great trek movie

Every ‘Star Trek’ Movie Ranked from Worst to Best

We boldly go through the Enterprise's 13-film journey on the big screen.

Star Trek has had an unusual road to its fandom. It began as a short-lived television series, and yet it’s a highly influential and long lasting franchise that has spawned four sequel series and thirteen motion pictures. These two formats can be incredibly different, both in terms of tenor and tone, despite taking place in the same universe with the same casts. It is, to quote Mr. Spock, “fascinating.”

Some make the case that this is a story that deserves to be told on a cinematic canvas, while others argue that Trek is best served as an episodic series. Some pay great homage to the feeling of the original series, while others feel like they should have aired on television. It’s a rich, diverse film franchise where even the failures are intriguing.

So let us boldly go, and start with the weakest entry in the series thus far:

13.) Star Trek Into Darkness

I must politely disagree with my colleague Chris Cabin on the merits of Star Trek Into Darkness . While it’s not as bad on a second viewing, it’s still suffering the growing pains of not knowing what Star Trek really is.

That’s the conundrum with the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies: if you want to take them as simple action movies, they’re serviceable enough, but that’s a waste of a world and disrespectful of what Trek is about. If you’re not a Trek fan, I doubt you’ll care, but imagine if someone made a Star Wars movie and tried to take the mystical force and turn it into something scientifically measurable (oh wait). It’s fine to update Trek with new uniforms, a new ship design, a new score, etc. That’s the artistry, but that’s not the core of what makes Star Trek tick.

Star Trek is about science fiction, and J.J. Abrams isn’t interested in that. He’s interested in making Space Adventure! and he does a poor job of telling the story. It may stimulate the lizard parts of your brain with the bright colors, canted angles, lens flares, and set pieces, but it’s bad storytelling that tries to steal from a far superior picture.

I understand that for Kirk, this is a learning experience film for him, and he has to overcome his cockiness and irresponsibility (you wonder how someone who responds to breaking the Prime Directive with “Big deal,” should ever be a captain in Starfleet -- assuming you care about Starfleet), but it’s such a drag, and the character is so deeply unlikable that you’re almost rooting for him to fail. It also fails as a friendship tale, as there’s little chemistry between Pine and Quinto, so the big “Khan!” moment comes off as laughably terrible.

Rather than boldly build a new world, Into Darkness steals from the old one, and does so poorly. For some it may pass as mindless entertainment, but it’s mindless to waste Trek in such a vicious, vacuous manner.

12.) Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Someone give William Shatner a participation trophy. Watching Star Trek V , it’s like Shatner saw the lighthearted success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and wanted to redo it for his directorial contribution to the franchise. Unfortunately, Star Trek V is constantly silly and nonsensical rather than fun and upbeat. It starts out from a promising position, but quickly falls into lethargy, and missing the point of what makes a Trek movie with The Original Series cast work so well.

When it comes to movies with the TOS cast, the best thing to do is keep the focus on the cast. Unless you have a villain like Khan ( Richardo Montalban ), a villain who is rooted in the old show and who’s utterly captivating on his own merits, then your greatest strength is the camaraderie of the old cast working together.

Unfortunately, Final Frontier shortchanges the original cast on two fronts. First, it invests far too much in its villain Sybok ( Laurence Luckinbill ). While I like that Sybok isn’t an outright evil person, he comes off like an overly familiar camp counselor. He’s not creepy so much as he’s irritating, and then there’s his whole spiel about tapping into a person’s pain, which then in turn somehow brainwashes that person into being completely loyal to him.

That leads to the film’s second major failing: separating Kirk ( William Shatner ) from his crew. If that’s the route they were going to take, then they really should have carried more major stakes with it. Instead, it feels like a cheap shortcut that in turn deprives supporting characters like Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ), Sulu ( George Takei ), and Chekov ( Walter Koenig ) of character arcs and motivations. The movie also had an opportunity to delve into Spock’s loyalty to Sybok, but that plays more as ambivalence than a source of real conflict between the characters.

Caught between a weak villain and ignoring its greatest asset, you have a film that’s trying so hard to be goofy and constantly missing the mark. While it’s endearing in the odd way that Shatner is trying so hard to please his audience, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s missing the mark, and comes up with jokes like Scotty ( James Doohan ) hitting his head after saying he knows the ship like the back of his hand. So when we finally come to the comical “Why would God need a spaceship?” it’s just the summation of all of the film’s flaws rather than its final error.

11.) Star Trek: Insurrection

On the one hand, I can respect that the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies were in a difficult position. Unlike the TOS movies, which were set in the 23rd century and didn’t have to worry about how their events would affect the TV shows, TNG was right in the prime of other Trek on television even though their own show had ended. Rather than be audacious and tie into what was happing in the TV series (which, granted, is a big ask for any movie), the TNG films were largely content to tell standalone stories that only briefly acknowledge the larger Trek universe.

That’s how we get something as tepid and forgettable as Insurrection , a movie that could have delved deep into its interesting premise, and instead looks like a cheap, two-parter that went unaired because it’s the cure for insomnia. Insurrection had the opportunity to take on an interesting question: what happens when the Federation is wrong? It’s an issue that had popped up repeatedly during the series, but Insurrection could have tackled it on a massive scale, and even incorporated the weakened Federation brought low by Deep Space Nine ’s Dominion War.

Instead, rather than question what the Federation means and how important it is to the crew of the Enterprise (a crew that always agrees, which is nice, but doesn’t invite conflict), the plot to remove the peaceful Ba’ku (who look like they were pulled out of an L.L. Bean catalog) to profit the greedy Son’a and the Federation is the work of a couple of bad apples rather than something endemic to Starfleet. The lines are clearly drawn from the beginning, and rather than challenge the audience to question Starfleet and the loyalty of the Enterprise crew, the characters ditch their uniforms without much fuss and go help the Ba’ku.

10.) Star Trek: Nemesis

Again, it starts out from an interesting place—nature versus nurture, and who would Picard be if his life had been one of torment rather than one in Starfleet? Unfortunately, the film is so hard up to make its villain, Shinzon ( Tom Hardy ), unequivocally evil that there’s no dramatic pull. It’s not simply enough for Picard to see a dark mirror that reaffirms his righteousness. The film also doesn’t challenge Shinzon to find the good in himself. Had they pushed Shinzon in that direction, it would have made him a more tragic figure rather than the moustache-twirling villain who wants to destroy Starfleet with a super-weapon.

Nemesis also suffers from the same problem as all of the TNG films in that in cannot get enough Data. For some reason, even though you have a rich, diverse case with Next Generation , the movies treat Picard and Data as the main characters and ignore everyone else. This kind of thinking is how you get to disgusting things like Shinzon mind-raping Troi ( Marina Sirtis ) just because, and then doing nothing with that assault other than using it later for a plot device to let her empathically guide the photon torpedoes.

The movie also wants to get away with killing Data, but not having any of the emotional impact of actually killing Data. Data has to live, so his “sacrifice” is rendered meaningless because he has B-4 back on the Enterprise as a backup.

9.) Star Trek: Generations

This film seems to exist so it can pass a torch that never needed passing. Looking back on Star Trek: Generations , it’s a story that seems more suited to fan fiction than something that actually serves Star Trek of any generation. The original series cast had already gotten a great send-off with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , and it’s a bit of a bummer to see an incomplete cast some back for a second encore. Additionally, the Next Generation cast was already well-established and had a full series under their belt. The producers should have trusted them to carry their own story.

Instead, the movie tries to play to two audiences and ends up serving neither. Buried beneath all the dreck and talk of the Nexus and Data obnoxiously showing off his new emotion chip, there’s actually a compelling story about the cost of duty to Starfleet. Kirk and Picard are united by what they’ve personally sacrificed for Starfleet—and how they lost out on having families because they chose to be explorers instead. If you must have Kirk and Picard share the screen (and you really don’t), then this is solid thematic ground to walk.

But Generations bungles it completely with how tonally scattershot it is and the atrocious structure of the narrative. It’s a movie where you kill off Captain Kirk, an incredibly beloved and revered character, and then your next scene is the crew of the Enterprise-D playing dress up on the holodeck. They then keep Kirk out of the film until the third act, so there’s no real time for Picard and Kirk to build a bond before they have to take down Soran ( Malcolm McDowell ). And then Kirk gets killed by a bridge.

8.) Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The biggest problem with The Motion Picture is that it lost Star Trek ’s sense of identity. The film is trying to ape 2001: A Space Odyssey , and so it thinks that what the audience wants it a slow, meditative motion picture, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it loses Trek ’s greatest strength. It’s the opposite end of the spectrum from Star Trek Into Darkness —it’s not that Star Trek needs to be a non-stop action thrill ride, but it also shouldn’t be something understandably derided as “The Motionless Picture.”

There’s no good reason why the docking sequence should take as long as it does, and it feels like half of this movie is just people looking at the view screen. While I understand Star Trek taking a chance and going with something unexpected, The Motion Picture doesn’t play to the strengths of the original series or its cast.

It’s particularly frustrating that the movie pushes The Original Series crew to the background to play up new characters Decker ( Stephen Collins ) and Ilia ( Persis Khambatta ) to the point where it feels like The Motion Picture is their story that just happens to include The Original Series cast along for the ride. It doesn’t move the characters we know forward, and while the V-ger reveal is kind of neat, it elicits more of a shrug than any contemplation.

7.) Star Trek Beyond

I both kind of love and kind of dislike Star Trek Beyond . On the one hand, I knew I had a fun time while I was watching it. It felt like it was embracing classic Trek in a way we hadn’t really seen since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . But that being said, it’s almost impossible to remember this movie because beyond showing its love of classic Trek , it doesn’t have much in the way of a personality.

The plot of Star Trek Beyond finds the gang stranded on an alien planet (The Enterprise is destroyed. Again.) where the natives are ruled by a mysterious leader Krall ( Idris Elba ) who wants to unleash a powerful weapon against the Federation. This crash-landing allows the group to pair off in ways that hadn’t really been done before and allows for unique pairings like Spock and Bones that give the movie a lot of its power. The strongest asset of the new Trek movies has been the casting, and that really gets to shine here.

Unfortunately, the film fails to leave much of an impact because it never makes any bold choices. You can feel that this is a movie caught in a post Star Wars world where as the first two rebooted Trek movies could simply be Star Wars substitute, Beyond is wrestling with what it means to try and get out from under the shadow of the mammoth sci-fi franchise. Sadly, it never really finds an answer to that question, so while it makes for a fun, enjoyable picture with a better script than 2009’s Star Trek , it also lacks the necessary punch to make it more than disposable summer fare.

6.) Star Trek

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is a movie I really enjoyed when I first saw, but it has not held up well on repeat viewings. On a surface level, it’s really shiny and fun, and Abrams has the wherewithal to give his Trek an interesting new aesthetic (lens flares and shaky camera aside). It’s a fun compromise between the iconography of the original (they use communicators instead of com-badges) and an energetic, clean art design that sucks you into this new world.

The problem with Trek 2009 is that its story falls apart if you so much as glance at it the wrong way. For starters, like Into Darkness , it could not care less about what makes Star Trek special. It’s a movie where a suspended cadet gets promoted all the way to first office because the captain likes the cut of his jib. It’s a movie that doesn’t have a sci-fi bone in its body beyond trying to make sure that the original continuity remains intact while also forging an alternate reality. It’s a movie where they build the Enterprise on land rather than in space just so there can be a shot of Kirk looking at it in Iowa.

But even if those Trek concerns don’t bother you, there are still the larger story problems. For example, Spock strands Kirk on a planet where Kirk could easily die, but it’s okay because Kirk conveniently runs into Spock Prime ( Leonard Nimoy ) and Scotty ( Simon Pegg ), the only two people who can help get him back to the Enterprise. Or there’s the moment when Kirk confronts Nero ( Eric Bana ), and there’s no emotional baggage to it even though this is the man responsible for the death of Kirk’s father.

The success of Star Trek is that you don’t really notice its myriad of problems until you start looking for them, because Abrams made such a tight, lighthearted action flick that keeps barreling forward at breakneck speed. At the time, it felt promising because you would think that with four years between Star Trek and its sequel, there would be time to really nail down the story, and Abrams’ direction would remain intact. Oh well.

5.) Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: First Contact is an odd sort of movie. It’s the first time the Next Generation crew is really on their own, and they’re pulling from one of the strongest elements they ever contributed to Star Trek lore, the Borg. It’s a good setup and it also rewards those who saw the Next Generation series while not being so esoteric that it would alienate those who never saw the show.

And yet it’s still not quite Star Trek . It’s not a movie about anything. Say what you will about Generations , Insurrection , and Nemesis , but for all their faults, at least they’re about something (legacy, duty, and destiny, respectively). First Contact is an action-horror film, which is something you wouldn’t necessarily expect a Star Trek movie to be, but director Jonathan Frakes makes it work within the context of a new genre.

It’s just unfortunate that there’s no consideration of anything beyond Picard facing his old demons. Once again, outside of Picard, only Data really gets to shine, but at least they give Worf ( Michael Dorn ) more to do than Insurrection , which literally makes the character go through puberty because that’s the best they could come up with. The Borg are a compelling villain, and while you may have to cringe a bit with lines like “Assimilate this,” at least First Contact is fun, which is more than you can say than the other TNG films.

4.) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

This is where on this list that Star Trek actually starts to feel like Star Trek . One of the great things The Original Series did was to tell narratives that reflected real-world tensions. Out of all of the Star Trek movies, The Undiscovered Country is the only one to mirror real world events. In this case, the script cleverly draws a parallel to the closing of the Cold War with the coming peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingons because the Klingon Empire is about to go bankrupt.

It’s also a story that’s rooted in the films that came before, as Kirk must wrestle with making peace with the people he holds responsible for the death of his son. It’s an issue that hadn’t been dealt with since The Voyage Home , but it adds personal stakes rather than keeping the issue nebulous. It also makes The Undiscovered Country a personal journey for Kirk, where he has to learn the importance of not only forgiveness, but also accepting a new status quo where the Klingons and the Federation can live in peace.

Undiscovered Country also gives almost everyone something to do. Kirk ( William Shatner ) and Bones ( DeForest Kelley ) are on trial on Kronos and are part of a prison break while everyone else (minus Sulu, who gets the short shrift in this picture despite finally becoming a captain) is busy playing detective up on the Enterprise. It’s a well-balanced story, and while the film tries too hard to turn Chang ( Christopher Plummer ) into the next Khan (the climactic battle has Chang shouting like he really wants to get his Shakespeare Quote-a-Day calendar out of his system), it’s still a fun dynamic that actually feels like a Star Trek story at its core.

3.) Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

There’s shorthand that claims that every even-numbered Star Trek is good and every odd-numbered Star Trek is bad. That’s a claim that should have been thrown out the window at Star Trek III , a film whose greatest flaw is following the classic Wrath of Khan . This is a movie that does nothing wrong, perfectly builds on what came before, and is a true test of the friendship among the Enterprise crew.

It would seem at first glance that a movie dedicated to undoing Spock’s sacrifice would be an ill-conceived idea, but director Leonard Nimoy absolutely makes it work by making this all about how the Enterprise crew works together outside the bounds of Starfleet. It turns them into a crew on the run, and they in turn sacrifice everything to save their fallen crewman. That’s a great story, and one worthy of Trek .

It also feels like Star Trek without feeling like an extended Star Trek episode. While other great Star Trek movies would echo what the series did at its best—whether it be traveling to unique locations, creating parables to real-world conflicts, or recreating the feel of a naval battles— Search for Spock is unique by building off Wrath of Khan , putting the crew of the Enterprise at odds with their duty to Starfleet, and plunging them into uncharted territory. And, Kirk has to make the ultimate sacrifice when he loses his son at the hands of the Klingons. How anyone could see Search for Spock as inferior Trek is beyond me.

2.) Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

This movie is just pure joy from start to finish. I’m sure it may have been tempting to try and do more of the same: send Kirk and the crew out on an interstellar mission to fight some intergalactic foe with some destructive weapon on the line. Instead, they go back in time to save the whales. It’s a plotline that sounds so silly that it shouldn’t work, and yet it does. This could have been, on a smaller scale, an episode of The Original Series , but it carries that charm and successfully transfers it to the big screen.

