40 years of TWOK

[publiusr]

As an example of the Mandela effect…this image:
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-s...-enterprise-uss-reliant-st2-017-29144024.html

—fooled me into thinking it was part of the movie

This is likely what I remembered
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wik...la?file=USS_Enterprise_misses_the_Reliant.jpg

The stills showed what ILM could do. One still had Reliant’s amputated nacelle mount all but bleeding…where the movie just had sparks.

 

[Smellmet]

First Star Trek movie I saw as a child, on TV. Spock's death was heartbreaking, but I was told he came back in the next one. Really hope they do a 4k remaster for this one at some point.

There is one - it's part of a 4k box set of the first four movies. I really want a single release though, especially with the disc release of the TMP DE 4k in a few months.

 

[somebuddyX]

I was minus 9 days old when TWOK premiered so I have no memories of that time! When I was little my brother told me TWOK was the one where Spock died and because I'd seen TVH I thought that the video in the council chamber where Kirk narrates about Genesis was Spock getting fried by the Genesis effect. I wasn't a huge fan of it then but I really came to like it as I got older and it's definitely my fave Trek film now and one of my top films all up. In the 90s I loved falling asleep to the Mutara Battle and the James Horner score and I had a CD of the soundtrack I would play in my Discman at night in my room laying on my bed with the lights off, and I remember the lull in score when Enterprise is following Reliant into that bright light and then BAM Reliant is coming at ya scared me a couple of times because I'd forgot that was coming! I'm really quite fond of this film and I really appreciate Nick Meyer just trying to give us the best film he could.
Anson Call made this tribute for TWOK back for the 35th and I really like this too.

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[Greg Cox]

I was in college when it came out. Saw it at least twice that first weekend, with various members of our campus Science Fiction & Fantasy Club.

Little did I know I would someday write three novels about Khan!

 

[DonIago]

^And appear in at least one documentary!

 

[dupersuper]

I was 5. The first 2 or 3 Star Trek movies, like TOS, the original Star Wars trilogy, the first 3 Superman movies, super hero comics in general, Looney Toons, Disney cartoons, etc. were just always a part of my life from before I started really forming memories

 

[Warped9]

I was 23 in 1982. Overall I enjoyed it, but there were things that bugged me afterward and still do.

- I thought the new uniforms looked ridiculous and wrong for the Starfleet I knew. Still do.
- Kirk is again tied to a desk job and the Enterprise is a training vessel? Seriously—WTF! What happened to the new beginning we got three years earlier? Where were those adventures? The beginning of the film feels like a complete do over of TMP as if to erase it from existence.
- Nick Meyer’s militaristic veneer was laid on too thick. TMP felt like an extension of the familiar Trek universe in TOS. TWOK didn’t.

On the plus side it had energy, some nice character moments and a cool new Starfleet starship design.

In the end I was left feeling ambivalent. And while I would go on to see TWOK every once in awhile since I now really have no burning urge to revisit it. And I’ve come to feel that way about the successive films as well.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yeah, people forget that TWOK had the biggest opening weekend in history up to that point! Theaters were packed and there was huge excitement and buzz.

The days when Star Trek fans were enough to float the box office. So there was no crossover audience's ass to kiss. These movies were aimed squarely at fans. Man, I miss those days.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

- I thought the new uniforms looked ridiculous and wrong for the Starfleet I knew. Still do.

Starfleet is not a civilian organization, so its fitting that uniforms would lean in the military's direction.


-

Kirk is again tied to a desk job and the Enterprise is a training vessel? Seriously—WTF! What happened to the new beginning we got three years earlier? Where were those adventures? The beginning of the film feels like a complete do over of TMP as if to erase it from existence.

That was the impression I took from interviews at the time, and from fellow fans; no one wanted to acknowledge TMP other than to say it was a terrible mistake / wrongheaded / heartless, etc. and was utterly devoid of felling like a natural continuation of TOS.

 

[mb22]

The days when Star Trek fans were enough to float the box office. So there was no crossover audience's ass to kiss. These movies were aimed squarely at fans. Man, I miss those days.

For the first weekend or so - not so sure of the total BO. And if they were totally catering to fans, I doubt they would have destroyed the Enterprise in TSFS (killing Spock in TWOK was partly for Nimoy, I think).

 

[Ssosmcin]

For the first weekend or so - not so sure of the total BO. And if they were totally catering to fans, I doubt they would have destroyed the Enterprise in TSFS (killing Spock in TWOK was partly for Nimoy, I think).

I disagree, TSFS is the most "regular audience" unfriendly Trek film in the run. It's aimed right at us. Harve Bennett blew up the Enterprise because it was a strong dramatic hook and a hell of a loss for Kirk in the quest to get his best friend back. He also had a way of giving the fans something dramatically effective that they never would have asked for.

