The Star Trek movies...

[Alan Smithee]

The ST movies have taken their lumps over the years. In some cases, rightfully so.

It took me awhile to "enjoy" the ST movies. I was weened on Star Wars, so when I first saw "Star Trek: the Motion Picture" on HBO many, many eons ago, I thought it prefect remedy for sleeplessness. I was so used to the action packed laser battles of Star Wars, I thought Trek was so uninvolving and tedious. I didn't know better.

I never watched a single episode (that I can remember) of the original series, or any of its spinoffs.

But now that I'm older I can accept Star Trek for what it is. It's a much different space opera than Star Wars. Wrath of Kahn, Voyage Home and First Contact will probably be my favorite of the series. Those movies had HEART. I've almost come to like the first movie (though some people have likened it to watching paint dry).

The Final Frontier was a pretty weak movie. Even, the last, unfortunate one from a few years back wasn't very good. I'm pretty sure that was the final nail in the coffin for the Star Trek movie series.

I guess, my biggest problem with the ST movies is that they seemed slight, Or a better way of putting it, a big budget version of any one of the episodes. They almost come across made-for-television movies with bigger effects.

Nonetheless, I'm not a Trekkie or Trekker. But I have a certain amount of sympathy for the moribund Star Trek movie franchise.

[Neville]

I agree with many of your points. The "Star Trek" movies, at least the ones that were adapting the original series, often feel like longer episodes. I sort of like them, however, specially episodes III and VI. They both have neat space sequences, but characters are never left aside, even if they often overdo the comedy.

I have problems with the "Next Generation" movies, though. The series was very good, but the movies are very dull, with the exception of the ones directed by Jonathan Frakes, which are "First Contact" and "Insurrection". Even the second one is a bit bland, but it has a decent climax.

[odinn7]

The first Star Trek movie actually was the first movie that ever put me to sleep when I was a kid...in the theater no less. Going to the movies was a big deal for us and usually we were pumped up. The problem was that sitting through this 17 hour boring and dragged out movie was torture. It almost ruined all of Star Trek for me. A few years later, I got Wrath of Kahn on VHS for Christmas. Apparently someone took the opportunity to buy a new VHS tape for the super low price that they were offering it (recall that tapes were selling for $60 or more at the time and this one was released at about $20). Anyway, I was less than thrilled when I got it but I did decide to watch it...WOW! What a difference between that one and the first. I loved the movie. This movie got me interested in Star Trek again. Since then, over the years, they released quite a few more and some I liked, some I didn't but I'll always like Wrath of Kahn the best just because of the memories attached to it.

[AndyC]

Yeah, Roddenberry tried to make some unholy hybrid of Star Trek, Star Wars and 2001. There were things I liked about the movie, but it didn't quite feel like Star Trek. There was a distinct lack of adventure, for one thing, and the chemistry between the characters felt a bit forced.

Kind of helped the franchise that Gene was not given free reign on subsequent movies.

[Alan Smithee]

It's funny that even the original 1960's series had political correctness: look at the crew! Politial correctness really didn't get into full swing until the 1990's. With this regard, Trek was ahead of the times.

[trekgeezer]

Star Trek was different than anything that had been on TV. Most science fiction shows of the 50's and 60's were aimed at kids. TOS was the first show that billed itself as scifi for adults. Roddenberry had figured out how to get stories relevent to the current political and social conditions by the network by telling them in a scifi setting. He got a lot by the censors.

ST:TMP had the distinction of being the most expensive film ever made($45 million) when it was first released. Most ot this was because they were three weeks away from filming the Star Trek Phase II TV series which would have launched Paramounts first stab at creating a new network. The cost of the series pre-production was writtern off in the movies budget.

Michael Eisner who was the head of Paramount at the time saw the money Star Wars was making and decided they needed to do something to cash in on this, so they expanded the pilot episode into a feature film. There were a lot of problems durinig the production especially with the effects. They were on a strict deadline and prints were only made the day before opening and were still wet when they were shipped to theaters.

After all the problems on TMP, every Star Trek movie starting with The Wrath of Khan has been made by the TV division of Paramount. They also replaced Roddenberry as the producer because they didn't trust him.

