all star trek next generation movies

Star Trek movies in order: Chronological and release

Untangle the different timelines and get the popcorn: Here are the Star Trek movies in order — both chronological and release.

Chronological order
Prime Timeline

The Original Series movies

The next generation movies.

Kelvin Timeline
Release order

Upcoming Star Trek movies

We've got a guide to watching the Star Trek movies in order, decloaking off our starboard side!

So long as movies stick numbers on the ends of their titles, it’s easy to watch them in order. Once they start branching out, however, things can get a little muddled, especially when reboots come along and start the whole process over from scratch.

You may have heard that the even-numbered ones are good and the odd-numbered ones are not. That’s spot on for the films starring the cast of The Original Series (aka Kirk and friends) falls apart once you reach the tenth entry in the series. It would probably be worth your while to have this list of the Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best around to steer clear of the clunkers. Look, we’re not going to pretend everything here is worth two hours of your day, we’re just letting you know which came out after which.

Should your Trek appetite remain unsatiated after your movie watchathon, feel free to pull from either our list of the best Star Trek: The Original series episode s or best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes . Either one will set you up for a weekend jam-packed with great Trek moments. Consult our Star Trek streaming guide for all the details on where to watch the movies and shows online

Star Trek movies: Chronological order

Below is the quick version of our list if you just need to check something to win an argument, but it comes with a lot of in-universe time travel-related caveats that we'll explain below.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek Into Darkness
Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek: Prime Timeline

The first thing you need to know about the Star Trek films is that while they travel back and forth in time, they also diverge into two (for now) different timelines. The films of the original crew (well, the first iteration of them, anyway – more on that later) are all in what is known as the Prime Timeline.

Within the Prime Timeline, the movies are then split between The Original Series movies and The Next Generation movies.

1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Crew in Star Trek: The Motion Picture_Paramount Pictures

Release date: December 8, 1979
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

This is the film that brought the voyages of the U.S.S. Enterprise to the big screen. An energy cloud is making its way toward Earth, destroying everything in its path. Kirk and crew intercept it and discover an ancient NASA probe at the heart of the cloud. Voyager – known as V’ger now – encountered a planet of living machines, learned all it could, and returned home to report its findings, only to find no one who knew how to answer. It’s a slow-paced film, and the costumes are about as 70s as they come, but there’s classic Star Trek at the heart of this film.

2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan (1982)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: June 4, 1982
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban

Ask a Star Trek fan what the best Star Trek movie is and more often than not, you’ll get Khan as your answer. A sequel to the events of the “Space Seed” episode of The Original Series, Khan is a retelling of Moby Dick with Khan throwing reason to the wind as he hunts his nemesis, James T. Kirk. Montalban delivers a pitch-perfect performance, giving us a Khan with charisma and obsession in equal parts.

3. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Walter Koenig, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and George Takei in Star Trek III The Search for Spock (1984)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: June 1, 1984

Spock might have died in The Wrath of Khan, but this third entry set up the premise for his return, with the creation of the Genesis planet. Essentially a heist movie in reverse, Search for Spock has the crew defying orders from Starfleet in an attempt to reunite Spock’s consciousness with his newly-rejuvenated body. It’s not a great movie, but it does include two very important events: the rebirth of Spock and the death of Kirk’s son at the hands of the Klingons. That’ll be important a few flicks from now.

4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Walter Koenig, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home (1986)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: November 26, 1986
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Catherine Hicks

If Star Trek fans don’t say Khan is the best Star Trek movie, odds are very high they say Voyage Home is. It’s a funny film where the mission isn’t destruction, but creation – or more accurately, repairing the devastating effects of humankind’s ecological short-sightedness.

A probe arrives at Earth, knocking out the power of everything in its path as it looks for someone to respond to its message (yeah, it happens a lot). This time, however, the intended recipient is the long-extinct blue whale. To save Earth, Kirk and co. go back in time to 1980s San Francisco to snag some blue whales. The eco-messaging isn’t exactly subtle, but it doesn’t get in the way of a highly enjoyable movie.

5. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, and Laurence Luckinbill in Star Trek V The Final Frontier (1989)

Release date: June 9, 1989

A writers’ strike and Shatner’s directorial skills (or lack thereof) doomed this film before a single scene was shot. The core plot is actually pretty good: Spock’s half-brother hijacks the Enterprise so that he can meet God, which he believes to be… himself. Some Star Trek fans have an odd fondness for this movie, as it showcases the camaraderie of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy when they’re off-duty.

6. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and Christopher Plummer in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country (1991)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: December 6, 1991
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Plummer

Right, so if that Star Trek fan you’ve been talking to doesn’t choose either Khan or Voyage Home as the best Star Trek movie ever, they almost certainly name Undiscovered Country (and if they don’t, they have highly questionable taste, frankly). The Klingon moon of Praxis explodes, putting the entire Klingon race at risk. The Enterprise hosts a diplomatic entourage of Klingons, much to Kirk’s discomfort.

Remember how Klingons murdered Kirk’s son? Well, he certainly hasn’t forgotten. Kirk’s lingering rage makes him the perfect patsy for the murder of the Klingon Chancellor, sending him and McCoy to a prison planet and setting the stage for war. Christopher Plummer is perfection as a Shakespeare-quoting Klingon general with no taste for peace.

7. Star Trek: Generations

Malcolm McDowell, Brian Thompson, and Gwynyth Walsh in Star Trek Generations (1994)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: November 18, 1994
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner

And thus the torch is passed from the crew of The Original Series to that of The Next Generation. It’s a bit of a fumble, to be honest, but they all did their best to get Kirk and Picard into the same film and have it make sense. Malcolm McDowell plays Soran, a scientist who will stop at nothing to control the Nexus, a giant space rainbow that exists outside of space-time.

Soran lost his family when his home world was destroyed and he wants to re-join them (or at least an illusion of them) in the Nexus. He’s not so much a villain as a tragic figure, but the Nexus makes a meeting between Kirk and Picard possible. Not all that sensible, but possible.

8. Star Trek: First Contact

U.S.S. Enterprise battling the Borg in Star Trek First Contact (1996)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: November 22, 1996
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Alice Krige

Okay, no, for real, if your Star Trek pal didn’t pick Khan or Voyage Home or… oh, nevermind. Cueing off the iconic two-part episode “Best of Both Worlds,” in which Picard is assimilated by the Borg, First Contact sees the collective traveling back in time in order to disrupt First Contact, the day Earth’s first foray into space attracted the attention of the Vulcans, kicking off the events that would eventually lead to Starfleet’s victory over the Borg. The Borg Queen torments Picard with visions of the past and tempts Data with humanity, going so far as to give him some human skin.

The fight with the Borg aboard the Enterprise is thrilling, and the work on the surface to get first contact back on track is fun. Plus, there’s just nothing like Patrick Stewart turning it up to 11 as he lashes out at the enemy that haunts his dreams.

9. Star Trek: Insurrection

Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart in Star Trek Insurrection (1998)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: December 11, 1998
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, F. Murray Abraham

Essentially an episode inflated for the big screen, Insurrection is about the Federation conspiring to displace a planet’s population in order to harvest the planet’s unique resource – super healing metaphasic particles. In addition to the rejuvenating natural resource, the Ba’ku also have access to exceptional technology, which they shun in favor of a more simple lifestyle.

Data malfunctions, the villains are Federation allies (and former Ba’ku!), Picard gets to knock boots with a local – Insurrection is the very definition of “fine.” Chronologically, Insurrection is relevant for rekindling the romance between Riker and Troi, but not much else.

10. Star Trek: Nemesis

Patrick Stewart and Tom Hardy in Star Trek Nemesis (2002)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: December 13, 2002
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Tom Hardy

Before he mumbled his way into our hearts as Bane, Tom Hardy was Shinzon, a clone of Picard the Romulans created in an eventually abandoned attempt to infiltrate Starfleet. Shinzon is dying, and all that will save him is a transfusion of Picard’s blood. Unfortunately, Shinzon also happens to be a megalomaniac who happens to want to destroy all life on Earth and maybe a few other planets, too, if he’s feeling saucy.

Nemesis is notable mostly for killing Data with a noble sacrifice, only to resurrect him moments later in a duplicate body found earlier by the Enterprise crew.

Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline

The last of the Prime Timeline movies failed to impress at the box office, so it was a few years before anyone tried to bring the Enterprise back to the big screen. Rather than lean on any of the TV crews, this new slate of movies would serve as a reboot, welcoming new audiences while honoring long-time fans. Welcome to the Kelvin Timeline. (For all the ins and outs, check out our Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline explained article).

11. Star Trek

John Cho, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, and Chris Pine in Star Trek (2009)_Paramount Pictures

Release date: May 8, 2009
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban

Back to the beginning! Star Trek introduces us to James T. Kirk, Spock, and “Bones” McCoy as they meet and join the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Though the plot is a relatively straightforward affair of a Romulan named Nero trying to destroy the Earth. His anger borne out of grief, what matters most is how it all came to be. In the future, Spock – the Prime Timeline version – tries to save Romulus from being destroyed by a supernova, but fails. Both his ship and Nero’s are kicked back in time, setting off a chain of events that diverge from the original, “true” timeline.

The name “Kelvin” refers to the U.S.S. Kelvin, the ship heroically captained by Kirk’s father, which is destroyed in the opening moments of the movie.

12. Star Trek Into Darkness

Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Chris Pine in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)_© Zade Rosenthal_Paramount Pictures

Release date: May 16, 2013
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch

The benefit of the Kelvin Timeline is that it not only allows Star Trek to explore canon material – such as Khan (he of the Wrath) – but to do something completely new with it. Khan features heavily in Into Darkness, but he has no beef with Kirk. Instead, a Starfleet Admiral is threatening the lives of Khan’s crew, forcing them to craft weapons of mass destruction.

Khan inevitably eludes captivity and strikes out against Starfleet, killing Captain Pike (and a bunch of others) in the process. Kirk and company eventually take Khan down, but not before Kirk sacrifices himself to save his crew. Don’t worry, these things don’t last in either Star Trek timeline, as Kirk gets better moments later thanks to *checks notes* Khan's super blood.

13. Star Trek Beyond

Idris Elba and Chris Pine in Star Trek Beyond (2016)_© Kimberley French_Paramount Pictures

Release date: July 22, 2016
Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Idris Elba

Beyond leans into the camaraderie of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy now that they’ve had some time together, much to the movie’s benefit. The Enterprise is lured to Altamid under false pretenses, leading to much of the crew being marooned on the planet. The architect of the deception was Krall, who wants an opportunity to return to a galaxy where war is the order of the day.

Beyond is a significant point in the timeline for two reasons. First, it sadly marked the death of Spock Prime due to the passing of Leonard Nimoy. Second, it culminates in the Enterprise embarking on the five-year-mission that started everything back in 1966.

Star Trek movies: Release order

If you can't be bothered remembering two different orders for the Star Trek movies then we've got good news for you — the release order is identical to the chronological order that we've shown above (accounting for the Kelvin timeline as it's own entity anyway).

The full run of Star Trek films currently tops out at 13 entries; the fate of the 14th was hidden within a nebula of conflicting information. “Star Trek 4” was slated for December 22, 2023, but given that filming had yet to begin as of July 2022, it seems inevitable that date will change. Back in February 2022, Paramount that the principal cast would be returning for the fourth installment of the Kelvin timeline, a claim quickly disputed by the agents of those selfsame actors. Awkward.

Soon after, however, Chris Pine eventually signed on the dotted line, and his shipmates reached their own agreements. As of right now, Kirk (Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), McCoy (Karl Urban, assuming he can make it work around filming of The Boys), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldaña), and Sulu (John Cho) are all ready to beam up and get filming. Sadly, this will be the first of the Kelvin films to not feature Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov. Yelchin died in an accident at his home in 2016. It’s currently unclear if Chekov will be recast or if a different character will take his place on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Though the Kelvin timeline is often referred to as “J.J. Abrams Trek,” he won’t be directing Star Trek 4; Matt Shakman will take on that responsibility, leaving Abrams to produce. As for what it will be about, that’s anyone’s guess, but Chris Pine told Deadline he hopes this one tells a smaller story that appeals to the core Trek audience. “Let’s make the movie for the people that love this group of people, that love this story, that love Star Trek,” he said. “Let’s make it for them and then, if people want to come to the party, great.” It’s a strategy that makes sense; the disappointment with recent Trek films hasn’t been their content so much as their box office. A Trek film with a smaller scope (and budget) would almost certainly have a very healthy profit margin while also resonating with the fanbase.

With no new announcements coming from San Diego Comic-Con 2022, it seems that we’ll have to wait for any more insight into the next Star Trek film. Sill, recent comments from Paramount CEO Brian Robbins have us cautiously optimistic: “We’re deep into [Star Trek 4] with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we’re getting close to the starting line and excited about where we’re going creatively,” he told Variety .

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Susan Arendt is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant living in Burleson, TX. She's a huge sci-fi TV and movie buff, and will talk your Vulcan ears off about Star Trek. You can find more of her work at Wired, IGN, Polygon, or look for her on Twitter: @SusanArendt. Be prepared to see too many pictures of her dogs.

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All ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ movies, ranked

Star Trek: The Next Generation was a television phenomenon. Twenty years (and a century) on from The Original Series ’ five-year mission, it’s the show that transformed Star Trek into a multi-series behemoth and templated a path to immortality other shows could follow.