Voyage Home almost plays more like a sci-fi comedy (a dispiritingly rare hybrid) and watching the crew of the Enterprise as fish-out-of-water is constantly entertaining. The Original Series gave us the crew as outsiders on a fairly regular basis, and The Voyage Home harkens back to that feeling while still giving the audience the comfort of being more familiar with the world the characters are seeing.

It’s also got a good message! Yes, it’s a bumper sticker message to save the whales, but how many blockbusters give a crap about endangered species? It equates saving the whales with saving the world, and that’s a fine sentiment to have. Additionally, it helps bring the crew together and creates the stakes that could get the crew reinstated after stealing and destroying the Enterprise. It’s both a palette cleanser and a bold direction for the franchise.

1.) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Is it the obvious choice? Yes, but it’s also the right one. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan isn’t just great Star Trek . It’s great filmmaking period. It’s everything someone could want from a summer blockbuster while also staying true to what makes Star Trek unique, especially from the original Enterprise cast. It’s a movie with deep thematic resonance, high emotional stakes, and a rewarding experience for those who had been Star Trek fans for decades.

It was a stroke of genius to make Khan the villain, not because he’s a lifelong nemesis for Kirk (Khan only appears in the episode “Space Seed”), but because he represents the sins of the past. Khan is a bad guy, but he’s not wrong that Kirk basically just abandoned Khan’s people on a planet and never bothered to check up on them afterwards. For a film about a man struggling with getting old, it’s important to take time to check on what Kirk did wrong as a young man, whether it’s stranding Khan on Ceti Alpha V or refusing the learn the lesson of the Kobayashi Maru. Wrath of Khan puts Kirk through a crucible of his past follies and makes him pay for it.

The movie also earns its emotional climax following a rousing space battle that would never happen today because it’s too “slow” (it’s basically a naval battle in space, which is what TOS would do sometimes). “I have been, and always shall be, your friend,” is a gut-wrenching line because you feel the history behind it. It doesn’t betray Spock’s Vulcan-side, nor does it lean too heavily on his human side. It’s a profound, honest moment where we see Kirk, finally faced with a no-win situation, lose his dearest friend. It’s a moment that only Star Trek could pull off, and it elevates Wrath of Khan beyond where most blockbusters have gone before.

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Every Star Trek movie, ranked

Boldly go on a ranking of all 13  Star Trek  films.

Credit: CBS via Getty Images

In 1979, Star Trek warped from television to the big screen. The franchise expanded faster than V'Ger. On December 6th, one of the franchise's best movies (and one of our favorites), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , celebrates its 30th anniversary.   

The films began with the original cast from Star Trek: The Original Series . After six films, the movies transitioned to feature the cast from Star Trek: The Next Generation , and then in 2009, a new timeline of films branched off with recast legacy characters and much bigger budgets. What will the next Trek movie be, and which crew will it feature? Who knows, but it’s only a matter of time before some Trek project boldly goes to the cinema once more. 

In the meantime, we’re going to rank all of the existing 13 films in the canon. It’s more of a celebration than anything else; most of these movies we love. We don’t dislike any of them. Which one are we going to throw on at any given moment? It depends on the day, it depends on the hour, it depends on which crew we want to journey with. 

Full impulse and prepare for warp, because only Nixon could go to China. Here’s our ranking of the 13 Star Trek feature films. 

13. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

J.J. Abrams' last Star Trek movie as director, Into Darkness , is his worst film. His much-loved “Mystery Box” approach, which only really works as a marketing tool, fails him on a story level when we learn who the villain really is (as if we didn't know already). It's a movie where the head of Starfleet is totally fine violating Federation principles and risking war with the Klingons to cover up his secret plans with an all-out military strike (which, as cover-ups go, not very discrete), but, if you’re Jim Kirk and you're caught lying, then he must uphold the very rules he's taking seven photon torpedoes to. If you like movies where heroes lie to save their own ass and put their crews’ in a wringer, or stories that lurch from one set piece to another with inconsistent characterizations and little emotional resonance, or that remix bits from Wrath of Khan without earning it, then appreciating why it is the best, then Into Darkness is for you.

12. S tar Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Traditionally, even-numbered Trek  films are high points for the franchise. The tenth installment, and the fourth film featuring the Next Generation  cast, broke that tradition.

Nemesis is a dull, rough draft of a movie that feels and operates like big-budget fan-fic, one that is surprisingly tone-deaf in regards to how to portray these characters — especially, and frustratingly, Picard in the first half. An overabundance on Romulan political intrigue gets in the way of enjoying or appreciating what few moments in the story are truly worthy of our attention, as Tom Hardy's Shinzon (a young and bald clone of Picard) challenges his (wait for it) nemesis in a big CG space battle where Shinzon's massive planet-killing ship and Picard's Enterprise collide. The movie bombed, killing future missions from this crew. It would take Paramount seven years to recover with J.J. Abrams' reboot.

11. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Saddle up, lock and load! The second Trek movie directed by Jonathan Frakes is, rightfully, the movie that gave us the "Riker Manuever." Turns out that it has nothing to do with the way Riker sits in chairs. 

Picard and the Enterprise crew get swept up in a rather uneventful conflict between the nasty Son'a and the ever-peaceful Ba'ku. The latter alien race inhabit a lovely planet that keeps you young and has various other magical powers. Starfleet wants to work with the Son'a to harness the planet's abilities, thanks to another wicked Admiral, and he's dealing dirty with the lead Son'a... played by none other than Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham. Picard won't stand for it, so he launches the titular insurrection and goes after Space Salieri to save the Ba'ku. 

Insurrection  plays like an extended episode of TNG ; no more, no less. Donna Murphy plays a love interest to Picard, and though we are big fans of hers, giving more screentime to, say, Beverly Crusher, would have been a better choice for this story. After the glory of Star Trek: First Contact , the stakes felt a little small but we still enjoy it. 

10. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

"What does God need with a starship?" Good question.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier got clobbered in the Summer of '89 by the likes of Batman and Indiana Jones; William Shatner's directorial debut's low, low budget and really bad special effects just couldn't compete with the other blockbusters. Neither could Final Frontier 's messy and largely passive story that tries too hard to capture the lighting-in-a-bottle mix of comedy and sci-fi that turned Voyage Home into a hit. Despite being one of the lowest grossing Trek s ever, this misfire does feature a few strong moments, especially when God-searching Sybok confronts his half-brother, Spock, and McCoy with their secret pains. (And we don't mind the funny campfire scene with Spock and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" either.)

9. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

The one with V'Ger.

The first big-screen Trek movie is definitely an acquired taste. Legendary director Robert Wise made a great science fiction movie, but it doesn't always feel like Star Trek . The pace is slow, but the ideas and themes the movie explores during its slog of a runtime are incredible. You just have to get past the blaring alarms, the nonsensical murdering transporters, and the cabana boy beach uniforms. 

William Shatner brings a lot of hubris to this new Kirk, and Kirk makes some bad decisions because of it. Leonard Nimoy is the highlight of the movie (shocker), giving us a Spock that wants to purge himself of emotions. That changes when he discovers the V'Ger entity. The mysterious being that is moving toward Earth is cold and unfeeling, and Spock realizes that he doesn't want to be like that. V'Ger's true identity, once revealed, is a great payoff. 

Still, most of the movie features one ship trying to stop a giant cloud. Patience will be rewarded here, and the rewards include some of the weirdest and most beautiful images in any Trek movie. Jerry Goldsmith's score is likely the movie's greatest asset, as none of it (especially Kirk and Scotty's famously long shuttle approach to the Enterprise) would work without it.

8. Star Trek: Generations (1994)

The one with Malcolm McDowell.

After Picard and company sailed off at the end of their television finale, they flew right into this 1994 film from David Carson. It was the first big-screen showing for the TNG crew, and it brought some old favorites back as well. Captain Kirk, Chekhov, and Scotty start off by christening the Enterprise-B back in their era, and, in record time, the ship gets caught up in an anomaly called the Nexus. Kirk is lost and presumed dead. Cut to the TNG era, and a dimly-lit Enterprise-D encounters the Nexus' number one fan, the sinister Dr. Soran (McDowell). He wants to get back to the Nexus, having survived the encounter that Kirk didn't aboard the B. The Nexus is pure joy, and it is only there that Soran feels he can escape the pain of having lost his family to the Borg years ago. 

Captains Kirk and Picard finally meet to stop Soran and save the galaxy, but the end result is rather "meh." A great (if too long) crash sequence involving the Enterprise-D and vivid cinematography are among the film's few high points, unless you have always wanted the greatest captains ever to meet-cute over (we sh** you not) chopping firewood and making eggs. And Kirk's death lacks the emotional impact that both the iconic hero and his fans deserve.

7. Star Trek Beyond (2016)

The best odd-numbered film since Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Star Trek Beyond is waaaay better than its predecessor, Star Trek Into Darkness (Phew.) It celebrates what makes Trek  so great, its themes and characters, while honoring the franchise's 50th anniversary with a very entertaining mix of humor, heart, and spectacle. We'd rank it higher if not for the problematic execution of villain Krall (a surprisingly ineffectual Idris Elba), whose motivations (while solid  on paper) are denied the necessary screentime to truly connect. But director Justin Lin (of Fast & Furious  fame) mostly overcomes that, as well as certain tonal and narrative bumps, thanks to making the first of these nuTreks to feel like a $200 million episode of The Original Series . Beyond leaves us feeling that which STID failed to do: Wanting more.

6. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Leonard Nimoy returns as Spock with his feature film directorial debut that bridges the events of  Star Trek II  with  Star Trek IV  with an earnest and assured, if not visually dynamic, approach. The story packs a considerable emotional punch, as well as some of the series most iconic moments — the death of Enterprise, Kirk's heartsick reaction ("Klingon bastards!") to the murder of his son, David — as the Enterprise's crew puts their careers and lives on the line to save both a resurrected Spock and a compromised McCoy. The latter is suffering from the effects of a super Vulcan mind meld; Spock used it to transfer his essence and consciousness into McCoy like one would backup files to the Cloud. 

The Search for Spock  competently explores the toll of Kirk's efforts to prove to Spock that sometimes the needs of the one outweigh those of the many, even if it means stealing the Enterprise in a stirring sequence. While Trek III  isn't the most ambitious or exciting  Trek  movie, it is one of the most heartfelt adventures in the series. A necessary throat clearing of sorts before the franchise can reach its then-highest point. 

5. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

While Star Trek: First Contact is the second film featuring Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the rest of the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew, it is the first full solo outing for the TNG cast. The hit sequel, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, also proved to be better than TNG ’s maiden big-screen voyage, 1994’s uneven Star Trek: Generations . Free from the studio-imposed story mandates that Generations had, writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga delivered an action-packed and emotionally compelling adventure that pit Picard against his most lethal enemy: The Borg, a race of cybernetic beings hellbent on going back in time to assimilate Earth at a vulnerable point in its history. Making the stakes that much higher was how Picard’s past trauma with the Borg threatened to get in the way of saving humanity’s future, as his experience being assimilated into their collective boiled over into revenge. 

In between explosive space battles and tension-filled set pieces featuring a Borgified new Enterprise, first-time feature director (and Next Gen actor) Jonathan Frakes gave fans a Star Trek movie unlike any other; a riveting, action-horror sci-fi blockbuster that was only the second Trek film at the time to ever achieve crossover audience appeal outside the core fanbase. (The first was 1986’s time-traveling, “save-the-whales” romp Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ). 

4. Star Trek (2009) 

It’s telling that J.J. Abrams has remade Star Wars twice and that his actual Star Wars movie is the second-best one.

2009’s Star Trek  is still a nearly unparalleled dazzler, a canny prequel and inspired reboot that feels wholly fresh and original, with a nifty plot (involving time travel and alternate timelines) that wisely (albeit in a complicated way) doesn’t negate the films that came before it. Abrams brilliantly cast the movie, introducing a host of fresh faces playing iconic roles that, by the time the film was released, had become more punchline than anything else. ( Star Trek: Nemesis was an inglorious end to the Enterprise’s big-screen adventures, critically lambasted and commercially ignored.)

Breathlessly told, Star Trek  has some of the biggest and most inventive set pieces (the opening attack sequence, particularly when the sound drains away during a key moment to leave room for only Michael Giacchino’s soaring score, is enough to bring tears to your eyes), as well as  memorable new characters (Eric Bana’s Nero is a wry and scary baddie). After the promise of Mission: Impossible III , Abrams showed himself to be an honest-to-goodness filmmaker, able to improbably invigorating moribund franchises with vitality, humor and boundless energy. It feels like we have watched Star Trek a thousand times and it also feels like we could watch it a thousand more.

3. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

The one with the whales.

It's not just the funniest Star Trek movie, it's one of the funniest movies ever. Large credit goes to director Leonard Nimoy and the movie's late producer and co-writer, Harve Bennett. 

A weird probe (its origins never explained) comes to 23rd-century Earth looking for whales. Humpback whales, specifically. But, since they are extinct, Kirk and his crew aboard a stolen Klingon vessel must slingshot around the sun to travel back in time to 20th-century San Francisco and save two whales just in time to warp back to the future and save the day. 

It's such a cockamamie plan, sure, but part of the fun is seeing the characters both acknowledge it is a stretch and then commit fully to it. There are no consequences to messing with time, the crew just romps around San Francisco and does what they want. They alter history (hello, transparent aluminum!) and invade Naval vessels. But along the way, the movie takes some big comedic swings with the hilarious "fish out of water" story Spock and Kirk find themselves in as they don't need photon torpedos to save the day. Just their wits. The film is full of sweet, funny, and surprisingly poignant moments and still remains, 35 years later, a classic comedy and essential  Trek  film.

2. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

It’s fitting that one of the filmmakers responsible for putting Trek ’s big-screen franchise back on track would return to wrap up the voyages of the The Original Series cast. Wrath of Khan writer-director Nicholas Meyer’s second Star Trek feature, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is, at times, arguably more confidently executed and rich with character beats than his former (and well-regarded) entry. The movie embraces the characters’ twilight years as a plot point by putting the aging crew of the past-her-prime Enterprise in the middle of a conspiracy that threatens to light the fuse on continued conflict between the Federation and the Klingons.

The Cold War parallels here between the then-fall of the Berlin Wall and our sci-fi heroes and their nemesis lend Trek VI  an urgency and intrigue on par with ‘60s political thrillers, with Meyer’s propulsive whodunit of a script (cowritten by the late Denny Martin Flynn) affording the franchise to boldly go explore new genres like the murder mystery and POW, Great Escape -esque war dramas. (There’s also some great courtroom drama flourishes as well, on top of an exceptional Run Silent, Run Deep -inspired space battle between the Enterprise and a Klingon bird-of-prey that can fire while cloaked.)

From Kirk sporting grey hair, to the characters expounding upon their relevancy and usefulness as they are all that stand between us and the brink of full-scale war, Star Trek VI is a taut, clever picture that always puts story and character first and never fails to deliver on the emotional resonance of either.

1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Following the events of "Space Seed" in The Original Series , Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) comes to get revenge on Admiral...  Admiral ... James T. Kirk in the rousing intimate epic that is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . A cat and mouse game of dueling starships ensues, with Kirk commanding an Enterprise full of trainees. A dangerous science project called "Genesis" is in the mix, too, and Khan wants it to help him conquer the galaxy. Kirk wins in the end, bit loses his best friend in the process.

The most thematically and emotionally rich film in the series,  Khan  is still the benchmark to which all subsequent Treks aspire to match or exceed. Not only is it the best big-screen mission ever for the Enterprise, it's also one of the best science fiction films of all time.

This movie set a new bar for Trek greatness. We don't think we're being hyperbolic when we say that it is damn near perfect. We'll watch it "'round the moons of Nibia, and 'round the Antares maelstrom, and 'round perdition's flames before we give it up."

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From Khan to Beyond: All the Star Trek movies, ranked from worst to best

Star Trek is inarguably television’s greatest space adventure, captivating audiences with exciting, inspiring, and thoughtful stories since 1966. However, like most culturally significant pop culture franchises, Trek also has a long history on the big screen, supplementing its over 800 television episodes with 13 feature films. These large-scale adventures are often the gateways through which new fans find their way into the Star Trek universe , attracting mass audiences on a scale rarely enjoyed by their counterparts on TV.

13. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

12. star trek v: the final frontier (1989), 11. star trek into darkness (2013), 10. star trek: insurrection (1998), 9. star trek iii: the search for spock (1984), 8. star trek: the motion picture (1979), 7. star trek: generations (1994), 6. star trek beyond (2016), 5. star trek iv: the voyage home (1986), 4. star trek: first contact (1996), 3. star trek (2009), 2. star trek vi: the undiscovered country (1991), honorable mention: galaxy quest (1999), 1. star trek ii: the wrath of khan (1982).

However, as one might expect from a long-running film series that has had multiple casts and behind-the-scenes shake-ups, the Star Trek movies vary wildly in quality. The conventional wisdom amongst fans is that even-numbered Trek movies are much better than odd-numbered ones, an adage that still holds up if you slot in the loving parody Galaxy Quest as the unofficial tenth installment, which, of course, we do.

“A Generation’s Final Journey Begins,” boasted the theatrical poster for Star Trek: Nemesis , the fourth feature film to include the cast of the hit series Star Trek: The Next Generation . It’s also where their final journey ended, at least on the big screen. Nemesis failed to satisfy critics, casual filmgoers, or Trek devotees, opening at No. 2 at the US box office behind J.Lo vehicle Maid in Manhattan and plummeting the following weekend thanks to the debut of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers .

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Helmed by an allegedly indifferent director in Stuart Baird and edited to within an inch of its life by producer Rick Berman, Nemesis is a dreary, lifeless slog with none of Trek’s usual heart. There are a few highlights, such as the young Tom Hardy’s performance as Captain Picard’s villainous clone and the light-hearted fun of Riker and Troi’s wedding, but for the most part, Nemesis is just a bummer. It’s no wonder why, decades later, the streaming series Star Trek: Picard would spend its first season trying to rehabilitate it, and its third season outright replacing it as a farewell to the cast of The Next Generation .

During the original run of Star Trek in the 1960s, lead actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had a “favored nations clause” incorporated into their contracts, stating that each actor was entitled to any raise in pay or perks received by the other. This clause remained intact during the franchise’s big screen revival in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, so when Nimoy won the job of directing the third and fourth Star Trek films, Paramount couldn’t refuse Shatner the same privilege. The result was a troubled production and a critical disaster, and if not for Star Trek: The Next Generation finding its footing on television that very same year, it could well have damaged the franchise beyond repair.

The blame doesn’t all fall on Shatner’s shoulders; The Final Frontier faced a number of obstacles, such as a writer’s strike and an unqualified special effects team . Its story is ambitious, sending the Enterprise crew on a mission to the center of the galaxy to meet a being who claims to be God Himself, and there are some truly charming moments of camaraderie between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. For the most part, however, The Final Frontier is a mess, teetering precariously between “so bad it’s good” and just plain bad.

2009’s Star Trek reimagined the brainy space procedural as a shiny, fast-paced action adventure, grabbing mainstream attention on an unprecedented scale. The Next Generation and its spin-offs were well-regarded, but now, suddenly, Star Trek was … cool? Consequently, its sequel was granted a colossal $190 million production budget and preceded by a great deal of hype.

Upon its release, Star Trek Into Darkness couldn’t quite live up to either. It fell short of its predecessor at the box office and flummoxed fans and critics with a contrived, overblown story that retreads the beloved Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan while also stealthily promoting the 9/11 truther movement . It’s a thematically muddled “dark middle chapter” to a trilogy that, thanks to co-writer Roberto Orci’s subsequent departure from the franchise , was jettisoned in favor of Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond . And, honestly, we’re better off without it.

Do you ever hear a cinephile refer to a real film that, as far as they’re concerned, “doesn’t exist?” We’re not talking about movies that are loathed and willfully forgotten, like Norbit or The Last Airbender , we mean films that were so promptly forgotten that they provoke no feeling whatsoever even from those who saw them, like Transcendence or The Huntsman: Winter’s War . If not for its place in one of pop culture’s most recognizable franchises, Star Trek: Insurrection would surely fall into this category.

The third film starring the Next Generation cast feels like a very expensive two-part episode of the television series, but not a particularly good one. Its dilemma, which sees Picard fighting to keep Starfleet from exploiting a cosmic fountain of youth, is theoretically compelling but poorly thought out. Most of the highlighted character moments come in the form of funneled-in comic relief, and its attempt to recast this gang of affable middle-aged nerds as rebellious action heroes simply doesn’t work. Like all Star Trek products, it has its loyal defenders, but were it not for its place in the franchise’s canon, we doubt anyone would give it a second thought.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was an instant classic that dug more deeply into the original show’s beloved characters than ever before, expanded the canvas of their lives, and delivered a powerful, emotional ending. So, it’s stunning that its immediate follow-up, The Search for Spock , willfully undermines it at nearly every turn. The Wrath of Khan ’s iconic, tear-jerking death scene is undone; the feeling of hope and rejuvenation implied by its ending is evaporated in the sequel’s very first scene; its three new characters are killed off, recast, and totally absent, respectively.

Despite this, The Search for Spock isn’t actually retrograde, in fact, it’s a surprising lateral move for the characters, who have always been driven by their duty to Starfleet, to put their lives and careers on the line for an unsanctioned mission to rescue their lost friend from a forbidden planet. The concept is exciting and there are warm and wonderful moments of character throughout, but the execution by TV-minded writer/producer Harve Bennett and first-time feature director Leonard Nimoy feels a bit small and underwhelming.

If The Search for Spock is an ambitious story with an underwhelming production, then The Motion Picture is the reverse case. Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise took a screenplay adapted from what was meant to be the pilot to a new Star Trek TV series and, with the aid of an astronomical budget, tried to make it into his own 2001: A Space Odyssey .

The result is a film in which characters silently gawk at the crazy light show they’re seeing out the Enterprise’s viewscreen for minutes at a time. Plot isn’t everything, but when a movie is 132 minutes long but only really has enough story for 90, that laser light show had better be damned compelling. And, heck, it is pretty spectacular, especially if you have the privilege of seeing it on the big screen, but the runtime is so bloated that its character beats, including one of Leonard Nimoy’s best performances as Spock, get totally lost. Even in its more polished “Director’s Edition” form, The Motion Picture is Star Trek at its slowest and most sterile. However, if you’re in the mood for something trippy and meditative, it’s still worth a watch.

Whereas the classic Star Trek gained an obsessive fanbase in the decade following its cancelation, Star Trek: The Next Generation was a legitimate phenomenon in its own time, outshining the original series in terms of both commercial and critical success. With the original cast growing more expensive and less profitable on the big screen, it was practically a given that the Next Gen crew, led by Patrick Stewart, would eventually take their place in the Star Trek film series. Star Trek: Generations , whose production overlapped with that of TNG ’s series finale, sees Kirk passing the torch to Picard in a crossover adventure that fans had been imagining for seven years.

Since there was probably no way for the film to meet the audience’s expectations for a Kirk/Picard team-up story, writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga attempted to subvert them all together and deliver a more personal story about death, loss, and legacy. Audiences found the long-awaited crossover underwhelming at the time but taken on its own merits and judged more as a Next Generation episode than as a blockbuster event, Star Trek: Generations is actually one of the more interesting films in the franchise, and the only one that allows star Patrick Stewart to exercise the full extent of his acting range.

When the first teaser trailer for Star Trek Beyond premiered online, die-hard Trekkies went into full panic mode. “It’s bad enough that Paramount hired the Fast & Furious  guy to make Star Trek ,” the nerds cried, “but now they’ve got Captain Kirk riding a dirt bike? Star Trek is ruined forever!” It surely was not, in fact, we’d argue that Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond does a better job capturing the sense of fun, friendship, and wonder of the original Star Trek than any other feature film, save for the next entry on our list. At the same time, it also steps out of the shadow of the franchise’s dense mythology after J.J. Abrams’ two nostalgia-driven adventures.

With no legacy cast or famous villains in their way, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, and company finally get to have their own Star Trek , one in which all of their iterations on the Enterprise family feel like fully formed adults without sacrificing the youthful vigor that attracted new fans to the rebooted Trek films in the first place. It’s delightful, both as its own film and as an accidental bookend to the Kelvinverse Trilogy.

Star Trek is often serious business, an arena for complex characters to confront difficult ethical dilemmas that help audiences to confront the adversity and inequity they encounter in real life. But, it’s important to remember that Star Trek can also be very silly and that many of its most memorable moments are born from its dalliances in farce. The Voyage Home is a wry fish-out-of-water comedy in which the crew of the Enterprise (who, following The Search for Spock , are now fugitives from Starfleet) travels back in time to 1980s San Francisco in order to kidnap a pair of humpback whales in the hope that one of them might be able to talk a powerful space probe in the 2280s out of destroying the Earth.

The story has blockbuster-level stakes, but they all but disappear for a solid hour of the film in favor of a charming light adventure that prioritizes Trek’s memorable cast over flashy effects or high drama. Thanks to a clever script and terrific comedic chemistry between William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (who also directs) and guest star Catherine Hicks, The Voyage Home is a total crowd-pleaser and was even the franchise’s biggest box office hit before the 2009 relaunch.

1996 could be considered the apex of Star Trek ’s cultural relevance. The franchise was celebrating its 30th anniversary, both Deep Space Nine and Voyager were on television every week, and there was an absolute deluge of books, PC games, and other merchandise available. The cherry on top was Star Trek: First Contact , the second film to feature the cast of The Next Generation and the only one to catch fire with general audiences.

A dark action-thriller that has as much in common with Aliens as it does with The Wrath of Khan , First Contact pits Captain Picard and the crew of the new Enterprise against their most famous enemy from their television hay day: the Borg. At the same time, First Contact serves as a sort of origin story for Star Trek itself, as its time travel plot takes our characters to an event in our future that is pivotal to their history. It’s a terrific “gateway Trek,” an approachable popcorn flick that explains the franchise’s values and aspirations for a better future within the context of a relatively dark and creepy action movie.

Though rejected by Trek traditionalists for its mile-a-minute pace and cranked-to-eleven characterizations of young Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the classic Enterprise crew, J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot was a massive popular success that breathed new life into a franchise that had completely run out of gas by the early 2000s. Not everyone may be a fan of just how far it pushed Trek into the realm of “big dumb action blockbuster,” but the truth is that, after 18 continuous years under the same creative management, Trek desperately needed a refresh.

Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (the latter of whom remains at the helm of the franchise to this day) radically changed the visual aesthetic and the tempo of Star Trek from classical to classic rock, and in so doing restored an element that had long been lacking in the film series: Joy. Emotionally intense and startlingly sincere, Star Trek more than earns its place near the top of our list of Trek ’s best theatrical outings.

Being an episodic drama from the 1960s that got canceled during its third season, the original Star Trek never really got a “series finale.” As was commonplace in television at the time, when Star Trek ended, it just stopped. Thanks to its revival on the big screen, Trek got a new lease on life, a grand legacy, and — 25 years after it first appeared on television —a proper ending. The Undiscovered Country reunites the entire classic cast one last time, along with writer-director Nicholas Meyer, the man behind the No. 1 entry on our list, to tell the tale of the final voyage of Kirk’s Enterprise, one that provides closure to the crew’s growth over the course of the five preceding films.

In proper Trek tradition, it’s also an incisive political allegory about the end of the Cold War (one of The Original Series ’ most common subjects) and the difficulty of putting aside old prejudices and embracing change. The Undiscovered Country doesn’t paint our Starfleet heroes in the most flattering light, which provoked the ire of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, but that’s the entire point: to see characters who we’ve grown up with confront their own learned hatreds so that those who come after them can live in a better world.

While not technically not a Star Trek movie, Galaxy Quest is a loving parody that captures the essence of classic Trek as well as any film in the canon. The story of a band of washed-up actors who are abducted by aliens who believe them to be the gallant space travelers they played on TV, Galaxy Quest skewers sci-fi fandom and tropes while also telling a heartfelt story about friendship, compassion, and imagination. I

t’s no wonder that this film has been adopted by Trekkies as an unofficial yet essential part of the Star Trek movie canon. Should you choose to include it, slot it right here on our rankings, beneath…

The phrase “ad astra, per aspera” meaning “to the stars through hardships,” has been adopted by many a starry-eyed enterprise (including Starfleet itself), but it also applies perfectly to the production of Star Trek II . Produced with a third of its predecessor’s budget by an inexperienced director who had only twelve days to rewrite its script , The Wrath of Khan could very well have been a disaster. Instead, it’s almost universally considered to be the best Star Trek film and one of the most enduring science fiction films of all time.

Functioning as a sequel to the classic episode Space Seed , Khan pits William Shatner against a worthy, equally hammy foil in Ricardo Montalbán, and their tête-à-tête is pure movie magic. The submarine-style battle at the film’s climax is one of the franchise’s strongest action sequences, but it’s Admiral Kirk’s inner journey that gives The Wrath of Khan its soul, as he confronts the cost of a life spent cheating death and hopping galaxies. Star Trek is not always literature, but The Wrath of Khan is a genuine work of art, a treat not just for Trekkies or genre fans, but for all lovers of cinema.  

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The 2024 Super Bowl is over. Even if your favorite team won, there's an anticlimactic feeling that is hard to get over. Is that all there is? And what's worse, the weekend is over too, and for a lot of people, the prospect of a long work week is too much to bear.

One cure for these post-Super Bowl blues is Netflix. As the world's most popular streamer, it offers a plethora of movies to access anytime you want. But which ones should you watch? Digital Trends has selected five great Netflix movies to watch after the Super Bowl. Moneyball (2011)

Japan has been a source of some of the greatest games, graphic novels, TV series, and, of course, movies ever made. Japanese cinema has produced countless cultural gems that have gone on to influence the art form all over the world. The very best films from the country are windows into the nation's history, traditions, and its filmmakers' artistic brilliance.

Whether it's samurai epics, intimate family dramas, or fantastical anime, the diversity of Japanese cinema ensures that there's something for every type of viewer. From the world-renowned Spirited Away to the innovative Seven Samurai, these legendary movies from Japan should be considered essential viewing for all cinephiles. 10. The Human Condition (1959-1961)

Every Star Trek series is someone’s favorite (Star Trek: The Animated Series stans, we see you), but when it comes to the 18-year Golden Age of Trek between 1987 and 2005, the prequel series Enterprise is easily the least beloved. Airing on UPN for an abbreviated four-season run, Enterprise was meant to shake things up after three consecutive series set in the late 24th century. Imagined as a sort of origin story for Star Trek in the style of The Right Stuff, creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wanted to capture the danger and excitement of United Earth’s early interstellar space program, even planning to spend the entire first season on Earth preparing for the launch of Starfleet’s very first Starship Enterprise. The network, however, had other ideas, insisting that Berman and Braga not meddle with the consistently successful Star Trek formula. Thus, despite taking place two centuries earlier, Enterprise became, essentially, “more Voyager,” which in turn had been “more Next Generation,” a once-great sci-fi procedural that was nearly a decade past its peak. That’s not to say that the series didn’t improve throughout its four-season run. After two years of struggling to justify the show’s very existence, Berman and Braga swung for the fences with a radically different third season that reinvented Enterprise (now renamed Star Trek: Enterprise) as a grim and gritty serialized drama unpacking the aftermath of a 9/11-scale attack on Earth. While immediately more compelling, the revamp failed to boost the show’s sagging ratings, and it was reworked yet again the following year, and leaned further into the “prequel to Star Trek” angle under new showrunner Manny Coto. This, many fans will argue, is where Enterprise finally found its legs, but it was too little and too late to prevent its cancellation. Still, each iteration of the troubled spinoff had its highlights and our list of the 10 strongest Enterprise episodes is spread fairly evenly throughout the run of the show. Warning: This article contains spoilers for each listed episode.

10. Babel One/United/The Aenar (season 4, episodes 12, 13, & 14)

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Paramount Developing Second Star Trek Movie In Parallel With ‘Star Trek 4’

| January 10, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 205 comments so far

News broke this afternoon that Paramount Pictures is looking to expand the Star Trek universe on the big screen, putting another film into development with a new director and writer hired.

Another Star Trek movie!

According to Deadline (later confirmed by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter ), Paramount Pictures has another Star Trek feature film in development. Reports say the film “expands on the Star Trek universe.” J.J. Abrams is producing, and to direct they tapped Toby Haynes, who is nominated for an Emmy for Andor and is a Hugo winner for his work on Doctor Who . Deadline reports the Haynes Star Trek movie is “an origin story that takes place decades before” the 2009 Star Trek movie, so presumably also set in the Kelvin Universe, assuming it is set after the attack on the Kelvin . Seth Grahame-Smith ( The Lego Batman Movie , Beetlejuice 2 ) is writing the script.

