No, I'm not talking about Star Trek I – III, I'm talking about parts II, III, and IV.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first film, wasn't a good movie. It wanted to be Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and instead of action gave us long, slow shots, philosophy, tried to build drama in the same was as 2001. It was an interesting experiment, but it just didn't work. The costumes sucked too.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is where things really got going. It was a great revenge piece, bringing back a villain from the original series, and set the two against each other in an epic adventure that hearkened back to the original series episode "A Balance of Power" and is still often considered the best Star Trek film of them all.
The third film, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was less good, but still ok. It was an adventure that was much more like the campy TV series than the second movie had been. It took itself too seriously at times. But it did feature a fantastic scene when Kirk sacrifices the Enterprise to strike a blow against his enemy. It is often ranked in the middle of Trek films. Not great, but not bad by any means.
The fourth film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a much more light-hearted adventure. It was silly and fun, but all of this worked wonderfully well in the story they crafted, making this one of the most successful Trek films and one of the most beloved, often ranking 2 or 3 in all time best lists. This movie had a lot of great gags. One of my favorites was with Scotty and Bones:
The second through fourth films are linked in a way that none of the other Trek films are, leading many fans think of them as a trilogy. The second film ended with the Enterprise severely damaged from their fight with Khan. This leads directly into the third film, which opens with them returning from the Khan battle to have the ship repaired. They then (for reasons) steal the Enterprise and become fugitives. As mentioned above, the film involves the destruction of the Enterprise. Kirk and gang then steal a Klingon ship after they beat the movie baddie and they go to the planet Vulcan where the movie ends. The fourth film then opens with them still on Vulcan, voting to return to Earth in their stolen Klingon ship to face court martial. Then they launch into adventure from there.
The way that the three films flow into each other, making them more like one adventure cut into three parts, was fairly innovated for the time. Nowadays TV shows are one giant continuous story for an entire season, either each episode just giving us one thin slice of the story, and some movies lean in this direction too, but at the time this was a rare thing.
The fifth and sixth films returned to the single episode format, as did all the TNG films. The new films were somewhat linked, but still mostly in the episode format. This makes leaves these three original Star Trek films still in a somewhat unique spot in the series.
I think they still hold up. I don't just say that as a Trek fan (a Trek fan of the original and the TNG casts anyway). They are fun movies with engaging stories. If you are looking for three good films to watch, I might suggest you go back and give these three a look.
What do you think? If you are a Trek fan, do you agree?
| David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |
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