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Jj Abrams Star Trek Movies In Order

UPDATED: December 1, 2023

JJ Abrams Star Trek Movies in Order: A Journey through the Final Frontier

When it comes to science fiction movies, few franchises have captured the imagination of audiences quite like Star Trek. With its rich lore, captivating characters, and thought-provoking themes, Star Trek has become a cultural phenomenon that has spanned over five decades. And in 2009, director JJ Abrams took the helm to breathe new life into the beloved series with his rebooted Star Trek movies. In this article, we will take a journey through the final frontier and explore JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movies in order .

1. Star Trek (2009): The first installment of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek trilogy takes us back to the origins of the iconic crew of the USS Enterprise. This film serves as a reboot of the original series and introduces audiences to a younger version of Captain James T. Kirk (played by Chris Pine) and his loyal crew. With stunning visuals, thrilling action sequences, and a fresh take on familiar characters, Star Trek (2009) successfully reignited the franchise’s popularity.

2. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013): The second film in JJ Abrams’ trilogy delves deeper into the relationships between the crew members while introducing a formidable new villain, Khan Noonien Singh (played by Benedict Cumberbatch). As Captain Kirk faces personal and professional challenges, he must navigate a web of deception and make difficult choices that will test his leadership skills. Star Trek Into Darkness is an action-packed installment that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

3. Star Trek Beyond (2016): In the final chapter of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek trilogy, director Justin Lin takes over the reins to deliver an exhilarating space adventure. The crew finds themselves stranded on an uncharted planet after their ship is attacked by a ruthless alien warlord named Krall (played by Idris Elba). As they fight for survival and reunite with new allies, the crew must discover the true nature of Krall’s intentions and find a way to save the Federation. Star Trek Beyond is a fitting conclusion to Abrams’ trilogy, offering a perfect blend of action, humor, and heart.

While JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movies have faced some criticism from die-hard fans for deviating from the original series’ tone and style, they undeniably brought new life to the franchise and introduced it to a whole new generation of viewers. With their stellar cast, breathtaking visuals, and thrilling storytelling, these films successfully captured the essence of what makes Star Trek so beloved.

In addition to Abrams’ trilogy, he also served as a producer on subsequent Star Trek projects like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, further expanding the universe he helped revive. Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to the series, JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movies are an exciting journey through space that should not be missed. So grab some popcorn, set your phasers to stun, and prepare for an adventure that will take you where no one has gone before.

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How to Watch Star Trek in Order: The Complete Series Timeline

The full star trek timeline, explained..

Ever since 1966’s premiere of the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, the entertainment world has never been the same. This franchise that has boldly gone where no property has gone before has captured the hearts and minds of millions around the world and has grown into a space-faring empire of sorts filled with multiple shows, feature length films, comics, merchandise, and so much more. That being said, the amount of Star Trek out in the world can make it tough to know exactly how to watch everything it offers in either chronological or release order so you don’t miss a thing. To help make things easier for you, we’ve created this guide to break down everything you need to know about engaging with this Star Trek journey.

It used to be a bit trickier to track down all the Star Trek shows and movies you’d need to watch to catch up, but Paramount+ has made it a whole lot easier as it has become the home of nearly all the past, present and future Star Trek entries.

So, without further ado, come with us into the final frontier and learn how you can become all caught up with the adventures of Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Spock, Pike, Archer, Burnham, and all the others that have made Star Trek so special over the past 56 years.

And, in case you're worried, everything below is a mostly spoiler-free chronological timeline that will not ruin any of any major plot points of anything further on in the timeline. So, you can use this guide as a handy way to catch up without ruining much of the surprise of what’s to come on your adventure! If you’d prefer to watch everything Star Trek as it was released, you’ll find that list below as well!

How to Watch Star Trek in Chronological Order

How to Watch Star Trek by Release Order

1. Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2155)

Star Trek: Enterprise is the earliest entry on our list as it takes place a hundred years before the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series. The show aired from 2001 to 2005 and starred Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer, the captain of the Enterprise NX-01. This version of the Enterprise was actually Earth’s first starship that was able to reach warp five.

While the show had its ups and downs, it included a fascinating look at a crew without some of the advanced tech we see in other Star Trek shows, the first contact with various alien species we know and love from the Star Trek universe, and more.

2. Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 1 and 2 (2256-2258)

This is where things get a little bit tricky, as the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery take place before Star Trek: The Original Series but Seasons 3 and 4 take us boldly to a place we’ve not gone before. We won’t spoil why that’s the case here, but it’s important to note if you want to watch Star Trek in order, you’ll have to do a bit of jumping around from series to movie to series.

As for what Star Trek: Discovery is, it's set the decade before the original and stars Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham, a Starfleet Commander who accidentally helps start a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. She gets court-martialed and stripped of her rank following these events and is reassigned to the U.S.S Discovery.

3. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2259-TBD)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also begins before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series and is set up by Star Trek: Discovery as its captain, Anson Mount’s Christopher Pike, makes an appearance in its second season. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Pike first appeared in the original failed pilot episode “The Cage” of Star Trek: The Original Series and would later become James T. Kirk’s predecessor after the original actor, Jefferey Hunter, backed out of the show.

Fast forward all these years later and now we get to learn more about the story of Christopher Pike and many other familiar faces from The Original Series alongside new characters. It’s made even more special as the ship the crew uses is the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, the very same that would soon call Kirk its captain.

4. Star Trek: The Original Series (2265-2269)

The fourth Star Trek series or movie you should watch in the order is the one that started it all - Star Trek: The Original Series . Created by Gene Roddenberry, this first Star Trek entry would kick off a chain reaction that would end up creating one of the most beloved IPs of all time. However, it almost never made it to that legendary status as its low ratings led to a cancellation order after just three seasons that aired from 1966 to 1969. Luckily, it found great popularity after that and built the foundation for all the Star Trek stories we have today.

Star Trek: The Original Series starred William Shatner as James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock, but the rest of the crew would go on to become nearly as iconic as they were. As for what the show was about? Well, we think Kirk said it best during each episode’s opening credits;

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise . 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.”

5. Star Trek: The Animated Series (2269-2270)

While Star Trek: The Original Series may have been canceled after just three seasons, its popularity only grew, especially with the help of syndication. Following this welcome development, Gene Roddenberry decided he wanted to continue the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701 in animated form, and he brought back many of the original characters and the actors behind them for another go.

Star Trek: The Animated Series lasted for two seasons from 1973 to 1974 and told even more stories of the Enterprise and its adventures throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

6. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2270s)

The first Star Trek film was a very big deal as it brought back the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series after the show was canceled in 1969 after just three seasons. However, even it had a rough road to theaters as Roddenberry initially failed to convince Paramount Pictures it was worth it in 1975. Luckily, the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and other factors helped finally convince those in power to make the movie and abandon the plans for a new television series called Star Trek: Phase II, which also would have continued the original story.

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, James T. Kirk was now an Admiral in Starfleet, and certain events involving a mysterious alien cloud of energy called V’Ger cause him to retake control of a refitted version of the U.S.S. Enterprise with many familiar faces in tow.

7. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture written, but Paramount turned it down after the reception to that first film was not what the studio had hoped for. In turn, Paramount removed him from the production and brought in Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards to write the script and Nicholas Meyer to direct the film.

The studio’s decision proved to be a successful one as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is considered by many, including IGN, to be the best Star Trek film. As for the story, it followed the battle between Admiral James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise vs. Ricardo Montalban’ Khan Noonien Singh. Khan is a genetically engineered superhuman and he and his people were exiled by Kirk on a remote planet in the episode ‘Space Seed’ from the original series. In this second film, after being stranded for 15 years, Khan wants revenge.

8. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (2285)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock continues the story that began in Wrath of Khan and deals with the aftermath of Spock’s death. While many on the U.S.S. Enterprise thought that was the end for their science officer, Kirk learns that Spock’s spirit/katra is actually living inside the mind of DeForest Kelley’s Dr. McCoy, who has been acting strange ever since the death of his friend. What follows is an adventure that includes a stolen U.S.S. Enterprise, a visit from Spock’s father Sarek, a run-in with Klingons, and so much more.

9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286 and 1986)

While it is undoubtedly great that Kirk and his crew saved Spock, it apparently wasn’t great enough to avoid the consequences that follow stealing and then losing the Enterprise. On their way to answer for their charges, the former crew of the Enterprise discover a threat to Earth that, without spoiling anything, causes them to go back in time to save everything they love. The Voyage Home is a big departure from the previous films as, instead of space, we spend most of our time in 1986’s San Francisco.

10. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier once again brings back our favorite heroes from Star Trek: The Original Series, but it’s often regarded as one of the weakest films starring Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. In this adventure, our crew’s shore leave gets interrupted as they are tasked with going up against the Vulcan Sybok, who himself is on the hunt for God in the middle of the galaxy.

11. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the final movie starring the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Series, and it puts the Klingons front and center. After a mining catastrophe destroys the Klingon moon of Praxis and threatens the Klingon’s homeworld, Klingon Chancellor Gorkon is forced to abandon his species' love of war in an effort to seek peace with the Federation. What follows is an adventure that calls back to the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall and serves as a wonderful send-off to characters we’ve come to know and love since 1966, even though some will thankfully appear in future installments.

12. Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)

After you make it through all six of the Star Trek: The Original Series movies, it’s time to start what many consider the best Star Trek series of all time - Star Trek: The Next Generation . The series, which starred Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, ran from 1987 through 1994 with 178 episodes over seven seasons.

There are so many iconic characters and moments in The Next Generation, including William Riker, Data, Worf, Geordi La Forge, Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher, and many of these beloved faces would return for Star Trek: Picard, which served as a continuation of this story.

While we are once again on the U.S.S. Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, this story takes place a century after the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. However, there may just be a few familiar faces that pop up from time to time.

13. Star Trek Generations (2293)

While Star Trek Generations is the first film featuring the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew, it also features a team-up that many had dreamed of for years and years between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Captain James T. Kirk.

Our heroes are facing off against an El-Aurian named Dr. Tolian Soran, who will do whatever is necessary to return to an extra-dimensional realm known as the Nexus. Without spoiling anything, these events lead to a meeting with these two legendary captains and a heartfelt-at-times send-off to The Original Series, even though not every character returned that we wished could have.

14. Star Trek: First Contact (2373)

Star Trek: First Contact was not only the second film featuring the crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it also served as the motion picture directorial debut for William Riker actor Jonathan Frakes. In this film, the terrifying Borg take center stage and force our heroes to travel back in time to stop them from conquering Earth and assimilating the entire human race.

This movie picks up on the continuing trauma caused by Jean-Luc Picard getting assimilated in the series and becoming Locutus of Borg, and we are also treated to the first warp flight in Star Trek’s history, a shout-out to Deep Space Nine, and more.

15. Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)

Star Trek: Insurrection, which unfortunately ranked last on our list of the best Star Trek movies, is the third film starring the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew and followed a story involving an alien race that lives on a planet with more-or-less makes them invincible due to its rejuvenating properties. This alien race, known as the Ba’Ku, are being threatened by not only another alien race called the Son’a, but also the Federation. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew disobey Federation orders in hopes to save the peaceful Ba’Ku, and while it sounds like an interesting premise, many said it felt too much like an extended episode of the series instead of a big blockbuster film.

16. Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)

The final Star Trek: The Next Generation movie is Star Trek: Nemesis , and it also isn’t looked at as one of the best. There are bright parts in the film, including Tom Hardy’s Shinzon who is first thought to be a Romulan praetor before it’s revealed he is a clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but it also features a lot of retreaded ground. There are some great moments between our favorite TNG characters, but it’s not quite the goodbye many had hoped for. Luckily, this won’t be the last we’ll see of them.

17. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the fourth Star Trek series and it ran from 1993 to 1999 with 176 episodes over seven seasons. Deep Space Nine was also the first Star Trek series to be created without the direct involvement of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, but instead with Rick Berman and Michael Piller. Furthermore, it was the first series to begin when another Star Trek Series - The Next Generation - was still on the air.

The connections between The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine don’t end there, as there were a ton of callbacks to TNG in Deep Space Nine, and characters like Worf and Miles O’Brien played a big part in the series. Other TNG characters popped up from time to time, including Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and certain Deep Space Nine characters also showed their faces in TNG.

Deep Space Nine was a big departure from the Star Trek series that came before, as it not only took place mostly on a space station - the titular Deep Space Nine - but it was the first to star an African American as its central character in Avery Brooks’ Captain Benjamin Sisko.

Deep Space Nine was located in a very interesting part of the Milky Way Galaxy as it was right next to a wormhole, and the series was also filled with conflict between the Cardassians and Bajorans, the war between the Federation and the Dominion, and much more.

18. Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)

Star Trek: Voyager is the fifth Star Trek series and it ran from 1995 to 2001 with 172 episodes over seven seasons. Star Trek: Voyager begins its journey at Deep Space Nine, and then it follows the tale of Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Kathryn Janeway (the first female leading character in Star Trek history!) and her crew getting lost and stranded in the faraway Delta Quadrant.

The episodes and adventures that follow all see the team fighting for one goal: getting home. Being so far away from the Alpha Quadrant we were so used to letting Star Trek be very creative in its storytelling and give us situations and alien races we’d never encountered before.

That doesn’t mean it was all unfamiliar, however, as the Borg became a huge threat in the later seasons. It’s a good thing too, as that led to the introduction of Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine, a character who would continue on to appear in Star Trek: Picard and become a fan favorite.

19. Star Trek: Lower Decks (2380-TBD)

Star Trek: Lower Decks debuted in 2020 and was the first animated series to make it to air since 1973’s Star Trek: The Animated Series. Alongside having that feather in its cap, it also sets itself apart by choosing to focus more on the lower lever crew instead of the captain and senior staff.

This leads to many fun adventures that may not be as high stakes as the other stories, but are no less entertaining. There have already been three seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and the fourth season is set to arrive later this summer.

The series is also worth a watch as it is having a crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that will mix the worlds of live-action and animation.

20. Star Trek: Prodigy (2383-TBD)

Star Trek: Prodigy was the first fully 3D animated Star Trek series ever and told a story that began five years after the U.S.S. Voyager found its way back home to Earth. In this series, which was aimed for kids, a group of young aliens find an abandoned Starfleet ship called the U.S.S. Protostar and attempt to make it to Starfleet and the Alpha Quadrant from the Delta Quadrant.

Voyager fans will be delighted to know that Kate Mulgrew returns as Kathryn Janeway in this animated series, but not only as herself. She is also an Emergency Training Holographic Advisor that was based on the likeness of the former captain of the U.S.S. Voyager.

The second season of Star Trek: Prodigy was set to arrive later this year, but it was not only canceled in June, but also removed from Paramount+. There is still hope this show may find a second life on another streaming service or network.

21. Star Trek: Picard (2399-2402)

Star Trek: Picard is the… well… next generation of Star Trek: The Next Generation as it brings back not only Partick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard, but also many of his former crew members from the beloved series. The story is set 20 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis and we find Picard retired from Starfleet and living at his family’s vineyard in France.

Without spoiling anything, certain events get one of our favorite captains back to work and take him on an adventure through space and time over three seasons and 30 episodes.

The show had its ups and downs, but the third season, in our opinion, stuck the landing and gave us an “emotional, exciting, and ultimately fun journey for Jean-Luc and his family - both old and new - that gives the character the send-off that he has long deserved.”

22. Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 3 and 4 (3188-TBD)

While Star Trek: Discovery begins around 10 years before Star Trek: The Original Series, the show jumps more than 900 years into the future into the 32nd Century following the events of the second season. The Federation is not in great shape and Captain Michael Burnham and her crew work to bring it back to what it once was.

Star Trek: Discovery is set to end after the upcoming fifth season, which will debut on Paramount+ in 2024.

For more, check out our look at the hidden meaning behind Star Trek’s great captains, why Star Trek doesn’t get credit as the first shared universe, if this may be the end of Star Trek’s golden age of streaming, and our favorite classic Star Trek episodes and movies.

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How to watch Star Trek in order

Whether you're wanting to check out the Original Series or Discovery, figuring out how to watch Star Trek in order is a breeze with this easy guide!

Is it just us or is figuring out how to watch Star Trek in order getting more and more complex with each passing year? The prospect of watching Star Trek in order would be daunting for even the most decorated of starship captains with multiple series being brought to life on both the big and small screens. But fear not Trekkies - we've got you covered!

If you've ever tried to watch the Marvel movies in order , you'd be forgiven for thinking that was the most complicated franchise on the planet, but we kid you not - it has nothing on Star Trek. The 55-year-old sci-fi franchise includes nine (soon to be 11) TV shows and 13 movies and it spans 1000 years, making for one super complicated and vast timeline.

So, what is the best way to watch Star Trek in order? Well, that depends. For you purists out there, you might like to opt for viewing this franchise by release date, just like all the original Trekkie fans did back in the day. This will allow you to follow along as they did and get a similar experience. While the timeline does jump around, ( Star Trek: Discovery , for example, is set at the end of the 32nd century but was released before Star Trek: Picard , which is set in the 24th century), it gives you a more complete picture.

Because the Star Trek franchise involves movies and TV series that take place at different times, another option is to watch everything in chronological order. This means you get to start with something a little bit more modern, but the one problem with this is that references will often be made to films you've not yet seen, which could make certain elements difficult to follow.

To be honest, just like we recommend in our guide to how to watch the Star Wars movies in order , it really is a matter of personal preference. As long as you have one of the best TVs , you'll find you enjoy this franchise no matter what order you decide to watch it in.

So, without further ado, here's how to watch Star Trek in order - based on release date and in-universe continuity...

Star Trek TV shows and movies in chronological order

This is probably the list you're looking for if you're trying to figure out how to watch Star Trek in order. It's where things get really interesting, as Star Trek movies and TV shows have a habit of jumping around the franchise's chronology with sequels, prequels and bits in between. There are even two distinct timelines – but don't worry, we'll explain all that.