For more on Haynes, see our follow-up: New Star Trek Movie Director Is A Fan And Directed The ‘Black Mirror’ Trek Episode “USS Callister”

Toby Haynes and Seth Grahame-Smith (Getty/Deadline)

Star Trek  4  will be “final chapter”

According to both reports, the “Star Trek 4” follow-up to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond remains in “active development.” That film was originally set for a Christmas 2023 release but delays and disagreements over the script led to director Matt Shakman exiting the project in 2022. Deadline is now describing the Star Trek 4 project as “the final chapter in the main series.”

Deadline offers this background on the development of the new movie:

Though there hasn’t been a film since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond , the brand is still strong as its ever been with popular Paramount+ shows like Picard and Strange New Worlds , earning strong reviews and big ratings in the time since the last film bowed in theaters. Brian Robbins led-regime, saw an opportunity to build on that popularity with multiple films in development the same way the streamer had multiple shows going at once.

No details on production or a release date have been reported for the new movie or for Star Trek 4. It is unknown if this new Toby Haynes-helmed Star Trek movie has anything to do with the movie script Patrick Stewart talked about in a November 2023 interview released last week. However, a movie featuring Jean-Luc Picard (last seen in the 25th century of the Prime Universe) does not appear to fit with one set in the 23rd century of the Kelvin Universe.

This is a development story so stay tuned for updates.

Find more news on all the upcoming Trek movies at TrekMovie.com .

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Oh, Paramount, when will you learn that Star Trek is neither Marvel nor Star Wars? Make a little movie that’s mostly about the characters, make it with only a medium budget, and you might succeed.

IMO, Disney and Marvel Studios should be following your advice too since the MCU isn’t doing so well now either.

Honestly, the problem is Avengers: Endgame was aptly named. They had no where interesting to go after that which anyone cared about beyond Loki.

there are decades of marvel stories still to be told on screen and now they have mutants, FF, galactus and Dr doom to put in play

But they haven’t yet. We can see how Deadpool goes but the problem specifically in the movies is that X-men has already been done and they can’t get over losing Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. And X-men from FOX has never been nearly as successful as the MCU.

Even without adjusting for inflation, Logan and Days of Future Past rival a lot of Disney Marvel box office performances. There’s a huge audience for that franchise (and anecdotally, boy did I see a lot of film fans tossing aside concerns about the Disney-Fox merger just because it meant Kevin Feige could get X-Men back). Deadpool being such a big hit on its own complicates things, but now that they’ve embraced the messiness of a multiverse, who knows what will happen?

I feel like Logan sort of closed the book on the X-Men and I really don’t need to see anymore — and I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way.

It doesn’t matter – they’re going to reboot it sooner than later, and hope the characters are more Batman than Superman with audiences. Deadpool 3 will be a big hit, but Marvel’s larger woes are as big an issue going forward as any waning interest in X-Men.

I agree with him — Kind of lost interest now myself

I agree about Endgame. I, personally, haven’t cared about a Marvel film since and have only watched a handful of them afterward.

Although, I will see Deadpool 3 just for the return of Wolverine.

Yep agreed. Deadpool is the first movie I will care about since endgame. Frankly losing Iron Man and Cap is like losing Kirk and Picard. Once they are gone, so is your franchise.

“dr strange and the multiverse of bad VFX and scarlet moron” was enough for me.

I agree 100%. Deadpool’s a different animal. It’s a comedy thing I like so I’ll still see that one — but that has nothing to do with me needing more from marvel… And I really don’t care all that much about seeing the wolverine again either — except for the comedy interaction with Deadpool

Avengers: Endgame didn’t feature Steed or Mrs. Peel so I passed.

People say this yet post Endgame Wandavision was a huge success, as was Loki and falcon and the winter soldier. Secret Invasion? spiderman No way home did over a billion dollars, dr strange performed very well as did GOTG3 and Blackpanther…. Thor performed modestly, only really Antman and The Marvels flopped

Ditching JJ would help with the movie. He’s the villain ruining franchises.

He produced Beyond and that was fine. When he doesn’t direct, it’s a different story.

That’s the thing tho, Beyond was “fine”. Compared to Into Darkness it looks like a brilliant movie but that wasn’t exactly hard given the competition. I liked Beyond for the way it honored Leonard Nimoy and the TOS crew but part that frankly I found the movie meh at best.

the problem isn’t direction it’s writing.

• ”Lens flares”
• Abrams had no idea how to direct a Star Trek movie because he has no knowledge of it and he purposely let whatever happen *happen* because he didn’t care. He wasn’t just the director he was the producer and had a hand in everything,

I actually liked Beyond because it at least felt like a TOS movie and not Star Wars. But I’ve only watched it three times to this day. The story just felt like a bigger budget Insurrection but at least it was decent.

That’s the thing. It felt like a TOS episode to me and not like a real movie. Just IMHO of course. And stop destroying the Enterprise for the love of *********

It isn’t a case of him becoming the villain, he always was.

JJ’s name attached to these alone means I am not interested.

That’s sort of good for Trek fans in a weird way.

We’ve been saying Trek has a hard time in the market competing with the bigger franchises, but now the bigger franchises are having trouble competing with themselves.

I think that leaves an opening for Trek, assuming they can finally get their act together and get something to the production stage in time.

That’s the problem IMHO, with Abrams at the helm I have a hard time believing that will happen.

Just my opinion…..

The problem is that they won’t be making Star Trek. It will be action adventure but nothing more. Pass on both.

(Is that a word? Whatever)

Agreed. The very best Star Trek films are always character-driven. Hopefully this announcement has nothing to do with the reported script Patrick Stewart mentioned.

Agreed and I doubt it does. I bet anything the Stewart project is a P+ direct to streaming project. And nothing to do with Abrams

From your lips to the prophets’ ears …

Yuppers! Abrams hasn’t ever seemed like he was ever interested in anything TNG related anyways. I remember b4 ST 09 came out and he was asked which generation his movie would be and he said something like, there is only one that matters and that’s Kirks or something. I am misquoting but it was something like that,

I mean, he was making a TOS reboot at the time, so what’s he going to say? That he prefers TNG?

Well, I’m surer Paramount would have given him his choice of any crew to use. How do we know he didn’t just choose to use the TOS crew.

We don’t. Do we even know if the idea to reboot TOS came from Bad Robot or Paramount? Being much older than TNG, TOS certainly gave them an opportunity to radically upgrade stuff and make it “cool” for new audiences. Maybe, someone at Paramount was also still considering a TNG reunion so didn’t want to reboot that (yet).

To be fair…that could clearly be what they’re doing with this. Nothing about it says spectacle.

So agreed my friend

While I totally agree, they have recognized this to a degree. Section 31 and likely the Picard movie I’ll be mid budget movies direct to streaming.

For theatrical releases, it does make some sense to invest more money and make a bigger spectacle.

In what way has Paramount been treating Star Trek like its Marvel or Disney? Are we getting 3 Star Trek films a year, every year since JJ’s STAR TREK in 2009?

No. Paramount seems to be able to do one Star Trek film every 4-6 years on average; and it’s going on 8 years since the last one. hardly a Disney MARVEL style release schedule to date.

And as for Budget being the issue – the only Star Trek feature film to really bomb at the Box Office was Star Trek Nemesis, which had a mid-sized (for it’s day) $60 million budget.

So no the Budget isn’t the real issue here its first and foremost the writing, the fact that Paramount does have a system that can put a movie out when the interest is at its peak (they took 4 years to get a sequel out the ST2009 when 2 years would have been better); and oftentimes Paramount’s marketing department screws the pooch too.

I never get this argument, spend less to earn more right? But who goes to a movie theater to see a small low budget Star Trek movie, especially when there is tons of it on TV right now?

I go back and forth on whether any of the movies from TWOK through INS would have made much more money if they’d had slightly bigger budgets. Does spending a million more on the space battle for Generations get you that many more tickets or DVDs sold? Does a better VFX company and the Rock Man sequence make the difference in getting TFF to no longer be disappointment at the box office? I have no idea.

I do know that a cleanish slate (and a fun enough script and good casting) but especially the $150 million dollars in production value is what enticed millions more people to see the 2009 film than had seen any one of the previous films. We’ve established that $190 million is ridiculous as a budget for these films, but even with top quality VFX being cheaper now and clever scripting and production tricks you’d be hard pressed to argue the franchise should go back to sub-$100 million budgets. It’s not practical and it undermines the jobs of the marketing department by giving them less spectacle to promote.

Make a  little  movie that’s mostly about the characters, make it with only a medium budget

Instant fail.

Wrath of Khan disagrees with you but OK

I don’t know — Picard season 3 was kind of produced as you are recommending and that didn’t prevent it from being like Star Wars.

You could also say it stole from The Wrath of Kahn big time also. So what if the last two episodes stole from Star Wars, the previous eight were way too talky to be Star Wars. We could also go down the road that the Abrams movies felt more like Guardians of the Galaxy than Trek. The were 3 action movies with a lot of comedy.

Andor was great. If Toby Haynes can deliver a movie half the quality of that TV show we could be in for a treat.

Andor was very good, easily the best Disney live-action Star Wars series. But great? Nah. It meandered too much in the second half of the season. And it really should have been called “Resistance” or “Rise of the Rebellion” or something. There were whole episodes Andor himself was hardly in.

The second half of the season is when it hit its stride for me. Right when Haynes’ episodes started.

Andor was my favourite Star War followed by Rogue One.

Yay more prequels!

Exactly. Although I would like to see a movie or series about the Federation-Romulan Wars post-NX-01 pre-NCC-1701.

I’d love an animated show set in that time. A semi follow up to Enterprise with new and old characters. That’s my #1 fanfic Trek dream.

SAME. It would be amazing.

Omigosh that would be awesome!

Weird that I had just written a comment to that effect on a Facebook Trek site a couple of hours before the news broke!

It can’t be “set in the Kelvin universe” if it happens before Nero/Trek 2009. That’s a shared history before the divergence of the prime/kelvin universes. “That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works.” :)

It could theoretically take place between 2233 and 2258.

True. I stand corrected. :)

After Kelvin but before the main events of 2009’s film.

Kinda vague. I’m assuming this would be a young Pike or a Young Spock movie. Not sure where else there is to go with this.

I’m of the belief that Kelvin universe existed before Nero arrived and that it’s not a shared past. It’s just another alternate universe like the mirror one. I believe this because things were already different when Nero arrived:

The USS Kelvin is HUGE and has different technology. Khan, who was born hundreds of years before the Kelvin incident, is a white, British guy. I think there are more but I’d need to research it.

Wait I’m confused wasn’t it just always an alternative universe like the Mirror universe? How could white Khan be floating around for 300 years of it didn’t exist before then?

And why would the Kelvin just be there when the black hole formed? It’s JJ verse, trying to make sense of it is like trying to understand how cats think but this should just be a given it was always there.

Hi My friend. Yes it is an alternate universe. Both Bob Orci and Simon Pegg defined this. Although the red matter black whole created the Kelvin universe, the Kelvin Universe existed in its own reality since its own big bang. Than means before the Kelvin incident. It’s based on the idea of quantum mechanics or at least Orci’s understanding of it.

The whole concept of the Kelvin-verse is confusing. I see many articles calling it an altered timeline and others calling it an alternate universe. If it is confusing to fans, imagine how it is for the casual person who calls it “Star Track” and mentions “Dr. Spock” when the subject comes up.

Yep it is totally confusing and I can’t blame anyone. The thing I try to point out as an example is the mirror universe. It has existed since its own big bang. Some people like to point out the moment when Cochrane shot the Vulcans at first contact as the moment it “verged” but even that isn’t true if you look at the opening credits of the 2 part Enterprise Mirror episodes.

Kelvin is the same way. Sure the Universe was created in the Prime 24th century from the black hole, but people forget in different universes time works differently. And that’s a real life theory. Just because it is the 24th century in one universe does not mean you are creating that in the second. The Kelvin universe was born the moment in Prime universe the black hole was created but within it’s own time it started at the Big Bang and lasted from then till the 23rd century when Nero and Spock showed up. It could even be because in the time it took them to travel through the wormhole, that much time in the Kelvin-verse had past.

The casual person most likely doesn’t care how exactly Kelvin relates to what came before. To most people who’re not hardcore fans it’s probably simply a high-budget, slick reboot of an old entertainment property.

And unfortunately it’s the casual person’s money the studio is chasing now.

At least the fans still have the streaming productions and the past stuff that was created with them in mind as the primary demographic.

The movies could never succeed on Trek fans alone. They have always chased general audiences.

Completely agree.

It also throws everything streaming into a gray area (even PIC S03).

Agreed. I do believe that the black hole sent Nero and Spock back in time to the same parallel dimension, at two different points within that dimension. It never made sense to me that it would send Nero back in time within the same Prime ST Universe, and Spock back in time to a splinter timeline.

Also, the story of the USS Franklin just doesn’t quite fit with ST: Enterprise.

I think at one point in time, JJ, or someone on ST Beyond, said that Nero’s incursion changed the timeline going forward and backward (explaining the USS Franklin), which makes no sense at all.

according to the the writers and directors of beyond the kelvin timeline was always seperate and different from the prime verse and only certain personal histories were altered by the destruction of the kelvin and more was altered due to the destruction of Vulcan that is way Edison exists and the Franklin exists and was a maco ship to start with prior to the federation and there was a xindi war non of which happened or existed in the prime verse

I somewhat wonder if this will be a Franklin movie.

Yuppers exactly. Ther red matter black whole did create the Kelvin Universe but it existed since its own big bang. It is not an alternate skewed timeline of Prime. If it were ST Picard and Discovery S3 on would not be a thing.

Yes it can. The Kelvin universe is a universe, as you state, not an alternate timeline. It existed since its own big bang. It’s true it was created when Nero/Spock entered the black hole, but that black hole created an entirely new universe that existed from beginning to end. They had their own version of events that were not the same necessarily as the prime universe events prior to the Kelvin events.

Yuppity yup yup yup my friend!!! :)

Also, not holding my breath. Wolf has been cried many times. Like, many, many times at this point. When shooting begins, I’ll believe it.

I read that as “Worf” has been cried many times for some reason.

I agree we have been here many times now, but I still can’t help but to feel excited about the news.

I wish I had written that. :) Better turn of phrase. I am excited for any new Trek. I just have lost a lot of respect for the corporate cubicle climbing milquetoast talents at Paramount that come and go from the various executive roles since the canceling of Prodigy. It’s all temp execs at just another job that they will likely underwhelm in making calls that disrespect the cultural value that Trek has earned over the decades. They come and go, but Star Trek, and its connection the audiences’ hopes and aspirations, remains.

Paramount has a Trek movie in development could be a drinking game…..

Looks like mini-Phil also agrees

Star Trek movie false starts, how come Picard’s son has zero resemblance and what awards has LDS won — I think we have lots of fun material for that game! Lol

We’d all have alcohol poisoning by now

Sadly, I have to agree with you.

I agree completely. But 2 things are giving me pause. Giving the news as of late I have a sneaking suspicion there is already a merger deal in place with something like WBD that is a financial backer. 2, like the article says, the success of Trek on streaming gives them added incentive unlike the last attempts.

Don’t people get tired of entertainment vaporware? Ever hear of the boy who cried wolf? https://trekmovie.com/2018/04/25/breaking-paramount-ceo-confirms-two-star-trek-films-in-development/

I understand the cynicism but eventually one of these films will get made. It’s not a curse or anything, it’s just a series of bad luck. Something will punch through.

But the wolf eventually showed up

A white male director?! Awesome. It’s good that that group of people is not being disproportionately represented at all – and I’m one of them. All film directors have been men. Only one has not been a white guy. Seems odd that only white men have talent. Hmmmmm. No obvious, glaring bias here at all. Just a “coincidence” that’s not evidence of anything. Move along. This is not continued male and white supremacy at work creating a vision of the future that is supposed to represent the whole of humanity… but served up by white men almost exclusively on the big screen and with only recent small screen improvements.

Well maybe there would be more diversity if the current forced diversity was working (it’s not) you can’t force people to do something and then be surprised when it’s not that good.

