History Film / StarTrekTheMotionPicture

* CoolStarship: This movie introduces the Klingon ''K't'inga''-class battlecruiser -- essentially a more powerful version of the familiar D7 design from the series -- as well as the redesigned ''Enterprise''.

* CelebrityParadox: A rare nonhuman example is PlayedWith in that the real life Space Shuttle ''Enterprise'' was named after the starship ''Enterprise'' as a work of fiction, but is shown in-universe as a precursor and namesake to the starship.

* BrokenPedestal: Decker's angry with Kirk replacing him as captain because Kirk personally recommended him for the position beforehand.

** Gene Roddenberry's {{novelization}} reveals the identity of the woman killed in the transporter accident as Lori Chiana and it's implied that Kirk knows her. Later expanded universe novels will establish that she was, in fact, Kirk's girlfriend at the time, though the movie gives no indication of this.

* EnhancedOnDVD: Twenty years after the movie debuted, Creator/RobertWise came back and massively overhauled and ReCut everything for the DVD release. That included fixing some unfinished special effects, removing some useless scenes and adding some others, sweetening the audio, and most importantly, chopping down the waaaay too long special effects shots. Many fans point to the DVD edition as being far superior to the theatrical release. Unfortunately, the only Blu-Ray release to date has the original theatrical version.

* LampshadeHanging: [=McCoy=] remarks that he expects the entire sickbay has been redesigned, because engineers just ''love'' making changes, in reference to the movie's ''Enterprise'' being substantially redesigned compared to the original series's version.

* AncientAstronauts: The novelization mentioned that an unknown race of aliens used to have a base on the Moon were they manipulated early humanity.

* DressOMatic: The V'ger probe in Lt. Ilia's form beams an outfit on to itself when it finishes with the sonic shower.

* TooDumbToLive: The Klingons when confronted with an absolutely gigantic cloud/ship/thing traveling at warp speed through their space - but otherwise seemingly minding its own business. Something far beyond their understanding. And they decide the best decision they can make is to ... fire a handful of torpedoes into it.

* RobotGirl: Probe Ilia. And intentionally or not, she strongly resembles the machine-man from ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''.

--> '''Scotty:''' Admiral, we have just spent 18 months redesigning and refitting the ''Enterprise''. How in the name of hell do they expect me to have her ready in 12 hours? She needs more work, sir! A shakedown!

** In the theatrical cut, Uhura has one after the Federation outpost is taken by V'ger, forcing Kirk to repeat his order, "Turn it off!"

* TooStrangeToShow: Again, what Decker, Ilia, and V'Ger become, since they disappear from our universe entirely.

* AncientAstronauts: The novelization mentioned that an unknown race if aliens used to have a base on the Moon were they manipulated early humanity.

** It will get more focus in the next [[Film/StarTrekII one]], but Kirk's mid-life crisis (and he was already feeling his age in the [[Recap/StarTrekS1E15ShoreLeave original]]) starts here, carrying on until ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''.

* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: When the Klingons first encounter V'Ger, they go LeeroyJenkins and [[AttackHello fire photon torpedoes at it]]. When that fails and V'Ger starts blasting them, they beat a hasty (yet futile) retreat.

* CurbStompBattle: The battle at the beginning of the movie between three Klingon battlecruisers and V'Ger. Poor Klingons never had a chance.

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Spock theorizes that this is what V'Ger is actually trying to do.

* DisintegratorRay: V'Ger's main weapon digitizes whatever it hits, storing an exact duplicate in its databanks. Three Klingon ships and the Federation monitoring outpost fall victim to it. Ilia is vaporized by a scaled down version used by V'Ger's probe.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Spock, in his own words, "penetrates" an "orifice" to get into V'Ger's inner chamber, then passes through a large structure that looks like a vagina on its side, touches a pink, pulsating sensor to make intimate contact with V'Ger, is overwhelmed with stimulation then finally passes out from exhaustion and wakes up alone in a bed...in a G-rated movie!

* FlawedPrototype: The ''Enterprise''. The ship was gutted from head to toe and outfitted with brand new equipment. However, the ship still needed time to finish installing the equipment and do a proper shakedown cruise when V'Ger decided to show up. The ''Enterprise''[='s=] first attempt at warp ends up creating a wormhole that sucks up an asteroid and are forced to use photon torpedoes when the phasers are off-line due to being connected to the screwed up warp core. It isn't until Spock returns that the ship is in working order.

* JustAMachine: Played with. Decker initially dismisses Ilia-bot as the thing that ''killed'' Ilia. However, he starts falling in love with Ilia-bot, causing [=McCoy=] to harshly remind him, "Commander... this is a ''mechanism''." By the film's end, Ilia-bot is basically V'Ger in humanoid form.

* MileLongShip: The main body of V'Ger is 48 miles long according to Deleted Scenes and the novelization.

