Looking Back at When Star Trek was in Theaters

[jwb]

One of the things that fascinates me about the Star Trek films is that they're so much a part of the time they came out - if you say 1982 to a Star Trek fan, he or she is probably going to think of the Wrath of Khan. And yet they're also timeless, with costume, hair, wardrobe, music, and story that doesn't, for the most part, look dated.

It also interests me that they are one of film's few unbroken links to a time thirty years ago when the world was quite different. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to use this thread to go one by one through the Star Trek films and look back at the time period they were in theaters. And so I'll begin with the first film right now. (Just one quick note: I'm from the United States, and because of that and the flimsy excuse that these are American films, I'm going to look at the figures and popular culture for these years completely from an American point of view.)

Star Trek the Motion Picture (December 7, 1979)

As the 1970s came to a close, eyeglasses were rather large, suits were rather plaid, and cars were rather boxy. Drive-in theaters were still making money, disco was still around, and pants that didn’t come up to the belly button were considered dangerously low. Unfortunately, the U.S. economy was suffering massive inflation while Americans simultaneously dealt with an oil crisis. And, just before the release of the first Star Trek film, 52 Americans were taken hostage in Iran when militants took over the U.S. embassy. Also in 1979, a partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania began changing attitudes towards nuclear power, arcades became increasingly popular, and technology became smaller – and more expensive - with Sony introducing the walkman with a $200 price tag. Meanwhile, video cassette recorders making inroads, and in Tokyo the first cellular network was launched.

Here are some facts and figures from the time Star Trek: The Motion Picture was in theaters. I’ve also included the figures for May 8, 2009 in parentheses, to compare how things changed between the first and latest Star Trek film.

President: Jimmy Carter
U.S. Population: 225 million (May 2009: 305 million, a 35% increase)
World Population: 4.4 billion (May 2009: 6.7 billion, a 52% increase)
National Debt: $830 billion (May 2009: $12.3 trillion, a 1,381% increase)
Average Movie Ticket Price: $2.47 (May 2009: $7.29, a 195% increase)
Cost of a postage stamp: 15 cents (May 2009: 42 cents, a 180% increase)
Average cost of a gallon of gas: $1.03 (May, 2009: $2.24, a 117% increase)
Dow Jones: 839 (May, 2009: 8,574, a 918% increase)
Average Household Income: $16,461 (May 2009: $50,105, a 204% increase)

Hit songs:
“My Sharona” – The Knack
“Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” – Rupert Holmes
“Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” – Michael Jackson
“Coward of the County” – Kenny Rogers

Hit movies: Kramer vs. Kramer, The Jerk, Dressed to Kill, and Coal Miner’s Daughter

Hit TV shows: All My Children, M*A*S*H, Mork and Mindy, Dallas, and Three’s Company

December 1979 Saturday Night Live Hosts: Howard Hesseman, Martin Sheen, and Ted Knight

Births:
December 27 - Carson Palmer (NFL player)
January 28 – Nick Carter (singer)
February 12 – Christina Ricci (actress)

Deaths: December 30 – Richard Rogers, composer (Rogers & Hammerstein)
January 29 – Jimmy Durante, comedian
February 19 – Bon Scott, singer

Events:
December 9: The eradication of smallpox was certified, making smallpox the first human disease driven to extinction.
February 11 – The TV show “WKRP in Cincinnati” aired an episode about a tragedy which took place days before the Star Trek movie opened, in which eleven fans were crushed at a concert in Cincinnati featuring “The Who”.
February 13 – The 1980 Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York.

Would Have Been the Last Star Trek Film He Could Have Seen: John Lennon, who was killed December 8, 1980

Wouldn’t Have Meant Anything to Most People Had You Said it in December of 1979: Yoda

What this time period meant to me: watching The Price is Right, enduring my mother’s soap operas, wanting all the Star Wars toys, drinking tang, thinking muppets were funny, and listening to my parents’ records.

-jwb-
jwbraun.com

 

[Therin of Andor]

The movie had its gala preview Down Under a few nights before my 21st birthday and, on the night of my party, it was a topic of discussion. It was a friend's enthusiastic review of the movie - and the fact that half of the audience was in full costume - that alerted me to TMP and intrigued me to seek it out.

 

[jwb]

Star Trek II (June, 1982)

Thanks for sharing the memories from Australia! I love to hear how other people became interested in the films. Also, being very, very little in 1979, it's fun to hear an adult's perspective.

Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan (June 4, 1982)

As Star Trek released its first summer blockbuster, the United States, with massive unemployment, was in the middle of a major recession, which began the summer before and would continue until November. Nancy Reagan began encouraging youth to “just say no” to drugs. On the medical front, a mysterious illness, previously referred to as GRID (gay-related immune deficiency,) was renamed AIDS, though it wasn’t understood what was causing it. Meanwhile, the compact disc player was introduced to the market, and compact discs began to be commercially produced. At the same time, television was changing. Cable, with new networks such as MTV and CNN, began to catch on, and television remote controls began using infrared technology, leading to greater versatility. Less noticed by the public, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol was first defined, laying the foundation for the future of electronic mail.

