The Star Trek Movies: A Ranking

-

The Star Trek Movies: A Ranking


As the tile suggests, this is a ranking MY ranking, of the Star Trek movies, all of them, from 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture to 2025's Star Trek Section 31 streaming movie, from subjective best to worst.  Again, this is MY ranking, your mileage may and probably will vary.


Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Can anyone argue with this being at the top of the list?  Really?  The Star Trek movie of Star Trek Movies.  A riveting story, one of the best villains in the history of the franchise, a strong theme of life (Genesis, Kirk's son David, youth, the academy, young officers) juxtaposed by the theme of death (Spock's death, Kirk feeling old, the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario and examining how one faces certain death, the idea that Genesis could be used to destroy life).  Also the themes of friendship and loyalty and sacrifice (Kirk and Spock), with some of the franchises most iconic Kirk and Spock lines "The needs of the many...outweigh the needs of the few (or the one)" and "I have been and always shall be, your friend".  And of course "KHAAAAAANNNNNN".


Star Trek: First Contact

The TNG cast, the Borg, time travel, and a brand new sleek powerful USS Enterprise-E.  Great acting from all of the TNG cast, Patrick Stewart as Picard going Ahab  against the Borg "the line must be drawn HERE! This far, no farther!" and Worfs famous line "Assimilate this!" always gets a chuckle.  Also great guest casting: Alfre Woodard as Lily, the wonderful South African actress Alice Krige as the Borg Queen, and one of my favorite character portrayals of all time: James Cromwell as Dr. Zefram Cochrane the inventor of warp drive, as a swaggering drunkard.  On a side note: I love love LOVE the new uniforms introduced in this movie (and subsequently seen in DS9 and Voyager).  Also, getting to see first contact, the famous historical moment that essentially started Star Trek, and backed by Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful theme.  


Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Definitely one of my favorites, especially being a history buff (all of the cold war/fall of the Soviet Union references), also showing the beginnings of peace process with the Klingons and reconciling the TOS Klingons (cold war era, stand-ins for the Soviets) with the TNG Klingons (the proud, honorable, bushido race a-la Worf).  Also Klingons quoting Shakespeare, the main two being played by David Warner and Christopher Plummer!  Overall a great political intrigue murder mystery story, and a worthy final outing for the TOS crew.


Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

A classic, and always good for at least a few laughs.  A fun romp with time travel, danger, humor, fish-out-of-water shenanigans, "colorful metaphors" and whales.  Also nu-clee-are wessels.  Literally and figuratively a whale of a good time.  It was nice to have a more lighthearted outing after the heavier, darker-toned Star Trek II and III.  Also the reveal of the new USS Enterprise-A at the end.


Star Trek: The Motion Picture/Star Trek III: The Search for Spock/Star Trek: Generations

A three way tie.  I've always loved The Motion Picture, the visuals, the story, the Enterprise.  I know it's often criticized for being slow, I personally don't have a huge issue with that, especially in the fly around reveals of the refit USS Enterprise.  Yes the movie spends some time on that, but honestly it needs to-that 8 foot Enterprise model is goddam gorgeous.  Star Trek III I feel gets unfairly maligned by the people who parrot the "all odd numbered trek movies are bad" fallacy.  Au contrere, Star Trek III is actually pretty good, not least for the fact that it brings Spock back.  Thematically Star Trek III like Star Trek II is about loyalty and sacrifice, but is the complete antithesis of Star Trek II.  In Star Trek II Spock sacrifices his life to save the Enterprise and everyone onboard, In this movie Kirk and co. sacrifice/risk everything to get Spock back (they risk their careers and their lives, the Enterprise is destroyed, Kirk's son dies, Kirk later (at the end of Star Trek IV) gets demoted to captain for disobeying orders).  Also: Christopher Lloyd.  Hello?  Star Trek Generations I think story wise is really pretty good (yes I'm biased being a TNG fanboy) and it has a strong theme throughout of mortality-Kirk dies (twice), Picard's family on Earth die, the Enterprise-D dies-juxtaposed by the nexus which symbolizes immortality (time has no meaning there).  Also: the Enterprise-B!


Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond.  The only one of the Kelvin movies I actually like, partly because the Kelvin timeline JJ-prise (which looks even worse in this movie due to the design changes for the battle scene) is destroyed.  Of all 3 Kelvin Timeline movies this one is by far the most Trek-like in the tone and acting and character writing.  Also: no lens flares!  In my opinion definitely better (and more trek like) than either of the other two Kelvin movies.


Star Trek V: The Final Frontier/Star Trek: Insurrection

Another tie: The Final Frontier and Insurrection.  I personally don't consider either of these "bad" movies, but they're definitely not good Star Trek movies either.  Star Trek V I will definitely call the least of the first six.  It is a bit weak story-wise, and it definitely has it's faults (mainly William Shatner directing), but it's okay for an occasional rewatch.  Insurrection feels much more like a long TNG episode than a big screen movie (in no small part due to Michael Pillar's writing).  After movies like Generations and First Contact the change of pace was nice, although again not very movie-like.  It did have some good character moments especially for Picard.  Overall though not much that really stands out.


