Favorite 23rd century era Star Trek Movies?

[Arpy]

Arrival, Interstellar, Contact, Ex Machina, and others show that sci-fi along with drama can work. I feel like Trek, burned by the shortcomings of TMP, stayed too far away from that sort of thing. The movies are mostly action or fantasy flicks, less like the series.

 

[Qonundrum]

TMP, TWOK, TSTS, TUC, GEN, BEYOND

Honorable mention: TFF

(STID had some good moments despite magic blood on the magic starship bus, but 2009 was laughable.)

TVH is just a glorified "romcom" that also lampoons character stereotypes but, as bad as TFF was in spots, TFF had more standout scenes about not being indoctrinated, what God needs with a starship, and TFF did improve by leaps and bounds after it canned the comedy routine. The comedy killed it more than anything else, and the writers were told to make it funny because of the baleful influence of TVH.

 

[UnknownSample]

I voted for the Nicholas Meyer directed films. They're just the most watchable imho, & there's a solid reason why they bookend the series of films that took place after they changed things up, post-TMP

I don't want to bash TMP, because it's great in some ways, but it's the least watchable imho, because it suffers from being too self-important. It's trying too hard to be the lofty high art that its creator & its fanbase had begun considering it, at that time.

Now, a lot was sacrificed in the move that happened between TMP & TWoK, because it switched from an event based concept to a character based one. TWoK & pretty much everything that came after for them, are not telling stories of discovery or sci-fi phenomena, the same way the series did.

Okay, I like that observation. I want that back, that Corbomite Maneouver kind of focus on the unknown. Thanks for noting a moment when the approach changed.
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TMP was awful for me because it was such a light, hollow, empty copy of other, far better SF. The look was Star Wars. We take for granted that Industrial Light and Magic visual style, but it was very particular to SW then. The whole thing is a redo of 2001 as if they expect us not to notice. The stuff around the ship was stuff, no jaw dropping Star Gate. The ideas and dialogue are so spare and simple. However, the acting is better than in any of the others.

 

[Mojochi]

Okay, I like that observation. I want that back, that Corbomite Maneouver kind of focus on the unknown. Thanks for noting a moment when the approach changed.

That has been a longstanding divide with the fan base. Some fans are not as fond of the character driven TOS film formula as they are the series' format. Others tend to prefer the former to the latter. I kind of see the value in both, which is why I like TNG, because they were trying to find a happy medium of character development, discovery sci-fi, & episodic principles. It was a hard & somewhat unique mix to explore, that the later series abandoned for more character based & story arc stuff

But clearly, character arcing or development was embraced by the main stream audience, because that was the direction it went, full steam, by the time of DS9, & that all began with us learning more about that 1st crew in their 9 hours of cinema that began with TWoK

 

[bolak]

TMP is the only one that I bought on DVD. I usually rewatch it between Christmas and New Year, it just feels like that kind of film. I can relax without worrying about work or schedule and enjoy the spectacle.

I saw everything from TVH to Generations in the cinema and I used to watch them when they'd appear on TV but only TSFS and TFF really engaged me.

I haven't seen any Abrams-Trek and really don't have any interest in it.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

BEY, TUC and TVH. (TWOK comes just after these, but it's never been a favorite for me). I agree the movies have focused too much on action and I want to see more sci-fi style a la Interstellar, Arrival, etc, in future movies. But the fact of the matter is that ninety percent of what we have to choose from here is action oriented and the other ten percent just wasn't very well done. So these three are the ones that engaged me the most and I thought most succesfully combined the action/fun with the heart/character relationships.

 

[Lance]

Now, a lot was sacrificed in the move that happened between TMP & TWoK, because it switched from an event based concept to a character based one.

they instead gear those films primarily around being character driven.

More character growth happens to those people in the 9 hours of film between TWoK & TUC than in the entirety of the 79 televised episodes they appeared in

These are interesting observations, and also reflect a trend I believe a lot of long running shows/franchises ultimately evolve, mainly that the narrative focus changes from situational ("What will our heroes encounter this week?"), to character based ("How does what they encounter personally affect them?"). Coupled with serialization, that leads to The Soap Opera Effect™. The Trek movies certainly show signs of this by comparison to the series, and TNG onwards made it a hallmark of the franchise's storytelling (perhaps only TNG's first few seasons balance that out more between actually growing the characters and having action-adventure plots).

