All 13 Star Trek Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

Ranking every Star Trek movie ever made is one of those topics that gets people fired up no matter where you land. So here is my full ranking of all 13 big screen Trek movies, from the absolute worst up to my definitive best.

13. Star Trek: The Motion Picture drags despite laying the franchise's foundation

Released in 1979, this was the first attempt at a full length Star Trek movie, and the production history is fascinating because there was a major disagreement between the creatives and the studio heads over just how big budget and blockbuster the film needed to be. It brought basically everybody back from the original show, riding the recent success of movies like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

At the end of the day it played out like a long episode of the original series, which was a double edged sword. You got all the hallmarks of the show, but a story designed for a thirty minute format stretched into a two plus hour epic felt very drawn out and, honestly, very boring. It is not a bad movie, just rough around the edges, and it laid the groundwork for some of the best Trek adventures that came after.

12. The Final Frontier is the Star Trek movie nobody wants to talk about

People tend to think of the original six movie run as just four films, because Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is divisive to say the least, and nobody talks about the Motion Picture much either. It was released after The Next Generation had started airing, when a lot of people felt it was time to retire the original cast, but Paramount had already been developing a fifth movie for years and it sat in development limbo. You can tell.

Kirk and Spock take one last adventure to the center of the galaxy to confront Sybok, who happens to be Spock's brother, in his search for literal God. "I think it was seen as a bit beneath Star Trek to do a plot this on the nose," and the movie was torn apart on release for subpar writing and clearly unfinished special effects. It is a sour note for the original crew, and while I am nostalgic for it, it is not great, though I do not think it is as bad as some people argue.

11. Star Trek Beyond earns its most action packed reputation in the franchise

Star Trek Beyond came out in 2016 and is, at the time of this ranking, the most recent Trek movie, which is sad to say. A lot of people seem to really hate it, and even though I do not agree with the criticisms all the way through, I understand where they come from. Many see it as a sci-fi action movie with a Trek logo slapped on the poster, and it is definitely the most action-packed entry in the series, with the crew stranded on an unknown planet fighting aliens who hate the Federation.

You should not have gone into this one expecting an intelligent, thought out monologue about the nature of being. It is an action movie through and through, and I do not think there is anything wrong with the crew getting a straightforward action adventure. I understand why that bothers Trek fans, since a lack of intelligent writing and philosophical themes can undercut the appeal of Trek in the first place, but as a turn your brain off movie with a Trek paint job, Beyond delivers.

10. Nemesis is the bleak TNG finale that led directly to the Kelvin timeline

Star Trek Nemesis, the fourth and final TNG movie, was released in 2002 and was one of the darkest entries in the series at the time, which is probably why it became such a box office disappointment. Compared to the more light hearted recent TNG movies, Nemesis felt tired, bleak, and played out. That box office failure is what led Paramount to reboot the entire series a few years later with a younger, more action-packed crew.

That said, there were great moments with the TNG cast, and Patrick Stewart is as good as ever. If you do not like the direction the Kelvin timeline went in, Nemesis is to blame for that outcome. I do not think it was actually a bad movie, it simply was not what people wanted from a big budget Star Trek movie at the time, and I think that reaction is both fair and unfair at once.

9. The Search for Spock resurrects a character whose death may have meant less because of it

This is probably a hot take. The third original cast movie was a direct sequel to Wrath of Khan, which was extremely well received but also got a lot of mileage out of Spock's death. Paramount could not just get rid of Spock entirely, so the crew learns his spirit is alive and makes it their mission to return his body to his home world while possibly finding a way for him to live on. It got mixed reviews at the time, though it has since been better regarded.

I am torn on this one. The themes of friendship and dedication are extremely well done, but the exposition dumps and complicated plot make it pretty clear Paramount was finding excuses to bring Spock back rather than letting his death stand as it was in Wrath of Khan. That leaves me wondering whether the sacrifice actually means anything.

8. Insurrection works best as a long TNG episode rather than a blockbuster

Insurrection, released in 1998 with the TNG crew, has the Enterprise rebelling against Starfleet command after discovering a conspiracy to steal a planet and harvest it for resources. People often say some Star Trek movies feel like long episodes of the show instead of proper big budget films, and this is one of the most obvious examples. It is barely an hour and a half long, and the sets and costumes are clearly reused from TNG.

But judged as a long episode of the show, it is pretty good. The plot is very well written and engaging, and even without the hallmarks of a big budget movie on display, it is always fun to go on an adventure with the TNG crew.

7. Into Darkness disguises its Wrath of Khan remake and pulls it off

Going in, you think you are getting a story about the Kelvin timeline crew hunting down a rogue agent, but about an hour in you realize you are actually watching a remake of Wrath of Khan. It is certainly not as good as Wrath of Khan, and the community is still pretty split on how it was handled, but I found it entertaining and a cool interpretation of the classic story.

