Star Trek Movies

The first of the Star Trek movie franchise took a mauling from people expecting a rip-roaring slice of space opera in the vein of Star Wars, when what in fact they got was a slow paced, cerebral science fiction story. The movie still looks excellent to this day, the effects work by Dykstra and Trumbull stunning and there are some magnificent shots of the revamped USS Enterprise, notably as Scotty gives Kirk a tour around the exterior of the ship in a shuttlecraft. The three leads, once reassembled on board, quickly slip back into the chemistry they built during the series and the story pans out to a satisfying, if less than exhilarating conclusion.

Best Star Trek film. They ramped up the action in this one but not at the cost of the story - a clever sequel to an original series episode, with plenty of great Trek themes to chew on. There's a great story thread about Kirk feeling old and tired, facing up to loss and a cool revenge plot. Sorry, make that cold cos as we all know revenge is a dish best served cold, and it is very cold in space...

Loses half a star for not being quite as brilliant as I remembered it, but this is top notch stuff. Oh, and you can't do a review of Star Trek II without going "KHAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!!" - it's the law.

A bit of a comedown after the brilliance of Wrath of Khan, this continuation of the Spock/Genesis storyline is decent enough nonetheless. The chemistry between the cast is all there and there's some nice humour to go along with some fairly dramatic moments, which go to place this one firmly amidst the middle ranks of the Star Trek movie league table.

Ah, Star Trek IV - the one that it's ok to admit to liking., Y'know - the one with the whales in? Ahhhhhh. And let's not forget that all the even numbered Star Treks are good. Well, I'll admit that the last time I watched this, I thought it was a bit rubbish. A re-watch with some friends has changed my mind. It's an eco-friendly time travel yarn that throws a fair amount of humour into the mix and works once again thanks to the tremendous chemistry between the cast. There's a visible love for the characters and an interaction bred from actors who've worked together for so long and scriptwriters that have got the relationship dynamics absolutely nailed. Now if only The Shat could save the planet for real...

Not nearly as bad as it's made out to be, but certainly not the best of the Trek movies. After the non-fan friendly Voyage Home, ST V is more of a film for hardcore Trekkies, dealing with religion (it could even have been subtitled "The Search for God"). There are some good ideas here in the fashion of the original series but they're unfortunately mostly undercooked. DeForest Kelley gets a powerful and moving scene where he shares the pain of his guilt over his father and as usual, the chemistry of the cast, the three leads in particular, gives the film it's heart and soul.

I don't think it's any coincidence that the return of Star Trek IIs director, Nicholas Meyer on this film sees a real return to form (sorry Bill!) - a cracking story with intrigue and plenty of action, mirroring the end of Cold War hostilities give us a film that's rich in scope and Trek mythos. I'd consider this to be the second best film after Wrath of Khan.

Generations has its good points and its bad, it's a movie that has to shoehorn both sets of cast in and perhaps suffers for that reason, Shatner is ever reliable as Kirk but the chemistry between him and Picard just isn't the same as that with Spock and McCoy. The plot involving the Nexus is really just a flimsy excuse to bring the two casts together, although Malcolm McDowell hams it up nicely as the villainous Dr Soran but the subplots for both Picard and Data are decidedly less interesting.

The main problem with First Contact is that the greatest Borg storyline (Best of Both Worlds) has already been done within the tv series, while there are riffs on that story here, it doesn't match up. An improvement on the previous film, with some decent scenes but not up to the better films in the series.

Although the weakest of the series, feeling more like an episode of the tv series (and not even a 2-part season finale/opener at that), it has a few good ideas and character moments. Scrapes three stars but only barely.

Having watched this again for the first time since seeing it originally at the cinema when it came out, what quite surprised me was how dark it is. It's certainly action packed - with an off-road buggy chase, running phaser battles and ship to ship combat and has a quite interesting bad guy instigating a plot to annihilate Earth.