The Next Generation ’s success owed a lot to not trying to repeat its predecessor’s winning and much-parodied formula. The original series had the charming trio of Kirk, Bones, and Spock. Their balanced exchanges were at the heart of the show’s drama as they represented practicality, compassion, logic, or, under some readings, provided the complete unit of id, ego, and superego.

Like most Star Trek series, The Next Generation took a while to find its star legs. But under the watchful eye of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, The Next Generation embraced the future where humanity had moved further from war. It was a kinder, explorative show that presented a flagship of diplomacy, packed with families alongside officers of Starfleet under the command of Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard. We got to know the crew of the USS Enterprise-D over seven years as they saved the universe, tackled their demons, fell in love, and played poker. It was an expansive and progressive update of the franchise The Original Series trio started.

Before Star Trek: Deep Space Nine helped create the modern arc series, The Next Generation left us with one of the most endearing ensembles in TV history. Their friendship shone on screen and off. The cast famously remained close, and it’s no wonder they returned decades on to continue the story in Star Trek: Picard . In between, it was a rite of passage for the crew to jump to the silver screen.

The original crew of the Enterprise bowed out on the big screen with the brilliant whodunnit Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in 1991 when The Next Generation was arguably at its TV peak. Picard and crew followed their predecessors into movie theaters at the end of its seven-year run in 1994.

Here’s our ranking of the complete feature film adventures of The Next Generation .

4. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

“A generation’s final journey begins,” ran the tagline, but fortunately, it didn’t end that way. The weight of talent behind Nemesis was promising. Legendary action editor Stuart Baird stepped behind the camera to direct while Gladiator , Skyfall, and Penny Dreadful writer John Logan provided the script. It remains one of the best-written Star Trek movies, but the great dialogue wasn’t enough.

Nemesis picked up its cue from Star Trek VI , this time destabilizing the quadrant as the Romulan Empire fell to a coup involving the Empire’s suppressed Remans. The plot brings Picard face to face with himself — a younger clone brilliantly cast as Tom Hardy, the new leader of the unpredictable Romulans.

Seriously, all the talk of the echo’s victory over the voice as Stewart and Hardy face-off is superb, but Nemesis is headed to a cold and lonely place far removed from the fun and camaraderie of the TV show. The show’s blunt handling of characters aging (Frakes versus Ron Perlman’s Reman Viceroy is a slog-fest) isn’t the only way it fumbles the legacy of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . It also mines some uncomfortably dark places, making it a strange place to leave the popular crew.

3. Star Trek: Generations (1994)

Generations was a glorified television movie carried along on the fan-pleasing meeting of the two major Star Trek series. It’s the movie closest to The Next Generation ’s TV incarnation, unsurprisingly, as it was filmed back-to-back with the show’s seventh season.

In this generational mash-up, a mysterious space-time anomaly called the Nexus that fuses dreams and time leads Picard to discover the fate of the long-lost legendary Captain Kirk. The captains may not be peas in a pod, but they join forces to save a solar system threatened by the deranged plot of Malcolm McDowell’s Soran, a scientist attempting to return to the Nexus.

One bittersweet highlight was the epic destruction of the Enterprise-D. Finally taken out by Klingons, the iconic ship at least earned one of the most prolonged destruction sequences in the franchise’s history. “All hands, brace for impact.”

2. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Insurrection was a deliberate change of pace after the action of First Contact and is unfairly judged to have backfired. The franchise had tackled conspiracy before, but this good-natured fable on immortality couldn’t challenge the previous film’s action spectacle with its twisty space politics.

The movie has the Enterprise crew uncover an insidious scheme on a peaceful planet inhabited by the Ba’ku. When Data goes rogue and breaks the Prime Directive, altering the sub-warp culture to the Federation’s existence, it sets off a domino effect that leads straight to the top of Starfleet.

Jonathan Frakes’ second and final time helming a Star Trek feature let the story quietly get on with the job. From its action set-pieces to moments of quiet reflection, Insurrection is potentially Star Trek ’s most-rounded movie.

1. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

First Contact had mighty shoes to fill. Generations had gone down better than The Original Series ’ first attempt on the big screen, but every second film must confront the specter of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . That legendary movie isn’t just one of the greatest science-fiction action films ever made, but the feature that irrevocably shaped Star Trek as a more militaristic franchise than the 1960s adventures of Kirk and co ever suggested.

First Contact didn’t have Khan, but it had a fan-pleasing alternative: the Borg. That devastating race of malevolent cybernetic assimilators was destined for the screen, but The Next Generation ’s greatest invention also set another bar. The jaw-dropping cliffhanger of the series’ two-parter The Best of Both Worlds remains one of TV’s greatest-ever moments.

Thrillingly, First Contact took on both challenges and delivered in spades under the confident direction of Jonathan Frakes, AKA Commander Riker. It’s incredible what the movie packs into its first 10 minutes after a Borg attack on the solar system ends with the Enterprise crew thrown back in time to the 21st century. It’s even more incredible that it keeps delivering, with set-piece after set-piece taking the action to the shiny new Enterprise-E’s lower decks and outer hull.

In First Contact , the crew must ensure history stays on track when the Borg attempts to disrupt humanity’s first warp flight, delaying first contact with the Vulcans and endangering the birth of the Federation that would stop the Borg in their tracks centuries in the future. Time travel and a seemingly impossible walking virus enemy threat — Star Trek at its best.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Movie Collection Release Date & Features

By Anthony Nash

Star Trek fans are in for a treat this year, as Paramount announced that all four Star Trek: The Next Generation films would be releasing for the first time ever on 4K Ultra HD in one massive collection, with a release date set for April 4, 2023.

The films will arrive a day before First Contact Day (April 5, the day Vulcans first made contact with humans in the world of Star Trek ), and will collect the theatrical adventures of Picard, Riker, Data, LaForge, Worf, Troi, and Dr. Crusher together for fans.

The collection includes all four films — Star Trek: Generations , Star Trek: First Contact , Star Trek: Insurrection , and Star Trek: Nemesis — on 4K Ultra HD, as well as fully remastered on Blu-ray, plus legacy bonus content and access to digital copies of the film. The collection also comes housed in a slipcase with custom illustration that complements the previously released collection of the original six Star Trek films.

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987 and followed the adventures of the Starfleet starship, the USS Enterprise. The series starred Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, and more.

In total, the bonus features set to be included on all four films are as follows:

STAR TREK: GENERATIONS Bonus Content

Commentary by director David Carson and Manny Coto
Commentary by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Library Computer
Uniting Two Legends
Stellar Cartography: Creating the Illusion
Strange New Worlds: The Valley of Fire
Scoring Trek
Inside ILM: Models & Miniatures
Crashing the Enterprise
Main Title Sequence
The Nexus Ribbon
Saucer Crash Sequence
A Tribute to Matt Jeffries
The Enterprise Lineage
Captain Picard’s Family Album
Creating 24 th Century Weapons
Next Generation Designer Flashback Andrew Probert
Stellar Cartography on Earth
Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 1
Trek Roundtable: Generations
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 007: Trilithium
Deleted Scenes

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT Bonus Content

Commentary by director and actor Jonathan Frakes
Commentary by screenplay writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
Commentary by Damon Lindelof and Anthony Pascale
Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Making First Contact
The Art of First Contact
The Missile Silo
The Deflector Dish
From “A” to “E”
Borg Queen Assembly
Escape Pod Launch
Borg Queen’s Demise
Jerry Goldsmith: A Tribute
The Legacy of Zefram Cochrane
First Contact: The Possibilities
Industrial Light & Magic – The Next Generation
Greetings from the International Space Station
SpaceShipOne’s Historic Flight
Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 2
Trek Roundtable: First Contact
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 008: Temporal Vortex
Unimatrix One
Design Matrix

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION Bonus Content

Commentary by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis
It Takes a Village
Location, Location, Location
The Art of Insurrection
Anatomy of a Stunt
Making Star Trek: Insurrection
Director’s Notebook
Westmore’s Aliens
Westmore’s Legacy
Star Trek’s Beautiful Alien Women
Marina Sirtis – The Counselor Is In
Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 3
Trek Roundtable: Insurrection
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 009: The Origins of the Ba’ku and Son’a Conflict
Shuttle Chase
Advertising

STAR TREK: NEMESIS Bonus Content

Commentary by director Stuart Baird
Commentary by producer Rick Berman
Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Nemesis Revisited
New Frontiers – Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis
Storyboarding the Action
Red Alert! Shotting the Action of Nemesis
Build and Rebuild
Four-Wheeling in the Final Frontier
Screen Test: Shinzon
A Star Trek Family’s Final Journey
A Bold Vision of The Final Frontier
The Enterprise E
Reunion with The Rikers
Today’s Tech Tomorrow’s Data
Robot Hall of Fame
Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 4
Trek Roundtable: Nemesis
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 010: Thalaron Radiation
Romulan Lore
Shinzon & the Viceroy
Romulan Design
The Romulan Senate
The Scimitar

Anthony Nash has been writing about games and the gaming industry for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing about games, he’s usually playing them. You can find him on Twitter talking about games or sports at @_anthonynash.

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All Star Trek Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Star Trek (2009) is back in theaters for Rotten Tomatoes’ 25th anniversary screening series at AMC — get tickets now !

We’re boldly ranking the Star Trek movies by Tomatometer, from the original film series (1979’s The Motion Picture to The Undiscovered Country ), into the handoff to films featuring the Next Generation cast ( Generations to Nemesis ), and through to the reboot series (2009’s Trek to Beyond ). – Alex Vo

Star Trek (2009) 94%

Star Trek: First Contact (1996) 93%

Star Trek Beyond (2016) 86%

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) 87%

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) 84%

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) 83%

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) 82%

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) 78%

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) 55%

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) 53%

Star Trek Generations (1994) 48%

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) 38%

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) 21%

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How to watch the Star Trek movies in order

Set phasers to "fun" and watch the Star Trek movies in order

It’s a good time to be a Star Trek fan and watch all the Star Trek movies in order. With three active TV series ( Discovery , Picard , Lower Decks ) and three more in the works (Section 31, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds ), there are more Star Trek adventures airing now than at any point since the mid-90s.

While Star Trek TV shows have come and gone since the ‘60s, Star Trek movies maintained a pretty consistent release schedule between 1979 and 2016. On average, we got a new film once every three years. But with the fourth move of the Star Trek reboot franchise allegedly canceled , we may be in for a long wait until we see the U.S.S. Enterprise on the big screen again.

Still, there’s one missing piece of the puzzle: Where are all the Star Trek movies? Unlike watching the Star Wars movies in order , you can't see every Trek film on the same service.

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Play the best Star Trek games
Find what to watch after Star Trek: Discovery

In the meantime, there are thirteen Star Trek movies to watch (or rewatch), either on DVD or your favorite streaming services. I personally bought the Blu-ray collections so that I wouldn’t be at the mercy of shifting streaming schedules, but if you prefer an all-digital experience, these movies are almost always available somewhere online.

Star Trek movies in order: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek movies in order of release date

Watching the Star Trek movies in release order is, for the most part, exactly the same as watching the Star Trek movies in chronological order. (There’s some time travel here and there, but the later films still follow “after” the earlier ones.) There are 13 films. The first came out in 1979; the last came out in 2016.

The only issue is that they're spread out across a number of different subscription services. 10 of the 13 can be found on Amazon Prime Video, and seven of those are also on Hulu. FX Now and Fubo each have one Star Trek movie a piece, each film being a streaming exclusive (you'd need to buy or rent to watch otherwise). And then CBS All Access (soon to be Paramount Plus) and Pluto also have one film.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) : On Prime Video
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Star Trek: Generations (1994) : On Prime Video
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) : On Prime Video
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) : On CBS All Access/Paramount Plus and Pluto
Star Trek (2009): On Fubo
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) : On FX Now
Star Trek Beyond (2016) : On Hulu and Prime Video

Star Trek is just one of many great things you can watch on <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=92X1584493&xcust=hawk-custom-tracking&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hulu.com%2F&sref" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - hulu.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Hulu . In addition to its acclaimed originals like High Fidelity and Shrill, Hulu streams next-day airings of current TV shows and library content from FX.

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=45724&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Fdp%2FB0858YGKZ4%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Amazon Prime Video has a huge library beyond Star Trek movies. Not only do they have a ton of top movies and TV shows, they've got a lineup of acclaimed originals. They've got everything from Fleabag to Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to The Expanse to Jack Ryan.

<a href="https://geni.us/YkQAuWd" data-link-merchant="geni.us"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Fubo.TV : One of the streaming services you'll need to complete the Star Trek movies in order, Fubo has all of the right network channels too. Who needs cable? Not Fubo subscribers. It's got <a href="https://geni.us/YkQAuWd" data-link-merchant="geni.us"" data-link-merchant="geni.us"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> a 7-day free trial so you don't need to pay up front.

One year of Paramount Plus: was $99 or $59, now $49 or $29

One year of Paramount Plus: <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=92X1584493&xcust=hawk-custom-tracking&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbs.com%2Fcbs-all-access%2Finterstitial%2F1%2F&sref" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - cbs.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> was $99 or $59, now $49 or $29 If you sign up a little under one month before Paramount Plus launches, you'll save $30 to $50 on its annual price. The higher rate is for the ad-free version. Paramount Plus will pack everything from Yellowstone to SpongeBob SquarePants, The Real Criminal MInds and more.

On top of there not being one home for all the movies, there are a few small wrinkles in this plan, however. First: The Star Trek movies aren’t completely standalone. They require some knowledge of what happened in the Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation TV shows to fully grok.

