Star Trek The Original Series. Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise NCC 1. It later acquired the retronym of Star Trek The Original Series Star Trek TOS or simply TOS to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began. The Star Trek franchise will have had a whopping 13 feature film entries over 36 years. Thats not a small numberonly the James Bond series has had more. Star Trek Discovery is the sixth liveaction series set in the Star Trek universe and the. CBS Entertainment This site and its contents 2017 CBS Studios Inc All Rights Reserved. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise NCC1701 and its crew. After the somewhat lacking The Final Frontier, The Undiscovered Country manages to retain a new found vigor in storytelling in the franchise. I found this film to be. Its getting close, now. On September 24th, the first new Star Trek series in years will debut. Star Trek Discovery is said to take place in the Prime timeline. Watch Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Streaming' title='Watch Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Streaming' />The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, roughly during the 2. The ship and crew are led by Captain James T. Kirk William Shatner, first officer and science officer Spock Leonard Nimoy, and chief medical officer Leonard Mc. Coy De. Forest Kelley. Shatners voice over introduction during each episodes opening credits stated the starships purpose Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Watch Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Streaming' title='Watch Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Streaming' />Its five year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. The series was produced from September 1. December 1. 96. 7 by Norway Productions and Desilu Productions, and by Paramount Television from January 1. June 1. 96. 9. Star Trek aired on NBC from September 8, 1. June 3, 1. 96. 9,5 and was actually seen first on September 6, 1. Canadas CTV network. Star Treks Nielsen ratings while on NBC were low, and the network canceled it after three seasons and 7. Several years later, the series became a bona fide hit in broadcast syndication, remaining so throughout the 1. Star Trek eventually spawned a franchise, consisting of six additional television series, thirteen feature films, numerous books, games, and toys, and is now widely considered one of the most popular and influential television series of all time. The series contains significant elements of Space Western, as described by Gene Roddenberry and the general audience. CreationeditOn March 1. Gene Roddenberry, a long time fan of science fiction, drafted a short treatment for a science fiction television series that he called Star Trek. This was to be set on board a large interstellar spaceship named S. S. Yorktown in the 2. Milky Way. Galaxy. Roddenberry noted a number of influences on his idea, some of which includes A. E. van Vogts tales of the spaceship Space Beagle, Eric Frank Russells Marathon series of stories, and the film Forbidden Planet 1. Some have also drawn parallels with the television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger 1. Star Trekthe organization, crew relationships, missions, part of the bridge layout, and even some technology. Roddenberry also drew heavily from C. S. Foresters Horatio Hornblower novels that depict a daring sea captain who exercises broad discretionary authority on distant sea missions of noble purpose. He often humorously referred to Captain Kirk as Horatio Hornblower in Space. Roddenberry had extensive experience in writing for series about the Old West that had been popular television fare in the 1. Armed with this background, the first draft characterized the new show as Wagon Train to the stars. Like the familiar Wagon Train, each episode was to be a self contained adventure story, set within the structure of a continuing voyage through space. All future television and movie realizations of the franchise adhered to the Wagon Train paradigm of the continuing journey, with the notable exception of the serialized Star Trek Deep Space Nine and the third season of Star Trek Enterprise. In Roddenberrys original concept, the protagonist was Captain Robert April of the starship S. S. Yorktown. This character was developed into Captain Christopher Pike, first portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter. April is listed in the Star Trek Chronology, The Star Trek Encyclopedia and at startrek. Enterprises first commanding officer, preceding Captain Christopher Pike. The characters only televisionmovie appearance is in the Star Trek The Animated Series episode The Counter Clock Incident1. DevelopmenteditIn April 1. Roddenberry presented the Star Trek draft to Desilu Productions, a leading independent television production company. He met with Herb Solow, Desilus Director of Production. Solow saw promise in the idea and signed a three year program development contract with Roddenberry. Lucille Ball, head of Desilu, was not familiar with the nature of the project, but she was instrumental in getting the pilot produced. The idea was extensively revised and fleshed out during this time The Cage pilot filmed in late 1. March 1. 96. 4 treatment. Solow, for example, added the stardate concept. Desilu Productions had a first look deal with CBS. Oscar Katz, Desilus Vice President of Production, went with Roddenberry to pitch the series to the network. They refused to purchase the show, as they already had a similar show in development, the 1. Irwin Allen series Lost in Space. In May 1. 