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Star Trek Beyond

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 te... Read all 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. 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.

• Gene Roddenberry
• Zachary Quinto
• 900 User reviews
• 496 Critic reviews
• 68 Metascore
• 3 wins & 29 nominations total

• Captain James T. Kirk

• Commander Spock

• Doctor 'Bones' McCoy

• Lieutenant Uhura

• Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia After production on the film was completed, and a month before the release, Anton Yelchin died in a freak vehicle accident at age 27. During the ending credits, there is a dedication that reads, "For Anton." J.J. Abrams announced that Chekov would not be recast, "I would say you can't replace him. There will be no new casting. I can't imagine that, and I think Anton deserves better."
• Goofs The amount of ships and soldiers that the enemy has in its swarm changes dramatically during the final battle, from a few thousand to tens/hundreds of thousands when they attack the station. However, previously in the film, it is stated that the planet has deep and large underground caverns so it is entirely possible that there were more ships underground. Also, the amount of soldiers that would be needed to pilot all the ships would be huge as it was shown that they contain at least one soldier in each ship. But when they were watching the video logs near the film's ending, Captain Edison clearly states that they found drones. It is quite possible that the bulk of the enemy fleet is made up of drones and controlled by the hive mind that the music disrupts.

Doctor 'Bones' McCoy : [after removing shrapnel from Spock] Yeah. They say it hurts less if it's a surprise.

Commander Spock : If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be horseshit.

• Crazy credits There is a giant green energy-hand, in the closing credits, mentioned in the movie as one of the possibilities for a ship lost in space.
• Connections Featured in Nostalgia Critic: How Right Are Trailers? (2016)
• Soundtracks Theme from 'Star Trek' TV Series Written by Alexander Courage & Gene Roddenberry

User reviews 900

• Nov 9, 2016
• How long is Star Trek Beyond? Powered by Alexa
• What happened to Carol Marcus from Star Trek Into Darkness?
• Why would Edison become captain of a warp-4 vessel if he had fought in the Xindi War (when ships were capable of warp 5)?
• July 22, 2016 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official Site
• Star Trek: Beyond
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Paramount Pictures
• Skydance Media
• Alibaba Pictures Group
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $185,000,000 (estimated)
• $158,848,340
• $59,253,211
• Jul 24, 2016
• $343,471,816

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Surround 7.1
• Dolby Digital
• IMAX 6-Track
• 2.35 : 1 (original ratio)
• 2.39 : 1 (original ratio)

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Where does Star Trek Beyond rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Streaming charts last updated: 1:17:53 AM, 04/26/2024

Star Trek Beyond is 5787 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 2674 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Weakness but less popular than Killer Mermaid.

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

Videos: Trailers, Teasers, Featurettes

Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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Star Trek Beyond

• View history

After stopping off at Starbase Yorktown, a remote outpost on the fringes of Federation space, the USS Enterprise , halfway into its five-year mission, is destroyed by a powerful, unstoppable wave of unknown aliens. With the crew stranded on an unknown planet and with no apparent means of rescue, they find themselves in conflict with a new ruthless enemy who has a well-earned hatred of the Federation and what it stands for.

• 1.1 Prologue
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.3.1 Under Roberto Orci
• 4.3.2 Under Justin Lin
• 4.4 Filming
• 4.5 Continuity
• 5.1 Marketing
• 5.2 Posters
• 5.3 Box office
• 5.4 Reception
• 5.5 Merchandise gallery
• 6 Awards and honors
• 7.1 Credits
• 7.4 Second Unit
• 7.5 Dubai Unit
• 7.6.1 Uncredited
• 7.7.1 Unconfirmed
• 7.8 Stand-ins
• 7.9.1 Unconfirmed
• 7.9.2 Companies
• 7.11.1 Graphic references
• 7.11.2 Balthazar M. Edison's personnel file
• 7.11.3 Diagnostic wrap display
• 7.11.4 Public transporter menu
• 7.11.5 Starbase Yorktown memorial wall (unseen material)
• 7.11.6 Spock Prime's holophoto – Senior staff of the USS Enterprise -A
• 7.11.7 Spock Prime's obituary
• 7.11.8 Unreferenced material
• 7.11.9 Deleted graphics references
• 7.12 External links

Summary [ ]

Prologue [ ].

Kirk offering a piece of the Abronath as a gesture of peace

In early 2263 , on the planet of Teenax , Captain James T. Kirk is negotiating a treaty between the Teenaxi Delegation and the Fibonan Republic who are long-term enemies. He presents a piece of an ancient weapon as a gesture of goodwill, but the Teenaxian leader asks where it comes from. When Kirk says the Fibonans acquired it a long time ago, the Teenaxians accuse the Fibonans of stealing the artifact . The Teenaxians (who turn out to be quite small creatures compared to Humans), attack Kirk. As a result, he flips open his communicator and urgently asks Montgomery Scott that he be beamed up. He is eventually evacuated to the USS Enterprise , accidentally taking two Teenaxians with him. Walking down a corridor in his torn uniform, Kirk is followed by Spock and Leonard McCoy . Kirk asks his first officer to log the artifact in the ship's archive vault . " Jim, you look like crap, " McCoy says. Kirk sarcastically thanks the doctor. When McCoy asks the captain if he is all right, Kirk replies, " Never better. Just another day in the fleet. "

Act One [ ]

The crew of the Enterprise anticipate shore leave

The Enterprise arrives at Yorktown

The stardate is 2263.2. It has been nine hundred and sixty-five days since the USS Enterprise began its five-year mission . The Enterprise docks at Starbase Yorktown , an extensive deep space colony containing a large city, to replenish dwindling supplies while the crew takes shore leave . Struggling to find continued meaning in his duties as captain, and becoming increasingly affected by thoughts of the death of his father, George Kirk , Kirk applies for a promotion to vice admiral .

Spock learns that Spock Prime has died

Meanwhile, Spock and Nyota Uhura deal with a time-out in their relationship; Hikaru Sulu reunites with his husband Ben and their young daughter; and Montgomery Scott struggles to keep the ship operational. Spock is also distraught to find that his alternate reality counterpart has recently passed away.

Kalara rescued and brought to Yorktown

An escape pod is found drifting out of a nearby nebula and its occupant, Kalara , claims her ship is stranded on the planet Altamid , which is located past the dangerous, unexplored nebula that will block communications with Starfleet . In a meeting with Yorktown's commanding officer Commodore Paris , Kirk volunteers the Enterprise for the rescue mission, and they get through the nebula with some difficulty, and eventually arrive at Altamid, which Spock finds to be a sparsely-populated class M world. Not long after arrival, the Enterprise comes under attack from a swarm of thousands of small, heavily-armed alien ships. Kirk orders a counterattack, but the Enterprise is overwhelmed by the enemy's sheer volume and strength; the ship's phasers , navigational deflector , and warp nacelles are destroyed within minutes.

The swarm cripples the Enterprise

With the Enterprise crippled and helpless, several of the attacking ships breach the hull, and a boarding party commanded by the swarm's leader, Krall , boards the ship. They make their way to the ship's vault, and on the way there Krall captures and drains the life force from several Enterprise crewmen, leaving them as withered husks. Scott attempts to restore power to the ship's impulse drive by feeding it from the warp core , but Krall orders the swarm to resume its attack. They destroy the neck section of the Enterprise , separating the saucer and engineering hulls, and leaving the saucer powerless due to Scott's modifications, leaving no way of switching over to the saucer's reserve power without a separation . Spock and Dr. McCoy are in a turbolift car that is ejected into space and subsequently captured by a swarm craft, but they managed to get into the craft and overpower its occupants.

Krall boards the Enterprise

Krall arrives at the ship and attempts to get to the vault to take the artifact from the Enterprise 's mission from Teenax. However, Kirk gets to the artifact first and gives it to Ensign Syl before ordering the crew to abandon ship. As the separated engineering hull begins to disintegrate, most of the crew escape in escape pods , only for the swarm ships to capture them and drag them back to the planet. Seeing this, Scott fires himself out of the ship in a advanced long-range torpedo casing.

Kirk on the bridge in the last moments of the Enterprise

Kirk goes to separate the saucer from the neck but Krall attacks him before Kirk can initiate the separation. Uhura goes on to separate the saucer and gets left behind with Krall in the neck section while Kirk is on the saucer side.

The Enterprise 's saucer burning up

Kirk reaches the bridge, which by now is occupied only by Sulu, Chekov , Kalara, and a few other crewmen. However, Chekov reports that the saucer is too badly damaged to keep in orbit, and will crash within minutes. Kirk orders the remaining crew to abandon the ship by Kelvin pods once it enters the atmosphere (though everyone except for himself, Chekov, and Kalara are also captured), and is the last person to leave the Enterprise . Moments later, the saucer crashes into a mountain range, and what remains of it crash-lands in a field, embedding itself into the earth.

Act Two [ ]

Scott, who has landed elsewhere, is saved from some of the planet's unruly inhabitants by an alien scavenger named Jaylah and taken to her makeshift home, which he discovers to be the wreckage of the USS Franklin , which went missing almost one hundred years prior . Meanwhile, the swarm craft hijacked by Spock and McCoy crash-lands on the planet, badly injuring Spock and forcing McCoy to perform some very hasty surgery in order to save his life.

" God, you're getting delirious. "

After discovering that the alien artifact originated from the planet on which they had crash-landed, Spock reveals to McCoy that he is reconsidering his place in Starfleet after Spock Prime's death. The two are then attacked by the swarm only to be saved by Scott, who has repaired the Franklin 's transporter system.

Meanwhile, Kirk and Chekov force Kalara to admit she lured the Enterprise into a trap, claiming that Krall promised to return her crew to her in exchange for the Enterprise and her own crew. With their tricorders having insufficient range to locate the rest of the crew, the trio board the crashed saucer in order to use its sensors. Kirk pretends to go to retrieve the artifact in a corridor and Kalara turns on him and reveals that her "crew" never existed; she's been in league with Krall from the very start. Fortunately, Kirk had seen through her, and Chekov rescues him as more of Krall's troopers arrive. Outnumbered and trapped, Kirk ignites the fuel tank for the saucer's maneuvering thrusters , which allows them to escape, but also causes the saucer to flip over, killing Kalara and the troopers, and causing the fuel tanks to explode, leaving the mostly-destroyed saucer as all that remains of the USS Enterprise .

" You gave your girlfriend a tracking device? " " ...That was not my intention. "

Meanwhile, Krall demands the artifact, threatening to kill Sulu if he does not get it. Syl relents and gives Krall the artifact, which he reveals to be the final component of a weapon called the Abronath that attacks organic tissue and which he intends to unleash on Starbase Yorktown. Krall then tests the weapon on Syl, dissolving her completely in the process.

When the group consisting of McCoy, Spock, Scott, Kirk, Chekov, and Jaylah has ascertained the location of the captured crew through Uhura's vokaya amulet, the group formulates a plan to infiltrate Krall's base. Jaylah is initially fearful of this, remembering the death of her family at the hands of Krall and his people, but Scott and Kirk are able to persuade her to help out.

Act Three [ ]

Spock, Jaylah, and McCoy beam into Krall's base

As Krall departs for Starbase Yorktown, Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and Jaylah rescue the crew before repairing the Franklin and also setting a course for the starbase. Spock and McCoy beam aboard an attacking drone ship and discover a way to disrupt the drones' cohesion, allowing the Franklin and the starbase to destroy much of the drone fleet using discordant noise on a very high frequency (VHF), provided courtesy of Jaylah's collection of "classical" late 20th century music.

After a brief battle between the swarm and Yorktown's defenses, Krall still manages to board the starbase despite the Battle of Yorktown , which eventually culminates in the Franklin intercepting his ships in a maneuver near the starbase's central control complex.

Krall's original identity: Captain Balthazar Edison

As they look for him, Uhura learns from the Franklin 's video logs that Krall's original name was Balthazar Edison and that he was born Human . Before his sudden disappearance, Edison had been the captain of the Franklin . He had been declared missing in action by Starfleet, and had ended up crashing onto Altamid, which was a former mining colony of an alien species known as the Ancient Ones, who had left drone equipment and other technology behind. Edison, and at least two of his crewmates, had used the remains of this technology to prolong their lives, and to build new military vessels. However, the use of the life-extension technology had also rendered the former members of the Franklin unrecognizable as Humans because they acquired some of the biological attributes of the other species they lured for their consumption.

Once Krall/Edison is on board the Franklin , he steals a command division Starfleet uniform and reverts to a mostly Human appearance after draining the life force from several more Enterprise crewmembers, healing the injuries he suffered when his ship was crushed.

Kirk fights Krall to save Yorktown

Krall/Edison prepares to deploy the bioweapon, leading to a chase through the base. Kirk confronts Krall/Edison in the life support hub, and they fight in anti-gravity and weightless conditions in the life support section of Yorktown. Krall/Edison expounds his theory that Humanity needs to be in a state of conflict in order to progress, and that the Federation has stifled this process by bringing about peace in large areas of the galaxy. The fight ends with both Krall/Edison and the Abronath bioweapon being ejected into space, where the Abronath devours him.

Kirk is rescued from suffering the same fate by Spock and McCoy in their hijacked drone. Kirk tells Spock he doesn't know what he would do without him, causing him to contemplate his decision to leave Starfleet.

Spock finds Spock Prime's photo of himself along with his crewmates from his reality

Commodore Paris closes the unsolved cases of the fate of Captain Edison and the crew of the USS Franklin . She commends Kirk for his actions and informs him that his promotion to the admiralty is assured. However, Kirk respectfully declines the offer, his experience having rejuvenated his spirit to be a Starfleet officer, stating that "admirals don't fly". Remaining a starship captain, Kirk allows McCoy to lead him to a gathering where McCoy has planned a surprise birthday party for his friend. At a loss for words, Kirk instead raises a toast to the late starship Enterprise and to their fallen comrades. Spock allows himself a look at some of Ambassador Spock's personal effects and finds a photograph of him and his prime reality comrades on the bridge of their Enterprise .

Kirk's surprise birthday party

Reminding himself of his earlier discussion with Dr. McCoy, Spock elects to live as his alternate self did and remains serving in Starfleet. Kirk offers his condolences on Ambassador Spock's passing to his friend, which Spock accepts and begins to renew his relationship with Uhura. A despondent Jaylah, also present at the gathering, has consumed a large number of alcoholic beverages, which she had been told would "take her edge off", but is clearly not having much of an effect. Hoping to boost her spirits, Scott presents Jaylah with an acceptance letter into Starfleet Academy , courtesy of a few strings pulled by Kirk, who also warns her that Starfleet has many rules but not to follow all of them.

The crew looks at the construction of their new starship

As Kirk and Spock look out of a massive window, they view the construction of a new starship. Considering the perils that had befallen the Enterprise and her crew since they were first assembled five years earlier, McCoy questions whether or not they really should go back out into space. As the starship finishes construction, its primary hull proudly displays her name and registry : USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) . Kirk, Spock, Scott, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura can be heard taking turns paraphrasing Zefram Cochrane :

Log entries [ ]

• Kirk: " Captain's Log , Stardate 2263.2. Today is our 966th day in deep space , a little under three years into our five-year mission . The more time we spend out here, the harder it is to tell where one day ends and the next one begins. It can be a challenge to feel grounded when even gravity is artificial . But, well, we do what we can to make it feel like home. The crew , as always, continues to act admirably despite the rigors of our extended stay here in outer space. And the personal sacrifices they have made. We continue to search for new life forms in order to establish firm diplomatic ties. Our extended time in uncharted territory has stretched the ship's mechanical capacities. But fortunately our engineering department, led by Mr. Scott, is more than up to the job. The ship aside, prolonged cohabitation has definitely had effects on the interpersonal dynamics. Some experiences for the better, and some for the worse. As for me, things have started to feel a little episodic. The farther out we go, the more I find myself wondering what it is we're trying to accomplish. If the universe is truly endless, then are we not striving for something forever out of reach? The Enterprise is scheduled for a reprovisioning stop at Yorktown , the Federation 's newest and most advanced starbase . Perhaps a break from routine will offer up some respite from the mysteries of the unknown. "
• Edison: " Captain's log... I don't remember the stardate. All distress calls unanswered. Of the crew , only three remain . I WON'T ALLOW IT! The indigenous race abandoned this planet long ago. They left behind sophisticated mining equipment and a drone workforce . They have some sort of technology that prolongs life . I will do whatever it takes for me and my crew. The Fed-Federation do not care about us. You'll probably never see me again. But if you do... be ready. "

Memorable quotes [ ]

" To perfect eyesight and a full head of hair. "

" You guys break up? What'd you do? " " A typically reductive inquiry, doctor. " " You know Spock, if an Earth girl says, uh, 'it's me, not you', it's definitely you."

" I am Lieutenant Nyota Uhura of the USS Enterprise . And you have committed an act of war against the Federation. " " Federation?! Federation is an act of war. "

" Your captain... why did you sacrifice yourself for him? " " He would have done the same. And if he made it off that ship, he will come for us. " " I am counting on it, Lieutenant Uhura. "

" Yeah, I say it hurts less when it's a surprise. " " If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be "horseshit". "

" Come now, Montgomery Scotty. "

" Leaving me behind will significantly increase your chances of survival, Doctor. " " Well that's damn chivalrous of you, but completely out of the question. " " It is imperative that you locate any surviving crew. " " Here I was thinking you cared. " " Of course I care, Leonard. I always assumed my respect for you was clear. The dialogue we have had across the years has always... " " It's okay, Spock. You don't have to say it. " [McCoy and Spock are surrounded by three of Krall's drone ships] " Well, at least I won't die alone! " [Spock is beamed out from behind McCoy] " Well that's just typical."

" This is where the frontier pushes back. "

" You're part of something bigger now, lassie. Right? Dinnae give up on that. 'Cause we'll sure as hell never give up on you. That is what being part of a crew is all about. "

" What happened to you out there, Edison? " " Ed-i-son? I have to say, Kirk, I missed being me. We lost ourselves, but gained a purpose! A means to bring the galaxy back to the struggle that made Humanity strong. " " I think you're underestimating Humanity. " " I fought for Humanity! Lost millions to the Xindi and Romulan wars. And for what? For the Federation?! To sit me in a captain's chair and break bread with the enemy! " " We change. We have to. Or we spend the rest of our lives fighting the same battles. "

" You lost. There's no way for you to make it back there! Give up! " " What, like you did?! I read your ship's logs, Captain James T. Kirk. At least I know what I am! I'm a soldier! " " You won the war, Edison. You gave us peace! " " Peace... is not what I was born into. "

" You... can't stop it. You will die. " " Better to die saving lives, than to live with taking them. That's what I was born into. "

" To the Enterprise ... and to absent friends. "

" You really want to head back out there, huh? "

" Space. The final frontier. " " These are the voyages of the starship... " " ... Enterprise . Its continuing mission... " " ...to explore strange new worlds... " " ...to seek out new life... " " ...and new civilizations... " ...to boldly go where no one has gone before. "

Background information [ ]

The film takes place two-and-a-half years into the characters' five-year mission , [1] when the USS Enterprise is attacked by the Swarm and the crew is marooned on an unknown world as a consequence. They gain an ally in Sofia Boutella 's alien warrior, Jaylah. [2]

Idris Elba plays the Swarm's leader, Krall, who detests the Federation's philosophy and opposes its introduction to the wider galaxy. [3] Elba said, " There's definitely an opposing argument to the good that the Federation think they do. There are purists that believe in independence, and believe that we're all made differently for a reason, and will fight tooth and nail to defend that. There's massive relatability to modern world politics in that sense. " [4]

J.J. Abrams had stated he would like more female characters in the sequel. [5] He also mentioned the sequel could fall back on abandoned story ideas for the characters. " There was [an idea] implying the sexuality of one of the characters, a back story for another character that was pretty intense, a really funny story we wanted to do with yet another. Hopefully, if there are future films, those other stories will get their moment, " he said. [6] Roberto Orci has voiced support for having a gay character. [7]

William Shatner was contacted about a possible role in the film. Along with Shatner, Leonard Nimoy had been rumored to appear, in a scene with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto , as the future alternate reality versions of the characters. [8] In the wake of Nimoy's death on 27 February 2015 , Simon Pegg mentioned there would be some tribute to the late actor in the final film. [9] On 27 May 2015 , Pegg mentioned that it was possible Shatner could portray Kirk again at some point, [10] but Shatner confirmed he would not appear and he never discussed it. [11] Shatner's Kirk and Nimoy's Spock appear in the film in a still handled by the actor Zachary Quinto.

Zoë Saldana stated she would dislike it if Spock and Uhura broke up, describing that possibility as potentially "heartbreaking" for her. Concerning the film's action quotient, she speculated, " I'm pretty sure that for this third installment, we'll be able to sort of [...] be more hands-on. " [12] Lin said their relationship will be consistent and acknowledge what came before. [13]

Bruce Greenwood expressed hope that Christopher Pike could return, which he referred to as a "deep, deep wish to come back." Although Pike dies in Star Trek Into Darkness , Greenwood suspected Khan Noonien Singh 's revitalizing blood could be used to bring Pike back to life. As a result, he confirmed, laughing, that he would be interested in reprising the role in " Star Trek III: The Search for Pike ", an in-joke reference to the title of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . In a serious manner, Greenwood related he would be interested in further resolution to the relationship between Pike and Kirk. ( Star Trek Magazine Special 2015 , p. 21) In reference to Kirk, he concluded, " Whatever happens in the third film, it will give the audience a sense of progression and change; an arc and a character that's really growing with them. " ( SciFiNow , issue 80, p. 26)

On 2 February 2015 , the on-line movie and television news site FilmDivider.com reported that, for the new Star Trek film, three new major female roles would be cast. One of them would be the President of the United Federation of Planets , one would be a starship captain , and the third would be an ex-wife of Doctor McCoy , who was to be depicted as having several former wives. The male villain would be a Bryan Cranston -like type and the website also stated that Cranston was in talks with the studio. All this proved to be false. [14]

The working title for this sequel was "Washington" and "Washington Project". [15] [16] [17] On 21 April 2015 , TrekMovie.com announced that Star Trek Beyond "may be the title" of the film. [18] The title was later confirmed by Director Justin Lin . [19]

Development [ ]

Under roberto orci [ ].

Producer Bryan Burk commented that Paramount wanted the third film to take less time to produce than Star Trek Into Darkness took, and that 2016 – the 50th anniversary of Star Trek – would be a logical year to release it. [20] Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman added that Paramount insisted on a 2016 release date. [21]

J.J. Abrams, who directed Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness , chose to direct Star Wars Episode VII , and accordingly only produce this film. [22] Abrams noted, " Having directed pilots and movies and then having seen subsequent directors work on those shows or do their own versions of those films – time and again I have seen it done better. " [23] Patrick McKay stated, " Bad Robot , J.J., and his team are really at the heart of this movie's development. They are the guiding light by which we all do our work. J.J.'s been a key part of helping us spin this tale from the beginning, and if there are people who think that we've lost him to Star Wars this time around, that’s not the truth as far as we see it. " [24]

In an interview published on 6 May 2013 , Michael Giacchino expressed he was open to return to score the film, saying, " I’d be happy and honored to do another if that was in the future. " [25]

In August 2013 , then-writing partners Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller pitches to J.J. Abrams a story with an antagonist who "...was more a 'noble adversary' a la Balance of Terror than another Khan . There was also Dyson Sphere [sic] and an ancient, Lovecraftian menace to the galaxy." [26] [27]

In September 2013 , J.J. Abrams acknowledged rumors that Rupert Wyatt could helm the sequel, stating, " He's incredibly talented, and we'd be lucky to have someone as talented as Rupert. But there are things we're focusing on right now before the director, which is just sort of the fundamentals of where the story is gonna go. " [28]

On 2 November 2013 , it was reported that Attack the Block director Joe Cornish was Paramount's choice to direct the film, though reports differed as to whether or not he had already begun negotiations to join the project. According to Variety , Cornish was offered the film once before, in May 2013 , but had turned it down. [29] [30] [31] Abrams voiced his support for Cornish, stating, " I don't know if [he] is the guy. My guess is that's up in the air. I adore him and love him and can't wait to see what he does next. Hopefully, it will be Star Trek." [32]

On 6 December 2013 , it was announced that up-and-coming screenwriters J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay would be writing the script alongside Roberto Orci. It was also announced that Alex Kurtzman would not be involved with the project, due to work on The Amazing Spider-Man movies and other projects. [33]

In February 2014 , J.D. Payne explained they were trying to come up with a classic Star Trek storyline, where " You should respond to this opportunity that the crew has that also has some pitfalls to it [....] It's sort of the Adam and Eve thing, where should we eat the fruit or not eat the fruit? Well, there are some very compelling reasons why they should and why they shouldn't. So, [there are] similar kinds of things here that really give the whole movie an opportunity to sort of play with that, and have people come down on different sides and wrestle with it. " [34]

In April 2014 , it was revealed Roberto Orci had been lobbying to direct the film, but Paramount was reluctant to allow him, as he had never directed before. However, Bad Robot and Skydance Productions were supportive. [35]

At the US premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness on 2 May 2013 , Damon Lindelof hinted that the prospect the Klingons would declare war on the Federation would come to fruition, and that Benedict Cumberbatch would return as Khan Noonien Singh . [36] However, Lindelof was not involved with the sequel.

