Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
All 13 of them.
Although Star Trek started as a television series in the 1960s, it graduated to the big screen in 1979. (You can probably thank Hollywood’s hunger for more science-fiction movies post- Star Wars for that.) And though Star Trek returned to television in the late 1980s with Star Trek: The Next Generation, it has remained a movie franchise as well ever since. When the first Trek cast aged out of their roles, The Next Generation stars graduated to films. When their franchise ran its course, a new crew of younger actors were assembled to play less mature versions of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and the rest of the NCC-1701 team.
While Star Trek has always been a little bit brainier (and thus a little more niche) than Star Wars, it’s acquitted itself admirably as a movie series these past 40+ years. Not all of the films are good, but the franchise’s batting average is a lot higher than a lot of other tentpole science-fiction sagas (like Star Wars, for example). Even some of the Star Treks that were critical flops in their day look a lot better with the benefit of hindsight.
In fact, my favorite Star Trek movie ever is one that was largely dismissed when it first arrived in theaters, and I can make the case for almost all of the Star Trek movies in one way or another. (Almost all. There’s one or two beyond saving.) Even the lesser entries contain good character beats, sharp writing, or intriguing science-fiction ideas. Let’s rank them all, boldly going from the worst of the bunch to my possibly illogical pick for the best of the best.
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