I think it was smart to hide the lead, because basically nobody knew what they were walking into, and if you had known going in, you probably would not have liked it as much. It is a much more explosive, action packed version of the story, but it is still a good one, the actors handled the material really well, and Cumberbatch crushed it. It will never replace the original Wrath of Khan, but it is a great story for the Kelvin timeline crew and a neat interpretation of a Star Trek tale we already know and love.

6. The Undiscovered Country sends the original crew off on a high note

The Undiscovered Country, the sixth and final movie starring the original series cast, was released in 1991, well after The Next Generation had been on the air. I am pretty sure this movie was only greenlit because Paramount saw how badly Star Trek V had been received and wanted to end things on a positive note, even bringing everybody back one last time for an original cast movie.

And they did pretty good. Undiscovered Country was built as a big Cold War allegory, done really well, and the decision to incorporate Shakespeare quotes and Shakespearean dialogue for the Klingons was a risky move that paid off. It got really good reviews and was seen as a proper send off for the original cast, much better than Trek V, and I am glad Paramount pushed it through production, because it would have been depressing for Star Trek V to stand as the final movie with that cast.

5. Star Trek 2009 relaunches the Kelvin timeline with a younger crew

Star Trek 2009, the first entry in the Kelvin timeline, features a much younger Enterprise crew with J.J. Abrams in the director's chair. It is a straightforward time travel story where Kirk and Spock have to travel back in time to stop a series of intergalactic disasters, and it is all very explosive and high octane. Paramount clearly wanted this new version of Trek to feel more like Star Wars, with lots of spaceships and lasers, and Abrams was going nuts with the lens flare.

It worked for me. This version of Star Trek does not erase the older versions of it, and even though it is not as philosophical or intelligent as previous entries, these characters are fun and well written, and it is neat to see a new interpretation of fan favorite characters. Different does not make it bad, and it grabs you in the first ten minutes.

4. The Voyage Home turns a whale rescue into an emotional farewell

The fourth entry in the original cast run picks up directly where The Search for Spock left off. The crew prepares to face the consequences of their actions when they get sidetracked by a new planet, and the plot becomes very whale forward. That probably sounded really silly during storyboarding, but it worked, giving the cast room to deal with introspective themes while giving the crew the stage for one last emotional time travel adventure together.

The Voyage Home was actually more light hearted than the last few Trek movies, and that resulted in much more positive reviews on release, since it was less a deep complicated sci-fi film and more a fun space time travel adventure with characters everybody already knew and loved. Getting to see the crew back on current day Earth was really cool.

3. First Contact lets the Enterprise crew fight the Borg on Earth's own timeline

First Contact, the second TNG movie, was released in 1996 and has one of the most straightforward plots of any Star Trek movie. The Borg are conquering Earth, so the Enterprise crew travels back to the 21st century to stop them before they ever get the chance to start. Seeing the crew in the modern day, or close to it, on the big screen was something a lot of Trek fans had been waiting a long time for.

It was clear the producers wanted to treat this as a proper blockbuster instead of a long episode of the show. First Contact featured great effects and a lot of exciting moments while still keeping the philosophical, sophisticated writing style Trek fans expect from the TNG era. It was great. Warp Drive, baby.

2. Generations successfully passes the torch from the original crew to TNG

Generations was meant to be a transitional movie, passing the torch from the original cast to the Next Generation team, and I think it was knocked out of the park. Released a few years after The Voyage Home, with TNG having been on the air for a few years and building solid reviews, the creatives at the top wanted to do something big that brought the two generations of Trek fans together.

Released in 1994, Generations brought back a number of original cast members to properly cross over with the TNG crew for a massive mission that would change the course of the franchise. Both casts were treated with care and given the weight they deserved, resulting in one of the best Trek movies of all time. It is a love it or hate it entry, since plenty of people did not like it when it came out and still do not today, but I absolutely loved it.

1. Wrath of Khan tops the list as the consensus best Star Trek movie

It is funny that this movie was the direct sequel to the original Star Trek Motion Picture, which I put at the very bottom of this list. Following the mixed critical reception to that first film, Paramount reworked the creative team and moved forward with a sequel built on a clear vision from the start, keeping their hands off the process. That was the best move, because Wrath of Khan is almost universally seen as the best movie in the entire franchise.

All the original cast members from the show came back for an extremely well written, well paced story that makes the most of its bigger budget and longer runtime. The death of Spock is perhaps the most emotionally impactful moment in any piece of Star Trek media, and the film holds up all these years later, with the perfect villain, someone who thought he was doing what he needed to do but was a villain in the end. It is seen today as not only the best Star Trek movie but one of the best science fiction movies of all time, and it tops my list.

What is your ranking of the 13 Star Trek movies, and which pick here do you disagree with most?