The original ‘Prime’ timeline was started by the Original Series, the Next Generation-era TV shows, and the first ten movies, The alternative ‘Kelvin’ timeline, meanwhile, was created in JJ Abrams’ first Star Trek (2009) to allow the familiar Enterprise crew of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov to have new adventures without contradicting canon . To avoid confusion, we've defined the two timelines as separate entities below.

This list doesn't, however, include all of the brief Short Treks – short stories which are mostly set around the Star Trek: Discovery era – and adventures where Starfleet crews time-travelled to the eras before any of the shows/movies are set (eg visits to 1986 in The Voyage Home and 2063 in First Contact). We've also left out upcoming Discovery spin-off Star Trek: Section 31 , since it's not yet in production. (Also, we're not entirely sure exactly when it'll be set.)

Let's start with everything in one big list.

Star Trek: Enterprise (seasons 1-4)
‘The Cage’
Star Trek: Discovery (seasons 1-2)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Star Trek: The Original Series (seasons 1-3)
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock
Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home
Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier
Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: Generations (opening sequence)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (seasons 1-5)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (seasons 6-7), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 1-2)
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 3-4), Star Trek: Voyager (seasons 1-2)
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 5-6), Star Trek: Voyager (seasons 3-4)
Star Trek: Insurrection
S tar Trek: Deep Space Nine (season 7), Star Trek: Voyager (season 5)
Star Trek: Voyager (seasons 6-7)
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Star Trek: Prodigy
Star Trek (2009) – Prime timeline sequences
Star Trek: Picard
Star Trek: Discovery (season 3-)
Short Treks: 'Calypso'

If you watch in the order given above, you'll get a continuous ‘history’ of the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 32nd centuries according to the Star Trek timeline. That said, you will notice some odd discrepancies – thanks to the time in which respective shows were made, the technology in prequel show Star Trek: Discovery is significantly more advanced than what Kirk and Spock used in the Original Series.

Below, we'll explain how the different eras of the shows and movies break down for context.

Note that Gene Roddenberry's original pre-Kirk Star Trek pilot, 'The Cage', is counted as an instalment of the Original Series. You'll usually find it listed as a bonus episode as part of season one when you're watching it on streaming services.

Star Trek: Enterprise era (22nd century) Begins and ends with: Star Trek Enterprise seasons 1-4

About a century before James T Kirk and his crew embark on their famous five-year mission in Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain Jonathan Archer leads Earth's first steps into the wider universe.

Star Trek: The Original Series era (23rd century) Begins with: 'The Cage' Ends with: Star Trek: Generations (opening sequence)

For many this is the most familiar era of Star Trek, since it involves Kirk, Spock and the classic Enterprise crew.

This section of the Trek timeline kicks off with the original unaired Star Trek pilot, 'The Cage' . Next up in franchise chronology are the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery , which work as a prequel to the Original Series (they even feature a younger version of Spock), but it's all change in season 3 – the events of the season 2 finale send the crew into the distant future of the 32nd century. More on that later...

Upcoming spin-off Strange New Worlds will follow the adventures of Captain Pike, Number One and Spock on the Enterprise after the USS Discovery travelled to the future. And at some point after that, Captain James T Kirk will take command of Starfleet's most famous ship – a role he filled throughout The Original Series , The Animated Series and the first six Star Trek movies ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture , The Wrath of Khan , The Search for Spock , The Voyage Home , The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country ).

The latest point we've seen (so far) in the 23rd century era is James T Kirk being taken away by the Nexus ribbon in the prologue of Star Trek: Generations . This is the event that allows Kirk to meet Picard when the Next Generation crew take on the mantle of headlining the big screen franchise.

Star Trek: The Next Generation era (24th century) Begins with: Star Trek: The Next Generation Ends with: Star Trek (2009) – Prime timeline sequences

The richest, most complicated period in Star Trek chronology. During The Next Generation era, Star Trek was experimenting with the idea of a shared universe years before Marvel got in on the act, with three TV shows (TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager ) and four movies ( Generations , First Contact , Insurrection and Nemesis ) interweaving through the same timeline – Voyager's Captain Kathryn Janeway even shows up in Star Trek: Nemesis as a newly promoted admiral.

New animated comedy spin-off Lower Decks is set a year after Picard and the Next Generation crew's final mission in Star Trek: Nemesis, while Nickelodeon kids' cartoon Star Trek: Prodigy will see Kate Mulgrew reprising her role as Voyager's captain, Kathryn Janeway. That suggests it will presumably be set at a similar point in the Star Trek timeline.

In JJ Abrams' first Star Trek movie (2009), the destruction of Romulus and Spock Prime's accidental trip back to the pre-Original Series era (in the Kelvin timeline) also take place after the events of Nemesis.

In the list above, we've shown how the movies (roughly) fit into the chronology of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Picard era (turn of the 25th century) Begins with: Picard Ends with: ???

Aside from glimpses of the destruction of Romulus in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Picard gives us our first post-Star Trek: Nemesis look at what the United Federation of Planets has become.

Since we last saw Jean-Luc Picard, he's retired to his vineyard in France, an android uprising on Mars has led to a ban on all synthetic life, and a disabled Borg Cube (known simply as the 'Artifact') is being mined for technology.

Distant future (32nd century) Begins with : Star Trek: Discovery season 2 (finale) Ends with: ???

In order to save the galaxy, the brave crew of the USS Discovery set off on a one-way mission 900 years into the future in Star Trek: Discovery 's season 2 finale. Their 32nd century destination is new territory for Star Trek – thanks to the mysterious 'Burn', most of the dilithium in the galaxy has been destroyed, making warp travel impossible. As a result, the Federation is a shadow of its former self – even Earth has decided to go it alone.

This isn't, however, the furthest Star Trek has ventured into the future – Short Trek ' Calypso ' is set on the Discovery in a distant future where the ship's computer has become sentient.

Star Trek's alternate 'Kelvin' timeline explained

In 2009's Star Trek movie directed by JJ Abrams, Spock Prime tries to save Romulus from a supernova, inadvertently creates a black hole while doing so, and gets pulled into the past, along with Romulan mining vessel the Narada. Once there, the Narada attacks the USS Kelvin on the day James T Kirk is born. The ship is destroyed as Kirk's father, George, sacrifices himself to save the rest of the crew.

When all that happens, the alternative ‘Kelvin’ timeline is created, with events unfolding in parallel (but with remarkable similarity) to the original Prime timeline.

Got all that? There are just three movies set in the Kelvin timeline:

Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek into Darkness
Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek TV shows and movies in release date order

Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (1984)
Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986)
‘The Cage’ (previously unavailable Star Trek pilot from 1965, given VHS release in 1986)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier (1989)
Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Star Trek: Discovery (2017-)
Short Treks (2018-2020)
Star Trek: Picard (2020-)
Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020-)
Star Trek: Prodigy (2021, TBC)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TBC)

Considering The Original Series was cancelled after just three seasons in 1969, it's remarkable that Star Trek is still around half a century later. But as the show's popularity grew in syndication on US TV, Trek fandom became a big enough force for the five-year mission to resume via Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973. Most of the original cast – with the notable exception of Walter Koenig (Chekov) – were enticed back to voice their characters.

Then, helped by Star Wars turning sci-fi into the hottest genre in Hollywood, Star Trek beamed onto the big screen with 1979's The Motion Picture . The original crew headed up five more movies ( The Wrath of Khan , The Search for Spock , The Voyage Home , The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country ) before bowing out in 1991. The ’80s also gave the world a hint of the Star Trek that never was when 'The Cage' , the original unaired pilot, was released on VHS in 1986 (it appeared on TV two years later). Of the pilot crew, only Leonard Nimoy's Spock went on to reprise his role in the TV show, though footage from 'The Cage' was used extensively in the Original Series’ only two-parter, 'The Menagerie'.

While the Enterprise was making it big in cinemas, the franchise returned to its TV roots in 1987 with The Next Generation . Set over 70 years after Kirk and Spock's final mission, it featured a new crew – led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard – on board a new starship Enterprise. The Next Generation was arguably even more successful than the Original Series, spawning two spin-off series: Deep Space Nine (which began in 1993) played with the Trek format by focusing on a space station, while Voyager (1995) dumped its crew on the other side of the galaxy, hundreds of light years from home.

The Next Generation crew also fronted four movies of their own ( Generations , First Contact , Insurrection and Nemesis ) between 1995 and 2002.

After Voyager came to an end in 2001, Star Trek left the Next Generation era behind, and went in a completely different direction – Star Trek: Enterprise was a prequel set a century before Kirk and Spock's adventures. Enterprise lasted only four seasons, however (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager all made it to seven), and was canceled in 2005.

These were also dark times for the movie branch of the Trek franchise, as the disappointing box office performance of Nemesis had put the film saga on hiatus – it wasn't until 2009 that Star Trek warped back onto the big screen.

Future Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams (already hot property as director of Mission: Impossible 3 and co-creator of Lost) gave the franchise an action blockbuster makeover, recasting Kirk, Spock and the rest of the original crew as rookies on their first mission. The reboot, simply titled Star Trek , made more than twice as much at the box office as any of its predecessors, and two sequels ( Star Trek into Darkness , Star Trek Beyond ) followed.

