star trek movie wikipedia

Star Trek films

This article concerns itself with the general production and performances of the official Star Trek theatrical feature films as produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures , having been the full rights title holder from 1979 ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture ) through 2002 ( Star Trek Nemesis ), and as licensee from 2009 ( Star Trek ) through 2016 ( Star Trek Beyond ), thereby constituting what is currently known as the " Star Trek film franchise ".

Within that franchise a further distinction is often made between the two prime universe film franchises, to wit,

• The Star Trek: The Original Series or " Original Crew " film franchise ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )
• The Star Trek: The Next Generation or (less commonly) " Next Gen (TNG) Crew " film franchise ( Star Trek Generations – Star Trek Nemesis )

and the third, alternate reality or " Kelvin -timeline", film franchise,

• Star Trek – Star Trek Beyond
• 1.1 The Original Series films
• 1.2 The Next Generation films
• 1.3 Alternate reality films
• 1.4 Television movies
• 1.5 Footnotes
• 1.6 Unrealized Star Trek films
• 2.1.1 Gross vs net profitability
• 2.1.2 Hollywood accounting
• 4 Cast and crew listings
• 5.1 The odd number / even number phenomenon
• 5.2 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• 5.3 Star Trek: Voyager / Star Trek: Enterprise
• 6 Further reading

As a franchise, the Star Trek films were almost conceived as an afterthought in the wake of the stupefying success of the very first Star Wars installment in 1977. The resulting movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture , came nowhere close to living up to the (too) high expectations of studio executives, who subsequently decided to kill off the fledgling Star Trek film franchise right there and then. The highest conglomerate executive though, Gulf+Western owner and CEO Charlie Bluhdorn , saw it differently and personally ordered his Paramount subordinates to pursue the franchise further. Having ordained the original film production in the first place, it was therefore Bluhdorn in person who in effect not only conceived the Star Trek film franchise, but also ensured its continuation as well (for further particulars, see: main article ).

In 2023 , it was announced that the franchise would have its first made-for-TV film aka "TV movie", Star Trek: Section 31 , produced for its own streaming service Paramount+ . [1]

The Original Series films [ ]

Films which feature the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series .

The Next Generation films [ ]

These are films that feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Unlike the preceding TOS films, these did not carry sequel numbers – such as "Star Trek VII", "Star Trek VIII", "Star Trek IX", or "Star Trek X" – except in pre-production. However, these numbers do appear on newer DVD covers.

Alternate reality films [ ]

Films which feature different versions of the TOS characters portrayed by a new cast, and set in an alternate reality from earlier films and series.

Television movies [ ]

Footnotes [ ].

• ↑ Approval rates as calculated by the critical film review website Rotten Tomatoes .
• ↑ These figures include worldwide box-office takes only. Every other form of revenue, such as for merchandise, home media format sales, rentals, television rights and the like, are excluded from the figures. Revenue and cost figures as submitted by the studio to the film website IMDb
• ↑ Percentages above 100% indicate profit, below 100%, loss and at 100% means the production exactly recouped its production costs.
• ↑ In the 1980s and 1990s, a figure of approximately $45 million dollar was widely propagated in numerous publications, including those licensed by Paramount Pictures. For a treatment on the apparent discrepancy, please see: The Motion Picture : Costs and revenues .
• ↑ The profitability of Wrath of Khan is flattered, as that production made use of a substantial amount of special and visual effects assets, such as studio models, props, sets and even complete visual effects sequences produced for the previous film, and which do not show up in its production costs. This also holds true, though to a lesser degree, for the subsequent four films.
• ↑ Produced back-to-back with its television progenitor and therefore with much of its setup already in place, the profitability of Generations is, like that of The Wrath of Khan , also somewhat flattered, as that production too made use of a substantial amount of special and visual effects assets, such as studio models, costumes, props, and sets produced for the television properties, which do not show up in the budget.

Unrealized Star Trek films [ ]

Besides the above referenced films which had eventually seen a theatrical release, Paramount has over the decades embarked on the development of several other Star Trek film projects as well, they however, ultimately abandoned in various stages of development for a variety of reasons. Costs incurred for these unrealized projects were usually charged against the subsequent film project that was realized. ( see also: below )

Summary [ ]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) reunites the Star Trek: The Original Series cast aboard the original USS Enterprise , refurbished after its five-year mission as documented in the television series. The story was originally conceived as the pilot episode of the aborted Star Trek: Phase II series, in which the now- Admiral Kirk and crew must engage with a powerful, threatening force that is heading directly towards Earth .

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) together form a loose trilogy beginning with the reintroduction of an old enemy from a popular TOS episode (" Space Seed ") who resumes his conflict with Kirk in epic fashion, leading to the creation of the planet Genesis , the death of Spock and his subsequent "burial" on Genesis, the destruction of the Enterprise during Kirk's efforts to reunite Spock's regenerated body with his katra , and ultimately a time-travel adventure to 1986 aboard a captured Klingon vessel ( HMS Bounty ) in order to save Earth from destruction.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) moves Kirk, demoted back to captain as a result of defying Starfleet orders in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , and crew onto the new USS Enterprise -A , which is hijacked by a renegade Vulcan ( Sybok ) who pilots it to the center of the galaxy in an attempt to find the source of creation.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) sees Kirk and crew attempting to prevent derailment of the Federation /Klingon peace talks by conspirators from both sides. As well as bringing the TOS cast to its retirement, the film also ties up various threads first established in the series (most notably, the conflict between the Federation and the Klingons) and paves the way for the storylines of Star Trek: The Next Generation , set seventy years later. Produced during the fall of the communist Soviet Union, the film's plot may be regarded as a metaphor for those events and the effect they had on international relations at that time.

Star Trek Generations (1994) brings the cast of TNG to the big screen, set less than a year after the end of the series (" All Good Things... ") and filmed straight after the completion of its last episodes. Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise -D must try to stop a brilliant scientist ( Tolian Soran ) from committing an act of genocide in order to enter the Nexus , a mysterious hedonistic realm in which time has no meaning. Appearances by three of the TOS cast (Kirk, Scott , and Chekov ) and the heroic death of Kirk who joins Picard by means of the Nexus , served to "pass the torch" from the old generation to the next; the appearance of recurring enemies Lursa and B'Etor and the revelation of their fate provides a key link with the TNG series. The film also includes the destruction of the Enterprise -D.

Star Trek: First Contact (1996) brings back the TNG cast in their first truly independent big screen adventure aboard the new USS Enterprise -E . Picard and his crew are pitted against their deadliest foe from the series, the Borg , who travel back in time to prevent the first warp flight by Zefram Cochrane .

In Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), Picard and crew discover a covert effort by Starfleet, in co-operation with the belligerent Son'a , to relocate the inhabitants of a "fountain of youth" planet. Standing by his morals, Picard must take up arms against the Federation to save paradise.

Star Trek Nemesis (2002) sees Picard and the Enterprise ordered to investigate the sudden fall of the Romulan government, replaced by a leader from their neighboring race, the Remans . The dark secret of this new leader, Shinzon , brings Picard into conflict in a way he never thought possible, and culminates in a fight to save Earth from a terrible weapon – at great cost. With the death of Data and the departure of Riker , Troi , and Beverly Crusher from the Enterprise , this film marked the end of the TNG cast's adventures (until Star Trek: Picard , nearly two decades later). Much as with the (chronological) final big screen appearance of the original cast, which laid the foundations of peace between the Federation and the Klingons, this film implies the establishment of an alliance between the Federation and the Romulans, enemies throughout the TNG era just as the Klingons had been in TOS.

Star Trek (2009) creates a new timeline in the Star Trek franchise, which is tied directly to the prime universe, effecting a return to the TOS era, albeit one populated by an all-new cast of actors. It also features a completely new look, and remains in-universe by explaining all changes as being inadvertently caused by time-traveling Romulan villain Nero . This film focuses on younger versions of James T. Kirk , Spock , and the crew and showcases their very first mission aboard the USS Enterprise as they work together to stop the renegade Nero in his vengeful rampage to destroy Federation planets.

The sequel Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) picks up a year after the first film of the new timeline, where the crew is tested as they are sent to apprehend John Harrison , a traitor and mass murderer, and uncover corruption and a conspiracy to militarize Starfleet from within.

Star Trek Beyond (2016) picks up three years after the second film, where the crew is in the third year of its five-year mission . An encounter with an alien swarm, headed by the mysterious and powerful Krall , has devastating consequences for the Enterprise and crew, and reveals a serious threat to the Federation.

Performance summary [ ]

Domestically, combined and not taking inflation into account, the Star Trek features have grossed a little over US$1.4 billion. Prior to the release of Star Trek , Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home had grossed more than the other films, coming in at US$109,713,132, while Star Trek: First Contact had the largest-grossing opening weekend of all the films. The alternate reality Star Trek film surpassed both of these records, but was itself surpassed by its Star Trek Into Darkness sequel. [2]

Using the figures in the above specified tables, a "Top 5" worldwide performance record for the films as of 2016 is summarized in the table below, which hold a few surprises. The costs are, as expected, in accordance with the sequence the films were produced in, with The Motion Picture , being the sole exception due to various reasons . Rather surprising is that the best received films are not always also the highest grossing, The Voyage Home being the most consistent one. However, the biggest surprise in this regard, the bad press the film received in the 1980s and 1990s notwithstanding – among others by the studio itself, who considered the film a failure at the time – is that The Motion Picture as one of the worst received films, is not only the highest grossing Original Crew film world-wide, but concurrently also one of the most profitable films in the franchise. Likewise, but on the other end of the spectrum, Beyond became one of the best received films, but also the second-worst in terms of gross profitability.

The table shows that the TNG films were the least successful ones of the franchise in critical and financial terms, First Contact being the sole positive exception – even becoming the highest worldwide grossing Star Trek -prime film – the apparent profitability of Generations (see that film's footnote above) notwithstanding. In terms of gross profitability, the six Original Series films remain to date the most successful ones by far.

