Star Trek Movies - A Complete Ranking

A List of the Eleven Star Trek Films from Worst to Best

Oct 24, 2009

With eleven films spanning 30 years and at least two more on the way, the Star Trek phenomenon just won't die. This article looks back at the Star Trek hits and misses.

Ranking Star Trek movies is a pastime of super-fans (a.k.a. "Trekkies"). Those supposedly in-the-know often give top accolades to The Wrath of Khan. But with a subsequent, arguably more talented cast and a new, fresh-faced crew revitalizing the franchise, is Khan still king? Read the following list (or scroll down) to find out.

If Star Trek fans can't agree on which film is best, most agree that The Final Frontier is the worst. The film is not only terrible for Star Trek, but terrible amongst terrible movies in general. Directed by William Shatner (a big mistake) and written by David Loughery (a bigger mistake), the film lacks redeeming qualities save for one — It is Star Trek's Plan 9 from Outer Space, its existence laughable. Well, its horrendousness is funny now, but in 1989, it nearly felled the franchise. The Enterprise searches for God? That's just god awful. And there's only one supreme being that belongs in Star Trek movies, and he should be played by John de Lancie (Crank: High Voltage, Gamer).

The only thing epic about Insurrection is that it is epically bad. Leonard Nimoy has proven to be the only Star Trek cast member with directorial talent. Jonathan Frakes is no Leonard Nimoy, and his direction of Insurrection's minimally potential plot fails to capitalize. In Insurrection, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) fights against an insidious Federation. Despite the earth-shattering consequences and crew conflict such a revolt could bring, Insurrection is flat, boring, and generally un-fun. Frakes gets some credit, though. He gives Riker (played by Frakes) and the ensemble cast real parts, unlike the other Next Generation films that focus entirely upon Picard and Data (Brent Spiner).

In this first Trek, Admiral Kirk (Shatner) assumes command of the Enterprise from Captain Decker (Stephen Collins). They confront a unique but lame villain, Earth's fictional Voyager 6, which has acquired artificial life. In the end, Decker, who nobody cares about anyway, sacrifices himself. The Motion Picture is as lifeless as its villain, but it effectively sets up the original cast's return.

Spock (Nimoy) dies in the second film and is reborn, races through puberty, and becomes the same-old Spock again in the third? Dumb, but what’s Star Trek without Spock? This film wasn’t all bad, but it had the burden of following the exceptional Wrath of Khan. The only wrath in The Search for Spock was that of fans who paid fill price to see it and of a feeble Klingon enemy (Christopher Lloyd). Finally, someone Shatner could really beat up.

Trekkies may blow their warp drives if they see The Voyage Home placed this low. But come on! Kirk and crew visit 20th Century Earth to save humpback whales? Sure, this fourth film is comical and is fine as a stand-alone movie. But it transforms Star Trek into a modern-day, humorous Greenpeace ad. The Voyage Home resembles the original series episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles.” It’s fun to watch but not for the same reasons fans watched Star Trek in the first place.

To rank Nemesis higher than The Voyage Home will set many a geek’s phaser to kill. But Nemesis, although akin to an extended episode of The Next Generation, offers a somewhat interesting story, decent special effects, and convincing acting. The film set Picard against Picard, or at least a younger, Romulan-made clone of Picard. Brent Spiner co-wrote the film. Not surprisingly, Data is highly featured. But admit it, Trekkies. You love Data.

Generations was the transition film from old cast to less old cast. So, fans expected more — Kirk and Picard locked in deadly combat; Spock and Data fighting over who is more logical; Bones and Crusher analyzing each other's anatomy — something, anything, that would pit the Enterprise crews against one another. What fans got were a Picard/Kirk team-up, no Spock or Bones, and an undramatic death for a melodramatic hero. With high expectations, the film falls short. With no expectations, Generations is a solid watch.

The newest Star Trek, a reboot of the entire franchise, is brilliantly cast. It includes the always funny Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) and the surprisingly funny Karl Urban (Pathfinder). Nimoy returns. Shatner does not, angering nobody more than it did Shatner. The film was well crafted. The only problem was that it felt like a sequel set-up film (it is). Characters were loosely introduced, thrown together, and strung along a weak plot. High expectations surround this Star Trek's sequels.

The best of The Next Generation’s films, First Contact may be as good as those that follow. The Borg is perhaps the most frightening and best conceived Trek villain. Assimilation into the collective is a fate worse than death, a fate with which Picard is intimately familiar. So, he fights them with everything he has, from Tommy guns to photon torpedoes. First Contact is a truly awesome action-science fiction thriller.

Was Ricardo Montalban ever in anything good besides Star Trek? Sorry Fantasy Island fans, but Khan is how Montalban should be remembered, a classic film heel. He is Kirk's worthiest adversary. The film kicked up the action, cheese, and tension (and creepiness with those ear crawlers), one of the very few sequels to blow away its original.

Smart, edgy, and suspenseful — everything the original series lacked. Admittedly, like The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country lost the feel of the earlier films or the original series. However, it brought the original cast soundly into, well, the 1990s. Its script tops all Trek films, and its performances, too, are upgraded.

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