Star Trek belatedly returned to TV in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery . Set a decade before the Original Series, it was a darker, more serialized Trek than we’d seen before – more in tune with the prestige shows of the so-called Golden Age of TV. As it’s turned out, it was just the beginning of Star Trek's renewed assault on TV...

A series of brief Short Treks appeared online ahead of Discovery's second season, while The Next Generation follow-up Star Trek: Picard left spacedock in January 2020. Animated series Lower Decks followed in August 2020, and Discovery spin-off Strange New Worlds – featuring Anson Mount's Captain Pike, Rebecca Romijn's Number One and Ethan Peck's Spock on the pre-Kirk Enterprise – is now in production.

There's also another cartoon offering heading for the Alpha Quadrant, in the form of animated kids show Star Trek: Prodigy.

And there's potentially even more to come, as the much-talked about Michelle Yeoh vehicle Section 31 is still in development. But with Paramount Plus programming boss Julie McNamara telling Variety that the streaming service's current aim is to debut "a new Trek every quarter", we may have to wait for Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks and/or Strange New Worlds to stand aside before we get a new TV iteration of Trek.

To keep things simple, all the shows above are listed by the date their first episode aired. While the chronology does jump around if you watch Star Trek in order of release date, there are some benefits. For example, the prequel shows assume a fair bit of knowledge of earlier series, like the Borg's appearance in Star Trek: Enterprise episode 'Regeneration', or Star Trek: Discovery's revelations about the ultimate fate of Christopher Pike (the Enterprise captain in 'The Cage', who later shows up in 'The Menagerie'). Moments like that undoubtedly make more sense in the context of later events in the Star Trek timeline.

How to stream Star Trek TV shows and movies

If you just want to know how to stream the 13 Star Trek movies and eight TV shows in the US and the UK, we've laid it out below.

In the US, the newly rebranded Paramount Plus (formerly CBS All Access) is definitely the place to go, with every TV show available to watch. In the UK, Netflix hosts all the Star Trek series except for Picard and Lower Decks.

Watching the 13 Trek movies is a rather more complex affair, with the films spread across numerous streaming services in the US and UK – and some of them you'll have to pay to rent/buy.

The TV shows

Star Trek: The Original Series ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
Star Trek: The Animated Series ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Netflix)
Star Trek: The Next Generation ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
Star Trek: Voyager ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
Star Trek: Enterprise ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Netflix)
Star Trek: Discovery ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Netflix)
Star Trek: Picard ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Amazon Prime Video)
Star Trek: Lower Decks (US: Paramount Plus US: Amazon Prime Video)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
Star Trek: Generations ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
Star Trek: First Contact ( US: Paramount Plus UK: Only available to rent/buy)
Star Trek: Insurrection ( US: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu UK: Only available to rent/buy)
Star Trek: Nemesis ( US: Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime Video UK: Only available to rent/buy)
Star Trek 2009 ( US: DirectTV UK: Sky Cinema/Now TV)
Star Trek Into Darkness ( US : FX Now UK: Amazon Prime Video)
Star Trek Beyond ( US: Amazon Prime, Hulu UK: Amazon Prime Video)

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Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard's happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he'll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard's name was Winter.

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The Right Order to Watch ALL of Star Trek

By: Author Brad Burnie

Posted on Published: January 13, 2021 - Last updated: December 19, 2022

Share the Universe!

If you’ve just learned about the Star Trek universe and want to watch all of the series and movies within the franchise, you will want to start at the very beginning to understand what is happening and the references made in later series or movies. While you might be tempted to start with the Original Series, you will miss critical information based on later shows. What is the right order to watch all of Star Trek?

There are two timelines: the Prime timeline and the Kelvin timeline. Begin with the Prime timeline, as this is where the Original Series started. Begin with the movie “First Contact” to understand how space exploration began, then watch Enterprise to see the continuing voyages.

While it all seems confusing right now, you will understand how to watch the entire Star Trek franchise after you read the article. Let’s dig in!

A Brief Explanation of the Order

While most advice is to start with the series “ Enterprise ,” that doesn’t explain how Earth ended up in space, or how the Vulcans became involved as consultants on Earth in the pursuit of space travel. The movie “ First Contact ” answers those questions, and though it involves the Next Generation crew, it shows how the first warp ship got the Vulcans’ attention and how humans become space-faring.

The order given here puts the movie first, as it gives you a background to the Enterprise series and helps you understand what happened. While it is a time travel movie, it starts you at the very beginning. But there are two separate timelines you need to be aware of.

The Prime Timeline

Gene Roddenberry started the Prime timeline with the Original Series. The movies and series are based on this timeline, and it follows the work of Kirk, Spock, and Picard through the years. The Kelvin timeline is not part of this article, and will only focus on the Prime timeline.

The Kelvin Timeline

In 2009, J.J. Abrams created a Star Trek reboot that explored the idea of an alternate timeline, otherwise known as the Kelvin timeline . The movies, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek: Beyond (2016), explore the world where the Romulan Nero went back in time to destroy the first Starfleet ship he met, which was the USS Kelvin.

In 2387, the Romulan sun was about to go supernova, which would destroy an entire quadrant. Spock took this on and promised the Romulans that he could stop it from happening.

Spock tried halting the supernova with red matter but failed, leaving Romulus destroyed. Nero was so angry that he attacked Spock’s ship, the Narada. During the attack, both ships were pulled into the black hole left by the supernova and were sent back in time.

Nero was not aware that the Narada went back in time, but he attacked the first Starfleet vessel, which happened to be the ship that James Kirk’s father served on and killed him.

Before this event happened, the timeline traveled the same path as the Prime timeline. That one event skewed the original timeline to create an alternate reality. Many things were altered, including the technology, but the events stayed mostly similar, including Khan.

Star Trek: First Contact (2063) (2373)

The Next Generation crew are on the new Enterprise-E. A distress signal from the Federation alerts the crew that the Borg made it to the Alpha quadrant to assimilate Earth.

Picard tells his crew that they cannot help fight because of his prior involvement with the Borg. The crew argues that this is why they should be at the forefront of the battle.

Later, Counselor Troi tells Picard that the battle with the Borg started. Picard and Riker come out to the bridge and listen to the ships’ various transmissions trying to take down the cube. Once he heard enough, he asked the crew what they should do–go against their orders and fight, or stay where they are.

Commander Data says, “If I were human, I believe I would say ‘to hell with our orders.’” Then they make their way to the Alpha quadrant.

Since Picard has experience with Borg ships, he orders all other ships to fire on a non-critical system, which destroys the cube. As the cube explodes, they notice a sphere leave and open up a time anomaly. Picard orders the Enterprise to follow the sphere after they realize the Borg assimilated Earth of the past.

They are pulled in the stream with the sphere and end up in the 21st century–April 4, 2063, to be exact–one day before Zephram Cochrane was to fly his warp ship.

The Enterprise crew assists Cochrane in his original mission to keep the timeline preserved.

Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2161)

Star Trek Enterprise continues where First Contact left off–humans meeting Vulcans for the first time. The series shows how the Vulcans became consultants to humans in constructing warp-capable ships and interacting with other species.

While the Vulcans thought they were doing a decent service, humans often resented this and felt that they could have been further along in their development had it not been for the Vulcans holding them back.

The series explored the Earth-Romulan war, the tensions with the Klingons, how the United Federation of Planets came to be, and the Vulcan-Andorian alliance’s development. The series ran four seasons before it was canceled, but it did clear up things that the Original Series alluded to.

Star Trek: Discovery (2255-?)

Discovery first debuted in 2017, making it the next to the last series developed in the Prime timeline. This series’s events take place ten years before the Original Series and explain why the war between the Klingons and the Federation ignited after over 100 years of tense peace between the two sides.

It also highlights the life of Spock’s foster sister, Micheal Burnham. Spock grew up with a foster sister that his parents took in after the Klingons killed her parents on a Federation outpost. Micheal grew up with Amanda and Sarek, learning the Vulcan ways while suppressing her human emotions.

Discovery attempts to explain why Spock never spoke of this sister in other series. Micheal said horrible things to Spock when they were children about his heritage and how he would never fit in on Vulcan or Earth because of it. But she only said that to keep him safe from Vulcan extremists while she ran away.

At the end of the second season, the Discovery crew jumps 900 years into the future, leaving Captain Pike to command the Enterprise until Captain Kirk takes over.

Star Trek: The Original Series (2265-2269)

The series that started it all, The Original Series (TOS), explores the world of James Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the crew in the “five-year mission to explore the universe, seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Since this was the first series of a new fictional world, no one knew what to expect.

The series introduced Vulcans, Andorians, Tellerites, and Klingons. It also showed how alien influences could disrupt a primitive culture’s development and create problems that they would not otherwise have, demonstrating the need for their Prime Directive that prohibited their interference in pre-warp societies.

Star Trek Continues (Fan Fiction)

Most fan fiction is best left to a franchise’s sidelines due to their non-canonical events and stories. Star Trek Continues , however, is a cut above the rest of Star Trek fan fiction and was even approved as canon by Gene Roddenberry’s son.

