As is customary with these kinds of lists, we'll start with the worst and work our way up to the best. Also, for the uninitiated, the number in parentheses after each movie title is the order of the film in the franchise.
#10: The Motion Picture (I)
Characters: 3
Themes: 1
Plot: 3
Villain: 1
Sci-Fi-Ness: 8
Enjoyability Factor: 2
Total: 18
Star Trek: TMP is a hideous movie. The costumes are ugly, the sets are boring, the color scheme is almost sickening. The plot itself is extremely slow-paced and while there's an interesting bit of sci-fi at the center of it all, by the time you find out what it is you barely even care anymore.
Fundamentally, The Motion Picture is about getting the band back together, a decade after they drifted apart. In that goal it was successful, so we owe it that little debt of gratitude. And it gave us our first glimpse of modern Klingons and introduced the music that eventually became the opening theme of a new series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, eight years later. But ultimately I find it difficult to sit through the whole movie so it's got to come in dead last.#9: Generations (VII)
Characters: 4
Themes: 6
Plot: 5
Villain: 3
Sci-Fi-Ness: 5
Enjoyability Factor: 4
Total: 27
I'm not sure what to say about this one. As with the previous generation, the transition of the TNG crew to the big screen was a bit rocky. The film loses major points for taking one of my favorite characters and making him obnoxious for the entire movie. More seriously, the send-off they gave to one of the greatest and most significant characters in Trek history was absolutely disgraceful. It had no emotional import, no meaning, and felt utterly disconnected from what came before. Compare with the relevant send-off of a beloved character in TWOK to see how to bid farewell (if only temporarily) to a great character with love and respect.On top of that, the villains were weak and the sci-fi MacGuffin at the heart of it all is nonsensical. Really, the Nexus/energy ribbon concept was just confusing and seems to be based around ignoring that motion is relative (i.e. in reality, there is no difference between you going to something and something coming to you).
#8: Insurrection (IX)
Characters: 7
Themes: 3
Plot: 3
Villain: 3
Sci-Fi-Ness: 7
Enjoyability Factor: 8
Total: 31
Insurrection might be the single biggest instance of squandered potential of any Trek movie. It’s set during one of the most momentous periods in Trek history, as Deep Space Nine fans know: the Dominion War, a massive conflict in which no less than the fate of the entire Alpha Quadrant (!) hung in the balance. And yet, aside from passing reference to the ongoing war, the film’s plot had nothing to do with it, instead centering on some relatively small potatoes. It’s as if you were watching a movie set aboard the USS Iowa at the height of World War II and there was nary a mention of the global conflict consuming the planet. Presumably, following the darkness of the preceding film (First Contact), the producers were anxious to get back to some lighter Trek but, man, what a waste.
That said, the movie did have some promise: a mysterious opener and hints of intrigue but ultimately its plot felt irrelevant and the sci-fi concept at its core was a bit of a yawner. There was some nice advancement of the character’s relationships and Insurrection is arguably the most visually pleasing of any of the Trek movies because of the stunning locations in which it is set. This one’s not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon but it’s not among the best Trek has to offer.
#7: Nemesis (X)
Characters: 6
Themes: 8
Plot: 5
Villain: 4
Sci-Fi-Ness: 7
Enjoyability Factor: 5
Total: 35
There’s a lot to like in Nemesis. I enjoy its (admittedly underdeveloped) exploration of the nature of identity and what makes us who we are, and it was the first Trek movie to take us to Romulus and plunge us into Romulan politics, though in a way that strains credibility a bit. It has a very sci-fi-y premise and a pretty intense space battle—the bread and butter of a fine Trek movie—and a huge tip of the hat to what I’ve judged below to be the best film in the franchise.
Despite the positives, something about this movie feels a bit lacking. It almost seemed to me that perhaps it was cobbled together too fast and thus the opportunity to really refine it into something fantastic and meaningful was lost. And that’s a shame, considering this is the last we’ll ever see of the adventures of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
#6: Search for Spock (III)
Characters: 7
Themes: 10
Plot: 4
Villain: 6
Sci-Fi-Ness: 4
Enjoyability Factor: 5
Total: 36
The movie suffers significantly from the absence of the titular character. It also distinctly has the feel of what it is: the middle movie of a trilogy, albeit one with a significant loose end to tie up (as the name suggests). The movie isn’t big on the sci-fi factor, though it relies heavily on quasi-religious Vulcan mysticism to drive the plot. Also, I absolutely hate when a character who appeared in a previous film gets recast and is played by a new actress. That’s my single biggest gripe with this movie: if they couldn’t get Kirstie Alley back, they should’ve just written out the Saavik character.
But a movie about risking everything to save a friend can’t be all bad and certainly this one isn’t. All the Trek that came after this movie owes a debt to Christopher Lloyd’s (yes, Doc Brown) portrayal of the Klingon villain this movie. Sure, the character had sort of a villain-of-the-week feel but Lloyd played him brilliantly and in doing set up the template for all later incarnations of Klingons.#5: The Undiscovered Country (VI)
Characters: 8
Themes: 9
Plot: 7
Sci-Fi-Ness: 3
Villain: 3
Enjoyability Factor: 7
Total: 37
From the very beginning, Star Trek had political overtones built into it. The Klingons in the original series are understood to have been a stand-in for the Soviet Union, while the virtuous Federation corresponded to the United States. But by 1987, when the Star Trek: The Next Generation (set about a century after The Original Series) premiered, peace had been made between the Federation and the Klingon empire. So in 1991, when the real-life Cold War had ended and the cast of The Original Series was looking for its last hurrah on the silver screen, it was only natural to tell the story of how peace was made between the Federation and its long-time adversary.
