Summary
- Star Trek has had 13 movies from 1979-2016.
- Star Trek: The Original Series' cast starred in the first 6 Star Trek movies and Star Trek: The Next Generation's cast was featured in the next 4 films.
- J.J. Abrams produced 3 Star Trek reboot movies set in an alternate timeline and he directed the first two films, which were the Star Trek movies' biggest financial successes.
There have been 13 Star Trek movies from 1979-2016, but which one is the best of them all? The original Star Trek TV series ran from 1966-1969 but found new popularity in syndication. When Star Wars became a blockbuster in 1977, a planned TV sequel called Star Trek: Phase II was scrapped in favor of a feature film, which became Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The original cast starring William Shatner as Admiral James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, and DeForrest Kelley as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy headlined six Star Trek movies from 1979-1991, which was followed by four films starring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, led by Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, from 1994-2002.
After seven years of the franchise laying dormant, director J.J. Abrams successfully revived Star Trek in 2009 with a younger cast led by Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, and Karl Urban as McCoy. Abrams produced three reboot films from 2009-2016. With so many films across four decades made with varying budgets and levels of special effects, Star Trek is a challenging movie series to place in context; the long-held fan belief involving the first six films that the odd-numbered ones are "bad" and the even-numbered ones are "good" certainly no longer applied once Star Trek: The Next Generation's cast took over the film franchise. Here is our ranking of all 13 Star Trek movies, from worst to best.
The next Star Trek movie will not be theatrically released. Star Trek: Section 31 starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh is the first Star Trek movie made for streaming on Paramount+.
13 Star Trek Movies Ranked By Worst To Best Box Office
Every Star Trek fan can tell you their personal ranking of the 13 Star Trek films, but how did they stack up at the US box office?13 Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Directed by Stuart Baird
Star Trek: Nemesis was the fourth and final film starring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was released in Christmas 2002, received poor reviews, and ranks as the lowest-grossing Star Trek movie ever. Although it stars a young Tom Hardy as the evil Shinzon, the screenplay by John Logan, who was nominated for an Oscar for Gladiator, is a blatant rehashing of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with a virtually identical climax and Data dying just like Spock did. Moreover, Star Trek: Nemesis is a grim and dreary affair, with ill-conceived moments like Captain Picard leading a dune buggy chase on an alien planet and Troi being sexually assaulted by Shinzon. The failure of Nemesis tanked Star Trek as a viable film franchise until J.J. Abrams' successful reboot in 2009.
Star Trek: Picard seasons 1 and 3 essentially reversed most of the consequences of Star Trek: Nemesis.
12 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Directed by William Shatner
The folly of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier's plot can be summed up with the immortal line uttered by Kirk: "What does God need with a starship?" The only directorial effort by William Shatner, who also conceived the story of the crew of the USS Enterprise meeting "God", Star Trek V was released in the hugely-competitive summer of 1989 and ranked the lowest-grossing Star Trek film until Star Trek: Nemesis came along. Star Trek V introduced Spock's half-brother Sybok, played by a game Lawrence Luckinbill, but Shatner's film is peppered with cornball slapstick comedy and B-movie-level visual effects. However, the campfire scenes of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy on vacation together that bookend the film deliver a welcome warmth and charm that help smooth over Star Trek V being the worst of the original cast's films.