Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

[Savan]

Taken from imdb.com

"The computer that Scotty uses to show transparent aluminum was originally going to be an Amiga, but Commodore would only provide a computer if they bought it. Apple was willing to loan them the Mac."

Damn you Commodore, you should have give them the Amiga but insisted they showed a niced sized Commdore and Amiga logo somewhere in the background on the set.

Fools

[Matt_H]

Fools indeed. The ~$1000 loss they would have incurred by donating a machine probably would have given them the same returns as a multi-million dollar ad campaign. There's always a Star Trek market.

[amigagr]

and not only that, new kids-cinefil could be atracted in the amiga because of that but...

[Tomas]

Commodores incompetance never cease to amaze me  :-x

This would be a very cheap way to get some marketing for the Amiga.

[Matt_H]

What's more amazing is that when they did have good people at the helm (Thomas Rattigan), Irving Gould would fire them!

According to On The Edge, Rattigan turned Commodore around back into the lands of immense profits (The A500 era). His reward? Getting replaced by Mehdi Ali. :-(

[InTheSand]

As James T. Kirk said in that same film, "double dumb-ass on you"... Describes Commodore very well!

A similar thing happened with The Italian Job - British Leyland wouldn't give any Minis to the film company (or even loan them) - and all of the cars had to be bought, despite the HUGE publicity that the film generated...

 - Ali

[KThunder]

a1000 sleek stylish goodness or a little plastic box with a tiny little b/w screen in it. geeze i would have bought one for the film but maybe they decided it was better to show the technological backwardness of what was available and the amiga woiuld have easily showed up even the enterprises computer :-D

[InTheSand]

It's not quite Star Trek, and I'm sure the BBC would have bought (and perhaps used?) its own Amigas, but on Red Dwarf series five, in the "Terrorform" episode, I'm 99% sure there's an Amiga keyboard in use.

It's shown in the scene where Lister and Rimmer are typing to each other, just after the "tarantula" has crawled up Lister's leg.

It looks like it might be an A3000 keyboard. Given that series five was filmed in 1991, that might be about right. Can anyone else confirm?

 - Ali

[Vincent]

InTheSand wrote:
It looks like it might be an A3000 keyboard. Given that series five was filmed in 1991, that might be about right. Can anyone else confirm?

I'll check my DVD later :-D

[AmigaEd]

by KThunder on 2006/1/18 14:37:18

maybe they decided it was better to show the technological backwardness of what was available and the amiga woiuld have easily showed up even the enterprises computer

Hey KT,
I'm going to lead my self to believe that they just wanted the machine (i.e. the MAC) Scotty was using to represent the acient technology of the 21st century. Had they used an Amiga it would have blown the whole scene, because the Amiga would have spoken back to him when he was talking to the mouse. "Hello Computer".

By the way in case many of you were not aware, Scotty aparently did travel back in time to bless us with his wisdom.

Transparent Aluminum

Live Long and Prosper, James Doohan!  :-D

-AmigaEd

[adolescent]

But remember, Commodore did have Shatner pushing the VIC-20 for them.  Yay early Commodore!

[InTheSand]

Hi,

The Shatner advert can be found here.

 - Ali

[Oliver]

Oh man, companies pay good money for that kind of product placement now.  I can remember people talking about macs a bit more after that movie.

[Argo]

Yup, one of uncountable blunders by Commodore management.
If they had been smart they would have loaned them the best Amiga at that time and ask as payment that the main cast sign the case. Display it in the company lobby, take it to shows, or even auction it off. Could have been a nice marketing device. Even co-marketing with the movie. Tons of possibilities.

[Savan]

The worst part is 20 years later, Stupid mistakes/decisions in the Amiga market are still being made.