Star Trek Movie Rankings

            Star Trek premiered in September 1966 and ran for three seasons on NBC until it was cancelled in 1969. The popularity of Star Trek first prompted a cartoon series in the 1970s and then a feature film franchise beginning in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Since 1979, there have been twelve Star Trek films: six featuring the original cast, four from Star Trek The Next Generation, and two with a new cast playing the original characters.

            The films themselves have varied greatly in quality. In order to demonstrate that variability, I have charted the 12 movies by their ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that aggregates film critics rankings onto a scale of 0-100% (the higher the better). The chart below provides a visual representation of the varying quality according to Rotten Tomatoes:

Film	Rotten Tomatoes
Star Trek The Motion Picture	45%
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	90%
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock	78%
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	85%
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier	21%
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	83%
Star Trek Generations	48%
Star Trek: First Contact	92%
Star Trek: Insurrection	55%
Star Trek: Nemesis	37%
Star Trek	95%
Star Trek Into Darkness	87%

            The data supports the old adage that only the even numbered Star Trek movies are any good at least until Star Trek Nemesis. Now that we’ve laid out the data, let’s talk about the worst six movies by Rotten Tomatoes and what made them so bad.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 21%

            God is an evil space alien who looks like Karl Marx and needs a spaceship to leave his prison in the middle of the Galaxy. That is the concluding act of this film. Along the way, Spock’s half brother brainwashes people by helping them confront and let go of their pain. Kirk naturally refuses arguing that he needs his pain. By the end of the film, Spock, McCoy, and Kirk agree that maybe there is no sentient creature known as God, but rather the spark of the divine lies in the hearts of mankind or alienkind or whatever. It is an overtly touchy-feely ending to a dreadful film. The less said about Uhura doing a seductive fan dance the better.  

Meet Space God. 

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 37%

            Nemesis again attempted to make Picard doubt his humanity and question the course of his own life. How did it accomplish this task? Introduce a Picard clone who has risen to lead the Romulan Empire. Picard doubts his own humanity after hearing the life story of his clone (played by a young Tom Hardy). Similarly Data must deal with the existence of another nearly identical android named B-4. Picard’s inability to recognize the differences between his own behavior and those of his clone does not fit with the character. In this nature/nurture debate, Picard comes down firmly on the side of nature, yet his own experiences across the Star Trek films and series would argue otherwise. While killing off Data tugged at the heartstrings of Trek fans, Data pulled a Spock and imprinted his memories in his clone.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 45%

            The first film featuring the Original Series cast suffered from a distinct lack of action. The movie spends ten minutes showing the Enterprise approaching a mysterious object hurdling towards Earth. The film struggles with incorporating the Original Series characters and launching a movie franchise without showing the Enterprise slowly drifting towards a mysterious space cloud. Decked out in Star Fleet’s line of casual lounge wear, the film’s costuming is horribly distracting.

Star Trek Generations (1994) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 48%

            The first film adventure for the Next Generation crew is a mixed bag. It slogs along while the Enterprise searches for a mad scientist trying to get caught up in a magical energy ribbon. He’s ruthless and has an appetite for destroying solar systems—so the Enterprise must stop him. Along the way Picard enlists the help of Kirk, long since thought dead, but actually caught up in the energy ribbon. The film gives the original Enterprise a nice send off, featuring a warp core breach and a crash landing of the saucer section. The film fails in its treatment of Kirk’s death. Instead of dying alone, Kirk dies with Picard looking on. What this adds to the film or the character is unclear.

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%

            There’s a good film somewhere here. Star Fleet willingly sets asides its principles to ensure its long term survival. The film’s writers, however, failed to develop that idea into an interesting or engaging movie. Instead the Enterprise, the flagship of the Federation, seems outmatched at every turn. All while helping the inhabitants of a small planet fight off those who wish to steal their secret to everlasting life. Also Picard falls in love, Data befriends a little boy, Worf gets pimples, and everyone on the Enterprise gets their groove back.

Worf with pimples, don't thank me. Thanks the makers of the movie. 

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%

            The Search for Spock struggled to cohere the different parts of the movie into a single film. It starts off promisingly with Kirk and the crew orchestrating the theft of the Enterprise. It’s Star Trek meets a heist movie. When they reach the Genesis planet to get Spock’s body, the film struggles. Christopher Lloyd’s Klingon villain appears out of nowhere and decides to kill Kirk and steal the Genesis device. Why? It’s never really made clear other than that he’s an evil Klingon. Much of the rest of the plot involves putting Spock back together again.  They’ve got the brain (fittingly inside Dr. McCoy’s head) and now the body. Then they fly to Vulcan to merge  the two together.

            Next week, the top six films.