Best Original Star Trek Movie?

Jetboogieman said:

With Star Trek (Reboot) 3 announced, let's go back to where it all began.

What is your favorite Original Crew movie?

For me it's really, really tough but I have to go with Star Trek VI, I love a movie that follows specific stories of the main characters but carefully balances it in the backdrop of the larger world their story is set against and the implications their actions have on it.

In this context TUC is a masterpiece.

Although IV is fantastic as well and a close second.

And I know alot of Star Trek Fans think I'm crazy for saying this but I am not actually all that averse Star Trek V.

Give us your votes and thoughts.

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Ok back on point -- to the new Star Trek movie ...

Can't wait !!!

I'll catch it during a matinee.

Less crowded that way.

Better seats.

Faster food.

Jetboogieman said:

With Star Trek (Reboot) 3 announced, let's go back to where it all began.

What is your favorite Original Crew movie?

For me it's really, really tough but I have to go with Star Trek VI, I love a movie that follows specific stories of the main characters but carefully balances it in the backdrop of the larger world their story is set against and the implications their actions have on it.

In this context TUC is a masterpiece.

Although IV is fantastic as well and a close second.

And I know alot of Star Trek Fans think I'm crazy for saying this but I am not actually all that averse Star Trek V.

Give us your votes and thoughts.

Click to expand...

Wrath of Khan, without question. The Undiscovered Country is a close second.

I never particularly cared for The Voyage Home. Then again, however, I haven't seen it since I was a kid. I might very well need to re-evaluate that.

Jetboogieman said:

With Star Trek (Reboot) 3 announced, let's go back to where it all began.

What is your favorite Original Crew movie?

For me it's really, really tough but I have to go with Star Trek VI, I love a movie that follows specific stories of the main characters but carefully balances it in the backdrop of the larger world their story is set against and the implications their actions have on it.

In this context TUC is a masterpiece.

Although IV is fantastic as well and a close second.

And I know alot of Star Trek Fans think I'm crazy for saying this but I am not actually all that averse Star Trek V.

Give us your votes and thoughts.

Click to expand...

Wrath of Kahn and then The Voyage Home. Didn't care much for The Undiscovered Country. To me, it was just a bloated TV episode.

Wrath of Khan hands down, but I do have a soft spot for The Voyage Home.. Scotty talking to the Mac and trying to use the mouse as a microphone.. gets me every time.

The Voyage Home...was, for me, the best by far.

It was the only one that did not take itself too seriously. It was funny...and fun.

Lots of laughs. Some of the best lines I've ever heard in any movie.

And although Katherine Hicks could not act her way out of a wet paper bag...she has great nipples...and they were on display.

(Okay...so I'm shallow!)

Jetboogieman said:

What is your favorite Original Crew movie?

Click to expand...

I'm going to go with the conventional wisdom and say it's TWOK, hands down.

My rankings of the original Trek films from best to worst would be:

1. The Wrath of Khan: Great villain (and tie-in to The Original Series), great themes, great sci-fi fun, and an incredible ending.

2. The Voyage Home: Easily the most fun film in the series.

3. The Final Frontier: Yes, this one is extremely flawed but it explored a side of Trek we rarely see dealt with (earnestly, at least), particularly when it comes to the Trek Trinity of Kirk-Spock-McCoy. Definitely a movie whose reach exceeded its grasp, but in some ways that's what I like about it.

4. The Undiscovered Country: So much early Trek had political overtones and aspects, how could they resist making the original crew's last hurrah about the political intrigue behind the Khitomer Accords (particularly when in the real world the Cold War had just ended)?

5. The Search for Spock: A necessary bridge movie. It has its moments but in general there's not much reason to pop this in unless you're doing the Trek sandwich: the II-III-IV trilogy.

6. The Motion Picture: Ugh.

Greenbeard said:

I'm going to go with the conventional wisdom and say it's TWOK, hands down.

My rankings of the original Trek films from best to worst would be:

1. The Wrath of Khan: Great villain (and tie-in to The Original Series), great themes, great sci-fi fun, and an incredible ending.

2. The Voyage Home: Easily the most fun film in the series.

3. The Final Frontier: Yes, this one is extremely flawed but it explored a side of Trek we rarely see dealt with (earnestly, at least), particularly when it comes to the Trek Trinity of Kirk-Spock-McCoy. Definitely a movie whose reach exceeded its grasp, but in some ways that's what I like about it.

