the cloud measures "Over 82 AUs in diameter. Since an Astronomical Unit is the distance between the Earth and Sun is 92,955,807.3 miles, 82 AUs would be 7,622,376,198.6 miles. In the Collector's and Director's cuts, it has been redone as 2 AUs, or 185,911,614.6 miles.
Spock: Each of us... At some time in our lives, turns to someone - a father, a brother, a God... And asks..."Why am I here? What was I meant to be?"
McCoy: Well Jim, I hear Chapel's an M.D. Now. So I'm gonna need a top nurse, not some doctor who'll argue every little diagnosis with me. And they probably re-designed the whole sickbay, too. I know engineers, they LOVE to change things.
McCoy: In simpler language, Captain, they drafted me!
Kirk: They didn't.
McCoy: This was your idea! This was your idea, wasn't it?
Kirk: Bones, there's a thing out there...
McCoy: Why is any object we didn't understand always called 'a thing'?
Question: When it is mentioned that Ilia is Deltan, a couple of the male Enterprise crew members (Sulu in particular) look very interested when they hear that. Why? Also, why was it necessary for her to say that she has taken an oath of celibacy?
Answer: Deltans exude an intensely potent and effective chemical substance known as pheromones, which act as signals arousing an intense sexual reaction in other species (in other ST material it's inferred that its potency is so extreme that a non-Deltan risks insanity in a sexual encounter with a Deltan). Upon entering Starfleet, Deltans must swear "an oath of celibacy" so as not to influence or take advantage of crewmembers. That is why Lt. Ilia stated that her "oath of celibacy" was on record.
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