I truly believe Ricardo Montalban should've won an Oscar for TWOK.

[Therin of Andor]

Not trying to doubt your word on this, Therin of Andor, but do you have a link to confirm?

Not a hyperlink, but certainly issues of Starlog published in the day, and probably Allan Asherman's "The Making of ST II" as well.

Okay, from Allan Asherman's "The Making of ST II" (Pocket, October 1982), pp 15-16: "A report in Newsday, a Long Island (New York City suburban) newspaper... reported that Nicholas Meyer had been signed to direct the film... The film, said the piece, was to be produced by Paramount's television division, and it would likely be released theatrically as a test, remaining a theatrical release if successful or winding up on Cable TV instead." A day earlier, Newsday had broken the news to the world that Shatner and Nimoy had signed for a sequel to TMP.

In the same era, the original "Battlestar Galactica" pilot, the pilot for "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" and a string of early BG eps, joined together to create "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack", were all produced for US TV but with the intention of being released theatrically overseas, which they were, as planned. All of those movies look "very cinematic throughout" for TV productions, as does ST II. The Paramount TV guys also knew they had to match the standard of the stock footage from TMP which they'd been ordered to use, ie, the Klingon sequence and the Enterprise-leaving-drydock sequence.

was always intended for the silver screen nevertheless.

Well, it wasn't. AFAIK, the switch to probable domestic release theatrical did happen just before the commencement of principal photography on ST II, but it was very late in pre-production. The employees of the TV arm at Paramount were probably very keen to be upwardly mobile and show what they could achieve on a relatively small budget.

which would be extremely unusual for a production destined for the 1.33:1 (4:3) image of all TV sets in the early 80's. Also, to my film buff (albeit amatuer) eyes, the lighting employed certainly looks very cinematic throughout.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

In the same era, the original "Battlestar Galactica" pilot, the pilot for "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" and a string of early BG eps, joined together to create "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack", were all produced for US TV but with the intention of being released theatrically overseas, which they were, as planned. All of those movies look "very cinematic throughout" for TV productions, as does ST II. The Paramount TV guys also knew they had to match the standard of the stock footage from TMP which they'd been ordered to use, ie, the Klingon sequence and the Enterprise-leaving-drydock sequence.

I'm fully aware of the deal with Battlestar, but that production was filmed in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 - the subsequent theatrical releases were cropped to approx 1.85:1. I was extremely pleased to have those episodes in the OAR when released in the series box set. Not sure why you decided to repeat my comment reference lighting in quotation marks, I did precede it with a caveat. Anyway, I will bow to your sovereign knowledge on this matter, thanks for responding.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Not sure why you decided to repeat my comment reference lighting in quotation marks...

Because I was quoting you?

 

[Mr Silver]

As I stated earlier regarding the budget,

Sure low budget films can clean up at the Oscars but as Therin of Andor has stated on numerous occasions "The film was originally produced for TV"

And he is right, TWOK was produced with a TV Movie release in mind, Paramount, IIRC were trying to get network bidders for the premiere showing, however, Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer, going with the hype that the film generated, decided to scrap the TV movie release and Paramount agreed to release it in movie theaters

With this decided, they didn't have time or resources to go over the entire movie and redesign it to be fully "Motion Picture Friendly", you can tell by the lighting in places, whats left over from the original TV Movie idea, noticebly the sound mixing doesn't quite measure up to TMP, particulary the dialogue (the soundtrack is about the only thing soundwise that is Motion Picture quality)

Regarding the Budget, $11 million dollars is more than enough to make a film, however I suspect most of the budget went on the actors fees, costume design, SFX and the soundtrack, as I said before, much of the sets, etc in TWOK were reused from TMP, a lot (not all, but a lot) of the SFX was reused from TMP also, the Genesis Video was a piece of groundbreaking SFX, but putting that against TMP, well you see my point

Overall, however TWOK turned out really well for a production that started out as a "Made-For-TV" Movie, yet it has its flaws, the one thing that we cannot fault however is the quality of acting, particular in William Shatner's case, as Kirk he really turned around the role that made him famous and showed a completely new side of an originally "one dimensional character"