V'Ger, an unknown entity of enormous power, approaches Earth, and Admiral Kirk takes back command of the refitted Enterprise.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, released in 1979 and directed by Robert Wise, was the first feature film made from the original series. Years after the end of the five-year mission, a vast energy cloud heads toward Earth, destroying everything in its path. The Enterprise, newly refitted, is the only ship in range, and Admiral James T. Kirk takes the command from Captain Willard Decker in order to confront the threat.
The cloud conceals a living machine called V'Ger, which is searching for its creator. Spock, who has left Starfleet to pursue a Vulcan discipline of pure logic, senses the entity's mind and joins the ship's crew. The story explores the idea of a machine that wants to learn what it means to exist, and it asks how knowledge differs from feeling. Decker and the navigator Ilia play key roles in the final answer to the mystery.
The film restored the original crew to the screen after a decade, introduced a redesigned Enterprise and began the long run of films with the Kirk crew. Its slow, grand style set it apart from the television series, and its themes of curiosity and the search for meaning shaped the later stories of the franchise.