However, while there is a correlation between costs and profitability, the real surprise lies in the recent lack of positive correlation between gross revenues and profitability. That Nemesis and Insurrection occupy the first and third place respectively in the worst profitability ranking comes hardly as a surprise, considering their poor performance at the box office. But a break occurred in the correlation with the three alternate reality films, which were the most successful in terms of box office revenues of the franchise by far, but which also rank among the least profitable, even losing, ones – Star Trek Beyond in particular, taking second place in the worst profitability ranking – making it appear that the more successful a film is at the box office, the worse its profitability becomes.

The significant jump in production budget of 29% (over ten times the official inflation rate for the period 1996-1998) between the films First Contact and Insurrection , validated Adam Lebowitz 's assertion that the technique of computer-generated imagery (CGI) for producing visual effects , which was used almost exclusively for the latter film and contrary to popular belief, is not cheaper than the traditional way of producing these. " A lot of people say, 'CGI is a lot cheaper, isn't it,' but the way I like to think of it is that CGI is not cheaper necessarily, but you get a lot more for your money and you can tweak it a lot more. ", Lebowitz has stated. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 6 , p. 47) If anything has exemplified Lebowitz's assessment, then it must have been the number of staffers Industrial Light & Magic had employed on their Star Trek projects; whereas The Search for Spock "only" needed 42 staffers, the staff-count for Star Trek (2009) had burgeoned to no less than 315, virtually all of them working as digital specialists.

Star Trek Into Darkness marks the first time that a Star Trek film performed better in the foreign markets than the home market, confirming an industry trend that has started in the early 2000s. [3]

As already stated above , the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond , even though it even surpassed its predecessor critically, performed catastrophically at the box-office (see also below ) which became a major consideration for the cancellation in January 2019 of the planned fourth alternate reality film, slated to start production in that year.

Gross vs net profitability [ ]

It must be understood that when box-office earnings surpass the direct production budget (thereby achieving gross profitability), it does not automatically mean that a Hollywood studio has gone "into (net) profit", i.e. meaning that the studio has now funding available for investments, dividend disbursements to shareholders and third party investors, executive bonuses, royalties, and the like. Aside from the direct production costs, aka the production budget, the studio also needs to cover costs which, for legal as well as practical reasons, can not be directly assigned to a particular motion picture production and which are commonly referred to as "indirect" or "production overhead" costs, in parlance usually abbreviated to "overhead". The most obvious overhead elements consist of:

• Operations/Management costs : These are incurred in order to maintain a studio, such as the costs for the upkeep of real estate and equipment, as well as the salaries for personnel who have studio tenure, such as executive, accountancy, administrative, technical and marketing staffers. The actual production staffers on any motion picture project, are contracted on a per production basis, and their salaries are therefore directly assignable to the production budget. ( See also in this regard: Desilu Studios . )
• Distribution costs : These entail the box office percentages, distributors and theater owners charge the studio for showing their production to the public, in order to operate their own businesses. Since it is never known beforehand how many theaters will agree to show a studio production, these costs are traditionally considered overhead.
• Marketing/Promotion costs : While the average " Trekkie " might mistakenly believe that any Star Trek live-action production sells itself, this is a viewpoint emphatically not shared by Paramount. In effect, the official standpoint taken by Paramount is to dismiss Trekdom altogether, deeming it too inconsequential, both in scope and in size, to warrant the consideration of any possible Star Trek live-action (both film and television) production development in and of itself. ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , pp. 139-140) Paramount therefore treats each Star Trek production as they would any other, each required to attract a renewed viewership, and each therefore warranting considerable promotional efforts. While a general overall promotion strategy might be devised before the start of a production, the nature and extent is usually fleshed out over the course of the production (if only for the fact that trailers and commercials have to wait for footage to have been actually shot), meaning that cost totals can not be determined with any measure of objectivity beforehand, therefore causing them to be subordinated under overhead for practicality. Traditionally, marketing costs are a substantial part of the overhead, having inflated considerably from the early 2000s onward; David Gerrold has reported that these costs for The Motion Picture were already estimated at US$10-$20 million, accounting for a third to half of over-production budget expenditures alone, which, for those times, was already exceptionally high. ( Starlog , issue 30, p. 37) To an extent, Paramount's stance has validated itself by the considerable success The Voyage Home , First Contact , and the first two alternate universe films in particular have enjoyed, as these attracted a viewership (though not necessarily new fans) that went well above and beyond traditional Trekdom alone, as was evidenced by their respective outlying box office takes. Even more apparent, but then at the opposite end of the spectrum, became the validity, when Paramount failed to attract renewed viewership for Star Trek Beyond ; While the film was in general favorably received by critics and traditional Trekdom alike, the mere fact that others – enjoying a plethora of other alternatives by that time, most notably those of the by-then relaunched Star Wars and the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchises – failed to show up at the cinemas, made Beyond at that time the second all-time worst performing Star Trek film for Paramount in terms of profitability. This became a major consideration for the decision to cancel the fourth alternate universe film in early January 2019, reportedly because of relaunched Star Wars , thereby conceivably cancelling the entire alternate universe story line all together. [4]
• Sundry aka Unforeseen costs : While largely self-explanatory, these costs can also include actual production costs incurred after principal photography – traditionally seen as the "Production" stage of a film production – has finished, which were not foreseen when the production budget was calculated. For example, its visual effects sequences slated to be entirely produced with CGI, Star Trek: Insurrection was nearing completion in post-production when it was decided that for some key effects sequences the digital technique would not do, and that additional visual effects companies had to be brought in at the last minute to remedy the situation. Traditionally, the production budget is then not adjusted upward in these particular circumstances, with the additional expenditure booked as "unforeseen". Something similar had actually already occurred two decades earlier with The Motion Picture . When the February 1979 visual effects debacle took place after principal photography had wrapped, new effects companies had to be brought in by the studio at the eleventh hour to (re)produce these effects from scratch. In this specific case however, the studio decided to have the additional costs of approximately US$10 million included in its publicly divulged production budget as part of questionable studio politics, explaining the discrepancy between the official production budget listed above, and the widely propagated and best known one of US$45 million. (see: The Motion Picture : Costs and revenues ) Reshooting scenes after-the-fact for which principal cast had to be recalled, also fall under this heading, as was the case with Generations and Insurrection .
• Corporate taxes : Self-explanatory.

The traditional Hollywood rule of thumb of determining the point when a motion picture production becomes net profitable for a studio, has been the application of a multiplier to the direct production budget, or as Gerrold has further explained, "(…) a film has to earn two to three times as much as it costs to make, before it breaks even . Otherwise, you have lost your shirt. " ( Starlog , issue 30, p. 37) Applying an average multiplier of 2.5 to the above listed figures, or achieving 250% of the production budget in box-office takes, reveal that two of the Star Trek films have barely broke even (unsurprisingly including The Final Frontier , but surprisingly the 2009 blockbuster outing as well), whereas the last two Next Generation films, as well as Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond have actually lost the studio money, substantial losses at that in the cases of Insurrection , Nemesis , and Beyond .

One obvious rationale for the lack of profitability of the alternate reality films lies in the circumstance that Paramount had, together with Warner Bros. in a US$60 million deal, partnered up with Bad Robot Productions in 2006 for the development of its motion picture projects, those of Star Trek included. [5] Therefore, in addition to the undisclosed, but undoubtedly hefty license fees Paramount had to pay franchise owner CBS Corporation, all income derived from the box offices takes needed now to be shared with a major co-producer as well, where there had been none before, cutting deeply in the gross profits. The fact that Bad Robot withdrew from the partnership in November 2018, was in effect one of the other major considerations for Paramount to cancel the fourth alternate reality film in January 2019. [6]

As a whole, the four decades old film franchise performance of all thirteen films combined yields the following, showing that the film franchise has been net profitable for the studio, albeit modestly so, mostly because of the alternate reality films as they involved he largest amount of money. When applying the 2.5 multiplier, an approximately 4.2% net return on investment remains, until the 2010s not even enough to cancel out inflation and then easily attainable by just putting your money safely away in a bank savings account. The studio therefore had to mostly rely on revenues stemming from other spin-off franchise elements in all forms and formats, such as television rights and merchandise, in order to show shareholders/investors a more healthy rate of return.

It is in this regard that another Paramount production deserves a mention, the 1997 eleven Academy Award winning Titanic , served by such Star Trek alumni as Robert Legato , Don Pennington , James Horner , and Tony Meininger . With a worldwide gross of US$2.2 billion – being the very first film in motion picture history to breach the two billion mark – against a production budget of US$200 million, it did achieve a (for the times) mind-boggling 1,100% gross profitability. This was especially astounding when the amount of money involved was considered, as that film alone, grossing the same amount as all thirteen Star Trek films combined, netted the studio US$1.7 billion in (net) profit, that is, in theory at least when discounting the below-mentioned " Hollywood accounting " phenomenon. [7] The film stands to this very day out as Paramount's biggest success in its entire history by far, as well as being universally considered as one of the motion picture industry's greatest triumphs for that matter. Like it had with The Motion Picture , the studio had staked its very continued existence on Titanic , in the process forced to seek out 20th Century Fox as a production production partner (see also: The Motion Picture : Costs and revenues ).

Still, while the rationale behind the net profitability determining methodology is valid, the methodology itself has proven to be susceptible to figures manipulation, leading up to the infamous "Hollywood accounting" phenomenon, possibly explaining not only the apparent high profitability of The Wrath of Khan and Generations – an absolute rarity where "Hollywood accounting" is concerned as explained below – but also the recent and apparent lack of profitability of the alternate reality films. It should concurrently be noted that additional revenues, derived from later merchandise, television rights and home media sales, are traditionally discounted by Hollywood studios in their public performance assessments for a film, meaning that even loss generating productions have the potential to turn net profitable in the long run. However, the circumstance that Bad Robot had, through its many subsidiaries, negotiated a substantial say – and thus a part of the revenue stream – in the resultant merchandise, including the home media formats, meant that that potential had for Paramount been considerably diminished as well where the alternate reality films were concerned.

Hollywood accounting [ ]

" Hollywood accounting ", or " Hollywood bookkeeping " as it is also referred to, is a particularly nefarious phenomenon in the motion picture industry which entails that, simply put, production stakeholders, such as shareholders, actors, producers, writers, production companies, local governments, and the like, who have entered in a net profit sharing agreement with the studio, are essentially "defrauded" as much as possible out of their legally entitled shares by means of untoward bookkeeping methods. These methods typically entail inflating expenses such as production, distribution, and marketing (a very popular one with studios, as these, whether or not justified, have gone truly through the roof from the early 2000s onward), overhead and, most notoriously, the production budget "sundry costs" with as much elements as possible, not rarely utterly undue.