* ObliviouslyEvil: V'Ger kills the crews of three Klingon ships, everyone on the Epsilon IX station, Ilia, and nearly the population of Earth. There is no malice in its actions; it simply doesn't understand that what it's doing is wrong, as it doesn't realize that "carbon-based units" are alive. From its point of view, all it's doing is gathering information as efficiently as possible (and removing inconvenient obstacles to its objective).

* OminousPipeOrgan: Can be heard while the ''Enterprise'' is inside V'Ger.

* PlanetSpaceship: Downplayed. If one includes the concealing cloud (2 AU, twice the distance from Earth to the sun), then V'Ger dwarfs a fair portion of the entire solar system. V'ger itself, however, is indicated to be a ''merely'' 48 miles long, which still dwarfs pretty much every ship known to the Federation but is miniscule in astronomical terms.

* ShapedLikeItself: The crew's attempts to learn about V'Ger are stymied by that fact that it will only describe itself as seeking its creator, and said creator is simply that which created V'Ger. Ilia later reveals that V'Ger isn't being obtuse here; it literally doesn't know how to describe itself or its creator. It's not until the climax that they get enough leverage to make V'Ger reveal itself to them, thus allowing them to figure out why an incredibly powerful "living machine" thinks someone or something on Earth created it.

* SingleTear: Spock, of all people, sheds one for V'Ger.
--> "I weep for V'Ger as I would for a brother."

** Admiral Kirk responds to the incoming V'Ger threat by using his clout to reassume command of the ''Enterprise''. Unfortunately, he's been out of the Big Chair for over two years, and that chair is on TheBridge of a thoroughly redesigned ''Enterprise''. As a result, he nearly gets the ship destroyed before they've even left the Sol System.

* TheWorfEffect: Appropriately enough, the Klingons are on the receiving end at the very beginning of the film. Three [[http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/K%27t%27inga_class K't'inga-class]] warships get insta-disintegrated by V'Ger to showcase how powerful V'Ger is.

* PlanetSpaceship: V'Ger if we're counting counting the cloud around it.
** It was 82 astronomical units, making it the size of the solar system.
** The Director's Cut changes it to 2 AU which is still twice the distance from Earth to the sun.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Probe Ilia is a perfect mechanical reproduction of the real Ilia, down to the smallest bodily functions. In fact this is the chink in the probe's armor, as it were: Ilia's memories and feelings (mostly for Decker) have been reproduced "with equal precision."

** V'ger's first attack on the ''Enterprise'' -- the same attack that wiped out three Klingon battle cruisers at the beginning of the movie with one shot each -- fails to even breach the newly reinforced shields, dealing no structural damage other than frying poor Chekov's hands. However, Scotty immediately notes that the next shot will definitely kill them.

** During the transporter accident, a console in engineering goes haywire and spits out sparks.

* HeroicBSOD: In the theatrical cut, Uhura has one after the Federation outpost is taken by V'ger, forcing Kirk to repeat his order, "Turn it off!"

* NoOSHACompliance: A transporter which is on the fritz and not safe for use will apparently still accept incoming transports from another location, rather than letting the sender do all the work. Given they were working on a console which went haywire due to the transport, this could be chalked up to extraordinarily bad timing, though it still raises the question as to why no one told the sender that transport wasn't safe. Kirk, after all, was beamed into an orbiting station and then flown over.

** The battle between the three Klingon ships and V'Ger is completely one-sided, with the former firing three photon torpedoes into the latter that simply vanish, and a last-ditch photon into V'ger's digitizer ball that does nothing to slow their demise.

* TeleporterAccident: Sonak and another crew member are mangled by a malfunctioning transporter as the ''Enterprise'' is preparing to leave. And yet, ''mere minutes later'', [=McCoy=] is still treated as irrational for not liking them.

* NoSell: V'ger's first attack on the ''Enterprise'' -- the same attack that wiped out three Klingon battle cruisers at the beginning of the movie with one shot each, which counts as NoSell for the Klingons -- fails to even breach the newly reinforced shields, dealing no structural damage other than frying poor Chekov's hands. However, Scotty immediately notes that the next shot will definitely kill them.
** The battle between the three Klingon ships and V'Ger too, with the former firing three photon torpedoes to the latter that simply vanish

%%* Soft Robot: The intruding V'ger probe creates a liaison via duplicating a Enterprise crewmember down to mechanical cells and neural patterns. - Rogue launched trope

** Director Robert Wise edited ''Film/CitizenKane'' and spent the forty years after that making masterpieces of cinema. Accordingly, this film feels like it's from an entirely different era when watched alongside ''Wrath of Khan'' and the films that came after. Its spectacle-based panorama, "soft" lightning and film stock, '70s sci-fi fashions, methodical pace, and use of an overture all make it feel more like a roadshow historical epic from the '60s than the relatively-modern ''Khan''.