(I’ve included today’s figures in parentheses for comparison)

President: Ronald Reagan
U.S. Population: 232 million (310 million)
World Population: 4.6 billion (6.8 billion)
National Debt: $1.2 trillion ($13.2 trillion)
Average Movie Ticket Price: $2.94 ($7.44)
Cost of a postage stamp: 20 cents (44 cents)
Average cost of a gallon of gas: $1.25 ($2.72)
Dow Jones: 812 (10,424)
Average Household Income: $20,171 ($52,029)

Hit songs:
“Always On My Mind” – Willie Nelson
“Don’t Talk to Strangers” – Rick Springfield
“Rosanna” – Toto
“Ebony and Ivory” – Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder

Hit movies: Annie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Rocky III, and Poltergeist

Hit TV shows: The Smurfs, Magnum P.I., Diff’rent Strokes, Dynasty, The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island

Most recent Saturday Night Live Hosts: Robert Culp, Danny DeVito, and Olivia Newton-John

Births
June 10 – Tara Lipinski (gold medal figure skater)
June 14 – Lang Lang (Chinese pianist)
August 28 – LeAnn Rimes (singer)

Deaths:
June 8 – Satchel Paige, baseball pitcher
August 12 – Henry Fonda, actor
August 29 – Ingrid Bergman, actress

Events:
June 12 – 750,000 people, including Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt, and James Taylor, attended a rally against nuclear weapons in New York.
June 21 – John Hinckley Jr., after attempting to assassinate President Reagan the year before, was found not guilty of 13 criminal charges by reason of insanity.
July 6 – The longest lunar eclipse of the century occurred
July 9 – Pan Am Flight 759 crashed in Louisiana, killing 152

Would Have Been the Last Star Trek Film He Could Have Seen: Andy Kaufman, who died of lung cancer May 16, 1984

Wouldn’t Have Meant Anything to Most People had you said it in June of 1982: AIDS

What this time period meant for me: rotary phones, roller skating, swimming, following the Brewers, and waiting for Revenge of the Jedi to come out in theaters

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Star Trek II (June, 1982)

Thanks for sharing the memories from Australia! I love to hear how other people became interested in the films.

A few anecdotes on ST II for you:

This was the movie where I watched all the events and rumours unfold in the exciting lead-up to the new film. Scanning the movie magazines for news snippets and the very first pics was agonizing. We were lucky that, in the February of that year, a club member got hold of Japanese "Super-Visual" #3, which had several tiny pics of Saavik, Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and was able to translate the captions. It was bizarre that "Super-Visual" scooped even "Starlog"!

Paul Winfield was in Australia, to film a movie ("On The Run") and we got to interview him about his experiences on the set of ST II - this was long before ST II came out in the cinemas. He confirmed the rumour we'd heard, about the incident where they painted a stuntman's face black to let "Terrell" do an impromptu roll down a hill - and he confirmed it was true (and highly controversial). And was astounded we knew about it way over here! That's the ST rumour mill for you. When we asked him if Saavik and Kirk were to become romantically involved, he said that that they would be getting on better on film than they did in real life (and if you've ever seen the more flirtatious take in the ABC-TV version of ST II, I guess that's the scene he referred to).

I also decided to write a prequel fanfic, after watching "Space Seed" on VHS, to prepare myself for the new movie. I noticed the brief scene between Kyle and Marla in the transporter room and decided to show a friendship between them. When I finished the story, I wrote a prologue that had Chekov and Kyle talking on the Reliant, and it was published in a local fanzine. The media had given a lot of publicity to Chekov's new post, but imagine my utter surprise when one of our club members arrived home from a US trip, and having just seen ST II there, to tell us that Kyle was not only in the movie, but on the Reliant! Astounding coincidence!

The special "Starlog" movie magazine turned up in an obscure Sydney bookshop (air-freighted) and those pics helped us to buy material and make some rather accurate uniforms (and insignias out of plastic ice cream containers and gold-painted cardboard) to wear on opening night. I ended up making my own unique "USS Hood" insignia, not realising that the Enterprise badge would be used even on Reliant.

My old blog entry about ST premieres I-XI:
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2006/12/star-trek-movies-then-and-now-over-on_09.html

Aussie ST II premiere pics:
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2010/04/flashback-to-bw.html

And don't forget the infamous ShoWest presentation trailer:
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2007/07/saavik-shes-half-romulan-jim-many-fans.html

 

[Amaris]

^ Even now, some 28 years later, seeing the trailer for TWOK still sends a shiver up my spine and makes me so glad to be a Trekkie. I'm glad you have that, Therin.

 

[J.T.B.]

As I remember it, the biggest news of 1982 was the Falklands War, even in the States. It ended around the time TWOK came out, I believe.

--Justin

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Star Trek II (June, 1982)

waiting for Revenge of the Jedi to come out in theaters

A friend and I managed to upset some SW fans by attending the gala premiere of "Return of the Jedi" as Andorians - and we got much of the TV news coverage the next morning!

 

[jwb]

Star Trek III the Search for Spock (June 1, 1984)

I also decided to write a prequel fanfic, after watching "Space Seed" on VHS, to prepare myself for the new movie. I noticed the brief scene between Kyle and Marla in the transporter room and decided to show a friendship between them. When I finished the story, I wrote a prologue that had Chekov and Kyle talking on the Reliant, and it was published in a local fanzine.

Now that's amazing. And incidently, Paul Winfield is one of my favorite actors. (I was just watching him on Babylon 5.) He died much too soon.

Justin, you are correct about the Falklands War. That was big news, and it coincided with the release of Star Trek II. Sorry for the oversight.