The industry phenomenon is to date deeply ingrained, widespread, persistent, and pervasive and by no means limited to Paramount Pictures or film productions alone, as Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry found out to his detriment after he discovered he too was on the receiving end of this phenomenon when he signed both his 18 May 1965 Star Trek: The Original Series and 1978 The Motion Picture net profit sharing deals. " The greatest science fiction in show biz is in the accounting ", a chagrined Roddenberry declared when he ordered his attorney Leonard Maizlish to start legal proceedings against the studio in 1981, after being faced with the studio's emphatic assertions that he still was not entitled to his share of the profits since the Original Series was ostensibly still deeply "in the red", despite its wildly successful decade-long run in syndication . ( Starlog , issue 43, p. 14) A particularly notorious instance was, for example, Lucasfilm , who in 2009 still maintained that their 1983 third Star Wars installment, Return of the Jedi , "has never gone into profit", despite having earned a recorded US$475 million against a production budget of US$32.5 million (constituting a whopping 1,462% gross profitability, but while impressive, involving far less money than the above-mentioned Titanic ) by that point, shortchanging several actors who had unwisely entered into a net profit sharing agreement. [8]

Paramount itself got caught in the act when it was successfully sued by screen writer Art Buchwald (thereby succeeding where Maizlish, on behalf of Roddenberry, had seemingly failed seven years earlier) who found himself in a similar predicament in the case of Paramount's 1988 motion picture Coming to America (starring Eddie Murphy ), which grossed over ten times its budget of US$39 million. It was actually this case that brought the "Hollywood accounting" phenomenon to the full awareness of the general public. Finding itself highly scrutinized by the media at the time, Paramount was ultimately ordered by the courts to settle for US$900,000 in 1992. [9]

However, as it is still very much a gray area in corporate accounting law, it has, despite the adverse court ruling, not in the least deterred Paramount, or any other Hollywood studio for that matter, to continue with the practice unabated, to the point where it has become near-pandemic in the 2000s. Several Hollywood reporters have recorded that few, if any, of the biggest box-office successes of the past decades had, as of 2010, actually turned in an official net studio profit, that is, on paper at least. [10] [11] This actually made Hollywood studios one of the very worst properties to invest in, as many shareholders and third-party investors can now attest to. Despite a class-action brought against the entire industry before a Federal Court in 1996, [12] the financial gains apparently still far outweigh the costs of any possible legal litigation. The three alternate universe films, Star Trek , Into Darkness , and Beyond , for example, are officially reported as among the least profitable, even losing, Star Trek productions by Paramount, despite grossing close to US$1.2 billion dollar between the three of them, as specified above.

Stakeholders who still do enter into a profit sharing agreement have, however, learned the lessons of their unfortunate predecessors, and do so on the basis of gross profit (as indeed tax authorities have always done), instead of net profits, as gross profit is determined by only charging directly assignable production costs to the revenues under accounting laws. And indeed, creator Roddenberry himself did not repeat the mistakes he made back in 1965 and 1978, when he signed a profit sharing deal with Paramount in 1986 for Star Trek: The Next Generation , where it was stipulated that he was to receive 35% of the adjusted gross profits derived from the series. [13] (X)

Studios countered with transferring as much production unrelated expenditures to the (in)direct production costs as they possibly could get away with legally. Notorious in this respect is the transfer of the substantial executive bonuses, which, rightfully, should be paid from the net profits, to production overhead, from which regular salaries are paid. The even more savvy stakeholders will try to negotiate a gross revenue sharing, aka "box-office take", agreement, but this is, of course, vehemently opposed by Hollywood studios and is only reserved for the few very biggest and most powerful of the Hollywood stars, [14] such as Tom Cruise – who successfully reinitialized the Mission: Impossible franchise not only as the star, but as a co-producing company as well under which he receives his box-office takes [15] – and which Roddenberry was most certainly not.

In regard to the Star Trek films, it is known that Paramount has charged incurred costs for undeveloped film projects against either the production budget, the overhead, or both of subsequent films that were realized, most notably The Motion Picture and The Undiscovered Country . While the act is in itself not illegal, it is a practice not commonly followed in most other industries (the pharmaceutical industry standing out as a notorious exception) and actually debatable from a business economics point of view; research and development costs of projects that do not come to fruition are usually written off and are commonly charged against the balance sheets of corporations. This is a sound generally accepted accounting principle for businesses (as stated in any business economics textbook and where the principles are known under their acronym GAAP ) as it prevents unwarranted cost price inflation with undue elements – thereby avoiding pollution of pre-production viability assessments – for products that do come to fruition. Paramount's divergent actions therefore can be construed as an instance of Hollywood accounting.

The very rare positive – as in inflating the profitability instead of the costs – applications of Hollywood accounting by the studio executive echelons in the cases of The Wrath of Khan and Generations were motivated by internal studio politics. In the former case the goal was to convince the outside world that Gene Roddenberry was a complete and utter failure as a film producer after his dismal performance on The Motion Picture , so that the studio seemed justified to sideline the Star Trek creator for any future project once and for all, (See also in this regard: The Motion Picture : Costs and revenues ) whereas the latter case was intended to convince shareholders and investors that the Next Generation film franchise would potentially be as succesfull, or even more so, as the Original Crew film franchise had been. Both instances of positive Hollywood accounting succeeded admirably in their intended goals.

The 2006 separation of the Star Trek television and film productions under two newly-formed independent holding companies, resulting in that Paramount Pictures, now a holding of (new) Viacom , had to pay licensing fees to newly-formed CBS Corporation in order to produce subsequent Star Trek (and Mission: Impossible [16] ) films, aggravated the situation. A closely guarded trade secret, the amount of the fees were now a newly-added part to the production budget/overhead which was not there previously, and might partly explain the apparent lack of net profitability of the three alternate universe films. Some critics have surmised that this had been part of the split considerations all along, somewhat supported by the fact that both new entities have remained under the ultimate ownership and control of holding conglomerate National Amusements (NAI), and to an extent implicitly conceded as such in actuality by NAI owner and CEO Sumner Redstone, who had expressed his desire to "unlock value" by boosting stock value – for the CBS shareholders that is, not for those of (new) Viacom/Paramount, where the licensing issue is concerned – and earning potential of the at the time faster growing soon-to-be "new" Viacom. [17] [18]

Incidentally, since NAI's core business is the operation of one of the largest chains of movie theaters in the USA, the fact that the costs they charged Paramount (which they own) for showing their productions appear in the Paramount's income statements as well, can also be construed as an instance of cost-price inflating Hollywood accounting.

In a November 2015 Wired article discussing the recent popularity of shared universes on film, Paramount Motion Pictures Group president Marc Evans acknowledged the possibility of spin-off films. He said, " I often think about the areas of the Star Trek universe that haven't been taken advantage of. Like, I'll be ridiculous with you, but what would Star Trek: Zero Dark Thirty look like? Where is the SEAL Team Six of the Star Trek universe? That fascinates me. " [19]

On April 25, 2018, it was confirmed that two Star Trek films were in development. [20] However, on 10 January 2019, pursuant the dismal profitability performance of Beyond and a little over ten months later, Forbes magazine reported that the fourth , yet untitled, Kelvin -timeline film had been canceled, which in itself followed in the wake of earlier reports that main performers Chris Pine ( James T. Kirk ) and Chris Hemsworth ( George Kirk ) had all already withdrawn their commitments to the project. While not overtly evident at the time, this decision had for all intents and purposes all the hallmarks of the definitive termination of the Kelvin timeline in the Star Trek (film) franchise. [21] It conceivably entails for the time being the end of the Star Trek film franchise proper as well (even though the Quentin Tarantino Star Trek XV pitch was at the time still under consideration, though apparently no longer on the table due to Tarantino's withdrawal from the project in January 2020 [22] ), especially in light of the film franchise being virtually rendered insignificant by those from the Star Wars and Marvel Comics ones in particular, [23] and in light of the December 2019 " reunification " of he television, and film franchises under the consolidated end auspices of Secret Hideout , [24] after which Tarentino has indicated his disinclination to further pursue the project. [25] [26]

The cancellation of the fourth alternate reality film could have serious consequences for Paramount, but for production partner Bad Robot Productions in particular, at least where alternate reality Star Trek is concerned, as a production license of the kind extended to the studio and its partner usually includes a timetable clause in which a franchise-licensed production company is obligated to produce sequential franchise film outings within a preordained time-frame. When defaulting on the clause, the film production rights then automatically reverts to the licensor, in this case CBS Corporation (franchise owner as of 2006, then ViacomCBS from December 2019 to February 2022; now rebranded as Paramount Global ), who is then free to do with it as it wills. With the establishment of ViacomCBS in December 2019, and the resultant reunification of the two Star Trek franchises, this has indeed become the case, with the fate of the Kelvin timeline as expected hanging in the balance, it as of 2020 being under re-evalution of the new management. [27]

It is against this background that new plans, separate from the Tarantino project, for a fourteenth film were reported in November 2019, involving prospect Writer/Director Noah Hawley , [28] though by May 2020 it too has not evolved beyond the consideration stage, its development apparently stuck in limbo. [29]

• See Star Trek XV for further details.