Later in May 2013, Paramount relented to Roberto Orci's appeals, offering him the director's chair. [37]

In an interview published on 29 June 2014 , Patrick McKay implied the film may not have a villain, explaining that, while he loved Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , he also loved the other films " that have a little bit more of the character relationships and the humor and some more of the speculative sci-fi elements. " [38]

In July 2014 , Roberto Orci clarified that he was not technically directing the film until Paramount approved the script. [39] On 9 August 2014 , Orci proclaimed he had finished a first draft of the script. [40] On 27 August 2014 , he revealed that the casting process for other characters had begun. [41]

On 18 September 2014 , Zachary Quinto stated he expected the film to start shooting within the next six months. [42] The next day, it was confirmed that shooting would begin in February 2015 , with a summer 2016 release date. An official announcement was to be made soon thereafter with a specific release date. [43]

As the domestic gross of Star Trek Into Darkness (which stood at US$228.5 million) was less than the first film, Paramount made the decision to film the sequel outside Los Angeles to save money. " We're making it for what it should have been shot for last time if we had made it outside of L.A., which we would have done except that [J.J. Abrams] didn't want to, " a studio source told The Hollywood Reporter . " That was a $20 million issue. " [44]

On 29 September 2014 , Mayor Park Wonsoon confirmed he had met with the producers, including Jeffrey Chernov , and confirmed Seoul in South Korea as one of the filming locations for Star Trek Beyond . [45] According to TrekMovie.com, the film would be shot primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which would also be used for outside filming locations. [46]

Roberto Orci officially stepped down from directing the film on 5 December 2014 . Orci remained attached the project as an in-name producer, but ceased to by involved in production. [47] While the film was without a director, Jonathan Frakes lobbied to be given the opportunity to direct the movie. ( SFX , issue 270, p. 63)

Under Justin Lin [ ]

On 22 December 2014 , it was announced that Justin Lin had been hired to direct the film. [48] Two days later, it was announced that Roberto Orci would only produce the film and will no longer be involved in the writing process. [49]

A childhood fan of Star Trek: The Original Series , Lin was called by J.J. Abrams while filming the second season of True Detective . [50] After learning he was not beholden to any previous script, Lin decided to go " new and fresh. The Klingons , Romulans and other species are great, but it's time to go further. It has been fun to focus on creating whole new worlds and species. " [51] Simon Pegg coined the title when he recognized Lin was trying to take Star Trek "beyond". [52]

On 21 January 2015 , it was announced that principal filming would start on 15 April 2015 at Vancouver Film Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [53] It was also announced that Simon Pegg and Doug Jung would help write the film. [54] Jung came to stay at Pegg's house to co-write the script; whenever they felt they completed enough of the rewrite, they would pass time by watching episodes of the original show. [55] They also consulted Memory Alpha, with Pegg claiming " We actually wrote to the Memory Alpha guys and got them to name a certain device in the movie. I sent them a letter saying, 'Can you come up with this for me?' In two hours, they came back with an entire etymological history of what the thing was. It's beautiful. It’s fantastic to have that support network. " [56]

Simon Pegg commented Paramount felt Roberto Orci's script was " a little bit too Star Trek -y. Avengers Assemble [the release title of The Avengers in the United Kingdom], which is a pretty nerdy, comic-book, supposedly niche thing, made $1.5 billion. Star Trek Into Darkness made half a billion, which is still brilliant. But it means that, according to the studio, there's still $1bn worth of box office that don't go and see Star Trek . And they want to know why. " Pegg described the rewrite as being akin to "mak[ing] a Western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it's more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent". [57]

Pegg also explained they wanted to mark the 50th anniversary by deconstructing the franchise. " I felt like it was important to really deconstruct the idea of Star Trek , the idea of the Federation and why it's special. We'll really be poking at a lot of different things. " He also said, " We're gathering a great community within the galaxy, but to what end? What does it all mean? " [58]

The character of Jaylah was inspired by Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Ree in the 2010 film Winter's Bone . Pegg and Jung referred to her by Lawrence's nickname "J. Law", eventually inspiring the name "Jaylah". [59]

On 24 February 2015 , it was reported that filming was pushed back to begin on 1 June 2015 and continue on until September. [60]

In March 2015 , Stephen F. Windon was confirmed as the film's cinematographer, replacing Roberto Orci's choice of Claudio Miranda . [61] It was also confirmed that Nick Satriano had replaced the previously announced First Assistant Director Kim H. Winther . [62]

With the release of the official casting call, it was confirmed that shooting in Vancouver, B.C. would be starting on 15 June 2015 and continuing through 15 October 2015 . To be considered being an actor, extra, or crew member on the new film, a legal eligibility for working in Vancouver was a requirement. Extras casting would get underway in May 2015 . [63]

On 2 June 2015 , it was reported that the first draft of the script had been finished. [64]

On 13 June 2015 , Michael Giacchino said he had not yet talked to the makers of Star Trek Beyond about the prospect of him returning to Star Trek in order to compose this film. The reason no contact had been made was partly because Giacchino himself had been extremely busy but also " because they're in such a crazy schedule crunch [....] But I imagine that I will be talking to them soon about all of this, and we'll figure out what’s going to happen next, " he said. [65]

Deep Roy was confirmed to be returning as Keenser on 8 July 2015 , having canceled a convention appearance for filming on Star Trek Beyond . [66]

On 11 July 2015 , Michael Giacchino announced his participation in the movie by tweeting, " So thrilled to be working with Justin Lin and the rest of the Enterprise crew on Star Trek Beyond ! Let's boldly go! " [67] [68] He commented that Beyond is not as gritty and earthbound as the previous two films, so the score would feel different. [69]

It was announced on 24 July 2015 that Joe Taslim had been cast in a key role opposite Idris Elba. [70]

On 7 August 2015 , Joseph Gatt confirmed that the character he played in Star Trek Into Darkness , Science Officer 0718 , would not be returning for Star Trek Beyond , due to script rewrites eliminating his role from the story. [71]

The Italian press reported on 24 October 2015 that former Chelsea, Juventus, Paris Saint Germain and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti had been cast to play a doctor. [72]

Bryan Burk observed, " In the beginning, you could see a palpable sense of excitement as the cast started to work with [Justin Lin]. " ( SFX , issue 270, p. 71)

Addressing the involvement of Roberto Orci and his co-writers John D. Payne and Patrick McKay, Justin Lin said on 14 December 2015 " The WGA has to figure it out, because I don’t know who those writers are, I never met them. I came on, I had an idea and then Simon and Doug came on. I had one conversation with Orci after I came on, and that was it. " [73]

While the first trailer credited Simon Pegg and Doug Jung , it also credited Roberto Orci , John D. Payne , and Patrick McKay . The second trailer only credited Pegg and Jung.

Due to Warner Bros. Pictures becoming Paramount Pictures, the copy of the Paramount logo that came from the film was replaced with a new copy of the logo on the DVD.

Filming [ ]

Boutella and Lin on set

Lin and Pine on the set of the Franklin 's transporter

It was reported that filming was pushed back again and was to begin on 25 June 2015 . [74]

On 25, 26, 29 and 30 June 2015 , the production filmed scenes in Squamish Boulders , Squamish, British Columbia. Filming took place around the Kacodemon Boulder and Cave Boulder for the first three shooting days. On the fourth day, filming took place south of the Black Dyke Boulder. [75] The filming schedule was updated on 26 June 2015 and the first set photos as well as a sixteen-page filming permit contract went online. [76] [77]

On 26 June 2015 , Executive Producer David Ellison revealed Dubai as a filming location. [78] [79] Three days later, Director Justin Lin revealed that the title was officially Star Trek Beyond , as well as releasing the first officially released set photo. [80]

On 19 July 2015 , TrekCore reported some set photos from a large green screen build-up located at Kent Hangar Field, west of Vancouver International Airport. In addition, an enormous wooden construction was also spotted. [81] This location was later revealed as a filming location for War for the Planet of the Apes . [82]

Between 11 August 2015 and 13 August 2015 , an open casting call for background roles was held by Miranda Davidson Studios at Dubai City Studio Soundstage, Building B, Ground Floor. [83] [84]

On 14 August 2015 , several more set photos were published on the internet, backing the claim that a Federation starship crash landed on a planet. [85]

On 20 August 2015 , the first set photos from the filming were published by ScreenRush.com . Several shots gave a detailed view of Sanja Milkovic Hays ' newly designed Starfleet uniforms and also several shots of an alien character played by Sofia Boutella . [86]

On 22 August 2015 , the Dubai Film and TV Commission (DFTC) announced an internship program which would run from 13 September until 15 October 2015. The organization meanwhile also confirmed Dubai was to be used as a filming location for Star Trek Beyond , in October 2015. [87]

On 27 August 2015 and 29 August 2015 , Twitter users reported that Star Trek Beyond was filming at Triangle Road in Richmond, B.C. and at the Pitt River Quarries in Red Deer, B.C. [88] [89]

In October 2015, filming started in Dubai. Filming locations included the desert reserve Platinum Heritage and the Dubai Central Park Towers ground in front of the Central Park Tower and the Platinum Tower. [90] [91] [92] [93]

During their filming in Dubai, several set photos were posted on Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites, including several images and videos of new alien species. [94] [95] [96] [97] [98] [99]

Principal filming wrapped in Dubai on Thursday 15 October 2015 . [100]

On 11 March 2016 , it was announced that reshoots would occur the following week. It was also announced that Shohreh Aghdashloo would be playing the " High Command of the Federation ". [101] Reshoots wrapped up on 17 March 2016 . [102]

Continuity [ ]

• In this installment, James T. Kirk begins sporting the hairstyle of his prime universe counterpart on Star Trek: The Original Series .
• At Starbase Yorktown , Hikaru Sulu meets up with his husband and daughter . It pays homage to former Hikaru Sulu actor George Takei , who is gay. His daughter is possibly Demora Sulu 's alternate counterpart first seen in Star Trek Generations . (This would make her much older than the Demora of the primary timeline, who was born in 2271 .)
• According to logs of the USS Franklin , Balthazar Edison was a MACO major before he was captain of the Franklin . The logs also said that he participated in the Xindi wars , possibly as one of the MACOs assigned to Enterprise NX-01 under Captain Jonathan Archer in ENT : " The Expanse ". It also mentioned that he fought in the Earth-Romulan War .
• The Franklin 's registry number (NX-326) is a reference to Leonard Nimoy’s birthday (March 26). The ship is named after director Justin Lin's father.
• The saucer section crash landing on Altamid is an homage to when the USS Enterprise -D crash-landed on Veridian III in Star Trek Generations .

The " giant green hand " seen in the credits

• One of the many stories of the Franklin 's fate involved a " giant green hand ". This could be an homage to TOS : " Who Mourns for Adonais? ". A giant green hand also appears in the end credits of the film.
• The ripping of James T. Kirk 's shirt at the beginning of the film is an homage to various Original Series episodes such as " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", " Shore Leave ", " Court Martial ", and " Amok Time " in which Kirk gets into fights and his shirt is ripped.
• This movie marks the third time an Enterprise is destroyed in a Star Trek film . The original USS Enterprise was destroyed in 2285 in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and the Enterprise -D was destroyed in 2371 in Star Trek Generations .
• This film marks the second time a ship captained by Kirk has crashed into an ocean, the first time being in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , and the third time it made contact with the water, the second time being in Into Darkness , when it was hiding on Nibiru .
• Kirk mentioning the Enterprise being on its 966th day in deep space is a reference to the month that Star Trek: The Original Series first aired: September 1966 .
• This is the second Star Trek film not to feature any scenes taking place on or near Earth . ( Star Trek: Insurrection was the first.)
• The photograph of the prime USS Enterprise -A crew Spock views while looking through Ambassador Spock 's belongings near the end of the film is a publicity photo for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . Terry J. Erdmann commented: " When Spock opened the kit at the end and sees that picture of the original crew, Paula [M. Block] and I just looked at one another. I arranged that photo shoot, getting all the actors together after the fact. They had only shot together as a full cast for a few days, so I had to get the wardrobe, set, lighting, etc. to make that moment happen. I was so pleased to see it on screen when the picture flashed in front of me in the theater. I thought, that photo shoot still has legs ". [103]
• This marks the third movie to feature Kirk's birthday. The first was shown at the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the second was the opening scene of Star Trek .
• Kirk having a drink with McCoy as he discusses his life is reminiscent of many such scenes in The Original Series where Kirk sought Bones' counsel, often over a drink, as seen in episodes such as " The Corbomite Maneuver " and " The Ultimate Computer ".
• The drink that McCoy dismisses when he finds Kirk drinking is Saurian brandy , the preferred drink of Kirk and McCoy in The Original Series .
• This is the second film – the first being The Wrath of Khan – where Kirk ponders his future on his birthday.
• The toast McCoy offers to Kirk while sharing Saurian brandy , " To perfect eyesight and a full head of hair ", is interesting considering that in the prime universe, Kirk requires corrective lenses, being allergic to Retinax V .
• The toast Kirk gives at his birthday party in honor of the fallen crewmembers was also spoken by his counterpart in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek Nemesis , and Kor in DS9 : " Once More Unto the Breach ". His toast to the Enterprise also echoes the toast Montgomery Scott raises to the original Enterprise in TNG : " Relics ".
• Commodore Paris could possibly be a distant relative to Admiral Owen Paris and his son, Lieutenant Tom Paris , from Star Trek: Voyager . Simon Pegg later confirmed that Commodore Paris was a nod to Tom Paris from Voyager and stated that the commodore " probably " could have been his grandmother. [104]
• Simon Pegg stated that the names of the two crew members killed by Krall were taken from " Balance of Terror ", Martine and Tomlinson . [105]
• Chekov states that Scotch whisky was invented by an old woman in Moscow . It is reminiscent of Chekov 's dialogue about Scotch from TOS : " The Trouble with Tribbles ".
• Shortly before the Franklin lifts off from Altamid, Kirk asks Sulu if he can fly it. Sulu turns and says, " You kidding me, sir? ". In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior similarly turned toward Janice Rand and said " Are you kidding? ", when she asked if they should report to Starfleet that Praxis had exploded.
• Given that the film opens on the 966th day of the five-year mission (2 January 2263), it can be extrapolated that the five-year mission began on 12 May 2260 .
• Spock Prime's date of death is listed on screen as stardate 2263.02, ostensibly the same day as 2263.2, when Kirk records his Captain's log early in the film.
• This is the third Star Trek film after Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek in which no Klingons appear on screen. While Klingon ships appeared in both other films, this is the first where there is no reference to them at all.
• Karl Urban has said that the medallion he wears at the end of the film, as well as his shirt being open, is an homage to DeForest Kelley 's similar first appearance as McCoy in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . [106]
• Spock's pondering leaving Starfleet to return to New Vulcan (to dedicate his life to completing the late Ambassador Spock's work) is possibly a reference to the fact that in the prime universe, he left the service soon after the end of the five-year mission (as seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture ) to dedicate himself to the kolinahr discipline. By the end of the events of that film, he had resolved his internal conflicts and had decided that his initially reluctant return to Starfleet was now a permanent one. In this film, Spock ultimately decides, after looking at a photo of Ambassador Spock with his fellow aged Enterprise comrades, that he also belongs with his own Enterprise family.
• This is the first on-screen use of saucer separation since Star Trek Generations , and the first on-screen use by a ship other than the Enterprise -D.
• This film establishes that Kirk's mother, Winona, is still living, as McCoy asks the captain if he will be calling his mother on his birthday.
• With a release at Star Trek 's 50th anniversary, this film includes fifty new alien species. [107]
• In one line, Krall refers to the Federation 's "centuries of expansion"; according to ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ", by the events of the film, the Federation was just over a century old (Although, considering the unknown circumstances of the Franklin 's arrival on this planet, it may be that Krall was the victim of a time dilation effect or Krall has simply lost track of time after so long trapped on Altamid with no awareness of the date on Earth).
• When Scotty beams Spock and McCoy onto the Franklin separately, he explains that it's so they wouldn't become spliced by the cargo transporter, a prospect that McCoy finds horrifying. This references the Voyager episode " Tuvix " – one of the two people put together by the transporter is a Vulcan, Tuvok .
• The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " The Ascent " also features two characters who are often at odds being stuck with each other ( Odo and Quark ) being separated by a one-at-a-time beam-out, with the one initially left behind, Odo, believing Quark has abandoned him (due to death).
• This is the second time in the alternate reality that equipment originally created for mining was used as a weapon (against the Enterprise ); the first was Nero's ship, the Narada .
• In his intercom address during the Enterprise 's mission to Altamid, Kirk states to his crew that " There is no such thing as the unknown, only the temporarily hidden. " His prime timeline counterpart similarly stated to his crew, " there's no such thing as the unknown. Only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood, " in the episode " The Corbomite Maneuver ".
• In Star Trek: The Original Series , the opening tagline ended with " where no man has gone before ", a wording that could be seen as sexist, so in Star Trek: The Next Generation it was changed to " where no one has gone before ". In Star Trek Beyond , the line is spoken (using "no one") by a woman, Uhura .
• Thasus is mentioned in the film. Thasus was the homeworld of the non-corporael Thasian species. It was home to Charles Evans after a transport ship crash-landed on the ship.
• Spock quotes Shakespeare's Measure for Measure , Act 3, Scene 1 - "The miserable have no other medicine but only hope."

Release [ ]

International title cards: English, Castilian Spanish, Chinese (traditional), French, Spanish, Portuguese

In October 2015, Allociné , a French site for the dates of movie releases, reported that, in France, Star Trek Beyond will be released on 24 August 2016 and will be titled Star Trek sans limites . [108] In January 2016, Paramount Pictures France advanced the release date to 17 August 2016 . [109] The release date in Belgium, Switzerland, and French-speaking communities in Europe was also 17 August 2016. The release date in Quebec and New Brunswick provinces and French-speaking communities in North America was 22 July 2016, the same date as the United States. [110]

Despite not being permitted the chance to direct this film, Jonathan Frakes has nonetheless made supportive comments about it. For example, in the lead-up to the movie's release, he has remarked, " I think Justin Lin is going to do a great job. I'm looking forward to that. " ( SFX , issue 270, p. 63)

Marketing [ ]

The Star Trek Beyond cast in the July 2015 Omaze campaign announcement video

Filming of an Omaze video using the codename "Washington"

On 14 July 2015 , the cast of Star Trek Beyond announced "To Boldly Go", a charity campaign in partnership with Omaze to benefit nine different children's charities:

• Brave Beginnings (Zoe Saldana)
• Camp Sunshine (Anton Yelchin)
• Direct Relief (Zachary Quinto)
• Heaven Homes (Idris Elba)
• KidsCan (Karl Urban)
• Koreatown Youth & Community Center (John Cho)
• Make-A-Wish (Chris Pine)
• Time is Precious (Simon Pegg)
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ( Susan Nimoy in honor of Leonard Nimoy)

Those who donated would receive prizes, as well as a greater chance of winning a walk-on part in the film for them and a friend, depending on the amount they give. J.J. Abrams previously announced a similar campaign, " Force for Change ", for Star Wars Episode VII. [111] Each week, two of the cast members announced a winner. [112] The winners included Audrianna Davis and friend Summer, [113] Amy and Karen Ackerman, [114] Steven and Nick, [115] Steve Lamb, Linda, and several others. [116]

Omaze reported on the set visit in late September 2015 [117] and announced Adam Horwitz as the winner of the walk-on role. [118]

A trailer for the film was released online on 14 December 2015 , and premiered in theaters before Star Wars: The Force Awakens . [119] The trailer, which was set to the Beastie Boys ' " Sabotage " as a callback to the 2009 film, drew a mixed response from fans as well as George Takei and Wil Wheaton . [120] Simon Pegg admitted to being surprised by the trailer, speculating " the marketing people [were] saying, 'Everyone come see this film, it's full of action and fun.' When there is a lot more to it than that. I didn't love it because I know there is a lot more to the film. " [121]

A full-length trailer was released on 20 May 2016 , to mixed reviews, but was better received than the teaser.

There is a four-issue comic book series titled Star Trek: Manifest Destiny , though it is not branded as an official prequel to the film like previous IDW Publishing comics Countdown and Countdown to Darkness .

Star Trek Beyond is the first film in the franchise not to have a novelization.

Collectible miniatures of starships from the film have been produced by Snapco and more are slated for release by Hallmark and Quantum Mechanix . Ben Robinson , the project manager of the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection partwork magazine, has announced that Eaglemoss Collections will be producing a USS Enterprise and a USS Franklin from the film as special issues. Another Beyond starship design will also be produced. Additional starship miniature premiums will be included with Paramount Pictures ' Amazon.com and Walmart home video releases.

Concept art showing the Franklin has been posted at TrekCore . [122] [123]

On 13 March 2016 , it was reported that Paramount had announced the film's international release dates. Thailand would be the first country to show the film, on 19 July 2016 , and Argentina the last, on 1 September 2016 . [124] [125]

A still from the movie

On 27 March 2016 , the first official still photo from the movie was released as part of USA Today 's summer film preview. [126] [127] More photos were released later, including after the film's second trailer was released. [128]

A promotional single was released for the film in America, " Sledgehammer ", by Rihanna . In China, a different track, " Lost in the Stars " was released by Chinese pop star Zhang Jie (aka Jason Zhang). [129]

Posters [ ]

The first official teaser poster for the film was released alongside the second trailer. [130] Soon after, character posters started being released. [131] The posters featuring Sulu and Uhura had to be re-released following a gaffe that placed their insignia on the wrong side of the uniform. [132]

Box office [ ]

Despite receiving reviews as positive as its two predecessors, Beyond underperformed at the US box office. It opened with US$59.2 million, behind the last two films, and almost a month after its release it only grossed US$196.9 million worldwide, compared to its US$185 million budget. [133] Beyond ultimately grossed US$158.8 million in North America, the lowest total of the three current Star Trek film series, though overseas it made approximately US$183 million, ahead of the first film. At a total gross of US$341.9 million, it was the least successful of the trilogy financially speaking. [134] Not only that, the total gross pitted against its production budget, made Beyond the second all-time worst performing film of the entire Star Trek film franchise in terms of profitability, only surpassed by Star Trek Nemesis . Ironically though, and unlike the latter, Beyond was well received by critics and fans alike, making it as of 2020 the fourth best-received film of the franchise, even beating out, albeit by the slimmest of margins, fan favorite Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – that is, only in this regard as that film was a financial success for the studio.

• see Star Trek films – Performance summary for further particulars.

The substantial loss suffered by the studio on the account of Beyond , played a major part in the cancellation decision in January 2019 of the fourth alternate reality film . [135]

The dismal box-office performance reflected itself in its resultant domestic sales of DVD and Blu-ray Disc home video formats, equally disappointing. According to the professional industry site The Numbers, the Beyond domestic home video sales (excluding the three-film combo releases) had by June 2020 totaled up to US$42.5 million in contrast to Star Trek 's US$200 million and Into Darkness 's US$80.5 million with an additional US$3.8 million for combo releases of the latter two titles. [136]

Reception [ ]

Forbes magazine argued that Paramount should have given the film a lower budget: " The thing that made [ Beyond ] most appealing to the fans, that it played like a smaller-scale 50th anniversary homage to the spirit and tone of the original show, was the thing that arguably doomed it in terms of blockbuster success. Star Trek Beyond was what its fans wanted it to be. There is value in that over the long run. But Paramount and friends need to realize that Star Trek is never going to be a Guardians of the Galaxy -level success and plan accordingly. " [137] The Forbes commentary touched upon the circumstance that while "old guard" Star Trek fans did show up at the theaters, "new", and non-fans alike failed to do so, they at the time being offered a plethora of apparently more attractive (block buster) alternatives, those stemming from The Walt Disney Company by then owned properties in particular. These not only included the cited Guardians of the Galaxy and others from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchise, but the productions from the in the meantime revived rival Star Wars franchise as well, as detailed in a later Forbes editorial. [138]

Additionally, the alternate reality film franchise had started to cause a rift between the "old guard" fanbase and newcomers to the franchise, with the former expressing their reservations about the alternate reality (re)incarnation, especially for its lack of "the Roddenberry factor", as Star Trek production staff veteran Doug Drexler had put it, [139] (X) but which was present in Beyond , courtesy Director Justin Lin and Writer Simon Pegg, making it the trio's best received one by the [old guard] fanbase. Whereas newcomers on the other hand had flocked to the first two action packed films, precisely because it was fast paced fun and in line with similar fare offered to them by other franchises which catered to the current tastes of contemporary cinema goers (being coined "fun, popcorn movies" by former Star Trek production staffer Roger Lay, Jr. [140] ), they apparently deemed Beyond as "too Trekkie " to their tastes. [141] [142]

Simon Pegg commented two years after the film's release that Paramount had poorly marketed the film, stating they had waited too long to release a full trailer and that they were afraid of mentioning the 50th anniversary. He also expressed anger at how the teaser ruined the use of "Sabotage" in the movie. [143] (X) Pegg did not deviate from his opinions as he reiterated them in March 2020 to IndieWire in an even more outspoken fashion. [144] Incidentally, the studio appeared to have deemed the film "too Trekkie" as well, explaining their marketing decisions regarding the heavy emphasis on action and fun, as related above . Furthermore, Pegg himself came by and large to agree with the Forbes assessment when he at a later point in time – in the process expressing his own personal doubt on the continued existence of the alternate reality and/or the film franchise as a whole for that matter – stated to Collider ,

"The fact is, the appeal of Star Trek is slightly more niche than the appeal of, say, the Marvel movies, which make huge amounts of money, and have this really, really broad appeal and they do very well. I think Star Trek is just a little bit more niche, so it isn’t gonna hit those kind of numbers. So yes, the obvious thing to do would be to not go for that massive spectacle, go for something a little bit more restrained in the vein of the original series. Yes, that would be a brilliant thing to do, and I’m sure it probably has been discussed… You specialize a little bit more. (...) Maybe TV is a better place for [Star Trek] now. Television has evolved so much. It's become something which is very much a contemporary, a peer of cinema. It's simply viewed in a different way. It isn't a reduced scope anymore. You can still do masses of interesting things, and it can still look modern and not inexpensive. Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That's where it started, you know." [145]

What Beyond , or rather its poor box office performance, had abundantly and conclusively demonstrated though, was that the reliance on the traditional Star Trek fanbase alone for a motion picture production to become financially viable, was not enough due its relatively small numerical size of potential cinema visitors, especially from the 1990s onward when production costs exploded from double to triple digit millions of dollars, and arguably never had been. Any new Star Trek motion picture production, be it a film or a television production, especially those conceived from the 1990s onward, needed to attract a viewership that extended well beyond "Trekdom" alone, and which was something Paramount was actually already acutely aware of since Berman -era Star Trek . ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , pp. 139-140) It is this circumstance in particular that explained the ponderous and sluggish development of a projected fifteenth film ; Paramount needs a film that is appealing to an audience as broad as possible, [146] the aforementioned Forbes admonishment notwithstanding – hence the resurfacing of the "too Trekkie" qualifier in regard to that projected film.

• See also in this regard: Star Trek films – Gross vs net profitability

Merchandise gallery [ ]

Awards and honors [ ]

Star Trek Beyond received the following awards and honors.

Links and references [ ]

Credits [ ].

