How were you introduced to the Star Trek movies? What was the first one you saw in a theatre? Who were you with?
Last edited:
What was your first experience with a movie?
- Thread starter HaventGotALife
- Start date
ST:TMP, 7:30 PM December 7, 1979 at the MacArthur in Washington, DC.
Star Trek V at a very young age. I was hooked and I was soon playing with spoons and other disc-like objects, pretending it was the Enterprise 
...and then I got jaded about STV once STVI came out, and TNG became my preferred show... etc. etc. The quality of subsequent Trek eventually made me dislike STV, but she'll always be my first.
...and then I got jaded about STV once STVI came out, and TNG became my preferred show... etc. etc. The quality of subsequent Trek eventually made me dislike STV, but she'll always be my first.
Ditto. It didn't open in Bellingham, Washington, so pretty much our entire college science fiction club piled into cars and drove about a hundred miles to Everett to catch it on opening night. Road trip!
When the Enterprise finally appeared on the screen, for the first time since the original show had been cancelled, it got a standing ovation.
(People complain about how long that flyby is now, with reason, but I can testify that it got a great response when the movie first opened.)
If you were at that first showing at the Everett Theater, that funny-looking kid at the very front of the line was me. It was my 18th birthday, so I skipped school and the after-school job. Got down there about noon or so and camped myself out right in fron of the box-office until it opened.
Hah! Well, the large gang of college kids who arrived after dark would have been us!
I saw TFF in the theater in 1989 but I wasn't hooked. My parents bought TVH at the beginning of 1991, then I was hooked.
TMP when it first opened when I was 12. Was supposed to go with my older brother who didn't show, and ended up in the front row. I was in absolute awe as the camera did the "rollover" of the Klingon Battle Cruiser. practically broke my neck because I was so fixated....
I did a blog post the last time the topic came up:
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2006/12/star-trek-movies-then-and-now-over-on_09.html
I cover all the ST movies in that.
ST: The Motion Picture (1979) was my first. At the beautiful, now-gone, art deco Paramount Theatre, Sydney. This film was very much my "coming of age". At 21, I'd managed never to have seen "Star Wars" and was just finishing up three fun-filled years at teachers' college - writing and performing in skits, making teaching aids, critiquing kids' TV shows, etc and along came ST: TMP, a reunion movie of characters I knew mainly from breakfast television reruns of TAS! The topic of conversation at my 21st birthday party was a friend's enthusiastic review of the gala opening night, a few nights earlier, which became a fascination to me. There had been a series of from-the-set articles all week in the afternoon paper.
I actually read the novelization first, bought the soundtrack and went (by myself) to see the movie - and was blown away by it. I felt like I was on that starship; thanks to director Robert Wise, whose direction made the whole film so real to me.
A few weeks later discovering local organised ST fandom, I was shocked that most diehard TOS fans hated the movie and called it boring. I was ready for the sequel the next week, and how did I scream when I realised TMP was originally to have been "Phase II", a weekly TV show!
Oh well, I spent the next few years reading ST novels, catching up on old TOS and TAS I hadn't seen and researching details on ST II. It and JJ's remake are still my favourite ST movies, and perhaps my favourite movies of all time.
http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2006/12/star-trek-movies-then-and-now-over-on_09.html
I cover all the ST movies in that.
ST: The Motion Picture (1979) was my first. At the beautiful, now-gone, art deco Paramount Theatre, Sydney. This film was very much my "coming of age". At 21, I'd managed never to have seen "Star Wars" and was just finishing up three fun-filled years at teachers' college - writing and performing in skits, making teaching aids, critiquing kids' TV shows, etc and along came ST: TMP, a reunion movie of characters I knew mainly from breakfast television reruns of TAS! The topic of conversation at my 21st birthday party was a friend's enthusiastic review of the gala opening night, a few nights earlier, which became a fascination to me. There had been a series of from-the-set articles all week in the afternoon paper.
I actually read the novelization first, bought the soundtrack and went (by myself) to see the movie - and was blown away by it. I felt like I was on that starship; thanks to director Robert Wise, whose direction made the whole film so real to me.
A few weeks later discovering local organised ST fandom, I was shocked that most diehard TOS fans hated the movie and called it boring. I was ready for the sequel the next week, and how did I scream when I realised TMP was originally to have been "Phase II", a weekly TV show!
Oh well, I spent the next few years reading ST novels, catching up on old TOS and TAS I hadn't seen and researching details on ST II. It and JJ's remake are still my favourite ST movies, and perhaps my favourite movies of all time.
Same here. I was nine and went with my mom, my little brother, my aunt and some cousins.
The movie didn't impress me all that much at the time, and what was funny about it was that shortly afterwards, what is now our local FOX station (independent in those days) began rerunning TOS, a practice they would continue to do every time a TOS film was released (if they weren't showing it already). When I saw the commercial saying that "Star Trek is back! Weekdays at 5pm!", my first thought was "Ugh, they made a series out of that dumb movie?". And when I said that, my mom explained that the series was made back in the 60's before I was born, and that I actually watched the reruns when I was three, along with the first run of TAS, niether of which I remembered doing. Anyway, I started watching the TOS reuns in early 1980 with my mom, and have been hooked ever since.
In a way, TMP was my introduction to both the movie, AND TOS.
The very first Star Trek Movie I saw was Star Trek Five: The Final Frontier. It was in a black plastic case from the local library with a NO SERVICE CHARGE sticker on the tape. I don't know why some movies were free. My first thoughts after only seeing the end seasons 6-7 of TNG was 'thats not the ENterprise'. I thought they remodeled it later, or they were two different visons of trek or something.
I liked it as a child. I remember staying ip late one night enjoying it, but not loving it. Also one of my first thoughts was that the English fellow was the Doctor from TGRI TURTLES II : The Secret of the OOZE.
NExt I retened The Search for Spock because I thought it was the one where spock died for some reason. I was disapointed with that one. Finally I saw ST II and was happy. Then I dont remember the orders after that.
I liked it as a child. I remember staying ip late one night enjoying it, but not loving it. Also one of my first thoughts was that the English fellow was the Doctor from TGRI TURTLES II : The Secret of the OOZE.
NExt I retened The Search for Spock because I thought it was the one where spock died for some reason. I was disapointed with that one. Finally I saw ST II and was happy. Then I dont remember the orders after that.
