Was there any doubt this would be at the top of the list? By far the most iconic moment from any STAR TREK movie was Kirk being stranded by his enemy and then shouting his immortal “Khaaaaaaan!”. What preceded and followed this guttural scream will remain the best STAR TREK movie of all time. Who knows, maybe STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS can take that crown, but I doubt it. The combination of action and a story that didn’t get ahead of itself along with one hell of a gutpunch for an ending is and forever shall be a classic.
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Patrick Stewart had some major moments of acting brilliance on THE NEXT GENERATION (see here and here), but the pinnacle of his Picard awesomeness came in FIRST CONTACT when he revealed his hatred of the Borg. Stewart is a phenomenal actor, but this is by far the best monologue delivered by anyone in any STAR TREK movie. The rage he has kept under control through the film finally bleeds through and he declares that “the line must be drawn heah!”. Absolutely amazing moment. And only second to…
I keep getting into arguments with people who say that THE VOYAGE HOME is garbage. I friggin love the fish out of water humor of the Enterprise crew being stuck in 1980s San Francisco. STAR TREK has always had a sense of humor and here it actually works. As the lone STAR TREK movie to be Enterprise-less, Leonard Nimoy’s second outing as director makes me smile every time I see it. Sure, Scotty talking into a PC mouse saying “Hello computer” is good as is Kirk telling a driver “Double dumbass on you!”, but the best moment in the whole movie is Chekhov asking if anyone knows where to find the “nuclear wessels”. If THE VOYAGE HOME is remembered for anything, let it be this.
As the final outing of the original crew on the big screen, THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY took a very different approach to STAR TREK and told a conspiracy thriller set within Starfleet. Featuring Kirk making out with another alien babe, Shakespeare in the original Klingon, and an awesome villain in Christopher Plummer’s Chang, the sixth TREK is one of my favorite movies in the series. The battle sequence between the Enterprise, the Excelsior (Captain Sulu!), and Chang’s Bird of Prey, is one of the best in any of the films.
When THE NEXT GENERATION crew finally made it to the big screen in 1994, fans geeked out at the idea of seeing Kirk and Picard share the screen. While it did end up being a bit of a letdown, it will still be an incredible moment in movie history as the baton was passed from William Shatner to Patrick Stewart. Plus, the Enterprise crashing was a pretty cool scene, but nothing will match the two captains appearing face to face.
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THE FINAL FRONTIER is the worst of all the movies featuring the original crew. In fact, it is so bad that it isn’t even a surprise that it was directed by William Shatner. The storyline, which focuses on Spock’s brother searching for God at the center of the galaxy, is ridiculously convoluted and poorly written. Aside from the scene featuring Kirk, McCoy, and Spock singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat while camping, the most memorable scene is when they actually meet “God” who wants to borrow the Enterprise. Kirk’s response will go down as the highlight of this otherwise bad movie.
No one was quite sure if J.J. Abrams reboot of Gene Roddenberry’s universe was going to work or not, but the trailers looked pretty awesome. Once we finally got to see STAR TREK, we knew this was not our parents’ Starfleet. The opening space battle that featured the birth of James Tiberius Kirk and the death of his father, played by future Thor Chris Hemsworth, was a brilliantly conceived sequence that set the tone for the movie to follow. I love the scientific accuracy that was brought to making this take on STAR TREK seem more realistic than ever before.
THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK always felt like THE WRATH OF KHAN 2 to me. I never questioned whether it was a good or bad movie, just that I enjoyed the hell out of watching it right after the second film. The awesome Kirk we met in the second film is here again. After having a battle on the surface of Genesis with Christopher Lloyd as Klingon commander Kruge and destroying the Enterprise, Kirk beams aboard the Kruge’s bird of prey and delivers the above ultimatum to the remaining Klingon. He follows it up with a nice “I’ll kill you later”. What a badass.
STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE wanted to be as elegant and ominous as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY but instead felt like it was filmed entirely in slow motion. As a story, THE MOTION PICTURE is not terrible, just bloated and way too serious. I still don’t understand why their uniforms have handles as belt buckles, but I do know my favorite scene was the return of Doctor McCoy. When he shows up, he does not want to be there at all. In fact, it looks like they beamed him up from the line outside of Studio 54. Complete with beard, chest hair, and a gold medallion, Bones looked ready to party.
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Yeah, STAR TREK: INSURRECTION is a low point in the franchise. As soon as Picard started dancing by himself, I knew we were in for a lackluster TREK movie. But, when Riker shaved his beard and took manual control of the Enterprise using what looks like a Microsoft joystick, we hit rock bottom. The stupid joystick ruined an otherwise decent space battle, but is such a ridiculous detail that I had to include it here.
Despite appearances from both Tom Hardy and Ron Perlman, STAR TREK: NEMESIS still managed to suck balls. But, if you go back and just watch Hardy’s scenes as the Picard clone Shinzon, you will see the budding talent that would go on to become Bane and Mad Max. The rest of NEMESIS was worthless, but not as bad as…