It was 40 years ago this week...

 I wanted to write up a special blog to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a movie that means a lot to me. It was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater. I was six years old. And it probably was the first time I cried at a movie. That movie is STAR TREK 3: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK. 

 

New 2024 Re-release poster.

In 1984, a third Trek movie hit the big screen and it had huge shoes to fill. The Motion Picture (1979) was an effects spectacle and in my opinion is the most "Star Trek" of all the films. Obviously Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982) is widely considered the best of all the Trek films even up to today. Very hard to top that. It was around this time that I saw TMP and TWOK on Betamax at home. At five years old, it captured my imagination. Then I discovered there was an original series... and a cartoon! It was truly the moment I came online as a geek and it forever changed the course of my life. 

My family was into Star Trek. My brothers grew up watching it. My mother was a fan of it. And when they heard a third movie was coming they told me about it. I was begging to go see it. And so we did. It was at the Broadway Theater in downtown Mt. Pleasant. I remember that night well. I didn't know what "going to the movie theater" was like. And here were my new heroes on the big screen. There's the Enterprise! I think I fell in love with Star Trek mainly for the Enterprise. I loved the ship. I had the model kit. I had the FASA mini figures. (that was all the "toys" one could get back then) As a kid, I was obsessed with anything to do with outer space and space vehicles. Had I lived my original childhood dream, I would have tried to work for NASA or something similar. But I just became a movie geek instead. So it goes.

We sat down and watched the flick. And (spoilers) I was shocked to see my beloved USS ENTERPRISE blow up on screen. I wept. I remember crying hard at that moment. How could they destroy the Enterprise??! That ship WAS Star Trek to me! I was floored. It felt like my whole love and life up til that moment just had ended. It was gone and not coming back. Blown up and crashed onto the Genesis planet. After the movie we went to Taco Bell and got the 4 pack of the special STAR TREK 3 glasses. I used them forever. In fact, I still do. I got three sets of them in my cabinet right now. No bullshit. Hey, this is me we're talking about here. If you knew me well, that nerdy fact would be no surprise. 

Being six years old and obsessed with Star Trek was a good time. I grabbed whatever collectibles I could get around the movie. Some of which I still have to this day...

My copy of Trek 3 on laser disc (remember those?) and the novelization by Vonda McIntyre (A Michigan native, BTW) - Not pictured is my versions on DVD, Blu-ray. But I got this: 

In the 80s we had VIDEO DISCS. Yes, I have a bunch of Trek on these too!

I had all 3 of these Trek ships as a kid. I still have the Enterprise one in the box! Here's a pic of the Betamax tape I had. Yes, we bought that. It was expensive for the time, but we had it. And I had the soundtrack on vinyl! I have the 2 CD expanded score edition now that came out in 2010.

Of course here is a look at the Taco Bell STAR TREK 3 glasses. (I have three complete sets) and the model kit I had for this version of the Enterprise. It was my second one, as I had put together the Wrath of Khan version a year earlier. Im sure it looked like shit. I was six years old at the time! I knew nothing about proper model kit gluing and painting!

Instead of youtube, as a kid I had books on record! Of course I had the Star Trek 3 movie on record. It held me over while I was waiting for the movie to come out on tape. And my uncle Doug got me these four ERTL Trek figures. The figures were shitty, but it was all we had back in the day. I used to have all of these complete in box but sold them off about 13 years ago when I needed money. I will get them back someday soon.

(Not pictured are my Comic adaptations, official movie/poster magazine.. of which I had some of those posters on my wall as a kid!) 

My hunger for all things Star Trek increased at the end of that movie. I had to know what happens next! Would the Enterprise come back? What about the crew? They disobeyed Starfleet orders to save their friend. Is it over for them too? I had to know. I started reading STARLOG magazine. I started buying the comic books... they were my first comics I ever bought. (The rest is history with that... but that is a whole other blog) And of course, a happy ending... the Enterprise came back in the next movie. But I had to wait til 1986 to see it! And as of STAR TREK PICARD season three (2023) That version of the Enterprise still exists in Canon. She's still out there. :)

Over the years, I've heard the snark that all "odd numbered" Trek movies sucked. While I thought Star Trek 3 was awesome, I began to hear rumblings about how it wasn't good and how shitty it was. Trek podcasts I listen to even now seem to just tear it apart for various reasons. I do see some of their points but Trek 3 will always be special. It was epic. A movie about family and sacrifice. There are emotional moments in that movie. The excitement during the whole stealing the Enterprise segment. Seeing Kirk's reaction to the death of his son. The Enterprise... RIP. The moment when they were all reunited with their dead friend on Vulcan, resurrected and he remembers them. I still think that scene where McCoy talks to Spock alone before they land on Vulcan is one of the best moments in all of Trek. It means even more now that DeForest Kelly and Leonard Nimoy are no longer with us. I watch it much different now because of that. Star Trek never felt epic in that way until movie three came along. And I will defend it to my dying day. Naturally I am grading it on a curve. It was my first theater movie. It hit me at the exact right time. It changed my life. 40 years... it seems like yesterday to me. The story was about family and Star Trek to me, is a family affair.

