yeah also a play on there never being any seatbelts on the bridge.
the cinema seat on the poster sort of resembled a starfleet uniform with the seatbelt making a slight 'A' logo
Why do you rank TFF highly?
- Thread starter EnriqueH
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the cinema seat on the poster sort of resembled a starfleet uniform with the seatbelt making a slight 'A' logo
but they were on a religious quest like Indiana Jones and threw some blows like Bond did in Licence to Kill and saw some ghostly aspirations like Ghostbusters and they had some masked individuals like Batman so instead of going to see those pictures audiences couldve gone to see Star Trek V and got all of them together!
So, V would've done a lot better if it was released after the summer. I saw some promotional stuff on youtube where the press kept asking Shatner and Bennett if that movie would be the last and hoped it wasn't. The cast looked pretty good for their ages, I was a little surprised their discussions to end their run since TVH did so well.
Not to mention that they alienated the audience, so that makes you think of Aliens...
Also, people felt like they've wasted their TIME... So TIME, time travel... Back To The Future!!!
That was a big issue for the movie. Granted, most of the general movie going public really isn't going to think of how long it should have taken the Enterprise to actually get there like us more hardened Trekkies know.
The problem is they built up the Great Barrier as this insurmountable, well, barrier. That it could even destroy the ship. So they set up this expectation that this was going to be a significant issue. Then....nothing. The Enterprise traverses the barrier in about 30 seconds with just a little shaking and some very bad special effects. That was it? And worse, the Klingon ship shows up suddenly out of nowhere. Some barrier.
Not sure that would have helped. The movie actually did relatively well at the time. It was number 1 at the box office the week it was released, though it quickly tailed off after that. But it just was not well regarded enough to keep it going no matter when it was released.
A lot of Trekkies have a soft spot for this movie. Myself included. It probably has some of the best Kirk-Spock-McCoy moments of the first 6 movies.
But...once you leave Trekkie land the movie is still poorly looked at, and largely forgotten. My father was just a casual fan. He loved TWOK and TUC for instance, and a handful of original series episodes that stood out. But he hated TFF and never watched it again. He thought it was a stupid movie with really bad special effects. When it comes to the films, they have to attract a wider audience and TFF just didn't do that. So that's why I'm not sure releasing it at a different time would have really helped.
It was probably the popularity of TVH that got TFF to number 1 it's first week, as those fans that saw TVH wanted to see if TFF would live up to TVH.
Yeah, particularly Shatner. When you look at Shatner between TFF and TUC, he looks significantly older in TUC. And TUC was only filmed 2 years later. I really noticed it during the scene when Gorkon died in TUC and he was holding the back of Kirk's head, you see a lot of gray. Interestingly enough, it actually fits the timeline pretty well, since TUC in universe takes place about 7-8 years later than TFF. Occasionally I wondered if they did that on purpose with that in mind...but that's probably unlikely. I think the makers of TUC were trying to forget about TFF for the most part and it seems unlikely they would go to the trouble.
yeah also a play on there never being any seatbelts on the bridge.
the cinema seat on the poster sort of resembled a starfleet uniform with the seatbelt making a slight 'A' logo
I never saw that poster. Hmm. The only one I ever saw was the main poster (like the one you see on Memory Alpha or Wikipedia).
I recall reading the letters page of the official fan club magazine at the time or thereabout and someone made the quite correct observation that the barrier in 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' was more menacing/convincing with superior fxThe problem is they built up the Great Barrier as this insurmountable, well, barrier. That it could even destroy the ship. So they set up this expectation that this was going to be a significant issue. Then....nothing. The Enterprise traverses the barrier in about 30 seconds with just a little shaking and some very bad special effects. That was it? And worse, the Klingon ship shows up suddenly out of nowhere. Some barrier.