John Cho Simon Pegg Chris Pine Zachary Quinto Zoë Saldana Karl Urban Anton Yelchin And Idris Elba

Sofia Boutella Lydia Wilson

Paramount Pictures And Skydance Present

In Association with Alibaba Pictures

In Association with Huahua Media

A Bad Robot Production

A Sneaky Shark Production

A Perfect Storm Entertainment Production

A Justin Lin Film

In Loving Memory of Leonard Nimoy

• Captain James T. Kirk – Chris Pine
• Commander Spock – Zachary Quinto
• Doctor "Bones" McCoy – Karl Urban
• Lieutenant Uhura – Zoë Saldana
• Montgomery "Scotty" Scott – Simon Pegg
• Sulu – John Cho
• Chekov – Anton Yelchin
• Krall – Idris Elba
• Jaylah – Sofia Boutella
• Manas – Joe Taslim
• Kalara – Lydia Wilson
• Keenser – Deep Roy
• Ensign Syl – Melissa Roxburgh
• Tyvanna – Anita Brown
• Ben – Doug Jung
• Fi'Ja – Danny Pudi
• Zavanko – Kim Kold
• Hider – Fraser Aitcheson
• Matthew MacCaull ( Blue Shirt 1 )
• Emy Aneke ( Blue Shirt 2 )
• Commodore Paris – Shohreh Aghdashloo
• Commander Finnegan – Greg Grunberg
• Jennifer Cheon ( Control Tower Technician 1 )
• Jarod Joseph ( Control Tower Technician 2 )
• Jeremy Raymond ( Control Tower Technician 3 )
• Kissing Guy – Harry Han
• Kissing Girl – Gina Brinkman
• Injured Red Shirt – Adam DiMarco
• Orion Girl – Fiona Vroom
• Chancellor Ambassador – Richard Laurence
• Sir Olden – Doug Chapman
• Wadjet – Dan Payne
• Jin – Anthony Shim
• Jeanine – Andrea Yu
• Teenaxi Leader – Shea Whigham
• Jae – Christian Sloan
• Krall's Henchman – Jake Huang
• Night Watch Captain – Priya Ragaratnam
• Yorktown Red Shirt – Luka Hays
• Thomas Cadrot ( USSE Bridge Crew 1 )
• Jennifer W. Evans ( USSE Bridge Crew 2 )
• Roxanne Fernandes ( USSE Bridge Crew 3 )
• Jake Foy ( USSE Bridge Crew 4 )
• Jodi Haynes ( USSE Bridge Crew 5 )
• Nathan Jean ( USSE Bridge Crew 6 )
• Tarun Keram ( USSE Bridge Crew 7 )
• J.P. Mulcaster ( USSE Bridge Crew 8 )
• Edwin Rodriguez ( USSE Bridge Crew 9 )
• Alex Rose ( USSE Bridge Crew 10 )
• Polina Soldatova ( USSE Bridge Crew 11 )
• Sarah Yu ( USSE Bridge Crew 12 )
• Ian Nsenga ( USSE Bridge Crew 13 )
• Natalia – Ashley Edner
• Kalara Alien VO – Sara Maria Forsberg
• Starfleet Official – Jeff Bezos

Second Unit [ ]

Dubai unit [ ], uncredited [ ].

• Fernanda Alcantara – Photo Still
• Halit Alptekin as USSE Crew
• Carlo Ancelotti as Yorktown doctor
• Justin Anthony as Swarm Soldier
• Nicole Anthony as USSE Bridge Crew
• Alika Autran as Franklin Crew
• Eric Banerd as Swarm Soldier
• Ness Bautista
• Jonathan Buckhouse as Swarm drone
• Ashley Edner as Pesca
• Chuka Ekweogwu as USSE Crew
• Lucius Fairburn as Blue Shirt / Red Shirt / Yellow Shirt
• Jabbz Farooqi as Lieutenant
• Rebecca Fielding – Extra: Dubai
• Justin Fortier as Swarm Soldier
• Calum Grant
• Ugnė Gražytė as FBI Agent
• Cindy Harlow as Vulcan ambassador
• Joel Harlow as Vulcan ambassador
• Rich Hill as USSE Bridge Crew
• Adam Horwitz
• Rebecca Husain as Enterprise crewmember
• Sorena Khanlou as Swarm Soldier
• Nick Langmead – Extra: Dubai
• James Lawson as Swarm Soldier
• Richard David Lecoin as Swarm Soldier
• Oqwe Lin as boy
• Simon MacIntyre as USSE Bridge Crew
• Trevor Mack as Enterprise crewmember
• Christian Mandel as Civilian / Starfleet Officer
• Natalie Moon as Control Tower Tech
• J.P. Mulcaster as Enterprise crewmember
• Kane Nelson as Swarm drone
• Gai-Lanne Pepper as Enterprise crewmember
• Werner Pretorius as Boltaan
• Marc Primiani as Enterprise crewmember
• Rihanne Quionn as Sulu's daughter
• Jeff Reyes as Swarm Soldier
• Harpreet Sandhu as USSE Bridge Crew
• Arlene Santana as USSE Bridge Crew
• Nick Satriano as Red Shirt Rescue Crew
• Jason Matthew Smith as Hendorff
• Bryce Soderberg as Satine
• Jamie Soricelli as Enterprise crewmember
• Adam Stone as Cabinet Member
• Justin Stone as Security
• Jaewon Suh as Swarm Soldier
• Nicole April Webster
• Natasha Young as USSE Bridge Crew
• Alan Yu as Swarm Soldier
• Sam Yunussov as Swarm Soldier
• Randall Cormier
• Angela Martine
• Meghan Noble
• Britni Peters
• Craig Smith
• Robert Tomlinson
• Laura Yanovich
• Purple-skinned alien girl
• Female Vulcan ambassador
• Male Vulcan ambassador

Stunt department [ ]

• Andrew Emilio DeCesare – Pre-Production stunt performer
• Alice Ford – Pre-Production stunt performer
• Jake Huang – Stunts

Unconfirmed [ ]

• Philip Chang – Stunt Performer
• Paul Lazenby – Stunt Performer/Stunt Rigger
• Don Lee – Stunts
• Brian Lydiatt – Stunt Rigger
• Dave Phillips – Utility Stunts
• Hugo Steele – Stunt Performer

Stand-ins [ ]

• Jade Pattenden – stand-in and photo double for Zoe Saldana
• Omar Adam – Production Assistant: Dubai
• Mike Aichholz – Assistant Accountant
• Faisal Al Kaabi
• Richie Alonzo – Creature Sculptor
• Francisco Alvarez – CG Artist: Double Negative
• Chyla Anderson – Film Score Vocalist
• George Antzoulides – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Brandon Aquino – Camera department
• Chris Arnold – Art Department Assistant
• Jyoti Arora – Roto Artist: Double Negative
• Anoushka Babur – Production Intern: Dubai
• Chris Baer – Mold Maker
• Rico Bailey – Location Assistant: Dubai
• Kurt Barretto – Production Assistant: Dubai
• Heather W. Barth
• Alvaro Bataller – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Todd Bates – Mold Maker
• Ashley Bell – Second Assistant Director
• Dave Benediktson
• Babak Bina – 3D Artist: Double Negative
• Bryan Blair – Mold Maker
• Gerald Blaise – Concept Artist: ILM
• Roland Blancaflor – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Jacob Bond – Best Boy Electric/Lighting Technician
• Phillip Joseph Boutté, Jr. – Costume Concept Artist
• Matt Bowler – Cyber Scanning 3D Artist: Clear Angle Studios LTD
• Andrea Brown – Extras Casting Director
• Nancy Anna Brown – Set Designer
• Lee J. Buckley – Techno Dolly Crane Operator
• Steve Buscaino – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Norman Cabrera – Creature Sculptor
• Merve Cangokce – Makeup Artist: Dubai
• Brad Carlson – VP Physical Production: Paramount Pictures
• Stephen Carr – Personnel Driver: Chris Pine
• Michael Cawood – Previs Supervisor: Proof Inc.
• Jordane Chedotal – Art Department Assistant: Dubai
• Jason Claridge – Head Scenic Paint Coordinator
• Leigh Clarke – Unit Production Manager: Dubai
• Philip Coleman – Technocrane Operator
• Siobhán Condon – VFX Production Coordinator: Double Negative
• Robert Consing – Storyboard Artist
• Hamza Darbar
• Greg D'Auria – Editor
• Miranda Davidson – Extras Casting Director: Dubai
• Andrew Del Rosario – Set Decorator/Swing Gang Boss
• Francesco Dell'Anna – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Natasha Denis
• Nuwan de Zoysa – Key Assistant Location Manager: Dubai
• Kay Di Rezze – Assistant Accountant: Dubai
• Pranali Diwadkar – Assistant Set Decorator: Dubai
• Neville Dsouza – Transportation Coordinator: Dubai
• Olivier Dubard – Gerealist TD: Double Negative
• Denny Dugally – Art Director
• Matthew Duvall – Compositing Lead: Atomic Fiction
• Katerina Dzolganovski – CG Artist: Double Negative
• John Eaves – Concept Designer: Props
• Scotty Eugene Fields – Mold Maker
• Mohammad Ahmed Fikree – Intern
• Warren Flanagan – Concept Illustrator
• Tim Flattery – Concept Designer: Ships
• Christopher Ford – Generalist Technical Director: Double Negative
• Jeremiah Forkkio – Previs Artist: Bad Robot Productions
• Dave Freeman ' – Concept Artist: Double Negative
• Dionys Frei – Aerial Drone Pilot: DediCam
• Christopher Friend – Photogrammetry Cyberscanning Service: Clear Angle Studios LTD
• Natasha Gale – Costume Production Assistant
• Caroline Jimenez Garcia – Layout Technical Director: Double Negative
• Mayra Garcia
• Lyall Gardiner – Location Manager: Dubai
• Natasha Gerasimova – Art Director
• Paul Giordano – Assistant Location Manager
• Peter Gluck – Key Assistant Location Manager Overseas Pre-Production
• Ruslan Goj – Production Assistant: Dubai
• Liz Goldwyn – Set Designer
• Catarina Gonçalves – Rotoscopr Artist: Double Negative
• Ann Goobie – Location Manager
• Mike Gunther – Second Unit Director
• Kevin Haaland – Stand-in: John Cho
• John Halfman – Mold Maker
• Rupert Hancock – Set Dresser/DMX LED Lighting Technician
• Rod Haney – Rigging Grip
• Sean Hargreaves – Special Effects Aerial Unit Director/Senior Concept Designer
• Dan Hermansen – Art Director
• Earl Hibbert – Previsualization Supervisor: Proof Inc.
• David Holm – Transportation Coordinator
• Chen Kuang Hsu – Matchmove Artist: Atomic Fiction
• Dwight Huet – Construction Foreman: Dubai
• Daniel Ibeabuchi – Grip Assistant: Dubai
• Gregory Irwin – First Assistant "A" Camera Operator
• Mohammed Ismail – Electrician
• Faldela Issel
• James Jackson
• Jack Jenkins – Roto Artist: Double Negative
• Romain Joly – Visual Effects Artist: Double Negative
• Lee Joyner – Sculptor
• Doug Jung – Original Screenplay Writer
• Rochard Kamel – Location Manager: Dubai
• Pradeep Kankara
• Jenna Kerr – VFX Associate Producer: Atomic Fiction
• Sara Khangaroot – Visual Effects Production Manager
• Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein – Roto/Prep Artist: Double Negative
• Vikram Kulkarni – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Josh Lange – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Don Lanning – Creature Sculptor
• Jenne Lee – Art Department Coordinator: Dubai
• Simon Lee – Concept Artist/Sculptor
• Eric Lemay – Special Effects Technician
• Andrew Li – Assistant Art Director
• Gil Liberto – Head Mold Maker
• Peter Lliev
• Kew Lin – Rotoscope Artist: Double Negative
• Irma Lotosova – Wardrobe Stylist
• Don Macaulay – Supervising Art Director
• Abdulrahman Al Madani – Intern
• Garry Maddison – Colorist: Double Negative
• África Aguirre Martin – Studio/Data Management: Double Negative
• Victor Martinez – Concept Illustrator
• Patrick Mashaba – Camera and Electrical Department
• Alecia Maslechko – Production Assistant
• Josh McCarron – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Robert Bruce McCleery – Second Unit Director of Photography
• Patrick McKay – Writer
• Michael McMullen – Set Security
• Uzair Merchant – Assistant Art Director: Dubai Unit
• Milos Milosevic – 2D Sequence Supervisor: Double Negative
• Regan Mitchell – Grip
• Andreas Maaninka – Lead Modeler: Double Negative
• Maxim Molchanov – Set Dresser
• Jeremy Mooney-Somers – Effects Technical Director: Double Negative
• David Moreau – Digital Set Designer
• Eva Morgan – Production Coordinator
• Tim Moshansky – Location Scout
• Andrew E.W. Murdock – Additional Photography Production Designer
• Ian Mussell – Grip
• Amit Narwani – Matchmove Artist: Double Negative
• Katrina Navassartian – Visual Effects Associate Producer: Double Negative
• Kane Nelson – SAE/Assistant to Movement Coach
• Michael Nickiforek – Special Effects Makeup Artist
• Alex Noble – Silicone and Foam Casting Artist
• Aaron Noordally – Prep/Paint Artist: Double Negative
• Brian Oberquell – Special Effects Artist: Center Forward Productions, Inc.
• Marc Opdycke – Creature Sculptor
• Joey Orosco – Creature Sculptor
• Paul Ozzimo – Concept Illustrator
• Peter Pacula – Best Boy Rigging Grip
• J.D. Payne – Writer
• Philip Pendlebury – Visual Effects Artist: Double Negative
• Manuel Perez – Digital Compositor: Double Negative
• Lauren E. Polizzi – Art Director
• Anne Porter – Digital Set Designer
• Xin Yi Puah – VXF Editor: Double Negative
• A. Martin Puentes – Character Animator
• Rushab Punmiya – Visual Effects Artist: Double Negative Vancouver
• Mandy Raubenheimer – Assistant Accountant
• Dominic Ridley – Photogrammetry Cyberscanning Service: Clear Angle Studios LTD
• Cassandra Rodriguez – Executive Assistant: Paramount Pictures
• Erick Rodriguez – Creature Sculptor
• Matt Rose – Creature Sculptor
• Mike Rotella – Creature Sculptor
• Raju Sadekar
• Johnnie Saiko – Mold Maker
• Rhys Salcombe – 3D Sequence Supervisor: Double Negative
• Rodolphe Saleh
• Janine Schiro – First Assistant Accountant
• Scott Schneider – Specialist Set Designer
• Benoit Terminet Schuppon – Layout Artist: Double Negative
• Melissa Shafiq – Makeup Artist: Dubai
• Daniel Sheridan – Location Assistant: Dubai
• Oksana Shumylo
• Andrew M. Siegel – Property Master
• Romain Simonnet – Generalist TD/Environment TD/Digital Matte Painter: Double Negative
• Miro Skandera – Previsualization Artist: Bad Robot Productions
• Craig W. Smith – VFX Editor
• Sean Stranks – Visual Effects Supervisor: Double Negative
• Peter Stratford – Set Designer
• Christo Streak – Accounts Assistant
• Alan Stucchi – Roto and Prep Site Supervisor-Compositor: Double Negative
• Marius Swart – Best Boy Grip: Dubai
• Raghav Tandon – Production Assistant: Bad Robot Productions
• Andy Taylor – Visual Effects Producer: Double Negative
• Rhonda Taylor – Second Assistant Director
• A.J. Teshin – Off-Camera Singer
• Miles Teves – Creature Sculptor
• Gareth Thomas
• Sarah Jane Thompson – Makeup Artist: Dubai
• Ty Thomson – Previz Artist
• Davide Tiraboschi – Aerial Drone Camera Operator: DediCam
• Roger Tortosa – Lighting and Senior Generalist TD: Double Negative
• George Max Trummler – Third Assistant Director: Dubai
• Pedro Valdez – Mold Maker
• Rebecca Valente – Editor: Bad Robot Productions
• Amy Vatanakul – Previsualization Artist: Bad Robot Productions
• A.J. Venuto – Mold Maker
• Karina Villagrana – Makeup department
• Cameron Ward – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Callum Webster – Set Designer
• Lindsay Welff – Assistant Property Master: Dubai
• Neil West – Lookdev and Lighting Technical Director: Double Negative
• John Wrightson – Creature Sculptor
• Plamen Yosifov – Art Department Staff
• Lawrence Zalasky – Layout Technical Director: Double Negative
• Milena Zdravkovic – Concept Designer
• Monislav Zhelyazkov – Set Dresser
• Mohamed AbouAhmed – Scenic Artist: Dubai/Set Plasterer: Vancouver
• Brandon Allen – Special Effects Technician
• Samuel Allison – Extras Casting Assistant
• Anthony Almaraz – Key Costumer
• Salim Alrazouk – Art Director: Dubai
• Adam Al-Samarae – Location Assistant: Dubai
• Marcos Arias – Writer
• Scott Andrew Armstrong – Rigging Grip
• Tara Arnett – Graphic Designer
• Leona Atkinson – Construction Accountant
• Tania Baaklini – Hotel and Visa Coordinator: Dubai
• Eric Bachtiar – Data Operations
• Kristian Bakstad – Stand-in
• Kurt Barretto – Office Production Assistant
• Christopher Batty – Pre-visualization Supervisor: Kelvin Optical
• Bill Baxter – Electrician
• Eric Benedict – Previsualization Artist
• Richard Bennett – Storyboard Artist
• Kris Bergthorson – Concept Designer
• Justin Bertges – Costumer: Quantum Creation FX
• Uttham Bhalaykar – Roto Prep
• Jacob Bond – Rigging Electric Lighting Technician
• Jeff Bonny – Best Boy Rigging Grip
• Cole Boughton – Key Production Assistant
• Peter Boyer – Orchestrator
• Becky Brake – Supervising Location Manager
• Michael Brazelton – Compositing Supervisor
• Keith Brookes – Set Wireman
• Kurt Bruun – Assistant Property Master
• Shaun Bullied – Digital Asset Manager
• Zack Bunker – Digital Asset Manager
• Richard K. Buoen – Storyboard Artist
• Riki Butland – "C" Camera Operator
• Benjamin Cairns – Third Assistant Director
• Leslie Cairns – Cutter
• Loree Cameron – Graphic Designer
• Lanny Campbell – Key Ager/Dyer
• Matthew Campbell – Lead Greensman
• Max Cannella – Production Coordinator: Paramount Pictures
• Andrea Carter – Art Department Coordinator
• Chris Cavanaugh – Digital Imaging Technician
• David C.P. Chan – Action Sequence Contributor
• Julian Chapdelaine – Grip: Vancouver
• Jesse Chapman – Assistant Editor
• John Chaschowy – Lead Greensman
• Lynn Chaulk – Scenic Artist
• Clem Chen – Painter
• Tom Chen – Video Assist Assistant
• Michael A. Cheng – Photo Double/Stand-in
• Peter Chiang – Visual Effects Supervisor: Double Negative
• Stephen Cholakis – Driver: Set Decorations
• Steve Christensen – Art Director
• Genevieve Claire – Visual Effects Line Producer
• Kelly Coe – Special Effects Fabricator
• Steve Collins – Special Effects Fabricator
• Joey J. Cook III – Second Unit "A" Camera Operator
• Christian Cordella – Costume Concept Artist
• Dave Cory – First Assistant Editor
• Marcela Coto – Previs Coordinator: Proof Inc.
• Brian Cunningham – Concept Illustrator
• John Dale – Construction Coordinator
• Joe Datri – Hydrascope Technician
• Nicholas Dent – Grip
• Olivier Deveux – Digital Matte Painter: Atomic Fiction
• Allison Dillard – Production Safety
• Nick Diomis – Unit Driver
• Daren Dochterman – Prop Concept Artist
• James Doh – Storyboard Artist
• Whitney Donald – Researcher
• David Dowling – Property Master
• Kim Doyle – VFX Production Supervisor
• Cameron Drinkle – Video Coordinator
• Kirsten Dumont-Aubrey – Sculptor
• Rhonda Earick – Costumer Ager/Dyer
• Troy Eirich – Props
• Spencer Ennis – 2nd Unit 2nd Assistant "A" Camera Operator
• James Fantin – Accounting Clerk
• Lisle Fehlauer – Set Dresser
• Suzie Fox – Production Assistant
• Kimberly French – Still Photographer
• Jeff Frost – Concept Model Maker
• Jack Gauvreau – Head Sculptor
• Chris Gibbins – Second Unit First Assistant Camera Operator
• Selena Ginger – Payroll Accountant
• Betsy Glick – Costumer
• Sean Goojha – Assistant Art Director
• Dan Gorval – Best Boy Grip
• Dave Greenbaum – Driver: Hair and Makeup
• Caitlin Groves – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Geoffrey Haley – Steadicam Operator: "A" Camera Operator
• Rupert Hancock – Set Dresser/Set Wireman
• Rod Haney – Rigging Grip Best Boy
• Michael Hanna – Lighting Technician/Set Wireman
• Tommy Harper – Executive Producer
• Melissa Harrison – Assistant Property Master
• Chris Hatchwell – Special Effects Assistant
• James L. Head – Grip
• David Heffler – Makeup FX Coordinator
• Chris Henderson – Animator: Props
• Amy Hetland – Set Costumer
• Rob Hinderstein – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Steven Hoffart – Set Dresser
• Eliza Hooker – Set Decoration Coordinator
• David Husby – Sound Mixer
• Ron Irvine – Transportation Captain
• Elsey Israel – Trainee Assistant Director/Production Assistant
• Annie Jackson – Social Media Specialist: Bad Robot
• Anne Jacobsen – Production Accountant
• M. Faraz Javed – Production Staff
• Trevor Johann – Production Assistant
• Cameron Johnson – Assistant Colorist: Double Negative
• Meaghan Irene Johnson – Additional Trainee Assistant Director
• Dave Joshi – Video Coordinator
• Tex Kadonaga – Set Designer
• Kevin Kasper – Set Dresser
• Leon Keegan – Facilities Captain: Dubai
• Joel Kennedy – Third Assistant Director
• Daniel Castle King – Production Secretary: Los Angeles
• Richard Klein – International Political Advisor
• Scott Kozak – Grip Rigger
• Scott Kukurudz – Additional Third Assistant Director
• Tracy Lai – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Janet Lane – Payroll Clerk
• Vince Laxton – Set Wireman
• Ken Lebre – Senior Dailies Producer
• Michelle Lee – First Assistant Accountant
• Sarah Lemmon – Lighting Data Coordinator
• Terry Lewis – Lead Dresser
• Sandy Lindala – Prosthetics Coordinator
• Stephen Richard Lofstrom – Stand-in: Zachary Quinto
• Nathan Longest – Propmaker
• Spencer Louttit – Assistant Property Master
• Shawn Luke – Set Dresser
• Rohan Lyal – Head Greensman
• Jessica Lythgoe-Green – Canadian Costume Supervisor
• Mark MacDonald – Office Production Assistant
• Richard MacDonald – Lighting Technician
• Harlow MacFarlane – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Boris Maganic – Sculptor
• Jacqueline Makkee – Special Effects Technician: Film Illusions
• Jeff Markwith – Set Designer
• Andrew Masterson – Helicopter Pilot: Dubai
• Nick Mather – Set Dresser
• Sarah Mather – Second Assistant Camera Operator
• Brian Maxwell – Trainee Assistant Director
• Carol McConnaughey – Unit Publicist
• Andrew Lee McConnell – Set Designer
• Christopher McDonald (editor) – Dailies Operator
• Michael McLellan – Second Unit Key Grip
• Curtis McParland – Special Thanks
• Shane Meehan – Roto Supervisor
• Himanshu Meena – Senior Matchmove Artist
• Mark Mentiply – Special Effects Technician
• J.J. Mestinsek – Scenic Paint Foreman
• Valeria Migliassi Collins – Script Supervisor
• Dave Miller – Driver: Cast
• Juhlene Moller – Payroll Accountant
• Ryan Monro – Dolly Grip
• Roderick Dryden Morrison – Production Assistant
• D. Martin Myatt – Assistant Property Master
• C. Michael Neely – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Andy Nettleton – Helicopter Pilot: Dubai
• Christopher Newman – Matchmove Artist: Prime Focus
• Kieu Nguyen – Head Cutter
• Meghan L. Noble – First Assistant Editor
• Jordan Nounnan – Previsualization Artist: Proof Inc.
• Ron Novak – Set Dresser
• Timothy Oakley – Prop Fabricator
• Carrie O'Bray – Transportation Co-Captain
• Susan O'Hara – Costume Set Supervisor
• Brad Oleksy – Grip
• Martin Ostrom – Construction Crew/Lead Laborer
• Harry E. Otto – Art Director
• Ken Palkow – Prop Fabricator
• Robert A. Pandini – Hair Stylist
• Jessica Parks – Post-Production Supervisor
• Eric C. Pike – Production Controller
• Douglas Plasse – Second Unit First Assistant Director
• Charles Porlier – Special Makeup Effects Artist
• Emily Putz – Special Effects Assistant
• Andrea Quaglio – First Assistant "C" Camera Operator: Dubai
• Paul Rabjohns – Music Editor
• Aline Rajan-Harjani – Transportation Coordinator
• Yesi Ramirez – Casting Associate
• Jim Ramsay – Set Designer
• Zina Richardson – Costume Buyer
• Katelyn Rodgers – Specialty Costumer
• Christopher S. Ross – Concept Illustrator
• Aja Kai Rowley – Art Department Assistant
• Tyler Ruocco – Assistant Editor
• Keith Saayman – Libra Technician
• Nava R. Sadan – Costume Supervisor
• Sonya Savova – Set Designer
• Tysen Schieber – Boom Operator
• Douglas J. Scott – Art Department Assistant
• Anna Seltzer – Costumer
• Trey Shaffer – Graphic Textile Designer
• Brian Shaw – Second Unit Camera Trainee
• Hugh Sicotte – Concept Artist
• Dennis Simard – Lead Set Dresser
• Tim Simonec – Orchestrator
• Eira Katrine Sletbak – Assistant Production Office Coordinator: Dubai
• Dane Allan Smith – Visual Effects Producer: Daneiam, Inc.
• Jeremy Stanbridge – Art Director
• Vincent Stander – Production Assistant
• Irena Stepic – Assistant Costume Designer
• Aaron Stewart – Lighting Technician
• Bryan Sutton – Set Designer
• Sophia Tapia – Payroll Accountant
• James Tavet – Matchmove Artist: Atomic Fiction
• Chris Tilton – Orchestrator
• Khanh Trance – Special Makeup Effects Hair Artist
• Stacy L. Tyson – Costumer
• Alex Van Nieuwkuyk – Dailies Operator
• Alexander Vegh – Pre-Visualization Supervisor: Proof Inc. /Second Unit Director
• Spencer Village – Rigging Lighting Technician
• Alan Villanueva – Costume Concept Artist
• Estelle Vockerodt – Assistant Accountant
• Paul Wagner – Props
• Thomas Walker – Second Unit Digital Utility
• Stephanie Walker-Wells – Production Supervisor
• Heather Wasylchuk – Assistant Special Effects Buyer
• Juniper Watters – Sound Utility
• Beth Welch – Second Unit Third Assistant Director
• Randall D. Wilkins – Set Designer
• Allen Williams – Concept Artist
• Joe Wolkosky – Set Designer
• Amos Wong – Special Effects Electronics
• Sauyan Wong – Data i/o Manager
• Steve Woroniecki – Supervising Location Manager
• Jane Wu – Storyboard Artist
• Gary Young – Set Sculptor
• Khaled Zaazouh – Aerial Coordinator: Dubai
• Mariela Zapata – Set Costumer/Stand-in
• Lye Zechari – Matchmove Artist: Double Negative
• Brad Zehr – Special Effects Set Supervisor
• Jason Zorigian – Production Coordinator: Los Angeles