Often I am asked what my most prized collectible is that I own. I have a huge collection of movies, records, CDs, games, toys, comics... But if this place were going up in flames tomorrow and I could only grab one thing, it would be this...

My Star Trek 3 poster. Just look at it. Honestly, its ugly! That horrible vector art. Its nothing like the good ol' Bob Peak painting for the tape cover or the new 2024 re-release version (pictured above). But this poster means the world to me. You see, it was hanging in the Broadway Theater in 1984 when I saw the movie that night. I remember it. They unfolded it and mounted it on foam core and put this frame on it. After the movie was gone, it hung by the bathrooms in the Broadway Theater for years. I'd always see it when I would return to there to see other movies throughout the years. And then one day, it was gone. 

Cut to May 1999. Im in college and I get a job at the Cinema Four Theater in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. The same theater chain operated the Broadway Theater but opened a larger 4 screen theater closer to campus. My first day was The Phantom Menace opening night. One of the perks of working at a theater back in the day was that we could take home freebies that came in. Promo posters, standees, reel to reel trailers and other things. One night I was looking around upstairs and saw a few posters stuffed in a corner. These posters were vintage and mounted on foamcore. Terminator 2, Ghostbusters 2... and this! It was the Trek 3 poster from the Broadway! I asked my boss Bill if I could have it and explained its historical significance to him. He said, "Naw I think they got plans for those posters. I can't let you take that one, sorry." It was okay. I understood. I was just happy to see it again and know that it wasn't thrown away. 

Many months later, October of 2000. The night I found out that my mother 100% had three months to live. The cancer was winning. I got the call at work that day and was understandably bummed. It was late in the night. We were waiting for the last movie to end so Bill and I could shut down the theater, turn on the alarm and I could give him a ride home. He did his counts upstairs and came down to see me. "How you holding up, T?" He asked me. I cannot remember what I said. Just that I was coping with the news. In shock maybe. It didn't feel real that my mother was going to die. The woman who, beyond just giving me life, gave me MY LIFE. She turned me on to movies, books, TV and... STAR TREK. I literally and figuratively wouldn't be who I am today without her. I was damn lucky to have the mom I had. And in a few weeks, I would have to say goodbye. It wasn't real. But it seemed final. Of course, I was upset. But I was swallowing it down. We chatted for a bit and he said he was going to head back upstairs to finish his counts and wait for the movie to be over so we could leave. He starts back upstairs and stops. He half turns to me and says, "Hey... if that Star Trek 3 poster disappeared tonight... I never saw what happened to it." And he went upstairs. I went up to the room where it was, grabbed it and tossed it into my back seat.

It meant a lot to me that he did that. He was breaking rules to give me that gift. A gift that was tied to memories of my mother. A silly thing I shared with him that months later he remembered. I was blown away that he did. I remember that act of kindness every time I see that poster. I remember the night in 1984 when I saw it in the theater when I look at that poster. The times I would see it again over the years revisiting the movie theater to go on other cinematic adventures as I grew up. Those memories tied to it, make it my most prized possession. And to me, its priceless. Its ugly. Its a large pain in the ass to have moved it from apartment to apartment over the last 24 years. But I always made sure I had space on my walls for it. I kept it clean and safe. And I'll never let it go. 

STAR TREK 3 is my movie. Its not my favorite Trek movie, but damn close. Naysayers be damned, I love that flick.  Pastels and crappy costumes and acting. The recycled Wrath of Khan score. The death of my beloved starship. Christopher Lloyd overacting. The obvious soundstage sets...Warts and all. And to prove my love for it.. I can spoil this: I will be honoring it in a very special upcoming issue of my comic: PLEASANT LIFE. The comic about Star Trek geeks and their relationships. My story. My "movie." You'll see what I mean when the issue comes out. Its my way of giving back to the movie and what it means to me. It birthed my whole life. My fandom. My obsession. Me.

So June 1st, marks 40 years since that movie was released. Paramount already announced a one night only theatrical release for the movie. Unfortunately as I type this, its only in the UK. But if they make a North American run somehow, I will gladly burn one of my few vacation days to go see the movie again on the big screen that night. I'll sit there with my popcorn and drink and laugh and tear up in all the same spots I always do. I'll think of all the actors in the flick who I met over the years and are now gone. I'll think of Bill and that act of kindess. I'll think of my brothers. I'll think of my mom. I'll probably listen to the score on the way there and back. Fully immersed like the big nerd I am. And proud of it. 

The search is over. Spock was found. And the search for my whole life was found along the way. Happy 40th Star Trek 3. I still love ya. And the human adventure continues...