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STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, which opened Dec. 7, 1979, launched a franchise that’s still flying high 46 years later — although it almost didn’t get off the ground as a movie.

Gene Roddenberry, who created the now classic series that NBC canceled in 1969 after three seasons of unimpressive ratings, had tried unsuccessfully to get Paramount to turn it into a movie. The studio, however, didn’t agree to take it theatrical until 1975 when the old TV series was doing surprisingly well in syndication with young viewers, who soon became known as Trekkies.

After two years of failed efforts to develop a screenplay with an epic feel, Paramount changed its mind and decided to just reboot the TV series as STAR TREK: PHASE II. Then Steven Spielberg’s 1977 sci-fi adventure CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND became a mega-hit after opening via Columbia Pictures Dec. 14,1977. CLOSE, which cost a then very expensive $20M to make, grossed $306.9M worldwide. Suddenly, Paramount saw there was a market for sci-fi movies beyond George Lucas’s STAR WARS, so it dropped the TV project PHASE II and kick-started efforts to produce a STAR TREK feature on a $15M budget — and to do it at warp speed!

In March 1978, Paramount announced Robert Wise would direct a STAR TREK movie based on the TV series. Wise had prime directing credits like the sci-fi classic THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and the musicals WEST SIDE STORY & THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which both won Oscars for best picture & directing.

Fortunately, PHASE II was to have launched with a two-hour pilot episode called “In Thy Image,” which now became the starting point for the movie. Non-stop revisions followed and continued throughout production, which began Aug. 7, 1978 and wrapped Jan. 26, 1979, in Yellowstone National Park and on the Paramount lot.

For the movie, the Starship Enterprise got a better look, morer elaborate  sets were built and new uniforms were designed for the crew — familiar faces like William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (who almost didn’t come back), DeForest Kelley & James Doohan.

After twists & turns during production that could — and later did — fill books, STAR TREK took off Dec. 7, 1979 to $11.9M at 857 theatres, topping SUPERMAN’s 3-day 1978 record of $10.4M. It wound up doing $82.3M, making it 1979’s fourth biggest domestic hit.

The franchise, which to date includes 15 titles, hasn’t generated any new episodes since STAR TREK BEYOND, which did $343.5M worldwide in 2016. Of course, it could be easier now for STAR TREK to come back to life since Paramount, itself, has just come back to life.