Ranking the Star Trek Movie Directors

[Steve Gennarelli]

I think the best director was Leonard Nimoy only because he made 2 of the best films
in the series - the underrated "The Search for Spock" and "The Voyage Home", the most accessible Trek film.
Nicholas Meyer would be a close 2nd for having (along with Harve Bennett) the ability to bring the series back to life again with TWOK and for making a fine closing film for the original cast in ST: TUC.
JJ Abrams would be my next best director for his 2 excellent installments of the new series of films.
Jonathan Frakes would be next for making one very fine Trek film with "First Contact" and one quite mediocre one in "Insurrection".
The rest of the directors...David Carson with the help of legendary cinematographer John Alonzo did a fine job of giving "Generations" an epic look.
Robert Wise, a true Hollywood legend, was not a good fit, IMO, to be a "Star Trek" director. I think its quite obvious he didn't know what made the TV show a classic and in his defense, he was working with a producer, Gene Roddenberry, who also didn't know how to bring the greatness of "Star Trek" to the big screen.
William Shatner's direction of "TFF" was not the problem with that film. The story that Bill decided on was the problem and there was no possible payoff that could have satisfied movie goers after giving them the premise of "Star Trek meets God...or does it ???"
Lin and Baird may be fine, competent directors but their films to me were both fairly pedestrian and forgettable.

 

[Vger23]

In the spirit of judging pure based on my perception of their directorial capability and effectiveness, and not making a statement about which film I thought was better:

Wise
Abrams
Lin
Shatner
Meyer
Carson
Nimoy
Frakes
Baird

 

[somebuddyX]

I'm not doing a list but I remember liking the look of what Abrams, Lin, Shatner and Baird did, whereas I can't remember anything particularly memorable about Wise, Frakes, Nimoy or Carson's work. I think Nick Meyer is my favourite Trek director and there's a lot of simple things he does that in his films that I really enjoy.

 

[DS9ers]

Meyer
Abrams
Lin
Nimoy
Frakes
Wise
Carson
Baird
Shatner

 

[publiusr]

Meyer
Nimoy
Wise
Lin
Abrams
Carson
Baird
Shatner

 

[diankra]

Surely the director has input into the scripts (Wise, Meyer, Nimoy, Shatner and Frakes all did, maybe not Carson so much)?. In which case, Baird shares responsibility for script flaws.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Jonathan Frakes
JJ Abrams
Robert Wise
Leonard Nimoy
Nicholas Meyer
David Carson
Shatner, Lin and Baird

 

[BigDaveX]

Surely the director has input into the scripts (Wise, Meyer, Nimoy, Shatner and Frakes all did, maybe not Carson so much)?. In which case, Baird shares responsibility for script flaws.

I don't think Baird was even hired until the screenplay was more or less locked down, and neither was Carson for that matter. That being said, Baird does deserve some share of the blame for how the film's story turned out, but in the sense that he trimmed out character and expositional scenes during editing, in favour of making the film more action-oriented.

 

[Hey Missy]

Generations and Nemesis are the only TNG movies that look and feel cinematic.

 

[Smellmet]

Generations and Nemesis are the only TNG movies that look and feel cinematic.

Agreed. Especially Generations.

 

[Cγrano Mudd]

Wise
Meyer
Shatner
Nimoy

And really, only Shatner and Nimoy by default.

Why Shatner over Nimoy? I think Shatner had a better command of blocking, mobile staging and moving camera than Nimoy showed. Not everything fell together perfectly, but the vision and ambition of V had a lot more visual character. I don't think Nimoy was a bad director. I did think that III and IV were shot very pedestrian-ly: too straight and conservatively by comparison.

I don't care much for Next Generation and think the movies were nothing more than fluff. With the exception of the big, action-y First Contact!

Which was, of course, just fluff. But fun!

 

[Hey Missy]

Agreed. Especially Generations.

I was watching the battle scenes from Nemesis and I was amazed how they were actually making a movie and not an overblown TV episode. The camera work, the sets, the extras being bounced around, giving you the impression that the Enterprise is a busy ship full of busy people... it's just that the rest of the movie is kind of, well, boring.

 

[Sybok Was Wrong]

Shatner
Meyer for VI
Nimoy for IV
Wise

 

[KennyB]

Meyer
Lin
Abrams
Frakes
Wise
Nimoy
Shatner
Carson
Baird

 

[Armus]

Robert Wise is the best overall. Then Nicholas Meyer, mainly for TWOK. I can't really be too objective when it comes to the newer films. That being said I truly dislike the style of filmmaking that one sees in Abram's and Lin's work. When it comes to action and space battles, there's too many cuts, too much CGI, and too much thrown at the audience. I'd like to see someone like Denis Villeneuve or the gentlemen who directed Rogue One direct a Star Trek. Heck, Ridley Scott would be a perfect director for the right script.