The official trailer for Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived in 1979 and announced the return of the Enterprise crew with a solemnity that immediately set the film apart from the television series preceding it. Where most franchise relaunches lean on nostalgia, this trailer leads with scale, presenting the refitted Enterprise in enough visual detail to establish the production as something worthy of the big screen. Jerry Goldsmith's score provides the sonic foundation, a piece of orchestral music of such majesty that it immediately signals the film's aspirations as a contemplative epic rather than a kinetic action picture.
First Impressions
The trailer is more visually ambitious than anything the franchise had previously produced. The refitted Enterprise is shown with care and cinematic weight, the crew's return is handled with warmth, and the alien cloud entity is glimpsed with clarity sufficient to establish its threat as something unprecedented in the franchise's history.
What the Trailer Reveals
The alien cloud's approach to Earth, the Enterprise's intercept mission, and the crew's reunion are all foregrounded as the film's central selling points. The combination of spectacle and emotional reconnection is handled with a restraint that reflects the film's own tonal priorities.
Music and Sound
Goldsmith's main theme, which would become one of the most recognisable pieces of science fiction film music ever written, is introduced here with confidence and authority. It gives the trailer a sonic identity as distinctive as its visual one, and the orchestral grandeur suits the film's more contemplative register.
Most Memorable Moment
The first full reveal of the refitted Enterprise, rendered through practical model work of striking visual authority, is the trailer's most iconic image. It establishes the production's credentials immediately and arrives with a sense of occasion that only the best franchise launch trailers achieve.
Trailer Verdict
A visually majestic and tonally serious trailer for the franchise's first big-screen entry. It presents the film's aspirations as a genuine science fiction epic with a restraint and a confidence that sets it apart from the more frenetic franchise marketing of its moment. Goldsmith's theme alone is worth the price of admission.