What is the Worst Trek Film?

[CoveTom]

I dunno. I don't think Leonard Nimoy's direction is particularly inspired, compared to Nicholas Meyer or even William Shatner.

TSFS is a fine story and it is directed very competently. But there's nothing beyond competence there on the screen, IMHO. Again, I'm not talking about the story or the technical abilities of those involved. I mean in the way it was shot -- camera angles, lighting, editing, all the areas a director is involved in beyond the story and the acting.

TWOK was made on a much smaller budget than either TSFS or TVH. TVH even shot most of its scenes on location. Yet, TWOK feels more like a feature film to me than TSFS or TVH. Both of those feel like they're constructed as television episodes.

Even Shatner with his much decried TFF shot the thing, with no doubt tremendous assistance from cinematography great Andrew Laszlo, very cinematically. Nimoy did not.

 

[Ssosmcin]

It is pretty no-nonsense in that sort of way, but Nimoy did have some good shots; the whole bit in Spock's quarters; the mind meld scene with Kirk and Sarek; the destruction sequence and, most of all, Nimoy was the only director in the films to get such an amazing performance out of Shatner. The shock in hearing of David's death was well played when he stumbled and the anguish in his voice, for that one line before he reined it back in was, frankly, Shatner's best work.

Was Nimoy into flash and odd camera angles? Nope, he is a director who lets his actors carry the scene, unless the scene calls for more radical graphic intervention. Not for anything, Nick Meyer's work wasn't all that flashy either. It was grittier, darker, but he wasn't big on wacky angles and zooms either.

I do agree, TFF's camera work was incredible, some of the best in the series.

 

[CobraCommander]

I love how a movie with bad FX, terrible attempts at comedy, mocks most of the crew, no clear villain or point of view, no climax of any weight or excitement, embarrassing technical errors, mocks the ship, no decent parts for the guest actors---is somehow superior to some of the next gen movies just because they feature the original 'big 3' having a few nice exchanges that take up about 10 minutes of the movie.

It could have been argued that ST V and ST I were toss ups for the worst of the Trek films (by ranking) until 1994. Although I voted for Insurrection, I feel that all of the TNG films were a let down. FC has plot holes and inconsistancies (like the captain saying there are 24 decks when there are 26) and Picard being shown as an action star who gets a thrill out of murdering his own crew. This contradicted the Picard of the TNG series and proved that Starfleet was right about its hesitation for him to engage the Borg. Even with this, it was the first post ST VI film that felt like a movie and it had a great looking bridge when compared to Nemesis. Generations felt like a 2 hour TV special (excluding the beginning which felt like a movie). Insurrection felt more like a space Woodstock and the Sona were not explained out.. just villified. Nemisis was weak. What did the Romulans traitors expect with Shinzon? Didn't they want the Federation defeated? Why would they let Shinzon build the Scimitar or not watch the Remans close enough?

 

[Myasishchev]

It is pretty no-nonsense in that sort of way, but Nimoy did have some good shots; the whole bit in Spock's quarters; the mind meld scene with Kirk and Sarek; the destruction sequence and, most of all, Nimoy was the only director in the films to get such an amazing performance out of Shatner. The shock in hearing of David's death was well played when he stumbled and the anguish in his voice, for that one line before he reined it back in was, frankly, Shatner's best work.

It's great to see someone else who thinks this.

Picard being shown as an action star who gets a thrill out of murdering his own crew

Didn't it seem especially bad form, considering that, in BoBW, his crew risked all to save him, but he didn't even bother trying to return the favor?

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I took the line when he said, "Trust me, you'll be doing them a favor" as saying, "quite frankly, I wish you'd just killed me..."

 

[cooleddie74]

There's a lot of psychological turmoil going on with Picard in FC that is easy to appreciate...and miss if you aren't paying close attention.

 

[Myasishchev]

I took the line when he said, "Trust me, you'll be doing them a favor" as saying, "quite frankly, I wish you'd just killed me..."

Seems so, but it doesn't excuse his duty to his crew. If he really wished he'd died, he has full run of the weapons locker. And any de-assimilated crew--or, for that matter, de-assimilated run-of-the-mill Borg drones--can always kill themselves later, too, if it turns out saving them was a bad idea.

Picard could raise a cogent defense for military necessity, but otherwise he doesn't have the moral or legal authority to kill his own crew solely because they've been captured or assimilated.

I am, however, not arguing it was bad characterization (Picard freaking out is FC's only saving grace, well, him and Zefram Cochrane), but rather about the rightness and lawfulness of his behavior.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Generations, by far. The best to come out because of it was the Shatnerverse novels, each and every one of which is better than GEN.

After that, it'd had to be Insurrection, for being such a blatant tv-movie-of-the-week, The Final Frontier for really not living up to any of its potential, and to a lesser degree Nemesis for blowing up some real potential.

I love the rest of them.

 

[Jeyl]

I voted Nemesis.

I was going to vote Generations, but that movie, even with it's lot holes that suck as hard as a black hole, it felt more like a real TNG outing than any of the later TNG films.

To be quite honest, I was 'this' close to voting for Star Trek First Contact. Everything with Picard and the Borg were spot on. What kills this movie is Zefram Cochrane. Everything about his character and the execution behind his warp flight was just dumb. Nuclear missle being converted into a starship? That's almost as bad as Tom Paris being able to develop the technobabble of traveling at Warp 10.