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Furthermore, the 13 movies don’t tell one continuous story. Rather, they’re based on three separate iterations of the long-running franchise.

star trek movies in order: Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek movies in order of series

Just like the Star Trek TV shows, the Star Trek movies don’t all focus on the same characters and settings. While there’s a little bit of crossover (which we’ll cover below), the films generally fall into three categories.

The first category is based on Star Trek: The Original Series. This is your daddy’s Star Trek, complete with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, the original U.S.S. Enterprise and Scotty beaming people up. If you’ve ever heard about “KHAAAAN!” or “the one with the whales,” or “Shakespeare in the original Klingon,” this is where they come from.

They're all available on Prime Video, and almost all (The Voyage Home is missing) are on Hulu as well.

Star Trek: The Original Series movies

Next up, there are the Next Generation movies. This is Gen X/Elder Millennial Star Trek, starring Picard, Data, Worf and the crew. The movies start off with the Enterprise-D, but transition to the sleeker Enterprise-E in First Contact. Generations features a crossover with some original series crewmembers, but the rest put the TNG cast front and center, with occasional Deep Space Nine and Voyager cameos.

You'll need at least two streaming services to see all of them.

Star Trek: The Next Generation movies

Star Trek: Generations (1994): On Prime Video

Finally, there are the “reboot” Star Trek films, also known as the “Kelvin timeline” films. Kirk, Spock and McCoy take center stage again, but this time in an alternate reality, where events play out differently. This is Star Trek for the cool kids, complete with fast starships, pulse-pounding action and soundtracks populated by the Beastie Boys. (It’s not quite as mindless as it sounds — except for Into Darkness, maybe.) For the most part, these films don’t require previous Star Trek knowledge. But they do pick up where Nemesis left off, more or less, before winding the clock back.

This set is the splintered across services more than any of the others.

Star Trek reboot movies

Star Trek (2009) : On Fubo

star trek movies in order — Star Trek: The Original Series: Space Seed

Star Trek episodes to watch first

TOS: The Original Series TNG: The Next Generation ENT: Enterprise

Watching the Star Trek movies is an extremely straightforward process, but they may be a little incomprehensible unless you’ve seen at least some of the TV series . (I watched the entire franchise , but that may not be practical for you.) The Motion Picture picks up after The Original Series ends; likewise with Generations and The Next Generation.

As such, here are some episodes you should watch if you’re going to dive into the movies. Generally, the movies stand on their own, but it might help to know about some of the supporting characters and subplots:

Episodes for Star Trek: The Original Series movies

Space Seed (TOS, S1, E22) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Errand of Mercy (TOS: S1, E26) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Journey to Babel (TOS: S2, E10) : On Hulu and Prime Video

Episodes for Star Trek: The Next Generation movies

Q Who (TNG: S2, E16) : On Hulu and Prime Video
The Best of Both Worlds, Parts I and II (TNG: S3, E26 / S4, E1) : On Hulu and Prime Video
Family (TNG: S4, E2) : On Hulu and Prime Video

Episodes for Star Trek reboot movies

Unification, Parts I and II (TNG: S5, E7 & E8) : On Hulu and Prime Video
First Flight (ENT: S2, E24) : On Hulu and Prime Video
The Xindi (ENT: S3, E1) : On Hulu and Prime Video

Which Star Trek movies are good?

If you watch all 13 Star Trek movies, you’re signing yourself up for about 26 hours of screen time. That’s more than a casual fan may want to invest. Luckily (or unluckily?), not ever Star Trek film is created equal. For a long time, fans held that the even-numbered movies were good, while the odd-numbered ones were bad. That trend seems to have reversed with the recent reboot films, though: The odd ones are good, while the even one is, well, not.

In any case, if you want to start with the movies that are really worth your time, here they are:

I personally like some of the other ones quite a bit (Nemesis is better than you remember, and Generations has quite a few moving moments), but those should at least represent a good starting point.

And once you’re done with those, you can move onto Galaxy Quest: the best Star Trek movie that’s not actually a Star Trek movie.

Next: How to watch Harry Potter movies in order

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.

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How to Watch Star Trek in Order: The Complete Series Timeline

The full star trek timeline, explained..

Ever since 1966’s premiere of the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, the entertainment world has never been the same. This franchise that has boldly gone where no property has gone before has captured the hearts and minds of millions around the world and has grown into a space-faring empire of sorts filled with multiple shows, feature length films, comics, merchandise, and so much more. That being said, the amount of Star Trek out in the world can make it tough to know exactly how to watch everything it offers in either chronological or release order so you don’t miss a thing. To help make things easier for you, we’ve created this guide to break down everything you need to know about engaging with this Star Trek journey.

It used to be a bit trickier to track down all the Star Trek shows and movies you’d need to watch to catch up, but Paramount+ has made it a whole lot easier as it has become the home of nearly all the past, present and future Star Trek entries.

So, without further ado, come with us into the final frontier and learn how you can become all caught up with the adventures of Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Spock, Pike, Archer, Burnham, and all the others that have made Star Trek so special over the past 56 years.

And, in case you're worried, everything below is a mostly spoiler-free chronological timeline that will not ruin any of any major plot points of anything further on in the timeline. So, you can use this guide as a handy way to catch up without ruining much of the surprise of what’s to come on your adventure! If you’d prefer to watch everything Star Trek as it was released, you’ll find that list below as well!

How to Watch Star Trek in Chronological Order

How to Watch Star Trek by Release Order

1. Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2155)

Star Trek: Enterprise is the earliest entry on our list as it takes place a hundred years before the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series. The show aired from 2001 to 2005 and starred Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer, the captain of the Enterprise NX-01. This version of the Enterprise was actually Earth’s first starship that was able to reach warp five.

While the show had its ups and downs, it included a fascinating look at a crew without some of the advanced tech we see in other Star Trek shows, the first contact with various alien species we know and love from the Star Trek universe, and more.

2. Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 1 and 2 (2256-2258)

This is where things get a little bit tricky, as the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery take place before Star Trek: The Original Series but Seasons 3 and 4 take us boldly to a place we’ve not gone before. We won’t spoil why that’s the case here, but it’s important to note if you want to watch Star Trek in order, you’ll have to do a bit of jumping around from series to movie to series.

As for what Star Trek: Discovery is, it's set the decade before the original and stars Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham, a Starfleet Commander who accidentally helps start a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. She gets court-martialed and stripped of her rank following these events and is reassigned to the U.S.S Discovery.

3. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2259-TBD)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also begins before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series and is set up by Star Trek: Discovery as its captain, Anson Mount’s Christopher Pike, makes an appearance in its second season. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Pike first appeared in the original failed pilot episode “The Cage” of Star Trek: The Original Series and would later become James T. Kirk’s predecessor after the original actor, Jefferey Hunter, backed out of the show.

Fast forward all these years later and now we get to learn more about the story of Christopher Pike and many other familiar faces from The Original Series alongside new characters. It’s made even more special as the ship the crew uses is the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, the very same that would soon call Kirk its captain.

4. Star Trek: The Original Series (2265-2269)

The fourth Star Trek series or movie you should watch in the order is the one that started it all - Star Trek: The Original Series . Created by Gene Roddenberry, this first Star Trek entry would kick off a chain reaction that would end up creating one of the most beloved IPs of all time. However, it almost never made it to that legendary status as its low ratings led to a cancellation order after just three seasons that aired from 1966 to 1969. Luckily, it found great popularity after that and built the foundation for all the Star Trek stories we have today.

Star Trek: The Original Series starred William Shatner as James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock, but the rest of the crew would go on to become nearly as iconic as they were. As for what the show was about? Well, we think Kirk said it best during each episode’s opening credits;

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise . Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

5. Star Trek: The Animated Series (2269-2270)

While Star Trek: The Original Series may have been canceled after just three seasons, its popularity only grew, especially with the help of syndication. Following this welcome development, Gene Roddenberry decided he wanted to continue the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701 in animated form, and he brought back many of the original characters and the actors behind them for another go.

Star Trek: The Animated Series lasted for two seasons from 1973 to 1974 and told even more stories of the Enterprise and its adventures throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

6. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2270s)

The first Star Trek film was a very big deal as it brought back the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series after the show was canceled in 1969 after just three seasons. However, even it had a rough road to theaters as Roddenberry initially failed to convince Paramount Pictures it was worth it in 1975. Luckily, the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and other factors helped finally convince those in power to make the movie and abandon the plans for a new television series called Star Trek: Phase II, which also would have continued the original story.

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, James T. Kirk was now an Admiral in Starfleet, and certain events involving a mysterious alien cloud of energy called V’Ger cause him to retake control of a refitted version of the U.S.S. Enterprise with many familiar faces in tow.

7. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture written, but Paramount turned it down after the reception to that first film was not what the studio had hoped for. In turn, Paramount removed him from the production and brought in Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards to write the script and Nicholas Meyer to direct the film.

The studio’s decision proved to be a successful one as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is considered by many, including IGN, to be the best Star Trek film. As for the story, it followed the battle between Admiral James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise vs. Ricardo Montalban’ Khan Noonien Singh. Khan is a genetically engineered superhuman and he and his people were exiled by Kirk on a remote planet in the episode ‘Space Seed’ from the original series. In this second film, after being stranded for 15 years, Khan wants revenge.

8. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (2285)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock continues the story that began in Wrath of Khan and deals with the aftermath of Spock’s death. While many on the U.S.S. Enterprise thought that was the end for their science officer, Kirk learns that Spock’s spirit/katra is actually living inside the mind of DeForest Kelley’s Dr. McCoy, who has been acting strange ever since the death of his friend. What follows is an adventure that includes a stolen U.S.S. Enterprise, a visit from Spock’s father Sarek, a run-in with Klingons, and so much more.

9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286 and 1986)

While it is undoubtedly great that Kirk and his crew saved Spock, it apparently wasn’t great enough to avoid the consequences that follow stealing and then losing the Enterprise. On their way to answer for their charges, the former crew of the Enterprise discover a threat to Earth that, without spoiling anything, causes them to go back in time to save everything they love. The Voyage Home is a big departure from the previous films as, instead of space, we spend most of our time in 1986’s San Francisco.

10. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier once again brings back our favorite heroes from Star Trek: The Original Series, but it’s often regarded as one of the weakest films starring Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. In this adventure, our crew’s shore leave gets interrupted as they are tasked with going up against the Vulcan Sybok, who himself is on the hunt for God in the middle of the galaxy.

11. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the final movie starring the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Series, and it puts the Klingons front and center. After a mining catastrophe destroys the Klingon moon of Praxis and threatens the Klingon’s homeworld, Klingon Chancellor Gorkon is forced to abandon his species' love of war in an effort to seek peace with the Federation. What follows is an adventure that calls back to the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall and serves as a wonderful send-off to characters we’ve come to know and love since 1966, even though some will thankfully appear in future installments.

12. Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)

After you make it through all six of the Star Trek: The Original Series movies, it’s time to start what many consider the best Star Trek series of all time - Star Trek: The Next Generation . The series, which starred Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, ran from 1987 through 1994 with 178 episodes over seven seasons.

There are so many iconic characters and moments in The Next Generation, including William Riker, Data, Worf, Geordi La Forge, Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher, and many of these beloved faces would return for Star Trek: Picard, which served as a continuation of this story.

While we are once again on the U.S.S. Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, this story takes place a century after the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. However, there may just be a few familiar faces that pop up from time to time.

13. Star Trek Generations (2293)

While Star Trek Generations is the first film featuring the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew, it also features a team-up that many had dreamed of for years and years between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Captain James T. Kirk.

Our heroes are facing off against an El-Aurian named Dr. Tolian Soran, who will do whatever is necessary to return to an extra-dimensional realm known as the Nexus. Without spoiling anything, these events lead to a meeting with these two legendary captains and a heartfelt-at-times send-off to The Original Series, even though not every character returned that we wished could have.

14. Star Trek: First Contact (2373)

Star Trek: First Contact was not only the second film featuring the crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it also served as the motion picture directorial debut for William Riker actor Jonathan Frakes. In this film, the terrifying Borg take center stage and force our heroes to travel back in time to stop them from conquering Earth and assimilating the entire human race.

This movie picks up on the continuing trauma caused by Jean-Luc Picard getting assimilated in the series and becoming Locutus of Borg, and we are also treated to the first warp flight in Star Trek’s history, a shout-out to Deep Space Nine, and more.

15. Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)

Star Trek: Insurrection, which unfortunately ranked last on our list of the best Star Trek movies, is the third film starring the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew and followed a story involving an alien race that lives on a planet with more-or-less makes them invincible due to its rejuvenating properties. This alien race, known as the Ba’Ku, are being threatened by not only another alien race called the Son’a, but also the Federation. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew disobey Federation orders in hopes to save the peaceful Ba’Ku, and while it sounds like an interesting premise, many said it felt too much like an extended episode of the series instead of a big blockbuster film.

16. Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)

The final Star Trek: The Next Generation movie is Star Trek: Nemesis , and it also isn’t looked at as one of the best. There are bright parts in the film, including Tom Hardy’s Shinzon who is first thought to be a Romulan praetor before it’s revealed he is a clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but it also features a lot of retreaded ground. There are some great moments between our favorite TNG characters, but it’s not quite the goodbye many had hoped for. Luckily, this won’t be the last we’ll see of them.

17. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the fourth Star Trek series and it ran from 1993 to 1999 with 176 episodes over seven seasons. Deep Space Nine was also the first Star Trek series to be created without the direct involvement of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, but instead with Rick Berman and Michael Piller. Furthermore, it was the first series to begin when another Star Trek Series - The Next Generation - was still on the air.

The connections between The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine don’t end there, as there were a ton of callbacks to TNG in Deep Space Nine, and characters like Worf and Miles O’Brien played a big part in the series. Other TNG characters popped up from time to time, including Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and certain Deep Space Nine characters also showed their faces in TNG.

Deep Space Nine was a big departure from the Star Trek series that came before, as it not only took place mostly on a space station - the titular Deep Space Nine - but it was the first to star an African American as its central character in Avery Brooks’ Captain Benjamin Sisko.

Deep Space Nine was located in a very interesting part of the Milky Way Galaxy as it was right next to a wormhole, and the series was also filled with conflict between the Cardassians and Bajorans, the war between the Federation and the Dominion, and much more.

18. Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)

Star Trek: Voyager is the fifth Star Trek series and it ran from 1995 to 2001 with 172 episodes over seven seasons. Star Trek: Voyager begins its journey at Deep Space Nine, and then it follows the tale of Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Kathryn Janeway (the first female leading character in Star Trek history!) and her crew getting lost and stranded in the faraway Delta Quadrant.

The episodes and adventures that follow all see the team fighting for one goal: getting home. Being so far away from the Alpha Quadrant we were so used to letting Star Trek be very creative in its storytelling and give us situations and alien races we’d never encountered before.

That doesn’t mean it was all unfamiliar, however, as the Borg became a huge threat in the later seasons. It’s a good thing too, as that led to the introduction of Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine, a character who would continue on to appear in Star Trek: Picard and become a fan favorite.

19. Star Trek: Lower Decks (2380-TBD)

Star Trek: Lower Decks debuted in 2020 and was the first animated series to make it to air since 1973’s Star Trek: The Animated Series. Alongside having that feather in its cap, it also sets itself apart by choosing to focus more on the lower lever crew instead of the captain and senior staff.

This leads to many fun adventures that may not be as high stakes as the other stories, but are no less entertaining. There have already been three seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and the fourth season is set to arrive later this summer.

The series is also worth a watch as it is having a crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that will mix the worlds of live-action and animation.

20. Star Trek: Prodigy (2383-TBD)

Star Trek: Prodigy was the first fully 3D animated Star Trek series ever and told a story that began five years after the U.S.S. Voyager found its way back home to Earth. In this series, which was aimed for kids, a group of young aliens find an abandoned Starfleet ship called the U.S.S. Protostar and attempt to make it to Starfleet and the Alpha Quadrant from the Delta Quadrant.

Voyager fans will be delighted to know that Kate Mulgrew returns as Kathryn Janeway in this animated series, but not only as herself. She is also an Emergency Training Holographic Advisor that was based on the likeness of the former captain of the U.S.S. Voyager.

The second season of Star Trek: Prodigy was set to arrive later this year, but it was not only canceled in June, but also removed from Paramount+. There is still hope this show may find a second life on another streaming service or network.

21. Star Trek: Picard (2399-2402)

Star Trek: Picard is the… well… next generation of Star Trek: The Next Generation as it brings back not only Partick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard, but also many of his former crew members from the beloved series. The story is set 20 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis and we find Picard retired from Starfleet and living at his family’s vineyard in France.

Without spoiling anything, certain events get one of our favorite captains back to work and take him on an adventure through space and time over three seasons and 30 episodes.

The show had its ups and downs, but the third season, in our opinion, stuck the landing and gave us an “emotional, exciting, and ultimately fun journey for Jean-Luc and his family - both old and new - that gives the character the send-off that he has long deserved.”

22. Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 3 and 4 (3188-TBD)

While Star Trek: Discovery begins around 10 years before Star Trek: The Original Series, the show jumps more than 900 years into the future into the 32nd Century following the events of the second season. The Federation is not in great shape and Captain Michael Burnham and her crew work to bring it back to what it once was.

Star Trek: Discovery is set to end after the upcoming fifth season, which will debut on Paramount+ in 2024.

For more, check out our look at the hidden meaning behind Star Trek’s great captains, why Star Trek doesn’t get credit as the first shared universe, if this may be the end of Star Trek’s golden age of streaming, and our favorite classic Star Trek episodes and movies.

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Behind-the-Scenes of The Next Generation Movies

Go behind-the-scenes from the production of all four films for First Contact Day!

All four big-screen adventures featuring fan-favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation characters Picard, Riker, Data, La Forge, Worf, Troi, and Dr. Crusher arrive for the first time ever on 4K Ultra HD™ with Dolby Vision and HDR-10 ! Own it now!

The journey begins with original cast members Kirk, Scott, and Chekov in a story that spans space and time in Star Trek Generations , continuing with a terrifying face off against the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact , a dangerous plot against a peaceful planet in Star Trek: Insurrection , and a familiar old foe returning in Star Trek Nemesis .

In celebration of First Contact Day , we've have this gallery of behind-the-scenes photos from the production of all four films!

Patrick Stewart, in Starfleet uniform, looking off into the landscape of trees and mountains as a camera and crew capture the moment on set of Star Trek Generations

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‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Movie Collection On 4K Blu-ray Coming In April

| February 21, 2023 | By: Matt Wright 102 comments so far

As we’ve previously reported , listings for the The Next Generation cast movies have been showing up on retailers’ websites. Today, Paramount Pictures officially announced the 4K upgrade. They’ll be released on April 4 in the USA, just in time for First Contact Day. Thus far, international release dates have not been provided by Paramount.

Available in 4K boxed set, individually, or as remastered standard Blu-rays

All four films will be available together in the STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 4-MOVIE COLLECTION . The 4-Movie Collection includes each film on 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision and HDR10, as well as fully remastered on Blu-ray, plus all legacy bonus content and access to digital copies of each film. It’s presented in a slipcase beautifully illustrated to complement the Star Trek: The Original 6-Movie Collection , making this a must-own set to complete every fan’s collection . Audio for each movie is offered in a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless format.

Each film will be available individually on 4K Ultra HD with a bonus Blu-ray featuring the fully remastered film, along with all legacy bonus content and access to a digital copy of the film.

The remastered films will also be available individually on standard Blu-ray discs too.

Bonus content

The special features are carryovers from the previous 2009 Blu-ray releases . A complete list is below:

STAR TREK: GENERATIONS Bonus Content

Commentary by director David Carson and Manny Coto
Commentary by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
Library Computer
Uniting Two Legends
Stellar Cartography: Creating the Illusion
Strange New Worlds: The Valley of Fire
Scoring Trek
Inside ILM: Models & Miniatures
Crashing the Enterprise
Main Title Sequence
The Nexus Ribbon
Saucer Crash Sequence
A Tribute to Matt Jeffries
The Enterprise Lineage
Captain Picard’s Family Album
Creating 24 th Century Weapons
Next Generation Designer Flashback Andrew Probert
Stellar Cartography on Earth
Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 1
Trek Roundtable: Generations
Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 007: Trilithium
Deleted Scenes

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT Bonus Content

Commentary by director and actor Jonathan Frakes
Commentary by screenplay writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
Commentary by Damon Lindelof and Anthony Pascale
Making First Contact
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YESSSSS FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! But no word about the audio track??? I REALLY hope they won’t use the 30 years old audio tracks but will do a Dolby Atmos mix to bring it into the new age!!!!!

According to the always reliable thedigitalbits.com, the audio format for all the discs is DolbyTrueHD 7.1. No new Atmos mix, and no features of any kind. But really, was anyone really expecting anything else?

Yep. The press release Paramount sent us doesn’t mention the audio at all, which is a clear indicator that, like the TOS movies before it, they’re using the same (still quite good) lossless 7.1 audio tracks created back in 2009. This isn’t really a surprise. Most catalog releases don’t get a new sound mix.

Thanks, Matt. That’s unfortunate. Watch, in several years they will have special edition 4K UHD’s with that have remastering, Atmos and other reasons for us to triple dip on these (I already have the 2009 BR’s).

I am not going to be a sucker here for P — I’ll wait a few years for the next 4K version and skip this release. And who knows, maybe a future version will have new VFX for the deflector dish battle scene as well?

ST: The Motion Picture DC got a brand new Atmos mix and many much older and smaller movies in general received new Atmos mixes.. So yea hope was there!

Yep, and they got my $80. This “lazy” offering will not get my $.

I was really hoping they would redo the special effects for the deflector dish battle for the 4K release

You mean when Worf says “Assimilate this!” and obliterates the deflector, which is floating away at this point, with a single phaser shot?

IT WAS CHARGED WITH ANTIPROTONS!

My thought was always that he hit some critical component that led to an explosion. Not that the phaser by itself blew it up… (Think of hitting a single bullet on a fuelled rocket.)

kmart mentioned that they had a much more ambitious scene planned for that battle, but had to substantially reduce the scope due to budget issues. So my guess is they just tried to throw in a really big explosion still for that Worf phaser fire — Trying to salvage as much “bang” as possible from their original storboard.

But they clearly set that up by saying the dish was charged to the point where a direct phaser hit could blow up half the ship. So Worf waited until it cleared the saucer and did just that. It’s totally reasonable.

I would be EXTREMELY disappointed if they won’t spend those movies a dolby atmos mix!!! There are much “smaller” and older films that receive great atmos mixes these days! If they will not do that it’s a clear sign for me that they don’t really care about it and it’s just about money for them..

Agreed. I am not paying for the 4K discs unless that is part of it.

I am starting to think your right.. The bluray looks good but I wanted the upgrade on the audio ( Atmos ) now its going to be the same audio? what a waste :(

Yes but where’s my DS9 4k version? come on

Yes, this is the question. I’d settle for just High-Def. I don’t think Paramount knows what gold they has with DS9.

I don’t know. We do know that the reason they didn’t do it years ago was because sales of the TNG blu rays did not meet expectations. So unless the cost of HD remastering comes down considerably, I think it’s fans who don’t realize what kind of money drain it is when the upside is nominal.

Eventually it will happen it’s just a matter of when the tech comes down in cost. It’s good to have legacy shows like this in HD, but if it costs them $100M, I can certainly understand why they haven’t done it. It’s not as if having it in HD would lure in subscribers to their streaming service, and I doubt they sell enough blurays to recoup the cost.

When the AI/DL remastering software get’s truly commercialized and used in studio workflow processes, then we will get DS9 and VOY in HD finally. It’s going to be a 100% software solution, not the expensive process they used for TNG.

It will happen in the next 3-5 years.

Exactly. No idea the timeframe, but I predicted this about a decade ago, and was mocked for suggesting the solution was AI upscaling. I was told “that’s not how it works.”

I insisted, it would be a technology that doesn’t quite exist yet (AI upscaling was still incredibly primitive at the time), but will one day be a thing. I was surprised that Trek fans of all fans couldn’t grasp the idea that a technology might exist in the future that they couldn’t imagine.

But as Clarke once said, if you’re predictions of the future aren’t laughed at, they won’t be right.

lol, yeah, me too.

I think things are changing. Look at TMP-DE. Maybe they could do it through streaming, with new remastered episodes keeping us subscribed between seasons of new shows. It would be much cheaper to remaster ten episodes of DS9 than producing a new 10-episode season of Star Trek… And, I, for one, would stick with it so that they could remaster the whole thing…

So–no mention of the cost? Or has Paramount not released that information yet?

Probably $100 day 1, then $25 6 months later…lol

The retail, according to Bull Moose music (where I ordered my copy) is listed at 107.99 but marked down to 79.97.

I bought the iTunes versions on sale recently in anticipation of my free upgrade.

The commentary to Generations by Braga and Moore is a fascinating listen. They pretty much tear apart their own script.

People still by movies on plastic landfill-bound physical trash? Please let me know when the VHS or laserdisc release is!!!!

“Landfill-bound physical trash” sure beats having to figure out where the hell Paramount has dished content out to this week. I mean, damn, I’ve had relationships last longer than these 4 movies staying together in one place.

Very well put. And amusing as well. The movies are on HBO now, but wait till next week….

I honestly like that it’s on HBO Max because it provides both versions of certain ones whereas paramount+ didn’t

I love when people say “well put” to a silly comment. lol.

I hate to break it to you, but in regards to that recent audition you had at The Improv, well they ain’t calling back, my friend. lol

Very poorly said, because no it doesn’t. I would much rather stream everything even if it’s not always available or takes a few clicks to find. Having to purchase and house a physical library of media, then extract it from said library and load it, unload it, rehouse it, every time I want to watch something? Way more trouble than streaming, even if a movie swaps location now and then. Life is demonstrably better thanks to streaming, like putting wheels on suitcases.

To each their own.

It’s weird to me how I keep running into people on the web who seem to feel threatened or uncomfortable with those of us who prefer the higher quality physical media over streaming. Luke Montgomery starts this off by making fun of us over this (yet the poor dude is so dense he thinks the quality is lower than streaming given his inexplicable reference to laser disc and VHS), and then Alpha Predator completely shuts down your post with hyperbole (which he keeps lecturing to us not to use), and then insults me by inferring that I don’t value a story as much as him.

Why the defensiveness and animosity here from these dudes? I mean, I don’t start threads by slamming streamers; heck, I stream a lot of stuff.

Just bizarre?

Not to mention special features. The closest you can get to seeing value added material digitally is outright buying a film or show from iTunes or Amazon.

