Before Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first major cinematic release to be adapted from a TV series was the 1954 cop movie Dragnet, based on the popular show of the same name. But, for the most part, Dragnet and the 1966 Batman feature film were curiosities prior to 1979. Because before 1979, the idea of a film franchise blending with a TV franchise, at least on a larger scale, was literally unheard of. When Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters on Dec. 6, 1979, it not only brought back the Star Trek brand from TV purgatory, it transformed the entire Trek world into a movie franchise. This was a strange, new concept in 1979, and what makes the debut of the first Star Trek movie even stranger is that, for a big part of its production history, it was supposed to be a new TV show.
So, why did we get a Star Trek movie, rather than a new Star Trek TV show? The answer is a little complicated, but the smoking phaser (or blaster) isn’t 100 percent because of Star Wars.
