On December 7th, 1979, I was in a movie theater in Gallup, New Mexico, waiting to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the first time. Not the best Star Trek movie, perhaps, but it was the first. I recall watching it that first time and being amazed. Sure, I had seen Star Wars and Close Encounters, but nothing was as cool at Star Trek on the big screen.

I saw the movie another 21 times in the theater that season (I miss the days when movies were in theaters for many months, rather than a few weeks), more than any movie before or after. I’m sure I drove my parents crazy: I was seeing it at least once a week, if not more. I had the action figures, the Happy Meal toys, the board game (which I still play now and again), the soundtrack (on 8-track, actually, though eventually on nearly every format), the novelization, etc. To me, the movie was an event.

HDNet has been showing it now and again, so I’ve watched it another three to four times in the last few weeks. I’ll also be watching it tonight, to once again celebrate one of my favorite movies.

Certainly my favorite scene of the movie (and one of my all-time favorite scenes in any movie) is the reveal of the Enterprise. Yes, the movie spends around 7 minutes on it, but it is so perfect: we’re seeing the Enterprise through Kirk’s eyes, after a long absence. Jerry Goldsmith’s score shines. At the 5 minute mark below, we see the full-frontal shot of the Enterprise: I always get a chill up my spine when watching that scene (or even when listening to the score).

So, Happy 30th Birthday, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 1:30 am and is filed under Entertainment, Movies, Random Musings, Star Trek. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Comment on this entry

The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://spandexjustice.com/2009/12/07/395/trackback