While Star Trek is probably best known for its many television shows over the years, it has undoubtedly had some excellent film entries into the franchise as well. With so many movies over decades and decades of time, there are some bits of trivia and facts about the movies that have become known to only true movie fans.
While many Star Trek fans know a lot about the universe, there are, frankly, some details that only movie fans would ever know. It may have been a few years since the last Star Trek movie came out, but that’s no reason not to rewatch the others and refresh on the things only movie fans know about Star Trek.
10 Fans Used To Appear In The Original Movies
When Star Trek: The Original Series was first on the air, it didn’t seem like it was long for this world. Lucille Ball played a major role in keeping it afloat at first but, as time went on, it seemed that making Star Trek just wouldn’t be worth it anymore. However, fans like Bjo Trimble knew how good the show was and how important it would continue to be.
They organized letter-writing campaigns, made zines, hosted conventions; many fans became well-known in Star Trek community circles. As such, some of these fans were honored in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in a crew scene, appearing alongside Captain James T. Kirk himself.
9 The Wrath Of Khan Was The First Feature Film Sequel To A Television Series Episode
In order to come up with the plot of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the creators went back through the entirety of Star Trek: The Original Series to choose a plot to continue. They ended up choosing season one, episode twenty-two: “Space Seed.”
This episode saw Ricardo Montalbán as Khan, and he was brought back to reprise his role in this film. This was actually the first time ever that a feature film was made as a sequel to an episode of television.
8 Christopher Lloyd Didn’t Really Understand How A Communicator Worked
Fans were excited to see popular sci-fi actor Christopher Lloyd make an appearance in the Star Trek universe, but actress Robin Curtis later revealed to audiences that Lloyd didn’t always know what he was doing on set. In fact, in the documentary that was made about the making of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Robin Curtis said that Christopher Lloyd fully did not understand how communicators worked in the Star Trek universe.
When told to speak a line into his communicator, Lloyd would instead shout his lines into the sky. He was even told not to do this and continued to do so. Later in life, he said this was one of his favorite roles he has ever played.
7 The Light-Hearted Voyage Home Is Arguably The Best Star Trek Movie — & For A Good Reason
When asked, many fans of Star Trek: The Original Series will say that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is their favorite of the movies. In some cases, they would even argue that this was the best Star Trek movie ever made. It might surprise some to hear this, as it is unlike any of the movies around it, but that is part of what makes this movie so special.
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Director and star Leonard Nimoy realized that the first three Star Trek movies had been so sad and dramatic that fans would want something lighter. As a result, he made the light-hearted The Voyage Home, and he was right on the money — this was exactly what fans wanted, and still want today.
6 Leonard Nimoy & DeForest Kelley Knew Their Characters Better Than Anybody Else
In the initial drafts of the script for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the conflict with Sybok played out a bit differently than it did in the final theatrical version. For some reason, the original script actually had Leonard McCoy, or “Bones,” and Spock siding with Sybok, Spock’s brother, over Jim Kirk.
However, this didn’t sit right with anybody — and especially not Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, and DeForest Kelley, who played Bones. When they brought it up with Gene Roddenberry, he agreed completely, and the script was changed to reflect the more accurate characterizations.
5 Michael Dorn Plays Worf’s Own Grandfather
Anyone could watch Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and recognize that Michael Dorn appears in the film. However, the film specifically made sure that people wouldn’t actually be able to tie Colonel Worf in The Undiscovered Country to Lieutenant Worf in the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In The Undiscovered Country, they never say, specifically, that Colonel Worf actually is the grandfather of Lieutenant Worf, though many just take it as a given. However, this was made explicit in Star Trek literature, making it canon that Michael Dorn played his own grandfather in the movie.
4 Star Trek: Generations Could Never Have Happened While Gene Roddenberry Was Alive
The very first Star Trek movie that was fully filmed and released after Gene Roddenberry’s death directly conflicted with the vision the creator had had for Star Trek. He had many specific ideas about what Star Trek should or should not be, what it should or should not do.
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One of those ideas was that Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation should never cross over, and their crews should never team up. Of course, that meant that, as soon as Roddenberry had passed away, Star Trek: Generations was made doing exactly that.
3 Majel Barrett Appeared In Star Trek (2009) Two Weeks Before She Passed Away
For many years, Majel Barrett, Gene Roddenberry’s wife, voiced the computer in a variety of Star Trek shows. Before that, she was Number One in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series: “The Cage.” She obviously had a rich and important history of being involved with the making of Star Trek over the years.
When J.J. Abrams was making the Star Trek reboot to be released in 2009, Majel Barrett appeared once more to voice the computer onboard the Enterprise as she had before. In fact, she finished filming her voiceover for the movie from her home just two weeks before she ultimately ended up passing away.
2 A Real-Life Laser System Was Used In Star Trek: Into Darkness
Star Trek has not just influenced pop culture over the years, but it has actually influenced real-world technology. Cell phones have obviously developed along a path that strongly resembles communicators in Star Trek. As such, many scientists are fans of sci-fi — and, vice versa, many people who work to make sci-fi movies are big fans of science.
The real world of science and the science fiction universe of Star Trek collided in Star Trek: Into Darkness, as the warp core in the movie was actually a real-world laser system called Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility, or NIF. The real scientists working there are actually trying to make nuclear fusion real. This was also the first time that the NIF actually got clearance to be used as a movie set, making this moment all the more special.
1 The Entire Cast Gave The Last Sign-Off — With Uhura Ending For An Important Reason
The speech that kicked off every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series was initially given by Captain Kirk. However, in the Star Trek movies, Spock started giving that narration. Not only that, but he even changed the narration just a little bit. Later on, Star Trek: The Next Generation saw Captain Jean-Luc Picard changing that narration even further. Each time, the narration included more and more people.
By Star Trek Beyond, the narration was actually spoken at the end of the movie and spoken by multiple members of the crew. The very last line, which was originally, “to boldly go where no man has gone before,” in Kirk’s time, and was changed to “to boldly go where no one has gone before,” by Picard, followed the latter form. This time, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura closed the narration, reminding everyone that the initial “no man” was too closed. Now, it’s no one — and that can mean truly anyone.