MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Discussion > Who saw this in cinemas back in 79?

Who saw this in cinemas back in 79?

posted 9 years ago by bozo_500
44 replies | jump to latest

Who saw this back in the day? What were your memories - the anticipation of seeing it in the weeks/days before, the actually seeing it and how much a big deal was it where you were back then, the crowds, audience etc and after coming out of the cinema what were your thoughts and in the days/weeks that followed.

I didn't see it (was too young) but I think about what it mustve been like to attend TMP in Xmas 79... fans/audiences went in expecting ‘Star Trek’ : The Motion Picture. but what Roddenberry actually gave them was ‘Star Trek Phase 2’ : The Motion Picture.

its like Roddenberry saw 2001 in 1968 or 1969 when his TV series was constantly under threat and thought to himself 'thats what star trek should be like..if i ever get the budget to do a star trek movie i will make it more like that'

Its funny when you think Star Wars was out just 2 years earlier and the success of that prompted Paramount to switch from doing the Phase 2 series or low budget tv movie to the big movie. one of the inspirations for Star Wars was obviously star trek with its action packed romp style...so fans will have been expecting and wanting the Trek movie to jump straight back into that feel.....yet Star Trek TMP shunned that in favour of a lofty 2001 vibe (which to be fair was the norm for SF flicks of the 70s that thoughtful, intellectual dystopian stuff which Star Trek had already been planning to go that route for 'Phase 2' before SW brought back the feel good action SF, so you had people wondering why STTMP wasn’t like that as that’s what they remembered from the tv show! So if anything SW was the anomaly and STTMP turned up too late to the party!!)...with time its interesting to see it as a more realistic '2001' version of Trek as theres the action films Wrath of Khan etc to enjoy (i.e. thats what a 'Star Trek' universe might really be like in the 23rd century more so than any other incarnations of Trek that followed in the sequels TNG and even the JJ films – these ultra advanced astronauts in their white&grey uniforms aboard a clean dangerous and powerful starship that can travel faster than light where if they dont get the instruments precise can create wormholes etc. its almost like a realistic futuristic SF movie about what humanity would be like in the 23rd century dealing with this horrific unknown cloud thing. And it just happens to star older versions of the cheapnchearful colourful 60s tv show 'star trek') but its easy to imagine the disappointment fans mustve had in 79 when theyd been waiting for the movie for the best part of a decade.

The anticipation of a huge budget Star Trek movie (with all the original cast) directed by a big name director (essentially like a Spielberg of the day) mustve been off the scale. (esp with Star Wars just out near enough the previous year whetting everyones appetite for colourful space action) ...they mustve been expecting epic space battles, hand phaser fights, Kirk Fu, nasty creepy aliens, Klingons kicking ass, Kirk Spock Bones jokes/banter, that eerie uncanny Twilight Zone vibe alot of the season 1 eps had, light comedic moments, red/gold/blue uniforms similar to the tv show, colourful Ent interiors, alien space babes for Kirk, beaming down to exotic alien planets (all done on a bigger scale/more realistic) ....and instead they got 'Star Trek: A Space Odyssey' with a dash of Close Encounters

I wonder what the reaction would’ve been had it been the movie version of the TV Star Trek?

maybe itd have made Star Wars box office !

(then again there were plenty episodes that were like TMP- Changeling, Doomsday, Corbomite, Immunity etc only with the added element of earth in peril)

[–] wxray1 8 years ago

Saw it with high school friends.

What I remember was we all commented about how slow it was. We also enjoyed all the women, but hey, we were high school boys.

Beyond that, we were happy ST was back.

Costumes and other stuff didn't seem strange. Remember, this was the age of "Space 1999" and heavily in the disco era.

[–] pacwarbuff 8 years ago

I was only eight when I saw TMP and my word what a crushing bore of a movie it was and remains today (though the director's cut helps...somewhat). I do recall the overture but since I hadn't ever seen/heard one I was confused and kept waiting for the images to show; blame it on my youth.

More memorable than the film itself was the aggressive TV advertising. It was the first time I saw commercials in which "moviegoers"--I suppose they were high school and college-aged nerds (Class of 1979)--were interviewed in the cineplex lobby gushing and gooing over what a majestic spectacle TMP was as dangerous amounts of caffeine, popcorn, and possibly PCP coursed through their rapidly-clogging veins and arteries.

TMP was also the first film I can remember having a McDonald's "Happy Meal" crossover product (speaking of clogged arteries).

TMP is the "Cleopatra" of sci-fi. Nearly forty years on and it still isn't such a good film despite claims to the contrary by a few dedicated supporters.

Another thing that renders TMP unrecognizable as Star Trek to me is the absence of (intentional) humor and cast chemistry--none of it is to be found in TMP. Sure, Bones tries with his patented grouchiness and long beard early on but everyone else either forgot how to play their characters or were betrayed by the scripts or were clueless as to what the hell was going on.

Jerry Goldsmith's score is much better apart from the film, though it does jolt me awake every so often.

[–] spocktom 8 years ago

I saw it at the "Greater Union" theatre in Russell Street, Melbourne (Australia) on the second day of its run. I was 20 and had been a life-long fan of the original show.

To be honest I really wasn't fussed about the slow pacing. There was a lot more going on in the development of the main characters that I think a lot of folks missed. The epiphany Spock has when he mind melds with V'Ger...his sudden realisation that human emotions are not trite...that V'Ger was asking, "Is this all that I am" really hit me hard. I had tears in my eyes. And the knowing hand grip between Spock and Kirk. The final understanding that their friendship would never dim was really quite emotional for me as well.