The result was an enjoyable tale, rife with political assassinations and kangaroo courts, daring escapes and enduring friendships, and the challenges of letting go of old hatreds and confronting old demons. This movie also marks the first time that Spock seemed entirely back to his old self since The Wrath of Khan. Aside from a pretty cheesy main villain and a general lack of significant sci-fi attributes (which, in a film like this, probably shouldn’t even be considered a weakness), this was a pretty good flick. And it’s the first in my list to make into the top half of Trek films.
#4: The Final Frontier (V)
Characters: 9
Themes: 10
Plot: 6
Sci-Fi-Ness: 6
Villain: 1
Enjoyability Factor: 7
Total: 39
This movie generally ranks lower in most people’s lists of the Best of Trek, in keeping with the well-known Curse of the Odds (as you can see, it’s the only odd-numbered Trek movie to make it into the top half of my list). But despite its flaws—of which there are many—I like this film a great deal. Despite Spock still being a little off, this is probably the movie with the original cast that comes closest to capturing the amazing Kirk-Spock-McCoy dynamic that made the TV series as fun as it was. Some fans find the interaction hammy and perhaps even cringe-worthy at times, but I enjoy it.
But more importantly, it showed us something you almost never see in Trek: hints that even in the utopian future of Trek dominated by technological magic and a whole lot of bold going to distant reaches of the galaxy, a certain existential emptiness lingers even among the mighty Starfleet. Religious sentiments in Trek are generally reserved for ancillary races; they’re often portrayed as curious inclinations of outsider (i.e. nonhuman) races. Interesting, but eccentricities that seem to have largely been abandoned by humanity. The Final Frontier is, in large part, about the search for God—and, indeed, it raises the question of what we even mean by “God.” It’s about pain and the human experience and the search for something beyond ourselves.
Despite that, it’s not an overtly religious film. No answers are suggested, it merely shows that even in Trek, human beings are still compelled to ask the questions that, presumably, will forever consume us no matter how advanced science and society become. So in spite of the movie’s many deficiencies (which I won’t go into here—just watch it, they’re not hard to notice), it has a special place on my list for boldly daring to go where Trek rarely does.
#3: The Voyage Home (IV)
Characters: 10
Themes: 9
Plot: 9
Sci-Fi-Ness: 8
Villain: 3
Enjoyability Factor: 10
Total: 49
This one is just fun. It concludes the trilogy begun by Wrath of Khan and it does it with a classic sci-fi device (time travel! To 1986!), an important objective (to save the Earth itself!) that can only be achieved with a somewhat unlikely acquisition (…whales?), and lots of fun with the setting. There’s really not much more to say about this one, other than “go watch it.”
#2: First Contact (VIII)
Characters: 9
Themes: 7
Plot: 9
Sci-Fi-Ness: 10
Villain: 6
Enjoyability Factor: 9
Total: 50
First Contact is hands-down the best of the TNG crew’s movie adventures. It helps that they tip their hat to The Original Series (the character of Zefram Cochrane first appeared in an episode of TOS), while putting their own spin on it. And how about that interplay between the plot and the sci-fi aspects? Time traveling back to a momentous event in sci-fi history—the invention of warp drive by humanity!—to save the planet from assimilation by the Borg? And how about the interaction of those elements with the characters, particularly Data’s quest to become more human and Picard’s demons left over from his own (brief) assimilation by the Borg during the TV run of Star Trek: The Next Generation?
This is a fast-paced, fun movie. The stakes are high, the sci-fi is good, the characters are at their best. Awesome flick.
#1: The Wrath of Khan (II)
Characters: 10
Themes: 8
Plot: 9
Sci-Fi-Ness: 9
Villain: 10
Enjoyability Factor: 10
Total: 56
The Star Trek film against which all others must be measured (and, almost certainly, none will ever surpass). TWOK set in motion the great trilogy in the Star Trek movie franchise (Star Trek II-IV), a story arc that took us beyond death and across time.
TWOK had it all: a compelling, entertainingly over-the-top villain played to perfection by Ricardo Montalban, and one Trek fans were already familiar with (Khan didn't emerge out of the blue, after all, the character first appeared in a 1966 episode of Star Trek, setting up the film's revenge angle); a major, yet believable, revelation about a major character's history; some terrific sci-fi elements, with villains who are explicitly genetically-enhanced products of the Eugenics Wars and a plot revolving around the awe-inspiring Genesis Device, part doomsday device and part Godlike creator of life; themes of life and death, youth and age, and the needs of the many vs the needs of the one that are always worth exploring; a great score; and an extremely poignant ending.
It’s not as flashy, visually, as First Contact but the meaning and emotional import with which they were able to imbue every frame of the film using elements perfected during the TV run (e.g. Kirk’s swashbuckling ways and Spock’s flawless logic colliding in the final “Kobayashi Maru” in the final minutes of the film) and the elephants in the room (e.g. the aging of the cast between the end of the TV run and the start of the films) more than make up for it. This movie is solid gold.
But don't take my word for it on these rankings. By all means, watch some Trek. And let me know where you think I've gotten it wrong.