Star Trek III the Search for Spock (June 1, 1984)

It was “Morning in America”, as the nation saw inflation decline and people go back to work, and became increasingly optimistic about the future (except for the video game industry, which crashed spectacularly, putting an end to Atari’s glory days). In the fashion world, longer shorts and shorter skirts became more popular. In the music world, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album became the best selling album in history; Jackson himself won a record-breaking eight Grammy awards, and Time Magazine declared him the hottest thing since the Beatles. Meanwhile, the Macintosh computer was introduced to the general public (as was the computer mouse), and an immunologist discovered the cause of AIDS. Bigger news at the time was the forced breakup of AT&T leading to phone service competition, and the 1984 Cable Act leading to unprecedented growth of Cable Television. At the same time, the popularity of video recorders created a boom in the new video rental business.

President: Ronald Reagan
U.S. Population: 236 million
World Population: 4.8 billion
National Debt: $1.6 trillion
Average Movie Ticket Price: $3.36
Cost of a postage stamp: 20 cents
Average cost of a gallon of gas: $1.20
Dow Jones: 1,132
Average Household Income: $22,415

Hit songs:
“Born in the USA” – Bruce Springsteen
“Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” – Wham!
“When Doves Cry” – Prince
“To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” – Willie Nelson with Julio Iglesias

Hit movies: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and The Karate Kid
Hit TV shows: Night Court, The Facts of Life, The A-Team, and Fame

Most recent Saturday Night Live Hosts: George McGovern, Barry Bostwick, and Billy Crystal

Births:
June 23 – Duffy, singer
September 15 – Prince Harry, Prince of Wales

Deaths:
July 25 – Big Mama Thornton, singer (“Hound Dog”)
July 26 – George Gallop, poll pioneer
July 27 – James Mason, actor

Events:
June 4 – Bruce Springsteen released “Born in the USA”, his best selling album
June 30 – John Turner became the Prime Minister of Canada… for a few months
July 3 – Tramiel Technology purchased struggling Atari
July 28 to August 12 – The Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles

Would Have Been the Last Star Trek Film He Could Have Seen: Len Bias, the #2 draft pick in the 1986 NBA draft, who celebrated by overdosing on cocaine June 19, 1986

Wouldn’t Have Meant Anything to People in June of 1984: OMG!

What this time period meant to me: riding my bike, taping music off the radio, singing along with “Ghostbusters”, watching Walter Mondale’s support erode, and thinking the 80s were awesome

 

[Sir Rhosis]

I was 15 when TMP came out, a Sophomore, iirc, just a month shy of sixteen. Good high school days for me.

I was at lovely Parris Island, South Carolina, being told in no uncertain terms exactly how and why I was the lowest form of life on earth, how my ancestry was defective, etc., etc. when TWOK came out. I didn't see it until after we graduated in August. Looking back, those were good times as well. Go figure!

Sir Rhosis

 

[Greg Cox]

I have vivid memories of when and where I saw every Trek movie for the first time. It's like a capsule summary of my life.

TMP: The movie didn't open in Bellingham, WA, so our entire college sf club drove about 200 miles to Everett to see it opening night. People roll their eyes at the long, slow debut of the Enterprise in that movie, but I can testify that nobody was complaining that night. This was the first time we had seen the Enterprise in years. It got a standing ovation, as did the first appearances of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and all the rest.

ST II: Still in college. B'ham finally had multiplexes, so no road trip was necessary. I saw KHAN for the first time with my brother and Carolyn Cushman, who later went on to be a reviewer for LOCUS magazine. Little did I know that Khan was not yet done with me!

ST III: Sea-Tac, WA. My friend Robin and I attend a special screening attended by Jimmy Doohan himself. Later there was a reception at which I (briefly) got to tell Doohan how much I had enjoyed his performances over the years.

ST IV: Downtown Seattle. Despite the usual drizzle, the crowd outside the theater was like a sidewalk sf convention. Lots of fannish friends and a real party atmosphere.

ST V: Manhattan. By now, I had moved to NYC to become an sf editor. Saw the movie with John Ordover. I can't remember if he was already editing Trek novels by then . . . .

ST VI: Dragged my girlfriend to the movie for my birthday. To her surprise, she liked it.

GENERATIONS: Ordover manages to get me into an advance screening. He's been swore to secrecy for months and can't wait to talk about the movie afterwards. (I think he starts the moment the lights come back on . . . .)

FIRST CONTACT: Just my girlfriend and I. Once again, she enjoys it, although this is the last time (to date) that she ever consents to see a TREK movie in a theater. Maybe next film . . . ?

INSURRECTION: A weekend matinee in the East Village. Possibly the first time I didn't manage to see a TREK movie on opening night. End up seeing it by myself since everyone else is busy or has already seen it.

NEMESIS: Relocated to Amish country. Have to drive forty-five minutes to see the film in a multiplex out by Painter's Crossing. Not much of a crowd, alas.

STAR TREK: Newark, DE. Catch an early Friday showing with some hardcore Trekkie friends. We have a great time--and manage to avoid the huge lines for the evening shows. Weeks later, I take the train into Philadelphia to see the IMAX version at the Franklin Institute. My very first IMAX movie!

Wonder where I'll see the next one?

 

[Whill]

June 1, 1984...

What this time period meant to me: riding my bike, taping music off the radio, singing along with “Ghostbusters”, watching Walter Mondale’s support erode, and thinking the 80s were awesome

Thanks for posting these snapshots of history (and please do keep going with the entire movie series).