96. 4, Solow, who previously worked at NBC, met with Grant Tinker, then head of the networks West Coast programming department. Tinker commissioned the first pilot which became The Cage. NBC turned down the resulting pilot, stating that it was too cerebral. However, the NBC executives were still impressed with the concept, and they understood that its perceived faults had been partly because of the script that they had selected themselves. NBC made the unusual decision to pay for a second pilot, using the script called Where No Man Has Gone Before. Only the character of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, was retained from the first pilot, and only two cast members, Majel Barrett and Nimoy, were carried forward into the series. This second pilot proved to be satisfactory to NBC, and the network selected Star Trek to be in its upcoming television schedule for the fall of 1. The second pilot introduced most of the other main characters Captain Kirk William Shatner, chief engineer Lt. Commander Scott James Doohan and Lt. Sulu George Takei, who served as a physicist on the ship in the second pilot but subsequently became a helmsman throughout the rest of the series. Paul Fix played Dr. Mark Piper in the second pilot ships doctor Leonard Mc. Coy De. Forest Kelley joined the cast when filming began for the first season, and he remained for the rest of the series, achieving billing as the third star of the series. Also joining the ships permanent crew during the first season were the communications officer, Lt. Nyota Uhura Nichelle Nichols, the first African American woman to hold such an important role in an American television series 2. Janice Rand Grace Lee Whitney, who departed midway through the first season and Christine Chapel Majel Barrett, head nurse and assistant to Mc. Coy. Walter Koenig joined the cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the series second season. In February 1. 96. Star Trek was nearly killed by Desilu Productions, before airing the first episode. Desilu had gone from making just one half hour show The Lucy Show, to deficit financing a portion of two expensive hour long shows, Mission Impossible and Star Trek. Solow was able to convince Lucille Ball that both shows should continue. Productionedit. The original starship Enterprise. Once the series was picked up by NBC the production moved to what was then Desilu Productions Gower street location. It was previously the main studio complex used by RKO Pictures and is now part of the Paramount Pictures lot. The series used what are now stages 3. The shows production staff included art director Matt Jefferies. Jefferies designed the starship Enterprise and most of its interiors. His contributions to the series were honored in the name of the Jefferies tube, an equipment shaft depicted in various Star Trek series. In addition to working with his brother, John Jefferies, to create the hand held phaser weapons of Star Trek, Jefferies also developed the set design for the bridge of the Enterprise which was based on an earlier design by Pato Guzman. All 1. 3 STAR TREK Films Ranked From Worst to Best. The. Star Trek franchise will have had a whopping 1. Thats not a small numberonly the James Bond series has had more installments, and arguably the quality has been more consistent in the Star Trek features than Bond. But thats not to say this series hasnt had its serious ups and downs, quality wise. The highs have been really high, but the lows have been pretty embarrassing. While Star Trek is primarily a television franchise, there is no doubt that for many casual fans, the kind that couldnt be bothered to tune into the show each week, the movie version of Trek is the only Trek they really know. And even for hardcore fans, the movies are special, because the greater life and death events for the crew of the U. S. S. Enterprise were often saved for the films, as the TV episodes always had to put things back exactly where they started from at the end of each episode. Not so with the movies. Before we rank each of the Star Trek films, a warningthere are major spoilers for all of these movies here, so if for some reason you dont know that certain characters die in certain movies, even decades after said film was released, I suggest you bookmark this article, watch all the Star Trek films, and then come back. We good Okay, now lets get started with the worst of the bunch, and work our way up1. Star Trek Insurrection 1. While Star Trek The Next Generation remains my all time favorite Trek series, without a doubt, the cast of that show had a rougher go of it on the big screen than the original crew did. Its almost like its payback for the fact that TNG ran for seven season and was a ratings hit, while the original series struggled through three years and only became a hit in syndication after the fact. Insurrection isnt the most embarrassing of the Trek movies, but it suffers from being the most boring, and the most small in scope. You watch it, and then almost forget it instantly. From the first movie on, the Star Trek films focused on the big events in the lives of the Enterprise crews from the relaunch of the Enterprise, to Spocks death and rebirth, and so on. Watch At Any Price Online (2017). But Insurrection was really just a standard one and done episode that you had to pay for, at a time when there were two other Star Trek shows on the air each week  Deep Space Nine and Voyager  that were arguably better, and free. The plot of the