Companies [ ]

• April Webster & Associates – US Talent Casting
• Atomic Fiction – Visual Effects Company
• Audiolink Radio Communications – Walkie Talkies
• Center Forward Productions, Inc. – Production Company
• Clark & Page Casting – Canada Talent Casting
• Clear Angle Studios LTD – Visual Effects Company: Cyber Scanning
• Codex Digital – Digital Recording Equipment
• Cool Air Rentals LTD
• Daneiam, Inc. – Special Effects Company
• DediCam – Aerial Drones
• Double Negative – Visual Effects Company
• Entertainment Partners Canada – Payroll Services
• Film Illusions – Special Effects Company
• Kelvin Optical – Visual Effects Company
• K/O Paper Products – Production Company
• Miranda Davidson Studios – Extras Casting: Dubai
• Otto Nemenz International – Camera Equipment Contractor
• Prime Focus – Visual Effects Company
• Proof Inc. – Pre-Visualization Company
• Quantum Creation FX – Special Effects Company
• Sessions Payroll Management – Extras Payroll Services
• Vex Motorsports – Vehicle parts
• Star Trek Beyond (soundtrack)
• Star Trek Beyond (DVD)
• Star Trek Beyond (Blu-ray)
• Star Trek Beyond (Blu-ray 3D)
• Star Trek Beyond (4K Ultra HD)

References [ ]

2164 ; 2204 ; 2263 ; acid ; Akima's species ; Ancient Ones ; Abronath ; Altamid ; Armstrong -type ( starship ); Attack on Krall's base ; Attack on Yorktown ; away team ; backseat driver ; barn dance ; base of operation ; Battle of Altamid ; Beastie Boys ; bed ; bedside manner ; bee ; birthday ; birthday party ; Book (device) ; bread ; camouflage ; Federation cargo shuttle ( cargo shuttles ); cauterization ; classical music ; cliff ; closed network ; closet ; coat hanger ; Code 1-Alpha-Zero ; color ; commodore ; compression chamber ; Constitution -class ( starship ); Co-Co's species ; crash landing ; critical alert ; dark ages ; dilithium chamber ; distress call ; Earth-Romulan War ; EPS ; EPS conduit ; Enterprise , USS ; Enterprise -A, USS ; Enhancement sequencing unit ; environmental processor ; episode ; escape pod ; excellency ; excrement ; fan ; favoritism ; Fibonan ; Fibonan High Council ; Fibonan Republic ; Federation archive ; " Fight the Power "; fire ; five-year mission ; Franklin , USS ; Freedom -class ; Gagarin Radiation Belt ; General Council ; gift ; Glenfiddich ; goggles ; goo ; green ; headband ; hell ; Hewlett Packard Enterprise ; horse ; horse and buggy ; horseshit ; IFF ; image refractor ; inertial dampener ; Jaylah's drinks ; Jaylah's family ; Jaylah's species ; Jaylah stick ; Kalara's crew ; Kalara's escape pod ; Kalara's ship ; Kelvin pod ; Kevin ; Kirk, George ; Kirk, Winona ; Krall's base ; Krall's command ship ; language analysis ; locker ; Lordy ; Magellan probe ; Manas' language ; manual override ; manual release room ; medical school ; megahertz ; memorial ; military ; military service ; Military Assault Command Operations ; monorail ; monstrosity ; mortality ; murder ; Natalia ; nebula ; Necro Cloud ; Necro Cloud sector ; New Vulcan ; Non-Federation ; optimism ; Park ; polarized hull plating ; police ; protoplaser ; Public Enemy ; pulse phaser cannon ; puncture ; PX70 motorcycle ; Quarantine (device) ; quarters ; radio ; refractor belt ; renting ; roasting ; romance ; Romulan ale ; Russia ; " Sabotage "; Salcombe , USS ; San Francisco Fleet Yards ; safety area ; saucer ; saucer separation ; Saurian brandy ; Scotch ; Scott's grand nanny ; Shakespeare, William ; Schlerm ; shrapnel ; shuttlepod ; sneeze ; snow globe ; space lane ; spatial torpedo ; Spock (prime) ; stabilizer ; star cocktail ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet Charter ; Starfleet uniform (mid 2160s) ; Stargazer , USS ; Starship-class ; subspace link ; Swarm drone ; Swarm gun ; Swarm ship ; Takayama -type shuttlecraft ( unnamed 1 , and 2 ; ; survival kit ; Teenax ; Teenaxi ; Teenaxi Delegation ; Teenaxi symbols ; Thasus ; theft ; thief ; toast ; tracking device ; train ; treaty ; turbolift ; uncharted space ; United Earth Military ; United Federation of Planets ; universal translator ; unnamed plants ; vein ; VHF ; vice admiral ; vodka ; vokaya ; Vulcan ; Vulcan ; warp coil ; welcome mat ; Wilbur's species ; workbee ; wormhole ; wristwatch ; Yorktown ; Yorktown Central Plaza ; Yorktown database ; Yorktown Headquarters ; Yorktown satellites ; Yorktown sentry ship ; Yorktown tree ; Xindi wars

Graphic references [ ]

Altamid system ; ångström ; Federation database ; gray mode ; Kelvin , USS ; Medical shuttle 37

Balthazar M. Edison's personnel file [ ]

2255 ; boot camp officer ; captain ; carrier ; corvette ; cruiser ; derelict vessel ; diplomatic vessel ; escort vessel ; frigate ; Ginwald, T. ; hospital ship ; inventory log ; Iowa ; maintenance log ; mining vessel ; missing in action ; Murrysville ; Pennsylvania ; Pine, T. ; Riverside Shipyard ; science vessel ; Scott ; scout ; Starfleet Administration ; Starfleet Communications ; Starfleet Diplomatic Corps ; Starfleet Engineering ; Starfleet Intelligence ; Starfleet Medical ; Starfleet medical courier ; Starfleet Operations ; Starfleet Research ; Starfleet Science , Starfleet Security ; Starfleet Tactical ; supply vessel ; support vessel ; survey vessel ; transport vessel ; United Earth Military

Diagnostic wrap display [ ]

cellular collapse ; critical alert ; foreign substance ; organ failure

Public transporter menu [ ]

Arts / Culture ; Attractions ; Bars / Nightclubs ; Gardens ; Museums ; Parks /Nature; Restaurants ; sightseeing ; zone

Starbase Yorktown memorial wall (unseen material) [ ]

Al Kaabi, Faisal ; Al Razouk, Salim ; Bailey, Rico ; Barretto, Kurt ; Barth, Heather W. ; Benediktson, Dave ; Bitbit, Reynaldo ; Chedotal, Jordane ; Clarke, Leigh ; Darbar, Hamza ; Davidson, Miranda ; Denis, Natasha ; de Zoysa, Nuwan ; Di Rezze, Kay ; Diwadkar, Pranali ; Esmaeili, Samira ; Fisher, Rob ; Gale, Natasha ; Garcia, Mayra ; Gardiner, Lyall ; Gluck, Peter ; Goj, Ruslan ; Haley, Sean ; Haney, Rod ; Heimer, Mandy R. ; Hermansen, Dan ; Huet, Dwight ; Ibebuchi, Daniel ; Ismail, Mohammed ; Issel, Faldela ; Jackson, James ; Johnston, Sam ; Kamel, Rochard ; Kankara, Pradeep ; Kozak, Scott ; Lee, Jenne ; Lliev, Peter ; Lemay, Eric ; Lotosova, Irma ; MacAuley, Scott ; Mashaba, Patrick ; McMaster, Sam ; Mitchell, Regan ; Molchanov, Maxim ; Mussell, Ian ; O'Souza, Neville ; Pacula, Peter ; Riley, Simon ; Sacco, Sandrina ; Sadekar, Raju ; Saleh, Rodolphe ; Schiro, Janine ; Shumylo, Oksana ; Swart, Marius ; Thaler, Scott ; Thomas, Gareth ; Welff, Lindsay ; Yosifov, Plamen ; Zhelyazko, Monislav

Spock Prime's holophoto – Senior staff of the USS Enterprise -A [ ]

Chekov, Pavel ; Enterprise (prime), USS ; Enterprise -A (prime), USS ; Kirk, James T. ; McCoy, Leonard ; Scott, Montgomery ; Sulu, Hikaru ; Spock Prime; Uhura, Nyota

Spock Prime's obituary [ ]

2230 ; 2263; ambassador ; executive officer ; second officer ; stardate ; Enterprise , USS ; Enterprise , USS

Unreferenced material [ ]

Andorian herpes ; Chapel ; Cialis ; Deep C-Zar ; gangorian clap ; Hilts ; jumper ; Romaine

Deleted graphics references [ ]

744 ; 752 ; Acamar I ; Acamar III ; AF006 ; AF014 ; Alpha Cygni ; Andoria ; Andorian ; Andorian embassy ; Andorian system ; Arcturus ; argon ; bathymetry ; BDR-258 ; BDR-529 ; Bolarus ; Bolarus II ; carbon dioxide ; Centauri ; CGM-852 ; Cygnus II ; Cygnus VII ; Cygnus system ; exobase ; FGNI-592 ; GHD-258 ; Habitability Index ; helium ; JL006 ; JL008 ; KE091 ; Kepler-22 ; magnetosphere ; mesosphere ; NCV-1248 ; NCV-1539 ; NCV-1690 ; neon ; nitrogen ; Organian ; oxygen ; Rigellian ; Risian ; Sol ; student officer ; Tellarite ; thermosphere ; Translink ; troposphere ; Xindi

External links [ ]

• Star Trek Beyond at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek Beyond at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek Beyond at Wikipedia
• Star Trek Beyond at the Internet Movie Database

How to watch Star Trek in order

Whether you're wanting to check out the Original Series or Discovery, figuring out how to watch Star Trek in order is a breeze with this easy guide!

Is it just us or is figuring out how to watch Star Trek in order getting more and more complex with each passing year? The prospect of watching Star Trek in order would be daunting for even the most decorated of starship captains with multiple series being brought to life on both the big and small screens. But fear not Trekkies - we've got you covered!

If you've ever tried to watch the Marvel movies in order , you'd be forgiven for thinking that was the most complicated franchise on the planet, but we kid you not - it has nothing on Star Trek. The 55-year-old sci-fi franchise includes nine (soon to be 11) TV shows and 13 movies and it spans 1000 years, making for one super complicated and vast timeline.

So, what is the best way to watch Star Trek in order? Well, that depends. For you purists out there, you might like to opt for viewing this franchise by release date, just like all the original Trekkie fans did back in the day. This will allow you to follow along as they did and get a similar experience. While the timeline does jump around, ( Star Trek: Discovery , for example, is set at the end of the 32nd century but was released before Star Trek: Picard , which is set in the 24th century), it gives you a more complete picture. 

Because the Star Trek franchise involves movies and TV series that take place at different times, another option is to watch everything in chronological order. This means you get to start with something a little bit more modern, but the one problem with this is that references will often be made to films you've not yet seen, which could make certain elements difficult to follow. 

To be honest, just like we recommend in our guide to how to watch the Star Wars movies in order , it really is a matter of personal preference. As long as you have one of the best TVs , you'll find you enjoy this franchise no matter what order you decide to watch it in.

So, without further ado, here's how to watch Star Trek in order - based on release date and in-universe continuity...

Star Trek TV shows and movies in chronological order

This is probably the list you're looking for if you're trying to figure out how to watch Star Trek in order. It's where things get really interesting, as Star Trek movies and TV shows have a habit of jumping around the franchise's chronology with sequels, prequels and bits in between. There are even two distinct timelines – but don't worry, we'll explain all that.

The original ‘Prime’ timeline was started by the Original Series, the Next Generation-era TV shows, and the first ten movies, The alternative ‘Kelvin’ timeline, meanwhile, was created in JJ Abrams’ first Star Trek (2009) to allow the familiar Enterprise crew of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov to have new adventures without contradicting canon . To avoid confusion, we've defined the two timelines as separate entities below.

This list doesn't, however, include all of the brief Short Treks – short stories which are mostly set around the Star Trek: Discovery era – and adventures where Starfleet crews time-travelled to the eras before any of the shows/movies are set (eg visits to 1986 in The Voyage Home and 2063 in First Contact). We've also left out upcoming Discovery spin-off Star Trek: Section 31 , since it's not yet in production. (Also, we're not entirely sure exactly when it'll be set.)

Let's start with everything in one big list. 

• Star Trek: Enterprise (seasons 1-4)
• ‘The Cage’
• Star Trek: Discovery (seasons 1-2)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Star Trek: The Original Series  (seasons 1-3)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series 
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture 
• Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan 
• Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock 
• Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home 
• Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier 
• Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country 
• Star Trek: Generations (opening sequence)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (seasons 1-5)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (seasons 6-7), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 1-2)
• Star Trek: Generations
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 3-4), Star Trek: Voyager (seasons 1-2)
• Star Trek: First Contact 
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 5-6), Star Trek: Voyager (seasons 3-4)
• Star Trek: Insurrection 
• S tar Trek: Deep Space Nine (season 7), Star Trek: Voyager (season 5)
• Star Trek: Voyager (seasons 6-7)
• Star Trek: Nemesis 
• Star Trek: Lower Decks
• Star Trek: Prodigy
• Star Trek (2009) – Prime timeline sequences
• Star Trek: Picard
• Star Trek: Discovery (season 3-)
• Short Treks: 'Calypso'

If you watch in the order given above, you'll get a continuous ‘history’ of the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 32nd centuries according to the Star Trek timeline. That said, you will notice some odd discrepancies – thanks to the time in which respective shows were made, the technology in prequel show Star Trek: Discovery is significantly more advanced than what Kirk and Spock used in the Original Series.

Below, we'll explain how the different eras of the shows and movies break down for context. 

Note that Gene Roddenberry's original pre-Kirk Star Trek pilot, 'The Cage', is counted as an instalment of the Original Series. You'll usually find it listed as a bonus episode as part of season one when you're watching it on streaming services.

Star Trek: Enterprise era (22nd century) Begins and ends with: Star Trek Enterprise seasons 1-4

About a century before James T Kirk and his crew embark on their famous five-year mission in Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain Jonathan Archer leads Earth's first steps into the wider universe.

Star Trek: The Original Series era (23rd century) Begins with: 'The Cage' Ends with: Star Trek: Generations (opening sequence)

For many this is the most familiar era of Star Trek, since it involves Kirk, Spock and the classic Enterprise crew.  

This section of the Trek timeline kicks off with the original unaired Star Trek pilot, 'The Cage' . Next up in franchise chronology are the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery , which work as a prequel to the Original Series (they even feature a younger version of Spock), but it's all change in season 3 – the events of the season 2 finale send the crew into the distant future of the 32nd century. More on that later...

Upcoming spin-off Strange New Worlds will follow the adventures of Captain Pike, Number One and Spock on the Enterprise after the USS Discovery travelled to the future. And at some point after that, Captain James T Kirk will take command of Starfleet's most famous ship – a role he filled throughout The Original Series , The Animated Series and the first six Star Trek movies ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture , The Wrath of Khan , The Search for Spock , The Voyage Home , The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country ).

The latest point we've seen (so far) in the 23rd century era is James T Kirk being taken away by the Nexus ribbon in the prologue of Star Trek: Generations . This is the event that allows Kirk to meet Picard when the Next Generation crew take on the mantle of headlining the big screen franchise.

Star Trek: The Next Generation era (24th century) Begins with: Star Trek: The Next Generation Ends with: Star Trek (2009) – Prime timeline sequences

The richest, most complicated period in Star Trek chronology. During The Next Generation era, Star Trek was experimenting with the idea of a shared universe years before Marvel got in on the act, with three TV shows (TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager ) and four movies ( Generations , First Contact , Insurrection and Nemesis ) interweaving through the same timeline – Voyager's Captain Kathryn Janeway even shows up in Star Trek: Nemesis as a newly promoted admiral.

New animated comedy spin-off Lower Decks is set a year after Picard and the Next Generation crew's final mission in Star Trek: Nemesis, while Nickelodeon kids' cartoon Star Trek: Prodigy will see Kate Mulgrew reprising her role as Voyager's captain, Kathryn Janeway. That suggests it will presumably be set at a similar point in the Star Trek timeline.

In JJ Abrams' first Star Trek movie (2009), the destruction of Romulus and Spock Prime's accidental trip back to the pre-Original Series era (in the Kelvin timeline) also take place after the events of Nemesis.

In the list above, we've shown how the movies (roughly) fit into the chronology of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. 

Picard era (turn of the 25th century) Begins with: Picard Ends with: ???

Aside from glimpses of the destruction of Romulus in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Picard gives us our first post-Star Trek: Nemesis look at what the United Federation of Planets has become. 

Since we last saw Jean-Luc Picard, he's retired to his vineyard in France, an android uprising on Mars has led to a ban on all synthetic life, and a disabled Borg Cube (known simply as the 'Artifact') is being mined for technology.

Distant future (32nd century) Begins with : Star Trek: Discovery season 2 (finale) Ends with: ???

In order to save the galaxy, the brave crew of the USS Discovery set off on a one-way mission 900 years into the future in Star Trek: Discovery 's season 2 finale. Their 32nd century destination is new territory for Star Trek – thanks to the mysterious 'Burn', most of the dilithium in the galaxy has been destroyed, making warp travel impossible. As a result, the Federation is a shadow of its former self – even Earth has decided to go it alone.

This isn't, however, the furthest Star Trek has ventured into the future – Short Trek ' Calypso ' is set on the Discovery in a distant future where the ship's computer has become sentient.

Star Trek's alternate 'Kelvin' timeline explained

In 2009's Star Trek movie directed by JJ Abrams, Spock Prime tries to save Romulus from a supernova, inadvertently creates a black hole while doing so, and gets pulled into the past, along with Romulan mining vessel the Narada. Once there, the Narada attacks the USS Kelvin on the day James T Kirk is born. The ship is destroyed as Kirk's father, George, sacrifices himself to save the rest of the crew. 

When all that happens, the alternative ‘Kelvin’ timeline is created, with events unfolding in parallel (but with remarkable similarity) to the original Prime timeline.

Got all that? There are just three movies set in the Kelvin timeline:

• Star Trek (2009)
• Star Trek into Darkness
• Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek TV shows and movies in release date order

• Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986)
• ‘The Cage’ (previously unavailable Star Trek pilot from 1965, given VHS release in 1986)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
• Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier (1989)
• Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) 
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)
• Star Trek: Discovery (2017-)
• Short Treks (2018-2020)
• Star Trek: Picard (2020-)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020-)
• Star Trek: Prodigy (2021, TBC)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TBC)

Considering The Original Series was cancelled after just three seasons in 1969, it's remarkable that Star Trek is still around half a century later. But as the show's popularity grew in syndication on US TV, Trek fandom became a big enough force for the five-year mission to resume via Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973. Most of the original cast – with the notable exception of Walter Koenig (Chekov) – were enticed back to voice their characters. 

Then, helped by Star Wars turning sci-fi into the hottest genre in Hollywood, Star Trek beamed onto the big screen with 1979's The Motion Picture . The original crew headed up five more movies ( The Wrath of Khan , The Search for Spock , The Voyage Home , The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country ) before bowing out in 1991. The ’80s also gave the world a hint of the Star Trek that never was when 'The Cage' , the original unaired pilot, was released on VHS in 1986 (it appeared on TV two years later). Of the pilot crew, only Leonard Nimoy's Spock went on to reprise his role in the TV show, though footage from 'The Cage' was used extensively in the Original Series’ only two-parter, 'The Menagerie'. 

While the Enterprise was making it big in cinemas, the franchise returned to its TV roots in 1987 with The Next Generation . Set over 70 years after Kirk and Spock's final mission, it featured a new crew – led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard – on board a new starship Enterprise. The Next Generation was arguably even more successful than the Original Series, spawning two spin-off series: Deep Space Nine (which began in 1993) played with the Trek format by focusing on a space station, while Voyager (1995) dumped its crew on the other side of the galaxy, hundreds of light years from home. 

The Next Generation crew also fronted four movies of their own ( Generations , First Contact , Insurrection and Nemesis ) between 1995 and 2002.

After Voyager came to an end in 2001, Star Trek left the Next Generation era behind, and went in a completely different direction – Star Trek: Enterprise was a prequel set a century before Kirk and Spock's adventures. Enterprise lasted only four seasons, however (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager all made it to seven), and was canceled in 2005.

These were also dark times for the movie branch of the Trek franchise, as the disappointing box office performance of Nemesis had put the film saga on hiatus – it wasn't until 2009 that Star Trek warped back onto the big screen. 

Future Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams (already hot property as director of Mission: Impossible 3 and co-creator of Lost) gave the franchise an action blockbuster makeover, recasting Kirk, Spock and the rest of the original crew as rookies on their first mission. The reboot, simply titled Star Trek , made more than twice as much at the box office as any of its predecessors, and two sequels ( Star Trek into Darkness , Star Trek Beyond ) followed. 

Star Trek belatedly returned to TV in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery . Set a decade before the Original Series, it was a darker, more serialized Trek than we’d seen before – more in tune with the prestige shows of the so-called Golden Age of TV. As it’s turned out, it was just the beginning of Star Trek's renewed assault on TV...

A series of brief Short Treks appeared online ahead of Discovery's second season, while The Next Generation follow-up Star Trek: Picard left spacedock in January 2020. Animated series Lower Decks followed in August 2020, and Discovery spin-off Strange New Worlds – featuring Anson Mount's Captain Pike, Rebecca Romijn's Number One and Ethan Peck's Spock on the pre-Kirk Enterprise – is now in production. 

There's also another cartoon offering heading for the Alpha Quadrant, in the form of animated kids show Star Trek: Prodigy.

And there's potentially even more to come, as the much-talked about Michelle Yeoh vehicle Section 31 is still in development. But with Paramount Plus programming boss Julie McNamara telling Variety that the streaming service's current aim is to debut "a new Trek every quarter", we may have to wait for Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks and/or Strange New Worlds to stand aside before we get a new TV iteration of Trek.

To keep things simple, all the shows above are listed by the date their first episode aired. While the chronology does jump around if you watch Star Trek in order of release date, there are some benefits. For example, the prequel shows assume a fair bit of knowledge of earlier series, like the Borg's appearance in Star Trek: Enterprise episode 'Regeneration', or Star Trek: Discovery's revelations about the ultimate fate of Christopher Pike (the Enterprise captain in 'The Cage', who later shows up in 'The Menagerie'). Moments like that undoubtedly make more sense in the context of later events in the Star Trek timeline. 

How to stream Star Trek TV shows and movies

If you just want to know how to stream the 13 Star Trek movies and eight TV shows in the US and the UK, we've laid it out below. 

In the US, the newly rebranded Paramount Plus (formerly CBS All Access) is definitely the place to go, with every TV show available to watch. In the UK, Netflix hosts all the Star Trek series except for Picard and Lower Decks.

Watching the 13 Trek movies is a rather more complex affair, with the films spread across numerous streaming services in the US and UK – and some of them you'll have to pay to rent/buy.

The TV shows

• Star Trek: The Original Series ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Netflix)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
• Star Trek: Voyager ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
• Star Trek: Enterprise ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
• Star Trek: Discovery ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Netflix)
• Star Trek: Picard ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Amazon Prime Video)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks (US: Paramount Plus US: Amazon Prime Video)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
• Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
• Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
• Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
• Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
• Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
• Star Trek: Generations ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
• Star Trek: First Contact ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Only available to rent/buy)
• Star Trek: Insurrection ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
• Star Trek: Nemesis ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Only available to rent/buy)
• Star Trek 2009 ( US: DirectTV UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
• Star Trek Into Darkness ( US : FX Now UK: Amazon Prime Video)
• Star Trek Beyond ( US: Amazon Prime, Hulu UK: Amazon Prime Video)

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Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard's happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he'll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard's name was Winter.

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Star trek beyond, common sense media reviewers.

Violent but exciting adventure honors teamwork, diversity.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie celebrates teamwork, as well as loyalty

Though the focus is on teamwork -- and no individu

Sci-fi/fantasy violence. Big battles in space, cra

Kiss on the cheek (two romantic leads spend the mo

Infrequent language includes a few uses of "s--t"

Characters drink fancy scotch or alien brandy for

Parents need to know that Star Trek Beyond is the 13th Star Trek movie overall, the third installment since 2009's big-budget series reboot, and the first directed by Justin Lin (of the Fast & Furious franchise). There's plenty of big, boomy sci-fi/fantasy action violence, including…

Positive Messages

The movie celebrates teamwork, as well as loyalty to each team member. Each member's strengths are used in a way that benefits the whole. The group provides encouragement and a positive atmosphere in which members can thrive. The movie also champions diversity. On the downside, revenge is also a major theme.

Positive Role Models

Though the focus is on teamwork -- and no individual characters really stand out from the others -- they all go out of their way to protect their buddies, risking danger to save others. The cast is notably diverse.

Violence & Scariness

Sci-fi/fantasy violence. Big battles in space, crashing, explosions. Hand-to-hand fighting, martial arts fighting. Laser-gun shooting. Character impaled with a small chunk of metal. Cauterizing wound with heated metal. Minor characters injured/dead. Bad guys torture good guys. Some bloody scratches. Frequent peril/danger.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kiss on the cheek (two romantic leads spend the movie in a fight). Other brief scenes show a flirtation in a corridor and a shot of a woman throwing a shirtless man out of her cabin/quarters.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent language includes a few uses of "s--t" ("horses--t"), plus "damn," "hell," "crap," "bastard," and "my God" (as an exclamation).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink fancy scotch or alien brandy for enjoyment. A character drinks to "take the edge off"; she's seen with many empty glasses on a table in front of her.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Star Trek Beyond is the 13th Star Trek movie overall, the third installment since 2009's big-budget series reboot , and the first directed by Justin Lin (of the Fast & Furious franchise). There's plenty of big, boomy sci-fi/fantasy action violence, including space battles, crashes, explosions, minor characters being hurt or killed, hand-to-hand and martial arts fighting, and a mean, angry bad guy. A major character is injured, and there's a painful but comical scene involving his impalement wound. Language is infrequent but does include a couple of uses of "horses--t," as well as "damn," "hell," "bastard," and "my God." Two characters in a romantic relationship spend this movie in a fight, so only a kiss on the cheek is shown between them; there's also a brief scene of a woman throwing a shirtless man out of her cabin/quarters. Characters occasionally drink fine scotch or other spirits, but mainly for enjoyment, though one character does try to get drunk. Overall, the movie's good attitude and strong messages related to teamwork and diversity overcome its iffy material, making it a great pick for older tweens and up. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (20)
• Kids say (24)

Based on 20 parent reviews

Star Trek 3

What's the story.