Here is my list from best to worst:

The Wrath of Khan
The Voyage Home
The Undiscovered Country
The Search for Spock
First Contact
The Motion Picture
Generations
Nemesis
The Final Frontier
Insurrection (or Infarction as I call it)

Star Trek is Paramounts cash cow and even though the current series has been cancelled there is a possible movie in the works(which features no characters from any of the series).

[AndyC]

I'd have ranked them in pretty much the same order, except that I would have called Generations a bit more entertaining than TMP, although I do have a soft spot for the first movie for various reasons, mostly nostalgic. I also would have put The Final Frontier above Nemesis. At least it felt like a movie.



Post Edited (04-17-05 00:05)

[Mr Hockstatter]

I suppose I'd rate them like this:

Wrath of Khan
The Motion Picture (Yes, me and three other people liked it)
The Undiscovered Country
The Search For Spock
The Voyage Home (That's the save the whales one, right?)
Generations
First Contact
Nemesis (Egads, we're down into splitting turds here)
The Final Frontier (Though the Romulan babe was hot)
Insurrection

[trekgeezer]

I like TMP, in fact when it first came out I saw it 7 times in different theaters. I never cared for the TV extended version. They cut in part of the memory wall sequence that was abandoned. You know the part where they actuall show Kirk suiting up to go after Spock. If you have watched it you will notice that when he leaves the Enterprise Kirk is wearing a different space suit than the one he has on when Spock comes tumbling back out of V'ger.

The special edition DVD has a much tighter cut of the movie and they were able to spruce up the effects quite a bit.

[Eirik]

Speaking as someone who's only seen a handful of the old episodes, a few of the new ones, and most of the movies, I always found Star Trek to be preachy, boring, and predictable...

...with one exception: Wrath of Khan.  That stands out, for me, as the best thing Roddenberry ever had his name attached to.

Also, as for PCness of the original series, the show was only extrapolating the future from the present.  With the Civil Rights movement still ongoing and the military already fully integrated, it would have seemed totally illogical not to have blacks and east Asians on the crew of a ship from more than a hundred years in the future.  I do understand that the Russian guy was a late addition added after the Kremlin actually complained to the network.  Not sure if that's true or an urban legend, but I can believe it.  Communists are generally pretty humorless.

[DaveMunger]

There was an article in Pravda that said they should have a Russian guy, around the same time they were looking for someone who looked like Davy Jones to bring in the young female viewers, because The Monkeys were huge at the time, so they decided to make the new guy Russian while they were at it.

Uh oh, I didn't realize I knew stuff like that. Troublesome sign.

[Scott]

I'm amazed at how many people didn't like FINAL FRONTIER, but I've heard it before. Myself I really liked the whole film with Spocks half-brother Cybock and his search for God. By the way the final scene in FINAL FRONTIER was shot at Trona Pinnacles National Landmark in California.  Kirk's question was really great. He ask this powerful being that they find in this far off place if he is really God. Great stuff.

This film could easily have been made into one of the original hour long TV shows with the same idea. Nobody I've ever known seems to have liked this film.



Post Edited (04-17-05 20:45)

[ulthar]

AndyC wrote:

> I do have a soft spot for the first movie for
> various reasons, mostly nostalgic.

Same here; ST:TMP was probably the ONLY movie my Dad and I went to see at the theatre, just him and me.  He was a bit of a Trek fan, which is to say that he caught a syndicated episode on tv when he could.  (I think he must have really liked it when it was orginally on, but I was quite young then).

Later, he made a VHS with TMP, the episode of TOS with Kahn and The Wrath of Khan all on one tape.  It's pretty cool to watch that episode of TOS and the Wrath of Khan back-to-back.

In general, I've been quite disappointed by most of the movies based on TNG crew, ESPECIALLY Generations.

[Flangepart]

Generations.
The first part, where Kirk does his thing on the Enterprias-B, is great. THATS how Kirk should have gone out to that big Starfleet in the sky...uh..badly worded Metaphore..never mind...
I wanted to see Kirk interact with the Next Gen crew! The Eph. "Relics" was cool, cause they brought back Scotty. Can you imagin how maby Fleet Engeneers used him a a hero figure? With good reason they called him the Miracal Worker.

(Grumble...)....Man, i'd like to slap  around the screenwriter....

[Mr Hockstatter]

I remember seeing it in the theater, and a local Trekkie club was there, all dressed up like Klingons and Starfleet officers.  It really added to the fun.  That was a huge event back in the day - a new Star Trek movie!  Ah, those were the days.