I really don’t care who writes or directs as long as they truly care enough about what they are doing to write a smart story with good characters (aka the exact opposite of Discovery and Picard S1-2)

Oh, Americans and your identity politics. You lot won’t be happy till you have a 2nd civil war.

We don’t have it all figured out like the model UK has.

We already have one in case you haven’t noticed.

Oh, please, this is nothing like a civil war. It was far, far worse in the Vietnam era than it is now, and no one calls the late ’60s a “civil war”.

Jan 6th was nothing short of an attack by the American people on the United States Government. Whether it happened during Vietnam does not negate that.

But I haven’t seen the National Guard murdering protesters on college campuses lately.

Like I said, I am not comparing better or worse. Just that it was BAD and a literal attack by US citizens on the government of the United States. That’s Civil War, or at least the attempted start of one in my book.

I grew up on the ’70s — this is worse than that period for sure

The sclerotic thinking behind these projects also points to the global deterioration of the white male imagination. Navel-gazing rehashes of things their fathers and grandfathers built and they can only think to duplicate without heart or soul.

Appointing a Star Trek movie director is “white supremacy.” Gotcha.

Yeah, that was nutty

13 films. All male directors. Only one wasn’t a white guy. Seems odd that only one ethnicity/gender would get to direct… unless there was some sort of systemic racism/sexism giving white men a child’s booster seat at the table or a head start. Speaking of society at large. This is just a symptom. (Haven’t some of you actually watched Trek with its messages of social equality, or do you just think it’s about spaceships that go vroom in space?)

Who would you nominate to direct instead?

Lots of female and non-white directors are being given opportunities on the TV side, with Olatunde Osunsanmi being the top director for Disco and now Section 31. Hopefully some get to make the jump to theatrical features sooner than later, but the talent pool for diverse filmmakers with a good track record for helming big budget tentpoles is still shallow – it needs time to fill up. The most likely diverse and proven directors have very full dancecards now. Also, in Paramount’s defense, for every Jonathan Frakes and Leonard Nimoy they entrust with those responsibilities, there’s a William Shatner or Roberto Orci giving them second thoughts.

Knowing Paramount got as far as actually hiring S.J. Clarkson to direct a Kelvin film and the last director was an Asian man, perhaps we could tone down the accusatory tone a little. They’re obviously trying to do better, so it doesn’t really help to come in so hot. Haynes is talented as hell, that’s worth mentioning before lamenting his race and gender.

S. J. Clarkson

Pay attention!

Didn’t direct.

Too bad tho

Not because of anything she did. They did hire her, the project died in development hell.

Yeah exactly — they had her hired as the first female director for a Star Trek movie and the project died in development hell.

But they had hired her, so on this dude’s whiney point I am calling BS on — especially since we don’t even know if this new white guy will even direct a real movie anyway.

Like you know, this new guy’s actually going to direct a real Trek movie???

Not sure if you’re taking a stab a dry humor or sarcasm here. They did hire SJ Clarkson for one of the previous false starts. I have no idea if Jordon Peele or Greta Gerwig are available or not, but the reality in Hollywood is that if you put all the available directors in a room and threw in a rock, you’re going to hit a white male. I completely agree the industry needs more diversity, but it’s going to take time.

If it takes place decades before Star Trek (2009), could it be an Enterprise movie?

I’d love it if it were a Romulan Wars movie. But then I would want it to be the Prime universe.

I wonder if this is an attempt to get a movie made with Chris Hemsworth starring as George Kirk?

It’s possible, although we are about 15 years later in real time so I’m not sure if they want to do a movie where they have to de-age the lead for the whole movie.

What in the ever lasting HELL is Star Trek doing? “Set decades before the 2009 movie.” Do you know how time travel works? You bunch of morons. Unless it is AFTER the incursion that destroyed the Kelvin, its not a Kelvinverse movie because anything before it would be Prime. 

And you SAY you’re still developing number 4 at the same time as whatever the hell this other one is? Whatever. Believe it when I see it.

Let me guess. Sir Patrick got a scripts the other day. Said scripts is gonna have Picard interact with Kelvin folks and either make it where that timeline never happened or………….oooooooo I got it. Because we can never drop the Borg. People from the Kelvinverse will go seek out Picard after the Kelvinborg are discovered.

They’ll go recruit Picard from his timeline to fight the Borg. Oh, and this time the Borg queen will be a hottie with a big bust cuz Kelvinverse. 

Halfway through your post you just started yelling at people for your own bad fanfic.

Calm down, kid.

Whoever’s writing these pieces isn’t going to be fully familiar with Star Trek lore inside out. ST09 is the most popular recent reference point for most casual audiences.

Do YOU know how time travel works? Nero’s incursion was in 2233, the bulk of the 2009 film took place in 2258. That’s 25 years later (two and a half decades). So a film taking place decades before the 2009 movie is likely to be set right after the incursion, literally the origin point of the Kevin Universe. Seems like the perfect time to set an origin story. I’m not going to argue about whether or not a film that hasn’t been made yet and we know next to nothing about is going to be good or bad, but you’re so desperate to have something to complain about that you can’t even get the facts in your own argument straight.

Do you know what you are talking about? Both Bob Orci and Simon Pegg confirmed YEARS AGO that Kelvin is it’s own universe and not its own timeline. Yes, the red matter created Kelvin but it is NOT an alternate timeline. If it were Star Trek Picard and Discovery Season 3 and Beyond would not have happened in the PRIME UNIVERSE!

I think Pegg stated it was a different universe (bc of all the hoo-hah about kelvin sulu being gay but takei saying his version of sulu wasnt gay), Orci had previously said it was a new separate timeline (obviously existing in parallel to the prime timeline) created due to the Narada incursion and anything before that was the Primeverse.

Orci’s is the correct explanation

IIRC both had stated different universe due to quantum mechanics of a wormhole creating a new universe when matter goes through it which is actually a real scientific theory which obv no one can prove of course.

Switch to decaf, Raun, you sound like a shouty old man/nerd. Not saying I entirely disagree, but do calm down.

Borg Queen will be 7/9 then :D

It would kind of make sense for there to be a movie crossover (for 60th) with Picard/TNG and kelvin cast (Generations II) as it would mirror the end of TNG/Generations in 1994.. bringing together the biggest Trek crews/casts probably taking on the kelvin borg for maximum box office potential (250m ww.. j/k) and the multiverse/legacy movies with old actors all trendy now (except The Flash)

Alternate headline: “Paramount announces another Star Trek movie that it will never make; hires director and screenwriter to develop it to movie hell”

I would follow Toby Haynes into a sleazy Klingon pub. Fight me. Because Andor was real.

Haynes also helmed 5 of my favorite Doctor Who episodes and the USS Callister episode of Black Mirror. Great talent.

Great!!! They’ll send someone back in time to before Star Trek: Enterprise. Wipe away the entire franchise so they can start “fresh”!!! SMFH!!!

So how can this film take place in the Kelvin universe if the events that triggered the Kelvin universe haven’t happened yet? 😁

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again right now: Their dogged insistence on time travel being the creator of the Kelvin timeline only leads to MORE having to explain things away.

Kelvin/prequel personal thoughts aside…if this comes out in 2024 (which it won’t) 8 years after Beyond, can we expect the same elevated level of visual improvement and bombasity we saw from Nemesis (2002) to Star Trek (2009)? Radom thought for discussion

Considering that post-production for a movie like this takes upwards of a year and they haven’t even started writing it, a 2026 release is much more likely, assuming it happens at all, which it won’t.

Agreed. I have no faith in any Trek project outside of P+

I wasn’t aware it was April’s fools day. Its Jan 10th 2024.

I am of three minds on this. 1) I would like them to get a real finale for the Kelvin-verse so we can finally say good bye to it. 2) I am tired of them not developing something in the Prime universe. 3) I am really tired of them announcing movies that never go anywhere.

From what I have read so far, here and other sites, it isn’t clear if this movie is in the Prime or Kelvin universe. Only that it takes place decades before the 2009 movie. If it is before the Nero incursion then it should be in the Prime timeline.

Well they are developing in the prime universe, just not in the movies. Nemesis screwed everything up so bad that they gave up on it except for streaming. But I was hoping the success of Picard and SNW would put Prime back in the movies. I guess not. Frankly I don’t even need an end to Kelvin. Just let it die already.

This is adorable.

Not to be a naysayer, but I’m taking this with a grain of salt at the present time. And, another prequel, super.

This project sounds suspiciously like a revival of the Jendresen movie about the Romulan war.

That’s not the *worst* idea for a prequel — it’s probably more interesting than what we got with Discovery. But at the end of the day, do we really need yet another prequel?

Nope. Prequels (with the exception of SNW) suck

While SNW is technically a prequel, I view it more as a reboot.

Well I guess ever since that 2024 Khan ep it kinda is,

Enterprise could have been a great show, though. The premise of “birth of the Federation” had a huge amount of potential. What we got instead was two seasons of mostly rejected Voyager scripts and then a season-long 9/11-inspired war arc, and then finally some ‘birth of the Federation’ stuff in the last season when about 47 people were still watching.

I agree with you. But I didn’t want a retread of yet another ship with yet another crew. I wish we had gotten much more of a “For all mankind” kind of show where we see the birth of Starfleet by Humanity struggling to make it out into the galaxy with the first WARP drive and failing at first.

The original premise of Enterprise did have the whole first season on earth about the politics and such.

The Star Trek brand is popular as ever? It absolutely is… Largely among us old timer fans that is. Many casual TV audiences, especially those who only have Netflix, are still not even aware of the current shows out there. Seriously, just chat with any non-Trek fan who is a TV watcher and find out how much they actually know/care about the franchise or any of the new shows on the go. I also haven’t seen the expected deluge of new fans praising the shows and recommending that their friends jump on board too.

I said this before as well and recently a week ago in another thread. No one I know knows any of these shows exist, mostly because none of them have Paramount+ or care about Star Trek.

I’m on Facebook every week discussing Picard, SNW, Discovery and so on and almost every single member in that group have all been fans since the 90s. Some even since the 7Os and 80s. Not a single one became a fan due to any of the new shows. One became a fan due to JJ verse at least but that’s because his dad was already a Trekkie growing up on TNG and took him to see it when he was 12.

It’s very weird to me because I didn’t become a fan until Voyager started and was around 18 at the time but met other people like me who was green on Trek until the 90s when they became teenagers or of age too. I don’t see any teenagers talking about these new Trek shows today.

That’s why I’ve decided Prodigy being on Netflix is a good thing. P+ is way too weak of a service to carry a franchise like Star Trek.

I love Prodigy, but I suspect it’s mostly popular with old Voyager fans like me and not the demographic it was created for.

I wish all of the shows would return to Netflix.

Definitely agree. Prodigy has way more exposure now no matter what. P+ is becoming the UPN of streaming and probably won’t last half as long if they sell it.

old time (but young) fan here. Very big fan and I know of the new series, I’ve watched most of them and found them very lackluster… I have no reason to praise or pass on the new shows, I do still talk about and recommend the older ones.

Sweet! Another couple of movies to add to: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Undeveloped_Star_Trek_projects

Woooaah now Paramount is not developing one but TWO Star Trek movies at the same time??

Amazing, this is 2018 all over again! 😂😂😂

Bruh what is WRONG with these people? Of course we are all so positive about it since we saw how great the last movie that was released a month ago.

Oh wait. 😆🙄

And more JJ verse and prequels? Eh, really don’t care. Buuut if one of them involves Picard from the script Stewart mentioned then I can pretend to care?

Whatever we can’t go a year without another movie ‘announcement’.Was JJ there to reveal it at another shareholder event too?

Totally dude. Kelvin? No thanks. I’ll stay home. And I’m not even sure I’d be interested on P+ at this point. Let it die already.

I don’t know why they just won’t let it die?? And look I’ll play fair and be nice and say I understand there are people that like those movies and want more. But at some point when you keep cancelling and delaying the same movie over and over for seven years now, Paramount is making it clear they have no faith in this movie or they would’ve made it already. 🙄

And what’s hilarious when I saw the headline they got a new director for the Star Trek movie I thought it was for that one. You know the one they announced three years ago and keep saying they want to make but haven’t replaced the last director who bounced over a year ago? Now they got this new guy for another movie entirely. That’s probably the one Stewart is tied to if he’s really in it.

I guess it’s announced it’s the final one because they already know the next movie, if it ever gets made is probably not going to be a huge hit. They probably just hope it does better than Beyond but I bet it’s going to do worse since only Trekkies even care about them at this point and half them don’t even care anymore.

I gotta be honest with you. I gave up with this idea when I saw “JJ”. He buried Star Trek into the ground, Then he got Star Wars. He nearly buried that into the ground too. The only thing that saved both franchises was when they went to tv and were out of his hands. And how Paramount is SO STUPID they are putting it back in his hands again?

Abrams does not get Trek. Nor does he care. He is ON RECORD as saying as much when Tarantino was possibly attached to Trek for 5 minutes and said he doesn’t get “Pine Trek” and Abrams said, “I don’t either, just do whatever you want”. Screw you dude. Normally I am a very nice person. But in this case? Seriously, screw you Abrams.

I do think it’s funny that you hate those movies more than I do? 😂

But I agree, Abrams doesn’t care about Star Trek just how much money he can make from it. I’m not naive I understand who makes it wants to make money off of it. You can do that and still care about it. Abrams just saw it as a way to push his new directing career that got him Star Wars and he did that franchise even dirtier in the end. What’s ‘great’ about JJ verse is that you can totally ignore it and not have it touch the real Trek IMO or the Trek I’m deeply devoted to and care about. Those movies are isolated from the bigger universe.

Definitely not the same with the Sequel Trilogy. Those movies are tied in to everything now.

And everyone seems to know Abrams is poison because no one is remotely suggesting that he should direct any of these movies. The guy hasn’t directed in 5 years and his other projects just keep dying so now is the shot to get back on the saddle but no one seems to be in a rush to have him direct anything these days.

I’m OK if he produces but stay far away from writing or directing or we get much worse schlock than STID or TROS as scary as that sounds. 🤮

I guess if he is just collecting a paycheck as a producer but stays as far away from creative control that would be ok lol.

And ya I agree with everything you said as per usual. But you mention the best thing about the kelvin movies was that they were completely separate from the Prime Universe. I agree 100%. But here’s the thing. That was Orci, not Abrams. By his own admission to Tarantino, he doesn’t even get it.

My feelings on Abrams, is he comes up with 4 or 5 “key” exciting scenes he wants to happen, puts them onto the writing staff and says I dont care how we get here, but I need to see these epic scenes.. plot be dam make it happen cappt’en!!

I’d like to see a Star Trek movie along the lines of “Prelude to Axanar” which was good for a fan-made film.

It’s a real stretch to call the Axanar a fan film. It was an unauthorized professional production.

For Spock’s sake! Not another bloody prequel, this is getting ridiculous now.

It is. But it also seems like the sequels belong to P+ more than the movies. More than anything else they need to end the Kelvin universe. Not with one last movie, just stop already. IMHO this movie will hysterically fail like Beyond did.

The chances of this (or probably any other Trek movie by JJ Abrams) getting made are zero, so you can relax.

I feel like they want to get these two movies out for the 60th anniversary of the franchise. Could this be the story of Captain Robau of the USS Kelvin before his eventual encounter with Nero’s ship. I remember hearing about them wanting to do a Robau show back when ST09 first came out.

That might be tough considering Chris Helmsworth would be hysterically out of reach for them.

And way too old at this point as well.

Yuppers that too lol

I don’t see nothing wrong with any of the reboot films. It was JJ who refused new blood into this fifty off yrs old franchise. There only misstep was into darkness. But it was vastly improved with Beyond..

They could do a SNW movie, it would be amazing.

Honestly I am down for more exploring of the Kelvin timeline/universe. Yes it is highly contested, but it does give us amazing visuals (I still absolutely love the Kelvin-prise design) as well as a non-prime universe to play in (new stories, new or familiar yet somewhat different characters).

I do still wish one day we’d get a deeper look at the TOS-movie era universe (TMP-VI), but aside from the occasional comic book or beta-canon novel, I don’t see it happening.

Hey to each their own. But I loathe the Kelvin-Prise design. Those nacelles were ridiculously large. And the fact that it was built on Earth and not in space makes it even less believable because that ship by design should have collapsed due to the weight of the nacelles and the pylons being no where near strong enough to support them.

