{"id":52467,"date":"2025-10-08T10:24:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=52467"},"modified":"2025-10-08T10:24:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:24:32","slug":"ranking-the-star-trek-films-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2025\/10\/08\/ranking-the-star-trek-films-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the Star Trek Films (Again)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:338,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/tenforward.social\\\/@djwudi\\\/114424534717274042&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:339,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.denofgeek.com\\\/movies\\\/star-trek-movies-ranked&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20251208201500\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.denofgeek.com\\\/movies\\\/star-trek-movies-ranked\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-01 03:59:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 10:01:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-29 22:26:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-04 20:20:22&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 14:37:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 14:37:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>An update to <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2009\/04\/22\/ranking-the-star-trek-films\/\">my last attempt at doing this<\/a> back in 2009. I originally <a href=\"https:\/\/tenforward.social\/@djwudi\/114424534717274042\">posted this to Mastodon back in April<\/a> after watching <cite>Star Trek: Section 31<\/cite>, and after realizing I hadn&#8217;t cross-posted it here, am doing that now. Also somewhat prompted by a friend sending me <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/movies\/star-trek-movies-ranked\/\">this ranking from <cite>Den of Geek<\/cite><\/a>, which is close, but not identical, to mine; I do broadly agree with their summaries of the various films.<\/p>\n<p>I gave it some thought, and while the exact placement of any of these might vary slightly depending on time\/mood\/etc., I think this is a pretty good stab at my personal Star Trek film ranking, best\/favorite to worst\/least favorite:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><cite>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek: First Contact<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek: The Motion Picture<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Galaxy Quest<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek<\/cite> (2009)<\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek Beyond<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek III: The Search for Spock<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek: Generations<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek V: The Final Frontier<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek: Section 31<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek: Insurrection<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek: Nemesis<\/cite><\/li>\n<li><cite>Star Trek Into Darkness<\/cite><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few more details:<\/p>\n<p>The first three (TWoK, TVH, TUC) are essentially a three-way tie for first. At any given point, the order could be shuffled around and would probably be acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>TMP remains in that place whether it\u2019s the theatrical, TV extended, or directors cut, but of the three, the director\u2019s cut is definitively the best.<\/p>\n<p>Some purists might be surprised at the two Kelvinverse films ranking that high, but for all the faults, the casting was <em>so<\/em> good at embodying the characters without slavishly copying or parodying (intentionally or not) the original actors, and I think both films are a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Lloyd\u2019s Kruge <em>almost<\/em> pushes TSfS higher, but\u2026not quite. But it does mark the dividing line between \u201cfilms I can put on at just about any time and enjoy\u201d and \u201cfilms I\u2019ll watch when there\u2019s a reason to\u201d (chronological rewatch, someone else wants to watch one, etc.).<\/p>\n<p>S31 is barely Star Trek. It\u2019s a generic sci-fi spy film that someone spritzed with synthehol and Starfleet emblems; it ranks as high as it does because it\u2019s an acceptable generic sci-fi spy film, entirely suitable for having on in the background and occasionally paying attention to. Michelle Yeoh (and Georgeau) deserved better.<\/p>\n<p>Into Darkness\u2026I just have so many issues with it. I will be quite unpleasantly surprised if they ever make a Trek film that knocks it out of the bottom spot on this list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An update to my last attempt at doing this back in 2009. I originally posted this to Mastodon back in April after watching Star Trek: Section 31, and after realizing I hadn&#8217;t cross-posted it here, am doing that now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2047],"tags":[23,4097],"class_list":["post-52467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek","tag-film","tag-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52469,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52467\/revisions\/52469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}