Deep into their five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and civilizations, the crew of the starship Enterprise -- Sulu ( John Cho ), Scotty ( Simon Pegg ), Captain Kirk ( Chris Pine ), Mr. Spock ( Zachary Quinto ), Uhura ( Zoe Saldana ), Dr. "Bones" McCoy ( Karl Urban ), and Chekov ( Anton Yelchin ) -- is beginning to feel a bit restless and bored in STAR TREK BEYOND. Unfortunately, their next mission turns out to be a trap; the Enterprise is attacked by a swarm of man-sized ships, reducing it to smithereens and standing the crew on a nearby alien planet. There, they meet an alien named Jaylah ( Sofia Boutella ) and a vengeful creature known as Krall ( Idris Elba ). Can the team discover Krall's plan and stop him before it's too late?

Is It Any Good?

The 13th overall movie in the Star Trek franchise turns out to be good luck for everyone. It's a fresh, satisfying return to the beloved characters of the 1966-1969 TV series and to a rousing sense of teamwork. Director Justin Lin , who made four of the first seven Fast & Furious movies, somehow finds a balance between recklessness and entertainment. He provides several gargantuan action sequences that aren't exactly flawless but are exhilarating nonetheless.

It certainly helps that co-writers Pegg and Doug Jung bring nerdy goodness to the movie, with a story that's worthy of the old show and an emotionally satisfying equilibrium among the characters. Star Trek Beyond recalls Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in that it corrects the misguided slip-ups that came before it, erasing the showboating and awkwardness of the last few movies and remembering the essence of what made these characters great in the first place.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Star Trek Beyond 's violence . How intense is it? Does the relative lack of blood affect its impact? What is the impact of media violence on kids?

How do the characters show teamwork ? Why is that an important character strength ? In what scenes do characters help each other?

There's quite a bit of diversity in the cast, both mirroring and improving on the original series. Why does having diverse media role models matter ?

Talk about revenge, which is a major theme in the film. Is it ever justified to hurt others in the name of revenge? How much of the movie's violence can be traced back to that motivation?

Why does Star Trek have such an enduring appeal? What makes people become such faithful fans? How does this installment compare to the older movies and TV shows?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 22, 2016
• On DVD or streaming : November 1, 2016
• Cast : Chris Pine , Zoe Saldana , Simon Pegg , Karl Urban , Idris Elba , Zachary Quinto
• Director : Justin Lin
• Inclusion Information : Asian directors, Female actors, Black actors, Latino actors, Gay actors
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Adventures , Space and Aliens
• Character Strengths : Teamwork
• Run time : 120 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sequences of sci-fi action and violence
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : January 19, 2023

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Star Trek Beyond Had A Deeper Backstory For Krall's Army That Fans Never Got To See

"Star Trek Beyond" might be the best "Mass Effect" movie we ever get. The shiny Yorktown station, with city sprawls built along the surface of spinning, gravity-manipulating rings, is a dead ringer for the Citadel. The film's villain — Krall (Idris Elba) — leads an army of robots, "The Swarm," much like Saren Arterius employing the cyclopean robot Geth in the first "Mass Effect."

Krall's army destroys the Enterprise in the first act of "Beyond," leaving the crew stranded on planet Altamid. Though Krall made his home on this world, he isn't a native. No, he's really Balthazar Edison, once the (human) captain of the Starfleet ship the U.S.S. Franklin. After the Franklin crashed on Altamid in the 22nd century, rescue from the Federation never came and Edison became disillusioned.

He and his surviving crew found abandoned technology, including his Swarm army (originally invented as "sophisticated mining equipment," not disposable soldiers) and the life-draining devices they've sustained himself with. (Krall's alien appearance was siphoned from his victims with said tech.) When the Swarm destroys the Enterprise, they do so by ramming it repeatedly, not blasting it out of the sky with phasers. Such a physical approach makes sense if the ships were designed to mine a planet's surface.

According to "Star Trek Beyond" co-writer Doug Jung, the team originally had some "loftier ambitions" for the backstory of Krall's army.

The Swarm in Star Trek Beyond

In a 2016 interview with TrekCore , Jung elaborated on these plans while offering insight into how the Swarm functions: "Justin's idea was that [the Swarm soldiers] were sort of like drones in a way and that they don't actually have a lot conscious thought of their own. That sort of answers how Krall would be able to come in and take all this stuff." That's also why, in the film's climax, the Enterprise bridge crew disrupts the Swarm with a signal playing the Beastie Boy's "Sabotage." The Swarm has command signals, not thoughts, and is a hive mind more easily felled than the Borg.

Speaking to CinemaBlend , Jung confirmed the idea of the Swarm was "Star Trek Beyond" director Justin Lin's: "[Lin] liked that idea of like asymmetrical warfare and he kind of made sense. He's like, 'Why would you have that big ship going around? Why not just get a bunch of little ones?'"

As for how Edison took control of the Swarm and perverted them, turning them from harmless miners into vicious attack dogs, Jung explained: "[Edison] was taking his skills as an ex-soldier and applying them in a way that he probably never thought he would have to do."

This backstory is briefly alluded to in "Star Trek Beyond," where Kirk (Chris Pine) and Scotty (Simon Pegg, who also co-wrote the movie) find Edison's final captain's log aboard the Franklin, where he mentions that the "indigenous race" of Altamid "left behind sophisticated mining equipment and a drone workforce." In his TrekCore interview, Jung also refers to Altamid as an abandoned "mining colony." This helps explain why the Swarm's creators abandoned it; it was never their home.

A Star Trek to remember

This exposition is enough to put the pieces together about where the Swarm came from and how Edison/Krall became their leader, at least for attentive viewers. ( Some fans seem to have missed it , and came out of the movie questioning where Krall got an army from, or not realizing that the Swarm were the mining drones Edison mentioned in his log, not armored aliens). Any of Jung's "loftier ambitions" for the Swarm may have ended up in the 30 minutes that Lin had to cut from "Star Trek: Beyond" ( per Collider ), just like a scene expanding on Sulu's (John Cho) role.

A resounding praise for "Star Trek Beyond" is that it feels like an episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series," just two hours long and with modern effects. The backstory of Altamid is part of that. Critic Darren Mooney, reviewing episode "The Gamester of Triskelion," noted:

"The episode presents a planet that is a graveyard, occupied by ruins of an ancient civilization that collapsed in on itself long before mankind reached the stars. It recalls the eerie sense that space is a graveyard, an element of early stories like 'The Cage' or 'Charlie X' or 'The Man Trap' or 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?' or even 'The Squire of Gothos.'"

An abandoned planet home to a legion of androids, seized upon by a human driven insane on the edges of space? That's classic "Star Trek."

Screen Rant

Star trek beyond villain backstory & spoilers explained.

We explain the complicated and surprising backstory of Star Trek Beyond's new villain, Krall (played by Idris Elba).

NOTE: The following post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Star Trek Beyond .

Three years after Star Trek Into Darkness hit theaters, the Enterprise crew (and Paramount Pictures) are back with another bold adventure into deep space:  Star Trek Beyond . The third film in Star Trek 's "Kelvin" timeline, Beyond sees Captain Kirk and his team in the third year of a five year mission. In the midst of going where no man has gone before, life in space has begun to take a toll on Kirk and his crew - as several members of the adopted family contemplate whether they're truly cut out for life in deep space.

Nevertheless, when Starfleet is asked to mount a rescue mission for a marooned crew, the Enterprise sets out to explore a nearby nebula - where they come into contact with a mysterious and powerful leader: Krall. TV spots for Beyond teased there would be more to Krall than some viewers might have expected (especially those who were hoping the character would have some connection to the Klingon race) but, even for those who know the film's "twist," Krall's backstory could still be a little confusing.

No doubt, some fans will have absorbed all the connections but, for those who were left wanting to know more or felt like certain details flew by too fast, we're breaking down Krall's origins - and explaining what, other than the destruction of Starfleet, the villain was attempting to accomplish in Beyond .

Who is Krall?

Kirk and his crew first encounter Krall after passing through the nebula and approaching an uncharted planet, Altamid, where they expect to find a marooned crew of space travelers. Armed with a fleet of pointy ships and nondescript humanoid soldiers, Krall strategically dismantles the Enterprise , boards the Starfleet vessel in search of an ancient alien relic, and captures the ship's crew as they attempt to escape - transporting the survivors down to a make-shift prison camp on Altamid. While much of the bridge crew is captured by Krall, Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, and Chekov manage to slip away - and eventually stumble upon a century old Starfleet ship, the  U.S.S. Franklin - which a fierce young warrior, Jayla, has been rebuilding (in the hopes of escaping Altamid). According to log files and archive footage, the Franklin and her crew (the first to explore deep space) landed on Altamid but was unable to unable to leave the planet or send a distress signal to Starfleet. While the crew and Captain Balthazar Edison were honored as heroes, the Franklin's fate was lost to history... until now.

On the planet's surface, in an exchange with Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Krall makes reference to his age - and an unnatural means by which he has managed to survive beyond his years. Shortly after, the villain is shown entering an alien machine, through which he transfers the life-force energy from two Enterprise crew members into himself. The process restores his body and alters his alien-like appearance to look more "human." It's the first reveal that Krall's scaly look might not necessarily be what he has always looked like - and, instead, is simply the side effect of drawing bio-energy (and DNA) from alien prisoners he captured on Altamid.

As Krall becomes more human, Uhura notices the villain bears a likeness to the Franklin's old captain and investigates Edison's logs from his time commanding the Franklin . In the logs, Edison details his frustrations with commanding a starship. A former military commander, who battled the Romulans and Klingons for years, Edison was assigned to the  Franklin when Earth made peace with it's former enemies and, together, the civilizations formed Starfleet. As his time on the Franklin drug on, the soldier began to resent Starfleet's peaceful union with his former enemies - a bitterness that was calcified when Edison and the Franklin crew became stranded on Altamid (and Starfleet did not find them). In his final Captain's log, Edison makes it clear that he blames Starfleet for the fate of his ship, stating: " You'll probably never see me again, but if you do — be ready ."

Edison, along with two of his crew members, managed to survive on Altamid by harnessing technology that was left behind by an advanced extra terrestrial race - including a population of networked workers (and mining ships) as well as the machine that allowed Krall to extend his life by stealing energy from other beings. As a result, Krall and his lieutenants, Kalara and Manas, began enslaving other alien races that found their way to Altamid - using their prisoners as fuel to keep them alive in the hopes of one day escaping the planet and taking revenge against Starfleet (for abandoning the Franklin ). Over the years, as Edison and his crew mates drained others of their life, the Franklin survivors began to get lost in the monsters they were becoming - both physically and mentally, ultimately leading Edison to retire his birth name in favor of the moniker: Krall.

What is Krall's Plan?

During the decades Krall was stranded, he learned that the same alien race who left tech on Altamid had also developed a dangerous bio-weapon - one the beings deemed too dangerous for use (even by them). Instead, the aliens dismantled the weapon - and split the device into pieces that, through the years, came to be known as relics (their true use unknown to Starfleet).

After reengineering the alien swarm to serve as an army, rather than a workforce, Krall retrofits comm tech to spy on the nearby Starfleet space station, Yorktown, hacks into classified files, and discovers the Enterprise is holding one of the missing pieces. In order to draw Kirk and his crew through the nebula and to Altamid, Krall sends his second lieutenant, Kalara (also a Franklin survivor who had been consuming energy from Krall's prisoners) to Yorktown in a battle-damaged ship - under the pretense that she had escaped an attack on her crew and needed Starfleet's help rescuing them. When the Enterprise emerges from the nebula, Krall unleashes the swarm - disabling and then boarding the starship in search of the weapon.

Kirk manages to hide the artifact from Krall by sending it into space with one of his crew members; however, when Krall threatens to kill Sulu, imprisoned on Altamid, the crew member hands the artifact over. With every piece of the alien artifact in his possession, Krall reassembles the weapon, boards his command ship, and heads to Yorktown - unleashing the swarm onto the space station's defenses and making his way to Yorktown's air purification system where he intends to unleash the bio-weapon and kill everyone on the station.

While the film doesn't spend a lot of time unpacking Krall's motivation, beyond a relatively straightforward revenge mission, the former military commander makes it clear he believes humanity has become soft - and that Starfleet's peaceful collaboration with other alien races is a lingering betrayal to the men and women who fought to protect earth from malevolent extra terrestrials. To that end, Krall asserts that Kirk and his crew are weaker because of their reliance on each other, and that his actions are in service of saving humanity - by proving that humans will only become stronger through sheer will, difficulty, and heartbreak.

NEXT: Star Trek Beyond Review

Star Trek Beyond  hits U.S. theaters July 22, 2016.

Upcoming Star Trek TV Shows: What's Ahead For The Sci-Fi Franchise

Here's what's ahead for Star Trek.

It’s a golden era for Star Trek tv shows, as the franchise is churning out more content than ever before. Fans with a Paramount+ subscription can stream a plethora of old and new content from one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time.

There’s a ton of new Star Trek content coming in the future, including the debut of a new show as well as the return of all the ones fans already know well. For those who need a breakdown of what all to expect, look no further because here’s where and when all the new Trek will arrive in 2023 and beyond. There’s even some information on planned shows that aren’t quite ready yet, but hopefully, we’ll see them soon enough. 

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 - Premiering On April 4th 2024

Captain Michael Burnham and the crew are back, and based on what we've seen and heard about Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 so far, some changes are on the way. Season 5 will see the crew race against others in an attempt to secure an ancient power, and will apparently have a tonal shift that will skew more toward action and adventure. We also learned that this coming season will be the final adventure , as Paramount+ decided to end the series after this coming season. The final season will kick off in April and, fingers crossed, leave an avenue open for more stories with these characters in the 32nd century. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 - In Production

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is coming back for Season 3, and is currently filming for the upcoming season. It's likely the season will kick off with the second part of the adventure started in the Season 2 finale . Pike must decide whether or not he's going to listen to Starfleet and retreat to avoid further conflict with the Gorn or to stay and try to save the kidnapped crew members. I have a hunch I know what decision he'll make, but I'm also very invested in seeing if Scotty will remain with the crew and what other adventures will come as well. 

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 - Coming In 2024

Paramount+ originally renewed Star Trek: Prodigy for Season 2, but announced later that it had been canceled alongside other shows on the platform. While the news was a bummer to many and encouraged responses from stars like Kate Mulgrew , there is a silver lining. After some talk with other companies, Paramount managed to negotiate a deal where the series will transition over to Netflix , and Season 2 will release over there. At this time, it's unknown whether or not this will lead to more seasons of Prodigy , but fans are thankful they'll at least get to see the season that was being worked on coming up in 2024. 

Section 31 Movie - Production Underway

Section 31 was one of the first Star Trek spinoffs announced after Discovery , and yet it took the longest to get off the ground. The series was supposed to Michelle Yeoh ’s Phillipa Georgiou and her efforts in the secret ops Starfleet faction that does the jobs that others in the organization would rather not know about. Other former Discovery stars, like Shazad Latif, were involved at one point, but some believed the odds of it happening aren't great after Michelle Yeoh's Oscar win .

It turns out Yeoh was interested in making it happen, and Paramount+ decided to alter the idea to a movie . Fans are excited about the project all the same, and ready to see Michelle Yeoh back in her role. Production on the film is officially underway, and it's looking like a premiere sometime in late 2024 to 2025 is likely.

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

Starfleet Academy - Production Starting In 2024

Alex Kurtzman revealed not long ago that Star Trek is actively working on another new live-action series , and it’s going to be set at Starfleet Academy. Of course, we don’t know exactly what era this series is set to take place during or who is going to star in it yet. We don’t really know much of anything, though it’s worth noting that Star Trek: Discovery did write off its character Tilly when she took an offer at Starfleet Academy. The episode where that happened seemed like it could be a backdoor pilot for the show, but again, we have no idea. We do know that the writer's room is underway, but details are scant beyond that.  

As shown above, there’s still a ton of Star Trek on the way in 2024, and beyond. The only way to watch these shows is with a Paramount+ subscription , which is totally worth picking up with the increasing amount of shows and movies available to watch. 

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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Film / Star Trek Beyond

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"We got no ship, no crew. How are we gonna get out of this one?" — Captain James T. Kirk

The One With… the Enterprise getting destroyed. Again.

Star Trek Beyond is the thirteenth film in the Star Trek film series, released in 2016.

The sequel to Star Trek Into Darkness and the third film in the "Kelvin Timeline" that began with Star Trek (2009) . Premiering at San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2016 and worldwide on July 22, it coincided with the franchise's 50th anniversary . It is directed by Justin Lin with a script by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung.

After a brutal attack on the Enterprise by an enigmatic and malevolent alien warlord named Krall ( Idris Elba ), the bridge crew are left stranded on an unknown world. Now Kirk ( Chris Pine ), Spock ( Zachary Quinto ), McCoy ( Karl Urban ), Uhura ( Zoe Saldaña ), Sulu ( John Cho ), Chekov ( Anton Yelchin ) and Scotty ( Simon Pegg ) must find a way to escape and put a stop to the warlord's sinister plans.

Star Trek Beyond provides examples of:

• Abandon Ship : Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship after the Enterprise has been critically damaged and is unable to escape. The Enterprise itself has its warp engines and main engineering hull cut off in succession, while the saucer separates from the remains of engineering and crash-lands on a planet.
• Aborted Arc : The first two movies had a plotline going on about the increasing militarization of Starfleet (thanks to Nero's incursion and Klingon border skirmishes) and a looming conflict with the Klingon Empire. Star Trek Into Darkness even had Starfleet wearing Nazi-ish uniforms and was full of The War on Terror parallels. Here, we get a bright, colourful standalone adventure where Scotty explicitly says "Starfleet is not a military organization," the opening scene is about diplomacy, and the main plot is a big-budget version of TOS's many "stranded on an unfamiliar planet" episodes. The only connection to this is a minor thematic one, as Krall is a stranded Starfleet officer who supports militarism. Furthermore, the technological advances from the last two movies (transwarp beaming, using augment blood to cure death) have been forgotten. None of this is a bad thing, though, because it brings this setting more in line with the parts of TOS that weren't about about Klingons, Romulans, or Khan (i.e. the majority of the show).
• Don't let the Red Skirt fool you, Uhura can hold her own. After Enterprise 's neck is severed from the stardrive, she runs into a room to help Kirk manually separate the saucer, sees two of Krall's mooks , and kills both of them in seven seconds flat.
• Jaylah, who is very handy in a fistfight or a gunfight.
• Shohreh Aghdashloo plays a flag officer.
• The Orion crewmember is played by Fiona Vroom, who previously portrayed one on the Fan Sequel web series Star Trek Continues .
• Sulu is revealed to be gay, just like his original actor.
• Along with a discussion on Aliens Speaking English , Jaylah's dialogue is a reference to Sofia Boutella's accent.
• Greg Grunberg plays a ranking officer only this time he's defending the station, not attacking it
• Adaptational Early Appearance : The Enterprise-A was only introduced fifteen years after the events of the five year mission. Here it appears three years in.
• Ambiguous Syntax : In his log, Captain Edison says "Of the crew, only three remain." While presumably this means Edison himself, Manas, and Kalara, it could also be interpreted as meaning three crew members besides Edison himself, in which case there might be a fourth member of the Swarm out there.
• And the Adventure Continues : The Enterprise crew departs from Starbase Yorktown on the Enterprise -A to resume their 5-year mission, with the "Space, the final frontier" monologue recited by the entire main crew.
• Are We There Yet? : As Jaylah leads Scotty on an extended trek to the Franklin , he gripes this. She warns him to not keep saying it, but fortunately they are just about there.
• Arm Cannon : The Swarm's normal weapons. They'e apparently detachable though, since Krall uses one in a failed attempt to shoot Kirk.
• Armor-Piercing Attack : Krall's drones are able to bypass the Enterprise's shielding, because Krall has its shield frequencies from hacking Federation technology. Subverted when his three remaining swarm ships are tricked into ramming the Franklin , which possesses actual armor they can't completely penetrate .
• Attack Its Weak Point : Used to brutal effect by Krall: eliminating the deflector dish prevents the Enterprise from activating its shields or warping long distances, taking out the nacelle pylons stops her from warping at all, and finally slicing the ship in half by attacking her neck severs the impulse engines from the warp reactors, disabling the ship. It turns out Krall knows so much about how Starfleet vessels work and how to attack them effectively because he used to be a Starfleet captain himself . Kirk returns the favor later on, using the "Bees'" computer navigation patterns against them to disrupt and destroy their formation easily.
• Autobots, Rock Out! : Weaponized. Due to Jaylah's penchant for "beats and shouting" music, the Enterprise crew use "Sabotage" to, well, sabotage the communications Krall's swarm uses to coordinate . Kirk: Let's make some noise.
• Award-Bait Song : Rihanna 's "Sledgehammer", which plays during the closing credits.
• Awesomeness by Analysis : For the third time in this movie series, Uhura shows what the job of communications officer entails besides being the radioman. Her keen ears and eidetic memory for sound is what tips her off to the fact that Krall is really the long-MIA Starfleet Captain Balthazar Edison, via the key phrase "pushing the frontier" .
• Badass Boast : A quiet one from Sulu to Krall: "You have no idea who we are. But you'll soon find out."
• Bat People : Two recurring extras are Starfleet officers who resemble humanoid bats with skin the texture of exposed musculature.
• Belly-Scraping Flight : Happens toward the end as the crew tries to get the nearly century-old USS Franklin airborne, which involves dropping it off a cliff to terminal velocity to get enough momentum for lift up. They scrape the cliff side once or twice on the way down, the tops of some trees when they pull up and brush a few more peaks on their way to orbit.
• Big Damn Heroes : Kirk almost follows Krall being Thrown Out the Airlock when he fails to open an escape hatch in time , but Spock and McCoy reach him in their hijacked vehicle and rescue him.
• Big Little Man : Kirk is surprised when the hostile alien ambassador roaring away at him charges down to kick his ass—and turns out to be the size of a small dog. Unfortunately all his friends pile onto Kirk as well, so he has to quickly beam out of there before they bite him to death.
• Birthday Beginning : The film opens three days before Kirk's birthday, and he's a little morose, because this year he'll be older than his father ever was .
• Birthday Hater : Kirk, because his birthday is also the anniversary of his father's death. This particular birthday is worse than usual because now he's a year older than his dad ever got to be.
• Bizarrchitecture : Starbase Yorktown, Starfleet's new deep space base/colony, is a series of interlocking ring worlds with their own gravities (their hollow centers contain tunnels and docking stations for starships), with a central hub that's straight out of Inception .
• Bluff the Imposter : Kirk pulls this on Kalara, claiming the artifact Krall is after is still on the Enterprise ; when she reveals her true colours , he and Chekov are able to get the drop on her.
• Boarding Pod : Krall's swarm of small ramming ships serves as both weapons and boarding pods so the Enterprise can be boarded and torn apart simultaneously.
• Body Horror : The victims of Krall's energy drain appear shriveled and mummified. McCoy has the opportunity to perform a medscan on one left barely alive and discovers that even internal organs are savaged by the attack. Later, Krall is seen performing his technique on two live crew members of the Enterprise in front of Uhura, who looks absolutely horrified.
• With the Enterprise destroyed, the bridge crew is forced to use the USS Franklin , a 100-year-old starship by this point, as their new ride.
• Kirk rides a vintage motorcycle that happened to be aboard the Franklin as part of the rescue mission.
• Early on, McCoy steals a bottle of scotch from Chekov's locker so he can have a drink with Kirk (they both would have guessed him to be a vodka man ), and toast Kirk's father. At the end of the film, Chekov is briefly heard telling a woman that "whiskey was actually invented in by a little old lady in Russia."
• One of the aliens who attacks Kirk in the opening scene and ends up beamed onto the Enterprise by accident is at Kirk's birthday party in the final scene, hanging out with Keenser . Kirk: Hey, Kevin. Still not wearing pants, I see.
• Scotty mentions an Urban Legend that the Franklin was grabbed by a giant green space hand. In the credit's sequence, we see just such a hand. (Also counts as a Mythology Gag , since that very thing happened to the Enterprise in the Prime timeline.)
• As it plays, McCoy and Spock note that it's classical music. Even Spock is bobbing his head to it. In Star Trek V , he did say he was "well-versed in the classics".
• Kirk knows how to ride a motorcycle, as he did it a lot before joining Starfleet in the first movie.
• Kirk remembers how he joined Starfleet because of Christopher Pike's Dare to Be Badass speech.
• The USS Franklin , the derelict vessel that the crew jury-rig to make it back to Starbase Yorktown, is very similar in design to Captain Archer's Enterprise NX-01 and has an NX-series registry number (NX-326) as well. It's indicated to be Earth's first Warp 4 vessel, which would make it older than the Enterprise , though it was evidently kept in service until the mid-22nd century.
• The Enterprise is equipped with escape pods built right into the walls of the main bridge. They're called "Kelvin pods" in reference to the USS Kelvin , most of whose bridge crew including George Kirk died because they had no way to escape the ship.
• Scotty escapes the destruction of the Enterprise by removing the warhead from a photon torpedo, stowing himself inside, and launching it, a trick he apparently picked up from Khan.
• Scotty again finds himself having to hold on for his life (and with his Starfleet ring prominently in view on his hand both times). While he had serious trouble before, this time he is able to make it without help.
• The Franklin 's former captain, Balthazar Edison, is said to have been a MACO prior to the founding of the Federation. He also tells Kirk that he lost soldiers to the Xindi and Romulans.
• Scotty mentions that the NX spaceships used to be built in space (so they're not meant to fly in atmosphere), unlike the current generation, a reference to how Kirk watched the Enterprise being built on the ground in the first movie.
• Uhura's brilliance in linguistics comes into its most crucial play ever, when she discovers a critical secret about Krall just from catching a single word spoken on a scratchy video on the USS Franklin .
• Sulu has a daughter .
• The Starfleet commodore who gives Kirk the mission briefing early in the movie is later identified with the surname "Paris", suggesting she may be an ancestor of Star Trek: Voyager character Tom Paris (the son of an Admiral Owen Paris).
• In the third film set in this timeline, the Enterprise is destroyed, just as it was in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .
• An In-Universe Call-Forward : Ambassador Spock is revealed to have passed away, and when Spock is looking through his belongings, he finds a picture of the original crew circa Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , 24 years in this crew's future .
• Frequent Abrams collaborator Greg Grunberg appears as a Starfleet officer (Commander Finnegan) aboard the Yorktown starbase. If his name sounds familiar, it's because he's the alternate-universe version of the Cadet Shaun Finnegan who was Kirk's Academy-days bully in the original series. Related to this, he also voiced Kirk's (possibly abusive) stepdad in the first movie.
• Danny Pudi of Community (for which Justin Lin directed an episode) appears under heavy makeup as one of the stranded aliens that accost Scotty when he lands on Altamid.
• Casting Gag : One of the Enterprise crew members is a female Orion. She is played by Fiona Vroom, who already played the Orion woman Lolani in the eponymous episode of the Fan Sequel series Star Trek Continues .
• Casual Danger Dialogue : Kirk is under attack from a Teenaxi Zerg Rush and desperately calling for a beam-out. Scotty's response? Scotty: That was quick. There's quite a bit of surface interference, Captain.
• Character Development : Kirk has settled into the position of Captain, and no longer feels he doesn't deserve the job. As a result he seems more mature and confident, while also keeping a more aloof attitude .
• Chekhov's Gag : Keenser is ill, and is coughing up some manner of acid that could corrode through a bulkhead, which McCoy is treating. This appears to be a one-off joke when McCoy mentions it, but later it comes in handy when the crew is captured, as he coughs on a wall with wiring to the cell door, enabling Sulu and Uhura to hotwire the door open for an escape attempt. [Keenser coughs up on the door] Uhura: Nice job, Keenser. Sulu: That is a one heck of a cold. [Keenser nods]
• The necklace Spock gave Uhura, which is emphasized during their spat earlier in the film, becomes significant when Spock remembers that it's made of Vokaya, which he can track to find Sulu, Uhura, and the rest of the crew's location .
• The stereo Jayla scavenged from the wreck of the USS Franklin , which is used to broadcast music that disrupts the communications of Krall's swarm fleet .
• The seemingly useless trinket Kirk collects from a failed diplomatic mission is actually the MacGuffin that powers an ancient alien superweapon .
• The hologram generators that Jaylah uses to disguise the USS Franklin are later used to produce multiple images of Kirk riding a motorcycle around Krall's compound, providing Krall's mooks with multiple false targets to shoot at.
• Kirk is informed that Yorktown is building a new ship that will supposedly be more advanced than the Enterprise . It reappears at the end, when it is completed and christened the Enterprise - A .
• In the opening, Scotty tells Kirk he can't beam him up because of "geological interference" — that is, he's too far underground. This becomes an issue in rescuing the crew as well.
• The Breaching Pods slamming into the Enterprise hull gets turned against the villains when the Franklin suddenly launches out of the water in front of them, and Krall's ships get stuck in the hull, as the Franklin was built back when Starfleet still used armor plating instead of shields.
• Kirk uses the gunk that he and Chekov got trapped in to shield a group of Enterprise survivors during the rescue from Krall's compound.
• Chekhov's Gunman : Kirk runs into Ensign Syl during the Abandon Ship sequence. It's later revealed that he gave her the Abronath for safekeeping .
• Chekhov's Skill : We get to see Kirk drive a motorcycle again to create a diversion to allow his crew to escape Krall .
• Dr. Carol Marcus joined the crew of the Enterprise at the end of Into Darkness . She is not seen or even mentioned in this movie.
• Likewise, Gaila (who appeared in the 2009 film, and joined the crew permanently in the IDW comic series leading up to this film) isn't present in the film.
• Several Recurring Extra bridge crew members from the last film are also absent.
• Close on Title : No title appears until the end of the film, a first in the franchise's fifty year history.
• Clothing Damage : Kirk's fight with the Teenaxi leaves his uniform shredded. Bones: Jim, you look like crap. Kirk: Thank you, Bones.
• Confess to a Lesser Crime : After crash-landing on Altamid, Kirk accuses Kalara of knowing that they would be ambushed and of having led them into a trap, to which she claims that she only did so to protect her crew whom Krall has imprisoned; it turns out she really was in league with Krall, but fortunately Kirk sees through it .
• Continuity Nod : A number of them towards Star Trek: Enterprise , as that is the only series still officially canon to the reboot movies. On the planet, the crew find the Starfleet ship USS Franklin , which actually predates the NX-01 Enterprise and shares obvious design similarities. It's stated to be the first Warp 4 vessel, as the NX-01 was the first Warp 5 vessel. The transporter is mentioned as being rated only for cargo, not crewmen, as the NX-01 had the first official crewman transporter. The uniforms resemble the flight suit design. There are mentions of MACO, a pre-Federation Starfleet military corps that had a detachment on the NX-01, as well as events like the Romulan War and the Xindi Conflict. Krall's specifically mentions his time as a MACO and in the Xindi Conflict, which would indicate he served on the NX-01 during the third season .
• Contrived Coincidence : One would think this when an escape pod carrying a survivor from one of Krall's attacks just happens to arrive at Yorktown right after the Enterprise , which happens to be carrying the MacGuffin Krall wants, docks at the station. However, it's later revealed that the whole thing was planned from the start by Krall to lure the Enterprise to Altamid .
• The USS Franklin is from the era of Star Trek: Enterprise , being the predecessor to the Enterprise NX-01. Having been missing and in disuse for a century, Scotty and Jaylah bring the old boy out for one last flight to escape Altamid and reach Yorktown.
• The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701): For her final appearance, she's been given a noticeable refit between this film and the end of Star Trek Into Darkness with her warp nacelles made somewhat smaller, the pylons swept back, and the back of the neck (nape?) pushed slightly inward.
• The individual ships within Krall’s swarm. Spikes of Doom definitely in effect.
• And of course, the USS Enterprise - A .
• Costume Evolution : The Starfleet Uniforms get a overhaul dropping the delta patterned tunic from the first two films for solid colored ones closer to the Original Series designs with a tweaked collar.
• Creation Sequence : The movie ends with the time-lapse creation of the Enterprise -A .
• Creator Cameo : Doug Jung, who co-wrote the film, appears as Sulu's husband Ben. He's seen carrying their daughter to safety when Yorktown is attacked.
• Curb-Stomp Battle : Yet again , the Enterprise is on the receiving end of one of these, mainly because it's a Zerg Rush of enemy ships. Tragically, it's her last.
• Damsel out of Distress : By the time Spock arrives at Krall's camp to save Uhura, she's not only saved herself, but ends up saving him from one of Krall's mooks. Uhura: What are you doing here? Spock: Clearly I am here to rescue you.
• Deadpan Snarker : Spock and McCoy spend much of the movie trading dry wisecracks.
• Death by Irony : Enterprise gets her revenge on Kalara for luring her into Krall's trap, by way of Kirk firing all the ventral thrusters of the crashed saucer, flipping it over and crushing her under the saucer's bulk .
• Death by Looking Up : Kalara getting squashed like a bug by the crashed saucer of Enterprise .
• Death Notification : After arriving at Starbase Yorktown, Spock is approached by two Vulcan elders who inform him that Ambassador Spock has passed away .
• Death of a Thousand Cuts : The Enterprise gets destroyed by a massive swarm of fighter-sized ships that, if encountered individually, would've been negligible threats.
• Declining Promotion : Kirk in the end declines the promotion to admiralty he previously applied for. Like his prime universe counterpart, he now realizes he enjoys commanding a starship too much to give it up. Commodore Paris seems almost amused at this. Kirk: Vice Admirals don't fly, do they?
• Deconstruction : The design of the Enterprise herself suffers this — literally. The nacelle pylons and the "neck" between the saucer and engineering hulls are obvious structural weaknesses, and Krall takes brutal advantage of that.
• Determinator : After being wounded by shrapnel during their crash-landing on Altamid, Spock spends the rest of the film making a valiant attempt to soldier on in spite of his injuries; once he is out of mortal danger, he insists on accompanying the away team to rescue Uhura and the rest of the crew, and volunteers to board one of the enemy vessels (with McCoy forced to tag along in both instances, much to his chagrin).
• Did You Think I Can't Feel? : McCoy and Spock spend much of the movie together, doing their emotion/stoic classic banter. McCoy at one point says he thinks Spock hates him and Spock is taken aback, calling him Leonard and saying he thought it was clear he had the utmost respect for him.
• Digging Yourself Deeper : Though most of the bridge crew have assembled on the USS Franklin , almost every other Enterprise survivor is still imprisoned by Krall. Spock determines a novel method to locate them: Spock: It is vokaya , Mr. Chekov, a mineral unique to Vulcan which emits low-level radiation. ... Lt. Uhura wears a vokaya amulet which I presented to her as a token of my affection and respect. McCoy: You gave your girlfriend radioactive jewelry. Spock: The emission is harmless, doctor, but its unique signature makes it very easy to identify. McCoy: ...You gave your girlfriend a Tracking Device . Kirk, Chekov, Jaylah, Scotty : ( reaction shot ) Spock: ( Beat ) ... That was not my intention .
• Disney Villain Death : Manas and Krall.
• Distressed Dude : Spock suffers a nearly fatal injury in an escape pod crash. McCoy is there to help, but Spock is incapacitated until they get their hands on actual medical supplies.
• Do a Barrel Roll : The Enterprise -A pulls one off at the end of the film.
• Does This Remind You of Anything? : Krall's rhetoric bears a strong resemblance to that of the Nazis, no doubt on purpose. This may be ironic given that he turns out to be a black man. The good guys get this too, oddly, with Scotty illustrating Federation doctrine that strength comes from unity with the "fasces" symbol (a bundle of sticks is stronger than one) that was used by the Italian Fascists and inspired their name (of course, they are hardly the only ones who said this). note  The actual Nazis and Fascists said both things, in fact. Struggle was good between nations or races, but unity was also a strength within as well. The Italian Fascists actually took the fasces analogy from the Roman Empire, who used it to represent the unity of the many different nationalities under the Imperial government, much like the many species and planets united under the Federation.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her : Literally, even. The bridge of the Enterprise is dropped on Kalara, along with the entire rest of the saucer section .
• Dutch Angle : Extensively used in scenes set in the crippled and crashed Enterprise .
• Emotions Versus Stoicism : A natural consequence of McCoy and Spock being paired together during the Party Scattering .
• Empty Chair Memorial : When pouring a drink for himself and Kirk, McCoy also pours a glass in memory of Kirk's father.
• Escape Pod : The surviving crew abandons the ship in escape pods, which are quickly grabbed by Krall's fighters and brought to his base.
• "Eureka!" Moment : When they argue the hive's Zerg Rush could be disrupted with a "loud and distracting" signal, Scotty suddenly recalls something he called that, and asks Jaylah to provide some music for their attack.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! : Spock's reaction as he remembers Uhura's necklace and McCoy points out the implications of his explanation. McCoy: You gave your girlfriend a Tracking Device ? Spock: [beat] That was not my intention.
• Krall's Mecha-Mooks are rather similar to the Geth ; both are a group of alien-created robots led by an organic being who happens to be a fanatical rogue agent of the respective series' main peacekeeping organization .
• After The Reveal , Krall is clearly one for Pinbacker in Sunshine , down to the video logs .
• Failsafe Failure : The last failsafe lever on Yorktown's atmosphere processing system refuses to work like the others did, forcing Kirk to tug at it until it finally comes free at the proper dramatic moment. Plus, the system has all kinds of elaborate safeguards to prevent anyone from tampering with it via the network — but a person can simply take an elevator to the roof of the building it's on and release a bio-weapon with ease even as people in the command center struggle to overcome the security protocols to try to stop them.
• Fanservice Extra : Not to the extent of the previous films, but a Recurring Extra female Orion crew member who never gets any dialogue is wearing nothing but a nightgown during her only notable scene, where she kicks Chekhov out of her cabin.
• Averted with Sulu, who has a photo of his daughter on his console on the bridge, yet survives the adventure, though at one point Krall threatens to kill him . His daughter herself, his husband, and all other inhabitants of Starbase Yorktown, are at risk of being killed by the Abronath when Krall attacks .
• And then there is the photo of the original TOS crew, his "family" , that young Spock finds among the personal items he inherited from the recently deceased Spock Prime. He likely died of old age though, and may have already outlived most, if not all of them.
• Flat "What" : Kirk's response to the Teenaxi Delegation's final logical descent to "They want to eat us!"
• Forced Friendly Fire : Uhura, in the course of beating down one of Krall's mooks, uses his gun to blast another when she's on the way to help Kirk separate the Enterprise saucer from the remains of the engineering section.
• The movie opens with tiny aliens trying to rip Kirk to pieces. Later, tiny swarm ships succeed in ripping the Enterprise to pieces.
• When Kalara first approaches Yorktown, her incoming video feed glitches, causing her to briefly resemble Krall, as a hint that they're on the same side . She also briefly appears more humanoid in other glitched shots of the video, possibly hinting at her and Krall's true origins .
• When Spock mentions to McCoy about his plan to return to New Vulcan after Ambassador Spock's death , he also says that he hasn't told Kirk about it as he hasn't had the time. McCoy mentions his belief that Kirk would not like it, saying, "he wouldn't know what to do without you" to Spock. In the climax, McCoy and Spock rescue Kirk from falling through the hatch into space. Promptly, Kirk thanks Spock with, "What would I do without you, Spock?"
• When Kirk volunteers the Enterprise to go on the rescue mission as it has the best sensors, Commodore Paris mentions that the only other ship with better sensors is not fully built yet, foreshadowing the Enterprise -A .
• Immediately after Spock stores the MacGuffin in the Enterprise archives, the archive computer readout momentarily blurs; revealed later that Krall was searching for the artifact by hacking into the Federation's computers .
• He refuses to say where he learned to speak English. Nor does he ever name his people, or homeworld .
• He's familiar enough with Federation tech to hijack one of their probes' signal .
• His calling the USS Franklin "Old Friend" has the viewer assuming he's referring to Kirk. He's actually referring to his old ship.
• Upon seeing Starbase Yorktown, he exclaims, "Look how far they've come," hinting that he was around when the Federation started .
• His sucking the life of captives and how it changes his appearance to one more smooth-skinned and human-appearing hints that he's not what he appears .
• His wardrobe has a similar pattern to NX-01 Enterprise -era uniforms .
• Forgotten Phlebotinum : Transwarp beaming and using augment blood to cure death aren't even mentioned. However, three years have passed since the end of Star Trek Into Darkness , so it's possible the technology has been somehow lost in the interim. Transwarp beaming in particular would be a Story-Breaker Power in Beyond . If the crew could use it to return to Starbase Yorktown without a ship, then there would be no need for Jaylah or the Franklin to play any role in the story.
• Four Lines, All Waiting : As detailed below on Party Scattering , once the Enterprise crashes there are four groups: Kirk and Chekov keeping their eyes on Kalara; Spock and McCoy; Scotty (who meets Jaylah); and Sulu, Uhura, and the rest of the surviving crew (who are captured by Krall). Then it's reduced by Kirk reuniting with Scotty, the latter managing to beam up McCoy and Spock, and ultimately the captive crew being rescued.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus : Hendorff , the big burly Red Shirt who appeared in the previous two movies note  He's the guy in the bar scene in Star Trek who insults Kirk by calling him "cupcake", and then appears on the away mission to Q'onos in Into Darkness can be seen walking directly behind Keenser when the enterprise prisoners are being herded onto Krall's base.
• From Bad to Worse : The crew escape the wrecked Enterprise , only to end up as prisoners on an alien planet where Everything Is Trying to Kill You .
• Future Music : Beastie Boys are now considered "classical". Ironically, Scotty doesn't like Public Enemy because it's " too old-fashioned."
• Gale-Force Sound : Taken to the Logical Extreme : both the Franklin and Starbase Yorktown, using "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys . While not 100% accurate, as they use the music broadcasted over VHF frequencies , the editing makes it look like this (provided you forget about Sound In Space ). Works exceptionally well in case of Yorktown, the activation of its powerful transmitters being synced to the Metal Scream in the song .
• Going Down with the Ship : Kirk is the last person to leave the Enterprise , though he doesn't crash with it.
• Go Mad from the Isolation : Krall is actually a Starfleet captain who crashed on the planet a hundred years ago. He and two others ended up as the only surviving crew. After waiting most of his life to be rescued, he grew resentful of the Federation, and after finding advanced mining drones on the planet to be a formidable fleet, in his last official Captain's Log he swore revenge .
• Got Volunteered : When Spock volunteers to commandeer one of the swarm ships, Kirk shoots him down because Spock is still injured. Spock compromises by suggesting someone also familiar with the swarm ship and his injuries join him. Cut to Bones giving Spock hell for the idea.
• Gravity Screw : Because of the design of Starbase Yorktown, the Artificial Gravity fields create areas where one can fly on gravity slipstreams, such as during the Interesting Situation Duel between Kirk and Edison .
• Gunship Rescue : Sulu and Uhura attempt this when stranded on Krall's base by attempting to send a distress beacon to Starfleet. Krall expected this, and actually skewed their location coordinates so any attempts at this trope would end up in the nebula, making them easy targets for Krall's fleet.
• Happily Married : Hikaru Sulu. He has a husband and young daughter.
• Hell-Bent for Leather : The survival uniforms worn by Kirk and Chekov — which sensibly lack rank insignia (given that they're survival gear, who wears them is a matter of who happens to get in that escape pod, and picking out senior officers in a situation where they may be evading and escaping from enemy territory would only tell the enemy who their high-value captives are) — have, as standard issue, a leather jacket (it's grey and dark blue, however, not black).
• Heroic Sacrifice : During the Enterprise's fall, Uhura completes the saucer separation, leaving herself to be captured by Krall.
• History Repeats : Just like his father, Jim Kirk is helpless to save his ship from an overwhelming enemy force, managing only to buy time for the survivors to evacuate. The Enterprise even closely resembles the USS Kelvin after her nacelles are blown off by the swarm. He does manage to escape before his ship's final destruction, however.
• Hoist by His Own Petard : Krall is killed by the superweapon he's spent all this time seeking.
• Hollywood Tactics : Par for the course with Star Trek when the Enterprise and later Starbase Yorktown use photon torpedoes against the swarm, which is ineffective because the swarm simply makes a hole for them to pass through. Photon torpedoes are consistently described as simply being matter/antimatter missiles, and even on Earth, explosive weapons don't need a direct hit to inflict damage: proximity detonation of the torpedoes would have inflicted significant casualties, if not ended the battle before the Enterprise was even boarded. (Partially handwaved when it's stated the torpedoes can't track the enemy, it's possible they could not even detect the targets for a proximity detonation.)
• Hope Spot : In the final battle between Krall and Kirk, Krall sees his mostly human reflection in a shard of glass. After briefly pondering helping Kirk stop the bioweapon, he grabs the shard and tries to kill Kirk. Kirk kills him about 30 seconds later.
• I Can Still Fight! : In spite of his various injuries, Spock keeps going on and surviving various away missions .
• I Choose to Stay : Kirk and Spock are seriously considering leaving the Enterprise to pursue other interests at the start of the film, but they eventually change their minds.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder : During the battle at Yorktown, Spock and McCoy are beamed onto one of Krall's ships to gather intelligence. What McCoy isn't this time is a Riddle for the Ages note  Assuming McCoy wasn't actually going to curse a certain F-word , the likely completion of the phrase would be "fighter pilot", given what Kirk was asking McCoy to do : McCoy: Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a f — [is beamed out]
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy : Justified . Krall's troops are actually re-purposed mining robots left behind by the former occupants of Altamid .
• Inappropriately Close Comrades : As well as the ongoing Spock/Uhura, Kirk's "Captain's Log" section at the beginning describes the open formation and breaking up of sexual relationships among crew members as just something that happens on a long space mission.
• Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress : Like Kirk and Sulu in the '09 film, Kirk and Jaylah are beamed out while in midair, and land hard.
• In Spite of a Nail : The Enterprise is wrecked over an alien planet, much like in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . And like in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , the crew later take command of the Enterprise -A.
• A battle with Mecha-Mooks inside the Enterprise while it's being torn apart by the Swarm.
• Kirk exchanging phaser fire with pursuers while sliding down the saucer section.
• Kirk's final battle with Krall in the variable-gravity centre of Yorktown.
• Invisibility Flicker : The holo-camouflage hiding the Franklin .
• It Has Been an Honor : When Spock sees Krall's mooks converge upon them, he delivers a typically Vulcan variation on this trope to McCoy, right after McCoy quips, "And here I was thinking you cared." Spock: Of course I care, Leonard. I always assumed my respect for you was clear.
• It's Not You, It's Me : Uhura's reason for breaking things off with Spock early in the movie. Lampshaded by McCoy: McCoy: When an Earth girl says, "It's not you, it's me," it's definitely you.
• I Will Only Slow You Down : Spock says this to McCoy when they leave the cave: Spock: Leaving me behind will significantly increase your chances of survival, Doctor. McCoy: Well, that's damn chivalrous of you, but completely out of the question. Spock: It is imperative that you locate any surviving crew. McCoy: And here I was thinking you cared.
• Kalara lured the crew of the Enterprise to be ambushed by Krall's swarm leading to the ship's untimely destruction. Later, Kirk and Chekov activate the thrusters of the downed saucer section causing it to flip and crush her.
• Keystone Army : Krall's lethally swift and highly coordinated swarm of hive-minded drones are easily disrupted and defeated by jamming their control signal with "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys .
• Kirk Summation : Given by ( who else? ) Kirk to Krall in the final act, trying to appeal to his former loyalty to Starfleet and humanity and his better nature. Krall responds with Shut Up, Kirk! , leading to the final fight.
• Jaylah quite enjoys the "beats and shouting" of "classical" human rock music. Scotty, not so much.
• Likewise, Spock has no problem quoting Shakespeare, to McCoy's annoyance. He also apparently has no problem with Beastie Boys .
• Layman's Terms : While the crew attempt to figure out a way to stop Krall's attack on Yorktown , Spock comes up with an idea and starts going into a Technobabble-laden explanation, which annoys Kirk and he tells Spock to cut to the chase. Uhura helpfully translates in Spock's place. Uhura: What's he saying is if we can disorient the swarm, we can kick its ass! Spock: Precisely.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall : Kirk's log mentions that the last three years seem to have been of " episodic " nature.
• Legacy Vessel Naming : The more advanced ship being constructed by the Federation is christened the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701- A ) at the end, after the Enterprise is destroyed in the film .

