This was found in a SlashDot article, so take it with a large brick of Salt, but I wonder if it’s true???
It’s taken on a kind of Urban Legend patina, so take it with a grain of salt, but here goes:
Seems that the Art Department and Properties guys — the crew responsible for dressing the set — for Star Trek IV were all HUGE Amiga fans. No real surprise there, given where Amiga was at the time the movie was shot. So… in the famous scene where Scotty, the ultimate fictional Uber Engineer, has traveled back in time and assumes all computers are voice-activated (as they are in his century), talks into a mouse, the Art guys wanted their Amiga to be the one featured in the scene. So they sent some reps just up the road apiece from where they were filming in San Francisco to meet with the Amiga honchos and get some hardware for the scene. As the story goes, the Amiga guys were initially annoyed, cuz it was all so unannounced and sudden, and then they agreed only if the crew paid for the gear. ‘No loaners.’
‘Um, but, it’s the new Star Trek movie, and it’s Chief Engineer Scott, and he’s back in our century, and he could be using YOUR computer, and we all really love Amigas on the set, and…’
‘Sorry. Sign this Purchase Order or get out.’
So the crew called Apple, who ‘got it’ in a heartbeat, sent in a Marketing SWAT team with free Macs for the scene, free Macs for everyone on the crew, and technical advisers to stand by during the filming to make sure everything went smoothly.
Amiga, the astute among you have by now noticed, is no longer with us. Apple, on the other hand…”