Star Wars show bag 1978

[Edward Nicielnik]

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/195229621280

[Steve Klare]

-and people were amazed when a red 16mm Star Wars print sold for $3,500!

It's the power of dedicated fandom. Nobody is bidding a thousand for a Brady Bunch Movie paper bag. Yet with Star Wars? "Mr. Lucas drank from this Styrofoam coffee cup on set!".

[Osi Osgood]

You're quite right, Steve. Gawd, it really does seem like more than a lifetime ago, 78. Yes I was there, in line like all the rest of us, to see that glorious cinematic spectacle, and it was made all the more awesome, in that it's not like today, where we have constant cool sci fi shows, that we can stream right into our homes. Though there had been, of course, sci fi films before this, but none with such believability to and a film that had such obvious love and care as well as money spent on it, along with special effects that really wowed you! At least for this film lover, there will never be another experience like Star Wars ever again. What a lucky 11 year old!

[Steve Klare]

I was 16: Mom and Dad took out the whole family and there was a line to get in the theater that ended a hundred feet outside.

-I'll give you odds that theater isn't even there any more.

I like the Star Trek features better (personal bias, don't ask me why!), but fact of the matter is without Star Wars there would have been no Star Trek movies, along with about 110 new series. (Coming Soon: Star Trek Accountant. -It's tax season in 2389!)

[Osi Osgood]

Your, once again, quite right. When Star Wars was such an instant smash, Paramount executives huddled together and said, "What similar properties do we have that we can cash in on"? They had this TV property lying around that they at one time almost developed into a second series (almost), and there had been talk about a feature film, but it was voted down. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was immediately green lit after Star Wars was released.

[Steve Klare]

-plus the Space Genre in general has been stronger ever since.

I dream of space travel: send me up to the International Space Station. -two, three days on the outside.

-just get me back to sea-level before I get bored and eventually go crazy!

Just like I dream of travel to Antarctica: get off the plane, look around the horizon, breathe the air, snap some pictures, maybe shoot a cartridge of film.

-get back aboard the same plane, go home, maybe order a Pizza!

Both places are fascinating, but really aren't meant for people to live there.

[Ed Gordon]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was immediately green lit after Star Wars was released.

After Star Trek (1966) proved a success in syndication, Paramount Studios became interested in making a Star Trek film. Writers who contributed ideas or draft scripts in 1975-77 included Gene Roddenberry, Jon Povill, Robert Silverberg, John D.F. Black, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon and Ray Bradbury. A story called "Star Trek: Planet of the Titans" was selected; Chris Bryant and Allan Scott wrote a script, which was then rewritten by Philip Kaufman. At this point, Star Wars (1977) burst upon the world, and Paramount Studios reacted by canceling "Star Trek: Planet of the Titans" before pre-production started. Allegedly, they thought there was not a sufficient market for another huge science-fiction film.

Source: IMDB

Regardless of how Star Wars did or did not influence Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I found the first Star Trek movie very boring. Apparently the actors were not very pleased either:

The actors found working on this film frustrating, as they thought they were going to play characters that they had enjoyed playing in the way they knew how to play them, and found this to not be the case. Especially Leonard Nimoy voiced the cast's disappointment with the finished product, which had changed from being an actor and character-oriented Star Trek, to an effects-oriented Star Trek. And the feeling was, "we didn't have the money before. Now we got the money, we got to give them a big effects movie. It was all about the ship [and] the effects [..]. Nothing about the characters. So it was frustrating, and depressing, and uh very painful." Gene Roddenberry was also frustrated, because the film did not have the story or the script that he had wanted.

Derogatory nicknames for this film included "Star Trek: The Motion Sickness", "Star Trek: The Motionless Picture" and "Star Trek: The Slow-Motion Picture".

William Shatner, who saw the completed film for the first time at the world premiere, was struck by the overall sluggishness of this film, and was convinced that the Star Trek franchise died there and then. He opined, "Well, that's it. We gave it our best shot, it wasn't good, and it will never happen again." Recalling his initial reaction 15 years later, he added "Shows you what I know."