• Lightning Bruiser : The "bees". The swarm is made of thousands of incredibly fast ships that simply dodge any attacks they come across, and they're sturdy enough to go through the Enterprise without being damaged, but they have no offensive weapons like phasers or torpedoes and are reliant on their communications network to coordinate attacks.
• Limited Wardrobe : While recording his Captain's Log , Kirk opens his wardrobe and looks at the identical uniform shirts.
• Literal Cliffhanger : Scotty's torpedo topples into a ravine as he makes a futile leap for the ledge... then we see he's managed to grab on lower down.
• Looks Like Orlok : Idris Elba's Big Bad character Krall has pointy ears, sharp teeth, and angular features.
• Meaningful Echo : During Kirk's meeting with Commodore Paris at the beginning, they discuss Kirk's doubts about his suitability for his current role, and she says that in space, "it's easier than you think to get lost." During their meeting at the end, they discuss what Kirk has learned about what happened to the crew of the Franklin after they were stranded on Altamid, and Kirk says their captain wasn't a bad man, he just got lost.
• Mecha-Mooks : The foot soldiers and pilots of the Swarm are revealed to be this, with Krall's only living henchmen being Manas and Kalara .
• Mildly Military : Kirk puts in for a promotion from Captain to Vice Admiral. In most navies, the rank of Rear Admiral is between Captain and Vice Admiral. (And promotions are awarded, not applied for.) Of course, Starfleet isn't a military organization .
• Misfit Mobilization Moment : Jaylah: You take my house... and you make it fly.
• Model Planning : Kirk and his officers plan their attack on Krall's base and the rescue of their crew using parts from the spaceship they're trying to repair.
• Mythology Gag : Considering the size of the franchise — more than enough for a separate page .
• Near-Villain Victory : Even after his swarm fleet is destroyed, Krall manages to sneak his way to the top of the central building inside Starbase Yorktown and almost succeeds in distributing his bioweapon throughout the station's ventilation system, which would kill everyone on board. Kirk barely manages to prevent it by ejecting both Krall and the weapon out the airlock just in time — and almost goes with them.
• Neglectful Precursors : The original inhabitants of Krall's planet. They departed long ago and left behind all kinds of dangerous technology including a fleet of swarm ships that can tear a starship to pieces , Bio-Augmentation technology that can extend life and enhance the body, and half of a Phlebotinum Bomb that kills life on a potentially massive scale.
• Not So Above It All : Spock can be seen bobbing his head slightly to Beastie Boys.
• Offscreen Airplane Pull-up : Because the Franklin wasn't designed with atmospheric flight in mind, the ship can't take off from its cliffside perch, and has to fall down said cliff to pick up enough speed for the thrusters to provide lift. Right as it reaches the bottom of the cliff, you see the ship nose-up like it's trying to pull up, but it keeps falling straight down regardless and falls out of view. A few seconds later, the ship races overhead as if atmospheric flight was trivial.
• Off with His Head! : The Enterprise's saucer section is sliced away from the stardrive section. Krall: Cut its throat.
• Older Is Better : The Franklin is inferior in virtually every way to a modern starship, but its outdated hull plating makes it more resistant to Krall's fighters than newer ships which rely on shielding that Krall's fighters can ignore. This is probably as close as starships get to Truth in Television , considering that WWII-era warships had thick armor to protect them, whereas modern warships rely more on advanced defensive weaponry.
• Spock is injured, and McCoy does emergency surgery on him, following it with an attempt to make things lighter with a joke. Spock starts laughing in response. McCoy correctly deduces that Spock's lost a significant amount of blood due to the injury, and is delirious.
• While previously shown to be gregarious and forceful, the movie opens with Captain Kirk feeling isolated and lacking purpose.
• Outdated Hero vs. Improved Society : Krall, a.k.a. Captain Balthazar Edison , was a former hero of the Romulan and Xindi Wars. When Starfleet was formed and the Federation preferred peace and cooperation between alien species rather than waging wars, Edison found out the hard way that he could not adapt to the new society. That, coupled with being abandoned in uncharted territories by the society he once proudly served, was the final straw that drove him mad and caused him to swear vengeance.
• Outrun the Fireball : Done by Kirk and Chekov once the captain shoots at the crashed Enterprise 's fuel compartment.
• Krall's fleet of swarm ships. They're too numerous for phasers to destroy many of them, they're too small and nimble for torpedoes to lock onto them, and they have tech that lets them pass straight through shields. They behave in much the same way as piranhas in movies do , and can destroy a starship in minutes.
• The swarm ends up on the receiving end when the Franklin gets involved, as it not only has a means to disable the swarm's coordination (getting VHF on a high-tech starship is trivial when the ship has a 20th-century "boombox" stereo on board), but since it uses armor instead of shields for defense, the biggest chunk of damage it takes in the film note  not counting the wear-and-tear that sitting on a cliff for 100 years must have done to it is when ramming a bulkhead , which would obliterate a more "modern" ship like the Enterprise , does cosmetic damage to the Franklin .
• The aforementioned boombox is itself an OCP, as it's not very likely you'd find one that far into the future when they're already ancient by 21st-century standards.
• Party Scattering : The crew of the Enterprise are split up once they land on Altamid. Scotty's escape pod lands him near Jaylah; McCoy and Spock (who were piloting an enemy ship) crash land in a mountainous river region; Sulu, Uhura, and the rest of the crew end up in Krall's base; and Kirk and Chekov (who left the Enterprise last) end up in a forest region near the Enterprise 's crashed saucer.
• Percussive Maintenance : Played for Laughs during Kirk's opening log by Scotty and Keenser trying to fix a device. Keenser whacks it as the scene closes with unknown results.
• Personal Effects Reveal : Spock receives Ambassador Spock's possessions, which include a portrait of the TOS Prime crew.
• The Peter Principle : Kirk was starting to get exhausted with the deep space exploration and being gone from anything related to Earth in years. For this reason he was considering a promotion to Admiral, but at the end of the film decides against it because he knew once he did he would miss the adventure of being a Captain. Kirk accepting promotion and hating it was a major character point in the original films, as Admiral Kirk became a bureaucrat and was told by both Spock and McCoy that commanding a starship is what he is best at (his demotion back to Captain was gladly received).
• Planet Spaceship : Starbase Yorktown is less a conventional starbase and more a small artificial planet that just happens to double as one. It's big enough to hold millions of inhabitants in rings along the edges.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child : Krall has managed to stay alive for "many lifetimes" thanks to technology that harvests the energy of the people he captures, to make himself younger. This technology has mutated his human form so that he resembles those he's feeding off.
• The Power of Friendship : Krall spends the entire film sneering that the Federation's objective of peace and cooperation makes them weak.
• The Power of Rock : Spock comes up with the idea of using radio jamming to disorient Krall's fleet, but they need a signal to broadcast. Cue Beastie Boys . Judging from the reactions of the characters, the music itself is broadcast on the ship and Yorktown as well. (The trope's best shown as the biggest explosion occurs right at a Metal Scream .)
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner : Just before unleashing The Power of Rock , Kirk can't quite resist the temptation. Kirk: Let's make some noise.
• Ragnarök Proofing : The USS Franklin seemingly crashed on the planet about 80 years ago and is expressly said not to be built for atmospheric travel. But with some hand-built repairs, the crew is able to get it back into decent condition and, with aid from a freefall, use it to escape the planet. It's not the first time in the franchise the Federation has made use of an 80+ year-old starship. It also helps that Jayla's been living in it since she was young; Scotty mentions she's done a number of repairs herself over time.
• The antagonistic aliens assault the Enterprise by swarming the ship with thousands of smaller craft that cause hull breaches wherever possible. When flying in formation, they're able to slice the nacelles right off, and separate the saucer from the engineering section a few minutes later.
• This backfires on Krall at the end. In order to intercept his remaining swarm fighters in Yorktown, Kirk has the Franklin burst from a pool that the ships are travelling over, causing all three to embed themselves in the Franklin's armored saucer (it's an older model which doesn't have shields).
• The original red shirts are given the traditional treatment when Krall boards the Enterprise . In this case it's fully justified ; their shipboard function is to repel hostile boarders, and they are intentionally putting themselves in harm's way to protect the rest of the crew. They also manage to put up a decent fight, but it's a one-sided battle from the get-go .
• The two who accompany Kirk during his first tussle with Krall are never named and don't last five seconds, although they do aid in taking down Krall's own mooks in turn.
• When the boarders storm the bridge, a handful of blue-shirts soak up the fire, leaving the main cast unscathed.
• Poor Ensign Syl is slaughtered for no other reason than to showcase Krall's ultimate weapon.
• A redshirt and a blueshirt are sacrificed to Krall's life-draining machine when he demonstrates it to Sulu and Uhura. In a cruel twist, Simon Pegg mentioned that these are Robert Tomlinson and Angela Martine, the couple Married at Sea in the Prime Timeline episodes TOS : " Balance of Terror " and 'SNW : " A Quality of Mercy ." One of them dies in those episodes.
• And like the second film, where he was involved in a defiance of this trope, Hendorff again survives the film's events. In this case, the trope is merely averted for him.
• Retro Upgrade : Kirk's crew manage to replace damaged parts of the Franklin with what little they could salvage from the Enterprise .
• The Reveal : Looking at some video logs (while doing some Rewind, Replay, Repeat ), Uhura finally figures out that Krall Was Once a Man , and even more, a Starfleet captain. Notably, she spots or rather hears the resemblance due to the way Krall and Captain Edison pronounce the word "frontier."
• Rule of Cool : Why does the swarm turn to engulf the Franklin in a literal oceanic-style wave? Why does Kirk's frequency attack use a Beastie Boys song? Because it's awesome.
• Franchise-wide, played with. After two previous films where Kirk gets his butt kicked by aliens/enhanced humans, he finally wins a fight against one of them.
• Kelvin Universe-wise, this movie showcases the third time a starship has "breached" something it's typically not supposed to. The first movie had the Enterprise breach the clouds of Titan as a signature scene, Into Darkness had it breaching high-rise clouds on Earth after a narrowly avoided burn-up, and here we have the Franklin breaching the water of a large pool, just in time to blockade all remaining enemy craft, including the Big Bad 's .
• Russian Reversal : Actually a plot point: Uhura's Cunning Linguist ears are able to recognize the similarity in Krall's line to a recording of USS Franklin 's missing CO, Captain Balthazar Edison, cluing her in that they're the same person. Krall: The Federation has pushed the frontier for centuries. But no longer. This is where it begins, Lieutenant [Uhura]. This is where the frontier pushes back .
• Saved by the Platform Below : Scotty's escape pod comes to a hold above a cliff's edge . When he exits, the pod drops into the abyss with Scotty following shortly after. Then the camera pans beyond the edge to show that he actually managed to hold on to a ledge just below.
• Scenery Gorn : The Enterprise is again turned into an impressively detailed burning wreck of broken metal.
• Scenery Porn : The Enterprise entering Yorktown, which is absolutely stunning in its scope. A snowglobe in space, as McCoy describes it, containing cities in rings around the edges.
• In the first film , the ship, albeit damaged, remained operative through the end.
• In the second , the ship almost crashed after taking severe damage and had to be repaired so she could fly again at the end.
• In this one, the ship finally gets completely wrecked beyond repair.
• Shining City : Yorktown, even filmed in one of the few cities on Earth that look futuristic, Dubai.
• Shooting the Swarm : The Enterprise firing her phasers at Krall's swarm. It does little to no good.
• The central MacGuffin is a bioweapon, over which its creators could not maintain control . It looks exactly like a Guyver unit.
• The backstory of Krall's time on the planet Altamid is one to Forbidden Planet .
• The plan at the end involves stealing an enemy ship and using it to introduce a disrupting signal that will help eliminate the alien fleet. Perhaps Kirk had just rewatched Independence Day .
• The armor Krall's soldiers wear strongly resembles the Covenant Elites' armor in Halo .
• Yorktown's design brings to mind the space station/cityscape of Elysium , on a more massive scale.
• Ensign Syl's cranium strongly resembles the facehuggers from the Alien films, and she shares the name of the Species femalien ("Sil") — both similar-typed aliens with H.R. Giger designs.
• One of Jaylah's traps ( the one Kirk and Chekov get caught in ) is essentially the Amber gas from Fringe .
• You can tell Simon Pegg co-wrote this film, with his classic "Skip to the End" line lurking in the script.
• McCoy refers to the Franklin 's medical systems as "from the Dark Ages". He has similar sentiment of 20th century medicine in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home after coming across an elderly hospital patient on dialysis.
• The motorcycle ridden by Kirk is a Hilts PX70 — the manufacturer being the name of Steve Mc Queen 's character in The Great Escape , who famously tries to evade Nazis using a bike (while ironically, the one in this movie is used to enter a prison).
• Single-Biome Planet : Averted. Altamid has a wide variety of environments ranging from dense forests to arid wastes to craggy mountains.
• Sink The Life Boats : Subverted when the Swarm snatch the lifepods as they eject, as Krall needs them to maintain his youth.
• Smug Snake : Kalara, for thinking that Kirk wasn't onto her after leading the Enterprise into a trap that saw it destroyed.
• The Social Darwinist : Krall believes that struggle makes you strong, and loathes the Federation's ideal that strength comes from unity, though his people seem pretty united themselves .
• Sophisticated as Hell : Spock of all people pulls one as McCoy attempts to cauterize his wounds and suggests that the pain would be less severe if Spock did not expect it: Spock: If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be horseshit .
• Space Clothes : Played with. Aboard ship, the crew all wear the regular Starfleet uniform, but after they're stranded dirtside following the Enterprise 's destruction, Kirk and Chekov change into uniforms more practical for field duty, featuring knee pads, boots, and a heavy coat. (Spock, McCoy, and Scotty leave the ship by means other than the escape pods and so don't have field uniforms on hand, and the rest of the crew is captured without the chance to change clothes.)
• A downplayed version; after three years in deep space, Kirk is losing his sense of purpose. Commodore Paris: There's no relative direction in the vastness of space. There's only yourself, your ship, your crew. It's easier than you think to get lost.
• A more straight version would be Krall, whose sociopathy is borne out of being marooned on a desolate planet and feeling that the Federation has abandoned him .
• Space Station : Starbase Yorktown, which is a large globe containing the equivalent of several cities floating in space.
• Spectacular Spinning : Krall's armor has a shoulder disc that spins for no reason other than to look awesome.
• Stating the Simple Solution : Upon seeing Starbase Yorktown for the first time, McCoy suggests that it would've made far better sense to just rent out space on a planet instead . Spock says the decision was political : the Federation government apparently didn't want to show favoritism to any particular member planet, so they put it in deep space.
• Spock gets unexpectedly beamed up while he and McCoy are both surrounded by hostile alien gunships.
• When Kirk rides into Krall's base, Krall tries to shoot him down, allowing Uhura to slip away from captivity. Krall: [to Manas] Where is she?
• When Chekhov reports that Krall's swarm is forming an attack wave, it's shown resembling a massive tsunami wave coming at them.
• The signal used to disrupt Krall's swarm ships? "Sabotage" !
• Stock Scream : There's a Wilhelm scream when a Red Shirt suffers a Railing Kill in the initial battle.
• Straight Gay : Hikaru Sulu is gay, in honor of his original actor George Takei , and he and his husband have a young child.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land : Krall, born Captain Balthazar Edison. A MACO and a combat veteran of the Xindi and Romulan conflicts , Edison helped win the war for Earth, only for Earth to disband his entire organization during the formation of the Federation and merge its personnel with the only Mildly Military Starfleet. They gave him a ship and turned him into an explorer. Even before his obvious madness and belief that he was abandoned, it's not hard to imagine he harbored some resentment over it.
• Stacked Characters Poster : The movie poster depicts the main characters in a pillar from bottom right to top left.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome : Of all things, the USS Enterprise . She's attacked and ripped apart by a Zerg Rush about a quarter of the way into the film.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids : Krall's swarm of starship-killing drones were apparently originally built as mining robots .
• Surprise Party : Early in the film, Kirk and McCoy celebrate Kirk's birthday in a low-key manner a few days early because he doesn't really like to celebrate on his birthday, what with it being the day his father died. At the end of the film, however, McCoy ends up hosting a large surprise party on Yorktown with the surviving Enterprise crew.
• Take Back Your Gift : Uhura attempts to return a necklace Spock had previously given her (as it's a family heirloom). He refuses, saying that it is not the Vulcan custom. Good thing he didn't take it back.
• Take My Hand! : Kirk reaches out to grab Jaylah's hand as he's being transported while she's falling to her death. He manages to reach her just in time to take her with him, saving them both.
• Team Spirit : After Scotty meets and befriends Jaylah, she begins helping out him and the other members of the Enterprise crew, but he has to teach her some of the Starfleet values of working together to support everyone. Scotty: You're part of something bigger now, lassie. Right? Dinnae give up on that. 'Cause we'll sure as hell never give up on you. That is what being part of a crew is all about.
• Technobabble : When discussing how to defeat Krall's swarm. Spock: Captain, the flight patterns of bees are determined by individual decisions. Krall's swarm formations are too complex not to rely on some form of unified cyberpathic coordination. I surmise that if we— Kirk: Spock! Skip to the end. Uhura: What he's saying is that if we disorient the swarm, we can kick its ass! Spock: Precisely.
• Teleportation Sickness : McCoy complains after being beamed up that his innards "feel like they went to a barn dance." Scotty replies that it's because the Franklin 's transporter was only rated for cargo, and he had to make some modifications.
• As Kirk and Chekov are traveling, the younger officer queries Kirk about how he knew that their recent passenger was a mole, and Kirk replies that he has a "nose for danger". As soon as they drop down into a gulley, a strange noxious fume wafts out, and Kirk sighs upon seeing it, knowing he just did this trope. It ended up being a good thing in the end, because they got ensnared in one of Jaylah's traps, and it leads to a reunion with Scotty.
• As McCoy and Spock find themselves surrounded by hostiles, McCoy notes that at least he won't die alone. Spock is promptly beamed away. McCoy: ... Well, that's just typical.
• After being beamed onto and hijacking one of the drone ships, McCoy reminds Spock that the last time they attempted to pilot one of the ships it crashed — mere moments later, they narrowly avoid crashing into one of the other drones; McCoy does, however, manage to pull off some impressive piloting.
• Terrible Trio : The Swarm is headed by three individuals: Krall is the Big Bad , Manas assists him in taking vessels that are lured into the nebula by Kalara .
• That's No Moon : Upon first encountering Krall's swarm ships, the Enterprise reads them as one large vessel. Then Kirk orders a zoom and realizes their true nature.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill : Kirk kills Kalara in repayment for destroying the Enterprise by squashing her like a bug with the wreckage of the saucer.
• There Was a Door : Krall and his mooks are shown blasting through a door on Enterprise . It's the vault, though, so odds are it was locked.
• Think Nothing of It : When Commodore Paris thanks Kirk for saving Yorktown. Kirk: It wasn't just me. It never is.
• Twice McCoy and Spock hijack an alien fighter and twice its pilot goes out the airlock.
• Krall/Edison, along with the bio-weapon he tried to use on Starbase Yorktown. Kirk is saved from the same fate.
• Tinman Typist : Each swarm drone has two android pilots and breathable air on board for some reason.
• Said word-for-word by Kirk during his birthday toast, to the Starfleet personnel who died during the film (and to Leonard Nimoy ). Also, an unintended meta-example, when Kirk says his line, the camera turns to the crowd, and center in the shot is Chekov, played by Anton Yelchin , who died a few weeks prior to the film's release.
• An unsaid version in the early scene where McCoy pours himself and Kirk shots, and a third, representing Kirk's lost father. They tap their shot glasses to the extra glass, then to each other's.
• Tracking Device : When Spock realizes that he can locate Uhura by scanning for a rare mineral in the necklace that he gave her, McCoy points out that he essentially put a tracker on his girlfriend. Spock's reaction is appropriately awkward.
• Trailers Always Spoil : Later TV spots reveal the big third act surprise ( the Was Once a Man twist concerning Krall ), much to the fury of fans and Simon Pegg . Several also show the big final space battle (although not the very end) with the USS Franklin taking out the swarm.
• Translator Microbes : Kalara uses a more realistic variation where you hear her speak an alien language, and a computer voice speaking English at the same time.
• True Companions : Exploited by Krall, who drags Sulu into the prison area where the surviving Enterprise crews are held and attempts to drain his life to coerce the crew into surrendering the MacGuffin , knowing that they value each other's lives more than it. Ensign Syl finally relents and surrenders the MacGuffin to Krall because she doesn't want Sulu to die. Krall later brutally kills her to demonstrate the MacGuffin's power.
• Tuckerization : The director's father Frank Lin inspires a starship, while planet Altamid is an anagram of Simon Pegg's daughter Matilda.
• Turbine Blender : Narrowly avoided by Kirk. When trying to vent the atmospheric processor before the bioweapon is cycled into the atmosphere, Scotty warns him that failure to trigger the venting sequence will cause him to be sucked into the fan along with the bioweapon. Kirk manages to throw the switch just before he's sucked toward the fan.
• Despite not being a starship pilot, McCoy knows how to pilot the alien starfighter when he ends up in one. Though if this timeline is anything like the prime one, Starfleet Academy gives basic courses on shuttle piloting (which would help).
• Sulu scoffs at the idea that he might not know how to pilot a 100-year-old starship. note  In the prime universe, Sulu had an appreciation for older pilot-driven vehicles and the skills to adapt to them, as he did in The Voyage Home .
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee : Kirk and Chekov attempt to use the Enterprise's sensors to locate the crew. The actual plan was to get Kalara to think she's found the MacGuffin and thus contact Krall, allowing Chekov to trace the signal rather than look for bio-signs.
• Or in Kirk's case, adventure is now boring. Three years into their five-year mission, Kirk is slowly starting to feel this way. He muses in his Captain's Log that if space is truly infinite, then they will never truly reach whatever it is they're striving for. He's ready to retire and become an admiral with a cushy desk job until the events of the film change his mind .
• Krall also seems somewhat dissatisfied with what his victories have given him. He is convinced that humanity has doomed itself by becoming a peaceful species, instead of a Proud Warrior Race .
• Vitriolic Best Buds : Spock and McCoy, having been separated from the crew during the crash landing, spend most of the film snarking at each other whilst McCoy tries to treat injuries Spock sustained in the crash with minimal supplies; nevertheless, Spock later confides in him the reasons for his strained relationship with Uhura, the death of Spock Prime, and his conflict over whether to remain at Starfleet or continue Spock Prime's work on New Vulcan, leading to the two of them seemingly growing warmer to one another . However, Spock later volunteers himself and McCoy to be beamed onto an enemy drone ship, much to McCoy's chagrin.
• Was Once a Man : Krall isn't an alien, but a mutated human, and an ex-Starfleet officer at that.
• Weaksauce Weakness : Krall's drone swarms are terrifying, but it turns out they can easily be defeated by broadcasting powerful VHF signals such as music, which disrupts their communications . However, this is justified in that the drones are actually mining units, and not intended to be weapons .
• As Spock states. Fortunately, Kirk is entirely willing to provide one, seeing as it involves riding a motorbike.
• When McCoy has to yank out the metal embedded in Spock's torso, he asks Spock what his favorite color is, knowing that Spock will be distracted by such an illogical question.
• Two in fairly close succession. Scotty: Sir, the nacelles, they're gone! Kirk: Mister Sulu, abandon ship.
• After Uhura and Sulu temporarily escape and send a distress signal, Krall confronts them. Sulu: You have no idea who we are. But you'll soon find out. Krall: You mean the distress signal you thought you sent ? The coordinates were altered. Your rescue ships will be stranded in the Nebula, and your base left vulnerable... Millions of souls from every Federation world holding hands. It's a perfect target.
• And then another one during the climax: Kirk: I don't know how, but Edison is Krall !
• The sight of the Enterprise's severed warp nacelles floating away from the ship, their glow dying as power fades. At this point, it's clear that our heroes are screwed .
• After Scotty meets Jaylah, she takes him to her "house", which is actually a crashed ship. Scotty is then stunned when he sees the name of said ship: USS Franklin . It's a Starfleet ship.

• Of a broader sort, Krall and the Franklin crew were first stranded decades before Nero's temporal incursion. What happened to them in the prime reality?
• Two Swarm ships plus Krall's are left following the "Sabotage" scene and crash into the Franklin's hull. Hull breaches are reported and we see what happens to Krall, but what about the four drones aboard those ships?
• When She Smiles : Subverted. McCoy's reaction to Spock breaking into a smile? McCoy: [fairly shocked] You really are delirious!
• Where's the Fun in That? : Kirk is offered a promotion to Vice Admiral after saving Yorktown Kirk : Vice Admirals don't fly, do they? Paris : No. They don't. Kirk : Well, no offense, ma'am, but... where's the fun in that?
• The background for Krall is essentially a simplified and militarized version of Morbius in Forbidden Planet : one of the last survivors of a mission of exploration is driven mad — or at least madder — by the technology of Neglectful Precursors , which he then uses for his own ends. Perhaps not coincidentally, the name of the planet is Altamid, which is close enough to "Altair IV" for one to suggest it wasn't a coincidence. Krall's name is also very similar to that of Forbidden Planet 's precursors, the Krell.
• The idea of combating a hostile alien race by using the power of music is a plot ripped straight out of Macross , though in practice it has more in common with Mars Attacks!
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds : For all of Krall's crimes and insanity, it's hard to not pity the man. Even Kirk seems to feel kinda bad for him in the end.
• The Worf Effect : The Enterprise is one of the most advanced, well-armed ships in a major galactic power's military fleet... yet it gets torn to pieces in short order by the new villain's swarm ships. Later in the film though, it's established the villain is intimately familiar with the workings of Starfleet, including specifications of ships like Enterprise via information/communication interceptions, so he knew exactly where and how to hit them hard prior to the attack , as opposed to spontaneously. On top of that, there's a strong element of Outside-Context Problem at work: the Enterprise wasn't designed to fight large numbers of small craft, because nobody uses that kind of tactic in this setting.
• Worst Aid : Lampshaded by McCoy when he says that pulling out the chunk of metal in Spock's gut could make him bleed to death. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the luxury of proper medical equipment to safely treat Spock, nor can he leave the object in Spock in their current situation. Instead, he decides to Take a Third Option by heating another piece of metal with his phaser and using it to cauterize Spock's wound, once the object is removed — it works well enough as a temporary measure until he finds better equipment.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit : Kalara claims to be the sole survivor of a catastrophe to lure the Enterprise into Krall's trap. She later tells Kirk that Krall is holding her family hostage to ensure her cooperation, hoping to gain the Captain's sympathy so she can steal the artifact from him. The second time, Kirk is onto her.
• Wrench Wench : Jaylah, in addition to being a handy fighter, is a natural engineer. She gets many of the Franklin 's systems operational, despite a lack of formal training and not understanding English . Kirk is so impressed that he arranges for her to be admitted to Starfleet Academy.
• "Yes"/"No" Answer Interpretation : When Scotty meets Jaylah, he asks if she's one of Krall's people, and she spits angrily on the ground. He decides to take that as a no.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! : Scotty's reaction to his communicator falling apart.
• You Killed My Father : Jaylah gets her revenge on The Dragon Manas, who was the one who killed her father when she escaped.
• Zerg Rush : This is how Krall's fleet of drones operates, forming massive swarms of ships that are far too numerous for any single vessel to destroy before being overwhelmed. And given they fly very close, they're foiled once their communication is jammed, leading the ships to crash into one another, causing Impressive Pyrotechnics .

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Starbase Yorktown

The Enterprise arrives at starbase Yorktown, for resupply, shore leave for its crew and a good dose of eye candy for the audience.

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The beginner's guide to Star Trek: What to watch first

The Star Trek television world consists of eleven full and distinct television series released across the decades, going all the way back to the mid-1960s. While some of the older sets and effects are certainly dated, some of the issues the shows grappled with back in the day are as relevant now as they were almost 60 years ago.

When Star Trek debuted on September 6, 1966, it was a relatively low-budget TV series with only lukewarm network support. It took two pilot episodes before the series was picked up by NBC, only to be unceremoniously cancelled three years later. Nobody back then knew that Star Trek would create cultural touchstones and iconic characters, or that it would go on to spawn ten more TV series (so far) and thirteen movies (also, so far).

Today, Star Trek is deeply entrenched in modern mythology, with characters like James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard as familiar to us as Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo.

But not everyone is fully up to speed on all things Trek . Perhaps you're seeing promotions for the new shows coming out this year and wonder what all the fuss is about. Perhaps you want to introduce Star Trek to a younger generation or catch up after a long hiatus.

No matter what, we're here to help. In this guide, I'm going to take you through the TV series and help you understand what each is about, give you some hints about watching order, and share with you my subjective perspective on the shows.

Also:  14 unofficial Star Trek series and films

Star Trek has inspired a tremendous amount of media. Beyond the TV shows, there are movies, video games, books, comics, fan fiction and productions, collectables, and more. Because the commercial world of Star Trek fandom is so huge, I'm going to limit our discussion to just the TV shows -- although there will be a few mentions of one or two movies that are requisite viewing for later series' continuity.

How to get started

There are four Star Trek series currently in production right now. More are rumored to be on the way. And there's even a Seth McFarland-helmed homage to Star Trek called The Orville that carries on the Trek spirit (new episodes will be broadcast on Hulu in June).

So, you could get started watching a current show, especially since the visuals and production quality are top-notch. If you feel strongly about starting with new material, I'd recommend kicking off your watching with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on the Paramount+ streaming service. I'll talk more about SNW (most Trek series get abbreviations) in a bit. Another choice would be the gorgeous animated series Star Trek: Prodigy . It's intended to bring kids into the Star Trek universe, but it fires on all cylinders for adults just as well.

But I recommend you start where it all started: Star Trek , the original series ( TOS ) produced in the 1960s. It's here you'll meet Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Scotty the engineer. This is where it all began, and everything builds upon this fundamental mythology.

And with that, let's get started!

1. Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)

The series that began it all.

• Production Years:  1966-1969
• Trek Timeline Years:  2266-2269
• Seasons:  3
• Episodes:  79
• Stream on:   Paramount+
• Buy:   Amazon

This is it. The series that began it all. I recently rewatched the entire run of  TOS  after not having seen it in years, and the thing that made the biggest impression on me was how much they got right in those early years. Roddenberry was building a mythos out of thin air, and yet many of the foundational elements that  Star Trek  folks know and love today were written into those early shows.

Of course, Roddenberry didn't get it perfect right out of the gate. He did two pilots which introduced Captain Christopher Pike instead of Captain Kirk and a female "Number One" as second in command. This pilot, called " The Cage " never made it on the air but was repurposed into a two-parter late in the first season. You'll want to remember Pike and Number One because they're prominent in the new modern-day  Trek  series currently being released.

