Collection
Star Trek
The original crew, the Next Generation crew and the 2009 reboot, plus the series that outnumber all of them.
Which order? Three continuities. The even-numbered rule for the original crew is a joke that happens to be true.
Star Trek: The Original Series
- 1
Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979Robert Wise sends the Enterprise crew, a decade older, into a cloud and asks us to be patient. Jerry Goldsmith’s score and Harold Michelson’s ship reward the wait; Harold Livingston’s script mostly does not, and the middle hour is long.Fi1m 64 - 2
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 1982Nicholas Meyer takes a television cast, a small budget and a villain from an old episode, and makes the one *Star Trek* film about growing old. Ricardo Montalban rages, William Shatner listens, and the last reel earns every tear it asks for.Fi1m 85 - 3
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 1984Leonard Nimoy’s first film as director undoes the ending of *The Wrath of Khan* with more grace than the job deserved. The cast has never looked more like a family, and the planet where it all happens has never looked more like a set.Fi1m 68 - 4
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 1986Leonard Nimoy sends the Enterprise crew to 1986 to fetch two humpback whales, and it is the lightest and funniest film in the series. The plot around the jokes is thin and the effects wobble, but the company is good.Fi1m 78 - 5
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 1989William Shatner’s first film as director has Kirk, Spock and McCoy sitting round a fire talking about death, and that scene is worth keeping. The rest is a hijack plot that does not hold, poor effects and jokes that do not land.Fi1m 45 - 6
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 1991Nicholas Meyer gives the original crew a Cold War thriller to retire on, and for an hour it is the smartest the series ever was. The middle sags on an ice planet and the villain talks in quotations, but it is a decent goodbye.Fi1m 74
Star Trek: The Next Generation
- 7
Star Trek: Generations 1994Patrick Stewart’s crew take over the cinema series with a good villain, a fine first ten minutes and a script that cannot decide whether it is a thriller, a wake or a party for the fans. Watchable, handsome in a murky way, and never once urgent.Fi1m 48 - 8
Star Trek: First Contact 1996Jonathan Frakes makes *Star Trek: First Contact* a tense, warmly played science-fiction adventure with a useful streak of horror. Patrick Stewart gives it weight, though newcomers must tolerate some hurried explanations and a crowded supporting cast.Fi1m 82 - 9
Star Trek: Insurrection 1998Jonathan Frakes’s second Star Trek film is a pleasant, sunlit episode stretched to 103 minutes. The crew are good company and Goldsmith’s music is lovely, but the moral argument at its centre is small and the film seems to know it.Fi1m 58 - 10
Star Trek: Nemesis 2002Tom Hardy makes a hungry, whispering double for Picard and Jerry Goldsmith writes the crew a proper farewell; between them Stuart Baird stages a car chase, some corridor shootouts and a shaking bridge, and a generation’s last voyage ends as an action film nobody needed.Fi1m 50
Star Trek: Alternate Reality
- 11
Star Trek 2009J.J. Abrams makes *Star Trek* a brisk, funny adventure, with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto giving the familiar crew a convincing fresh start. The villain is thin and the action sometimes overworked, but the company earns our recommendation.Fi1m 81 - 12
Star Trek Into Darkness 2013J.J. Abrams’s second *Star Trek* is fast, loud and easy to like, with a cast that has grown into its uniforms and a villain who barely needs to raise his voice. Then it runs out of its own ideas and starts borrowing, and the borrowing shows.Fi1m 60 - 13
Star Trek Beyond 2016Justin Lin’s third reboot film strands the crew on a rock and lets them bicker, which is the best use anyone has made of this cast. The villain is a blank and the action is cut too close, but the company is good.Fi1m 70
Only what we have reviewed is listed. Missing one? Search for it and press Request a review, or ask Discover.