I’m always amused that I read about people believing the starship Enterprise, in any configuration, is “believable”. It’s an artistic design, nothing more. While I’ve enjoyed it as such over the years, I can say with 100% certainty that if we ever do get out of our solar system someday, none of those ships will even remotely resemble the Enterprise.

Here is why I think it is believable. One, Roddenberry IIRC spoke with futurists when creating Star Trek and the enterprise. 2. The Enterprise has a very thoughtful design. People live in the saucer section of the ship. Engineering is in the, well, engineering hull of the ship. The nacelles which might create radiation are purposely placed as far away as possible from both.

The Enterprise was never designed to fly in an atmosphere of a planet (even if it did in TOS and Kelvin Trek). It was designed to be built and function solely in space.

Without it’s structural shields up, it’s design can not take the gravity of a planet pulling it apart due to it’s design.

In fact, NASA in real life hired Mike Okuda to design theoretical designs for a real life starship. And I know Okuda didn’t invent the OG Enterprise but that speaks to Trek’s starship design language.

Everything you mention in your first paragraph about the general design is still valid for the Kelvin redesign. You acknowledge in your second paragraph that the Enterprise was shown entering an atmosphere even in TOS. We’ve also seen other Federation starships enter atmospheres, e.g. Voyager. So that basically leaves your objection that the ship shouldn’t be built on the surface because the structures couldn’t support their weight. Two points to that: 1) “anti-gravity technology” and “structural integrity fields” exist in Trek canon. 2) The 2009 movie actually shows scaffolding supporting the ship under construction. Once construction is finished (and the scaffolding is removed) the ship should very well be able to support and lift off on its own. Starships may normally operate under no-gravity or low-gravity conditions but we’ve also often seen starships withstand much stronger gravitational forces than those on Earth’s surface. In fact, each time the ship accelerates or decelerates it experiences forces much stronger than Earth’s gravity.

I still think the worst design is the Kelvin A. Or at least as rendered looked too dreamlike and whispy. Maybe if we had a better look at her.

Very excited about Toby Haynes.

Much, much less excited about ‘expanding the Kelvinverse’. That part feels like a deliberate effort to finally wipe out TOS&TNG.

Paramount needs to upgrade and future-prood DS9&VOY.

Who cares about movies, give me Star Trek: Legacy!

I want a gritty, dark Star Trek movie with nudity. The more the better.

You want to see Picard naked? To each his own…

Star Trek: Nudity

Maybe we’ll get a p0rn star academy award – a stiffy?

Cause that went over SO WELL with Into Darkness.

Into Darkness is my favorite Trek movie.

I’ve only seen Into Dumbness once…in the theater and never again. There is so much wrong with it, you could write a thesis on it . It’s my second worst movie in the franchise after Nemesis.

But I’m not judging, I don’t think The Final Frontier is as bad as people say, but it’s pretty bad lol.

expanding on the universe is good idea at this point if staying in the Kelvin-verse. They’ve squandered that cast to the point where they are too expensive / busy to use so might as well branch out

Would love to see a STAR TREK origin movie about Captain Robert April, his wife, and crew at the start of the 1701 voyages.

I’d love to see a film or set of films based around the Earth Romulan war

I think it’s pre the opening scene of ST09. It’s gonna be a Romulan war movie. You could bring back Idris Elba and Scott Bakula and deage / age them up.

Oh good an origin story set before the origin story.

For Star Trek 4 they should do something special for the 60th Anniversary. It will be the last Kelvin Movie. Make it special. Have fun with it. Have a good entertaining story. Use some Legacy characters. If we are fortunate enough to have any of the TOS stars available for the 60th just do it. Paramount should market the history of the franchise this time.

How would they get Walter, Bill and George into the movie though, Deepfake?

Would have to be some cgi deaging magic. I just think they should do a better job than they did for the 50th anniversary. If they are able to do it i think it would be a nice touch.

Yeah thats what should be done (like Dr Who’s 50th), a big multiverse ‘Generations’ style movie for the 60th featuring the kelvin cast, deepfake ToS actors, even some TNG cast if possible with tons if ships from all eras (like Picard s3). Kind of what 50th anniversary movie should’ve been instead of attack of the robotic bee ships on some random space station

Absolutely. The Final Movie with the Kelvin cast could truly be epic. Paramount just doesn’t get it. I did enjoy Beyond however it totally failed to be the grand story they should have had for the 50th anniversary.

Exclusive: Paramount Executive meeting discussing the new Star Trek movie announcement

Head Studio Guy : We’re all on a sinking ship and Redstone wants us to pump up the stock and get a buyer fast before all of you start driving for Uber. So I got a great idea to get everybody excited to invest in the future of this studio!

Executive #1: Whatever it is sir we know we’re all going to love it!

(Executives 2-5 agrees): The rest of us agrees!

Head Studio Guy: I been thinking about this for hours and one idea I think we should do to get some juicy headlines is announce a new Star Trek movie!

(Confusion)

Executive #3: Um sir… didn’t we already announce a new Star Trek movie… like three years ago? And one before that one? And the another before that one? And the one before…?

Head Studio Guy: Yeah…and now we’re announcing another one! Think of all the nerds out there and how excited they will be that we will yet announce another movie! And maybe we will get an offer from Elon Musk to buy the company. Look how amazing he’s done with Twitter!

(All executives claps in unison): Brilliant sir!

Executive #4: What will this one be about?

Head Studio Guy: I was thinking we should have a clean slate. Start from the beginning and this time it will be an origin story! The fans love prequels! Can’t get enough of them. It can be a story about the origins of Star Trek! Huh???????

Executive #1: Didn’t we already do that with Enterprise?

Executive #2: What’s Enterprise?

Head Studio Guy: Don’t worry about it! Maybe it could be an origin story of Kirk and Dr. Spock then.

Executive #4: Um I think the other movies already did that. And isn’t Strange New Worlds kind of doing that too?

Executive #2: Is that one with the kids on the ship with the hologram lady?

Head Studio Guy: No. And we don’t talk about that show ever again. Do you hear me? NEVER AGAIN! But OK, fine it won’t be Kirk and pointy ears guy, we’ll come up with another origin story then. We’ll hire some writer and director and let them come up with something.

Executive #5: Maybe we can see if Tarantino is interested again?

(Room bursts into laughter)

Head Studio Guy (wipes tear): Ah good one Executive #5. We trolled the nerds hard with that one. Harder than the Shareholder event thing with Abrams. That announcement trended for months though. No way would that dumpster fire ever get a greenlight. Good times. Anyway I have a title too. We’re going to call it, you ready.. ..Star Trek: Origins!

(All executives clapping): “Brilliant! Very original! You the man sir!!!”

Executive #1: Actually didn’t a Wolverine movie already have that title 15 years ago? We don’t want to confuse our audience. They might think it’s related.

Head Studio Guy: Great point #1! Yeah horrible title. Whoever came up with it should be fired.

Executives: Yeah bad! Very bad! Boo!

Head Studio Guy: We’ll leave that to the new writer and director then. But it looks like we have a game plan now! We’re off and running now boys!

Executive #4: Um…sir? Are we going to actually MAKE this one this time?

Head Studio Guy (hard shrug): Who the bleep knows? But the nerds will be stoked over the announcement. That should keep them happy for six months at least until we sell this puppy. Make it so!

Executives: (High fives and chest bumps!)

ANOTHER prequel?

But this time it’s a prequel of a prequel. They are really spoiling us.

I’ve generally enjoyed the Kelvin movies.But It is hard to get excited about the repots of a new one with all previous reporting going nowhere.

Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best

Journey into the strange new worlds of the Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best. Live long and get some popcorn.

We're leaving the Neutral zone and taking a stand with our list of the best Star Trek movies.

Star Trek is going through a bit of a retro renaissance at the moment, thanks to a successful first season of Strange New Worlds, which takes place before Kirk ever took over as Captain of the Enterprise. It’s put many a Trek fan in the mood for more classic Trek action. You could cherry-pick the adventures of Kirk and Co. by watching the best Star Trek: The Original Series episodes or if you’re feeling more cinematic, pull from this list of Star Trek movies ranked worst to best. 

Some viewers will be tempted to skip to the top of the list — we get it, your time is valuable, so why bother with the losers? — but there’s something worth experiencing about each and every entry on this list. Even the misses have something interesting to say about Trek in general or the Enterprise crew specifically. This list includes all the Trek films, not just those of the original crew, so you can explore the Kelvin timeline as well as the Next Generation. And if you want to see how all the timelines fit together, check out our guide to watching the Star Trek movies in order too.

Here, then, is the definitive ranking of the best Star Trek movies. Don’t bother arguing with us: We know we’re right. If you’re still in the mood for intergalactic cinema, check out our list of the best space movies or see how the Alien movies ranked . 

13. Star Trek Into Darkness

• Release date: May 16, 2013
• Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

How this film managed to make Khan a boring antagonist is a mystery that will baffle scholars for years to come. No shade to Benedict Cumberbatch, but he doesn’t have the charisma necessary to persuade viewers to overlook the plot holes and bizarre character choices that make Into Darkness unwatchable. The sacrifice that is so poignant in Wrath of Khan falls flat because the relationship between Kirk and Spock – roles reversed for the climactic moment – barely reaches the level of roommates, let alone dear friends. And don’t get me started on Carol Marcus in her underwear. 

12. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

• Release date: June 9, 1989
• Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

Final Frontier ’s core idea is actually pretty good: Spock’s half-brother hijacks the Enterprise so he can fly it into the middle of the Milky Way and meet God. Unfortunately, a writers’ strike grounded the script before it got off the ground. What remains is a muddled mess that still may have been watchable were it not for William Shatner. He’d been promised a turn in the director’s chair and this was what he did with it. If you’ve ever wondered if the stories about Shatner’s unbearable ego were true, look no further.  

11. Star Trek: Insurrection

• Release date: December 11, 1998
• Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner

Even hardcore Star Trek fans forget what Insurrection is about. Not because it’s confusing, but because it’s the cinematic equivalent of a filler episode. Starfleet decides to relocate a small (but immortal? Ok) population so that the Federation can claim their planet’s unique natural resource for itself. Feeling betrayed by Starfleet’s apparent disregard for the Prime Directive, Picard gets very, very annoyed. Nothing about this movie is particularly good or bad. It’s all just kind of there . Watching Insurrection will neither ruin your day nor make it any better, so do as you will with it. 

10. Star Trek: Nemesis

• Release date: December 13, 2002

Before he was Bane, Venom, or Mad Max, Tom Hardy was Picard’s clone, Shinzon. He kills the Romulan senate, lures Picard and crew to Romulus under the pretense of peace negotiations, and oh, yeah, he has an android that looks just like Data. The plot is a hot mess of mistaken identity, telepathy, and revenge that never has stakes – or characters – worth caring about. Even the movie’s most emotional moment, when Data sacrifices himself to save Picard, is immediately undercut with a “Just kidding! I downloaded my brain into the android who looks just like me!” Troi and Riker got married, though, so that’s nice. 

9. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

• Release date: June 1, 1984

On the plus side, it has Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon. On the minus side... is everything else. After his sacrifice saves the Enterprise from certain destruction, Spock’s casket is shot into space, eventually settling on the Genesis planet. Thus begins a “how do we get Spock’s consciousness back into his newly reborn body” reverse-heist film that is crammed full with awkward moments. Spock going through puberty? Yikes. Klingons murdering Kirk’s son? Oof. Also, the entire film looks bizarrely cheap. You could generously call it an homage to Trek ’s humble beginnings, but it’s very strange after the lush visuals of Khan . At no point is a viewer not acutely aware that this movie had to happen to get Spock back on the Enterprise, and it almost isn’t worth it.   

8. Star Trek: Generations

• Release date: November 18, 1994
• Cast: Patrick Stewart, William Shatner, Malcolm McDowell

Generations was intended to pass the torch from the cast of The Original Series to that of The Next Generation , with Kirk and Picard teaming up to defeat not-quite-a-villain-he’s-just-sad-really Malcolm McDowell. The shoehorning of Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov into a film set a century after they were zipping around the universe is less than elegant, more than gratuitous. Generations spends so much time waving goodbye to the old crew that it never really gets going as a film, but it did its best with an impossible task. 

7. Star Trek Beyond

• Release date: July 22, 2016
• Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban

I’d put this here just for the line about the “beats and shouting,” if I’m honest. Featuring an unrecognizable Idris Elba as its villain, Krall, Beyond isn’t overly concerned with nuance. It’s fast and loud, the very definition of style over substance. Does the scene set to the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” make any sense? Not a lick, nope, but damn, does it look cool. This is the Trek film you watch when you want to sit back, turn your brain off, and enjoy a lot of colorful, exciting fight and/or chase scenes. Now that I think about it, “beats and shouting” is a pretty apt description of Star Trek Beyond . 

6. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

• Release date: December 7, 1979

The ponderous pacing and pure 70s-ness of the costumes makes The Motion Picture a slog, but at least it’s a spectacular slog. The plot is pure Trek : An energy cloud housing a living machine is headed for Earth, destroying everything in its wake. The Enterprise is the only ship within intercept range of the cloud, because how else is Kirk going to have an excuse to take over command? The Motion Picture shows its age more than most of the other films of the franchise, but was a perfect vehicle to move the Enterprise and her crew from the small screen to the theater. It has interpersonal conflict, heroics, hubris, and a brilliant reveal about V’ger’s true nature.

5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

• Release date: November 26, 1986

Aka “The One With the Whales”, Voyage Home leans heavily on humor to great effect. It eases off the sci fi, instead going for a classic fish-out-of-water scenario. An alien probe is trying to communicate with Earth, but the only creature that could respond, the humpback whale, is long since extinct. The crew of the Enterprise travel back to 1980’s San Francisco to snatch a mating pair of humpback whales and return them to the future, preventing the unanswered probe from destroying the planet. The ecological message wasn’t exactly subtle, but Voyage isn’t preachy. Chekov asking anyone if they know where the “nuclear wessels” are, Scotty cooing “Hello, computer” into a mouse, Kirk yelling “Double dumbass on you!” to an angry driver – it’s all immensely charming and genuinely funny.

4. Star Trek

• Release date: May 8, 2009
• Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg

Is it a great Trek film? Maybe. Is it fun to see Kirk and Spock’s origins stories? Absolutely. Watching baby Spock beat the snot out of someone at school is highly gratifying, as is seeing the father whose shadow Kirk can never quite escape. The story does a good enough job twisting the timeline so that the reboot won’t be hamstrung by everything that came before it, and Leonard Nimoy is a delight in his final turn as Spock. Star Trek embodies the spirit of unfettered adventure exhibited by The Original Series while simultaneously making the crew into more than just set dressing there to push buttons and open hailing frequencies. And “Hi, Christopher, I’m Nero” is straight up one of the greatest line reads in all of Star Trek . 

3. Star Trek: First Contact

• Release date: November 22, 1996

Jonathan Frakes (aka Commander Riker) directed this absolute treasure of a movie, and his deep love of Trek comes through in every scene. This is a Trek movie for Trek fans, with nods to TV series Deep Space Nine and Voyager in what is essentially the conclusion to Picard’s arc in the legendary The Next Generation episode “Best of Both Worlds.” The Enterprise follows the Borg back in time to prevent them from disrupting First Contact, the event that introduced Earth to the universe. Picard must face the Borg queen (silkily played by Alice Krige) even as Data is tempted by her promise of humanity. The Earth-based subplot about getting First Contact back on track explores a different aspect of humanity, namely how people step up when they’re called to lead. 

2. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

• Release date: December 6, 1991

Some of the entries on this list are little more than over-inflated episodes, but this... this is a movie. Not a film, thank you very much, a get-more-popcorn-and-shut-the-heck-up-until-the-credits-roll movie . The Klingons desperately need the Federation’s help after their moon explodes, and Kirk – whose son was murdered by Klingons just a few films ago – has to serve as liaison. That’s the set up for a murder mystery that will see Kirk and McCoy imprisoned and Spock turning the Enterprise upside down to find the true culprit. Christopher Plummer is having an absolute blast as a Shakespeare-quoting Klingon who has no interest in peace. Fun fact: This is one of two Trek films directed by Nicholas Meyer. The other one is... 