It was in the same month that Beyond Performer/Writer Simon Pegg has expressed his personal suspicion that the end of not only the alternate reality, but also the entire film franchise proper had indeed come to pass, when he stated in an interview for Collider ,

"The fact is, the appeal of Star Trek is slightly more niche than the appeal of, say, the Marvel movies, which make huge amounts of money, and have this really, really broad appeal and they do very well. I think Star Trek is just a little bit more niche, so it isn't gonna hit those kind of numbers. So yes, the obvious thing to do would be to not go for that massive spectacle, go for something a little bit more restrained in the vein of the original series. Yes, that would be a brilliant thing to do, and I'm sure it probably has been discussed… You specialize a little bit more. (… )Maybe TV is a better place for [Star Trek] now. Television has evolved so much. It's become something which is very much a contemporary, a peer of cinema. It's simply viewed in a different way. It isn't a reduced scope anymore. You can still do masses of interesting things, and it can still look modern and not inexpensive. Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That's where it started, you know." [30]

In this Pegg has joined the ranks of those who were already of similar mind, such as the Forbes editors who argued as early as November 2016, a mere three months after the Beyond premiere and its resultant box-office failure, " The thing that made [ Beyond ] most appealing to the fans, that it played like a smaller-scale 50th anniversary homage to the spirit and tone of the original show, was the thing that arguably doomed it in terms of blockbuster success. Star Trek Beyond was what its fans wanted it to be. There is value in that over the long run. But Paramount and friends need to realize that Star Trek is never going to be a Guardians of the Galaxy -level success and plan accordingly. " [31] [32]

In November 2020, Hawley intimated that his film was definitively off the table as well. In a 29 November 2020 interview to Deadline Hawley responded to a question about the status of the film, " It doesn't appear to be in my immediate future. I think when Emma came in, she took a look at the franchise and wanted to go in a different direction with it. But you know, life is long, we were very close to production but in this business that doesn't mean much. You got to get out of the gate to be in the race if you know what I mean. " [33] The "Emma" Hawley referred to concerned Emma Watts , a Paramount executive, who was pursuant the 2019 remerger of Paramount and CBS into ViacomCBS, appointed by National Amusements head Shari Redstone to appraise the status of the Star Trek live-action franchise, both film as well as television, for its (commercial) viability. [34] Hawley's words were in essence Hollywood-speak for the definitive cancellation of his Star Trek film. As to Watt's "different direction", nothing, save some vague rumors, has been made public, making it appear that the entire film franchise too is terminated for the time being – all this being in line with Pegg's assessment.

Cast and crew listings [ ]

• Credits for Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Credits for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Credits for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Credits for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Credits for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Credits for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Credits for Star Trek Generations
• Credits for Star Trek: First Contact
• Credits for Star Trek: Insurrection
• Credits for Star Trek Nemesis
• Credits for Star Trek
• Credits for Star Trek Into Darkness
• Credits for Star Trek Beyond

Background information [ ]

• There have been thirteen Star Trek cinematic features released between 1979 and 2016 . [35]
• Three films were produced by Harve Bennett (he was also an executive producer on one), while Rick Berman produced all four films featuring the cast of TNG .
• Nicholas Meyer , J.J. Abrams , Leonard Nimoy , and Jonathan Frakes each directed two of the films, with the latter two also appearing as co-stars in their respective roles as Spock and William T. Riker . One of the films ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ) was directed by its lead actor, William Shatner , appearing as Kirk .
• Leonard Nimoy has made more appearances in the film series than any other principal cast member of any Star Trek series, appearing as Spock in the first six films together with an appearance in Star Trek and a brief cameo in Star Trek Into Darkness and his likeness is seen in Star Trek Beyond , as are those of his original cast mates. William Shatner, James Doohan , and Walter Koenig (Kirk, Scott , and Chekov ) all appear in the first seven consecutive films. Majel Barrett has also appeared in seven of the films, albeit playing different roles: she appears as Christine Chapel in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , and supplied her voice for the Enterprise computers in Star Trek Generations , Star Trek: First Contact , Star Trek: Insurrection , Star Trek Nemesis , and Star Trek .
• Michael Dorn is the only member of the TNG cast to appear in more than four of the films. He plays his familiar character Worf in all four TNG-based films and has a cameo as Worf's (presumed) ancestor in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .
• Owing to Worf's transfer onto the crew of DS9 prior to the events of Star Trek: First Contact , Dorn is technically the only DS9 cast member to appear in any of the films playing his usual character. Rene Auberjonois appears in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country playing a different character than his usual one on DS9; his scenes were cut for the film's original theatrical release but subsequently restored for the film's VHS, DVD, and Special Edition releases. Both Armin Shimerman and Max Grodenchik filmed scenes for Star Trek: Insurrection – the former as his familiar character Quark and the latter as an unnamed Trill Starfleet officer – but these scenes were cut from the film as released.
• Kate Mulgrew , Robert Picardo , Tim Russ , and Ethan Phillips are the only VOY cast members to appear in any of the films – Mulgrew plays her familiar character in Star Trek Nemesis , Picardo plays an EMH Mark I in Star Trek: First Contact , wherein Phillips also appears – uncredited, at his own request, as a different character. (Having never before appeared in a Trek production without heavy prosthetics, he thought it would be amusing to leave fans wondering if the holographic Human he played was or wasn't him.) Russ appears in Star Trek Generations as a Human USS Enterprise -B crewman.
• To date, no principal cast members from Star Trek: Enterprise have appeared in any of the films, although Peter Weller (who guest-starred in two episodes of that series) plays a major role in Star Trek Into Darkness .
• Between Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek , all the films were produced in tandem with one or more of the spin-off series. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country were made during the run of TNG; production on Star Trek Generations began while the final episodes of TNG were being shot, and while DS9 was in production; Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection were both produced during the runs of DS9 and VOY, and Star Trek Nemesis was made while ENT was in production. Star Trek was the first since Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home to be produced without any other Star Trek project in progress.
• Perhaps reflecting their popularity as an alien race, the Klingons appear more than any other throughout the series of films – they appear, or are mentioned, in twelve of the films released so far. No Klingon characters appear in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Star Trek or Star Trek Beyond , although the former two films depict the Kobayashi Maru scenario which features Klingon ships. Scenes featuring Klingon characters were shot but not included in Star Trek .

The odd number / even number phenomenon [ ]

• A number of Star Trek fans ( citation needed • edit ) have expressed the opinion that the even-numbered films are generally better than the odd-numbered ones. Such an appraisal is obviously subjective, but it has its roots in a number of factors. The even-numbered films (apart from Star Trek Nemesis ) have enjoyed relatively greater success at the box office and higher critical acclaim, as opposed to various lukewarm reviews received by the odd-numbered films (with the exception of Star Trek ). Fans and critics have also noted that, in their opinions, the even-numbered films are better paced and more action-packed, with more memorable story lines, eminently quotable scripts and exciting special effects. (The first two films are often held up as examples of this trend from the outset of the series: Star Trek: The Motion Picture has very few battle or dramatic action sequences, presenting Kirk and crew with a mostly cerebral challenge, while Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is dominated by epic conflict, resulting in several battle sequences and heavy damage to the Enterprise and its crew.)
• By the time the TNG films were being produced, the "odd/even" phenomenon was effectively regarded as a curse, with members of the production crew fearing that, despite their best efforts, future odd-numbered productions were fated to be less successful than even-numbered ones. Jonathan Frakes , when interviewed by Star Trek Monthly ( citation needed • edit ) during pre-production for Star Trek: Insurrection , commented that he was looking forward to directing his second film "even though it's an odd-numbered Star Trek ." In 2002, however, the phenomenon was broken by the release of Star Trek Nemesis , which experienced the lowest box-office takings of any Star Trek film to date and was poorly received by even long-standing fans. (Though to a few ( citation needed • edit ) , this became an even further joke – a Star Trek film which was a multiple of five was cursed to fail catastrophically, as Nemesis pulled in poor reviews and revenue in a similar fashion to The Final Frontier .)
• The phenomenon has seemingly been broken further by the critical success of Star Trek , which has obtained a 95% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , as well as an opening weekend gross of nearly twice the full run of Star Trek Nemesis . [36] Sam Hughes, of the website, "Things of Interest", has suggested that the addition of "Galaxy Quest," the affectionate parody of Star Trek released in 1999, between Insurrection and Nemesis , as the "good" Star Trek movie fixes the odd-even curse. [37]
• In a 1999 episode of the British sitcom Spaced , the phenomenon was mentioned by the series' lead character, Tim Bisley, who was played by Simon Pegg – an irony not lost on Pegg during and after his work on Star Trek .

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine [ ]

• Whereas the preceding live-action television series had open endings that allowed for continuation into motion picture format, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended quite firmly and conclusively, with all its various plotlines resolved and the departure of various main characters. Any subsequent film would therefore have required a significantly different premise and different casting, departing radically from the series' format which had been so familiar to its fan base. On the possibility of a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine film ever happening, Ira Steven Behr commented: " I don't think so. I think we could do a pretty kick-ass Deep Space Nine film, but not even in my wildest imaginations do I consider it ". He also commented " The only Trek I think about is Deep Space Nine , to be honest. If they did a Deep Space Nine film, I certainly would like to be involved if that ever happened, which I doubt ". [38]
• After the release of Star Trek: Insurrection , Patrick Stewart commented, " I think we should pass the mantle on to the Deep Space Nine characters. We don't want to become The Rolling Stones of the Star Trek films ". [39] [40]
• Andrew Robinson commented " My feeling is that there is never going to be a Deep Space Nine film, they still have more to go with The Next Generation . I think it (" What You Leave Behind ") was really the right way to end the series. [41]
• A campaign for a Deep Space Nine film (or a miniseries) was launched in 2000 by fans Stacy Powell and Doug Wilson. Nana Visitor was thrilled to hear of the existence of the campaign and J.G. Hertzler and David B. Levinson joked with fans to " take one of these [flyers], don't throw it away or I'll come after you. " [42] [43]
• Fans Terry Harris and Gisele La Roche also launched a petition for a Deep Space Nine film, receiving several positive responses from actors. [44] (X)
• Notwithstanding the foregoing, elements from the series have appeared in all TNG films. The Enterprise -D crew wore the uniforms which had been introduced on Deep Space Nine (in addition to their own series' uniforms) in Star Trek Generations ; the uniforms were also used on Star Trek: Voyager , which premiered several months after the film's release. The USS Defiant appears in the Battle of Sector 001 during Star Trek: First Contact , under the command of Worf ( Michael Dorn ), who had become a regular character on DS9 by that time; he also appears in Star Trek: Insurrection . Both Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis contain references to the Dominion War story arc from the series. For Star Trek: Insurrection , a scene was written and filmed involving an appearance by Armin Shimerman as Quark ; this was cut from the film, but a still from it can be found among the extras on the DVD release.
• In 1998, Rick Berman commented " There are a few more movies left in the Generations franchise and there's a good chance we'll see a Deep Space Nine film. What we'd like to do is introduce a few of the characters from Deep Space into the next Generations movie just to tease audiences. " [45]