And then there’s the aspect ratio issue. If people don’t want to nitpick compression and pixel counts, then maybe they will acknowledge that so many streaming films are not being shown in their original aspect ratio. A lot of people have forgotten/don’t care that most movies weren’t made at 16:9. It’s such a shame.

Yes indeed. The Mad Max films are on Amazon Prime, but after seeing how cropped and oversaturated they are I made a note to upgrade my DVDs to 4K next time I want to watch them.

Nobody feels threatened. Personally, it’s the superiority complex by those who prefer physical media that rubs me the wrong way. That they are smarter, better fans for having a physical collection.

Don’t argue either, that attitude is absolutely there: they look down on those who prefer streaming and it seems to me they’re the ones who feel threatened. They’re TERRIFIED that the secret media police will come and take their precious BluRays/DVDs/VHS/etc.

Just bizarre.

(True story btw: I once had a cinephile buff friend tell me in all seriousness that he believed the government would one day confiscate home media)

Lol, I’m imagining he’s also like got a gun safe loaded to bear next to his 4 bookcases of DVD’s and BR’s. (Which really isn’t funny I guess)

OK I get that happens, but, in this case, Luke Montgomery started this entire thread by ridiculing those of us who have the physical media???

I think this chip on the shoulder thing works both ways here, my friend. I hope you can acknowledge that?

Meh. I don’t like constantly having to rent movies and shows I like.

Streaming sucks, 1) You don’t own it 2) Everything is in compressed shit. Looks really bad when most of the screen is dark 3) Streaming platforms only keep their titles for about 9 months and 4) They always axe a good series

And yet still demonstrably better for me. I had to spend so much more money back in the day to watch all the shows and movies I wanted. Way less now, and far more content. Never going back to that nonsense. Even if streaming dies, i’ll just stop watching movies and TV shows.

Even if streaming dies, i’ll just stop watching movies and TV shows.

LOL — says the Trekmovie Citizens Arrest Hyperbole Control Officer.

As long as the quality of streaming stays that bad I surely will get stuff on physical media

Much better than that compression algorithm fake 4K stuff you watch

Maybe for you. I watch movies for the story, not the pixels.

That’s silly of course to suggest it’s an either/or proposition.

I watch movies as if I was in the cinema (my set-up actually is superior to most cinema’s, IMAX excepted) — story and picture quality both are important to me, as is creating the movie theater experience in my home.

But sure, if BR and/or 4K UHD BR’s discs are not available, streaming or DVD will work fine if needed. I even have a VHS deck that I use a couple times a year.

I just don’t get people’s obsession with pixel density, quality, etc. It all looks good. 4K does nothing for me. Next year you’ll be demanding 8K, and mocking people who stream at 4k.

Dude, you kill me. I’m not demanding anything, and 8K will never make sense for home use.

I have 110 inch screen and 4K projector. It’s a significantly better picture versus 1080 P given my screen size — and yes, anyone viewing it can tell the difference. Besides, streaming is doing 4K now (albeit with using lots of compression algorithm‘s to keep the bandwidth manageable), so I’m not even sure what point you are trying to make on that?

Again, I have no issue with your viewpoint and that you want to stream. You though seem to have a really big chip on your shoulder about this — you’re coming across like do have sort of a petty inferiority complex… just look at your posts where you’re trying to ridicule those of us with discs.

RELAX ! :-)

Bonus: The plastic trash will be around hundreds of years from now to choke an animal in the actual time of Star Trek! Now we know why Spock said this about our society… “Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, I believe we have arrived at the latter half of the 20th century.” -Spock ST4

While that’s not why I abandoned physical media, it’s a nice upside for sure.

One hour of streaming in SD produces about 55 grams of CO2 equivalent—the same amount as charging seven smartphones. And for 320MB for 4K video, an hour of video would be 17 times the emissions of SD content — 935 grams of C02.

And the amount of Carbon that goes into producing one 4K UHD disc is about 220 grams of C02. So when streaming was in SD only, streaming was 4:1 better for the environment (so you right way back then), but at 4K today, discs are about 4.5 times better for the environment today — so you are way off, wrong.

I think I’d rather create a bit of plastic trash then continually warming the planet with my huge, energy sucking downloads of 4K streaming content.

If you are so worried about warming the planet then maybe you shouldn’t boast about your home theater set-up which you claim “is superior to most cinema’s”.

Emissions estimates for streaming generally include the energy consumption of the viewing device, which is a large fraction of the total amount, especially if people are watching on a large TV or projector and not a phone. So it’s completely misleading to compare that to the emissions from producing one disk.

You apparently aren’t paying attention to the thread. I didn’t bring this up — I was just offering the calculations. I never claimed that this was a priority for me. So nice try trying to “score points” on me as part of our eternal back-and-forth battle of comments here…lol

And the calculations are bullshit. The original poster was talking about plastic trash. You switched topics and claimed that disks were more environmentally friendly than streaming based on an apples-to-oranges comparison that doesn’t actually compare their environmental impact. But nice try.

Nope, I researched several articles on the life cycle environmental impact that compared discs to streaming. That’s a lot more homework that you are doing here, which started with a false claim by you that I brought up the environmental issue as a priority for me on this, and, when confronted with that, you have now devolved into a lazy “I don’t buy your numbers” opinion that you have pulled out of your keister.

You are off your game today — I expect better than this in our discussions.

Oh, I never believed that environmental impact was a concern of yours, but you brought up the emissions comparison to counter the comment about plastic trash made by Luke.

Here is a comparative life cycle assessment of bluray vs. streaming: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212827119301040 I point you to figure 3.

By the way: The linked article does not include the disposal of the disk in its assessment (the trash in the land fill the original poster was talking about), which would increase the impact of disks even more.

That article did not use 4K streaming downloads for it’s calculations (only 1080P), which is when disc becomes better for the env than streaming…which is what I said above.

By the way: My information did not include repeat viewing, in which you have to download the entire 4K movie for streaming again, and so you count twice, three times, etc, etc, unlike disc, which you already have…huge difference in env impact!

Three points: 1) The 55 g CO2eq per hour of streaming does not only include content provisioning and content delivery, but also content consumption, that is the energy use of data centers, transmission networks, home routers, TVs, set-top boxes, etc are all included. In fact, electronic devices at the user’s home make up almost 90% of the total emissions number. 2) You simply multiplied 55 g with a random factor of 17 to derive a completely bogus number of 935 g CO2eq. In Europe, the average across all viewing devices (that also means all resolutions incl. 4K) was 56 g per hour in 2020, while FHD on a 50″ screen was just 58 g per hour. So going up to 4K would have minimum impact on the emissions. On the other hand, watching on a larger screen would indeed increase this number. 3) Your number for 4K discs is just for the production of the disc. You’re missing all the emissions on the consumption side, which are included in the estimate for streaming and actually make up the largest share of the estimate.

That’s what I meant when I said that your calculations are bullshit.

Also, the environmental impact of discs vs. streaming comprises much more than just CO2 emissions, as the assessment I linked clearly demonstrates.

And you’re missing all the huge server farms that Netflix and all of the streaming services, use and power serving the fiber optic/cable lines and the home internet modem electric use. And of course all that equipment gets dumped at some point too, which is an environmental cost we’re not accounting for here.

We can go on and on here to expand the life cycle on both sides of this, but the basic comparison on the factors that count the most clearly show that when you get to 4K 360 megabyte + files, you cross the line where discs are unequivocally better for the environment than streaming.

Besides, you just quote a link for one outdated article that I can’t tell if it’s even counting HD versus SD, let alone 4K, and then a cherry picked bit information you found on the European website — versus my reviewing multiple online reports and repeating the calculations — I’m comfortable that my information is representative of the right calculations and I’m not cherry picking a couple things like you are to try to win an argument on Trekmovie.com…lol

My goodness, you’re dense. The server farms and network are included in the streaming numbers. Maybe actually read up on the numbers you quote.

And maybe you can provide a source for those 935 grams of C02 for 4K streaming while you’re at it.

No, I was referring to the eventual disposal costs of that sever equipment when they upgrade it, which happens every few years, and the power I was referring to was the power of both the hub for the Internet ISP provider (be it cable, fiber or other), and their own modem that they provide the consumer (not the consumers own router, which is then connected to it). None of this is covered in the cost model in that SINGLE, outdated article you provided — and the author of that article doesn’t even bother to tell us whether they used SD or HD, but it’s obvious that they were not calculating it for 4K streaming.

The 935 figure was based on multiplying the SD CO2 figure by 17 — and the 17 I derived from taking an average on several articles I was reading…I actually spent about 3 hours looking at this given it was so interesting. For example, there are multiple reports on the shiftproject-dot-org website, and their latest conclusion is that the amount of CO2 difference between 4K and SD for 30 min of streaming is between 4 and 7, but another article suggested it was as much as 30 times, and a couple others were in the middle of this range, so I used a rough average given the difference in the literatures, 17. But even if you use the lower numbers, then at 4K, the difference in C02 between streaming and discs are basically a wash, so there you have it even if you use more conservative numbers/assumptions.

But by all means, continue with you your cherry picking, because you must be correct on this to preserve your “gotcha” original response to me here, of course. ;-)

Like I said before: You don’t understand the numbers you’re using: 1) Your starting value of 55 g CO2e per hour is probably based on this report by the Carbon Trust: https://www.carbontrust.com/our-work-and-impact/guides-reports-and-tools/carbon-impact-of-video-streaming (or other websites who simply repeat the number). 2) If you actually look at how that number is derived (the full reported is linked on the website), this is an average over all streaming users, it is not a value specifically for SD streaming. And secondly, this value includes emissions for data centers, content delivery networks, internet transmission, home modems/routers, peripherals (like streaming set-top boxes) and viewing devices (like TV, tablet, phones). 3) The report also provides example numbers for different video qualities and viewing devices: e.g. 58 g CO2e for FHD on a 50″ smart TV and 16 g CO2e for SD video on a laptop. Again: This is the total sum over the streaming service side, internet transmission and viewer side. 4) There is a full chapter in the report on the difference in energy use between SD, HD and UHD and also on cellular network vs. fixed network. But this only makes up a small share of the total average value of 55 g CO2e. 5) So basically, there is absolutely no basis for your 55 * 17 calculation. 6) Lastly, the number you provided for 4K discs is only for the production of the discs. It does not include your blu-ray player or your TV when you actually watch your discs, which are included in the number for streaming. So you would need to add them to the emissions numbers for 4K UHD discs.

In summary, your original claim has no basis in facts. Your number for streaming is far too high and your number for discs is far too low, making the comparison meaningless.

As I pointed out earlier, there is more to the total environmental impact of streaming vs. discs than just the CO2 emissions numbers during operation. The research article I linked two days ago gives some examples but it does not include impacts of disposal at end-of-life. As you say, server hardware in data centers is replaced after several years. But think about it: A streaming server will have served, what, hundreds of thousands of viewing hours when it is taken out of service. That’s a lot of blu-ray discs not going to a landfill.

Look, I get it, you like your home media collection. Standard blu-ray and 4K UHD discs provide better picture and sound than streaming. No argument about that. But you got triggered by a small off-hand comment by Luke that there might be negative side-effects to discs and got all defensive – ironically something you accused other users of. Unfortunately, the defense you decided on was wrong. No biggie, it happens. If others prefer streaming, be it for convenience, lack of space or even for environmental reasons, that’s their decision. If you prefer discs, that’s your decision.

Well you did your homework this time, so thank you for coming back with more details. This is a case where: (1) I can find data online and you can find data online that supports each of our arguments; and (2) Each of us can point out parts of the life cycle env analysis that have not been included in the literature that we’re reviewing online — on both sides of this. For example I have discs that I have watched over five times — for streaming, you have to download it five separate times in most cases, giving discs a major CO2 advantage.

I know this from all that I have read — When it was just comparing SD streaming and 1080P streaming to discs, there was a definite environmental case that could be made for streaming over disc regarding CO2. However, when you get to 4K, at worst the comparison approaches a wash, and at best, discs are better for the environment.

And please don’t try to tell me that eventually when the streaming services crazily start streaming in 8K (thinking it’s a competitive advantage that can sucker consumers) that that’s going to be better than a future, hypothetical 8K disc — that’s 15 freaking TB for a 2 hour movie, and will require 122 GB per min data transfers. At that point the CO2 comparison will be like comparing crypto currency to paper money.

Not to burst your bubble, but Netflix recommends 5 Mbps for FHD and 15 Mbps for 4K. Extrapolating that, 8K streaming would probably clock in around 45 Mbps or 340 MB per minute. The maximum bitrate for 4K discs is 144 Mbps according to specifications, compared to around 50 Mbps for standard blu-ray. So 8K discs would probably end up below 500 Mbps.

Will streaming services start to offer 8K? I have no idea. It’s possible because TV manufacturers will try to push 8K TVs on people, and what good is an 8K TV if there’s no matching content? Do I personally think that 8K is necessary? No. Not at normal viewing distances/sizes at home.

1 TB BR discs are here (not for media use yet), and multi-terabyte discs are certainly feasible. If they can’t speed up the bit rate transfer enough they could simply build a RAM buffer into the new machines and/or do multi-reads at once — just good engineering! That data rates for most people to be able to stream 8K would obviously more of an impediment than designing a new BR 8K machine.

Good discussion!

And that’s not even taking rewatching into account.

Hahaha. I actually have Insurrection on Laserdisc.

The cover art is…sure something. Did they commission that on Etsy?

And who knew that Richard Chamberlain played Riker!