It was most striking to me in 2005 when the modern incarnation of Doctor Who premiered, and my most immediate impression of the storytelling style shift was that the older series was about Adventures In Time and Space, the Doctor and his friends landing in a new situation every story and sorting it all out without developing a personal attachment or involvement, whereas all of the stories in the modern incarnation had to have some kind of personal stake or growth for the main characters, or most particularly, a roster of semi-regular family members to tie the characters into that.

Not saying one style is particularly better than another, but they are different approaches to writing a narrative.

 

[Mojochi]

These are interesting observations, and also reflect a trend I believe a lot of long running shows/franchises ultimately evolve, mainly that the narrative focus changes from situational ("What will our heroes encounter this week?"), to character based ("How does what they encounter personally affect them?"). Coupled with serialization, that leads to The Soap Opera Effect™. The Trek movies certainly show signs of this by comparison to the series, and TNG onwards made it a hallmark of the franchise's storytelling (perhaps only TNG's first few seasons balance that out more between actually growing the characters and having action-adventure plots).

It was most striking to me in 2005 when the modern incarnation of Doctor Who premiered, and my most immediate impression of the storytelling style shift was that the older series was about Adventures In Time and Space, the Doctor and his friends landing in a new situation every story and sorting it all out without developing a personal attachment or involvement, whereas all of the stories in the modern incarnation had to have some kind of personal stake or growth for the main characters, or most particularly, a roster of semi-regular family members to tie the characters into that.

Not saying one style is particularly better than another, but they are different approaches to writing a narrative.

Well said. I think it's also really a sign of the times. The audience had changed by then & even more so now. Episodic/situational was the main thing for a LOT back then. Whereas, now you even have a character like Sherlock Holmes being the subject of BBC's Sherlock, but the show is barely about the crime solving, & is heavily invested in the relationships & their development. It's honestly the selling point of their product imho, but that surely isn't the origins of that character, & some people balk at it for that reason. I'm not one of them.

I can see the value in both. The only problem is that once you decide to steer away from the situational or episodic, in lieu of the character dynamics, there's really no going back

 

[Lance]

Its even true of sitcoms. I kind of think the days of the cliche studio sitcom with no character growth and a very specific set of well worn feelgood tropes feels kinda passe in an era post-Scrubs, post-Office, post-Parks And Recreation, where the character focus is almost the whole point. But then, there are probably still good examples of both.

 

[UnknownSample]

I think characters are fleshed out and dealt with better economically, as you see them dealing with some alien phenomenon etc which is the focus. We don't necessarily understand characters better from spending much more screen time on their family, career ambitions, etc.. It's quality of information rather than quantity.

I felt I knew the characters thoroughly from TOS. In the films, I had far less of an idea who these people were.

Look at all the character we got in Corbomite.

As for Dr Who, I felt I got to know Sarah Jane Smith better than Clara Oswald, say.

 

[Lance]

I think characters are fleshed out and dealt with better economically, as you see them dealing with some alien phenomenon etc which is the focus. We don't necessarily understand characters better from spending much more screen time on their family, career ambitions, etc.. It's quality of information rather than quantity.

I felt I knew the characters thoroughly from TOS. In the films, I had far less of an idea who these people were.

Look at all the character we got in Corbomite.

As for Dr Who, I felt I got to know Sarah Jane Smith better than Clara Oswald, say.

I'm a fan of The Bill, and fundamentally feel like they had a much better grasp on being able to flesh out their characters realistically through the early seasons when stories were strictly about the cases the cops investigated, than later years when the focus strayed inevitably from "who are these people through the prism of their work?", to instead be about their private lives and personal interactions with the work aspect being almost in the background to the 'character' stuff.

 

[Tim Thomason]

The Undiscovered Country, hands down. No second choice needed.