Star Trek films

The Original Series films
Films which feature the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series.

The Next Generation films
Films which feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Unlike the preceding TOS films, these did not carry sequel numbers ("Star Trek VII," "Star Trek VIII," "Star Trek IX" or "Star Trek X") except in pre-production.

Alternate reality films
Films which feature a different version of the TOS characters portrayed by a new cast, and set in an alternate reality from earlier films and series.

Summary
(1979) reunites the TOS cast aboard the original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), refurbished after its five-year mission as documented in the television series. The story was originally conceived as the pilot episode of the aborted Star Trek: Phase II series, in which the now-Admiral Kirk and crew must engage with a powerful, threatening force that is heading directly towards Earth.

(1982), (1984) and  (1986) together form a loose trilogy, beginning with the reintroduction of an old enemy from a popular TOS episode  who resumes his conflict with Kirk in epic fashion, leading to the death of Spock, the discovery of his katra and the destruction of the Enterprise during Kirk's efforts to save him, culminating in a time-travel adventure to 1986 aboard a captured Klingon vessel (Bounty) in order to save Earth from destruction.

(1989) moves Kirk, demoted back to captain as a result of defying Starfleet orders in, and crew onto the new USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), which is hijacked by a renegade Vulcan (Sybok), who pilots it to the center of the galaxy in an attempt to find the source of creation.

(1991) sees Kirk and crew attempting to prevent derailment of the Federation/Klingon peace talks by conspirators from both sides. As well as bringing the TOS cast to its retirement, the film also ties up various threads first established in the series (most notably, the conflict between the Federation and the Klingons) and paves the way for the story lines of TNG, set some eighty years later.

(1994) brings the cast of TNG to the big screen, set less than a year after the end of the series and filmed straight after the completion of its last episodes. Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) must try to stop a brilliant scientist (Tolian Soran) from committing an act of genocide in order to enter the Nexus, a mysterious hedonic realm in which time has no meaning. Appearances by three of the TOS cast (Kirk, Scotty and Chekov) and the heroic death of Kirk who joins Picard by means of the Nexus, served to "pass the torch" from the old generation to the next; the appearance of recurring enemies Lursa and B'Etor and the revelation of their fate provides a key link with the TNG series. The film also includes the destruction of the Enterprise-D.

(1996) brings back the TNG cast in their first truly independent big screen adventure aboard the new USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E). Picard and his crew are pitted against their deadliest foe from the series, the Borg, who travel back in time to prevent the first warp flight by Zefram Cochrane.

In (1998), Picard and crew discover a covert effort by Starfleet, in co-operation with the belligerent Son'a, to relocate the inhabitants of a "fountain of youth" planet. Standing by his morals, Picard must take up arms against the Federation to save paradise.

(2002) sees Picard and the Enterprise ordered to investigate the sudden fall of the Romulan government, replaced by a leader from their neighboring race, the Remans. The dark secret of this new leader, Shinzon, brings Picard into conflict in a way he never thought possible, and culminates in a fight to save Earth from a terrible weapon – at great cost. With the death or departure of several main characters – Riker, Troi, Data, and Beverly Crusher – this film marks the end of the TNG cast's adventures. Much as with the (chronological) final big screen appearance of the original cast, which laid the foundations of peace between the Federation and the Klingons, this film includes the establishment of an alliance between the Federation and the Romulans, enemies throughout the TNG era just as the Klingons had been in TOS.

(2009) creates a new timeline in the Star Trek franchise, which is tied directly to the Prime Universe, effecting a return to the TOS era, albeit one populated by an all-new cast of actors. It also features a new look, and remains in-universe by explaining all changes as being inadvertently caused by time-traveling Romulan villain Nero. This film focuses on younger versions of Kirk, Spock and the crew and showcases their very first mission aboard the Enterprise.

The sequel (2013) picks up a year after the first film, where the crew is tested as they are sent to apprehend, a traitor and mass murderer, and uncover corruption and a conspiracy to militarize Starfleet from within.

Future
A third film by Bad Robot Productions is expected to follow Into Darkness. Bryan Burk has commented Paramount want the third film to take less time to produce than Into Darkness, and that 2016 – the 50th anniversary of Star Trek – would be a logical year to release it. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have added that Paramount is insisting on a 2016 release date. 

Director J. J. Abrams has chosen to direct Star Wars Episode VII, but has not ruled out directing the third film, stating "We're trying to figure out the next step. But it's like anything: It all begins with the story."  Damon Lindelof quipped "If Star Wars is indeed coming out in the summer of 2015, unless there is cloning technology that I am not fully aware of exists, it is going to be tough," adding they could find a suitable replacement. Abrams noted "that having directed pilots and movies and then having seen subsequent directors work on those shows or do their own versions of those films – time and again I have seen it done better."