The series was conceived and produced by Vic Mignogna, who also plays James Kirk in the series. They made use of the same studio and set that TOS was filmed on, and care was put into every single detail to make it appear the same as TOS in every way.

It attempted to explain why starships in later series had a counselor and a chief of security, and what happened in the last year of their five-year mission. The series tied up loose ends that TOS left, and explains how Kirk became an Admiral, and why Spock left Starfleet for several years.

It is recommended that you include this fanfiction series in your watchlist because it will answer certain questions that The Next Generation fails to answer. The episodes are also free to watch, as the project was a labor of love for Vic, as he was a fan of TOS and was honored to create the series for other fans.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (2269-2270)

Soon after TOS went off the air, the Star Trek writers worked with professional science fiction writers and Filmation to create Star Trek: The Animated Series . The Animated Series was an attempt to answer some of the questions that TOS left open and appeal to younger viewers.

Some of the episodes were continuations of TOS episodes, such as “The Trouble with Tribbles,” and the Mudd episodes. Other episodes outlined new technologies such as a recreation room that utilized a holographic suite, or an “aqua-shuttle.”

Many of the episodes kept the original actors to voice the characters, except Chekov’s character, due to budgetary constraints. However, the actor that played Chekov wrote one episode of the series.

Because the ratings were low, it only lasted one and a half seasons.

Original Star Trek Movies (2273-2293)

Though The Original Series had low ratings when it first aired, it gained enough popularity to produce movies for the big screen. Studio executives wanted nothing to do with Star Trek movies initially, but after a bit of convincing, they decided to move ahead with the Motion Picture.

Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the very first cinematic project of the Star Trek universe, and it bombed. While they tried to play with the special effects and show the space stations for the first time, it wasn’t enough to save the film from bad ratings.

The story begins with a large entity traveling across the galaxy, killing or vaporizing everything in its path. Admiral Kirk boards the redesigned Enterprise to give it an inspection before it goes out on another mission. Captain Decker is in command and thinks Kirk is there as a “top brass sendoff,” not realizing that the Admiral is there to command the ship.

Once they get going, Kirk briefs the crew about this entity that they will intercept, and hopefully, stop before it kills anyone else. Captain Decker is temporarily demoted to Science Officer in Spock’s absence, much to his disappointment and irritation.

Meanwhile, Spock realizes that something is calling to him in space and refuses to complete the Kolinahr ritual. He gets a lift to the Enterprise to figure out what the entity is.

In the end, they find out that this entity is V’Ger, or Voyager, a probe sent from Earth in the late 20th century. It had amassed so much knowledge, and it was ready to transmit its information to the creator.

The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan continues the story started in TOS episode, “Space Seed,” left off. It starts with Commander Chekov on the starship “Reliant” looking for a suitable planet that Dr. Carol Marcus could use to test their new Genesis device. The device allows a dead planet to be terra-formed into a new planet for whatever life “we see fit to deposit on it.”

As the Reliant crew goes to what they think is Ceti Alpha VI, Chekov notices the “Botany Bay” on one of the walls of a shelter on the planet. He suddenly remembers who that is and tries getting the captain to leave. When they go out the door, they are met by several people who push them back inside the shelter. It turns out to be Khan and his people that were left on Ceti Alpha V.

It is determined that Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after they were left on Ceti Alpha V, and Khan was angry and wanted revenge on Kirk. He hijacked the Reliant and went in search of Kirk.

Khan took revenge on everyone except Kirk, because “like a poor marksman, you keep missing the mark!” Eventually, after several battles between the Reliant and the Enterprise, Khan has one last trick up his sleeve before he dies. He sets the Genesis device to explode, and in 4 minutes, everything in the system will be dead or dying.

Spock saves the Enterprise in the most extreme sacrifice. At his funeral, they jettison his body into space, which lands on the Genesis planet.

The Search for Spock

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock picks up where the last movie left off, as Sarek tasks Kirk to bring both Spock and McCoy to Vulcan to release them both of Spocks’ Katra, or the essence of who he was in life. But in the Enterprise’s absence, the Mutara sector became off-limits, and only certain science vessels were allowed in that region of space.

Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura work together to bring Bones and Spock back to Vulcan. However, on the way, the Klingon commander Kruge bought the secrets of the Genesis device and wanted to exploit the technology for the glory of the Empire. He got to the planet first and destroyed the science vessel Grissom that Kirk’s son David, and Lieutenant Saavik served on.

By the time Kirk got to the area, he had realized that there was trouble. When the Klingons wanted to board the Enterprise, Kirk and crew escaped to the planet and blew up the ship, along with the Klingons.

They found Spock alive, and once they got rid of most of the Klingons, including Kruge, they made their way to Vulcan in a Klingon ship.

The Voyage Home

The third movie in a series of movies, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , finds the Enterprise crew still on Vulcan after saving Spock. They decided they must go back to Earth to face the consequences of their actions. Once the Klingon ship was ready to go, Spock boarded the ship to testify at the crews’ trial.

But once they get close to Earth, a planetary distress call from Earth reaches their ship. An alien probe is cutting off all life support and power to Earth and her space docks and is disrupting the planet itself.

The Enterprise crew realizes that the sound the probe makes is the same sung by humpback whales, extinct in the 22nd century but still alive in the 20th century. They go back in time, snatch a couple of whales and water, and go back to their time to help repopulate the species and, hopefully, save Earth.

The Final Frontier

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier introduces the audience to Spock’s half-brother, Sybok. Sybok believes that he found the Vulcan equivalent to the Garden of Eden on the other side of the Great Barrier and steals the Enterprise-A to get there. Along the way, he helps people release their pain from past trauma, which enables him to get people to do what he wants them to do.

But, when they cross the great barrier and get to the planet, Sybok realizes his mistake. “God” isn’t the “real God” and takes it upon himself to wrestle and kill the alien that deceived him.

The movie was not as popular as the previous three movies due to the storyline.

The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country explains how the cold war between the Klingons and the Federation ended. Praxis, the Klingon moon responsible for Kronos’ energy output, blew up, leaving Kronos with about 50 Earth years of life left. If left to their own devices, they would be dead soon.

So Chancellor Gorkon brought up his idea to reconcile with the Federation and appealed to Ambassador Spock to create peace. But many in the Federation, and the Klingon Empire, didn’t believe that the Klingons should be admitted to the Federation. The idea was so repulsive to some people that they were willing to frame Captain Kirk for sabotage to keep the cold war alive.

The Klingons arrested Bones and Kirk for Chancellor Gorkon’s murder and were sentenced to life on Rura Penthe, the Klingon penal asteroid.

But this was not to be, and the peace conference was held on Khitomer as planned, which was the start of the Klingon-Federation alliance.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)

The Next Generation continued where the movies left off with the Enterprise-D. Instead of being given a five-year mission, the crew has an “ongoing mission to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

The series showed several new advances in technology, such as a new holodeck, food replicators, and other things that TOS never had. The new crew was under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

They met the Q entity who loved torturing the Enterprise crew and introduced them to the Borg. The series lasted for seven seasons.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)

Deep Space Nine was a spinoff series from The Next Generation. It centered around an outlier Bajoran space station previously occupied by the Cardassians. Commander Benjamin Sisko commanded the station that was located near the only stable wormhole in the galaxy. The wormhole was a gateway from the Alpha quadrant to the Beta quadrant and was the site of the war with the Dominion.

It lasted seven seasons and overlapped with The Next Generation and Voyager in the timeline.

Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)

Star Trek: Voyager tells the story of a starship that gets pulled into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker to search for a “suitable replacement” to care for the Ocampa. But because Captain Janeway didn’t want to let the array fall into the hands of Ocampan enemies, she destroyed the array.

They spend the next seven years working on ways to get home, coming across many different species and anomalies. Eventually, they get home using the Borg conduit leading to the Alpha quadrant.

The Next Generation Movies

The Next Generation crew appeared in four movies, one of which showed how Earth’s space exploration started.

Generations (2371)

Star Trek: Generations connects Captain Kirk and Captain Picard in a way that has them working against a common enemy–Soran. Soran was intent on destroying a star so that he could enter into the Nexus, which is a place of pure joy. However, in destroying the star, Soran would destroy entire civilizations. Captain Picard could not allow that, and while in the Nexus, he persuades Captain Kirk to come with him and help make a difference.

The Enterprise-D was destroyed by a Klingon ship.

Insurrection (2375)

Star Trek: Insurrection tells the story of the Federation working with the Son’a to get the benefits of the Ba’ku homeworld amidst the Briar patch. But as the Enterprise-E investigates further, they realize that the Son’a planned to transport the Ba’ku to another planet without their knowledge to take the metaphasic particles of the outer rings to create a “fountain of youth” that would provide medical benefits for people of the Federation.

But Picard and crew found out that the Son’a were children of the Ba’ku over a century ago who were expelled because of wanting to go off-world. They came back to kill their elders.

Nemesis (2379)

In Star Trek: Nemesis , the clone of Picard shows up to tell him about how he came to be. He grew up on Remus, which was a mining planet. He grew up with the same issues that Picard has, but because of the temporal RNA he was sequenced with, his body was breaking down that much quicker.