Obviously they were making a film they hoped general audiences could enjoy, but they didn't go out of their way to include them either. They just set out to tell a cracking good Star Trek story and probably hoped the reputation of TWOK would bring in some new folks to check it out. At that point, though, fans and their repeat showing dollars were enough. Now films are so ludicrously overproduced and marketed, the box office to be a smash is pretty much out of reach if you just aim at the Trekkers.

 

[PCz911]

I was 23 in 1982. Overall I enjoyed it, but there were things that bugged me afterward and still do.

- I thought the new uniforms looked ridiculous and wrong for the Starfleet I knew. Still do.
- Kirk is again tied to a desk job and the Enterprise is a training vessel? Seriously—WTF! What happened to the new beginning we got three years earlier? Where were those adventures? The beginning of the film feels like a complete do over of TMP as if to erase it from existence.
- Nick Meyer’s militaristic veneer was laid on too thick. TMP felt like an extension of the familiar Trek universe in TOS. TWOK didn’t.

On the plus side it had energy, some nice character moments and a cool new Starfleet starship design.

By in large I agree with you

- The uniforms were, and still are , horrible. They look like bad marching band uniforms.
- agreed on the confusion with Kirk and suddenly being back in a desk job. That always left me wondering what happened between the movies.
- I was ok with meyers vision, it felt more like a khan revenge film than any venture down into “battle of midway” type film, so I thought it wasn’t so “militaristic “.

Controversial opinion: they should have left Spock dead. The next film was a flaming hot mess and totally undermined the impact of his sacrifice.

controversial opinion 2 : deforest Kelly is a horrible actor. He’s passable here, but tsfs…. Ugh! In fact, I never really thought he was all that good in TOS.

CONTROVERSIAL OPINION 3: (sorry) … never, never , never understood why they never raised shields. It wouldn’t hurt anyone to do it…and it was apparently federation procedure.

I shall now batten down the hatches from the expected flames, pitchforks and torches.

 

[mb22]

I disagree, TSFS is the most "regular audience" unfriendly Trek film in the run. It's aimed right at us. Harve Bennett blew up the Enterprise because it was a strong dramatic hook and a hell of a loss for Kirk in the quest to get his best friend back. He also had a way of giving the fans something dramatically effective that they never would have asked for.

I see your point, although personally speaking when I first read rumors of the Enterprise's destruction prior to the release (probably in Starlog) I felt pretty horrible. I imagine most fans felt that way.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Oh yes, fans were in a total uproar. When I saw the preview I was horrified. I thought they were killing off the original cast to bring in a younger group.

I was much less savvy then.

But the same time, that's sort of the point. The average audience member wouldn't care all that much. It would have the biggest impact on the fans.

 

[Brennyren]

I was 23 when it came out, and working for a small newspaper -- not only did I see the movie, I got paid to review it! Best job ever!!! (I remember how one of my co-workers kept trying to say those could not either be Ricardo Montalban's real pecs!)

I wish I still had a copy of that review, but even without being able to reread it, I'm quite sure it was glowing. I was totally caught up in the film and crying helplessly at Spock's funeral. Much to the chagrin of my sister, who was apparently convinced I was the only one in the theater who was crying (I was not), and kept trying to "shush" me. I went back to the theater a couple more times, and never made it through Spock's death without at least a minor burst of waterworks.

 

[Commander Troi]

I really wish I could remember (I was 14), but I love the movie and cry at Spock's death every time I see it.

 

[Kamdan]

Always love hearing about how my mom cried her eyes out during the ending while my dad was like, “They wouldn’t have shown that watch box he was buried in if he wasn’t going to come back.” Turns out he was right, because they added those shots for Spock to return in the next movie.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I was 23 when it came out, and working for a small newspaper -- not only did I see the movie, I got paid to review it! Best job ever!!! (I remember how one of my co-workers kept trying to say those could not either be Ricardo Montalban's real pecs!)

I wish I still had a copy of that review, but even without being able to reread it, I'm quite sure it was glowing. I was totally caught up in the film and crying helplessly at Spock's funeral. Much to the chagrin of my sister, who was apparently convinced I was the only one in the theater who was crying (I was not), and kept trying to "shush" me. I went back to the theater a couple more times, and never made it through Spock's death without at least a minor burst of waterworks.

Gosh, is it possible you could re-review it again and post a 2022 review of your thoughts on the movie? 23 and now more beautiful, its still you and reading your POV of the movie would be nice. You could even describe what you recall from the first time you saw the movie and what was it like? I was born during the multi-plex era, I would've kill to live in a time where people had to wait through long, long, looooooooooooooooooooooong blocks to see a movie. What a time to be alive?