Star Trek: Voyager / Star Trek: Enterprise [ ]

• The conclusive endings of both these series likewise indicate little or no probability of future films being based on them. During the run of Voyager , there was speculation among fans (via the internet and other media) that the series would end on a cliff-hanger, to be resolved in a theatrical motion picture, but the ultimate release of " Endgame " as the series finale proved that idea to be unfounded. The potential for continuation of the series has instead been explored in novels and fan-fiction.
• There is a gap of six years between " Terra Prime " and " These Are the Voyages... " which could serve as the setting of an ENT film, although the timeline position of Star Trek and its sequel suggests that this would be unlikely.
• Star Trek Nemesis features a cameo by Kate Mulgrew , reprising her role as Kathryn Janeway from Voyager and thus marking the only direct big-screen appearance of any character from that series. (An EMH Mark I , played by Robert Picardo , appears briefly in First Contact , but this is not exactly the same character as the holographic doctor in the series.)
• Nemesis also features a graphic containing a reference to a USS Archer , named after Captain Jonathan Archer , the main character in Enterprise .
• Additionally, Star Trek features a reference to "Admiral Archer 's prized beagle ", intended by the writers to be a reference to Jonathan Archer and his beagle Porthos . [46]
• A replica of Enterprise NX-01 appears in Star Trek Into Darkness , marking the first appearance of any element from that series on the big screen. Star Trek Beyond refers to Military Assault Command Operations personnel and the Xindi encounter from ENT's third season, as well as depicting an early Starfleet ship whose design resembles that of the NX starships seen in ENT.

Further reading [ ]

• "Rumblings: The Bottom line", David Gerrold , Starlog , issue 30, January 1980, pp. 37, 63

See also [ ]

• Film performers
• Film recurring characters
• Film directors
• VHS releases
• LaserDisc releases
• DVD releases
• Blu-ray releases
• 1 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)
• 3 Daniels (Crewman)

Maintenance in progress

Star Trek movies in order: Chronological and release

Number One, show me a list of all the Star Trek movies in order — both chronological and release — engage!

• Chronological order
• Prime Timeline

The Original Series movies

The next generation movies.

• Kelvin Timeline
• Release order

Upcoming Star Trek movies

Raise shields, red alert — we’re going to try and put all the Star Trek movies in order. And we do mean try.

When they were focused on the Original Series era, the Star Trek movies were so easy to watch in order — the movies were numbered, everything was nice and simple. Then Picard comes in with his Next Generation buddies and suddenly numbers are out, subtitles are in. And that’s before we get all the time travel shenanigans that gave birth to the Kelvin timeline , an alternative timeline that splits off from the main canon.

It's been a long while since we've had a new Star Trek movie, with the last release — Star Trek Beyond — coming out back in 2016. Over eight years! Voyager got home from the Delta Quadrant in less time than that! Mercifully the drought is nearly over, with the Discovery spin-off movie Star Trek: Section 31 due to launch in early 2025.

So while we wait for Trek's silver screen return, we’re going to break down the various timelines and help you watch the Star Trek movies in either chronological or release order —- the Temporal Prime Directive be damned. Oh and we’re not making any judgements on the quality of the movies here, so head over to our Star Trek movies ranked list if you want to fight about whether the Kirk or Picard era movies are better.

All of the Star Trek movies are available to watch on Paramount+, along with almost all the shows — check our Star Trek streaming guide to find which nebulas the exceptions are hiding in. 

Star Trek movies: Chronological order

Below is the quick version of our list if you just need to check something to win an argument, but it comes with a lot of in-universe time travel-related caveats that we'll explain below.

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek: Generations
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Star Trek: Insurrection
• Star Trek: Nemesis
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek: Prime Timeline

The first thing you need to know about the Star Trek films is that while they travel back and forth in time, they also diverge into two (for now) different timelines. The films of the original crew (well, the first iteration of them, anyway – more on that later) are all in what is known as the Prime Timeline. 

Within the Prime Timeline, the movies are then split between The Original Series movies and The Next Generation movies.

1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

• Release date: December 8, 1979
• Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

This is the film that brought the voyages of the U.S.S. Enterprise to the big screen. An energy cloud is making its way toward Earth, destroying everything in its path. Kirk and crew intercept it and discover an ancient NASA probe at the heart of the cloud. Voyager – known as V’ger now – encountered a planet of living machines, learned all it could, and returned home to report its findings, only to find no one who knew how to answer. It’s a slow-paced film, and the costumes are about as 70s as they come, but there’s classic Star Trek at the heart of this film.

2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

• Release date: June 4, 1982
• Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban

Ask a Star Trek fan what the best Star Trek movie is and more often than not, you’ll get Khan as your answer. A sequel to the events of the “Space Seed” episode of The Original Series, Khan is a retelling of Moby Dick with Khan throwing reason to the wind as he hunts his nemesis, James T. Kirk. Montalban delivers a pitch-perfect performance, giving us a Khan with charisma and obsession in equal parts.

3. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

• Release date: June 1, 1984

Spock might have died in The Wrath of Khan, but this third entry set up the premise for his return, with the creation of the Genesis planet. Essentially a heist movie in reverse, Search for Spock has the crew defying orders from Starfleet in an attempt to reunite Spock’s consciousness with his newly-rejuvenated body. It’s not a great movie, but it does include two very important events: the rebirth of Spock and the death of Kirk’s son at the hands of the Klingons. That’ll be important a few flicks from now.   

4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

• Release date: November 26, 1986
• Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Catherine Hicks

If Star Trek fans don’t say Khan is the best Star Trek movie, odds are very high they say Voyage Home is. It’s a funny film where the mission isn’t destruction, but creation – or more accurately, repairing the devastating effects of humankind’s ecological short-sightedness. 

A probe arrives at Earth, knocking out the power of everything in its path as it looks for someone to respond to its message (yeah, it happens a lot). This time, however, the intended recipient is the long-extinct blue whale. To save Earth, Kirk and co. go back in time to 1980s San Francisco to snag some blue whales. The eco-messaging isn’t exactly subtle, but it doesn’t get in the way of a highly enjoyable movie.

5. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

• Release date: June 9, 1989

A writers’ strike and Shatner’s directorial skills (or lack thereof) doomed this film before a single scene was shot. The core plot is actually pretty good: Spock’s half-brother hijacks the Enterprise so that he can meet God, which he believes to be… himself. Some Star Trek fans have an odd fondness for this movie, as it showcases the camaraderie of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy when they’re off-duty.

6. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

• Release date: December 6, 1991
• Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Plummer

Right, so if that Star Trek fan you’ve been talking to doesn’t choose either Khan or Voyage Home as the best Star Trek movie ever, they almost certainly name Undiscovered Country (and if they don’t, they have highly questionable taste, frankly). The Klingon moon of Praxis explodes, putting the entire Klingon race at risk. The Enterprise hosts a diplomatic entourage of Klingons, much to Kirk’s discomfort. 

Remember how Klingons murdered Kirk’s son? Well, he certainly hasn’t forgotten. Kirk’s lingering rage makes him the perfect patsy for the murder of the Klingon Chancellor, sending him and McCoy to a prison planet and setting the stage for war. Christopher Plummer is perfection as a Shakespeare-quoting Klingon general with no taste for peace.

7. Star Trek: Generations

• Release date: November 18, 1994
• Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner

And thus the torch is passed from the crew of The Original Series to that of The Next Generation. It’s a bit of a fumble, to be honest, but they all did their best to get Kirk and Picard into the same film and have it make sense. Malcolm McDowell plays Soran, a scientist who will stop at nothing to control the Nexus, a giant space rainbow that exists outside of space-time. 

Soran lost his family when his home world was destroyed and he wants to re-join them (or at least an illusion of them) in the Nexus. He’s not so much a villain as a tragic figure, but the Nexus makes a meeting between Kirk and Picard possible. Not all that sensible, but possible.

8. Star Trek: First Contact

• Release date: November 22, 1996
• Cast: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Alice Krige

Okay, no, for real, if your Star Trek pal didn’t pick Khan or Voyage Home or… oh, nevermind. Cueing off the iconic two-part episode “Best of Both Worlds,” in which Picard is assimilated by the Borg, First Contact sees the collective traveling back in time in order to disrupt First Contact, the day Earth’s first foray into space attracted the attention of the Vulcans, kicking off the events that would eventually lead to Starfleet’s victory over the Borg. The Borg Queen torments Picard with visions of the past and tempts Data with humanity, going so far as to give him some human skin. 

The fight with the Borg aboard the Enterprise is thrilling, and the work on the surface to get first contact back on track is fun. Plus, there’s just nothing like Patrick Stewart turning it up to 11 as he lashes out at the enemy that haunts his dreams.

9. Star Trek: Insurrection

• Release date: December 11, 1998
• Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, F. Murray Abraham

Essentially an episode inflated for the big screen, Insurrection is about the Federation conspiring to displace a planet’s population in order to harvest the planet’s unique resource – super healing metaphasic particles. In addition to the rejuvenating natural resource, the Ba’ku also have access to exceptional technology, which they shun in favor of a more simple lifestyle. 

Data malfunctions, the villains are Federation allies (and former Ba’ku!), Picard gets to knock boots with a local – Insurrection is the very definition of “fine.” Chronologically, Insurrection is relevant for rekindling the romance between Riker and Troi, but not much else.

10. Star Trek: Nemesis

• Release date: December 13, 2002
• Cast: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Tom Hardy

Before he mumbled his way into our hearts as Bane, Tom Hardy was Shinzon, a clone of Picard the Romulans created in an eventually abandoned attempt to infiltrate Starfleet. Shinzon is dying, and all that will save him is a transfusion of Picard’s blood. Unfortunately, Shinzon also happens to be a megalomaniac who happens to want to destroy all life on Earth and maybe a few other planets, too, if he’s feeling saucy. 

Nemesis is notable mostly for killing Data with a noble sacrifice, only to resurrect him moments later in a duplicate body found earlier by the Enterprise crew.

Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline

The last of the Prime Timeline movies failed to impress at the box office, so it was a few years before anyone tried to bring the Enterprise back to the big screen. Rather than lean on any of the TV crews, this new slate of movies would serve as a reboot, welcoming new audiences while honoring long-time fans. Welcome to the Kelvin Timeline. (For all the ins and outs, check out our Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline explained article).

11. Star Trek

• Release date: May 8, 2009
• Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban

Back to the beginning! Star Trek introduces us to James T. Kirk, Spock, and “Bones” McCoy as they meet and join the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Though the plot is a relatively straightforward affair of a Romulan named Nero trying to destroy the Earth. His anger borne out of grief, what matters most is how it all came to be. In the future, Spock – the Prime Timeline version – tries to save Romulus from being destroyed by a supernova, but fails. Both his ship and Nero’s are kicked back in time, setting off a chain of events that diverge from the original, “true” timeline. 

The name “Kelvin” refers to the U.S.S. Kelvin, the ship heroically captained by Kirk’s father, which is destroyed in the opening moments of the movie.

12. Star Trek Into Darkness

• Release date: May 16, 2013
• Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch

The benefit of the Kelvin Timeline is that it not only allows Star Trek to explore canon material – such as Khan (he of the Wrath) – but to do something completely new with it. Khan features heavily in Into Darkness, but he has no beef with Kirk. Instead, a Starfleet Admiral is threatening the lives of Khan’s crew, forcing them to craft weapons of mass destruction. 

Khan inevitably eludes captivity and strikes out against Starfleet, killing Captain Pike (and a bunch of others) in the process. Kirk and company eventually take Khan down, but not before Kirk sacrifices himself to save his crew. Don’t worry, these things don’t last in either Star Trek timeline, as Kirk gets better moments later thanks to *checks notes* Khan's super blood.

13. Star Trek Beyond

• Release date: July 22, 2016
• Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Idris Elba

Beyond leans into the camaraderie of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy now that they’ve had some time together, much to the movie’s benefit. The Enterprise is lured to Altamid under false pretenses, leading to much of the crew being marooned on the planet. The architect of the deception was Krall, who wants an opportunity to return to a galaxy where war is the order of the day. 

Beyond is a significant point in the timeline for two reasons. First, it sadly marked the death of Spock Prime due to the passing of Leonard Nimoy. Second, it culminates in the Enterprise embarking on the five-year-mission that started everything back in 1966.

Star Trek movies: Release order

If you can't be bothered remembering two different orders for the Star Trek movies then we've got good news for you — the release order is identical to the chronological order that we've shown above (accounting for the Kelvin timeline as it's own entity anyway).

Star Trek 4

The full run of Star Trek films currently tops out at 13 entries; the fate of the 14th was hidden within a nebula of conflicting information. “Star Trek 4” was slated for December 22, 2023, but given that filming had yet to begin as of July 2022, it seems inevitable that date will change. Back in February 2022, Paramount that the principal cast would be returning for the fourth installment of the Kelvin timeline, a claim quickly disputed by the agents of those selfsame actors. Awkward.

Soon after, however, Chris Pine eventually signed on the dotted line, and his shipmates reached their own agreements. As of right now, Kirk (Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), McCoy (Karl Urban, assuming he can make it work around filming of The Boys), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldaña), and Sulu (John Cho) are all ready to beam up and get filming. Sadly, this will be the first of the Kelvin films to not feature Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov. Yelchin died in an accident at his home in 2016. It’s currently unclear if Chekov will be recast or if a different character will take his place on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Though the Kelvin timeline is often referred to as “J.J. Abrams Trek,” he won’t be directing Star Trek 4; Matt Shakman will take on that responsibility, leaving Abrams to produce. As for what it will be about, that’s anyone’s guess, but Chris Pine told Deadline he hopes this one tells a smaller story that appeals to the core Trek audience. “Let’s make the movie for the people that love this group of people, that love this story, that love Star Trek,” he said. “Let’s make it for them and then, if people want to come to the party, great.” It’s a strategy that makes sense; the disappointment with recent Trek films hasn’t been their content so much as their box office. A Trek film with a smaller scope (and budget) would almost certainly have a very healthy profit margin while also resonating with the fanbase.   

With no new announcements coming from San Diego Comic-Con 2022, it seems that we’ll have to wait for any more insight into the next Star Trek film. Sill, recent comments from Paramount CEO Brian Robbins have us cautiously optimistic: “We’re deep into [Star Trek 4] with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we’re getting close to the starting line and excited about where we’re going creatively,” he told Variety . 

Still, recent comments from Paramount CEO Brian Robbins have us cautiously optimistic: “We’re deep into [Star Trek 4] with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we’re getting close to the starting line and excited about where we’re going creatively,” he told Variety.

Since then, there hasn’t been much in the way of updates, which leaves us with the worrying prospect of Star Trek 4 being stuck in development hell. During a 2023 appearance at the 57-Year Mission convention in Las Vegas (reported by TrekMovie ), Zachary Quinto explained that creative differences were the cause of the numerous delays. 

“I think there’s a lot of other stuff, creative things. It’s complicated. The fact that anything good gets made is kind of a miracle. I think it’s about different people having different agendas and ideas about what it will be.“

Star Trek: Section 31

In the meantime, we are getting the Star Trek: Section 31 movie staring Academy Award-winning actress MichelIe Yeoh. She is reprising her role as Emperor Philip Georgiou, her character from Star Trek Discovery (well one of them anyway, mirror universes and all that). This spin-off from the TV series is coming out of warp in early 2025.

Check out our guide to Everything we know about Star trek Section 31 for more info on the upcoming movie.

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Susan Arendt is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant living in Burleson, TX. She's a huge sci-fi TV and movie buff, and will talk your Vulcan ears off about Star Trek. You can find more of her work at Wired, IGN, Polygon, or look for her on Twitter: @SusanArendt. Be prepared to see too many pictures of her dogs.

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Star Trek Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date

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Star Trek is back in a big way. The franchise is going strong on Paramount+ through new original TV shows , with the recent Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiering to positive reviews while Star Trek: Picard finished season two. Paramount also announced the long-awaited fourth Star Trek film in the recent series, which will see Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Karl Urban return to the franchise following a seven-year hiatus from Star Trek Beyond . The franchise is now arguably the most popular and readily available that it's been in its entire history, gaining new fans every day.

The Star Trek film series currently includes 13 films and spans multiple generations of different crews that weave in and out of the different series. They form one giant massive timeline that builds off one another to show humanity's future among the stars and the constantly changing relationship between various alien species. If the 13 films seem daunting, and you're not sure how everything relates, take a look at this list that details the Star Trek film series in chronological and release order.

Update November 23, 2023: This article has been updated with where each entry in the Star Trek film is currently streaming and more details on each film in the franchise.

Star Trek Movies In Chronological Order

Star trek: the motion picture.

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star trek iv: the voyage home, star trek v: the final frontier, star trek vi: the undiscovered country, star trek: generations, star trek: first contact, star trek: insurrection, star trek: nemesis, star trek into darkness, star trek beyond, star trek: the motion picture (1979).

Star Trek: The Motion Picture takes place in 2273, five years after the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, and finds Kirk and his crew retaking control of the renovated Enterprise to investigate a mysterious cloud of energy that has destroyed Federation and Klingon ships. The movie was a massive hit, yet the critical reaction was more on the mixed side than Paramount expected. Even with how much money the studio put into it, bringing in Academy Award-winner Robert Wise to direct, the film was seen as a disappointment, yet has found a cult status and recently got the director's cut released in 4K .

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is available for streaming on Paramount+

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Star trek 2: the wrath of khan.

A massive time jump, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan takes place in 2285, 13 years after the events of the previous film and 18 years since the original series ended. This film is less a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture and more to season one, episode 22, or 'Space Seed,' from the original series, which now finds that episode's villain, Khan, seeking revenge on Kirk for marooning him on Ceti Alpha V. The movie sees an older Kirk wrestling with his age, and in the ultimate sign of time moving forward, Kirk loses his old friend Spock when the Vulcan-human hybrid sacrifices his life to save the crew of the Enterprise.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan also serves as the first part in a three-movie story arc, often referred to by fans as The Genesis Trilogy (named after the Genesis device which becomes a key factor in the life/death cycle the three films explore), one that continues in the following two sequels. While not making as much money as the previous film, Wrath of Khan had a smaller budget, so the profits of the film were greater and the film helped relaunch the popularity of the franchise. It still remains arguably the most acclaimed film of the franchise.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Picking up shortly after the previous film, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock takes place in 2285 and focuses on Kirk and the Enterprise Crew's attempt to resurrect Spock when they find out his spirit has been left inside Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, which involves stealing the Enterprise from the Federation. Meanwhile, the crew must contend with a Klingon crew led by Kurge (Christopher Lloyd) who seeks to steal information on the genesis device.

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The movie resurrects Spock but also sees another beloved member of the crew perish: this time in the form of the Enterprise. While the ship will be rebuilt, this marks the final appearance of the ship that Kirk and his crew piloted since the original series. Another major plot point is the death of Kirk's son (who was established in the previous film), killed at the hands of Klingons, which will go on to inform Kirk's bias a few films later.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home picks up shortly after the previous film, with the Enterprise crew returning to Earth to face trial for stealing the Enterprise to resurrect Spock; however, they find the planet is in grave danger when a mysterious alien probe cannot communicate with any humpback whales. To save the Earth, the crew travels back in time to 1986 (the release date of the film) to try to find a group of whales to bring back to the future. The movie concludes the Genesis Trilogy, and due to its fish out of water aspect was a massive success even outside the Star Trek fanbase, grossing more than both previous entries.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Set in 2287, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier focuses on the exploits of the Enterprise-A (the new ship that replaces the destroyed Enterprise) as they confront a renegade Vulcan who is attempting to search for God at the center of the universe. While opening big, the film had massive drop-offs in the following weeks due to poor word of mouth and competition from other summer movies like Ghostbusters II and Batman. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier almost killed the franchise for many, but the studio wanted to give the classic crew of the original series one final and proper goodbye.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Released in 1991, 35 years after the premiere of Star Trek: The Original Series , Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was to give the original cast their proper goodbyes. The movie is set in 2293, which makes it 24 years after the events of the original series. The Undiscovered Country acts as the end of the Cold War, but in space, the destruction of the Klingon moon, Praxis, leads the Klingon Empire to pursue peace with their longtime adversary, the Federation. However, a military conspiracy threatens to destroy the potential peace as Kirk is framed for a crime based on his prejudice towards Klingons for killing his son in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .

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Ahead of the release of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, take a look at how all the series in the franchise rank against one another.

The movie ends as a proper conclusion to the original Star Trek series, as the two iconic foes of the Klingons and Federation have now found peace. With the Enterprise set to be decommissioned, Kirk and his crew take one final trip on the ship with the final mission log so that new crews, new ships and more will carry on their legacy, commenting on the future laid out in Star Trek series like The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager .

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Generations (1994)

A passing of the torch film between the crew of the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Generations is the iconic meeting between the two captains, Kirk and Picard . The movie's prologue is set in 2293, shortly after the events of Star Trek VI: The Voyage Home, while the main action of the film is 2371, 78 years later and one year after Star Trek: The Next Generation .

The movie marks the final adventure for William Shatner's incarnation of James Kirk, and while it will not be the last time the character appears thanks to the reboot, it serves as a true end for the original series and full acknowledgment of Star Trek: The Next Generation being the face of the franchise for the 1990s.

Star Trek: Generations is available for streaming on Paramount+

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Set two years after the previous film in 2273, Star Trek: First Contact sees The Borg as the film's primary villain and follows the crew of the Enterprise-D as they pursue the villainous species back in time, with the Borg's primary objective to take over in the past. The film borrows the time travel element of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and primarily is set on April 4, 2023, which is the day before Earth makes contact with alien life and begins the steps for the Federation of Planets to form, thanks to the work of Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell), whose first successful warp drive creation draws the attention of the Vulcans.

Thanks to a heavy marketing push, Star Trek: First Contact was a major box office hit and also received positive reviews from critics, and until the release of 2009's Star Trek, was the best-performing film of the franchise internationally. Fans all over the world now celebrate April 5th as First Contact Day .

Star Trek: First Contact is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

In 2375, Star Trek: Insurrection sees the crew of the Enterprise-D rebel against Starfleet when they discover a conspiracy involving two alien species. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many claiming it lacked the scope of a movie and felt more like an extended episode of television.

The events of Star Trek: Insurrection are taking place around the time of both Star Trek: Voyager and at the end of the story for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and while there are no major references to the events of the series or vice versa, it does show how big the franchise was at this point in time but also how the overexposure and years of continuity were starting to hamper it.

Star Trek: Insurrection is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Star Trek: Nemesis takes place in 2379, meaning it is nine years after the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation and 110 years since the end of the original series. Star Trek: Nemesis sees a clone of Picard (Tom Hardy, in his first movie), created by Romulans, take control of the Romulan Empire and seek war with the Federation.

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The film received poor reviews from critics and was a box office bomb , becoming the lowest-grossing Star Trek film ever and was beaten out in its opening weekend box office by Maid in Manhattan . Combine that with competition from huge movies like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , Die Another Day, and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers during the holiday season, and Star Trek: Nemesis was dead on arrival, marking the final adventure for the crew of The Next Generation until the release of Star Trek: Picard . The film's box office disappointment, combined with the cancelation of Star Trek: Enterprise three years, later marked a quiet point in the franchise , where it would take a big swing to bring the series back.

Star Trek: Nemesis is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek (2009)

Marketed as a prequel, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek is much more. It does show the origins of the original series cast but does so by taking place in an alternate reality that is kicked into motion by Spock from the original series traveling through a wormhole from 2387 (ten years after Star Trek: Nemesis ) that causes the timeline to split. So Star Trek is both a reboot, a prequel, and a sequel, as the events in Star Trek: The Original Series and all the following films need to happen to get Spock into a place to go back and time and create a new timeline, which will be called the Kelvin Timeline after the USS Kelvin, which is the ship at the center of the timeline divergence in 2233.

The great J.J. Abrams movie tells the story of how the crew of the Enterprise comes together, primarily taking place from 2258 to 2259, meaning that by the end of the film, when Kirk takes control of the Enterprise, it is earlier than the original timeline. The film was a surprisingly big success, grossing $386 million and becoming the highest-scoring Star Trek film on Rotten Tomatoes. In addition to the polished production and great effects, the excellent work of the cast was largely responsible for this; as Ty Burr writes in The Boston Globe :

What lifts the Abrams film into the ether is the rightness of its casting and playing, from Saldana's Uhura, finally a major character after all these years, to Urban's loyal, dyspeptic McCoy, to Simon Pegg's grandly comic Scotty, the movie's most radical reimagining of a Star Trek regular.

Star Trek is available for streaming on Hulu and Paramount+.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

With a new timeline in place, Star Trek Into Darkness sees the crew of the Enterprise encounter Khan years earlier, as the destruction of Vulcan causes the Federation to explore space and find Khan and his crew about eight years earlier than the original timeline. Star Trek Into Darkness takes place one year after the 2009 Star Trek , meaning it is 2259. With Khan awakened earlier, and the butterfly effect nature of the timeline is rewritten, Kirk meets Carol Marcus (the mother of his child in the original timeline) earlier, and instead of Spock dying, it is Kirk. Yet Kirk is able to be resurrected much quicker than Spock.

The film ends with Kirk, Spock, and the crew on a rebuilt Enterprise ready to begin their five-year mission, and it is revealed they were waiting a year, meaning, that the five-year mission begins in 2260, six years before the original series. The modern-day cast of these Star Trek movies continues to excel, and the inclusion of a great Benedict Cumberbatch performance as Khan is a highlight.

Star Trek Into Darkness is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

The final film released so far in the Star Trek film series, Star Trek Beyond, is set three years into the Enterprise's five-year mission (a meta-joke about how the original series lasted three seasons). The movie finds Kirk and his Enterprise crew on an unexplored planet, encountering a hostile alien who has ties to the Federation.

Released to tie in with the 50th anniversary of the franchise, Star Trek Beyond serves as the perfect conclusion to the film series so far. When the Spock from the original timeline dies, he leaves the current Spock some of his belongings, which includes a photo of the crew from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . Seeing the life his alternate timeline version had, inspires this version to stay with his crew on a rebuilt Enterprise (this universe's version of Enterprise-A) to continue the adventure in a recently announced fourth film , whose production seems to be encountering several setbacks .

Star Trek Beyond is available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek Films In Release Order

Unlike Star Wars , The MCU, or the X-Men movie series , the release order of Star Trek is the same as the chronological viewing order, making it a straightforward viewing experience. Historically, Star Trek has been a winter franchise, finding great success during the holiday weekends around Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, in recent years, all three Kelvin timeline films were summer releases.

• Movie Lists

Star Trek Movies & Series Chronology

1. Star Trek: Enterprise

2. Star Trek

3. Star Trek

4. Star Trek: Discovery

5. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

6. Star Trek Into Darkness

7. Star Trek: Section 31

8. Star Trek Beyond

9. untitled star trek: beyond sequel.

10. Star Trek

11. Star Trek: The Animated Series

12. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

13. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

14. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

15. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

16. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

17. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

18. Star Trek: The Next Generation

19. Star Trek: Generations

20. Star Trek: First Contact

21. Star Trek: Insurrection

22. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

23. Star Trek: Voyager

24. Star Trek: Nemesis

25. Star Trek: Lower Decks

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How To Watch All Star Trek TV Shows In Timeline Order

Every star trek movie in chronological order, to me, william shatner’s movie star trek v is great comfort food.

• Star Trek's timeline is a complex tapestry that spans over a thousand years, filled with time travel and alternate realities.
• Star Trek: Enterprise chronicles the pioneering voyages of Captain Jonathan Archer, setting the stage for the United Federation of Planets.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine continue the legacy of the original series, shaping the 24th century era.

Star Trek has been one of the premiere science fiction franchises in the world for nearly 60 years, spanning over a dozen TV series consisting of 900+ episodes, and 13 feature films with more on the way. Star Trek' s Prime Timeline now encompasses a thousand years of the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet seeking out strange new worlds, and boldly going where no one has gone before in the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 32nd centuries.

Star Trek has rarely told its stories in a straight, chronological line; time travel tropes, alternate realities, and massive jumps into the future are all commonplace. Star Trek is a multiverse of myriad realities, including an alternate Mirror Universe. The Star Trek timeline is a rich tapestry of compelling characters and science fiction parables - and it's still going strong.

Here is a definitive guide to Star Trek' s timeline, primarily centering on the Prime Universe's Star Trek TV series and feature films in chronological order, including the alternate Kelvin Timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies where noted.

An Untitled Star Trek Origin movie reportedly set "decades before" J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009) is in development, and may end up preceding this entire chronology.

The Star Trek TV franchise has existed for 57 years and consists of 12 shows (and counting). Here's how to watch them all in timeline order.

28 Star Trek: Enterprise

(2151-2155).

Star Trek: Enterprise is, chronologically, the first Star Trek series in the timeline (although technically the 6th produced) chronicling the pioneering 22nd-century voyages of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the NX-01 Enterprise. Archer's Enterprise is Starfleet's first Warp 5-capable starship, which allowed the NX-01 to make pivotal First Contact missions and lay the groundwork for the creation of the United Federation of Planets. Star Trek: Enterprise 's 4 seasons only depict the first few years of Archer's 10-year saga that ends with the first Captain of the Enterprise helping to found the Federation in 2161.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Not available

27 Star Trek: The Original Series - "The Cage"

"The Cage" is the original Star Trek pilot that was rejected by NBC. However, "The Cage" is a canonical story set 2 years before Star Trek: Discovery season 1 and 12 years before Star Trek: The Original Series . Set in 2254, "The Cage" sees Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) and the USS Enterprise lured to Talos IV, where Pike is held captive the planet's illusion-casting inhabitants. Star Trek: The Original Series turned "The Cage" into a two-part episode titled "The Menagerie", and "The Cage" also laid the foundation for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

26 Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1 and 2

(2256-2258).

Star Trek: Discovery begins with a disastrous meeting between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire in 2256, which leads to a long, bloody war that nearly cost the Federation its soul. Centering on Commander Micheal Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Discovery deals with the personal prices of war, as well as the themes of redemption and empathy.

