Star Trek Film Rankings Part III

6. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

            The Voyage Home completed the Enterprise’s journey back to Earth following Spock’s resurrection. But no journey home would be complete without time travelling back to the 1980s and hammering home, in classic Star Trek fashion, an overtly environmentalist message: Save the Whales! The notion that a giant black cigar would come to Earth after not hearing from whales for two hundred plus years is an incredibly stupid conceit. Yet some parts of the movie work remarkably well. Watching Kirk and Spock interact in the 1980s produces some very funny moments, including when Spock gives the Vulcan nerve pinch to a man playing his boom box too loudly on a public bus. Chekov asking for the location of the “nuclear whessels” remains amusing to this day. Even Dr. McCoy got in on the action by chewing out the antiquated medicine of the 1980s or as he called it the “Dark Ages.” The film manages to be preachy, but fun. 

5. Star Trek Into Darkness

            The second of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot serves as Star Trek Growing Pains. The film stresses the growth of Kirk, Spock, and crew into the characters of the Original Series. Kirk’s arrogance and innate belief in his own abilities come back to haunt him. He also learns that command means he must place the needs of others above his own. Spock attempts to shield himself from pain, while recognizing that sometimes one person can and must take action regardless of the consequences. Benedict Cumberbatch dazzles as this universe’s incarnation of Khan. His portrayal leads, at least initially, to see Khan as a more sympathetic figure, yet his megalomaniacal tendencies soon manifest themselves. Cumberbatch ably demonstrates both Khan’s superhuman strength and mental genius. 

4. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

            The final voyage of the Original Cast rebounded nicely from the debacle of the Final Frontier. The film, made at the end of the Cold War, pondered the cost of the overcoming the hatred and fear that defined the longstanding conflict between the Federation and the Klingons. With Spock instigating a reconciliation between the two sides, the film provides some nice character moments for Kirk as he must put aside his prejudices and accept Spock’s humane reaction to the Klingons’ plight (they are dying). Indeed many of the humans in the film advocate letting the Klingons’ die, while logical and calculating characters like Spock advocate the humane route by aiding them. The film presages the work of Deep Space Nine by questioning the high morals that the Star Trek franchise had set to embody. Uglying up the reputation of Star Fleet gave the franchise some much needed breathing room as its high minded moralism threatened to develop into merely lectures about contemporary soceity’s inability to overcome its own parochialism. Christopher Plummer delights as the Shakespeare quoting Klingon General Chang.