Key Insights and Forgotten History

• The Original "Phase Two" Ending (0:36-1:58): Before becoming a film, the story was written as the pilot for a canceled series called Star Trek: Phase Two. In this version, Earth was saved not by a cosmic merger with Decker, but by the Ilia probe choosing to lie to V’Ger after learning the value of human life.
• The Saucer Separation Ending (1:59-3:20): Designer Andrew Probert originally envisioned the Klingon ships being absorbed by V’Ger rather than destroyed. They would have been released at the end, forcing the Enterprise to perform an emergency saucer separation to fight them off—a concept that later inspired the Enterprise-D design in The Next Generation.
• Caveman Spock (3:21-4:18): Uncovered in 2022, test footage shows Leonard Nimoy in extensive Neanderthal makeup for a version of the character that was almost entirely unknown to the public and even the actor’s family for decades.
• The Lost Spock Spacewalk (4:19-5:32): The sequence where Spock enters V’Ger was a last-minute replacement. Originally, Kirk and Spock were meant to explore the interior on foot, encountering a "memory wall" of crystalline structures. The set was built but ultimately scrapped because it was too visually restrictive.
• The "Borg" Connection (10:48-12:07): The description of V’Ger’s origins—a machine race that upgrades everything—bears a striking resemblance to the Borg. Gene Roddenberry fueled this theory, and even the line "Any show of resistance would be futile" mirrors the iconic Borg catchphrase.
• The "Scotty" Language (13:34-14:42): James Doohan (Scotty) created the guttural, alien-sounding Klingon dialogue in the opening scene himself. This invented vocabulary served as the foundation for the fully realized language later developed by Marc Okrand for Star Trek III.

Legacy and Production Trivia

• Sid Mead’s Influence (5:33-6:49): Industrial designer Sid Mead created the interior of V’Ger. His work on this film influenced his later iconic designs for Blade Runner, Tron, Aliens, and even the AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back.
• Fan Involvement (12:08-13:33): The recreation deck scene featured over 300 extras, including B.J. Trimble, the activist whose letter-writing campaign saved the original Star Trek from cancellation in the 1960s.
• The Blaster Beam (14:43-15:42): V’Ger’s haunting, otherworldly sound was created on a custom instrument called the "blaster beam" by Craig Huxley, who had previously played Kirk’s nephew on the original series.