film revolved around a planet that has a sort of fountain of youth thing happening, and an aggressive alien species who wants it all for themselves, plus a corrupt Federation admiral, because there is always one of those. Both the new alien species introduced in this movie are uninteresting visually one is this weird plastic surgery obsessed species that get bizarre facelifts all the time, and the other is yet another hippy dippy, agrarian humanoid species that wears a lot of cotton, the kind that the 9. Trek shows loved way too much. Jonathan Frakes returned to direct after the successful First Contact, and the script was written by the late Michael Piller, the man who saved The Next Generation in its third season, but they just couldnt make any magic happen this time. Star Trek V The Final Frontier 1. After chapters III and IV were successfully directed by Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner wanted in on some of that directing action. Unfortunately, Star Trek V The Final Frontier gives into all of Shatners cheesier tendencies, and the lowbrow humor often totally conflicts with the seriousness of the main story. How serious is the main story It actually has the Enterprise highjacked by a religious zealot who is Spocks long lost, never before heard from older brother who takes the ship on a mission to find God. Yeah, THAT God. From the get go, you know this mission will be a failure, because you know they arent going to find God hanging out on some planet, so there is no dramatic tension. Also, because ILM was busy at the time with. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the effects were farmed out to a low rent company who turned in the worst special effects in the film series thus far. Still, there is some charming stuff herethe opening sequence with Kirk, Spock and Bones on a camping trip in Yosemite is fun, for instance. And there are a few other cute bits here and there. But when you combine it all with a cheap knock offs of the cantina scene in Star Wars, Lt. Uhura doing a naked fan dance to distract the bad guys like in an old Tex Avery cartoon, and too much other nonsense to get into, the best thing I have to say is that thank goodness the classic crew got one more outing to get a chance to go out with some dignity. Because if Star Trek V The Final Frontier lacks anything, its dignity. Star Trek Nemesis 2. Although it is often ranked at the very bottom of the Star Trek movie pile by many fansI have to admit, I really dont hate Nemesis. I mean yes, it shamelessly rips off Wrath of Khan with another vengeance seeking enemy, this one being played by a young Tom Hardy. Called Shinzon, hes a clone of Picard who was raised in the Romulan mines, who takes over the Romulan Empire and is hell bent on destroying his genetic father, mostly just because the script says so. This is not a good film, but its fairly entertaining, and I still think its a better finale for the TNG crew than Insurrection would have been. For example, it gives fans of the show the wedding of Riker and Troi after 1. Guinan and Wesley Crusher. Sadly, outside of Picard and Data, who both have this whole meeting their doppelganger storyline, when Data encounters another similar style android named B 4, the other characters are very shortchanged. Once again, Riker, Geordi, Worf and Crusher are just there, aside from Deanna Troi, whose sole purpose in the film is being mind raped by the villains lackey for not much of a good reason she does get some decent Elizabeth Berkely in Showgirls style revenge on the rapist in the end though. Like with the previous TNG movie, the budget on this feels very low, barely above a TV pilot. Director Stuart Baird had no previous knowledge of Star Trek, and in this instance, his lack of knowledge was a weakness, not a strength. While Data dies in this movie, it doesnt mean anything, because its basically undone by the end of the film. At least Wrath of Khan knew to wait till the next chapter to bring Spock back. But theres some nice action y stuff in the film, and its never really dull. Tom Hardy shows hes got acting chops, and acts the hell out of an underwritten part. When the film ends, the last shot is not the Enterprise boldy going into warp, but in drydock, badly damaged. What a fitting metaphor for the state of the series at this point, as this was the lowest grossing of all the Star Trek films, making only 4. Eventually, though, Star Trek would rise from the ashes, as it always does. Star Trek The Motion Picture 1. After ten years of false starts with various discarded scripts, a possible new TV series called Star Trek Phase II that almost happened, and the start of what we think of today as fan culture, Star Trek The Motion Picture finally took flight in 1. And for the most part, you saw every penny of that 4. Enterprise looked stunning for the first time ever. On top of that, all of the original cast returned, with an A list director, Robert Wise, at the helm. What could go wrongWell, pretty much everything. The movie is long, boring slog. Its essentially a remake of the original series episode The Changeling, where an old 2. Century Earth probe gets rewired by alien tech, becomes godlike and returns to Earth looking for its creator, wreaking havoc along the way. Except that old low budget episode told the same story efficiently, and with fun and humor sprinkled in, two things TMP is totally missing. The witty banter from the old show is gone, replaced with the cast giving long glares at pretty lights out of the viewscreen for what seems like forever.