1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

• Release date: June 4, 1982

First, and most importantly, yes, that is Ricardo Montalban’s real chest. Secondly, if you’re only going to watch a single Trek film, this is the one. Picking up the threads of The Original Series episode “Space Seed”, Khan is a retelling of Moby Dick as the genetically superior Khan chases his white whale, Admiral James T. Kirk. Montalban and Shatner are at the top of their games, effortlessly owning every scene they’re in, yet providing the perfect counter for each other. Director Nicholas Meyer, who also wrote Khan , shows exquisite patience in the film’s climactic showdown, drawing out the tension as Kirk and Khan hunt each other in the Mutara Nebula. The other Trek films are great space romps, but Khan feels deeply, deeply personal as you watch these great men spit and claw at each other with unfathomable rage. 

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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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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, star trek: the motion picture.

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Epic science-fiction stories, with their cosmic themes and fast truths about the nature of mankind, somehow work best when the actors are unknown to us. The presence of the Star Trek characters and actors who have become so familiar to us on television tends in a strange way to undermine this movie. The audience walks in with a possessive, even patronizing attitude toward Kirk and Spock and Bones, and that interferes with the creation of the "sense of wonder" that science fiction is all about.

Let's begin with the toy for the eyes. The Star Trek movie is fairly predictable in its plot. We more or less expected that two of the frequent ingredients in the television episodes would be here, and they are: a confrontation between Starship Enterprise and some sort of alien entity, and a conclusion in which basic human values are affirmed in a hostile universe. In "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", the alien entity is an unimaginably vast alien spaceship from somewhere out at the edge of the galaxy. The movie opens as it's discovered racing directly toward Earth, and it seems to be hostile. Where has it come from, and what does it want?

The Starship Enterprise, elaborately rebuilt, is assigned to go out to intercept it, with Admiral Kirk, of course, in charge. And scenes dealing with the Enterprise and the other ship will make up most of the movie if the special effects aren't good, the movie's not going to work. But they are good, as, indeed, they should be: The first special-effects team on this movie was fired, and the film's release was delayed a year while these new effects were devised and photographed. (The effects get better, by the way, as the movie progresses. The alien ship looks great but the spaceports and futuristic cities near the film's beginning loom fairly phony.)

The Enterprise, perhaps deliberately, looks a lot like other spaceships we've seen in " 2001: A Space Odyssey ," " Silent Running ," "Star Wars," and " Alien ." Kubrick's space odyssey set a visual style for the genre that still seems to be serviceable. But the look of the other spaceship in " Star Trek " is more awesome and original. It seems to reach indefinitely in all directions, the Enterprise is a mere speck inside of it, and the contents of the alien vessel include images of the stars and planets it has passed en route, as well as enormous rooms or spaces that seem to be states of a computer-mind. This is terrific stuff.

But now we get to the human level (or the half-human level, in the case of Mr. Spock). The characters in this movie are part of our cultural folklore; the Star Trek television episodes have been rerun time and time again. Trekkies may be unhappy with me for saying this, but there are ways in which our familiarity with the series works against the effectiveness of this movie. On the one hand we have incomprehensible alien forces and a plot that reaches out to the edge of the galaxy.

On the other hand, confronting these vast forces, we have television pop heroes. It's great to enjoy the in-jokes involving the relationships of the Enterprise crew members and it's great that Trekkies can pick up references meant for them, but the extreme familiarity of the Star Trek characters somehow tends to break the illusion in the big scenes involving the alien ship.

Such reservations aside, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" is probably about as good as we could have expected. It lacks the dazzling brilliance and originality of 2001 (which was an extraordinary one-of-a-kind film). But on its own terms it's a very well-made piece of work, with an interesting premise. The alien spaceship turns out to come from a mechanical or computer civilization, one produced by artificial intelligence and yet poignantly "human" in the sense that it has come all this way to seek out the secrets of its own origins, as we might.

There is, I suspect, a sense in which you can be too sophisticated for your own good when you see a movie like this. Some of the early reviews seemed pretty blase, as if the critics didn't allow themselves to relish the film before racing out to pigeonhole it. My inclination, as I slid down in my seat and the stereo sound surrounded me, was to relax and let the movie give me a good time. I did and it did.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

132 minutes

Walter Koenig as Chekov

James Doohan as Scotty

William Shatner as Kirk

George Takei as Sulu

Leonard Nimoy as Spock

Directed by

• Robert Wise

Screenplay by

• Harold Livingston

Produced by

• Gene Roddenberry

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Paramount confirmed this week that “WandaVision” director Matt Shakman will head into production on a new “ Star Trek ” movie later this year with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg reprising their roles for a fourth go-around on the big screen. For Quentin Tarantino fans, the news is the latest reminder that the Oscar winner’s “Stark Trek” movie remains dead. At least for now.

Tarantino fans were sent into a frenzy in late 2017 after it was announced that Paramount and “Star Trek” producer J.J. Abrams loved Tarantino’s pitch for a new “Star Trek” movie and were assembling a writers room to flesh out the idea. Tarantino ultimately partnered with “The Revenant” screenwriter Mark L. Smith, who was tasked with writing a “Star Trek” film script based on Tarantino’s idea while Tarantino was busy finishing post-production and touring the world for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Smith revealed on the  “Bulletproof Screenwriting” podcast in August 2021 that J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot gave him a call on Tarantino’s behalf.

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“They just called me and said, ‘Hey, are you up for it? Do you want to go? Quentin wants to hook up.’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’” the screenwriter said. “And that was the first day I met Quentin, in the room and he’s reading a scene that he wrote and it was this awesome, cool gangster scene, and he’s acting it out and back and forth. I told him, I was so mad I didn’t record it on my phone. It would be so valuable. It was amazing.”

Tarantino intended to bring a “Pulp Fiction” vibe to “Star Trek” with an idea that was a largely earthbound story set in a 1930s gangster setting. Tarantino’s pitch appeared to take inspiration from “A Piece of the Action,” the 17th episode of the second season of “Star Trek: The Original Series.” The installment, which aired in 1968, followed the Enterprise crew as they visit a planet with an Earth-like 1920s gangster culture.

Smith told “Bulletproof Screenwriting” that the screenwriting process started almost immediately after he agreed to work with Tarantino, adding, “I would go hang out at his house one night and we would watch old gangster films. We were there for hours…We were just kicking back watching gangster films, laughing at the bad dialogue, but talking about how it would bleed into what we wanted to do.”

According to Smith, Tarantino’s “Star Trek” idea was “really wild” and like “its own very cool episode.” The plot included “a little time travel stuff going on” and “had a lot of fun” with Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk. Tarantino fans expected the director to go all in on Pine considering Tarantino’s outspoken love for the actor. Tarantino has called the Pine-starring “Unstoppable” one of his favorite action films, and he had nothing but raves for Pine’s performance as Kirk in the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot

“I thought Chris Pine did a fantastic job, not just playing Capt. Kirk but playing William Shatner’s captain — he is William Shatner,” Tarantino once told MTV. “He’s not just another guy, he’s William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk. And Zachary Quinto is literally Leonard Nimoy’s — because they both have the same scene together — he’s his Spock. They fucking nail it. They just nail it.”

Tarantino’s “Star Trek” was widely believed to be rated R, although it was never confirmed. Fans expected the R-rating given the graphic nature of Tarantino’s movies. It was also never confirmed that Tarantino would direct the script himself. Tarantino has maintained that he is retiring from feature filmmaking after his 10th directorial effort, which means he only has one movie left to make, post-“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Fans questioned whether or not Tarantino would want an IP-based movie like “Star Trek” to be his curtain call.

Tarantino revealed to Consequence of Sound in December 2019 that he was “steering away” from directing the “Trek” movie. A final blow arrived in January 2020 when Tarantino confirmed , “I think they might make that movie, but I just don’t think I’m going to direct it. It’s a good idea. They should definitely do it and I’ll be happy to come in and give them some notes on the first rough cut.”

After Justin Lin’s 2016 entry “Star Trek Beyond” underwhelmed at the box office with less than $400 million worldwide, Paramount put a pause on the film franchise as it figured out what to do next. Tarantino and Smith’s script was one of three potential “Star Trek” films in development at the same time. “Fargo” and “Legion” creator Noah Hawley was working on his own “Star Trek” film that was to feature a new cast, while Paramount was also developing a more traditional sequel to “Beyond” with the same cast. Filmmaker S.J. Clarkson was attached to this third “Trek” idea for a time.

The “Star Trek” announcement this week confirmed that a “Beyond” sequel with the returning cast is officially a go. Paramount announced in July 2021 that Shakman was hired to helm a new “Star Trek” movie, the cast for which was unclear at the time. Shakman is a prolific television director with credits that include “WandaVision,” “Six Feet Under,” “House,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Game of Thrones” and “Succession.” He’s only directed one previous feature, the 2015 indie “Cut Bank” with Liam Hemsworth and Billy Bob Thornton.

As reported by Variety , Paramount did market research to determine whether or not there was still audience interest in Chris Pine and the 2009 reboot cast given the long wait period between “Beyond” and a new “Trek” film. Insiders said that studio executives determined there was still lasting audience enthusiasm for Pine, Quinto and the rest of the cast, which allowed the studio to feel comfortable with moving forward with bringing them back.

One person most likely relieved that Paramount is moving ahead on a “Star Trek” movie without Tarantino is Rod Roddenberry, son of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and the CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment. Roddenberry, who serves as an executive producer on several “Star Trek” series on Paramount Plus (“Star Trek: Discovery,” “Star Trek: Picard,” “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” etc.), told Forbes in September 2021 that he had mixed feelings on Tarantino coming into the “Star Trek” fold.

“I struggle with that because the way I’m pretty myopic with the way I see ‘Star Trek,’” Roddenberry said when asked about Tarantino’s “Star Trek” idea. “I mentioned that I grew up with fans coming up to me out saying how ‘Star Trek’ inspired them and gave them hope for the future. It’s the optimism and the messaging in there that make ‘Star Trek’ what it was. I truly believe that. If you create a ‘Star Trek,’ that is just action; that is not ‘Star Trek,’ in my opinion. That’s what makes it different than ‘Star Wars,’ and I love ‘Star Wars,’ but they can both coexist. And I love Tarantino’s work and the kind of films that he does. I am trying to have an open mind.”

Roddenberry continued, “I would be curious to read a script on his take. I do not think you could say we’re going to do a ‘Reservoir Dog-Star Trek.’ I’ll be honest, that doesn’t work for me, but he is a fan, and I think as a fan, he probably understands to some degree that ‘Star Trek’ has to have some of this messaging.”

Production on the Tarantino-less new “Star Trek” movie will begin later this year.

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The Star Trek: Origins movie shouldn't ignore Star Trek: Enterprise

A new origins movie for Star Trek is set to go into production later on this year for a possible 2025 or 2026 release. There's has been a lot of speculation about the timeline of the film, with Inverse offering plenty of detail about the Star Trek timeline and how a film set in the 2210s or 2220s wouldn't rattle too much of Trek's history in either timeline with the caveat that "if you don't think about the prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise."

Enterprise was set during 2151, and the events of the series were interwoven with other series in the franchise, such as the Ferengi's first appearance on the series instead of Star Trek: The Next Generation and, of course, the horrible series finale that connected The Next Generation's Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis). Yes, plenty of fans would love to forget the finale, but the fact remains that it happened. And even Star Trek: Discovery referenced Archer's visit to Qo'noS from the premiere of the series. So it's kind of hard to jettison the series as a whole.

With the Origins movie supposedly set before the Kirk and Spock era as the movie has been touted, that could put it after Enterprise, but, if the movie is set during the Prime timeline, there are a lot of landmines that could potentially disrupt canon. Some fans, of course, will say that canon has been shredded by various other series already, but a film on the big screen takes things to a new level, especially if it's supposed to be the origination of some aspect of Star Trek.

One possible idea would be to take the story back to Captain Pike's origins, which would still put the movie in the 2230s, roughly, with Strange New Worlds being set in 2259. Since Strange New Worlds is an ongoing series, that would be a great tie-in. Another option would be the origins of Captain April who helmed the Enterprise in 2245. Hopefully, the movie won't take the origin storyline so far back in time that it will disrupt everything that has been created. And, if that's the choice that is taken, then we can just hope the movie gets set in the Kelvin timeline so the Prime timeline remains as unaffected as possible!

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as The Star Trek: Origins movie shouldn't ignore Star Trek: Enterprise .

The Best New TV Shows and Movies to Stream on Netflix, Hulu, Max and More for the Week of April 22

Each week, ET rounds up the best shows and movies across streaming services to help you decide just what to watch.

With Prime Video , Hulu , Disney+ , Max  (formerly HBO Max), Apple TV+ ,  Paramount+ , Netflix , Peacock , Starz and even more streaming services , there’s no shortage of options when choosing what to binge-watch in your free time. However, sometimes, the sheer amount of great films and television shows available to stream can be overwhelming and lead to aimless scrolling — hoping to land on that perfect thing to watch. Scroll no more! To help you out, we've rounded up the best movies and TV shows to stream this week , including new arrivals, nostalgia-filled favorites, and more. For starters, breakout Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney has a hit rom-com dropping to Netflix on Tuesday, and Sonic the Hedgehog's former-rival-now-friend Knuckles — voiced by Idris Elba — is getting his own show on Paramount+. 

There are plenty more new series and movies in store to stream. Those wanting to learn something while they watch can check out a nature documentary exploring tiger cubs narrated by  Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Viewers can also discover more about one of the greatest rock and roll bands in history with Hulu's new documentary about Bon Jovi. Plus, HBO's award-winning series We're Here is back for a fourth season.

It's time to make your weekly streaming plans. Here are this week's best TV shows and movies to stream.

ET, CBS, SHOWTIME, Nickelodeon and Paramount +  are subsidiaries of Paramount.

Anyone But You

Starring  Sydney Sweeney  and  Glen Powell ,  Anyone But You  was the highest-grossing R-rated rom-com since 2016's  Bridget Jones's Baby  and the highest-grossing live-action Shakespeare adaptation of all time. The film follows two former rivals (played by Sweeney and Powell) who hate each other but must pretend to be a couple at a destination wedding in Australia. Inevitably, sparks start to fly between them. Now, the classic enemies-to-lovers movie drops to Netflix on April 23.

Watch on Netflix

Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story

Thank You, Goodnight: A Bon Jovi Story  is a four-part docuseries chronicling the group's legendary rise and staying power. Featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews with band members — including singer  Jon Bon Jovi , keyboard player David Bryan, bassist Hugh McDonald, drummer Tico Torres and guitar player Phil X — this is a  streaming event  fans won't want to miss.  Thank You, Goodnight: A Bon Jovi Story  premieres on Hulu on Friday, April 26.

Watch on Hulu

Knuckles (Miniseries)

A hilarious, action-packed adventure, Knuckles centers around the red hedgehog, Knuckles, from the beloved Sonic the Hedgehog video games. Idris Elba voices Knuckles, who agrees to train Wade Whipple ( Happy Endings ' Adam Pally ) in the ways of an Echidna warrior. Things quickly get out of hand as forces try to steal Knuckles' power. The six-episode miniseries premieres on Paramount+ on April 26.

Watch on Paramount+

Priyanka Chopra Jonas narrates Disneynature's latest documentary, Tiger . The nature film documents 1,500 days in the forest of India where a young tigress has just given birth to cubs. Viewers will get to see how the tigress raises these clumsy cubs to be fierce predators while dealing with predators of their own as they grow including pythons, bears and rivaling male tigers. 

Watch on Disney+

We're Here (Season 4)

The Emmy-winning HBO original series  We're Here  is, well, back for a fourth season on Max on April 26. Renowned drag queens Sasha Velour, Priyanka, Jaida Essence Hall, and Latrice Royal will visit towns in small-town America on a mission to spread love.

Watch on Max

Under the Bridge

Under the Bridge is based on the book of the same name written by Rebecca Godfrey and the book is based on true events. The story follows the gruesome murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), who never returns after attending a high school party. A local police officer ( Lily Gladstone ) and the writer Godfrey ( Riley Keough ) dive into the case to reveal the likely suspects are a group of teenage girls. The thriller began streaming on Hulu on April 17.

Conan O'Brien Must Go (Season 1)

Beloved comedian  Conan O'Brien  is back for a new Max series,  Conan O'Brien Must Go,  which began streaming on April 18. The series follows the Emmy-winning television host as he travels around the globe to visit some of his most memorable podcast guests while taking in the local culture. 

