Who saw this in cinemas back in 79?
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)