Regardless, Abrams has stated he would like more female characters in the sequel. He also mentioned the sequel could fallback on abandoned story ideas for the characters. "There was [an idea] implying the sexuality of one of the characters, a back story for another character that was pretty intense, a really funny story we wanted to do with yet another. Hopefully, if there are future films, those other stories will get their moment," he said. Lindelof said they would bring back the Klingons and, while not commenting on the story of Into Darkness, added it would be thoughtless to not bring back Benedict Cumberbatch's character if he survives. 

Michael Giacchino is open to scoring the next film. 

Cast and crew listings

 * Credits for Star Trek: The Motion Picture
 * Credits for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
 * Credits for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
 * Credits for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
 * Credits for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
 * Credits for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
 * Credits for Star Trek Generations
 * Credits for Star Trek: First Contact
 * Credits for Star Trek: Insurrection
 * Credits for Star Trek Nemesis
 * Credits for Star Trek
 * Credits for Star Trek Into Darkness

Background

 * There have been twelve Star Trek cinematic features released between and.
 * Three films were produced by Harve Bennett (he was also an executive producer on one), while Rick Berman produced all four films featuring the cast of TNG.
 * Nicholas Meyer, J. J. Abrams, Leonard Nimoy and Jonathan Frakes each directed two of the films, with the latter two also appearing as co-stars in their respective roles as Spock and William Riker. One of the films was directed by its lead actor, William Shatner, appearing as Kirk.
 * Leonard Nimoy has made more appearances in the film series than any other principal cast member of any Star Trek series, appearing as Spock in the first six films together with an appearance in and a brief cameo in . William Shatner, James Doohan and Walter Koenig (Kirk, Scotty and Chekov) all appear in the first seven consecutive films. Majel Barrett has also appeared in seven of the films, albeit playing different roles: she appears as Christine Chapel in  and, and supplied her voice for the Enterprise computers in , , , , and.
 * Michael Dorn is the only member of the TNG cast to appear in more than four of the films. He plays his familiar character Worf in all four TNG-based films and has a cameo as Worf's (presumed) ancestor in.
 * Owing to Worf's transfer onto the crew of DS9 prior to the events of, Dorn is technically the only DS9 cast member to appear in any of the films playing his usual character. Rene Auberjonois appears in playing a different character than his usual one on DS9. Both Armin Shimerman and Max Grodenchik filmed scenes for  - the former as his familiar character Quark and the latter as an unnamed Trill Starfleet officer - but these scenes were cut from the film as released.
 * Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, and Ethan Phillips are the only VOY cast members to appear in any of the films – Mulgrew plays her familiar character in, Picardo plays an EMH Mark I in , wherein Phillips also appears – uncredited, at his own request, as a different character. (Having never before appeared in a Trek production without heavy prosthetics, he thought it would be amusing to leave fans wondering if the holographic human he played was or wasn't him.) Russ appears in as a Human USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) crewman.
 * To date, no principal cast members from ENT have appeared in any of the films, although Peter Weller (who guest starred in two episodes of that series) plays a major role in.
 * Between and, all the films were produced in tandem with one or more of the spin-off series.  and  were made during the run of TNG; production on  began while the final episodes of TNG were being shot, and while DS9 was in production;  and  were both produced during the runs of DS9 and VOY, and  was made while ENT was in production.  was the first since  to be produced without any other Star Trek project in progress.
 * Combined, and not taking inflation into account, the Star Trek features have grossed over US$1,624,963,755. Prior to the release of, had grossed more than the other films, coming in at US$109,713,132, while  had the largest-grossing opening weekend of all the films.  surpassed both of these records, but was itself surpassed by.
 * Perhaps reflecting their popularity as an alien race, the Klingons appear more than any other throughout the series of films - they appear, or are mentioned, in all twelve of the films released so far. The only two in which no Klingon characters appear are  and .  Interestingly, both films also depict the Kobayashi Maru scenario, which features Klingon ships.

