Star Trek Film Retrospective: A Preview

STAR TREK FILMS: A PREVIEW

Perhaps people are right: maybe I am proud that I am not a Trekkie/Trekker (I'm told that Trekker is a respectable fan, while Trekkie is just a nerd who thinks Klingon is a legitimate language). As of today, I have only seen two episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series (and those under intense pressure)--Spock's Brain and City on the Edge of Forever. I have, however, seen a few of the films.

As of this writing, I have not seen all Star Trek films, and I know there will be more after.  However, I decided to start this Star Trek film retrospective to see how the franchise has evolved over the decades.

I start with the original Captain of the Starship Enterprise: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk. He stars in the first six films of the franchise: The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, and The Undiscovered Country. It can be argued that he was the star of the seventh Star Trek film (Star Trek: Generations) but he wasn't suppose to be the focus.

That honor goes to Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The seventh through tenth films: Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis, all were the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise from the Star Trek: The Next Generations series.

Curiously, we've yet to have a film version that stars anyone from Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, or Star Trek: Enterprise. Curious that.

Starting in 2009, we had a new Captain Kirk in Chris Pine. So far, he's been at the helm in one film (Star Trek), but we can be assured that he will be in at least two more Star Trek films.  He has the added bonus of being in the only Star Trek film to have won an Academy Award (a well-deserved Best Make-Up Oscar).

Now, I've embarked on a new mission: watch every Star Trek film made between 1979 and 2009. That's thirty years of film adaptations of a failed television series. Some are good, some are bad, but now it's time to have a retrospective of all of them. I've already written reviews for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) as well as Star Trek (2009), and I am looking forward to tackling all the rest. I now look to the stars to guide me...and by stars, I don't mean Shatner, Stewart, or Pine, just for the record.

To watch all eleven Star Trek films (so far) while not being a fan of any of the series versions. I have only one thing to say about that:

MAKE IT SO!