Some episodes of this very early series age well, while others are deeply cringeworthy. Because it's 1960s entertainment (and relatively low-budget entertainment at that), it can be a bit tedious at times. And yet, it touched on some really important themes.  Martin Luther King Jr. actually reached out to Nichelle Nichols , who  played Lt. Uhura , when she was considering leaving the show. He urged her to stay on because he saw her role as a very important inspiration.

If you want to understand all the  Trek  lore that comes after, this is the place to start.

Must watch episodes:   The City on the Edge of Forever, Space Seed, The Trouble with Tribbles

Movies:  There were six movies made with the  TOS  cast. Of them, the best two are  The Wrath of Khan  (which sets up a lot of subsequent mythos) and  The Voyage Home , which is probably the most fun of them all.

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)

The story forward 100 years.

• Production Years:  1987-1994
• Trek Timeline Years:  2364-2370
• Seasons:  7
• Episodes:  178

Star Trek's  continuing popularity during the eighteen years after NBC cancelled the original series was unexpected.  Star Trek , that weird space show with the pointy-eared alien, turned out to have legs. It took ten years of fan pressure and conventions, but in 1979  Star Trek: The Motion Picture  was released. It was... not so good. But three more movies came out over the next eight years, and they were great. So the momentum was in place for a  Star Trek  reboot.

Rather than recasting the original characters, Roddenberry decided to move the story forward almost 100 years, create a version of the  Enterprise  starship whose interior decor most resembled a Marriott hotel in outer space, and give it warp nacelles and photon torpedos. This was  The Next Generation , with Captain Picard, first officer William Riker, the android Data, the boy wonder Wesley Crusher, his mom, the Klingon Worf, and unlucky-in-love engineer Geordi La Forge. Roddenberry even created the role of a mental health counsellor (Deanna Troy) as a key member of its bridge crew.

While Patrick Stewart's Picard was much more  Captain Stubing  than Shatner's Captain Kirk, there's no doubting this Shakespearean actor's talents. Brent Spiner, as the android-who-wants-to-be-human, was another standout performer. The first two seasons were a little rocky. Remember: back then, nobody knew whether this show would last, and the actors and showrunners were still trying to come to terms with how to move beyond  TOS . But subsequent years are among the best science (and societal) fiction you'll ever see on TV.

Must watch episodes:   The Measure of a Man, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Best Of Both Worlds I  and  II

Movies:  There were four movies made with the  TNG  cast. The first one,  Generations , also included key members of the  TOS  cast. I recommend you watch  First Contact  because it's a really good movie. And you might want to watch  Nemesis  because it sets up some details you'll need in later series (but it's definitely  not  the best movie made).

Also: Best video streaming service  

To boldly go...

Once you've watched  TOS  and  TNG , you're pretty much ready to travel wherever you want throughout the  Star Trek  franchise. You'll have a good foundational understanding of the Federation, the various alien species, the rules and regulations of Starfleet, and most of the iconic characters.

My recommendation is to wrap up the early  Trek  productions by taking in the two seasons of the first animated series. Then, move on to the middle period of  Star Trek  production, with  Voyager, Deep Space 9 , and  Enterprise , and then jump forward to the current productions. That's how I'm going to present the remaining series to you, but you can pretty much choose any order you want once you've made it this far.

3. Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS)

Worthwhile animation with tos voices.

• Production Years:  1973-1975
• Trek Timeline Years:  2269-2270
• Seasons:  2
• Episodes:  22
• Buy:  Amazon

A few years after NBC canceled TOS , Roddenberry managed to convince studio heads to let him produce an animated version of the show. While it was considerably less expensive to produce than the live-action  Star Trek , the animated series was the most expensive animated show airing at the time, but that was mostly because nearly all the original series actors (Walter Koenig as Chekov was missing) lent their voices to the show.

While the series was intended as a kid's show, it hews pretty closely to classic  Star Trek  themes and can be considered a proper sequel to  TOS . Watching it in 2022 is a bit weird because cartoons from the 1970s definitely seem a bit weird to our 2022 mindset, but  TAS  is a worthwhile romp, especially since it features the voice work from the core actors who first made  Star Trek .

Must watch episodes:   Yesteryear, The Slaver Weapon, More Tribbles, More Troubles  (because...Tribbles)

4. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (DS9)

Thought-provoking, must-watch tv.

• Production Years:  1993-1999
• Trek Timeline Years:  2369-2275
• Seasons:  7
• Episodes:  176
• Stream on:   Paramount+ , Netflix
• Buy: Amazon

By many measures,  Star Trek: Deep Space 9  is as good as  Star Trek  (or science fiction overall, for that matter) gets. Rather than exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations,  Deep Space 9  takes place mostly on the eponymous space station, Deep Space 9.

The station sits at the junction of a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant (a far off part of space) and the planet Bajor, a planet previously occupied by Cardassians' warlike race (not to be confused with the Kardashians). DS9's leader is played by actor Avery Brooks, who starts off with the Starfleet rank of Commander and later gets promoted to Captain.  DS9  starts off slow but ends with a massive war and some of the best space battles ever put on film.

While there are a few silly episodes, most plotlines are tight, deep, and thought-provoking. Characters develop complex and compelling personalities. And the show takes some powerful swings at issues of the day, with  Far Beyond the Stars  an absolute standout showing issues of racism in 1950s America and yet fitting totally in with the rest of  DS9 . If anything can be considered must-watch TV, chock full of religious and political intrigue, it's  Star Trek: Deep Space 9 .

Must watch episodes:   Far Beyond the Stars, The Visitor, Trials And Tribble-Ations  (because...Tribbles)

5. Star Trek: Voyager (VOY)

A female badass captain who guides her crew on the uss voyager.

• Production Years:  1995-2001
• Trek Timeline Years:  2371-2378
• Episodes:  172

The series starts with the crew of the  Voyager  chasing after a Maquis raider ship in a rough part of space. Suddenly, both ships get pulled into a spatial distortion, only to wind up far, far away from home. A super-powerful being called the Caretaker brought both ships to the Delta quadrant as part of its quest to help a species it cared for.

The plot of the pilot is a bit convoluted, but the Captain Kathryn Janeway makes a decision that strands  Voyager  and the crew of the Maquis ship in the Delta quadrant. The voyage home will take 75 years. Kate Mulgrew was not the franchise's first choice for a Janeway captain. Instead, Geneviève Bujold was originally cast in the role, but she apparently  crashed and burned in a day and a half . That's fortunate because Mulgrew absolutely owns the part, turning the Janeway character into a tough, sensitive, compassionate, and absolutely kick-ass leader.

The  Voyager  crew becomes a blended crew with both Starfleet and Maquis. Early episodes playoff that dynamic, but the early crew conflicts tend to slip away as the series progresses and the crew coalesces. Throughout it all, the series is about how this crew survives all on its own, trying to find a way home and the adventures along the way.

Must watch episodes:  Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy, Year of Hell  (two-parter),  Timeless Worst episode in any science fiction, ever:  Threshold

6. Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT)

The start of the prime universe.

• Production Years:  2001-2005
• Trek Timeline Years:  2151-2161
• Seasons:  4
• Episodes:  98
• Stream on:  Paramount+

With  Enterprise  (the series debuted without the " Star Trek: " prefix), we're starting to move around the "Prime Universe" timeline. So, okay, some definitions are in order. In 2009, J. J. Abrams did a reboot of the original  Star Trek  crew in a three-movie set. That reboot changed some of the  Star Trek  canon (its established mythology) and became known as the "Kelvin Universe". All the  Star Trek  that exists in the unaltered (or mostly unaltered) mythology is called the "Prime Universe." All of the TV shows so far (but not all the movies) are considered Prime Universe.

In the Prime Universe,  series timelines span centuries . The majority of established canon takes place in the  TNG  era, which is 2364-2379.  TOS ,  Discovery , and  Strange New Worlds  take place 100 or so years earlier than  TNG , while  Discovery  eventually jumps to about a thousand years later. But  Enterprise  is a prequel to all of that, showcasing a ship just beginning to travel between the stars. It takes place starting in 2151, a century before the days of Kirk and Spock.

There are some nods to the idea that technology wasn't as advanced in 2151 as it was in later centuries, but since  Enterprise  itself was made 35 years after  TOS , the production value and effects made it seem somewhat more advanced. That will prove to be an ongoing problem with Trek prequels: what do you do when the real tech to produce the prequel is half a century more advanced? What do you do when the actual tech we have in our pockets seems far more advanced than the "future" tech shown in the early shows? Artistic license is used.

The  NX-01 Enterprise  is led by Captain Jonathan Archer (played by  Quantum Leap's  Scott Bakula) and his Number One is a Vulcan named T'Pol (played by Jolene Blalock). In  Enterprise's  time frame, trust between Earth and the Vulcans is tenuous, and that tension plays out over the series. Unfortunately,  Enterprise  only lasted four seasons. It, like most other  Trek , was a bit rocky in the first seasons, but by Season 4, it was producing excellent television.

My biggest question about Enterprise is about Porthos, Archer's adorable beagle. Porthos spent most of his time in Archer's cabin, but I've always been curious about how Porthos took care of business. Did they just walk him around the decks and some crewmember cleaned it up? Was there a spot of grass somewhere in an unused cabin? It keeps me up at night.

In any case, I consider  Enterprise  criminally underrated. It was a great show.

Must watch episodes:   In a Mirror, Darkly  (two-parter),  Carbon Creek, Similitude, Twilight, The Breach  (because...Tribbles)

7. Star Trek: Discovery (DIS)

Discover the fun in star trek.

• Production Years:  2017-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2255-2259, 3188-3190 (so far)
• Seasons:  4 (so far)
• Episodes:  55 (so far)

Star Trek  production effectively went into shutdown for about a decade after  Enterprise . After the success of the reboot movies in the late 2000s,  Star Trek  TV experienced a resurgence in  Discovery .  Discovery  is a hard beast to pin down, and this had the effect of turning off some of the entrenched  Star Trek  fanbase. That said, it's still great TV.  Discovery  was the first of the modern-day  Star Trek  series to be available solely on streaming, via what was then CBS All Access and is now Paramount+.

Somehow (spoiler alert), Micheal Burham goes from the Federation's first mutineer with a life sentence to a beloved starship captain. Burnham is Spock's human sister (yeah, that was a surprise to everyone). Played by Sonequa Martin-Green, the standout feature of  Discovery  is some of its great performances and characterizations.

My favorites are the gangly alien Saru (played with absolute perfection by Doug Jones), the mirror universe emperor Georgiou (played with scenery-eating intensity by Michelle Yeoh), cranky under-utilized engineer Jett Reno (played by the wonderful-in-anything Tigg Notaro), and Captain Christopher Pike, reimagined from the pilot for  TOS  (who was played to such perfection by Anson Mount that the minute he hit the screen, everyone knew a series had to be made around him -- which became  Strange New Worlds ).

The first season takes place ten years before the original series. Klingons don't really look like Klingons, Burnham starts a war,  Discovery  travels to the mirror universe where everything is  Bizarro World , and chaos ensues. The second season is back in the home universe where the crew tries to stop an AI bent on destroying all life in the universe. To avoid that fate, the crew travels 930 years into the future and...okay, let's take a breather for a second.

Do. Not. Try. To. Make. Sense. Of. All. This.  Discovery  is weird enough to be pretty much the  Twin Peaks  of  Star Trek . Just enjoy the fact that the visuals are impressive, the characters (at least most of them) are great, and the stories hold together long enough to make it through each episode as long as you don't think about it too much.  Discovery  can be annoying and sappy, to be sure. But it's also a heck of a lot of fun.

Must watch episodes (so far):  An Obol for Charon, The Sound of Thunder, Short Trek: The Trouble with Edward  (because...Tribbles)

8. Star Trek: Lower Decks (LD)

Focus on life onboard for low-ranking members of starfleet.

• Production Years:  2020-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2380- (so far)
• Seasons:  2 (so far)
• Episodes:  20 (so far)

Back in 1994, there was an episode of  TNG  called  Lower Decks . It focused on lower-ranking crew members and looked at what life onboard a starship was like for the non-hero characters of Starfleet. In 2020, Mike McMahan, previously known for his work on the animated comedy  Rick and Morty , took the lower decks concept into an entire animated  Star Trek  series.

And it works. McMahan also addressed a lot of fan complaints about  Discovery  by including an almost overwhelming array of  Star Trek   Easter eggs  as fan service in the series. If you've ever wondered about  Cetacean Ops , for example, McMahan has an entire episode devoted to Starfleet's underwater crew.

Overall,  Lower Decks  delivers fully  Star Trek  plots, along with a lot of genuinely funny moments. But it doesn't sacrifice good storytelling either for laughs or nostalgia.

Must watch episodes (so far):   No Small Parts, First First Contact, An Embarrassment of Dooplers

9. Star Trek: Prodigy (PRO)

Animated and visually stunning.

• Production Years:  2021-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2383- (so far)
• Seasons:  1 (so far)
• Episodes:  9 (so far)

Prodigy  is the second animated series currently in production. It has a completely different theme and art style from  Lower Decks  and is most definitely its own thing.

The premise is that a bunch of enslaved tweenagers of varying non-human species in the Delta Quadrant find a dormant Federation starship. While exploring, they activate the "emergency training hologram," which turns out to be an animated Captain Janeway (voiced by Kate Mulgrew herself). Hologram Janeway thinks the interlopers are cadets and helps them start the ship up so they can make their escape.

The series is Nickelodeon-branded and is supposed to be for kids, but the episodes are well-written and even suspenseful. The first season ended on a cliffhanger that both newbies to  Star Trek  and long-time fans will find compelling. And can we talk about the visuals? This series is just absolutely gorgeous. Watch it on the largest, brightest TV you can. It's that good.

Must watch episodes (so far):   Time Amok, First Con-tact, Kobayashi

10. Star Trek: Picard (PIC)

New adventures of an older captain picard.

• Trek Timeline Years:  2399- (so far)
• Seasons:  2 (so far)
• Episodes:  20 (so far)

The premise behind  Star Trek: Picard  is simple. Thirty years after  TNG , Admiral Picard goes back out into space for new adventures. Picard (and Patrick Stewart) are much older, and the series addresses the challenges of ageing and how someone who was once the galaxy's hero deals with becoming irrelevant -- just as events reach out to bring the retired admiral back onto center stage once again.

Have you noticed how most of the  Star Trek  series have three-letter abbreviations?  Star Trek: Picard's  should be WTF. There are moments in  Picard  that are wonderful. But a lot of  Picard  is just plain terrible. If you even try to think about all the plot holes and paradoxes in just the final episode of Season 2, you'll find your brain sucked into a wormhole. As much as it's an absolute pleasure to see Patrick Stewart in anything,  Star Trek: Picard  is undeniably the worst television  Star Trek  has yet produced.

Like all of the current-era  Star Trek , it's gorgeous. There's fan service everywhere, and we do get to meet some of the  TNG  characters again. More are promised for Season 3. But something went horribly wrong in the writers' room for the storylines in most of the episodes to be this convoluted, self-referential, internally inconsistent, and rather unbelievable (trust me, suspending disbelief often just doesn't work here). If anything, Season 2 is even more disastrous than Season 1, and that's saying something.

All that said, should you watch  Star Trek: Picard ? Of course. It's a hoot. Plus, the episode  Nepenthe  (where we get to meet a gray-haired Captain Riker and his wife, Deanna Troy, along with their daughter Kestra) makes the whole series worthwhile.

Must watch episodes:   Nepenthe, Stardust City Rag

11. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (SNW)

Referential to established canon for entrenched trek fans.

• Production Years:  2022-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2259- (so far)
• Seasons:  1 (so far)
• Episodes:  4 (so far)

Strange New Worlds  has been jokingly called the longest order from the pilot to series in television history, but there's some truth to that. The very first  TOS  pilot back in the 1960s spotlighted the main characters of  Strange New Worlds . As the legend goes, NBC didn't like those characters, so Roddenberry retooled and the result was Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

Today, however, Anson Mount is center stage, along with Ethan Peck as the third actor to play Spock, and Rebecca Romijn playing Number One. We haven't seen too many episodes yet, but so far it's good. Really, really good. Sure, this  U.S.S. Enterprise  is supposed to be from a time ten years before Kirk's in  TOS , and it's far fancier. But that's what you get with 2022 budgets and CGI compared to the hand-me-downs that went into the original  Star Trek .

You can follow the story well enough without having seen any other  Star Trek , so it makes for a good first series. But it also is so reverently referential to established canon (while blazing its own way as well) that deeply entrenched Trek fans will undoubtedly enjoy it as well.

Must watch episodes (so far):  Strange New Worlds, Children of the Comet, Ghosts of Illyria, Memento Mori

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What are the worst to best Star Trek series?

This is a highly subjective list, but I know you're going to want to know. So here it is. My call for worst series to best. You'll be surprised.

10. Picard :  I had high hopes, I love the reunions, but the plots don't hold together if you think about it for just one minute.

9. The Original Series :  Yes, it started everything. And yes, they got a lot right. But some of it is just downright hard to watch.

8. The Animated Series :  Like  TOS , it's a rough ride to watch. Pacing is very late sixties.

7. Lower Decks :  I'm not a huge animation fan, and the silliness is a bit annoying.

6. Prodigy :   Prodigy  is gorgeous, and the plots hold together well. But I'm not as into it as I could be. Perhaps with more seasons.

5. The Next Generation :   TNG  defines  Star Trek , and while there are some great shows there, it's getting old. I'm just not that invested anymore.

4. Discovery :  I really like some of the characters and the modern visuals are spectacular. The focus on one character as a  Mary Sue  gets tiresome, as do the somewhat lazy resolutions for season-long mysteries.

3. Voyager :  Some of the premise broke down in early years, but the overall crew survival dynamic makes for worthwhile TV. I've become attached to some of the characters after watching them grow into their responsibilities.

2. Enterprise :  Yes, I consider  Enterprise  among the best  Star Trek  ever, even though it died an early death. From Archer's relationship with the Andorian commander Shran (played by the wonderful Jeffrey Combs) to some really excellent standalone episodes, I miss  Enterprise  more than any other series.

1. Deep Space 9 :  Yeah, this is just about the best science fiction you're going to find anywhere.

* Strange New Worlds :  I'm not rating  Strange New Worlds  yet. I've only seen a few episodes. But from what I've seen, it has the potential to be among the favorites.

What about you? What's your favorite Star Trek series? Are you Trek-curious and just getting started? Are you coming back after a long hiatus? Share with us in the comments below. Live long and prosper.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz , on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz , on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz , and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV .

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‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Renewed For Season 4 At Paramount+

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for Season 4 at Paramount+, despite currently being in production on its third season.

On the other hand, it has been revealed that the animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks , will end with Season 5 on the streaming platform. The final season will premiere this fall.

Strange New Worlds centers around Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is the USS Enterprise commander at this point in the Star Trek universe. He is joined by younger versions of several legacy characters, including Spock (Ethan Peck), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and Kirk (Paul Wesley).

It debuted in 2022 and had an epic second season that included a musical episode and a crossover episode with Lower Decks , helping it climb aboard Nielsen’s chart of the 10 most-watched streaming original series over multiple weeks.

“On behalf of the cast and crew of ‘Strange New Worlds,’ we are thrilled and grateful to continue our voyages together,” said executive producers and showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, along with executive producer Alex Kurtzman in a statement according to Variety . “We can’t wait for you to join us and the crew of the Enterprise on another season of exploration and adventure.”

Lower Decks is set in the years following the feature film Star Trek: Nemesis and centers around the junior officers of the USS Cerritos: Beckett Mariner ( Tawny Newsome ), Brad Boimler ( Jack Quaid ), D’Vana Tendi ( Noël Wells ) and Sam Rutherford ( Eugene Cordero ).

The series also featured voice cameos from several Star Trek alumni including George Takei , Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, John de Lancie, Will Wheaton, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, and Robert Duncan McNeill.

Although some aspects of the storyline make it appropriate to conclude the show, Kurtzman and executive producer and showrunner Mike McMahan are leaving the hull open for future iterations.

“We remain hopeful that even beyond Season 5, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and the whole Cerritos crew will live on with new adventures,” they said in a message to fans. “While five seasons of any series these days seems like a miracle, it’s no exaggeration to say that every second we’ve spent making this show has been a dream come true.”

Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is slated to premiere in 2025.

Column: How Trump’s trial will go well beyond the charges to paint a damning portrait of him

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The scheme at the heart of the charges against Donald Trump in New York is well-known: To keep allegations of an affair with the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels from becoming public, Trump is accused of agreeing to pay her $130,000, camouflaged as payments to Michael Cohen for legal services. It’s in the camouflaging that Trump is charged with committing the 34 felonies at issue before a jury starting Monday.

But the jury, and the country, are going to hear a lot of evidence of Trump’s other allegedly wrongful acts — and a virtual avalanche of such evidence should the defendant decide to testify. That will paint a broader and more damning portrait of Trump, who is reportedly already on tenterhooks about Daniels’ expected testimony, giving him even more opportunities to complain that he is the victim of a no-holds-barred railroading at the hands of Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg.

Bragg’s team can introduce information about Trump’s other alleged misconduct under New York’s rules of evidence, which mirror the federal courts’. Known in New York as “Molineux evidence,” after the case that defined it , it’s generally considered a bonanza for prosecutors and a bane of defendants.

Litman: Trump’s antics didn’t stop his New York hush money trial. Here’s why he’ll keep them up

The former president can be expected to stick to his political strategy despite its legal risks and Judge Juan M. Merchan’s lack of patience for it.

April 15, 2024

It’s an axiom of criminal law that jurors should assess guilt or innocence based on the defendant’s conduct in the case before them. That means they shouldn’t make their decision based on judgments about the defendant’s character — for example, that the defendant is a “bad person” who, having done bad things in the past, probably did them again. So it would be improper to introduce the fact that an alleged bank robber previously robbed a bank to show that he is a “bank-robbing kind of person” and therefore likely committed the bank robbery he’s now charged with.

New York’s rule generally prohibits the prosecution from relying on “character” or “propensity” evidence to urge conviction. But it’s riddled with exceptions that permit prosecutors to offer evidence of prior bad acts for many purposes other than character, including to show “motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident” — more or less anything other than the forbidden character inference.

Litman: Jack Smith’s latest push to get Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 trial moving before the election

The special counsel urged the Supreme Court to let the case proceed as soon as possible rather than delaying it for theoretical questions about presidential immunity.

April 10, 2024

One example in Trump’s case, greenlighted by the court over his vigorous objections, concerns a “catch and kill” scheme in which the National Enquirer agreed to buy and then bury embarrassing stories about the then-candidate. That’s not what happened in Daniels’ case, but Judge Juan M. Merchan agreed to let the prosecution present it to the jury. His rationale was that it is part of the same “narrative of events that precipitated” the alleged falsification of records and could help prove Trump’s purported intent to conceal allegations of affairs from voters.

Merchan likewise ruled that the prosecution may introduce a transcript of the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted of sexually assaulting women. The judge found that the comments could help show Trump’s motive for concealing the alleged Daniels affair because the revelation of the tape was a crisis for his campaign.

For similar reasons, Merchan is permitting testimony from model Karen McDougal about the affair she says she had with Trump and the Enquirer’s suppression of her story. Likewise, the court approved a limited presentation of evidence about the alleged purchase of information from a Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin , to the effect that Trump fathered a child with a housekeeper.

The court will instruct the jury to regard the evidence only for its permissible purposes — for example, to demonstrate intent — and not to infer that because Trump may have done something bad before, he probably did so again. But trial lawyers understand that inferring acts based on character is human nature; it’s very hard in practice to prevent jurors from indulging the impermissible inference.

Moreover, if Trump takes the stand — as he has flatly asserted he will — that would permit the district attorney’s team to unleash a torrent of additional evidence of prior bad acts. That’s because the former president would be putting his own credibility at issue, enabling prosecutors to introduce more evidence related to that question.

On Monday, Merchan ruled that prosecutors may use several noxious episodes from Trump’s past to impeach his testimony if he takes the stand. They include New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James’ successful fraud case against Trump’s business and the writer E. Jean Carroll’s victorious lawsuit for sexual assault and defamation.

Such testimony would likely appall jurors who already have some notion of Trump’s essential sleaziness. It’s one of several reasons that notwithstanding his bombast, we should not expect him to testify. Trump’s more likely role in court over the coming weeks will be to sit still and seethe silently.

Harry Litman is the host of the “Talking Feds” podcast and the Talking San Diego speaker series. @harrylitman

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A cure for the common opinion

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Harry Litman, the senior legal affairs columnist for the Opinion page, is a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general. He is the creator and host of the “Talking Feds” podcast ( @talkingfedspod ). Litman teaches constitutional and national security law at UCLA and UC San Diego and is a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and CBS News.

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‘American Idol’ Sets “Very Special Musical Tribute” In Honor Of Late Contestant Mandisa: “An Inspiration On The Show And Beyond”

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• American Idol
• celebrity deaths

R.I.P. Terry Carter: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Star Dead At 95

R.i.p. meg bennet: ‘young and the restless’ star and writer dead at 75, ‘willow’ star warwick davis is “taking some time away from social media” after sharing concerning message: “i’m done here”, r.i.p. eva evans: tiktok star and ‘club rat’ creator dead at 29.

Former American Idol contestant Mandisa Hundley , who recently died at age 47 , will soon be honored by the reality competition series that launched her career.

Ryan Seacrest announced that the show will have a “very special musical tribute” for the singer next Monday, April 29.

He also praised Mandisa during Sunday’s (April 21) episode of American Idol . “We wanted to take a moment to honor a dear member of the  Idol  family who we sadly lost this week — Mandisa,” he said, per Deadline .

“She was an inspiration on the show and beyond. We’re going to celebrate her next week with a very special musical tribute,” he added. “Our hearts go out to her family and all of those, like us, who called her a friend.”

Mandisa died April 18 in her Nashville home. A cause of death has not been shared.

The successful Christian singer made it to the Top 9 on American Idol before she struck out on her own to release three Grammy-nominated albums. She won a Grammy in 2013 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.

American Idol shared a statement on the late singer’s sudden passing.

“Mandisa was an adored icon on  American Idol  and in the music industry,” the show said, per Deadline. “She had become a platinum-selling artist and had won several Grammys for her music. Her passing has left everyone on the show heartbroken, and we extend our deepest condolences to her family.”

Fellow Idol alum Jennifer Hudson also remembered Mandisa’s legacy with a touching statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Broke my heart when I heard the news! She was truly a woman of faith. A bright light that made such a powerful imprint on this world. Rest in heaven, Mandisa!” she wrote .

The tribute for Mandisa will air April 29 on American Idol at 8/7c.

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