Okay - not including the current Star Trek movie out there - there have been 10 Star Trek movies made.
Star Trek:The Motion Picture December 7, 1979
The Wrath of Khan June 4, 1982
The Search for Spock June 1, 1984
The Voyage Home November 26, 1986
The Final Frontier June 9, 1989
The Undiscovered Country December 6, 1991
Generations November 18, 1994
First Contact November 22, 1996
Insurrection December 11, 1998
Nemesis December 13, 2002
What is your favorite? What is your least favorite? In order of greatest to worst - how would you order them? If you had to choose one to represent Star Trek to someone who had never seen an episode - which one would you show them first? Discuss . . .
Wrath of Khan is by far the best. The Voyage Home is my personal favorite. The Undiscovered Country has its moments. All the rest are mediocre or garbage.
If I had to show one to someone who was totally new to the whole thing, I think it would be Khan. I could set up the back-story in less than 5 minutes.
I agree Khan would probably be the best to show first to a ST newbie, with a little explanation beforehand.
My overall order of preference:
The Wrath of Khan - action, adventure, revenge, snappy lines, deceit, heroic sacrifice. What’s not to love? First Contact - All of the above, but with the ST:TNG crew. The Search for Spock - Follows nicely on the setup from Khan. The Voyage Home - Builds further still on that storyline, with a good ecology message and some funny gags. The Undiscovered Country - I always liked Kirk and McCoy’s strength-in-adversity scenes on Rura Penthe, and all the Klingon intrigue is a bonus. Generations - The best part about this movie is showing Picard’s strength of will in being willing to give up eternal happiness in the Nexus. But the script is a mess, with plenty of plot holes, and an almost willful destructiveness (Kirk dies! Picard’s brother dies! His nephew dies! The Enterprise crashes and is destroyed! Jeez, lighten up on the losses, would ya?) Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Great to see the crew gathered together again, and the ship looks great, but the V’ger scenes drag badly. Insurrection - Just never clicked. The personal cloaking devices are also hard to square with ST canon. Nemesis - Far more miss than hit. The dune-buggy scenes are just embarrassing. And to kill Data… aiyeeeeeeee! The Final Frontier - The less said about this steaming pile, the better. Ugh.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The best picture for a neophyte would be either Khan or Voyage Home. Mine was the latter.
The Wrath of Khan
First Contact
The Undiscovered Country
The Voyage Home
Generations
The Search for Spock
Insurrection
The Motion Picture
Nemesis
The Final Frontier
Loved Wrath, Search, Voyage Home.
Liked Undiscovered Country. Generations was uneven, but it was nice to see the oldsters again and get some backstory on Guinan.
Disliked Motion Picture and Final Frontier.
Disappointed with Insurrection. It felt like an unnecessarily extended NextGen series episode.
Never saw First Contact or Nemesis.
Definitely “Wrath of Khan” first. It’s the only one of the eleven that works well as a film (and it does so exceptionally), even ignoring the franchise ties completely. Well-written, tightly plotted, funny and dramatic in equal measure, wonderfully acted (Nimoy and Shatner do the best work of their careers here), and the special effects work looks great even today.
Second best is “Voyage Home,” which despite having aged poorly over the past twenty years, is still very entertaining. The most overtly comedic of the Trek films, with almost no action or dramatics.
From there, it’s a pretty long drop in quality to the next on the list, “First Contact,” which is a fantastic “Star Trek” movie and easily the best TNG film, but probably wouldn’t interest anyone who didn’t already like Star Trek to at least some degree.
Here’s my overall list:
Wrath of Khan
Voyage Home
First Contact
The Undiscovered Country
The Search For Spock
Generations
The Motion Picture
Nemesis
Insurrection
The Final Frontier
Not sure yet where the new reboot fits in, but I’m guessing it’ll end up somewhere below “Undiscovered Country” and above TPM.
First Contact is my favorite. Whatever you do, don’t kiss the Borg Queen, it’s just a bad move. Voyage Home best of the old crew.
Long drop to anything else, although it’s been a loooong time since I saw Khan, so perhaps a re-evaluation is in order. the Motion Picture is just TOS episode Changeling with a budget, lame.
I think I’m the only person I know who likes ‘The Motion Picture’. Granted I never saw the original series episode it was based on, so maybe that’s the reason. But I liked the slow pace and building special effects, it was fun seeing the old characters back together and the plot was decent.
To me, it seemed like someone had remade 2001 with characters I liked and an ending that made sense.
Looking at the names, I’m surprised how true it is that the even-numbered ones are better. My preference, in order:
The Wrath of Khan
The Voyage Home
The Undiscovered Country
First Contact
and then the odd-numbered ones, in some order. The only one of any significance is The Search for Spock, mostly because The Voyage Home is a little confusing if you don’t know what happened in it.
Ones I’ve rewatched multiple times and truly enjoy:
The Undiscovered Country December 6, 1991 (I was three and a half when I saw this for the first time, so it’s partly on top because it’s great and partly because of nostalgia- I can remember being scared and hiding under my dad’s coat at one point, but loved the movie anyway. Because I got the name mixed up with The Final Frontier, I called this “Purple floating Klingon blood” as a kid. Still the one I rewatch the most.)
The Wrath of Khan June 4, 1982
The Voyage Home November 26, 1986 (I watch this more often and with more glee than Wrath of Khan, but admit WoK is technically better.)
First Contact November 22, 1996 (The only TNG-cast film I really like.)
These I’ve watched much less often and like much less, but only the last two get outright hate from me:
Generations November 18, 1994 (Haven’t seen in years, hardly remember anything but Kirk riding horses, cooking eggs, and getting killed by a bridge. Oh, and being annoyed, at the age of 6 and a half, that Scotty was there to see Kirk “die” when in “Relics” Scotty had asked about Kirk. I independently fanwanked the transporter buffer memory loss before I ever knew what fanwank was.)
The Search for Spock June 1, 1984 (I just rewatched this a month ago and remember very little about it. Not a good sign, even if I was watching it with a distractingly cute boy.)
Insurrection December 11, 1998 (Only seen two or three times, and not for at least 5 years, I think.)
Star Trek:The Motion Picture December 7, 1979 (Boring. Establish shots that crawl on and on.)
The Final Frontier June 9, 1989 (Please note I’ve only seen this about once, and I wasn’t paying much attention, because I physically couldn’t.)
Nemesis December 13, 2002 (Only seen once. Will only rewatch again if it is part of a Watch Them All project, such as might come before the sequel to the new Star Trek.)
The new Trek probably tops the list if we’re going by level of fun, but is somewhere in the middle of the ones I like lots if I’m a bit more thoughtful about it.