Going Home with Tyler Cameron (Season 1)

Bachelor Nation will remember Tyler Cameron , who was a contestant on Bachelorette Hannah Brown 's season. Since his time accepting roses, Cameron has launched a flourishing home renovation business. Going Home with Tyler Cameron showcases his house remodels with special appearances from other Bachelor contestants including Matt James, Rachael Kirkconnell and Jason Tartick. The series premiered on Prime Video on April 18. 

Watch on Prime Video

Orlando Bloom: To the Edge

Orlando Bloom is no stranger to pushing himself to the limit and now he is taking it one step further in Orlando Bloom: To the Edge . In Peacock's upcoming docuseries, Bloom chronicles his journey to master three extreme sports: wingsuiting, free diving and rock climbing. Facing his fears as he is trained by experts in these fields, Bloom learns about himself along the way. Orlando Bloom: To the Edge began streaming on Peacock on April 19.

Watch on Peacock

Dinner with the Parents (Season 1)

Dinner with the Parents is a Freevee Original series — meaning anyone can watch the new show for free with ads. The hilarious series, about a dysfunctional family's weekly dinners, stars some of our favorite comedians like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' s Carol Kane, The Unicorn 's Michaela Watkins and Veep 's Dan Bakkedahl. The series premiered on Freevee on April 18.

Watch on Freevee

Fallout (Season 1)

Gamers, rejoice! The Fallout series is finally premiering this week. It has all the characters you know and love from the video game including the beloved pup, Dogmeat. You'll find vault dwellers, ghouls and the Brotherhood of Steel in the series about surviving in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Starring Walton Goggins , Aaron Moten and Ella Purnell ,  Fallout  premiered on Prime Video on April 11.

The Sympathizer

A Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction,  The Sympathizer  by Viet Thanh Nguyen tells the story of a double agent (Hoa Xuande) in the wake of the Vietnam War. After the war ends, the man is sent to the States to continue spying for Vietnam, but things quickly become treacherous. Max began streaming the HBO adaption of the novel, which stars  Robert Downey Jr , on April 14.

Franklin  (Limited Series)

Academy Award winner Michael Douglas plays Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+'s new limited series Franklin .  Franklin  documents the forefather's trip to France as he tries to gain allies for the upcoming Revolutionary War. Danger looms for Franklin and his grandson (Noah Jupe) as he navigates this foreign land. The series premiered on Apple TV+ on April 12.

Watch on Apple TV+

The Greatist Hits

Harriet ( The Politician 's Lucy Boynton ) is coping with the death of her boyfriend ( Pearl 's David Corenswet) when she realizes certain songs take her back in time. Traveling between the present day and the past, Harriet will do anything to save his life, but things become complicated when she develops feelings for David ( The Umbrella Academy 's Justin H. Min), a member of her grief group. The heartfelt film premiered on Hulu on April 12.

Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion

Fashion retailer Brandy Melville has had a cult-like following of teenage girls due to the brand's popularity on social media despite the controversial "one size fits most" message and racist business practices. The HBO documentary  Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion  dives into the toxic culture of fast fashion and the effects it has on our environment. The hard-hitting documentary premiered on Max on April 9.

Loot (Season 2)

Maya Rudolph is back as Molly Novak, a divorcee to one of the wealthiest men in North America ( Adam Scott ), in Loot season 2. This season, Novak is thriving at her charitable organization where she shares her $87 billion divorce settlement with those in need. She's focusing on herself, and swearing off men (for now), and her trusted assistant ( Joel Kim Booster ) is nearby as she works on becoming more independent. The second season premiered on Apple TV+ on April 3.

Vanderpump Villa (Series Premiere)

Hulu's new original series, Vanderpump Villa , documents the daily life of the staff at Chateau Rosabelle, Lisa Vanderpump 's French estate. The hand-selected staff indulges the affluent guests' every whim, which as you can imagine, can be quite extravagant. Fans of Bravo's Below Deck or Vanderpump Rules  will want to check out this reality show for a new generation. Vanderpump Villa premiered on Hulu on April 1.

John Sugar ( Colin Farrell ) is a private investigator in Los Angeles who struggles with personal demons. When a wealthy Hollywood producer (James Cromwell) tasks Sugar with finding his missing granddaughter, the investigator quickly realizes something bigger is going on. Sugar will do whatever it takes to find the truth. Sugar premiered on Apple TV+ on April 5. 

Mary & George

Julianne Moore plays the Countess of Buckingham in Starz's newest series, Mary & George . Trying to reclaim her family's former glory, the Countess molds her son, George ( Nicholas Galitzine ), to seduce and conquer King James I (Tony Curran). If all goes to plan, George will be an all-powerful adviser and lover to the king. Mary & George premiered on Starz on April 5.

Watch on Starz

How to Date Billy Walsh

Archie ( Heartstopper 's Sebastian Croft) and Amelia ( Bridgerton 's Charithra Chandran) have been best friends since childhood. Unbeknownst to Amelia, Archie is in love with her, which gets even more complicated when she develops feelings for the new American transfer student, Billy Walsh ( Cobra Kai 's Tanner Buchanan). Watch it all go down by streaming the delightful rom-com on Prime Video now.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Limited Series)

Showtime's latest series, A Gentleman in Moscow, is based on the international best-selling book by the same name. Ewan McGregor stars as the Russian aristocrat Count Alexander Rostov who is put under house arrest and must live his days from the attic of a luxury hotel. He finds an unexpected ally in a young friend who makes his days watching history unfold from the window more bearable. The series premiered on Paramount+ on March 29.

Watch on Paramount+ with Showtime

Renegade Nell (Season 1)

After she's framed for murder, Nell Jackson ( Derry Girls ' Louisa Harland) has no choice but to pick up a life of highway robbery to survive. When a magical sprite ( Ted Lasso 's Nick Mohammed) gives her extraordinary powers to fight the strongest and toughest foes, she puts an even bigger target on her back. The new Disney+ series premiered on March 29.

We Were the Lucky Ones  (Limited Series)

The original Percy Jackson,  Logan Lerman  and The Kissing Booth actress  Joey King  star in Hulu's adaptation of the New York Times  best-selling novel  We Were the Lucky Ones.  The story follows a Jewish family who were separated during World War II and will try everything in their power to reunite. The limited series premiered on March 28. 

The Truth vs. Alex Jones

After tragically losing their children in a mass shooting, the parents of Sandy Hook had barely begun grieving when InfoWars' Alex Jones began telling his followers the elementary school shooting was a hoax. Max's new documentary The Truth vs. Alex Jones dives into the lawsuit and court case where these parents fought back against misinformation and held Jones accountable. The documentary premiered on Max on March 26.

American Rust: Broken Justice (Season 2)

Jeff Daniels is back as police chief Del Harris in the second season of Prime Video's  American Rust: Broken Justice . Harris and Grace Poe ( ER 's Maura Tierney) are trying to rebuild after the events of season one, but when a string of murders seems to lead to a bigger conspiracy, the two must find the truth. The new season premiered on March 28.

Palm Royale (Miniseries)

Maxine ( Kristen Wiig ) will do anything to get into the elite high-society Palm Royale club in this new Apple TV+ miniseries. She first schmoozes with the lady who runs the scene, Evelyn ( Allison Janney ), but when that doesn't work out, she schemes instead. The all-star cast of Palm Royale also includes Ricky Martin , Josh Lucas , Leslie Bibb , Laura Dern and Carol Burnett .

Road House (2024)

Taking inspiration from Patrick Swayze 's 1989 film, the new Road House stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Elwood Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter hired to help clean up the clientele at a bar in the Florida Keys. However, when a real estate developer wants the bar's land for his next project, he hires a lethal hitman (played by UFC lightweight champion  Conor McGregor ), posing big trouble for Dalton. The new movie premiered on Prime Video on March 21.

3 Body Problem (Season 1)

After the military sends signals to an alien race, the humans of Earth split into camps that either welcome them or plan to hurt them in Cixin Liu's award-winning novel  The Three-Body Problem . Netflix has adapted the beloved book, with the help of Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss . The highly-anticipated series premiered on Netflix on March 21.

Dinner Party Diaries with José Andrés (Season 1)

World-renowned chef José Andrés invites his celebrity friends over for a delightful dinner party in Prime Video's newest series. Watch as Andrés whips up a feast with the help of his guests, like Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston . You'll also get some great cooking tips to use for your next culinary adventure. The series premiered on March 19.

X-Men '97 (Season 1)

Continuing the story from the 1992 show  X-Men: The Animated Series , X-Men '97 centers around the band of mutants as they save the world from evil forces. Featuring some of the most iconic Marvel characters — like Magneto, Cyclops, Wolverine and Storm — and with many using the same voice actor featured in the '90s, this will be a major dose of nostalgia and entertainment. The series premiered on Disney+ on Wednesday, March 20. 

When her best friend plans to marry the man she feels is the one who got away, Maddie ( Lindsay Lohan ) wishes she could marry him instead. In a twist of fate, her wish comes true — but will it be everything she expected? Find out by watching  Irish Wish, starring Lohan and Jane Seymour , streaming on Netflix now.

Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour

At the end of August last year,  Taylor Swift   announced her  Eras Tour  concert film. The film broke records, becoming the  highest-grossing concert film  ever. It's no surprise, as her breathtaking performances and stunning visual elements during this tour are beyond compare. If you've yet to experience the magic of the  Eras Tour  for yourself or want to relive the dream concert film over and over again, you're in luck because the movie dropped to Disney+ on March 14. 

Grey's Anatomy (Season 20)

Shonda Rhimes ' hit ABC medical drama is back for an impressive twentieth season. Fans know they can expect life-saving surgeries, complex relationship dynamics and all the drama we've come to know and love from the show. The new season premiered on ABC on Thursday, March 14, and streamed on Hulu the next day.

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Star Trek Movies in order

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

G | 143 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 96,612 | Gross: $82.26M

Star Trek I

2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

PG | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.

Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 129,217 | Gross: $78.91M

Star Trek II

3. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

PG | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body.

Director: Leonard Nimoy | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 86,166 | Gross: $76.47M

Star Trek III

4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

PG | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales.

Votes: 91,477 | Gross: $109.71M

Star Trek IV

5. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

PG | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Captain Kirk and his crew must deal with Mr. Spock's long-lost half-brother who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy.

Director: William Shatner | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 64,203 | Gross: $52.21M

Star Trek V

6. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.

Votes: 80,900 | Gross: $74.89M

Star Trek VI

7. Star Trek: Generations (1994)

PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery

With the help of long presumed dead Captain Kirk, Captain Picard must stop a deranged scientist willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter a space matrix.

Director: David Carson | Stars: Patrick Stewart , William Shatner , Malcolm McDowell , Jonathan Frakes

Votes: 87,046 | Gross: $75.67M

Star Trek VII

8. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.

Director: Jonathan Frakes | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 132,056 | Gross: $92.00M

Star Trek VIII

9. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

PG | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

When the crew of the Enterprise learn of a Federation conspiracy against the inhabitants of a unique planet, Captain Picard begins an open rebellion.

Votes: 79,462 | Gross: $70.12M

Star Trek IX

10. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The Enterprise is diverted to the Romulan homeworld Romulus, supposedly because they want to negotiate a peace treaty. Captain Picard and his crew discover a serious threat to the Federation once Praetor Shinzon plans to attack Earth.

Director: Stuart Baird | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 83,924 | Gross: $43.25M

Star Trek X

11. Star Trek (2009)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Simon Pegg , Leonard Nimoy

Votes: 620,266 | Gross: $257.73M

Star Trek XI

12. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Zoe Saldana , Benedict Cumberbatch

Votes: 497,077 | Gross: $228.78M

Star Trek XII

13. Star Trek Beyond (2016)

PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.

Director: Justin Lin | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Karl Urban , Zoe Saldana

Votes: 258,499 | Gross: $158.85M

Star Trek XIII

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This cobra kai character needs to win season 6’s final tournament more than anyone else.

Cobra Kai has plenty of tournament contenders ahead of season 6, but when it comes to which one will win, one character stands out above the rest.

• Miguel stands out as the top contender for victory in the Sekai Taikai tournament in Cobra Kai season 6.
• The absence of major victories for Miguel since season 3 raises the stakes for his potential triumph.
• Miguel winning the Sekai Taikai would bring the Cobra Kai series full circle, validating his journey and Johnny's teachings.

Of all the characters vying for the title of the Sekai Taikai champion, none needs it more than Miguel in Cobra Kai season 6. As season 5's setup for the final chapter strongly implies, the Sekai Taikai is shaping up to be the endgame for Netlix's Karate Kid sequel series. Described as an international karate tournament, the Sekai Taikai looks to be a competition where each of the teenage characters will get an opportunity to prove how much they've learned from their respective senseis.

As it stands, multiple characters are considered tournament contenders after Cobra Kai season 5's ending . The obvious choices for this role are Miguel, Sam, Robby, and Eli, who are all likely participants since Johnny and Daniel's dojo did secure a spot in the event. Other names worth mentioning are Tory and Kenny. Kenny seemingly left Cobra Kai, but could wind up back in the picture in time for the tournament. The same is likely to be the case for Cobra Kai's Tory now that she's on good terms with Johnny and Daniel's students. This gives Cobra Kai plenty of options for the Sekai Taikai's winner , but one name stands out above all the rest.

Miguel Desperately Needs A Major Win In Cobra Kai Season 6

An argument can be made for several different characters when it comes to who should win the Sekai Taikai, but the one with what may very well be the strongest case is Miguel. After all, Miguel has been training longer than any other student in the series. Sam has technically had the longest association with karate, but she seemingly stopped practicing for years and only became seriously interested in season 2. M iguel, on the other hand, is the reason the show's story took off in the first place ; convincing Johnny to teach him karate was what led to Cobra Kai reopening and the revival of Johnny and Daniel's rivalry .

In addition to being the character who has poured the most time into his training, Miguel is also someone with a deep-rooted passion for karate . How much he wanted to win was on full display when he made a heartfelt speech about how karate changed his life in order to ensure that the All Valley Karate Tournament wasn't canceled. Sadly, issues with Johnny and Sam piled up and clouded his thoughts, resulting in an unceremonious ending to his tournament hopes in season 4. The following season saw Miguel regain his interest in karate and continue to support his friends and mentors, showing that he's still the hero of the series.

Miguel Hasn’t Had A Major Victory In Cobra Kai Since Season 3

In spite of his importance to the series and his victory in the show's first tournament, Cobra Kai hasn't been very generous to Miguel when it comes to big wins, especially in recent seasons. Cobra Kai season 5 confirmed Miguel is the superior fighter to Robby , but saw Miguel refrain from finishing the fight. Plus, the fight was really just about Miguel and Robby's personal rivalry ; it wasn't an official match or a fight that had any real stakes in terms of the dojo war narrative. In fact, the last time Miguel had a one-on-one fight that fit with that criteria was in season 4, and that ended in disaster.

Injuring his back against Eli in the semifinals and choosing not to return to the mat culminated in Miguel - season 1's winner - being a non-factor in the finale. Instead, all the action went to Eli, Robby, Tory, and Sam. Cobra Kai could have rectified Miguel's absence from this conflict by allowing him to be the one to represent the combined dojos in the exhibition match against Cobra Kai in season 5, but rather than take the route, the series elected to give this responsibility to Eli. For that reason, Miguel's last major victory has to be traced all the way back to the season 3 finale when he defeated Kyler , a secondary villain who is now routinely beaten in the series.

Miguel Winning The Sekai Taikai Would Bring Cobra Kai Full Circle

A victory in the Sekai Taikai for Miguel would be the most fitting ending the series could provide , and not just because of what it would mean for the character. In season 1, Johnny worked hard to ensure that his students - specifically Miguel - won the All Valley Karate Tournament. He ultimately did achieve that goal, but it was marred by Miguel's dirty tactics in the final round. Since then, Johnny tried to change course and get his students to win the right way. Unfortunately, Johnny hasn't been able to see that wish come to fruition, as his dojo was stuck on the sidelines during the final round of the season 4's tournament.

With all that in mind, Miguel winning the Sekai Taikai would be a validation of both his own journey and Johnny's . Such an outcome would bring Cobra Kai's story full circle in a way that wouldn't feel like a repeat of season 1. Miguel won using the old principles of Cobra Kai that Johnny wanted to leave behind, while Cobra Kai season 6's Miguel can win on his own merits and fully earn his victory. Doing so would effectively pay off six seasons of stories for Johnny and Miguel.

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