Star Trek The Motion Picture's Premiere - Episode 120

70s Trek: Star Trek in the 1970s

It was the first major film adaptation of a TV show...A show that had been off the air for ten years! December 7th, 1979: It’s the day Star Trek The Motion Picture premiered.

And fans had been eagerly awaiting this day for ten years.

In his book “Star Trek Creator,” David Alexander described that Gene Roddenberry and Robert Wise worked on the film until the last minute.

He wrote, “...perhaps not finishing the film so much as simply doing as much as they could in the time permitted...and then stopping.”

Robert Wise took a print of the film with him for the premiere that was fresh from the lab.

When arrived in DC, there was a lot of excitement and anticipation for the film. In her book “The Making of Star Trek The Motion Picture,” Susan Sackett writes, “The fans had been mentally standing in ticket lines before the lines ever existed. As early as February 1979, The Star Trek production offices were swamped with requests for premiere tickets.”