Joined by Kevin Spacey as Data, and… is that Ben Kingsley as Picard, maybe? 😃

Joined by Kevin Spacey as Data

Dude, you had me cracking up big time on that one…yeah, I see that now! LOL

Generations – 3/5 almost there. but really needed to be more “Yesterdays Enterprise” (ironic considering its the same director)

First Contact – 5/5 classic. up there with The Wrath of Khan

Insurrection – 2/5 worst Trek film of all despite a few nice scenes. TNGs ‘Beyond’

Nemesis – 2.5/5 seems to be better now than in 2002. not that bad as a space action film, like TNGs ‘Into Darkness’ (until Picard s3).

Not bad, but I personally would penalize generations a full point lower than you have because of the inexplicable Bridge on the Captain death scene of Kirk

I loved Insurrection. (Minus the humor which didn’t work for me.) I thought it was bold to introduce new aliens and have a message in the great tradition of Star Trek. I always hear it’s like an extended episode of TNG but I’m ok with that. Plus, Jonathan Frakes did a great job capturing key moments for the characters, especially Geordi. (As someone who has battled bad vision my entire life, I do relate to Geordi in that scene.) I’m going to buy INS and FC on 4K. They are special films and worth the upgrade.

I always skip the parts with the away team, the sing along, the caves, and go straight to the space battles. The Ent-E fly-by of the collector-array-sail thing as it burns in space is a cool shot.

I love seeing Riker in command. When Frakes is on the bridge, he has this professional striking demeanor that yells, “I belong on this bridge.” He’s one of my favorite first officers. That’s another reason I love the film. Id follow Riker in space battle anytime.

I agree. The Ent-E fly-by shot was fantastic.

Same! I love Riker and he’s just as great in the movies as the shows. He’s a big reason why I even like Insurrection. He was great in that.

‘we’re through running from those bastards….’

Insurrection is one of the movies I have liked more the more I watched it. I never hated it or anything, it just felt like Beyond did, a big two part episode; not something that really drives people to the theaters.

I hear you, but the Picard-Anij romance was so lame — they had no chemistry and the lines were just so freaking cheesy.

Oh Jean-Luc, have you ever experienced a perfect moment in time?

LOL, so groan-worthy

This would be something I would be interested in getting if I still bought Blu rays or even had a Blu ray player. I have thought about buying all the films some day at least so maybe in the future.

I really wished they would bring over the round table Blu Ray along with these sets :(

What do you mean? It does list “Trek Roundtable” for all four of them. 📀✅️ Was it its own disc before, and now it’s just split up, or is it a whole ‘nother special feature?

There was a bonus disk with the original series movie blu ray called “captains summit” and another with the next gen blu ray called “Star Trek evolutions” that I wish would have transferred over.

Ah, thanks for clarifying! 👍

I, too, can’t stand when companies omit special features on subsequent releases (which usually have more space available, not less).

Why these studios don’t upgrade the audio to Atmos is beyond me. I refuse to upgrade on image alone. I know lots of people who feel the same, so we don’t buy these Then the studios b*tch about low sales numbers and stop doing 4k upgrades. What’s most disappointing is these are the types of films that beg for Atmos. Shame, Paramount. Shame.

100% Agreed!

EXACTLY right!!! They cry about low sales numbers and don’t understand that MANY people not only want an picture update but audio also! Yea imagine the Enterprise-D saucer section crash scene in “Generations” for example how awesome it would be in Atmos with the saucer flying over your head..

Why is only TMP only in Atmos of the old crew? A joke that the others aren’t and I won’t be buying the next set, if they’re not in Atmos! Just a joke!!

“Why is only TMP only in Atmos of the old crew?” – That’s what I’m asking myself too!

“Just a joke!!” – You mean your previous sentence was meant as a joke.. Or you mean that Paramount does no Atmos mixes is a joke (bad)?

Object based sound like atmos or dts:x are indeed revolutionary which some folks are don’t really aware of. It’s not only added height speaker channels but a different software within which makes the sound more realistically among other drastically improvements. Really a shame they used the old sound formats instead of the current standards.

Anything known about what kind of extra treatment or processing the 4K film will get?

So once again no original theatrical audio? Wish i could get rid of my DVDs and Laserdiscs.

really no atmos?? this makes no sense.. not sure I will buy

Cast & crew
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Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

Gene Roddenberry
Patrick Stewart
Brent Spiner
Jonathan Frakes
321 User reviews
162 Critic reviews
39 wins & 61 nominations total

Episodes 176

The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Jonathan Frakes and Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Captain Jean-Luc Picard …

Lieutenant Commander Data …

Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker …

Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge …

Counselor Deanna Troi

Lieutenant Worf …

Doctor Beverly Crusher …

Enterprise Computer …

Wesley Crusher …

Chief Miles O'Brien …
Youngblood …

Lieutenant Natasha 'Tasha' Yar …

Doctor Katherine Pulaski …

Nurse Alyssa Ogawa …

Ansata Terrorist …

Ensign Ro Laren …

Keiko O'Brien …
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Nichelle Nichols and Sonequa Martin-Green at an event for Star Trek: Discovery (2017)

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Trivia When the cast decided to lobby for a salary increase, Wil Wheaton 's first offer from the producers was to instead have his character promoted to Lieutenant. His response was, "So what should I tell my landlord when I can't pay my rent? 'Don't worry, I just made Lieutenant'?!"
Goofs It is claimed that Data can't use contractions (Can't, Isn't, Don't, etc) yet there are several instances throughout the series where he does. One of the first such examples is heard in Encounter at Farpoint (1987) , where Data uses the word "Can't" while the Enterprise is being chased by Q's "ship".

[repeated line]

Capt. Picard : Engage!

Crazy credits The model of the Enterprise used in the opening credits is so detailed, a tiny figure can be seen walking past a window just before the vessel jumps to warp speed.
Alternate versions The first and last episodes were originally broadcast as two-hour TV movies, and were later re-edited into two one-hour episodes each. Both edits involved removing some scenes from each episode.
Connections Edited into Reading Rainbow: The Bionic Bunny Show (1988)

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Sep 10, 2005

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Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

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Follow the intergalactic adventures of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his loyal crew aboard the all-new USS Enterprise NCC-1701D, as they explore new worlds.

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'Star Trek: The Next Generation's Biggest Cliffhanger Changed Television Forever

These three episodes dared to do something new, and it paid off.

The Big Picture

Serialized storytelling became dominant in TV thanks to shows like Hill Street Blues , which normalized season-long arcs and character development.
Star Trek: The Next Generation broke TV rules with its two-part Season 3 finale and Season 4 premiere, which introduced the first true cliffhanger and a mind-blowing twist involving the Borg.
The episodes "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Family" showcased the evolution of TV storytelling by prioritizing character development and exploring emotional fallout, setting a new standard for dramatic tension and flawed, evolving characters.

A long, long time ago, one-off episodes were the law of the land. Series were episodic in nature regardless of genre. Sometimes, characterization moments carried over and returning characters popped in and out for flavor's sake, but serialized narratives and character arcs didn’t creep into play until 1980s game-changers like Hill Street Blues . The drama from creators Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll was a powerhouse risk-taker and an instrumental force credited for normalizing season-long arcs. Slowly but surely, serialized stories became dominant enough that episodic shows are now a rarity.

Star Trek: The Next Generation , the floundering sequel to the 1960s original, underwent a similar evolution. The Next Generation already had a lot to prove when it hit the airwaves in 1987. The glories of syndication had turned Star Trek: The Original Series into a cult classic, but the space-faring title was still far from global phenomenon status. Would the follow-up to a canceled series have enough bite to kickstart a franchise? Eight more shows, thirteen films, and a thriving fandom later, the answer's a resounding yes — but not before The Next Generation broke all the established TV rules in the summer of 1990 . A gut punch as staggeringly effective as its impact on the franchise's modus operandi is lasting, The Next Generation 's two-part Season 3 finale and Season 4 premiere sliced up audience expectations with the finesse of a butcher's meat cleaver and drop-kicked the television landscape into a new universe — dare we say, to "where no one has gone before."

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

"The Best of Both Worlds" Prioritizes Character and Story Arcs

Despite strong ratings, The Next Generation 's early seasons saw conflict between creator Gene Roddenberry and the cast and crew over dialogue , costumes , and thematic content . Not only did The Next Generation follow the Star Trek formula of one-and-done episodes, but Roddenberry was insistent humanity had evolved past interpersonal flaws. It’s a nice thought, but utopian ideals make for dull, repetitive stories. After all, conflict is the heart of all drama. The more Roddenberry stepped away from The Next Generation , the more freedom the writers had to develop the Enterprise crew into dynamic, humane characters instead of stock figures fulfilling the plot-of-the-week's requirements. Those attempts catalyzed when Season 3 senior writer Michael Piller invoked a new scripting Prime Directive: every Season 3 episode had to prioritize character development .

Appropriately, the Season 3 finale and Season 4 premiere "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" and "Part 2" exist in applauded infamy as Star Trek's first true cliffhanger. You see, Season 2 had planted a dangling plot seed when the capricious entity Q (the perpetually delightful John de Lancie ) flung the Enterprise into uncharted space in a fit of pique — straight into the path of entities called the Borg. These hominids' sole purpose was to "assimilate" all in their path, stripping species of individuality, memories, and free will. The Enterprise quickly realized they were hopelessly outmatched by the Borg's technological superiority. Restored to a safe quadrant of space by the episode's end, the crew is left with a sense of looming dread. It was only a matter of time before the Borg declared war on humanity in ways Romulans, Cardassians, and Klingons could only dream of mimicking.

"The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" wastes no time leaping head-first into "aw, crap" town. Every aspect feels starkly ominous, from the cold open where the crew confirms a populous Federation colony was annihilated by the Borg to a Starfleet strategy meeting detailing just how underprepared the galaxy is against this new enemy. Combined with an unsettling score and some understated performances, the expertly crafted tension lends the situation credence.

Smartly, Michael Piller's script interweaves naturalistic character beats between plot advancements and set pieces. In one corner, the normally unflappable main characters are tossed into introspection and self-doubt . In the other, the Enterprise crew enjoys their weekly poker nights. The tonal shifts between growing unease, predatory self-reflection, and breezy joke-swapping are smooth as butter and as complimentary as butter on fresh toast. Fans don't need exposition to know how close this group's grown as a triad of crew, people, and friends. The emotional stakes matter as much as the "threat against all humanity" stakes.

'Star Trek: The Next Generation's Biggest Cliffhanger Was Unprecedented

Captain Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) , the man of the hour (the decade, the century, the millennia), said psychological stakes are stratosphere-high. Against such a monolithic threat as the Borg, an enemy that can't be intellectually reasoned with, Picard's out of his element. And it shows, the strain oscillating through Stewart's restless physicality. In a quietly potent scene, he and his long-time confidant Guinan ( Whoopi Goldberg ) discuss the tradition of a captain touring his ship before a hopeless battle. Picard has no qualms about sacrificing his life as long as civilization stays protected. There's hardly a better way to underscore just how stinking good of a man Picard is than through his selfless, courageous resolve. When it comes to morals, Picard is the most indefatigable Starfleet officer one could ask for.

Moments later, two Borg appear on the Enterprise bridge and kidnap Picard. Excuse me? Abducting the hero was just not done , y'all; not in Star Trek, and certainly not in normal episodic television. Everything that follows is a nightmare building toward the moment Beverly Crusher ( Gates McFadden ), part of a rescue team infiltrating the Borg cube, recognizes Picard through the haze of phaser fire. The lumbering figure she sees, however, is no longer Jean-Luc Picard. Attired in black Borg regalia with multiple limbs and one eye swapped out with mechanical parts, the Borg have brainwashed him into acting as their voice and their greatest weapon against the Federation.

Previous alien villains were still human-esque and therefore surmountable. Even Star Trek deaths were a cultural meme (hi, red shirts). In 1990, something capable of corrupting a cultured, impassioned captain into a mindless husk was unimaginable. When Borg!Picard promises the Federation's doom, all the Enterprise crew can do is listen. The atmosphere breathes and builds , ensuring the situation's horror is inescapable and that the crew's individual — yet, ironically, collective — grief is palpable. The floor has been wrenched out from under their feet as much as the viewers'.

Just as unheard of is the franchise's first cliffhanger , accompanied by a "To Be Continued..." screen and a "dun-dun-dun" score worthy of John Williams gravitas. In a lovely anecdote from Patrick Stewart (via his costar Jonathan Frakes ) , the actor shared how fans shouted at him, "[You] ruined our summer!" The world spent a long, torturous three months waiting to see if Picard was dead and gone. That kind of cultural anticipation pre-dated Game of Thrones and was something no money could buy.

‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Broke the Television Mold for the Better

If "Part 2" lacks its predecessor's impact, well, that was a tough act to follow. The Enterprise crew rescues Picard with gritty flair; teamwork outsmarts a Borg hive mind that's unable to think beyond its compulsion to conquer. One then expects an all's well that ends well in proper TV tradition. Yet between the mournful music cues and Stewart's soulful silences, it's obvious Picard remains haunted. Those dangling emotional threads immediately culminate in the next episode, "Family," penned by future Battlestar Galactica and Outlander showrunner Ronald D. Moore . As Picard prepares to visit his family home, he assures Deanna Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) that "The injuries are healing." She responds, "Those you can see in the mirror."

