# Rank the Star Trek movies from best to worst. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551 "2009-01-23T00:38:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551/61 "2009-01-23T21:23:49Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > (his son he never got to know was just killed by a man he hadn’t seen in a long time). Now wait a minute. This time I _know_ there’s not just some easy thing I missed here. Kirk’s son wasn’t killed til the third movie, or else I am insane. Or I am superbly unobservant and prone to confabulation. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551/62 "2009-01-23T22:24:58Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Now wait a minute. This time I _know_ there’s not just some easy thing I missed here. > > Kirk’s son wasn’t killed til the third movie, or else I am insane. Or I am superbly unobservant and prone to confabulation. > > -FrL- :smack: You’re right. My apologies. Ignore that little plot transposition. I know that in the beginning of II, Kirk had a birthday party, and he was feeling a little sorry for himself. By the end of the movie, I guess getting out and having some space adventure/battles/brush with death puts a little bit of strut back in his stride. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551/63 "2009-01-23T23:38:25Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Kirk, back inside the test planetoid, said he was feeling old (his son he never got to know was just killed by a man he hadn’t seen in a long time) As pointed out, that was in TSFS. But the theme was the same, he saw his son for the first time in ages, not recognising him at first. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551/64 "2009-01-24T02:09:03Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > As pointed out, that was in TSFS. But the theme was the same, he saw his son for the first time in ages, not recognising him at first. Yeah. But it got me to wondering. (Consider my post just above this one.) I don’t think Kirk felt young at the end of ST:II because he saw a planet being assembled. I think the events that transpired between his “birthday party” at the beginning and his feelings for his comrades at the end. A close friend of his chose to give his life to save everyone else. That inspires probably a wierd mix of feelings, I assume, in Kirk: 1. Survivors guilt, maybe, with 2. a little humility (“_Day-um_. Would I have chosen the same as Spock? I’m honored to have befriended such a selfless dude. Alien. Whatever.”), and 3. feelings of a new lease on life (“we were _this close_ to buying it on this one, and only through Spock’s actions, and not my own, did I make it out alive. Where’s Carol at? I feel like celebrating…”). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551/65 "2009-01-24T08:45:07Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > 1. ST IV: The Voyage Home. The most fun and entertaining of them all. > 2. ST II: The Wrath of Khan > 3. ST VI: The Undiscovered Country > 4. ST III: The Search for Spock > 5. ST: First Contact > 6. ST: Nemesis > 7. ST: Generations > 8. ST: TMP > 9 ST: Insurrection > 9. ST V: The Final Frontier > > Note that only the first four can conceivably be called good movies. The rest just have various degrees of suckage. Your first two are my first two. Good movies and an enjoyable time. I don’t ever need to see the rest of them twice though. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551/66 "2009-01-24T11:25:37Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > I don’t think Kirk felt young at the end of ST:II because he saw a planet being assembled. I think the events that transpired between his “birthday party” at the beginning and his feelings for his comrades at the end. I’d always assumed it was just that he was back in the Captains chair. As much as he mourned the loss of his friend (and those other guys who died of course) it was his way and he missed it. Which is what Spock alluded to at the start of the film, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (Actually only just realised that as I wrote :smack: ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-star-trek-movies-from-best-to-worst/482551.md?page=3)