The beginning of June 1984 was end of my 7th grade year. I remember the kid beside me in English class had a copy of TSFS novelization. I had heard of Star Trek from a friend in elementary that had some Star Trek toys, but had never really seen it or took an interest in it. Then that summer (1984) I didn't see TSFS in the theater, but I did just randomly catch an episode of TOS and was immediately hooked. It was showing nightly on syndication on some cable channel (Channel 43 Lorain/Cleveland, perhaps?) As per the norm they showed them in production order and then when they got to the end they just started over on a non-stop cycle. I don't remember which episode was my first (or even which season it was in), but the next day I went to the my local library to research the series and discovered how many episodes there were. So the very next night after first seeing the show, I started a log in which I documented the real world date, the title of the episode and the stardate (?). I kept my log and didn't miss a single viewing the series until it had cycled through every episode back ot the one I started with, just so I could be sure I saw ever episode, at that accomplishment was before the summer was over and I went back to school for 8th grade. Then I re-copied my log into production order and kept it for reference but continued to watch the series repeat itself. (I estimate that I have seen every TOS episode, even the lamest ones, at least 5 times between 1984 and 1987.) I also got a couple other of my friends into Trek as well.

Before TVH came out in the theaters a friend of mine had the first three Trek films on VHS, and I had watched them many times. Even back then I thought TMP was boring and still to this day I have only ever made it through TMP without falling asleep only the very first time I watched it in the mid-80s. I absolutely loved TWOK and TSFS though. Needless to say, I was pumped for TVH.

TVH: In November 1986, I was a sophmore in high school and I had just started my first part-time job (outside of a paper route). At the time of hiring I demanded a condition of my employment be that I had the night of 11-26-86 off. The day came and I remember that Mike, my best friend since 1982 and I hooked up with another Trek friend Andy, and we went strait to the movie theater plaza and bought tickets for our viewing (early evening), then screwed around, bought candy and otherwise killed time. Then when they would let us in we went in first and got prime seating. There was a fairly full house of Trek nerds there but we were the kings of the nerds because we were there first. We and the rest of the audience laughed at the jokes and immensely enjoyed the film. When the crews' Starfleet sentence audience began their applause for the announcement of the verdict of Kirk becoming a captain again, the theater audience all joined in and applaused with them. We smiled with satisfaction at viewing Sarek admit his error and pronounce complete approval for Spock's chosen vocation, and especially with Spock expressing the resolution of his franchise-long internal conflict, finally coming to peace with his emotional human side.

The dramatic loss of original (yet refitted) Enteprise in the previous film had been a blow to many of us. As soon Kirk and Spock began to walk off, it felt like the audiance collectly all knew exactly what was coming next, the answer to the question of what starship they would get. We all sat on the edge of our seats, holding our breathe in total silence and McCoy, Sulu, Scotty and Kirk bantered back and forth about their new asignment. The anticipation intensified and the music swelled as they were flying over the Excelsior, then became quiet as a note was held... and then the main theme from the TOS played as a consitution-class starship appeared called the Enterprise! Of course! That was the only possible answer! The camera zoomed in to show its registry, NNC-1701..."A." When Kirk says "My friends, we've come home," everything fell into place in that moment. That was really the home Kirk had been voyaging to since TWOK. Kirk getting back his command had been the main overall story arc of a trilogy of films I realized had just been completed. When the ship took off, I realized that I had just seen a new version of TMP's story, this one successful and much more satisfying (and realized fully that the producers of Trek had done everything but come right out and say they had disregarded TMP in this new series of films starting with TWOK. And still to this day, the part of the film's soundtrack where they are about to reveal the Enterprise-A still gives me goosebumps just listening to it.

As the credits rolled, I quickly wiped away the tears in my eyes so my friends wouldn't make fun of me. There was likely more appause fro mther audiance but I don't remember that. I do remember walking outside to the long ticket line for the late evening showing, and excitedly exclaiming to everyone, "It's totally awesome! It's totally awesome!" without spoiling anyone one what had happened. I took my younger brother to see the movie on the Friday after Thanksgiving (two days later). From November 1986 through January 1987, I saw TVH a total of 17 times in the theater, still my record by far for any movie to this day. (Since then the top runners-up are Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Star Wars: The Phatom Menace at 7 theater viewings each. And of course I eventually bought ST 2-4 on VHS, and watched TNG on TV (as recounted on a thread in that forum).

TFF: Needless to say, I was very excited for TFF, which I saw on the opening weekend (one week before I graduated from high school) with my friend Mike and another friend Sean. Also needless to say, I was supremely dissapointed and hated it. With some humor my friend Sean later described the expressions on my face throughout the movie. A classic 'WTF?!' for Spock having a emotion-loving but pure Vulcan half-brother. Utter revulsion for old, fat Uhura dancing seductively as a distraction. Shaking my head at the lane attempts at humor like Scotty walking into a bulkhead. He said at the end I just had a pitiful expression that seemed to be a mixture of anger and sadness. He said I did briefly chuckle once at seeing Chekov pretend to be the captain. I just remember being upset at how lame of a follow-up to TVH this was, and watching this movie once even turned me away from even considering myself a Trek fan until the next film. Shatner completely blew it. I have still not ever rewatched this movie to this day, so this is the only Trek film I have only seen once. I enjoyed the sleepy naptime of TMP more than this film.

TUC: This was my third year of college. The movie was not opening at the local theater, so I called the city 45 minutes away and found out movie times for it. A group of my fraternity brothers including one named Kurt went to see it. I figured out that Valeris was the Enterprise conspirator early on in the film. By the end I remember feeling it was much better than FFF, but still not an good as the "Genesis trilogy. I felt it was overall a fitting final misison for the classic crew, and was actually happy that the increasingly older and fatter TOS characters were finally being retired from Trek films. I remember even prophecizing that TNG crew may eventually have movies after their TV series ends and seeing my fraternity brothers just merely shrug in reply.

Generations: I had graduated from college by the time this film was released, but still lived in the area. Unlike the last movie, this one was opening at the local theater, and a bunch of my fraternity borthers (also inlcuding Kurt). I think we had heard this movie included the death of Kirk and were all successfuly duped into thinking that his apperent death at the beginning of the film was it. When Picard finds Kirk in the nexus, we all got looked at each other with cheesy grins on our faces. I remember looking over to Kurt after Kirk's real death and he had tears in this eyes. I wasn't nearly as emotionally invested in it as he was, and honestly his "first death" was more dramatic and appropriate than his final one. I really enjoyed the destruction of the Enterprise-D because always hated the design of the model. But the film was ok overall and I felt a sense of satisfaction at my childhood hero's final demise.

First Contact: This opened right after I had moved back the part of my state that I had grown up in, and I saw this movie was my childhood friend Mike (who had never left). We felt it was pretty good.

Insurrection: Mike and I also saw this one on opening weekend and didn't really get into it upon the inititial viewing. (After re-watching it in recent years I realized that I hadn't followed a lot of the story on a conscious-level for whatever reason at the time I first saw it, and after understanding it I enjoyed it more the second time).

Nemesis: Mike and I met up with a big group of my work friends and watched this on opening weekend. I remember thinking how un-Trek-like the dune buggy scene felt. I didn't like that thye had regurgitated the long-lost brother android plot. I like the concept of the Remans, but didn't like the whole idea of a human-clone of Picard having control of the Remans and seizing control of the Romulan Empire. I also hated the actor and the performance of the clone. And Data's TWOK-ripped-off sacrifice just really strengthened my feeling that this was just a lame movie. After the movie was over, I remember that our group stood around in the theater lobby discussing it. Someone brought up the odd-even phenomena and asked the group if they thought this fell into this pattern. I don't remember what anyone said in response but I always liked 3 more than 6 so that phenomena wasn't representative of my opinion. I did think that FC was the best TNG movie, so Nemesis did brak the mold there. As the group broke up to go our seperate ways for the evening, Mike and I both expresed that we felt this movie was lame, and he mirrored my reaction during the movie about the dune buggy scene. I remember telling him that I felt the same way at the time, but in retrospect of the entire film, now looked back upon that scene as the best part of this film. I have since re-watched this film to give it a nother chance and still feel the same way about it.

Star Trek (2009): I was excited that they were making a big-budget reboot of TOS, and got back into Trek more than ever in anticipation of it. Since the last film I had gotten married and made my wife (who had never seen any Trek films) watch the Genesis trilogy (2-4) with me. She thought they were ok (enjoying TVH the best) but still wasn't that interested in seeing the TOS reboot with me on opening weekend. The week before the film came out, I called my old buddy Mike to set up a time to go, but he had already made plans to see it directly after work with one of his work friends on opening day and I couldn't make it, so I had to make other plans. I thought of my college buddy Kurt and remembered that he now lived in my city as well, so I e-mailed him and we set up a time to see ST09. He loved TOS series and movies more than any other Trek so was also more excited for this film than TNG movies. I remember looking over at him after the introduction of Nimoy in the film, and he had a big cheesy grim on his face in seeing the original Spock. After the movie, we discussed both liking it, me more than him though. Being a big action-adventure space opera fan from Star Wars, I knew after one viewing that this film had bumped TVH out of its top spot in my heart as my favorite Trek film. After coming home and telling my wife how awesome I thought the new movie was, she was more interested in seeing it. So the next week we went and saw it. My wife was over 7-months pregnant with our son (and first child) at the time, and watching the opening of the film really hit us both hard. Just the thought of a mother giving birth to her baby and the father dying had us both in tears. Yeah, say may feel that was a cheep trick to get the audience pulled into the story and to sympathize with the main character, but it really hit home for us and totally worked. My wife liked the movie enough to want to watch it again when I bought it on blu-ray.

So, starting with TVH in 1986, I have seen every Trek film on opening weekend. THV was on opening night and I saw it 16 more times in the theater after that. Each movie since was seen once in the theater until ST09 which I saw twice. And all 8 of those films were first seen with my friends Mike (5) or Kurt (3).

For the next film, I plan to coordinate seeing the film on opening day with both Mike and Kurt, and whomever else wants to go with us!

 

[jwb]

Star Trek IV the Voyage Home (November 26, 1986)

I love the stories being shared on this thread. Today I'm dealing with Star Trek IV, which is exciting to me, because it was the first Star Trek film I ever saw at the theater.

Star Trek IV the Voyage Home (November 26, 1986)

1986 saw two high profile disasters. NASA, after having a number of trouble free years, lost its first crew during a mission with the disintegration of the Challenger shuttle, which happened in plain sight for the nation to see just after the launch. In the U.S.S.R., a mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant killed more than 4,000 people and sent radioactive deposits throughout Europe and Asia. On a less gloomy side of things, Nintendo gave Americans a reason to give video games another try. Microwave ovens began to become popular, with one in 25% of American households, up from only 1% in 1971. In sports, Michael Jordan became a sensation on the hardwood, and just days before Star Trek IV opened, 20 year old Mike Tyson became the youngest boxing heavyweight champion in history. As for Star Trek IV itself, it was a sensation and one of only two films that winter to surpass the $100 million mark (thanks in large part to Whill), leading to another resurgence of interest in Star Trek.

President: Ronald Reagan
U.S. Population: 240 million
World Population: $4.9 billion
National Debt: $2.1 trillion
Average Movie Ticket Price: $3.71
Cost of a postage stamp: 22 cents
Average cost of a gallon of gas: 84 cents
Dow Jones: 1,914
Average Household Income: $24,897

Hit songs:
“You Give Love a Bad Name” – Bon Jovi
“Walk Like an Egyptian” – Bangles
“Everybody Have Fun Tonight” – Wang Chung
“True Colors” – Cyndi Lauper

Hit movies: The Golden Child and Platoon

Hit TV shows: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, The Transformers, and Pee Wee’s Playhouse

December 1986 Saturday Night Live Hosts: Steve Martin, Steve Guttenberg, and William Shatner

Births:
December 1 – DeShawn Jackson, NFL player
February 21 – Ashley Greene, actress (“Twilight”)

Deaths:
November 29 – Cary Grant , actor
December 2 – Desi Arnaz, actor (and cofounder of Desilu)
January 15 – Ray Bolger, actor (the “Scarecrow” in The Wizard of Oz)
February 4 – Liberace, pianist

Events:
November 26 – President Reagan denied involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair but promised it would be looked into.
December 26 – NBC aired the last episode of “The Search for Tomorrow”, a 35 year old soap opera.
January 3 – Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Would Have Been the Last Star Trek Film He Could Have Seen: Actor Merritt Butrick (who played Jim Kirk’s son), who died of AIDS on March 17, 1989

Wouldn’t Have Meant Anything to Most People had you said it in November of 1986: cyber bullying

What this time period meant to me: junior high, watching my friends go crazy over Bon Jovi and professional wrestling, watching Canadian imported TV on Nickelodeon, taping shows on our Betamax VCR, wondering where the 80s would be without the three Mikes: Jackson, Jordan, and Tyson, and thinking our daisy wheel printer was interesting.

Other points of view:

Greg: "ST IV: Downtown Seattle. Despite the usual drizzle, the crowd outside the theater was like a sidewalk sf convention. Lots of fannish friends and a real party atmosphere."

Whill: "In November 1986, I was a sophmore in high school and I had just started my first part-time job (outside of a paper route). At the time of hiring I demanded a condition of my employment be that I had the night of 11-26-86 off. The day came and I remember that Mike, my best friend since 1982 and I hooked up with another Trek friend Andy, and we went strait to the movie theater plaza and bought tickets for our viewing (early evening), then screwed around, bought candy and otherwise killed time. Then when they would let us in we went in first and got prime seating. There was a fairly full house of Trek nerds there but we were the kings of the nerds because we were there first. We and the rest of the audience laughed at the jokes and immensely enjoyed the film. When the crews' Starfleet sentence audience began their applause for the announcement of the verdict of Kirk becoming a captain again, the theater audience all joined in and applaused with them. We smiled with satisfaction at viewing Sarek admit his error and pronounce complete approval for Spock's chosen vocation, and especially with Spock expressing the resolution of his franchise-long internal conflict, finally coming to peace with his emotional human side.

The dramatic loss of original (yet refitted) Enteprise in the previous film had been a blow to many of us. As soon Kirk and Spock began to walk off, it felt like the audiance collectly all knew exactly what was coming next, the answer to the question of what starship they would get. We all sat on the edge of our seats, holding our breathe in total silence and McCoy, Sulu, Scotty and Kirk bantered back and forth about their new asignment. The anticipation intensified and the music swelled as they were flying over the Excelsior, then became quiet as a note was held... and then the main theme from the TOS played as a consitution-class starship appeared called the Enterprise! Of course! That was the only possible answer! The camera zoomed in to show its registry, NNC-1701..."A." When Kirk says "My friends, we've come home," everything fell into place in that moment. That was really the home Kirk had been voyaging to since TWOK. Kirk getting back his command had been the main overall story arc of a trilogy of films I realized had just been completed. When the ship took off, I realized that I had just seen a new version of TMP's story, this one successful and much more satisfying (and realized fully that the producers of Trek had done everything but come right out and say they had disregarded TMP in this new series of films starting with TWOK. And still to this day, the part of the film's soundtrack where they are about to reveal the Enterprise-A still gives me goosebumps just listening to it.

As the credits rolled, I quickly wiped away the tears in my eyes so my friends wouldn't make fun of me. There was likely more appause fro mther audiance but I don't remember that. I do remember walking outside to the long ticket line for the late evening showing, and excitedly exclaiming to everyone, "It's totally awesome! It's totally awesome!" without spoiling anyone one what had happened. I took my younger brother to see the movie on the Friday after Thanksgiving (two days later). From November 1986 through January 1987, I saw TVH a total of 17 times in the theater, still my record by far for any movie to this day. (Since then the top runners-up are Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Star Wars: The Phatom Menace at 7 theater viewings each. And of course I eventually bought ST 2-4 on VHS, and watched TNG on TV (as recounted on a thread in that forum)."

 

[Whill]

Re: Star Trek IV the Voyage Home (November 26, 1986)

As for Star Trek IV itself, it was a sensation and one of only two films that winter to surpass the $100 million mark (thanks in large part to Whill), leading to another resurgence of interest in Star Trek.

I guess I am probably the fan you can thank the most for the resurgence of interest in Star Trek. You all are very welcome for the 4 spin-off series and 7 more movies (and counting). OK, I guess that means I also owe you all an apology for The Final Frontier and Nemesis. Sorry about that.

 

[kkozoriz1]

Somewhere I've still got the ticket from TMP. I had made arraignments witht he manager of the largest theater in town to pre-purchase a block of tickets for members of out local sci-fi club. He thought it was a great idea and told me to show up an hour before the first showing and we'd be able to have our group bypass the line. When I arrived at the theater I found out that the manager had been forced to leave on personal business and the assistant manager refused to honor our agreement.

I went out to the line, which was already down the block and around the corner, afraid that we wouldn't be able to get into the first showing. Suddenly, a friend noticed me and acted like he'd been waiting in lie for me. I joined him, making sure that I didn't spill the beans that I was actually cutting in <evil grin>.

I got up to the cashier, placed a large pile of cash on the counter and said "43 tickets please". The cashier went white and looked at the assistant manager who just happened to be in the booth. He stepped up to the cash register and ran off what was probably the largest single ticket that he'd ever done. He didn't look happy about it but to keep the line moving he needed to get me out of there ASAP.

It's one long receipt, about two feet long. One end is sort of worn and faded where the usher held it as all forty three of us filed into the theater.

Ah, the memories.

 

[General_Phoenix]

Remember a lot of those movies well, seeing all of them from The Wrath of Khan in the theaters. I was very young, only 6 when Wrath of Khan was released, but my parents were big into Trek. The most memorable for me was probably The Voyage Home, I was 10 years old and started to immerse myself into Trek a bit, thankfully TNG was just around the corner. And I remember buying Star Trek model kits with lawn mowing money and building tons of them, can't tell you how many Connie refits I've built since I was a kid, some which were my custom designs, and some that met ill fates with M80s..hey..I was a kid after all.

 

[jwb]

Looking Back: June 1989

It's time now for Star Trek V. I was becoming quite the Trek fan in 1989 (yes, I was a latecomer!) but I didn't see The Final Frontier in the theater, which is too bad because I wonder what I would have thought of it there. By the time I saw it on video cassette, the word was out that it was a bad movie, and that probably tainted my experience. At least I no longer have to watch a pan and scan VHS tape on a low resolution television. I can pretend I'm in the theater when I watch it on a widescreen tv with surround sound.

Anyway, it's hard for me to believe 1989 was over twenty years ago... until I look at the national debt and Dow Jones Industrial Average numbers from the time.

Star Trek V the Final Frontier (June 9, 1989)

From the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the Tiananmen Square protests in China, it was clear in 1989 that the world was changing. Leaving the Reagan years behind, pop culture in America became less conservative, with Americans growing mullets and eschewing bubble gum entertainment like TV shows “Who’s the Boss?” and “Family Ties” in favor of edgier fare like “Rosanne” and “Married… With Children”. At the movies there was a logjam of summer blockbusters, causing even some of the more proven franchises like Star Trek and The Karate Kid to get lost in the shuffle. Meanwhile, kids cheered as the first portable video game system, Game Boy, hit store shelves. Simultaneously, adults cheered when Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office, which included Spreadsheet, Word Processor, Database and Presentation software. Less noteworthy at the time, the World Wide Web was developed, laying the foundation for the internet boom of the 90s.

President: George H.W. Bush
U.S. Population: 247 million
World Population: 5.2 billion
National Debt: 2.9 trillion
Average Movie Ticket Price: $3.99
Cost of a postage stamp: 25 cents
Average cost of a gallon of gas: $1.20
Dow Jones: 2,440
Average Household Income: $28,906

Hit songs:
“Wind Beneath My Wings” – Bette Midler
“I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)” – New Kids on the Block
“Baby Don’t Forget My Number” – Milli Vanilli
“Cathy’s Clown” – Reba McIntyre

Hit movies: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dead Poets’ Society, Ghostbusters II, Batman, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Lethal Weapon 2, Parenthood

Hit TV shows: The Golden Girls, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Married… With Children, Rosanne, 21 Jump Street

Most recent Saturday Night Live Hosts: Geena Davis, Wayne Gretzky, and Steve Martin

Births:
June 22 – Jeff Earnhardt, race car driver (and grandson of Dale)
July 23 – Daniel Radcliffe, actor (“Harry Potter”)
September 19 – Tyreke Evans, NBA player (2010 rookie of the year)

Deaths:
July 10 – Mel Blanc, voice actor (did “Bugs Bunny”, “Daffy Duck”, and many more)
July 11 – Laurence Olivier, actor

Events:
July 5 – The television show Seinfeld premiered
July 18 – Actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered by an obsessed fan, prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California.
July 26 – A federal grand jury indicts a Cornell University student for releasing the first computer worm on the internet

Would Have Been the Last Star Trek Film He Could Have Seen: Actor John Hoyt, Star Trek’s original doctor, who died (one month before Gene Roddenberry) on September 15, 1991

Wouldn’t Have Meant Anything to Most People Had you said it in June of 1989: Bill Clinton

What this time period meant to me: Liking girls and Star Trek TNG, listening to my CD player, taking two minute commercial breaks for granted, watching Hulk Hogan, playing Super Mario Brothers, and listening to Batdance, and thinking fax machines were the future.

 

[jwb]

Looking Back: December 1991

I saw Star Trek VI in the theater. It was fun, but I think it means more to me now, because there was a cynical part of me back in 1991 that didn't buy the publicity that this would be the "final voyage" of the original crew. Hadn't we heard that before? But now when I watch it, I know this really is it. Sure, some of the characters would appear again in the future, but this is it for them as a crew, and there's something profound about that, with them having gotten together intermittently since 1965. Gene's death probably adds a deeper meaning to the film too.

Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country (December 6, 1991)

Coinciding with the Persian Gulf War (and the rise of Grunge music), the United States had its worse recession in a decade, and unemployment continued to rise as the year came to a close. At the same time, the teenage pregnancy rate hit a twenty year high before beginning a decade of decline. Overseas there were bigger problems: the U.S.S.R. attempted to streamline their communist system and the result was a cascade of events that caused their government to collapse. Meanwhile, eyeglass frames began to get smaller, and hints of the future of technology were present; In 1991 Nick Meyer (in London) and Denny Martin Flinn (in Los Angeles) used e-mail to write the Star Trek VI script together, and the first web browser was introduced. It was at this time MP3 technology (still in its infancy) was nearly abandoned by its developers due to problems they thought might be insurmountable. As for music, just before Star Trek VI was released, Freddie Mercury admitted he had AIDS. He died the next day.

President: George H.W. Bush
U.S. Population: 252 million
World Population: 5.4 billion
National Debt: $3.6 trillion
Average Movie Ticket Price: $4.21
Cost of a postage stamp: 29 cents
Average cost of a gallon of gas: $1.27
Dow Jones: 3,169
Average Household Income: $30,126

Hit songs:
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Nirvana
“Black or White” – Michael Jackson
“It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” – Boyz II Men
“Shameless” – Garth Brooks

Hit movies: “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Addams Family”, “Hook”, “JFK”, “Father of the Bride”

Hit TV shows: The Simpsons, Saved By the Bell, The Fresh Prince of Bel-air, Beverly Hills 90210, Baywatch, Star Trek: The Next Generation

December 1991 Saturday Night Live Hosts: MC Hammer and Steve Martin

Births:
December 9: Prince Joachim, Prince of Belgium
January 19 – Shawn Johnson, gold medal gymnast

Deaths:
January 7 – Richard Hunt, muppet puppeteer and voice actor (“Scooter”)
February 20 – Dick York, actor

Events:
December 8 – Leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met and signed an agreement ending the U.S.S.R.
January 8 – President Bush threw up in the lap of the Prime Minister of Japan
January 26 – The Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl 37 to 24
February 8 – February 23 – The 1992 Winter Olympics were held in Albertville, France.

Would Have Been the Last Star Trek Film He Could Have Seen: Actor River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose October 31, 1993

Wouldn’t Have Meant Anything to Most People in December of 1991: Brett Favre

What this time period meant to me: High School, driving, watching Quantum Leap, using those ubiquitous dot matrix printers, and watching the Chicago Bulls

 

[jwb]

Looking Back: November 1994

You know, it's one thing to see how much the world has changed since 1979 or even the 80s when the Star Trek films starring the original cast were having their heyday. But it's amazing to me how much things have changed since 1994 when The Next Generation was no longer making television shows and was doing movies. Talk about cheap gas, or a good time to invest in stocks... and how about that national debt? (Today it's 13 trillion.)

Star Trek Generations (November 18, 1994)

As 1994 came to a close, unemployment began to fall and America was set for a period of peace and economic growth. Public interest had begun to grow in the internet, previously the domain of academia, and technological advances began to pick up speed. Apple introduced the “Quick Take 100”, a fixed focus digital camera that could store eight images at a time – and the race to develop better digital cameras was on. Meanwhile, the DVD player was invented, though it was still years away from replacing laserdisc and the popular video cassette recorder. At the same time, the phone companies began to have a problem; second phone lines were becoming so popular, they were running out of phone numbers to give out. The proliferation of new area codes was just around the corner.

President: Bill Clinton
U.S. Population: 260 million
World Population: 5.6 billion
National Debt: $4.6 trillion
Average Movie Ticket Price: $4.08
Cost of a postage stamp: 29 cents
Average cost of a gallon of gas: $1.18
Dow Jones: 3,739
Average Household Income: $32,264

Hit songs:
“All I Want to Do” – Sheryl Crow
“On Bended Knee” - Boyz II Men
“Cotton Eye Joe” – Rednex
“Take a Bow” - Madonna

Hit movies: Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Disclosure, Dumb and Dumber

Hit TV shows: Seinfeld, Friends, ER, Grace Under Fire, NYPD Blue, Beavis and Butt-head

November and December 1994 Saturday Night Live Hosts: John Turturro, Roseanne Barr, Alec Baldwin, and George Foreman

Births:
December 15 – Emma Lockhart, actress
Deaths:
December 23 – Sebastian Shaw, actor (and the face of Darth Vader in The Return of the Jedi)
January 31 – George Abbott, writer/ director/producer (was 107 when he died)

Events:
November 30 - The National Football League announced that the next NFL team would go to Jacksonville, Florida.
December 15 – The first version of the web browser Netscape Navigator was released.
January 25 – The Russians mistook a Canadian space exploration rocket as an incoming attack (Leonard Nimoy did say that the Klingon Empire was modeled after the Russia. Apparently Russia decided to model themselves after the Klingons.)
January 20 – The San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49 to 26 to win the Super Bowl.

Would Have Been the Last Star Trek Film He Could Have Seen: Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down September 13, 1996

Wouldn’t Have Meant Anything to Most People had you said it in December of 1994: Soccer mom

What this time period meant to me: College, watching the X-Files and Deep Space Nine, Kirk versus Picard debates, watching Brett Favre turn into a star, thinking line dancing was kind of silly, wondering what would happen to O.J. Simpson, and listening to “The Sign” by Ace of Base.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yes, looking back to when Star Trek was in theaters all the way back too... 2009?

 

[jwb]

Yes, Star Trek was in theaters in 2009. And a whole lot of other years.