The Star Trek franchise's roots go back to episodic television in 1966, and it has a big, bright future in streaming. But just as important as the classic sci-fi franchise's various television iterations are its movies. A total of thirteen movies have been made since the late 70s, featuring three different casts in three different eras of Trek's vast (and complicated) future history.
While there will be Star Trek films in the future, for the moment they're on pause. As fans wait, it's a good time to take stock of the cinematic efforts that have been made so far.
10 Best: The Undiscovered Country
Nothing is ever really over in Star Trek, but the sixth installment in the feature film franchise was billed as the swan song for the Original Series cast. In many ways, it was. This was the last film the collective original cast participated in (others would appear in movies and TV individually later on).
This is one of Star Trek's best, leanest efforts. The story focuses on an ecological disaster for the Klingon Empire and the need to make peace, finally, with old enemies. Plus, it features one of the franchise's weirder cameos in Christian Slater.
9 Worst: Insurrection
Star Trek: Insurrection really isn't a bad movie. It's not a great one, either. That's a shame because it's written by Star Trek: The Next Generation executive producer Michael Piller. Piller was instrumental in making TNG the show it ultimately was (he wrote one of its greatest episodes of all time, "The Best Of Both Worlds.") Insurrection didn't really work.
The stakes weren't super high. It felt like a glorified episode (a common complaint about the least successful movies). The movie did provide a lot of laughs with a great cast, though.
8 Best: Beyond
The best movie to emerge from the J.J. Abrams reboot of the film franchise is what might be its last. Star Trek Beyond debuted in 2016 for the 50th anniversary, and while it didn't do that great at the box office, it told a classic Trek story that involved the entire crew. Usually, that's all fans ask for.
It also has some of the recent film's most extraordinary visuals, with a breathtaking new warp effect and the Yorktown space station, a physics-defying marvel of engineering.
7 Worst: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived with enormous anticipation. Fans waited a decade for new Trek and what they got didn't exactly deliver. The slow pace, obtuse story, and wobbly script contributed to a pretty big letdown for most of the audience.
That said, it does boast some extraordinary visuals. One of them is the U.S.S. Enterprise herself, redesigned by Star Wars concept artist legend Ralph McQuarrie.
6 Best: The Voyage Home
Many people rank Star Trek: The Voyage Home as their favorite Trek film and for good reason. This time-traveling adventure took the crew back to the present day - well, it was in 1986 - for an endearing story that had them saving endangered whales. The focus on the environment and the effects of man on nature sadly continue to be relevant today.
Star Trek always excels in facing the issues of its time, even if that sometimes doesn't seem like a good idea.
5 Worst: The Final Frontier
Star Trek came off its greatest success at the box office straight into its greatest failure. The fifth film, The Final Frontier, debuted in 1989 with great expectations. But fans didn't take to the confusing story about the ship getting entangled in the efforts of Spock's never before mentioned brother (and never again) seeking out God.
The film did feature, as always, a lot of great character moments, but it had the worst effects of the entire film series.
4 Best: First Contact
The Next Generation cast got off to a rocky start with their first film, Generations, but came back swinging in First Contact. The best TNG outing pits the crew against the Borg once again. It also employs time travel - a classic Trek trope now - and takes them back to the kind of scary late 21st century.
First Contact delivers on every level. The movie features one of the series best villains in the Borg Queen and one of its greatest battles between some of its strongest starships.
3 Worst: Nemesis
The dreaded 'odd/even' curse of Star Trek films - where even-numbered ones were good but the odd-numbered ones weren't - proved false in their fourth film and the tenth overall. Nemesis ended the era of Captain Picard with a whimper.
Picard faces off against a clone of himself (a young Tom Hardy) and a Romulan Empire. It sounds fine until it becomes a clone of the greatest Trek movie ever, The Wrath of Khan. That would prove to be a trap for other Trek movies as well.
2 Best: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek always recovers well, and after the disappointment of The Wrath of Khan, it did so famously. For The Wrath of Khan, writer and director Nicholas Meyer went back to the Original Series for inspiration.
He decided to bring back Khan from one of the series' best episodes, "Space Seed," and made the absolute best film in the series so far. An action-adventure story with deep themes about life and death, this remains the pinnacle of the entire franchise.
1 Worst: Into Darkness
That high standard that The Wrath of Khan set has been a badge of honor for the franchise. It's also been a success that a number of films have tried to emulate, to their detriment. The worst offender is the second film in the Kelvin-era, Star Trek Into Darkness.
This film essentially copies over the best parts of The Wrath of Khan and mixes them in with a little Star Wars for good measure - two things that don't really mix and never really should. This movie basically derailed the promise of the reboot series, and after the middling success of Beyond, it seems effectively over.