Picard's estranged brother Robert ( Jeremy Kemp ) also doesn't buy Picard's cautious avoidance. Old fraternal tensions rise until the two duke it out, and Picard, covered in mud, once again does something revolutionary for the untouchably dignified captain: he weeps, agonized and ugly. Not only does he feel violated, he blames himself for the innocent lives lost to the Borg. "Family" is a character study, allowing Picard to be a terrified, flawed, and furious mess who grapples with his trauma in viscerally basic human ways. Scars aren't resolved in sixty minutes. Picard's experiences will shape his life, but rather than try to escape those ramifications into happy ending TV land, he must learn to live with them. (Ironically enough, Gene Roddenberry strongly objected to "Family.")

Dramatic events in The Original Series rarely saw emotional fallout. Even the best characters remained static. That isn't inherently faulty given the era, but television's gradual shift toward long-form storytelling demanded more from The Next Generation . The character-based risk that was "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Family" paid off in dividends. Sure, the series remained largely episodic outside of two-parters and season finales. Yet The Next Generation overcame its creative impasse enough to run for four more seasons , secure the franchise's future, and set the bar exponentially high with regard to dramatic tension and flawed, ever-evolving characters. The rules were shattered, the boundaries pushed.

In The Next Generation 's wake, up cropped serialized shows as prestigious as The West Wing . By the 2000s, The Sopranos , The Wire , and Breaking Bad confirmed the new norm. At the same time serialized television stretched out its first feelers, this little sci-fi show that could left a mark equal to influential prestige dramas like Hill Street Blues . The sheer daring of "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Family" truly explored strange new worlds: the kinds of stories television could tell and the groundbreaking way it could tell them.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

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Star Trek's Newest Movie Isn't Shy About Its Mission: Impossible Influence

According to a new article in Variety , the upcoming "Star Trek" TV movie "Section 31" includes a younger version of Rachel Garrett , a character last seen on the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Yesterday's Enterprise." Garrett will be played by actress Kacey Rohl. After some extremely nerdy number crunching, one will conclude that "Section 31" takes place in the 2320s, which is a weird timeframe. The lead character of "Section 31" is Empress Philippa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh, and the last time we saw her, she had been whisked away from the year 2258 — her "homebase," as it were — and deposited in the year 3188. After encountering a sentient time portal, Georgiou was next delivered to an unspecified point in history "when the Mirror Universe and the Prime Universe were still aligned." Given what we know about "Star Trek," that could be as long ago as AD 1799.

It seems, however, that she was deposited in the 2320s, which, for context, is about 35 years after "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," but about 35 years before "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

"Section 31" will also be a spy series. Trekkies will be able to tell you that Section 31 is the Starfleet equivalent of the CIA, the organization that handles devious subterfuge and secret infiltration missions. "Star Trek" is ordinarily a very open and diplomatic organization, so the very existence of Section 31 is a moral violation of Starfleet principles. It's a good thing Georgiou hails from the notoriously evil Mirror Universe and is capable of committing whatever evils Section 31 might require.

In the same Variety article mentioned above, Yeoh was quoted comparing the new "Section 31" TV movie to "Mission: Impossible." True to the organization, the movie will be all about subterfuge.

Star Trek: Rogue Nation

Yeoh didn't elucidate further, as the story of "Section 31" is still, as of this writing, under wraps. The only description given so far was from a press release in January that read:

"Yeoh will reprise her fan-favorite role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou — a character she played in "Star Trek: Discovery's" first season — who joins a secret division of Starfleet. Tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past."

The cast will include Rohl, Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly Gonzalez, and James Hiroyuki Liao, although apart from Rohl, none of their characters have been revealed. It is as yet unknown if any of these actors will be also be playing known, legacy characters. "Section 31" was initially conceived as a TV series , but likely for financial reasons, Paramount condensed it into a single movie event. Its release date also hasn't been released.

We do know that Yeoh's "Mission: Impossible" comparison will guarantee a certain tone. The "Mission: Impossible" film series surrounds impressive stunt sequences, twisty stories about ex-spies trying to undermine the world's governments, and dangerous, palm-sized MacGuffins that people will kill to obtain. Yeoh, a trained martial artist, will no doubt have her share of hand-to-hand fight scenes. Empress Georgiou may be from the evil Mirror Universe but in an episode of "Star Trek: Discovery," she proved that she had a conscience after all. Likely, "Section 31" will feature conflicts wherein she is given unethical orders, and then wrestles with the fact that "old her" would have followed them and "new her" desperately doesn't want to.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

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The now-tossed Star Trek 4 went through many iterations since the first announcement in July 2016 , including a story by legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, a surprise 2022 Kelvin cast announcement that apparently Chris Pine and company only learned about through the press, and prequel story set “decades before the 2009 film.”

Following the new Star Trek 5 announcement, star Chris Pine reportedly reacted “with a deep sigh” according to Deadline . “Chris is excited learn about this new film through today’s studio announcement,” said a representative for the actor, “because it went really well the last time this happened, right?”

Also expected for the Trek 5 reunion are co-stars Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Karl Urban (“Bones” McCoy), and John Cho (Sulu). Actor Anton Yelchin, who portrayed Chekov in the first three films, passed away in 2016.

While little is known about the planned story of this new film, sources close to Trek 5 development hear that Paramount is pursuing Dune and Wonka star Timothée Chalamet for the role of “Sybok,” half-brother of Spock, originated by actor Laurence Luckinbill in 1989.

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The Future of ‘Star Trek’: From ‘Starfleet Academy’ to New Movies and Michelle Yeoh, How the 58-Year-Old Franchise Is Planning for the Next Generation of Fans

“I can’t believe I get to play the captain of the Enterprise.”

“Strange New Worlds” is the 12th “Star Trek” TV show since the original series debuted on NBC in 1966, introducing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a hopeful future for humanity. In the 58 years since, the “Star Trek” galaxy has logged 900 television episodes and 13 feature films, amounting to 668 hours — nearly 28 days — of content to date. Even compared with “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Star Trek” stands as the only storytelling venture to deliver a single narrative experience for this long across TV and film.

In other words, “Star Trek” is not just a franchise. As Alex Kurtzman , who oversees all “Star Trek” TV production, puts it, “‘Star Trek’ is an institution.”

Without a steady infusion of new blood, though, institutions have a way of fading into oblivion (see soap operas, MySpace, Blockbuster Video). To keep “Star Trek” thriving has meant charting a precarious course to satisfy the fans who have fueled it for decades while also discovering innovative ways to get new audiences on board.

“Doing ‘Star Trek’ means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time,” Kurtzman says.

The franchise has certainly weathered its share of fallow periods, most recently after “Nemesis” bombed in theaters in 2002 and UPN canceled “Enterprise” in 2005. It took 12 years for “Star Trek” to return to television with the premiere of “Discovery” in 2017; since then, however, there has been more “Star Trek” on TV than ever: The adventure series “Strange New Worlds,” the animated comedy “Lower Decks” and the kids series “Prodigy” are all in various stages of production, and the serialized thriller “Picard” concluded last year, when it ranked, along with “Strange New Worlds,” among Nielsen’s 10 most-watched streaming original series for multiple weeks. Nearly one in five Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. is watching at least one “Star Trek” series, according to the company, and more than 50% of fans watching one of the new “Trek” shows also watch at least two others. The new shows air in 200 international markets and are dubbed into 35 languages. As “Discovery” launches its fifth and final season in April, “Star Trek” is in many ways stronger than it’s ever been.

“’Star Trek’s fans have kept it alive more times than seems possible,” says Eugene Roddenberry, Jr., who executive produces the TV series through Roddenberry Entertainment. “While many shows rightfully thank their fans for supporting them, we literally wouldn’t be here without them.”

But the depth of fan devotion to “Star Trek” also belies a curious paradox about its enduring success: “It’s not the largest fan base,” says Akiva Goldsman, “Strange New Worlds” executive producer and co-showrunner. “It’s not ‘Star Wars.’ It’s certainly not Marvel.”

When J.J. Abrams rebooted “Star Trek” in 2009 — with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldaña playing Kirk, Spock and Uhura — the movie grossed more than any previous “Star Trek” film by a comfortable margin. But neither that film nor its two sequels broke $500 million in global grosses, a hurdle every other top-tier franchise can clear without breaking a sweat.

There’s also the fact that “Star Trek” fans are aging. I ask “The Next Generation” star Jonathan Frakes, who’s acted in or directed more versions of “Star Trek” than any other person alive, how often he meets fans for whom the new “Star Trek” shows are their first. “Of the fans who come to talk to me, I would say very, very few,” he says. “‘Star Trek’ fans, as we know, are very, very, very loyal — and not very young.”

As Stapf puts it: “There’s a tried and true ‘Trek’ fan that is probably going to come to every ‘Star Trek,’ no matter what it is — and we want to expand the universe.”

Every single person I spoke to for this story talked about “Star Trek” with a joyful earnestness as rare in the industry as (nerd alert) a Klingon pacifist.

“When I’m meeting fans, sometimes they’re coming to be confirmed, like I’m kind of a priest,” Ethan Peck says during a break in filming on the “Strange New Worlds” set. He’s in full Spock regalia — pointy ears, severe eyebrows, bowl haircut — and when asked about his earliest memories of “Star Trek,” he stares off into space in what looks like Vulcan contemplation. “I remember being on the playground in second or third grade and doing the Vulcan salute, not really knowing where it came from,” he says. “When I thought of ‘Star Trek,’ I thought of Spock. And now I’m him. It’s crazy.”

To love “Star Trek” is to love abstruse science and cowboy diplomacy, complex moral dilemmas and questions about the meaning of existence. “It’s ultimately a show with the most amazing vision of optimism, I think, ever put on-screen in science fiction,” says Kurtzman, who is 50. “All you need is two minutes on the news to feel hopeless now. ‘Star Trek’ is honestly the best balm you could ever hope for.”

I’m getting a tour of the USS Enterprise from Scotty — or, rather, “Strange New World” production designer Jonathan Lee, who is gushing in his native Scottish burr as we step into the starship’s transporter room. “I got such a buzzer from doing this, I can’t tell you,” he says. “I actually designed four versions of it.”

Lee is especially proud of the walkway he created to run behind the transporter pads — an innovation that allows the production to shoot the characters from a brand-new set of angles as they beam up from a far-flung planet. It’s one of the countless ways that this show has been engineered to be as cinematic as possible, part of Kurtzman’s overall vision to make “Star Trek” on TV feel like “a movie every week.”

Kurtzman’s tenure with “Star Trek” began with co-writing the screenplay for Abrams’ 2009 movie, which was suffused with a fast-paced visual style that was new to the franchise. When CBS Studios approached Kurtzman in the mid-2010s about bringing “Star Trek” back to TV, he knew instinctively that it needed to be just as exciting as that film.

“The scope was so much different than anything we had ever done on ‘Next Gen,’” says Frakes, who’s helmed two feature films with the “Next Generation” cast and directed episodes of almost every live-action “Trek” TV series, including “Discovery” and “Strange New Worlds.” “Every department has the resources to create.”

A new science lab set for Season 3, for example, boasts a transparent floor atop a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench, and the surrounding walls sport a half dozen viewscreens with live schematics custom designed by a six-person team. “I like being able to paint on a really big canvas,” Kurtzman says. “The biggest challenge is always making sure that no matter how big something gets, you’re never losing focus on that tiny little emotional story.”

At this point, is there a genre that “Strange New Worlds” can’t do? “As long as we’re in storytelling that is cogent and sure handed, I’m not sure there is,” Goldsman says with an impish smile. “Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!”

This approach is also meant to appeal to people who might want to watch “Star Trek” but regard those 668 hours of backstory as an insurmountable burden. “You shouldn’t have to watch a ‘previously on’ to follow our show,” Myers says.

To achieve so many hairpin shifts in tone and setting while maintaining Kurtzman’s cinematic mandate, “Strange New Worlds” has embraced one of the newest innovations in visual effects: virtual production. First popularized on the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” the technology — called the AR wall — involves a towering circular partition of LED screens projecting a highly detailed, computer-generated backdrop. Rather than act against a greenscreen, the actors can see whatever fantastical surroundings their characters are inhabiting, lending a richer level of verisimilitude to the show.

But there is a catch. While the technology is calibrated to maintain a proper sense of three-dimensional perspective through the camera lens, it can be a bit dizzying for anyone standing on the set. “The images on the walls start to move in a way that makes no sense,” says Mount. “You end up having to focus on something that’s right in front of you so you don’t fall down.”

And yet, even as he’s talking about it, Mount can’t help but break into a boyish grin. “Sometimes we call it the holodeck,” he says. In fact, the pathway to the AR wall on the set is dotted with posters of the virtual reality room from “The Next Generation” and the words “Enter Holodeck” in a classic “Trek” font.

“I want to take one of those home with me,” Peck says. Does the AR wall also affect him? “I don’t really get disoriented by it. Spock would not get ill, so I’m Method acting.”

I’m on the set of the “Star Trek” TV movie “Section 31,” seated in an opulent nightclub with a view of a brilliant, swirling nebula, watching Yeoh rehearse with director Olatunde Osunsanmi and her castmates. Originally, the project was announced as a TV series centered on Philippa Georgiou, the semi-reformed tyrant Yeoh originated on “Discovery.” But between COVID delays and the phenomenon of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” there wasn’t room in the veteran actress’s schedule to fit a season of television. Yeoh was undaunted.

“We’d never let go of her,” she says of her character. “I was just blown away by all the different things I could do with her. Honestly, it was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, because I believe in this.’”

If that means nothing to you, don’t worry: The enormity of the revelation that Garrett is being brought back is meant only for fans. If you don’t know who the character is, you’re not missing anything.

