Who saw Star Trek IV in theaters when it came out?

[Winterwind]

I was 13 when it came out. I remember talking with a movie usher about Star Trek (he was a fan too) and we were talking about TNG which was in the works with lots of rumours. It was the first time I heard someone use the expression "I await with bated breath".

 

[Lord Garth]

I was in second grade when TVH came out. I could've seen it, but I wasn't a fan yet and didn't see it until four years later on VHS.

I saw in the theater, eventually, in 2012. With an original film print from 1986. Pops, crackles, imperfections, dirt, and all. Just the way I like it. That makes me feel like I'm really watching a movie at the movies. So I actually got to have the full experience.

 

[Winterwind]

I was in second grade when TVH came out. I could've seen it, but I wasn't a fan yet and didn't see it until four years later on VHS.

I saw in the theater, eventually, in 2012. With an original film print from 1986. Pops, crackles, imperfections, dirt, and all. Just the way I like it. That makes me feel like I'm really watching a movie at the movies. So I actually got to have the full experience.

Ah... watching a movie at the movies.

There was a magic to it when I was a kid, and we were pre-internet. Going to the movies was something special. Now, it's more of a pain in the butt and unless you go off the grid you know more than you want before you even get to the theatre.

 

[The Realist]

Related story: I was at a multiplex attending a different movie altogether a month or two before TVH's release. As I was walking down the hall toward my auditorium, someone opened the door of another theater down the hall, and I heard, " ... the crew of the starship Enterprise ...."

I frigging sprinted down the hall to that auditorium. Fortunately there were no old ladies in my path, or they would have been bowled aside like tenpins. I caught about the last half of the trailer, and it was awesome.

(And of course I saw the film in the theater. Several times. )

 

[gottacook]

As I was walking down the hall toward my auditorium, someone opened the door of another theater down the hall, and I heard, " ... the crew of the starship Enterprise ...."

I had never seen or even thought about the Star Trek IV trailer until just now (although I did see the movie itself when it came out). Found it on YouTube. Noticed that it was set to James Horner's music from the previous two movies. Wished again that Nimoy's friend Rosenman hadn't been hired.

 

[Kerock]

Having Utah ties.........we laughed and laughed at the "too much LDS"

 

[Therin of Andor]

Wished again that Nimoy's friend Rosenman hadn't been hired.

As a fan of Ralph Bakshi's animated "The Lord of the Rings", I was ecstatic. And played that soundtrack to death in the months leading up to the premiere.

But I forgot to mention earlier. Because we were helping to organise the Sydney gala premiere, a small group from our club committee, and our Spock lookalike, got to see the ST IV work print at Paramount's Sydney theaterette a few weeks before the premiere! Several "Scene Missing" slides, and some FX crew members blowing smoke with bellows, crouched under the Bird of Prey model as it slingshot around the sun in a rectangle! And closing credits that had each character's photo in a circle, more like the opening to a TV comedy.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

I saw it as a teenager, but in the shittiest theatre in Toronto, a twinplex that was in the Sheraton Center hotel in downtown Toronto; I should've taken the subway further north on Yonge Street and seen it at the Uptown or the University theatres.

 

[Ovation]

Saw it in its first few weeks at what was then the premiere cinema house in Montreal—The Imperial (balconied with nearly 2300 seats when it opened in 1913, down to about 900 in the 80s after a number of renovations (new seating much larger and more plush than original seats) and the largest screen I’d ever seen apart from a drive in). Newly upgraded to THX certification (was a big deal at the time). I was 19 and on a date with a girl with whom I was head over heels in love. (Hope she’s doing well now—haven’t seen her in nearly 30 years).

 

[Damian]

I saw it in the theater back in 1986. I remember it fondly. I was just a nubie Trekkie at the time. Just a few months before I became Trekkie (after renting out TMP which will always be my favorite Trek film). I rediscovered TWOK and TSFS and was just starting to watch the original series (a local video store had some episodes for rent and I started with those).

It was a perfect time to become a Trekkie because TVH came out that same year. I think I went to see it at least twice in the theater. I always watch TVH with fondness as a result. I had actually seen TSFS in the theater when it came out but as I was not yet a Trekkie I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. TVH is my first in theater Trek movie as a Trekkie and I've gone to see every movie since and love them all (to varying degrees of course)

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've seen every Trek movie in the theater. I was only a teenager when Star Trek IV came out and went with my mom to the local theater that was only twenty minute drive from my house at the time. She wasn't really a Trek fan, but she knew I was, so she took me to make me happy (like she did with all the previous Trek movies). We both liked Star Trek IV and then went to the Red Lobster just down the street for dinner afterward.

Good times.

 

[Greg Cox]

I was 26 when it came out. Saw it on opening night in downtown Seattle. It was a cold and drizzly evening (because, Seattle), but I remember me and my friends and dozens of other local fans having a great time hanging out on the sidewalk outside the theater, waiting to admitted. There were so many giddy fans present that I started calling it "SidewalkCon" and was briefly disappointed when they finally opened the door and we all hurried to get our seats.

Loved the movie, though. Still my second-favorite Trek movie, after KHAN of course.

 

[Brennyren]

I've seen every Trek film in the theaters on their first run. I was 27 when The Voyage Home came out. If memory serves, I saw it at my hometown theater with my then-boyfriend, his best friend, and the friend's date, and it was a great time! For months afterward, boyfriend and I couldn't go anywhere without one of us saying, as we got out of the car, "Everybody remember where we parked."