In the end, Data sacrifices himself to save the captain and the Enterprise crew.

Picard (2399-?)

The latest series within the franchise, Picard picks up 20 years after Nemesis and tries to explain the Kelvin timeline a bit more. He helped evacuate the Romulan homeworld before the sun went supernova, but was not completely successful. After that happened, he left Starfleet due to how they didn’t approve of his plans.

Synthetic life forms were banned after they attacked the Mars colony, but one found Picard right before being killed. That synthetic life form was a descendant from Data’s matrix. The rest of the season focuses on finding the twin synth before she was killed as well.

Well, there you have it–all the Star Trek series , movies, and even a fanfiction series to watch. Once you’ve watched all of these programs, feel free to go back and watch the Kelvin timeline movies to see how it is different from the Prime timeline shows.

Star Trek shows often were a vague commentary on real-life issues, such as racism, homophobia, misogyny, and economic disparities. The franchise shows how humans overcame these issues, but then encountered several species on other planets that were still in the process of overcoming the issues and their strong dislike of any new thoughts. If you liked this post then you should check out our Star Wars Watch Order post

Looper: The Star Trek Kelvin Timeline Explained
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: First Contact
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: Picard
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: Voyager
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: Enterprise
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: Discovery
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: The Original Series
Memory Alpha: Star Trek Generations
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: Insurrection
Memory Alpha: Star Trek Nemesis
Memory Alpha: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Memory Alpha: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Memory Alpha: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Memory Alpha: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Memory Alpha: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Memory Alpha: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek Continues: About Us

Brad Burnie is the founder of Starships.com. He loves all video game genres. In his spare time, he loves reading, watching movies, and gaming

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How to Watch the Star Trek Movies in Order

You need multiple streaming subscriptions to watch all 13 movies

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What to Know

All 13 movies were released chronologically.
Search various streaming platforms to stream the movies by release date.
Organized by three eras: The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Kelvin Timeline.

Unlike Star Wars , which is housed on Disney+ , there’s currently no way to watch all 13 Star Trek movies on a single streaming service. Instead, you need to boldly go (sorry) to multiple platforms in order to watch every movie in the legendary sci-fi franchise.

This article only covers Star Trek movies that were released theatrically. It doesn’t include TV series like The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine , or canonical adaptations across other media. Although having knowledge of The Original Star Trek Series and other Star Trek TV series is helpful, it's not essential for enjoying the movies.

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How to Watch the Star Trek Movies in Chronological Order

The Star Trek movies can be separated into three distinct eras. The first era covers the “Prime” timeline started by Gene Roddenberry’s original series from the 1960s and features James T. Kirk and Spock. This era spans six films, beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and ending with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .

The second era is spun off from Star Trek: The Next Generation and features characters from that TV series. Fittingly, these are known as The Next Generation films. Finally, the Kelvin timeline kicked off with the J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek in 2009. This era is an alternate timeline featuring a significantly different history from the “Prime” universe.

If you watch all 13 Star Trek movies in one sitting, it takes you just over 25 hours. But if you add in the seven TV shows, that time climbs to nearly 25 days .

How to Watch the Star Trek Movies in Order of Release

The great thing about Star Trek is that the movies were released chronologically, so you’ll be following the exact same order as above if you want to watch them based on the release date.

The majority of the movies are available to stream on Amazon Prime or Paramount+ , but you also need to dip into other services like Fubo or SlingTV to track down the rest.

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All ‘Star Trek’ movies in order

Star Trek has been on the big screen since 1979. Here are all the installments!

James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) sits in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise in 2009's Star Trek.

It’s hard to believe that as of 2024, Star Trek will have been on the silver screen for forty-five years. In that time, the crews of the many and varied starships Enterprise have had no less than thirteen adventures. Here they are in order.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

It’s unfortunate that the first movie in the franchise is also the weakest to feature the original crew. The script was subject to a tug-of-war during production between series creator Gene Roddenberry and principal writer Harold Livingston. The result was a flabby tale about the Enterprise crew’s encounter with an enormous entity threatening Earth – a colossal mishmash that pleased no-one, save for seeing the revamped starship Enterprise looking majestic on a big screen.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

By common consensus, The Wrath of Khan was streets ahead of its predecessor, and, forty years after its release, it still hasn’t been bettered . Ricardo Montalban reprises his role as Khan, Admiral Kirk’s nemesis from the 1966 episode “Space Seed”; the plot sees Khan steal a starship, purloin the Genesis device, and vow revenge for his exile to a distant planet. The battle scenes are breathtaking, and the final act is a tour de force of tension and suspense.

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)

The franchise’s third instalment may be a touch less compelling than The Wrath of Khan , but there are still thrills aplenty, as the Enterprise ’s crew goes to the Genesis planet created in the previous film, where they make an extraordinary discovery. Christopher Lloyd shows the acting chops that would shortly serve him so well as Doc Brown in Back To The Future as the homicidal Klingon captain whose fistfight with Kirk provides the one moment that really harkens back to the original series.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Time travel – never an easy proposition in the Star Trek universe – seems as easy as pie in this 1986 movie, but that inconsistency aside, viewers are treated to a famous romp. Kirk and company visit 1980s San Francisco in search of humpback whales who, it is surmised, can communicate with a probe in the future that is hellbent on destroying Earth. “But that’s crazy,” mutters Bones at one point. He’s not wrong; but it’s still a rollicking movie.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

William Shatner took the directorial reins for the fifth film in the series, which saw the Enterprise being commandeered by Sybok, a half-brother of Spock, and a mystic in search of God. The intention was to offer commentary on televangelists, but, though it has its moments, the script sags under the weight of slapstick, cheesy one-liners, ropey special effects, and an underwhelming climax.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

The final outing for the original crew sees Kirk and Bones framed for the assassination of the Klingon premier (played with gravitas by David Warner). Normal service is resumed after its predecessor’s misfires, and the plot is worthy, but the cast never quite manage to shake off the sense of an era coming to an end.

Star Trek: Generations (1994)

The first film featuring the Enterprise crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Generations sees Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) battling Sorin (Malcolm McDowell), a stereotypical mad scientist driven to the destruction of an entire planet by grief. The film seems to have suffered in comparison to its successor, which did better at the box office, but it’s a fine film, with a nail-biting final act.

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

The best of the Next Generation films, First Contact features the Borg, time travel, and fine turns by James Cromwell and Alfre Woodard as 21 st century scientists attempting to build the world’s first warp drive. The stakes are high, the action convincing – and dyed-in-the-wool fans will squee non-stop during the final scene.

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

The increasingly sure hand of Jonathan Frakes – Next Generation ’s Commander Riker – in the director’s seat is not enough to compensate for a by-the-numbers script which reads more like an extended television episode. The themes of eternal life and a conspiracy within Starfleet fail to disguise a strangely tensionless plot, though Tony Award winner Donna Murphy impresses as Captain Picard’s love interest.

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

This underwhelming conclusion to the Next Generation films barely broke even at the box office. Tom Hardy appears in only his third film role as Shinzon, a Romulan rebel created from Captain Picard’s DNA. The hectic climax has dramatic beats in all the wrong places, and, with multiple plot strands competing with one another for attention, it’s unsurprising that cinema audiences voted with their feet.

Star Trek (2009)

J. J. Abrams kicked off the Star Trek reboot films with a new Kirk and Spock in Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto respectively, a nifty new starship Enterprise, a touch of Beastie Boys, and a ton of lens flare. It won an Academy Award for Best Makeup (the only Star Trek film to be so honored), and audiences loved it, though removal of rose-tinted spectacles shows more of a reliance on artifice than strong plotting.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Abrams’ second bite of the cherry was another box office success, but struggles for coherence, relying on misplaced callbacks to previous movie instalments and a laughable final slugfest between Spock and Khan that puts viewers in mind of the similarly batty and sleep-inducing fight sequence in Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith . The usually dependable Benedict Cumberbatch is miscast as Khan.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

This Simon Pegg and Doug Jung-scripted film improves on its predecessors , thanks in large part to well-judged performances from Idris Elba and Sofia Boutella. But the action is still way too far-fetched even for the Star Trek franchise, and it’s no wonder that a fourth instalment is yet to be ready for launch.

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Star Trek Into Darkness

After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass ... Read all After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction. After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.

J.J. Abrams
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Trivia Leonard Nimoy 's final film role (and by extension, his final time portraying Spock) before his death on February 27, 2015 at the age of 83. It's also the first in the Star Trek franchise (either movie or TV series) after the death of Majel Barrett .
Goofs (at around 1h 24 mins) While planning the space jump, Sulu's display incorrectly labels the Enterprise as NCC/0514, which is the registry for the USS Kelvin from Star Trek (2009) . It should read NCC/1701.

James T. Kirk : The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Spock : An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects.

James T. Kirk : Well, still, it's a hell of a quote.

Crazy credits There are no opening credits in the film except for the title card, making this the third consecutive Star Trek film that does not list its cast at the beginning.
Connections Featured in The One Show: Episode #7.133 (2012)
Soundtracks Theme from 'Star Trek' TV Series Written by Alexander Courage & Gene Roddenberry

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May 16, 2013 (United States)
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May 19, 2013
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In defense of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies dared to go boldly go where 'some men' had gone before.

For a fanbase as passionate as the one Star Trek has collected over the years, change is often met with collective suspicion rather than communal excitement.

Star Trek is sacred, and those who cut their teeth on the William Shatner -starring original series or the much loved Next Generation are fiercely protective of their darling franchise. Anyone brave enough to reimagine the series for new audiences has a cosmically high bar to leap, with many believing the task to be a no-win scenario (a ' kobayashi maru ', perhaps?).

In the age of remakes, remasters and reimaginings, Star Trek has seen numerous iterations of its winning formula, some garnering success and others catastrophic failure. Losses be damned, though, as when it does succeed, the seasoned sci-fi franchise does so in spectacular fashion.

While shows like Discovery and Lower Decks take us to a new branch of Starfleet or a new story in the Star Trek universe, the 2009 self-titled film tackles the Kirk and Spock story head on, and it's bravery is rewarded. The 2009 film is a masterclass in contemporary science fiction, and by building Kirk and Spock respectively and setting them for a collision course in the film's opening act, it reminds us of the pair's polarizing differences, as well as their critical similarities.

It’s a new Star Trek for a new audience, and in forging something fitting for the current climate of films and media it’s crucial that the seasoned franchise makes small, yet significant differences to ensure that new releases don’t feel like a relic from the past.

In Defense of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek Movies: image shows Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) in Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Leap Before You Look

The success of the Star Trek license has been a result of a winning formula; one that’s sure to capture the hearts of many, and - critically - is future-proofed to continue to appeal to new fans. J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions didn’t do away with what made the original series special (unlike some sci-fi properties), instead they reflected on the past and evolved them significantly. Thus, the Kelvin timeline was born.

Old friends and new alliances prop up the plot of the first in the trilogy, and the familiar face of series icon Leonard Nimoy is simply a wonderful wrinkle that pays dividends. The passing of the torch from Nimoy to Quinto was simply excellent, and though the role was somewhat short-lived for the Heroes actor, it was more than prosperous as his performance as the stoic, yet compassionate Spock impressed critics and fans alike. In fact, it's hard to pluck a bad or out of place performance from the entire trilogy, as the glut of talented actors presented offer some of their best to date.

It has to be said, however, that though the performances remain top notch, it's evident that some of the magic is lost as the trilogy develops. Into Darkness reintroduces us to an iconic villain but lacks the emotional weight of the first and while Beyond provides more of the USS Enterprise crew that we’ve come to love, it does have an air of the 'soulless Summer blockbuster' feel to it. What makes the trilogy more than a one hit wonder is Abrams and co’s ability to develop authentic, grounded and human character quirks for a whole host of personalities that are often anything but.

In Defense of the J.J Abrams Star Trek Movies: image shows Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness was largely a victim of a poor release window. Set out into a world cluttered by cookie-cutter offerings in the MCU like Ironman 3 and lackluster Shyamalan sci-fi attempts like After Earth, the consensus was that it didn’t offer much that the scores of other summer blockbusters didn’t. It’s a great film, and a continuation of a story that thoroughly deserved another chapter in the tale. The chemistry of the Enterprise crew is as good as it’s ever been and the injection of a menacing villain was a much needed correction to the only significant flaw of the first film.

Beyond was helmed by Justin Lin of Fast and Furious fame, and while he brought his own flavour to the franchise (and far fewer lense flares), it saw our heroes depart on a fun --albeit linear-- adventure that served as a platform for the already-developed characters to flourish. No origin story was necessary to maintain the viewers’ attention, as the chemistry that three films across seven years had forged between the actors and their respective roles.

In Defense of the J.J Abrams Star Trek Movies: Idris Elba and Chris Pine in Star Trek Beyond (2016)_© Kimberley French_Paramount Pictures

Furthermore, the somewhat vague reports of Quentin Tarantino circling the Star Trek IP is enticing to anyone familiar with his previous work, and though many believe the recent trilogy to be concluded, there's always a possibility of a continuation, and the Pulp Fiction director's supposed interest is enough to garner more than a little excitement. Will it happen? Who knows, but it's enough to make keen cinephiles (Star Trek fan or not) curious.

The trilogy is flawed, yes, but with the franchise providing less-than-stellar action sequences and over the top acting in decades past, it's clear to viewers that Star Trek wears its flaws on its sleeve. In truth, most of said viewers would find such blemishes charming rather than distracting, and a reminder that the franchise has always blazed new trails rather than retreading old ones.

Like James T. Kirk and his father before him, Star Trek is a franchise that always leaps before it looks, which has resulted in a few harsh lessons and more than a few home runs. A quick glance at our Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best article will show that when J.J was firing on all cylinders, his Trek movies were up there with the best of them.

To Boldly Go...

In Defense of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek Movies: image shows kirk and spock

Nostalgia is a frightfully difficult impulse to overcome. When we find something we love in fiction, the characters, its stories and the adventures that they take us on are forever etched into our minds, only maturing with age to the point where the rose-tinted spectacles are in full effect.

To many, Star Trek was the first series that took our impressionable minds to the moon and back, providing hours of escapism amongst the stars and allowing us a glimpse at what the future could be like.

As the swinging 60's stretch further into the rear view mirror and Star Trek's humble beginnings feel even more humble in comparison to modern CGI, the JJ Abrams-produced trilogy is proof that, in the face of immense adversity, the franchise still has more to give.

Abrams' take on the seasoned sci-fi franchise provides bright-eyed viewers of today the opportunity to feel the same way our parents and grandparents felt the first time their screen was graced by the frightful Gorn or the sinister Khan. It's made Star Trek fans of the sons and daughters of those faithful Trekkies from decades past, which is all the evidence you need to believe that J.J. Abrams created something truly special.

If you're looking to revisit the latest Star Trek trilogy, check out our Star Trek streaming guide to find out where you can watch the movies online. And if you're wondering where the Kelvin movies fit into the rest of the Trek timeline, well it's complicated, but our Star Trek movies in chronological order guide explains it all.

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JJ Abrams: 'I never got Star Trek'

I was trying to avoid using the G-word, but JJ Abrams brings it up himself, unprompted. We're talking about his childhood and I begin a question with a slightly meandering: "So were you a ..."

"Geek?" he interjects, pre-empting a question he's clearly heard many times. Well, now you mention it, were you? "I don't think it's much of a question," he laughs.

He's right - it doesn't really need asking. Firstly, in an age when the most popular movies and TV series are based on comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and the supernatural, we are all basically geeks now. And secondly, his appearance is all the answer I need: a slight, young-looking, 42-year-old with thick, black-rimmed glasses, wavy vertical quiff and a blue-grey smock shirt that could be part of a uniform on, say, an intergalactic space vessel. And he's just directed the new Star Trek movie.

Actually, Abrams is personable, attentive, self-effacing and in no way socially maladjusted - but he is also ruler of an ever-expanding universe of geek-friendly viewing, in particular Lost, the cryptic TV series about marooned jet-crash survivors (complete with polar bear and smoke monster) that has viewers eating out of its hand, even as they scratch their heads in confusion. Add in TV shows like Alias and Fringe, and movies like Cloverfield and Mission: Impossible III and he's one of the most powerful forces in the industry. Now, with the addition of Star Trek's legions of devotees, he's a veritable emperor of uber-geekdom.

One thing Abrams has never been, though, is a Trekker. Or a Trekkie. Or even a Trekkist. "Star Trek," he says, referring to the original TV series, "always felt like a silly, campy thing. I remember appreciating it, but feeling like I didn't get it. I felt it didn't give me a way in. There was a captain, there was this first officer, they were talking a lot about adventures and not having them as much as I would've liked. Maybe I wasn't smart enough, maybe I wasn't old enough. But The Twilight Zone I was obsessed with. Loved it."

Any new addition to the Star Trek universe must manoeuvre through a dense asteroid belt of existing Trek lore that has accumulated after 79 episodes of the original series, its TV successors (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise), 10 movies and innumerable other spin-offs. But Abrams's ignorance was, he says, an asset: "I had no idea there had been 10 movies! I still haven't seen them all. I didn't want to become a student of Star Trek. I felt that was actually one of the few advantages I had. I was trying to make a movie, not trying to make a Trek movie."

Sure enough, Abrams's Star Trek zips along, fuelled by state-of-the-art special effects, agreeable young actors and a generous measure of comedy. By focusing on Spock and Kirk as novices finding their footing, and putting their gut-vs-logic dynamic at the heart of the film, Abrams gives non-followers plenty to hang on to, but also pays homage to familiar Trek tropes: Bones says: "I'm a doctor, not a physicist!"; Scotty says: "I'm giving her all she's got!"; and Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, makes a cameo to symbolically pass on the torch.