“It was always my goal to deliver an entertaining experience that is true to the universe but appeals to newcomers,” says screenwriter Craig Sweeny. “I wanted a low barrier of entry so that anybody could enjoy it.”

Nevertheless, including Garrett on the show is exactly the kind of gasp-worthy detail meant to flood “Star Trek” fans with geeky good feeling.

“You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans,” Kurtzman says. “You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans.”

On its face, that maxim would make “Section 31” a genuine risk. The titular black-ops organization has been controversial with “Star Trek” fans since it was introduced in the 1990s. “The concept is almost antagonistic to some of the values of ‘Star Trek,’” Sweeny says. But he still saw “Section 31” as an opportunity to broaden what a “Star Trek” project could be while embracing the radical inclusivity at the heart of the franchise’s appeal.

“Famously, there’s a spot for everybody in Roddenberry’s utopia, so I was like, ‘Well, who would be the people who don’t quite fit in?’” he says. “I didn’t want to make the John le Carré version, where you’re in the headquarters and it’s backbiting and shades of gray. I wanted to do the people who were at the edges, out in the field. These are not people who necessarily work together the way you would see on a ‘Star Trek’ bridge.”

For Osunsanmi, who grew up watching “The Next Generation” with his father, it boils down to a simple question: “Is it putting good into the world?” he asks. “Are these characters ultimately putting good into the world? And, taking a step back, are we putting good into the world? Are we inspiring humans watching this to be good? That’s for me what I’ve always admired about ‘Star Trek.’”

Should “Section 31” prove successful, Yeoh says she’s game for a sequel. And Kurtzman is already eyeing more opportunities for TV movies, including a possible follow-up to “Picard.” The franchise’s gung-ho sojourn into streaming movies, however, stands in awkward contrast to the persistent difficulty Paramount Pictures and Abrams’ production company Bad Robot have had making a feature film following 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond” — the longest theaters have gone without a “Star Trek” movie since Paramount started making them.

First, a movie reuniting Pine’s Capt. Kirk with his late father — played in the 2009 “Star Trek” by Chris Hemsworth — fell apart in 2018. Around the same time, Quentin Tarantino publicly flirted with, then walked away from, directing a “Star Trek” movie with a 1930s gangster backdrop. Noah Hawley was well into preproduction on a “Star Trek” movie with a brand-new cast, until then-studio chief Emma Watts abruptly shelved it in 2020. And four months after Abrams announced at Paramount’s 2022 shareholders meeting that his 2009 cast would return for a movie directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”), Shakman left the project to make “The Fantastic Four” for Marvel. (It probably didn’t help that none of the cast had been approached before Abrams made his announcement.)

The studio still intends to make what it’s dubbed the “final chapter” for the Pine-Quinto-Saldaña cast, and Steve Yockey (“The Flight Attendant”) is writing a new draft of the script. Even further along is another prospective “Star Trek” film written by Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and to be directed by Toby Haynes (“Andor,” “Black Mirror: USS Callister”) that studio insiders say is on track to start preproduction by the end of the year. That project will serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise. In both cases, the studio is said to be focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling for “Star Trek” feature films.

Far from complaining, everyone seems to relish the challenge. Visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman says that “working with Alex, the references are always at least $100 million movies, if not more, so we just kind of reverse engineer how do we do that without having to spend the same amount of money and time.”

The workload doesn’t seem to faze him either. “Visual effects people are a big, big ‘Star Trek’ fandom,” he says. “You naturally just get all these people who go a little bit above and beyond, and you can’t trade that for anything.”

In one of Kurtzman’s several production offices in Toronto, he and production designer Matthew Davies are scrutinizing a series of concept drawings for the newest “Star Trek” show, “Starfleet Academy.” A bit earlier, they showed me their plans for the series’ central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada.

But this is a “Star Trek” show, so there do need to be starships, and Kurtzman is discussing with Davies about how one of them should look. The issue is that “Starfleet Academy” is set in the 32nd century, an era so far into the future Kurtzman and his team need to invent much of its design language.

“For me, this design is almost too Klingon,” Kurtzman says. “I want to see the outline and instinctively, on a blink, recognize it as a Federation ship.”

The time period was first introduced on Season 3 of “Discovery,” when the lead character, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), transported the namesake starship and its crew there from the 23rd century. “It was exciting, because every time we would make a decision, we would say, ‘And now that’s canon,’” says Martin-Green.

“We listened to a lot of it,” Kurtzman says. “I think I’ve been able to separate the toxic fandom from really true fans who love ‘Star Trek’ and want you to hear what they have to say about what they would like to see.”

By Season 2, the “Discovery” writers pivoted from its dour, war-torn first season and sent the show on its trajectory 900-plus years into the future. “We had to be very aware of making sure that Spock was in the right place and that Burnham’s existence was explained properly, because she was never mentioned in the original series,” says executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise. “What was fun about jumping into the future is that it was very much fresh snow.”

That freedom affords “Starfleet Academy” far more creative latitude while also dramatically reducing how much the show’s target audience of tweens and teens needs to know about “Star Trek” before watching — which puts them on the same footing as the students depicted in the show. “These are kids who’ve never had a red alert before,” Noga Landau, executive producer and co-showrunner, says. “They never had to operate a transporter or be in a phaser fight.”

In the “Starfleet Academy” writers’ room in Secret Hideout’s Santa Monica offices, Kurtzman tells the staff — a mix of “Star Trek” die-hards, part-time fans and total newbies — that he wants to take a 30,000-foot view for a moment. “I think we need to ground in science more throughout the show,” he says, a giant framed photograph of Spock ears just over his shoulder. “The kids need to use science more to solve problems.”

Immediately, one of the writers brightens. “Are you saying we can amp up the techno-babble?” she says. “I’m just excited I get to use my computer science degree.”

After they break for lunch, Kurtzman is asked how much longer he plans to keep making “Star Trek.”

“The minute I fall out of love with it is the minute that it’s not for me anymore. I’m not there yet,” he says. “To be able to build in this universe to tell stories that are fundamentally about optimism and a better future at a time when the world seems to be falling apart — it’s a really powerful place to live every day.”

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Screen Rant

Who is doctor vellek tng romulan in star trek: discovery explained.

Star Trek: Discovery's Doctor Vellek is a 24th-century Romulan connected to a surprising revelation from a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 1 - "Red Directive"

Dr. Vellek's discovery of Progenitors' technology kicks off a galactic treasure hunt in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.
The Romulan scientist kept the location secure with a paper diary hidden in a puzzle box on his 24th-century ship.
The Progenitors' technology holds the power to create and destroy, potentially changing the galaxy forever.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive", the USS Discovery's mission takes Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) to an 800-year-old Romulan starship containing the belongings and the remains of a long-dead Romulan scientist named Doctor Vellek (Michael Copeman). Vellek has been entombed in his ship since the 24th century, when Star Trek: The Next Generation takes place. Dr. Vellek's notes contain key information on the galaxy's greatest treasure: a mysterious, ancient, and very powerful artifact that the United Federation of Planets' mysterious Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) prioritizes recovering before it falls into the hands of the villainous Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis).

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase", Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) follows in the footsteps of his recently-deceased archeology mentor, Professor Galen (Norman Lloyd), by picking up a trail that Galen had long been pursuing. Picard forms a tenuous alliance with Klingons and Cardassians pursuing the same mysterious goal , discovering clues that lead to the uninhabited planet Vilmor II. Upon arrival, however, Picard, Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn), and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), along with Klingon and Cardassian representatives, beam down to find a crew of Romulans that have beaten them there. Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere reveals more about one of those Romulans, Dr. Vellek.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Who was doctor vellek in star trek: tng’s “the chase”, star trek: discovery reveals the romulan doctor vellek's tng connection..

Doctor Vellek is a Romulan scientist with the crew that has already arrived at Vilmor II in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Chase" , establishing how Discovery season 5 connects to TNG . Instead of joining in the collaborative effort with the Federation as the Klingons and Cardassians did, the Romulans simply monitored communications as the USS Enterprise traveled from site to site, unveiling clues at each destination that led to the next. Everyone present is equally privy to the information revealed by a hologram of an Ancient Humanoid (Salome Jens) that their race seeded life throughout the galaxy, so all humanoid species share a common ancestor, which Star Trek: Discovery has dubbed the Progenitors.

Dr. Kovich already knows what's been "classified for centuries" when telling Captain Burnham about Vellek's own discovery of the Progenitors' technology.

The Klingons and Cardassians drop the spirit of cooperation that led them to this point, balking at the idea that they're related in any way. But the Romulans, who essentially copied the Federation's homework to arrive at Vilmor II, contact Captain Picard with hope of an alliance between the Romulans and the Federation. This implies Vellek had been in contact with the Federation while leading the search for the Progenitors' technology in the 24th century , because in Discovery 's 32nd century , Dr. Kovich already knows what's been "classified for centuries" when telling Captain Burnham about Vellek's own discovery of the Progenitors' technology.

Why The Progenitors Technology Is Star Trek: Discovery’s Greatest Treasure

"a few thousand years ago, we'd have called them gods.".

The Progenitors' technology is Star Trek: Discovery 's greatest treasure because it holds the answers to scientific and philosophical questions about the nature of life as we know it, and also has the power to create life essentially from scratch. The site of Progenitor technology could explain the ancient humanoids' motives beyond what was revealed in Star Trek: The Next Generation , fundamentally altering societies at their very core. With that kind of information and the power of creation, the user of Progenitor technology could become the most powerful force in the galaxy , especially if the power to create also holds within it the power to destroy.

The Romulan in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1 , "Red Directive", Dr. Vellek, understood the importance of keeping information about the Progenitors and their technology as secure as possible. Vellek attempted to keep the location of Progenitor technology out of the wrong hands by keeping a paper diary, which can't be hacked, and hiding that book within a Romulan puzzle box, itself within a cloaked vault aboard his 24th-century Romulan ship. Even then, Dr. Vellek's diary isn't the treasure itself, but a clue that kicks off Star Trek: Discovery 's galactic treasure hunt, destined to change the galaxy irrevocably.

Star Trek Discovery season 5 streams Thursdays on Paramount+. Star Trek: The Next Generation is streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

Star trek: the next generation.

“Star Trek’s Latest Film Embraces Its ‘Mission: Impossible’ Essence”

T he “Star Trek” universe is expanding once again, and the upcoming film featuring Michelle Yeoh promises to bring a fresh, action-packed twist to the beloved franchise. Details about the project, tentatively titled “Section 31,” remain somewhat secretive, but what is clear is its notable inspiration drawn from the “Mission: Impossible” series.

Returning to the role of Emperor Philippa Georgiou from “Star Trek: Discovery,” Yeoh will lead a narrative where her character is enlisted into a covert division of Starfleet. As the press release details, Georgiou will strive to safeguard the United Federation of Planets, but she’ll be equally challenged to confront her own dark history.

The ensemble for “Section 31” is diverse, featuring talents such as Rohl, Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly Gonzalez, and James Hiroyuki Liao. The specifics of their roles are still under wraps, with much anticipation surrounding which roles, if any, will connect to the broader “Star Trek” legacy. Originally slated as a television series, the project has shifted towards a singular cinematic event by Paramount, though a release date remains forthcoming.

One certainty is that Yeoh’s reference to “Mission: Impossible” sets expectations for a dynamic and action-centric tone. The film is likely to incorporate complex stunt work, high-stakes espionage, and the classic race for powerful objects—all signature elements of the espionage thriller genre. Yeoh, with her martial arts expertise, is poised to deliver gripping action sequences. Audiences familiar with Georgiou’s arc know her as a figure from the malevolent Mirror Universe who, despite her ruthless background, showcased hints of remorse within “Star Trek: Discovery.” “Section 31” is poised to explore her moral dilemmas as she navigates orders that clash with her evolved principles.

Stay tuned for more updates on this evolving narrative.

FAQ about ‘Star Trek’s Latest Film and Its ‘Mission: Impossible’ Influence

What is the new Star Trek movie about?

The new movie, possibly titled “Section 31,” follows Michelle Yeoh’s character, Emperor Philippa Georgiou, as she joins a secretive branch of Starfleet. Her mission is to defend the United Federation of Planets while facing her troubled past.

Who else is in the cast alongside Michelle Yeoh?

The cast includes Rohl, Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson, Sven Ruygrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly Gonzalez, and James Hiroyuki Liao. Their specific roles have not been disclosed yet.

Will the film feature characters from previous Star Trek series?

It’s uncertain if any characters will be related to legacy characters from the “Star Trek” universe.

Was “Section 31” intended to be a TV series?

Yes, “Section 31” was initially planned as a television series but was later transformed into a single movie production.

Has the release date for “Section 31” been announced?

As of now, the release date for the movie has not been revealed.

What type of action can we expect in the film?

Drawing inspiration from the “Mission: Impossible” films, we can anticipate intricate stunt work, combat scenes, and action sequences that emphasize espionage and moral complexity.

Michelle Yeoh’s upcoming “Star Trek” film is set to invigorate the franchise with a high-stakes narrative and intense action infused with the spirit of the “Mission: Impossible” movies. With her distinct role in “Star Trek: Discovery,” Yeoh’s character Georgiou is stepping into new territory that will question her morality and strategic prowess. While specific details remain shrouded in secrecy, the film’s promise of thrilling espionage and action, combined with the rich tapestry of the “Star Trek” universe, are generating significant anticipation for this cinematic endeavor.

IMAGES

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