Star Trek: Discovery season 1 depicted the Klingon War, while Discovery season 2 brought in USS Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). When faced with a genocidal artificial intelligence called Control, the crew of the USS Discovery realize the only way to save all organic life in the universe would be to jump to the 32nd century, permanently leaving Star Trek: Discovery' s original 23rd century era behind.

Star Trek: Discovery season 1 also ventured to the 23rd century MIrror Universe for a multi-episode arc.

Star Trek: Discovery

25 star trek, (kelvin timeline 2233/kelvin timeline 2258/2387).

Directed by J.J. Abrams, Star Trek is a reboot that spawns the alternate reality known as the Kelvin Timeline. Star Trek 's main story is set in 2258 of the parallel reality , but the film's branching timeline is made possible by the supernova of the Romulan sun in 2387 in the Prime Universe, which Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is unable to prevent.

The Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana) time travels back to 2233, and his attack on the USS Kelvin ignites an all-new reality that changes the lives of Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew of the USS Enterprise. After Kirk and the Enterprise defeat Nero, they set forth into the great unknown of their new reality.

In the Kelvin Timeline, Kirk and his friends become the crew of the USS Enterprise roughly 7 years before Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew take command of the Enterprise in Star Trek 's Prime Universe.

Star Trek (2009)

24 star trek into darkness, (kelvin timeline 2259).

Set a year after Star Trek 's events, Star Trek Into Darkness sees the crew of the Starship Enterprise take on Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose life has also been massively altered in the Kelvin Timeline. Rather than being discovered by the Enterprise in 2267, Khan's derelict ship was discovered much earlier by Starfleet's Section 31, led by the corrupt Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller). Marcus attempts to use Khan to militarize Starfleet and wage war with the Klingons, but Captain Kirk and the Enterprise defeat both Marcus and Khan.

Star Trek Into Darkness remakes and reverses key elements of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , which takes place 26 years later in the Prime Timeline.

Star Trek Into Darkness

With 13 entries in the Star Trek movie series from 1979-2006, there are a couple of ways to watch the films chronologically.

23 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

(2259-onward).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds begins in 2259, months after Star Trek: Discovery season 2, with Captain Christopher Pike leading the Starship Enterprise on all-new missions of exploration. Strange New Worlds sets the stage for what will eventually become Star Trek: The Original Series , with young versions of Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck), Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), Scotty (Martin Quinn), and even Lieutenant James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) serving on the Enterprise.

Although Pike's tragic future of being horribly disfigured is inevitable, Strange New Worlds fills in the years before Kirk takes over as Captain of the Enterprise with optimism and an anything-goes attitude. Strange New Worlds ' deftness in adapting to different genres, from comedy, to action, to Star Trek 's first musical episode , makes the episodic series the purest Star Trek show in years.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

22 star trek beyond, (kelvin timeline 2263).

Back in the alternate Kelvin Timeline and 3 years into their five-year mission of exploration , the crew of the Starship Enterprise are attacked by the mysterious Krall (Idris Elba). Krall's mechanized drone army destroys the Enterprise, stranding Captain Kirk and his captured crew on the planet Altamid. Kirk and his friends escape with the help of their new ally, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), and they defeat Krall before he destroys Starfleet's USS Yorktown space station. At the end of Star Trek Beyond , Captain Kirk takes command of the new USS Enterprise-A.

Star Trek Beyond is dedicated to Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, who passed away in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Star Trek Beyond

21 star trek: the original series, (2266-2269).

The Star Trek show that started it all, Star Trek: The Original Series chronicles the first three years of Captain James T. Kirk and the USS Enterprise's historic five-year mission of exploration, starting in 2266. The original Star Trek is an all-time classic, establishing the core tropes of the franchise, from starships, to beaming down to planets, to the unbreakable three-way friendship between Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Star Trek: The Original Series would not only be emulated by every other Star Trek that followed, but it would also become an enduring part of pop culture.

Star Trek: The Original Series

20 star trek: the animated series, (2269-2270).

While Star Trek: The Original Series was unceremoniously canceled after its third season, the show would go on to become a phenomenon in syndication. The first hint that Star Trek would outlive its somewhat humble beginnings was Star Trek: The Animated Series , an Emmy-winning cartoon that aimed for a family-friendly vibe without sacrificing what made the live-action original Star Trek work. Star Trek: The Animated Series is essentially the fourth season of Star Trek: The Original Series , and its status as canon has been made official by its numerous references in Star Trek on Paramount+'s shows .

Gene Roddenberry did not consider Star Trek: The Animated Series to be official canon, which made the cartoon apocryphal for decades.

19 Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the first feature film that launched Star Trek as a successful movie franchise . Set in the 2270s, years after the USS Enterprise's five-year mission ended, Admiral James T. Kirk takes command of his starship once more and reunites his crew to intercept a threat to Earth. Star Trek: The Motion Picture reunited the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Serie s for a ponderously-paced adventure that had the virtue of dazzling visual effects . But Star Trek: The Motion Picture proved the human adventure was, indeed, just beginning.

18 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, still widely considered the gold standard of Star Trek films, picks up Admiral Kirk's saga in 2285. A sequel to the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Space Seed", Admiral Kirk faces a midlife crisis just as his old enemy, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricado Montalban) steals both the USS Reliant and the Genesis Device super weapon to seek revenge on Kirk. Star Trek II ends with the sacrifice and death of Spock, but opens the door for the Vulcan's resurrection and much more.

17 Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

Set immediately after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock finds Admiral Kirk and friends stealing the USS Enterprise in an effort to save Spock's katra - his soul - after the wily Vulcan transferred it to Dr. McCoy just before his death. The crew would eventually save Spock, but at great cost; Kirk would not only lose his son, David Marcus (Merritt Burrick) , to a Klingon attack, but the Starship Enterprise is destroyed to prevent it from falling into Klingon hands. Thankfully, Kirk succeeds in bringing back Spock.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is the first film directed by Leonard Nimoy.

16 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

(2286/1986).

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Hom e takes place in 2286 , months after Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . Or, at least, the 23rd century bookends of the movie do. The bulk of Star Trek IV is set in 1986 San Francisco, where Admiral Kirk and the former crew of the USS Enterprise time travel in order to find two humpback whales to bring back to the future in order to save Earth. A delightful, fish-out-of-water, time travel romp, Star Trek IV proved a Star Trek movie doesn't need action, violence, and death to be a mainstream success.

Kirk is demoted to Captain and given command of the USS Enterprise-A at the conclusion of Star Trek IV.

15 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Directed by William Shatner, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier begins with the malfunctioning USS Enterprise-A less than a year out of space dock . But Captain Kirk and crew are still called into action when a mysterious Vulcan named Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) takes a group of diplomats hostage, demanding a starship in exchange for their release. Sybok would be revealed as Spock's half-brother who seeks God on the fabled planet Sha Ka Ree. When "God" (George Murdock) turns out to be a malevolent alien, Sybok sacrifices himself so that Kirk and Spock can destroy the false Almighty.

William Shatner's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a comforting watch with enjoyable banter, a compelling villain in Sybok, and good intentions.

14 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is set in 2293 when the Klingon moon Praxis' explosion leaves the Klingon Empire in dire financial straits. But a conspiracy within the Federation, the Romulans, and Klingons seek to prevent peace, and Captain Kirk is framed for the assassination of Klingon High Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) . Star Trek VI is the final voyage of Captain Kirk's USS Enterprise crew, and its Klingon-centric story sets the stage for the future friendship between the Klingons and the Federation in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

13 Star Trek: Section 31

Star Trek: Section 31 , which stars Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, is Star Trek 's first movie made for streaming on Paramount+. While the story of Section 31 is top-secret, the movie is a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, taking place after Yeoh's Emperor Philippa Georgiou exited the 32nd century . Georgiou reappears in the "lost era" of Star Trek 's early 24th century , although there could be more time travel involved in Star Trek: Section 31 as Philippa confronts the sins of her own past.

Star Trek: Section 31

12 star trek: the next generation, (2364-2370).

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the pillar and foundation of Star Trek 's popular 24th-century era . TNG follows the voyages of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the Galaxy Class USS Enterprise-D. TNG is Star Trek to an entire generation of fans, and the series produced some of the greatest Star Trek episodes of all-time . Expanding the universe and canon in myriad ways, and nominated for a Best Dramatic Series Emmy, Star Trek: The Next Generation was a massive hit in first-run syndication and solidified Star Trek as an A-list franchise for most of the 1990s.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

11 star trek: deep space nine, (2369-2375).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would break new ground for the Star Trek franchise in more ways than one. DS9 starred Avery Brooks as Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko, the first Black actor to lead a Star Trek series. Taking command of a former Cardassian space station Starfleet renamed Deep Space Nine, Sisko would interact with a vast cavalcade of characters that would deepen the Star Trek universe in countless ways. Culminating with the epic Dominion War saga that reshaped the galaxy, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a fundamentally important part of the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine began as a spinoff of Star Trek: The Next Generation and carried on in syndication after TNG jumped to feature films.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

10 star trek: voyager, (2371-2378).

Star Trek: Voyager was the flagship series of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and continues the 24th-century era of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , but with a twist: Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the USS Voyager were stranded in the uncharted Delta Quadrant. Voyager's seven-year journey home created a new generation of fans (girls and women, especially) and saw the introduction of numerous new alien species and characters, as well as the return of the Borg. Voyager ended with Janeway, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the Doctor (Robert Picardo), and its other characters as bona fide Star Trek icons.

Star Trek: Voyager

9 star trek generations, (2371/2293).

Star Trek Generations ' main story takes place in 2371, months after the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, Star Trek Generations begins with a prologue set in 2293 where Captain James T. Kirk is believed to be killed during the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B. Kirk survives within the interdimensional Nexus, where he meets Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who is out to stop a madman named Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) from destroying the Veridian star system.

Kirk and Picard's team-up defeats Soran but results in Kirk's tragic death . Meanwhile, a Klingon plot leads to the destruction of the USS Enterprise-D. Star Trek Generations was a successful transition by TNG to feature films so that the 24th century era of Star Trek continued on television and in movie theaters.