Considering Shatner went chestnut brown for Trek VII I imagine it was a conscious decision to have him older greyer in VI maybe at the behest of Meyer (who wanted Kirk to acknowledge his age in II with the glasses/feeling old..worn out
It was the teaser/advance poster
I have a bunch of movie posters that hang in my home theater. Interestingly enough, that one just happens to be up right now!
Yeah, agreed. That's another element where the novel was superior. It explained how Sybok came up with a way to enhance the shields (and the Klingons had been spying on the Enterprise and learned of Sybok's formula). And the barrier seemed more menacing in the novel. But none of that made it into the movie.
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It just happened to make it more consistent with how much time passed since TFF.
It's funny I never saw that one until now.
Funny aside, my mother worked for a record/video store at the time in their warehouse. When TFF was coming out on VHS at the time Paramount had sent out a lifesize display of Kirk and Spock with images from the film. She grabbed one of each and brought them home. I still have those (though they are in my attic right now. The problem with them is they are so big it's hard to find a place to display them. I mean, they're not something you put up in your living room.
It's funny I never saw that one until now.
Funny aside, my mother worked for a record/video store at the time in their warehouse. When TFF was coming out on VHS at the time Paramount had sent out a lifesize display of Kirk and Spock with images from the film. She grabbed one of each and brought them home. I still have those (though they are in my attic right now. The problem with them is they are so big it's hard to find a place to display them. I mean, they're not something you put up in your living room.
Yes indeed! I had the Spock one. It’s also in the attic, btw.
I remember the novel was released about a week before the film came out (at least here in the US) and I read it before seeing the movie.
And yeah, in this case the novel was far superior. It made the film a bit more disappointing to me. There was a lot more backstory in the novel. I realize that novels traditionally provide more backstory that never makes it in the film. But there were some things in the novel that if they made it to the film it probably would have helped the film a bit.
I always tell people I did the same thing for TUC. That novel also came out a few days before the movie and I read that before seeing the film. ...oops. Nothing like knowing whodunnit before you walk in the theater.
Then it must be very different from the movie because I can't conceive this movie becoming something excellent without a lot of work!!!
TUC's novel is amazing though.
The movie was good too though.
Yeah. I liked all Dillard's novelizations. TUC was no exception...I just made the mistake in that case of reading the book before the movie came out. I should have waited until after. That wasn't really an issue for TFF since it's not a mystery story like TUC.
The novel was definitely superior to the film. Was it excellent? I might not go that far. The story still has it's flaws, the book just does a good job of smoothing over some of those flaws and the story made a lot more sense. If the movie was more like the book I think the movie would have been better, though I don't think it would have ever been excellent.
Book was better.
I might have to try out TFF's novel. TMP was a harder read and I didn't really get in to the others until TUC, which was a film I really liked.
TFF is definitely worth a read.
TFF was never going to be an excellent film. The story just wasn't there for that. But the novel makes the story as good as it could possibly be IMO.
And the novelization helped me see a bit more of the 'good' in the film. There were things I wish made it to the film that were in the novel that could have helped the movie. But even the backstory elements that you know would never have been filmed help you appreciate the film a bit more. Things like seeing the 'pain' of Sulu, Uhura and Chekov for instance--because of time constraints you know that would never have made it to the film--but it's good to see, and helps you understand why they ended up helping Sybok and how they didn't feel they were actually betraying Captain Kirk by helping Sybok.
Does anyone know what was Shatner's inspiration for this movie?
Televangelists. Shatner had said he was fascinated by how people could be convinced that televangelists were speaking directly to God. That got the ball rolling and influenced the character of Sybok initially.
And IIRC that was about the time televangelists were really big and there were some big scandals at the time involving a few.
It reminds me a bit of a song from one of my favorite bands, Genesis. They did a song back in 1991 called "Jesus, He Knows Me" which was all about televangelists and how they were getting rich from their false promises. Shatner said he was fascinated by how people could be convinced to send their money to these 'false prophets' and that's how it started.
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