 

[Greg Cox]

In terms of personal biography, TVH was also the last Trek movie I ever saw in the Pacific Northwest. By the time the next movie came out, I was living in NYC . ..

 

[Therin of Andor]

For months afterward, boyfriend and I couldn't go anywhere without one of us saying, as we got out of the car, "Everybody remember where we parked."

"They put creatures in our bodies", "It's still regulation, Admiral" and "Let them eat static" (ST II) and "That's what you get for missing staff meetings" (ST III) were used frequently in my Trek social circles. "Don't lose yourself in the part" (ST IV) was pretty useful. Also "Go climb a rock" (ST V).

 

[DrCorby]

I've been fortunate to see all the Star Trek movies in the theater on opening day. Well, except Star Trek II; a friend's father was being airlifted from a rural area to a city hospital with a heart attack, and it seemed unsupportive to run off and see a movie and leave our friend to wait alone. The good news was that he got good care and lived for many more years. And I saw TWOK later that summer.

As a fan of Ralph Bakshi's animated "The Lord of the Rings", I was ecstatic. And played that soundtrack to death in the months leading up to the premiere.

I liked Rosenman's score for Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, too. A lively, rousing score. But I was very displeased to hear that score basically reprised for Star Trek IV. It really jarred me out of the movie, and felt lazy not to write a completely new score, to boot. One of my least favorite parts of the movie.

 

[Qonundrum]

As a kid*, it was wonderful.

There was a neat mystery setup.

And it was so different in tone and style to III!

It continues from III, complete with using a clip of the previous movie as a recap and back then discussions of "How'd they get that pristine footage!" didn't exist with such fervor... of course, home video playback equipment - while existing - hadn't reached its zeitgeist yet and many movies were expensive. That and the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System made kids' lives more interactive. I never really got into the NES at the time, and how come chocolate ice cream doesn't come with the model that doesn't come with the new car? Wait, what were we talking about again, ice houses with propellers that fly around like jet planets?

Everyone, however, prior to its release, was joking with cracks harking back to Doctor Who (back when it was geared to nerds) and even Back to the Future.

The humor contained in the 20th century was fantastic.

Right down to primitive medicine and, of course, Noocular Wessons in Awwameadah.

I wanted to save the whales but didn't live near a beach.

At the time, it was fresh and new and crisp and wonderful to see the heroes back in it for an all new adventure after reruns of TOS and the movies.

Nowadays, it's not quite the same experience...

The movie kept the humor contained for the 20th century Earth scenes and didn't splatter it across the 23rd. A sage move... unfortunately every subsequent Trek movie feels a need to poke jokes, even at character expense, and it doesn't work. Often because it's aimed at the audience than feeling integral to or flowing within the story.

The end credits rank up there with a cheesy sitcom's.

So does the incidental music.

And somewhere between drafts the number of charges dropped by a considerable margin for no reason.

The only thing from the flick that has somehow aged well is the entertaining yet nihilistic-themed punk song.

And the LDS joke. That one's timeless, even though today's junkies have never tasted the original flavor - or even the modern day varieties - of Grace Slick's favorite hallucinogen, which she almost got a chance to spike Nixon's tea with (for real! ) But a lot of jokes don't hold up at all. Some do to a good extent, others not so much. If nothing else, the "Not now Madeline!" makes a sort of sense, but they should have gotten Wayne Knight instead. He was a blast in FOX's ill-fated-despite-being-genuinely-witty-which-was-a-rarity-at-the-time sketch show "The Edge"...

But the whale effects still look great... I bet they had a whale of a time making them... unfortunately the plot is undeniably heavyhanded, as if they were slamming us on our heads with Free Willy's tail fin, the fin and the audience were proportionally sized... As if the audience could do anything except put nickels into those glorified specimen jars of which a tiny fraction went to some guy on a boat that farmed cuttlefish and that was that. If nothing else, sledgehammer tactics didn't start in the 21st century.


* trying not to date myself too much, I'm celibate by choice...

 

[Daddy Todd]

Having Utah ties.........we laughed and laughed at the "too much LDS"

I saw TVH the first time in Orem, Utah. That line brought the house down!

Oh yeah, I was 26, and going through a “bad patch.” Anticipation of ST IV is one of the things that got me through 1986...

 

[tharpdevenport]

I think I saw it in the theaters. If only my future self could have sling-shotted back in time to warn me about the movie.

I had the VHS, too. And the best thing about the VHS was the exciting trailer for a new series that hadn't aired yet: "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

 

[RandyS]

I was 16 and saw it with my mom on a late afternoon showing on Thanksgiving Day after leaving dinner at my Grandparents house.

Funny story: In the car on the way home, my mom was confused about the crew going on trial at the end of the movie and ending up with a new Enterprise. I told her it was a followup to what happened in Star Trek III. She asked me if I had III in my VHS collection (which I was just beginning in 1986) and when I said yes, she said she wanted to watch it (she didn't remember going to see it at the Drive-in two years earlier). So that's what we did when we got home. When III was over, mom was confused again "Why was Spock dead?" "Why was the Enterprise damaged?" "What was Genesis?". Suffice it to say, she didn't remember seeing II at the theater four years earlier and I pulled out that tape and we watched that movie too. We stayed up until around 2am that night. Also ate most of the Thanksgiving leftovers Grandma set us home with.