Star Trek: Nemesis

Uggh.  Nemesis.  Definitely not the best sendoff for the TNG cast (that would be Picard season 3).  The story itself is fine, my biggest issues are the truck chase scene (which is absolutely out of place in a Star Trek movie) the "mental rape" scenes (really??) and the death of Data (Data is one of my all time favorite Star Trek characters).  The main reason for this movies many faults is Stuart Baird's directing.  Stuart Baird who had very little directing experience and even less knowledge of Star Trek.  


Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek 2009.  I am not a huge fan of the J.J. Abrams Kelvin Timeline reboot movies.  Star Trek 2009 attempts to turn Star Trek into a summer action blockbuster, with 'pew-pew' space battles, non-stop action and copious lens flares.  And no time to stop and breathe tell a story.  Also the whole premise that the timeline is changed by Nero's encounter with the USS Kelvin (later walked back by TPTB to "it's not a reboot that erases everything that came before, it's an alternate timeline" after fan backlash).


Star Trek Into Darkness

Until recently, this was the worst Star Trek movie in the entire franchise.  In addition to all of the issues mentioned with Star Trek 2009, this movie attempts to retell the most popular movie in the franchise, Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan (and actually lifts/rips off several scenes directly from that movie), and elements of Space Seed, and add Section 31, and a pending war with the Klingons, and Kelvin timeline Kirk maturing into his command position, and it ends up doing so much that in the end the storyline is a bit hard to follow, made worse by the fact that like Star Trek 2009 it's all action and no storytelling.


Star Trek Section 31

Star Trek's first direct-to-streaming movie, Section 31 is a direct spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, which itself had a less than great fan reception.  Section 31 follows the character of former Terran Emperor Philippa Georgiou, now in the early 24th century (specifically the year 2324), and a team of operatives working with the  titular clandestine organization.  Truth be told, this movie feels less like Star Trek and more like a mix of Mission: Impossible and Guardians of the Galaxy.  The mediocre acting, massive plot issues, poorly written dialog (constant snark) and use of modern (2024) speaking style by the characters constantly take me out of the movie.  Like the Kelvin timeline movies there is a disproportionate amount of action, and the few character building scenes mostly revolve around Georgiou's past and how she became Terran emperor, something that just can't bring myself to care about.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Head Canon: The History of the Federation Class Dreadnought

-
Federation Class Dreadnought class starship History 2259 In 2259 a group of engineers from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and strategists from Starfleet Tactical led by then Captain Jose Mendez introduced a proposal to the Federation Council for a new, more powerful, more heavily armed starship class, to serve as both a heavy combat vessel and a standard-bearer for Starfleet. The ship would be faster and much more heavily armed than anything that came before, even the jewel of the fleet, the Constitution Class. Many on the Federation Council were skeptical, the very idea of a dreadnought, essentially a battleship, being antithetical to Starfleet and the Federations core ideals. Within the ranks of Starfleet many officers who had served in the recently concluded Federation-Klingon war supported building the new ship while others, including Captains Pike and Wesley, Commodore Paris and Admiral April were strongly opposed to the dreadnought class ships, siding with the majority of t...
Read more

Starfleet Historical Files: Narendra III

-
From Starfleet Historical Files Filed Stardate 57262.1, February 2380 Lieutenant Aurelan Brand, Starfleet Diplomatic Corps Captain Rylen Sh'ross, Professor Emeritus, Starfleet History, Starfleet Academy An In Depth Re-Examination of the Battle of Narendra III The Battle The battle of Narendra III.  An oft overlooked yet pivotal moment in the annals of Federation history.  The year was 2344, Stardate 21096.4.  A flight of 4 A-type Romulan warbirds crossed the border into Klingon space and attacked the Klingon colony on Narendra III.  Although uncorroborated, sources inside the Romulan Empire have since indicated that the attack was a rogue operation, ordered by the then recently-deposed Praetor, Dralath.  Responding to a distress call from the colony the Starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C diverted from its patrol near the Archer system and moved to defend the colony.  What happened next is unclear, as there are no first-hand accounts from the battle.  W...
Read more

Star Trek Discovery Retrospective: Season 2

-
Season 2 Picking up from season 1’s cliffhanger ending (the arrival of the USS Enterprise) season 2 immediately jumps into a new world-ending, galaxy spanning threat story arc with the red signals, the red angel suit time travel stuff and later section 31/Control and the sphere data. With so much going on story wise it felt a bit incoherent to me. The dark tone of season 1 was eschewed in favor of a brighter feel and a bit more closeness with established canon. The seemingly fan-service opening of the premiere with the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 under Captain Pike turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the one good thing to come out of season 2 was Anson Mount as Captain Pike and ultimately Star Trek Strange New Worlds. That said the redesign (and obvious scale-up) of the classic USS Enterprise NCC-1701 to fit the modern Discovery aesthetic was another major point of consternation with the fandom. Me personally I don’t hate it, it’s not the best design for the Constitution class...
Read more