Let’s rank ‘Star Trek’ movies cause everyone will be cool about this…right?
From Hell's Heart... I post at thee!
From the bounty of new Star Trek television shows gracing our screens to a possible Star Trek 4, there is a lot of good Trek to go around. But we do still love the cinematic world of the final frontier.
From Star Trek: The Motion Picture on through Section 31, the franchise and film have become synonymous with each other. But it isn’t easy to nail down which of them is the best. So let’s talk about the best of the best. And of course, rank them from best to worst. Which you might think is a “hard” thing to do but we can do it all together! After all, every list is subjective and we all have our favorites. Ones that we will….defend to the end of time.
So strap on those comm badges, get your earl grey tea hot, and let’s get to the rankings!
1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
If you think of Star Trek films, you probably think of the plot of Wrath of Khan. The film brought the crew of the Enterprise face to face with Khan (Ricardo Montalban). Kirk (William Shatner) and Khan are old adversaries and when Khan kidnaps two of Kirk’s officers, the two are reunited despite Kirk thinking he’d never see Khan again. It ends with Spock having to sacrifice himself to save the Enterprise and leads us to one of the most emotional moments in all of Trek.
Wrath of Khan is the pinnacle of Star Trek films, possibly the pinnacle of cinema as a whole. It’s got everything you could possibly want: high stakes, fraught moral dilemmas, action, terrifying brain worms, William Shatner chewing every single piece of scenery he could get his hands on, and of course, Ricardo Montalban in a glistening prosthetic chest and fabulous wig.
It’s by far the most entertaining of the Star Trek films (director Nicholas Meyer wanted it to have a “swashbuckling feel”), while still grappling with the ethical questions that make Star Trek what it is. Plus, it has the ultimate BFF moment in Star Trek history when Spock sacrifices himself to save the rest of the crew, and delivers the now-legendary line to Kirk: “I have been, and always shall be your friend” while they touch hands through the glass panel. Tears every time!
2. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Imagine if the first contact never happened between humanity and the aliens. That’s what the idea behind First Contact is. The Borg go back in time and change that important voyage but Captain Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) and his team on the Enterprise make sure to stop the Borg from succeeding.
The choice may be a controversial one to some but it does have a soft spot in the heart of millennials. It is far and away the best of the Next Generation films (though that is not hard to because, to be frank, the other ones are hot garbage), but it really does stand on its own.
Also we cannot forget that it gives us the Borg queen! Data (Brent Spiner) being seduced by some very erotic skin graft caresses! James Cromwell’s weird leather hat! Plus, a time travel story that threatens one of the foundational moments of Star Trek canon! It’s great.
3. Star Trek Beyond
Okay look, you can yell all you want but Star Trek Beyond feels like an episode of Star Trek and that’s important. The third film in the Kelvin verse franchise as Kirk (Chris Pine) and his team all separated after Krall (Idris Elba) tricks them into crashing on a planet. There, Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise must work together to stop Krall before he uses his technology to destroy a new space station called Yorktown.
The film itself is a huge improvement from Star Trek: Into Darkness. But what is so perfect about Beyond is that the cast itself finally found their footing in their own versions of these iconic characters and were allowed to grow them and allow them to change outside of what the original series cast did.
Written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, the Justin Lin film is a perfect new and fresh look at Star Trek and deserves more love.
4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
That’s right. The one with the whales. And the infamous punk on the bus (who popped back up for a cameo in Picard Season 2.) Voyage Home is sweet. Another journey back in time, the movie really boils down to the crew of the Enterprise having to save some whales. And honestly that’s it. But George and Gracie are important to us all.
Directed by Leonard Nimoy, it’s a more lighthearted Trek story. There’s time travel, and 1980s meets Star Trek silliness (like Spock in a headband), and Chekov (Walter Koenig) being trapped in a hospital. Plus it involves whales saving the day! Where are my Cetacean Ops fans at?
5. Star Trek: The Search for Spock (1984)
While I do believe that Star Trek Beyond has elements of Search for Spock in it, the film had a lot working against it. Following up immediately after the events of Wrath of Khan (which ends with them shooting Spock’s casket into space), The Search For Spock involves the Enterprise crew discovering that Spock’s “katra” (or soul) is trapped inside Dr. McCoy’s mind. (Awkward.)
Meanwhile, his body has landed on the planet created by the Genesis Device set off at the end of the last movie, and the effects of the device have brought his body back to life. It’s a solid follow-up, but it does get bogged down by its exposition-laden script. However, it also has Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon commander who wants to use the device as a weapon, and anything is better when Christopher Lloyd is involved.
6. Star Trek (2009)
We all know why J.J. Abrams made the 2009 film Star Trek. But he did bring us a new and exciting look at the franchise and Chris Pine’s take on Kirk in this movie was enough of a departure from Shatner’s that it works.
Kirk and his crew on the Enterprise are in an alternate timeline (The Kelvin verse) because of Nero (Eric Bana). It results in George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) dying while on the Kelvin (hence the name) and changing how Kirk and Spock (Zachary Quinto) become a team.
Okay so the first “Kelvin Timeline” Star Trek movie from J.J. Abrams is pretty fun! Chris Pine brings his own swagger to Kirk, and Zachary Quinto gives us a much more emotional Spock. It makes the smart choice to create a time rift, which allows them to make big creative moves, and it’s action-packed, which is something that often falls to the wayside in more cerebral Trek installments.
7. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Just when Kirk and Bones (DeForest Kelley) are about to retire, they have one last mission to pull them in. The Undiscovered Country forces Kirk and Bones to make peace with the Klingon High Chancellor. The planet of the Klingons only has a few years left and the Klingons need to make peace with the Federation in order to survive.
But it is never easy in Star Trek.
The final original series film is a classic. As the original Enterprise crew is now well and fully old, the story becomes more focused on banter, one-liners, and light-hearted humor than in previous films. It also has Christopher Plummer as the villainous, one-eyed, Klingon general Chang chewing up the scenery. And it gives die-hard Trek fans the first iconic Khitomer Accords moment (as an allegory for the Cold War, which was weighing heavy on everyone’s minds still in 1991.)
8. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Spock’s siblings and Star Trek go hand in hand and The Final Frontier put his half-brother as the opposition of the Enterprise. Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) is on an obsessive journey to the center of the galaxy to try and find God.
Perhaps it is a controversial placement, but one can really enjoy the operatic grandiosity of Final Frontier. After all, it involves Spock’s half-brother as the main antagonist, because he is trying to fly a ship into what he thinks is the literal location of heaven so that he can meet God.
Of course, “God” turns out to be an alien entity more akin to the devil, but it’s Star Trek, so of course that is what happens! The sometimes overblown tone and focus on spirituality make sense when you realize that this film was directed (and the original story for the script written by) William Shatner. It doesn’t fully work, but it’s still a bold, interesting exercise.
9. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is one that even the biggest Trekkie’s out there have a hard time justifying. Kirk is ordered to take control of the Enterprise after a large spacecraft destroys Klingon ships in Federation space. The closest ship to the incident is the Enterprise and Kirk must step up to the plate and defend Earth.
The Star Trek films … do not start off with a bang. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a great idea for an episode of the TV series, but unfortunately the fun special effects aren’t enough to make up for a thin and piecemeal script. It’s hard when your main antagonist is a giant space cloud ok?
10. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Insurrection brings us to the planet of Ba’ku that becomes a dangerous mission when Data malfunctions. Taking a task force hostage, it leads to Picard and his crew on the Enterprise figuring out what the truth behind this mission really is.
Another film installment that would have been better served as an episode in The Next Generation and not a stand-alone film. The Son’a are sufficiently creepy looking, however, they can’t live up to the horrors that Voyager was already showing with the Phage. The biggest issue is that the pace of the film is a true slog. It. Is. Slow. And the conspiracy pay-off is just not worth it.
11. Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)
The Paramount+ brought us Section 31 in 2025 that allowed Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) the chance to protect the Federation. While also…dealing with things she’s done in her past. With bar scenes and a rag tag crew of people all joining together to help Georgiou, Section 31 is a fascinating new step for the Paramount+ era of Star Trek.
Section 31 is like if you took the most fun episode of Star Trek and turned it into a movie. Which means that it is an interesting watch and fun and gives us a cool premise for Georgiou but isn’t really groundbreaking outside of that. Look, you’ll have a good time and that’s all that matters.
12. Star Trek: Generations (1994)
A movie that brought together Captain Picard and Captain Kirk should be exciting for Trek fans but Generations is messy. Kirk, Chekhov, and Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) are all invited on a journey on the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B but, as always, something goes wrong and throws the crew into a mission.
On paper, Generations seems like a great idea. Some of the original Enterprise crew and the Next Generation crew teaming up? Malcolm McDowell as the villain? Sounds amazing! Except it is pretty boring and it gives Kirk a really lame death. Like, he dies trying to retrieve a sci-fi remote control from a broken bridge, and then the bridge falls on him. The end.
However, the original death planned for him was even worse! It was just McDowell shooting him in the back while he stands there. But regardless, the death was still bad, and because of that, this movie goes towards the bottom of the list!
13. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Into Darkness is disappointing. Not in a “it’s okay” way but just bad. The film introduces the Enterprise to John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), a man trying to free his family. He’s Khan and we were told they didn’t white wash Khan when they did and it taints the entire movie.
A truly bad idea on every level. Star Trek (2009) could have changed the game entirely when they broke off into their own timeline and destroyed the Vulcan homeworld. The universe was literally their oyster. And instead, J.J. Abrams and co insisted on doing their own version of Wrath of Khan, while insisting to the press and the public that “no we swear it’s not Khan!” (LOL good one guys!)
Except it was Khan without any of the things that make that movie the greatest Star Trek film of all time. It lacked life, and character history (Wrath of Khan means something because we have met Khan and his family before), and more importantly character motivation. In Wrath of Khan, Khan wants to destroy Kirk and the Enterprise because they inadvertently killed his wife and left him and his people to die on a barren planet. In Into Darkness Khan has just awoken and wants to destroy them … just for funsies. It’s bad and even if you love Benedict Cumberbatch, it isn’t enough.
14. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) get married and you’d think that’s great but then clones of Picard get thrown into the mix and Data is messed with again and everything becomes a jumbled mess that is Nemesis.
It’s the worst one! Far and away the worst. Which is a bummer because it has baby Tom Hardy acting as a young clone of Jean-Luc Picard! But it’s just … it’s really bad. Definitely the worst of the TNG movies, and that’s really saying something because they only had one good one. But not even bald baby boy Tom facing off against Patrick Stewart can save it. Watch it at your own peril.
What is your favorite Star Trek movie and your least favorite? Let us know in the comments!
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