Insurrection. This was the worst Trek film for me at the time. Everything from Picard and crew risking their careers for a group of selfish immortals was such a stab in the gut. And the lack of Industrial Light and Magic's presence was seriously missed. I did like the beardless Riker though.

Nemesis. Oh, gee. Where to start. We have everything going wrong with this movie. Retconning previous established lore, redesigning the Enterprise E to be more like a warship* when it wasn't needed, putting in "ENTERPRISE" references, phasers that need to be 'locked and loaded', nobody bringing up Lore, putting plasma touch screens on the bridge (They look low tech in comparison to everything before it), the horrible Dune Buggy chase sequence that did nothing for the movie ect. It's just bad. Really bad.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I dunno, I ik NEM quite a bit.

And the Picard-Data scene where Data advices Picard about humanity (for a change) is better than anything in either GEN or INS.

 

[Thor Damar]

Generations, what a pointless film that was! Nemesis didn't come last only because the Romulans where in it.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I wish people wouldn't rip on First Contact. We've only got one great Next Generation movie...don't try to take that away from us! Only "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Star Trek V", and "Nemesis" are so unwatchable that I can't even get through them due to their cheesiness/awfulness. "Generations", "Insurrection", and "The Search for Spock" are just mediocre, but they have their moments. I think the rest are excellent, top-notch filmmaking (although the prison stuff in "Star Trek VI" was an unfortunate detour that almost sank the movie). Of the three really bad ones, I think "Final Frontier" is the worst. "The Motion Picture" is just boring, and Nemesis is an uninspired story with a villain whose evilness is forced with a convoluted and unconvincing backstory, but at least they're decently made and have some decent moments of nostalgic and dramatic value. "Final Frontier" is just painfully irritating and incoherent from start to finish.

 

[Stardate]

I wish people wouldn't rip on First Contact. We've only got one great Next Generation movie...don't try to take that away from us!

Fair enough. You are right First Contact is the best TNG crew movie but then you take unnecessary rip shot at Star Trek: The Motion Picture(my favorite) being unwatchable & boring and put it in same category as TFF & NEM. If that is all you saw in TMP, then you clearly missed out on the film's beauty.
First Contact had a lot of potential(great opening scene). But as usual the potential is not realized.
Unfortunately we get time travel again. It is my firm opinion that time travel is the worst plot device in history of plot devices in Star Trek franchise(specially in the movies). This is Star Trek not Time Trek.
This time a around the Borg can do it. If they possess this technology then surely they would have assimilated every planet in the galaxy already. Why travel all the way to Earth (in a single cube again) fight a battle, lose and then go back in time? Why not go back in time before entering Federation space and then travel to Earth thus meeting no resistance on the way?
This film could have been so much better if they'd dispensed with the Time Travel and kept it gritty and realistic in the 24th century.

 

[I am not Spock]

I wish people wouldn't slash into FC either, Too Much Fun. That's one of my favourite Trek movies, and definitely the best of the TNG cast movies.

I'm glad some others here enjoy TSFS. That's one of my faves, too. I agree that William Shatner gives his best performance in that film. The scene when he reacts to David's murder is great.

 

[I am not Spock]

There isn't that much time travel in the Trek movies.

Only TVH, FC, and the upcoming XI (maybe GEN counts as well) involve the plot device. 4 out of 11 ain't bad.

 

[Stardate]

TVH, TFC & XI have time travel in them. 3 out of 11 is way too much. .

 

[Too Much Fun]

I'm surprised someone would criticize the use of time travel in Star Trek, as a lot of the best episodes have featured it heavily. Did you not enjoy the time travel elements of "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Time Squared", "Cause and Effect", and "Yesterday's Enterprise"? It was little more clunky and silly in "Time's Arrow" and "Tomorrow is Yesterday" (although I enjoy that episode's silliness), but with those first episodes I mentioned and the two most successful movies having time travel stories, I think there are more examples in Star Trek canon of time travel being used creatively and entertainingly than there are of it being something detrimental to a story. And I can admit to being a little harsh about "The Motion Picture". I'm willing to accept that it's a lot better than I give it credit for because I only tried to watch it once and just couldn't finish it because I got so sick of looking at endless special effects scenes. If I could watch the whole thing, I might appreciate it more and see the merit in it that you see.

 

[cooleddie74]

TVH, TFC & XI have time travel in them. 3 out of 11 is way too much. .

Technically, GENERATIONS has it as well. The Nexus allows Kirk to travel from 2293 to 2371 with barely batting an eye. That's forward time travel even if its not through a conventional portal or anomaly.

 

[Stardate]

Technically, GENERATIONS has it as well. The Nexus allows Kirk to travel from 2293 to 2371 with barely batting an eye. That's forward time travel even if its not through a conventional portal or anomaly.[/

Good point.

I'm surprised someone would criticize the use of time travel in Star Trek, as a lot of the best episodes have featured it heavily. Did you not enjoy the time travel elements of "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Time Squared", "Cause and Effect", and "Yesterday's Enterprise"?

Like i said. This is supposed to be Star Trek and not Time Trek. I have only seen "The City on the Edge of Forever" & Yesterday's Enterprise". I enjoyed them both. Having perhaps one to three time travel episodes out of 79 TOS episodes is acceptable but not in the movies.
I have always felt that time travel in Star Trek is plot device to connect 23-24th century to our time, a kind of filter episode. Its hard for me to explain this better then this. I am not a big fan of time travel in Star Trek.

 

[QuasarVM]

Insurrection.

Could never get over the joystick and the Kling-zit.

Nemesis is terrible too...but Insurrection wins for me.