Coming into Trek through the films?

[Warped9]

I recall a fellow almost twenty years ago whose introduction into Trek was through the TOS films and then TNG. I was so surprised to learn that he had had no idea that there had been an original series from the '60s---he thought the films had introduced Trek.

Anyone here ever had a similar experience or perhaps you yourself came into Trek through the films and possibly not known of the existence of TOS beforehand?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wasn't Therin of Andor's first Trek experience TMP? Not sure if he was aware of the TV show prior to that. Though I'm sure he will tell us.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I watched "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" before I'd watched "Star Trek" and I saw "Star Trek: First Contact" before I'd watched DS9 and a lot of TNG episodes (although I had seen much of that series earlier). My experience was that the second and fourth Star Trek movies were the most accessible.

I avoided the original series for years because the small bits and pieces of it I'd seen just made it look appallingly campy and outdated to me, to the point where I was sure I'd never be able to take it seriously and/or enjoy it.

All the blatantly telegraphed music cues and gaudy production design was a huge turn-off, while the movies just seemed so much classier and more mature (even with all the humour in the fourth one). I'm glad I got over my shallow, closed-minded attitude towards that show eventually, because now I have a lot of affection for it and have found certain episodes wonderful.

 

[Aldo]

I was introduced to Trek through the TOS series films. This was back before TNG entered features though. Once I was hooked on the films I eventually checked out a few episodes and fell in love with TOS, then slowly started watching TNG. After that I was hooked.

 

[ice]

I was introduced to Trek through the TOS films, too. I fell in love with the Enterprise, and was greatly disappointed when I saw the original series later and how cheap and nasty the TOS ship was...

 

[Warped9]

...was greatly disappointed when I saw the original series later and how cheap and nasty the TOS ship was...

I've never understood this. I still think the TOS E looks awesome. But then I can also see it with my mind's eye filling in the blanks.

 

[sonak]

I recall a fellow almost twenty years ago whose introduction into Trek was through the TOS films and then TNG. I was so surprised to learn that he had had no idea that there had been an original series from the '60s---he thought the films had introduced Trek.

Anyone here ever had a similar experience or perhaps you yourself came into Trek through the films and possibly not known of the existence of TOS beforehand?

that's interesting. I'm not sure how one could watch TMP and not pick up on the fact that there'd been previous adventures with this crew, and that it wasn't an introduction to a franchise, but OK...


but I could see starting out with the TOS films if you knew there'd been a TV series before, and going back to that series after seeing the films.

That's the way I did it for the original crew, but I was still aware that there had been a series that I hadn't yet seen.


However, I saw TMP last, as I'd been told it's sort of a "false start" for the film series, and I started off with TWOK.

 

[Gepard]

I still think the TOS E looks awesome.

Many disagree. The component shapes are simplistic and the detailing minimal. If one's first exposure to the Enterprise was the far more detailed and streamlined film model, built on film budget and with technology not available to the TV show a decade earlier, its easy to see how the TV version would fall short.

 

[Warped9]

I find its clean design to be a strength and not cluttered up with a lot of extraneous greebling. To me its smooth finish looks more futuristic than most of the greebled designs we've gotten since.

 

[Kelso]

I grew up on the films and TNG. I knew that there had been an original series, but I didn't really see it until I was 10 or 11 (1991-92ish). My initial reaction was that the Klingons were all wrong and I preferred the guy who played Scotty in the films over the guy from the series.

 

[Rarewolf]

I'm convinced my own introduction to Trek was due to my mother mistaking Star Wars for Star Trek, she took us to see Star Trek IV. So that was my intro to Trek. Then TNG.

My first glimpse of TOS was a few minutes on my grandfather's satellite TV - it was dubbed in German! It took repeats on BBC2 after series 3 of TNG for me to catch it proper.

 

[Lowdarzz]

My introduction to Trek was when I saw Star Trek III: TSFS on television back in the late 80's. I enjoyed it so much, my father showed me his taped copies of TMP and TWOK and I was hooked. TNG began shortly later and one of the local television stations was showing TOS and I started watching both.

 

[Doug Otte]

...I preferred the guy who played Scotty in the films over the guy from the series.

That's a joke, right?

Doug

 

[Therin of Andor]

Wasn't Therin of Andor's first Trek experience TMP? Not sure if he was aware of the TV show prior to that. Though I'm sure he will tell us.

Essentially! My grandmother owned the household's b/w TV when ST was in first-run, and we had to be in bed by 8.30pm - I think that was its original Aussie time slot. My awareness of TOS was via the Topps gum cards (rebranded here as Scanlons) in 1968, kids discussing ST in the playground, William Shatner coming out to Australia for our annual TV Week Logie Awards, and then my brothers and I catching a few memorable b/w episodes of TAS on a Saturday morning in the 70s (esp. "Yesteryear", "The Counter-clock Incident", "Jihad", "Practical Joker", "Bem" and "Albatross").

Australia got colour TV in 1975, so a selection of TOS (about six episodes? - one was definitely "The Devil in the Dark") were broadcast in colour late that year in prime time, and TAS was being rerun in colour as a segment of the still-new phenomenon known as weekday breakfast television! We watched anything that was in colour, but we remembered "Albatross" and were dying to see just what colours the crew would turn when they got the auroral plague! We were surprised to discover that Mr Arex was actually orange (when he didn't have the plague).

My introduction to TMP was via a great series of "I was on the set" newspaper articles by Aussie journalist, Jim Oram. Then there was TV footage of De Kelley and Persis Khambatta arriving in Australia for the film's premiere. Then, an old school friend (a guest at my 21st birthday party a few days later), who had been at the Sydney gala preview/premiere and had been blown away by being in a cinema where most of the audience were in costume - and applauded each actor's entrances.

While waiting for this intriguing "reunion film" to open to the public, I found the novelization (with the UK/Aussie exclusive captioned photo plates section!) in a supermarket checkout rack, read it in a weekend, and used a birthday record voucher to buy the LP of the soundtrack (which originally disappointed me). I couldn't get anyone to go to the movie with me, so I went on my own. Over and over and over again. Adding to the intrigue was the decore of the stunning old, now-defunct, Paramount Theatre in Sydney's CBD, and "Ilia's Theme" perpetually piped through the curtained maze of corridors. ST:TMP became an all-consuming juggernaut that overtook my life at a time when I was at a loose end (just having completed a very stimulating three-year course at teachers' college and being told I was probably facing a four-year waiting list for a job).

ST:TMP changed my life.

That's a joke, right?

Maybe not. Doohan did look quite different with that mustache.

I remember being totally confused by Dr Chapel and Transporter Chief Rand in my earliest days as a diehard fan. I knew both had been blondes on the TV show, and one had had a weird, basket-weave hairstyle, but which actress was which? I had no guidebooks in 1980, and the doubt stopped me from attending my first convention because I felt like such a phony.

 

[Kelso]

...I preferred the guy who played Scotty in the films over the guy from the series.

That's a joke, right?

Doug

Give me a break, I was 10.

 

[Doug Otte]

...I preferred the guy who played Scotty in the films over the guy from the series.

That's a joke, right?

Doug

Give me a break, I was 10.

Consider yourself broken...err break-eed...um, I understand.

Doug