Some have referred to the first film as Where Nomad Had Gone Before.
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It was Roddenberry himself who said this film was apocryphal, though Gene was basically a non-entity by this time. Besides the problems you mentioned, think of this: They showed Spock’s birth. And it was a natural birth. Meaning a red-blooded Earth woman had given birth to a green-blooded baby. Illogical.
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Would that include Pocket Books? Y’see, Shitner-- Uh, Shatner has written a series of Trek novels with a continuity of his own devising. The last one I read featured everyone from TNG, Sisko, Janeway, Scotty, McCoy and, yes, Kirk himself. Apparently, Shatner didn’t like the way Kirk was killed off either. The novel (can’t remember the title) ends with the return of the mirror-universe Kirk. I kid you not.
Yeah, I have heard of Shatner’s “Tek” novels, and that he was writing in the Trek field these days. Generally, I avoid any Trek novels simply because they lie outside the “official history” of the Trek universe. I guess I should have said that they should keep him from scriptwriting specifically, since there are people who will buy his other stuff. In all fairness, I can’t judge his novels because I have never read them, but after seeing ST5, can you blame me for that?
Oops! I forgot one rant about the Trek movies in general. The damn ship should NOT completely morph into something entirely different from one movie to the next! I can understand a few changes when there is a lot of time passing between one movie and the next. Still, look at the bridge in “Wrath of Khan” and the one in “Search for Spock.” Totally different, yet the latter movie opens with Kirk on a very different bridge, on his way home from the Genesis planet with burn marks and battle damage from his fight with Khan! I hate that!!! I don’t think there are two Trek movies that use the same bridge from one to the other (obviously not counting times when they changed ships) except possibly “Final Contact” and “Insurrection,” which I haven’t gotten round to buying yet.
As SFX improved over the years, better looking (and fancier) bridges could be built. The explanation usually given is that the bridges on starships are modular. So this means they pop out the old bridge and pop in a new one as needed.
Ok
I love the trilogy of 2, 3, and 4. I watch them back to back to back and it really is great that way.
Six is great. Captain Von Trap shows his evil side and Sulu has his own command.
First Contact is great. All the members of the ensemble are allowed to use their acting strengths. However the Phoenix looked more like the Penis and how did that thing land back on Earth anyway? And Picard should have at least kissed (aarrrrugh mind blank but you know who I mean) Also I realize that Data must swear in the movie once now but in this film it would have been much better just before he breaks the warp core coolant line. “Resistance is futile…BITCH!”
Generations was great…for a little bit. The death of Kirk at the beginning of the film was fantastic and fitting for a hero like JTK. But after that the film goes straight to hell. Not to mention that on ST TNG Scotty “forgets” that JTK is dead.
The Motion Picture was great in the theatre. Like a renion with an old friend but not to be watched ever again except to see the Riker/Troi prototype with the 7th Heaven guy. (The 7th Heaven woman is in ST 4)
Star Trek Five is not that bad. I recently watched it again and the film does have some of the best Kirk/Spock/McCoy dialogue of all the films. Hearing the three of them argue (for me) is one of the joys of Trek.
That leaves Insurrection. The $9.99 joystick from Circuit City was the straw that broke my back. I gasped and the entire house heard me. That was just plain stupid.
As far as the music goes at my wedding I used the opening music from First Contact as a processional. Pretty cool huh?
To tell the truth, I did like the ghostwriters use of Voyager and Captain Janeway from the mirror universe (the Cardassians stole plans for Voyager, gathered together every human slave they could find who matched Voyagers crew roster, and then pretended to by Voyager coming home in order to trick the Enterprise).
Here, along with a review of Insurrection, you can find an objective (sort of) point system for rating Star Trek movies. Here it is:
Using this system, he came up with the following scores:
Star Trek I: The Motion Picture: 75
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: 90
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock: 50
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: 85
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: 5
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: 90
Star Trek VII: Generations: 70
Star Trek VIII: First Contact: 120
Star Trek IX: Insurrection: 70
I more or less agree. But I can’t quite bring myself to rank them in order.
Like others here, I have groups, listed in numerical order for each group:
GREAT (coincidentally all of and ONLY the even numbers) [aka I’d go out of my way to watch it]:
II: The Wrath of Khan
IV: The Voyage Home
VI: The Undiscovered Country
VIII: First Contact
GOOD or ACCEPTABLE [aka I’ll probably watch it if it’s on]:
III: The Search for Spock (this one really belongs in GREAT. I think it’s the only real exception to the even-odd rule)
V: The Final Frontier (Hi, my name is Joe Cool and I enjoyed Star Trek V. [all: Hi, Joe!])
VII: Generations
IX: Insurrection
BAD [aka I’ll go out of my way to avoid it, or watch it if my only alternative is a Police Academy movie]:
I: The Motion Picture (did we really need a 20 minute montage of the outside of the Enterprise, then another one of V-ger???)
Ok, maybe I’m a little too lenient. But what can I say? I like Shatner, I like cheesiness when it’s intentional (and I sincerely believe ST5 was cheesy intentionally),