Which Original Series Movie was the Best

[Shalashaska]

I'm not talking about TMP fans.

I'm talking about those people who say the new films and TWoK aren't Trek just because they have lots of action. They have Star Trek in their title? Then they're Star Trek.

 

[BillJ]

I'm not talking about TMP fans.

I'm talking about those people who say the new films and TWoK aren't Trek just because they have lots of action. They have Star Trek in their title? Then they're Star Trek.

Those folks are loud, but few and far between. You'll find the majority of Trek fans enjoy a healthy mix.

 

[Longinus]

Who has this belief? My favorite Trek movie is TMP followed by Into Darkness.

Well, those are certainly interesting choices. Whatever one thinks of either of those films, they couldn't be more different.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I imagine the "Star Trek must have no action" choir is pretty small and obviously doesn't include Gene Roddenberry.

Well, it didn't include 1966 Gene Roddenberry, at any rate. 1979 GR might be a different story.

 

[BillJ]

1979 GR might be a different story.

Not sure that dude was Gene Roddenberry!

 

[Mage]

I'm not talking about TMP fans.

I'm talking about those people who say the new films and TWoK aren't Trek just because they have lots of action. They have Star Trek in their title? Then they're Star Trek.

Never said TWOK wasn't Trek. I said TUC and TMP feel like Star Trek more than the others do to me. And that TWOK and FC feel more like generic action flicks. Sure, the others are Trek simply for being called Star Trek. But when it comes to the vibe.... Just like the episodes. Some really hit the core of what Star Trek is to me, others, not so much.

 

[Amaris]

The Voyage Home, but man that was a tough choice. My personal favorite is The Final Frontier for obvious reasons (if you've read my explanations before), but I absolutely love TVH, and so it gets my vote.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

My vote goes to The Wrath of Khan.

 

[Vger23]

The Voyage Home, but man that was a tough choice. My personal favorite is The Final Frontier for obvious reasons (if you've read my explanations before), but I absolutely love TVH, and so it gets my vote.

I love TFF as well sometimes I feel like I'm the only one. Haha!

 

[Lucky]

I've always been the most fond of The Voyage Home.

 

[Galileo7]

Only 48 hours for TFF to get a vote.


TFF got a vote.

 

[Admiral2]

How is this a question?

TWoK, of course...

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

voyage home.

 

[RunawayStarShip]

I actually like all of the TOS movies.

1) TMP

This remains the most ambitious Star Trek movie, but it has issues with execution (thanks to well-documented problems in trying to get everything done on time). It has a sense of mystery and creepiness that draws me in whenever I watch it. While the character dynamics initially seem off, by the end of the film, I more or less recognize everyone from TOS, especially Kirk. Remove any other movie from the movie franchise, and I don't think Star Trek as a whole would suffer as much as if you removed TMP. It's unique. I think most fans, even if they don't like TMP, at least have respect for the film.

2) TWOK

I think TV Tropes has mentioned that TWOK is really a deconstruction of TOS, and it works well on film. I think its strengths have been discussed to death.

3) TUC

It's a murder mystery IN SPACE!!! Even though The Simpsons would joke about "Star Trek XII: So Very, Very Tired" in 1992, TUC actually feels like the most energetic of the TOS films. What dings it are the out-of-character moments of the TOS crew (like Uhura not knowing Klingon... seriously? Or how about the bigoted views on Klingons that the crew have to make an easy parable about the wrongheadedness of prejudice?). Still, it's entertaining and overall a strong entry in the movie franchise.

4) TSFS

This is like the middle child of the TOS movies. It's a solid movie. All I can say is that I just like TMP, TWOK, and TUC more.

5) TFF

There must be an alternate reality where executive meddling didn't force unnecessary humor into the movie and allowed a bigger budget thanks to the success of TVH. Between silly and out-of-character moments to the unnecessarily-hobbled Enterprise, plus terrible special effects (truly, those effects were "special"), it detracts from what could have been a good movie. There are the makings of a good movie in there. It just never really gets a chance to show itself. Luckinbill as Sybok is probably the only nice madman (and convincingly so!) in the entire Star Trek multiverse, though, so there's that.

6) TVH

TVH is a fish-out-of-water comedy that is both funny and cringeworthy. I don't mind watching it if it's on, but I've never purposefully brought it out of my DVD collection to watch. The climax where Kirk has to blow the hatches is difficult to watch and know what's going on thanks to minimal lighting underwater. At least Starfleet somehow managed to hide the Enterprise-A behind the Excelsior for a cool reveal, so there's that.

 

[BillJ]

In my opinion, The Voyage Home seems to have aged the worst out of the TOS movies. Still fun to watch from time to time.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

*sigh*

TWoK is absolutely Trek.

I hate this belief that "real" Star Trek has to have zero action and must be boring. TWoK is just as much Trek, if not more, than TMP.

They are revisionist fans; how easy it is for this thankfully small group to forget how in 1979 ST fans--the fans who knew ST inside and out from the start--believed TMP was the opposite of the established tone, character relationships, and general story direction of the series, hence their widespread rejection of the film. Some called it a cross between "The Changeling" & "The Doomsday Machine," but that is a disservice to those episodes, as TMP lacked heart, any sense of true emotional involvement from the threat to the characters, and interesting solutions to the problems faced.. Moreover, the dynamic relationships formed in TOS were completely absent in TMP--it was like watching Movieland Wax Museum figures who could never be ST, other than "in name only."

TMP being slow and having little action doesn't make it more Trek than TWoK.

Some of this small group of TMP fans seem to be of the Berman era mindset, where series were flooded with technobabble, or plodding, meandering plots, or they believed ST was "always" some version of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, or a NASA promotional film for one of their missions. Obviously, they were incorrect in the extreme; the overwhelming reaction to TWOK was not some Riddle of the Ages; it restored the grand sense of great characters struggling with compelling problems/threats (internal and external) that were as much about their place in the adventure as the fantastic, meaningful elements ST fans expected.

34 years later, and TWOK remains the film that defines not only a great TOS cast film, but the shining example of what all ST films should be in being a natural progression from that which defined the source.