The audience I was with loved the film and there was applause at the end. The screening I attended was perfect...perfect surround sound, excellent curved widescreen...etc... I remember my heart swelling with pride and happiness as Kirk shuttled out to see the newly refurbished "Big E". I remember being in awe of the effects and just gobsmacked by Goldsmith's finest score ever.

It was as advertised in the one of the trailers voiced by Orson Wells..."It will challenge your perception of the future by taking you there..."

I loved it...I truly loved it. It was Trek done right. Trek elevated to the standard of 2001. Not JJ Abrams' "band, bang smash-em up" nonsense.

Oh..."Pacwarbuff" It's not about "supporters" or "non-supporters"...it's the good old concept of personal choice. Personally I don't think any 8 year old would have gotten a thing out of ST-TMP and so you were a bit young to appreciate what was going on in the very real subtext of the movie...especially the development of Spock's character. You wouldn't have understood because you weren't alive when TOS first screened and you weren't old enough to see the development from that period.

As to "Cleopatra"...it is consistently rated one of the greatest movie masterpieces of all time.

[–] bigfrog6 8 years ago

I was pretty young, probably 6-7, while I dont remember specifics I do remember it being mysterious, awe inspiring, beautiful and the big reveal with Vger I found kind of creepy. Definitely an epic journey on the level of Tolkien! I loved real sci-fi, even back then.. none of this nerdy *beep* with all the aliens being humanoids with facial prosthetics and soap opera drama. I'm glad to see this movie getting some love!

[–] bozo_500 8 years ago

I also saw it again in cinemas in 1987 as part of a I-IV marathon at a local cinema (I remember seeing the ad for it in a comic store and was like I gotta go to that!) It was great as back then buying films (on vhs) wasn't the norm (too expensive) so really you just had to wait for them to come on tv (and tape them off there if you had a home video recorder - which I didn't). TMP id never even seen on the big screen just once on tv (and tvs wernt that great back then were they) so that was an event in itself. II had seen once in 82 but was way too young to appreciate it, and once or twice on tv a few years later. id seen III twice in 84 and had forgotten most of it so this was almost like seeing it for the first time again. and IV had seen a couple of times that year already but that was ok as I couldn't get enough of it

[–] bastasch8647 8 years ago

I saw its premier in Portland, Oregon. I loved Goldsmith's score and seeing the old crew back again. A good experience, except for a clod sitting next to me who blurted out "Voyager!!!" before Shat had gotten very far in erasing the smudge covering V'ger's name plate.

[–] bjlevine 8 years ago

Better than the guy standing in line in front of me who had seen a prerelease of The Empire Strikes Back and blurted out "I never would have guessed that Vader was Luke's dad."

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[–] KobiyashiMauru 8 years ago

Being around a person with uncontrolled flatulance is absolutely the WORST. At least that's what people standing near me said.
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Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded. Yogi Berra

[–] SpaceMountainMike 8 years ago

I was only 11 and I had the worst case of ADD you'd ever want to see.

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[–] alouette1977 8 years ago

I was there in the cinemas, as a ten year old. I wasn't some hardcore Trekkie who religiously followed the series in reruns, but Star Wars two years earlier had made scifi/fantasy the hot genre and blown my mind. So I saw it and did enjoy it; even the slower pacing I enjoyed.

Everyone else may be an a**hole, but I'm not! - Harlan Ellison

[–] RustyShackleworth 8 years ago

I wish I did just for the experience of seeing the first Star Trek film. I was only eight years old at the time and my parents knew I was fan of the original series but they didn't take me to see to it. Funny thing is, I don't remember asking to go. I don't know why I didn't ask at the time. I did see Star Wars in the theater when it came out.

[–] rship1 7 years ago

I remember all the hype leading up to it's release including the cast from OST that were in the movie [Kirk, Spock, Uhura, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu & Chekov. Maybe Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel too] appearing on The Mike Douglas Show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0170980/ to promote the release. The cast were all chatty among themselves and having conversations among themselves about the movie and not with the show's host. Mike Douglas even stated he didn't recall ever having so many guests at one time ever before and was feeling overwhelmed. It was in the news how much Persis Khambatta was paid to allow her hair to be shaven off for the role.
A bunch of us piled into my brother's Omni to go see the movie and there were a lot of smiling faces when exiting the theater. I remember thinking that there were more smiling faces than when I was exiting Star Wars, but then realized we'd went to some weekday matinee that was $2 instead of $4 to see Star Wars. The price was low because public school was still in session, so there weren't many in that theater. On the ride home in the Omni, we were all talking about the sexual innuendo and some not so subtle sex puns in the script. The only one I remember was that Decker was aptly named as in order to save the universe, Decker had to d_ck her. Oh yeah, another was the gratuitous bouncy bouncy shot of Persis Khambatta when the attempt at going to warp was not initially succeeding

[–] bozo_500 7 years ago

shame these reminiscing seeing in cinema threads will soon be no more 😖

[–] RustyShackleworth 7 years ago

I know. This really is a shame. I always figured the boards would be here to visit.

What evil drives the Car? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoAD3kUmN9s

[–] RustyShackleworth 7 years ago

Thanks for sharing. I remember seeing ads on TV. I also remember seeing ads for the film on the back of comic books.

What evil drives the Car? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoAD3kUmN9s

[–] DeckardB26354 (969) 6 years ago

I did, and it bored me to death back then as it still does now. Oh, the special effects are really laughable, now that we have 4k/UHD these days.

I was more interested in seeing 'ALIEN' which came out in the same year.

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain ........