TMP at 39!

[Peach Wookiee]

In my mother's womb, 2 months shy of birth!

I was introduced to TMP during the VCR era, and it was, and still is, one of my favorite Star Trek films. Of all that Enterprises, that's the one that feels the most real to me. There's real beautiful filmmaking on display in TMP.

You too? Wow! I was two months and 15 days away from my world premiere! I suspect, though, that my biological mother was possibly seeing TMP at some point because the music felt like an old friend.

 

[Delta Vega]

I saw it days after its release in the UK
My initial enthusiasm, and the feeling of wanting to love it, soon subsided to disappointment
Too long, too drawn out
Uniforms were a complete fashion disaster

 

[Therin of Andor]

Where were you when the human adventure was just beginning?

Today, 24th December, is my TMP anniversary Down Under. I had just turned 21. The Paramount Theatre, Sydney, is now the site of a Starbucks coffee shop.


TMP at the Paramount by Ian McLean, on Flickr


39th anniversary by Ian McLean, on Flickr


Paramount candy bar by Ian McLean, on Flickr


Former site of Sydney's Rapallo and Paramount Theatres by Ian McLean, on Flickr


Paramount and Rapallo Theatres, Sydney by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[PhotoBoy]

I would have very recently turned 1 when TMP premiered so I’m not sure how old I was when I first actually saw it. For years the only version I had was a VHS recording of it off ITV and I rewatched it a lot (despite it having all the advert breaks).

When the BBC came to re-air it I recorded over the top of my ITV version thinking I could get rid of the adverts, but to my horror I noticed the BBC version was missing lots of footage! Years later I discovered the BBC hadn’t cut the film, they’d simply aired the theatrical version while ITV had aired the SLV. To this day I still prefer the SLV, even though it’s got a lot of rough and unfinished edges!

 

[Therin of Andor]

Years later I discovered the BBC hadn’t cut the film, they’d simply aired the theatrical version while ITV had aired the SLV.

Yep, until the SLV received an international VHS release in 1986, the rest of the world could only imagine what the US viewers had seen with the ABC-TV telecast. Until then, we only had the theatrical version on home video and some tiny b/w pics in a review of the SLV in "Cinefantastique".

I was lucky that I did get to see the SLV earlier, on New Year's Eve, 31 Dec 1983, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while staying with my penpal. Her Dad went off to rent it and came back to say, "Sorry, all rental copies were out. So I bought one!"

 

[Procutus]

Due to the fact that Cleveland theaters didn't get TMP until two weeks after it's premier, I didn't get to see it until Sunday, December 23, two days after it's Ohio premier. It was the first of several viewings, but the anticipation for that first viewing can never be matched. I recall that day quite fondly.

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

I was 8 in 1979. I remember seeing TMP at Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights Michigan. I got an Enterprise toy with light and sound features for Christmas. You could separate the saucer section, secondary hull and warp drive pylons and reconfigure them in different ways.

I also got a pair of battery driven hand phasers from the movie. If I remember right the phasers worked like tv remotes do so if you aimed them at each other one beam could disable the other temporarily. No phaser sound and light out of the front of the disabled phaser. It was cool.

I liked the film in 1979 and I still do. It was also a treat when it made its debut on TV a few years later. I picked up the line of Marvel Comic adventures that continued where the movie left off. Nice thread it brings back happy memories.

 

[J.T.B.]

I was 8 in 1979. I remember seeing TMP at Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights Michigan. I got an Enterprise toy with light and sound features for Christmas. You could separate the saucer section, secondary hull and warp drive pylons and reconfigure them in different ways.

I remember the TV commercial, IIRC the saucer had landing gear. I don't remember ever seeing one in person. I didn't know anything about saucer separation at that point, I thought they were trying to give the toy added value as a UFO type flying saucer, which were all the rage at the time.

But that reminds me, a kid at school who had seen the movie first thing told me that Enterprise actually landed on a planet. I really couldn't imagine how that would work without the ship toppling over, but was intrigued. After I saw the film it occurred to me that Enterprise hadn't landed at all. I figure he was a little confused about the V'ger wingwalk scene.

I also got a pair of battery driven hand phasers from the movie. If I remember right the phasers worked like tv remotes do so if you aimed them at each other one beam could disable the other temporarily. No phaser sound and light out of the front of the disabled phaser. It was cool.

I remember seeing those at the store, a set of two in a big box. I remember thinking something like "Did they even have phasers in the movie? If they did I guess that's what they looked like."

 

[Procutus]

Nice thread it brings back happy memories.

That it does.