4. The Undiscovered Country: So much early Trek had political overtones and aspects, how could they resist making the original crew's last hurrah about the political intrigue behind the Khitomer Accords (particularly when in the real world the Cold War had just ended)?

5. The Search for Spock: A necessary bridge movie. It has its moments but in general there's not much reason to pop this in unless you're doing the Trek sandwich: the II-III-IV trilogy.

6. The Motion Picture: Ugh.

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Motion picture is a tough sell yeah, it was trying too hard to be 2001, space odyssey.

Kobie said:

my favorite part of star trek was when harry potter used the force to destroy the one ring and free everybody from the matrix

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LOL.. Good one Kobie. I wonder, though, is there one that you might have missed? Don't think so.

Jetboogieman said:

Motion picture is a tough sell yeah, it was trying too hard to be 2001, space odyssey.

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The pacing of that movie is terrible, as is nearly every aesthetic component of it--it's just ugly to look at and experience. With the exception of first seeing the Enterprise and the introduction of the musical theme that was later appropriated by TNG.

Greenbeard said:

With the exception of first seeing the Enterprise and the introduction of the musical theme that was later appropriated by TNG.

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I have to admit, Enterprise Refit is my favorite design and that scene still gives me goosebumps.

Unfortunately after that... everything went to crap.

4 (voyage home) and then just a tiny bit behind it 2 (the Wrath of Khan).

One of the reasons I loved VI was the obvious Shakespearean overtones and the fact that Christopher Plummer (Klingon General Chang), who was lead actor to Shatner when they performed in the Canadian Theatre together, was himself a Shakespearean actor and the film was tailor made for him. That and Sulu finally getting his first command of the Excelsior.

Jetboogieman said:

With Star Trek (Reboot) 3 announced, let's go back to where it all began.

What is your favorite Original Crew movie?

For me it's really, really tough but I have to go with Star Trek VI, I love a movie that follows specific stories of the main characters but carefully balances it in the backdrop of the larger world their story is set against and the implications their actions have on it.

In this context TUC is a masterpiece.

Although IV is fantastic as well and a close second.

And I know alot of Star Trek Fans think I'm crazy for saying this but I am not actually all that averse Star Trek V.

Give us your votes and thoughts.

Click to expand...

Star Trek II WAS really great and had a lot more of the original umph behind it. I voted for The Undiscovered country though because of what it covers and it just had SO much in it.

Jetboogieman said:

With Star Trek (Reboot) 3 announced, let's go back to where it all began.

What is your favorite Original Crew movie?

For me it's really, really tough but I have to go with Star Trek VI, I love a movie that follows specific stories of the main characters but carefully balances it in the backdrop of the larger world their story is set against and the implications their actions have on it.

In this context TUC is a masterpiece.

Although IV is fantastic as well and a close second.

And I know alot of Star Trek Fans think I'm crazy for saying this but I am not actually all that averse Star Trek V.

Give us your votes and thoughts.

Click to expand...

Definitely Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The forty-five minute scene where the Enterprise enters a kaleidoscope was a classic.

I go with TUC (VI). I love its self-irony and the analogy to the fall of the Iron Curtain.

But to be honest, it's really hard to choose between TUC, TWOK (II) and TVH (IV) for me. They are all great in their own way.

Really no need to say much more about TWOK, except that I feel in retrospect, the movie is a *wee*, a *tiny* bit overrated. It's great, no question about that, but not that much more brilliant than the other two I mentioned, IMO.

Add to that that TWOK's formula way copied way too often later -- it seems that since NEM at least, there has not been a Star Trek movie that didn't attempt to copy one element or another from TWOK. Hey hello, dear producers! Star Trek was always more than just TWOK, get it?!

The Voyage Home (IV) may be a tad too light-hearted, but it's perhaps the only Star Trek movie even non-Trekkies totally loved (how often did you hear someone say "I don't care about Star Trek, but the one with the whales was fun"?).


The Motion Picture was IMO not a bad movie, but its problem is that it isn't a Star Trek movie. The characters are lacking all their usual chemistry.

The Search for Spock is okay, but more a "bridge 2nd part" of a trilogy.

The Final Frontier is silly on so many levels... it cannot decide if it wants to be a (bad) self-parody on Star Trek, or tell a serious story. And the humor is as if the producers of "Police Academy" had made a Star Trek movie. That said, if you like the totally cheesy episodes from the Original Series (such as "Spock's Brain" or "That Which Survives"), you'll like that movie too. I rather rewatch that than The Motion Picture.