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Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The plot of the film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth, destroying everything in its path. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) assumes command of his old starship—the USS Enterprise—to lead it on a mission to save the planet and determine V'Ger's origins. The success of Star Trek in syndication convinced Paramount to begin work on a feature film in 1975. A series of writers attempted to craft a suitably epic script, but the attempts did not satisfy Paramount, so the studio scrapped the project in 1977. The box office success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced Paramount that science fiction films other than Star Wars could do well at the box office, so the studio resumed its attempts at making a Star Trek film. Released in North America in December 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom criticized the film for its lack of action and over-reliance on special effects. The film earned $139 million worldwide, falling short of studio expectations but enough for Paramount to propose a cheaper sequel.