The odd number / even number phenomenon

 * A number of Star Trek fans have expressed the opinion that the even-numbered films are generally better than the odd-numbered ones. Such an appraisal is obviously subjective, but it has its roots in a number of factors. The even-numbered films (apart from ) have enjoyed relatively greater success at the box office and higher critical acclaim, as opposed to various lukewarm reviews received by the odd-numbered films (with the exception of ). Fans and critics have also noted that, in their opinions, the even-numbered films are better paced and more action-packed, with more memorable story lines, eminently quotable scripts and exciting special effects. (The first two films are often held up as examples of this trend from the outset of the series: presents Kirk and crew with a mostly cerebral challenge with very few battle scenes while  is dominated by a more epic conflict resulting in several battle sequences and heavy damage to the Enterprise and its crew.)
 * By the time the TNG movies were being produced, the "odd/even" phenomenon was effectively regarded as a curse, with members of the production crew fearing that, despite their best efforts, future odd-numbered productions were fated to be less successful than even-numbered ones. Jonathan Frakes, when interviewed by Star Trek Monthly during pre-production for, commented that he was looking forward to directing his second film "even though it's an odd-numbered Star Trek." In 2002, however, the phenomenon was broken by the release of , which experienced the lowest box-office takings of any Star Trek film to date and was poorly received by even long-standing fans. (Though to a few, this became an even further joke - a Star Trek film which was a multiple of five was cursed to fail catastrophically, as Nemesis pulled in poor reviews and revenue in a similar fashion to The Final Frontier.)
 * The phenomenon has seemingly been broken further by the critical success of, which has obtained a 95% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, as well as an opening weekend gross of nearly twice the full run of.
 * In a 1999 episode of the British sitcom Spaced, the phenomenon was mentioned by the show's lead character, Tim Bisley, who was played by Simon Pegg – an irony not lost on Pegg during and after his work on.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

 * Whereas the preceding live-action television series had open endings that allowed for continuation into motion picture format, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended quite firmly and conclusively, with all its various plot lines resolved and the departure of various main characters. Any subsequent film would therefore have required a significantly different premise and different casting, departing radically from the series' format which had been so familiar to its fan base. On the possibility of a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine film ever happening, Ira Steven Behr commented: "I don't think so. I think we could do a pretty kick-ass Deep Space Nine movie, but not even in my wildest imaginations do I consider it". He also commented "The only Trek I think about is Deep Space Nine, to be honest. If they did a Deep Space Nine film, I certainly would like to be involved if that ever happened, which I doubt".
 * After the release of, Patrick Stewart commented, "I think we should pass the mantle on to the Deep Space Nine characters. We don't want to become The Rolling Stones of the Star Trek films".
 * Andrew Robinson commented "My feeling is that there is never going to be a Deep Space Nine movie, they still have more to go with The Next Generation. I think it was really the right way to end the series.
 * A campaign for a Deep Space Nine film (or a miniseries) was launched in 2000 by fans Stacy Powell and Doug Wilson. Nana Visitor was thrilled to hear of the existence of the campaign and J.G. Hertzler and David B. Levinson joked with fans to "take one of these [flyers], don't throw it away or I'll come after you."
 * Fans Terry Harris and Gisele La Roche also launched a petition for a Deep Space Nine film, receiving several positive responses from actors.
 * Notwithstanding the foregoing, elements from the series have appeared in all TNG films. The Enterprise-D crew wore the uniforms which had been introduced on Deep Space Nine (in addition to their own series' uniforms) in ; the uniforms were also used on Star Trek: Voyager, which premiered several months after the film's release. The USS Defiant (2370) appears in the Battle of Sector 001 during, under the command of Worf (Michael Dorn), who had become a regular character on DS9 by that time; he also appears in . Both and  contain references to the Dominion War story arc from the series. For , a scene was written and filmed involving an appearance by Armin Shimerman as Quark; this was cut from the film, but a still from it can be found among the extras on the DVD release.
 * In 1998, Rick Berman commented "There are a few more movies left in the Generations franchise and there's a good chance we'll see a Deep Space Nine film. What we'd like to do is introduce a few of the characters from Deep Space into the next Generations movie just to tease audiences."

Star Trek: Voyager / Star Trek: Enterprise

 * The conclusive endings of both these series likewise indicate little or no probability of future movies being based on them. There is a gap of six years between and  which could serve as the setting of an ENT movie, although the timeline position of  and its sequel suggests that this would be unlikely. In any case, the potential for continuation has been explored in novels.
 * features a cameo by Kate Mulgrew, reprising her role as Kathryn Janeway from Voyager and thus marking the only direct big-screen appearance of any character from that series. (An EMH Mark I, played by Robert Picardo, appears briefly in First Contact, but this is not exactly the same character as the Holographic Doctor in the series.)
 * Nemesis also features a graphic containing a reference to a USS Archer, named after Captain Jonathan Archer, the main character in Enterprise.
 * Additionally, "" features a reference to "Admiral Archer's prized beagle", intended by the writers to be a reference to Jonathan Archer, and his beagle Porthos.
 * A replica of Enterprise (NX-01) appears in, marking the first appearance of the ship from Enterprise on the big screen.