For advanced-level Trekkers, there are in-jokes and seismic events hardly anyone else will notice. This is the first time, for example, we see how Kirk cheats Starfleet's notorious Kobayashi Maru test, as mentioned in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - an event, indeed a sentence, that will mean absolutely nothing to the rest of us. And only the faithful will notice how Abrams pulls off a cheat of his own with this movie: the time-travel plot neatly sidesteps all that hazardous Trek lore - and sets up a fresh, blank future in a parallel reality (if you don't understand how, ask a Trekker). If there is a sequel, and it's difficult to imagine there won't be, he's free to boldly go wherever the hell he likes.

As usual, everything seems to be going Abrams's way. It's difficult to shake the impression that he mapped out his entire career in advance and it's all coming good. If you were to make a biopic of his life, it would be too corny to believe. At a time when most children were being entranced by the magic of moving images, young JJ was already peering behind the curtain, Wizard of Oz-style, figuring out how they worked. He would take apart electrical appliances with his grandfather and learn how they ticked. He learned magic tricks. His father, Gerald W Abrams, is a successful TV producer, so he was no stranger to sets and studios, even if Dad discouraged him from going into the industry. "He thought he'd be paying my bills for the rest of my life," he laughs.

Abrams, who lives in LA with his wife and three children, first picked up a movie camera aged eight."Making movies was more a reaction to not being chosen for sports. Other kids were out there playing at whatever; I was off making something blow up and filming it, or making a mould of my sister's head using alginating plaster. So the answer is: Yes, I was and am a geek."

Abrams was also an obsessive fan. He wrote to his heroes - not just directors but top makeup artists and special-effects legends, industry giants of the pre-computer age such as Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra or Dick Smith. And he got replies. "Dick Smith sent me a little cardboard box with a tongue inside. It was one of the fake tongue extensions from The Exorcist, with a note saying, 'Just stick a dab of peanut butter on the end and put it on.' I was like, 'Holy shit!'" After seeing Jaws, he sent a little finger-puppet contraption to Steven Spielberg, but he didn't reply. "Not until recently."

By college, Abrams had sold his first screenplay, Taking Care of Business, which starred James Belushi. By his early 30s, he'd written a blockbuster, Armageddon, and was starting to produce TV programmes. One thing led to another, including Alias, a spy series starring Jennifer Garner. Tom Cruise liked Alias and asked Abrams to direct Mission: Impossible III. Paramount liked that and offered him Star Trek.

Like Spielberg, Abrams has been immersed in film-making for so long, he seems to have mastered every aspect of it. He appears to have an innate feel for entertainment that is cult yet mass-market, accessible but not dumb, polished and high-tech yet character-driven, zeitgeisty but infused with good old-fashioned storytelling. Abrams hasn't revolutionised film-making, though he may be perfecting it. What he has revolutionised, though, is the art of 21st-century entertainment. The movies and TV shows are just one feature in a landscape of viral marketing campaigns, merchandising tie-ins, spoiler alerts, online chat forums, fan blogs, websites that treat fictional worlds as real places, and so on. "People want to find magic," he says. "It's almost like a Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe thing. You want to find that secret. You want there to be some kind of portal between reality and fiction."

Lost is the perfect illustration. From the basic starting point of plane-crash survivors on a desert island, its plot has thickened and thickened to the point where it is now an inhabitable universe. Fans are happy to spend hours not just scrutinising the show's every shot, but collectively pondering its mysteries online, quizzing its makers, solving puzzles to gain access to "restricted" areas of the (fake) Hanso corporation website, speculating on Hindu symbolism, nanobot clouds, time travel or whatever, and generally positing theories as to what the hell is going on. It might be the biggest geek-magnet around, but Lost is also as risky and radical a TV programme as there's ever been: one that provides no answers week after week, has no qualms about killing off major characters, takes huge liberties with narrative convention, and deals with spiritual and even political questions of our age, including fame, leadership and even the Iraq war. It's as much a religion as a TV series - a bit like Star Trek.

But, while "Losties" have faith that the show's creators have it all figured out, Abrams says that's never been the case: "It's a leap of faith doing any serialised storytelling. We had an idea early on, but certain things we thought would work well didn't. We couldn't have told you which characters would be in which seasons. We couldn't tell you who would even survive." That instinctive, improvised, unpredictable element, he says, makes for great entertainment: "You feel that electricity. It's almost like live TV. We don't quite know what might happen. I'm sure when Charles Dickens was writing, he had a sense of where he was going - but he would make adjustments as he went along. You jump into it, knowing there's something great out there to find."

More of a Kirk approach than a Spock approach, you might say, more heart than head. In fact, Captain Kirk could well be Abrams's alter ego. They're both child prodigies following in the footsteps of their fathers; they're both partial to taking a chance; and they both find themselves at the controls of a gigantic and gigantically expensive machine, at an inordinately young age.

And right now all Abrams wants to do is sit at the bridge and shout: "Give her all she's got!."

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Why Star Trek Producers Didn’t Want William Shatner Playing a Villain

Star Trek writers considered bringing William Shatner back as an evil version of Captain Kirk; here is why those plans never materialized.

Kirk is one of the most iconic Star Trek characters, forever linked to William Shatner, whose role even crossed timelines.
Shatner almost reprised his role in a prequel series of Star Trek: Enterprise, cancelled due to budget issues and lack of interest.
Despite Kirk's character's fate in Star Trek: Generations, newer iterations of the franchise keep exploring the legacy of the original series.

Star Trek is a massive multimedia franchise with various characters and stories told throughout it, but the character of Captain Kirk is easily one of the most famous characters in the franchise's history. While actors like Chris Pine and Paul Wesley have taken on the role in recent years, it is a role that will forever be linked to William Shatner . Shatner played the role in Star Trek: The Original Series from 1966 to 1969 and then reprised his role in six feature films released from 1979 to 1991 alongside the original crew. The seventh film, Star Trek Generations , focused on the crew from The Next Generation series but also had the long-awaited moment where Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean Luc-Picard finally met Captain Kirk .

Star Trek: Generations saw Kirk's character finally die in the franchise, but despite that, writers and creatives kept trying to find ways to bring Shatner back to the beloved franchise. The closest came in Star Trek: Enterprise , a prequel series that was set before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series . This raises the question: how was Shatner expected to reprise his role as Kirk in a prequel series set before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series but also factor in that Shatner had aged almost forty years since? The creators looked to reuse a concept from The Original Series , but the concept never made it to air. Here was how William Shatner almost returned as an evil Captain Kirk and why it never happened.

What Was The Original Plan

The idea for bringing Shatner back as Captain Kirk was the creatives building off an old episode from Star Trek: The Original Series , specifically Season 2, Episode 4, "Mirror, Mirror." The episode revolves around a transporter malfunction that swaps Captain Kirk and his companions with their evil counterparts from a parallel universe, which the franchise would later dub The Mirror Universe . Manny Coto, the showrunner of Star Trek: Enterprise during its final season, explained in the book The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek by Peter Holmstrom his plans for bringing Shatner back as Captain Kirk. He said:

"In the original 'Mirror, Mirror,' the evil Kirk had a device that was called the Tantalus field, which you press a button and his enemies would vanish. Now, it was implied in there, in that episode, that they just kind of died, but what the Reeves-Stevenes were saying [was], 'What if what this field did was transport everyone who was opposed to him into this pocket universe?' So, they were all on this planet surviving. [...] But they’ve forged this kind of community in basically a prison."

The plan then would be for Admiral Archer (Scott Bakula) and his crew to find their way into the pocket universe and come across the older evil Kirk. Later reports suggest to explain Shatner's Kirk being older. The explanation was the device would transport victims back in time to a penal colony. The Evil Kirk (known as Tiberius) seeks to use the transporter to return to his own universe but discovers that it has not yet diverged from the main universe and does not exist. The episode would then have explored the creation of the mirror universe through actions by Tiberius and Captain Archer, making the episode both a sequel and prequel to "Mirror, Mirror."

Why It Didn't Happen

The creatives were excited about the idea of Shatner returning to Star Trek . Yet Paramount decided against bringing Shatner back for Star Trek: Enterprise . While some might think the studio got cold feet about the star of the franchise playing an evil version of the popular character would be a factor, Paramount didn't actually care about that factor. Reportedly, the studio did not want to pay Shatner the money he was asking for at the time, as they deemed it too high a price for the series. Coto, however, believes there was another factor. He said, "[Paramount] wanted [Enterprise] to die." He added that the decision likely had little to do with money but that they had lost interest in the series, and "not because he was too expensive, but because they might've saved the series."

This episode was scheduled for Season 4 of Star Trek: Enterprise , which would ultimately be its last. Despite being one of Paramount's biggest franchises, Star Trek was facing some tough times as a brand. Star Trek: Nemesis was a huge flop at the box office in December 2002, and Star Trek: Enterprise struggled to gain the massive ratings that other past series had. After years of continuity, only the hardcore fans could keep up, and Star Trek was a franchise. Casual fans could not just jump on board the series anymore.

Star Trek: The 20 Most Controversial Episodes from the Franchise

The episode was later reformatted into the two-part "In a Mirror, Darkly". The episode revisited the Mirror Universe and was a prequel to "Mirror, Mirror" while also acting as a sequel to the Original Series episode "The Tholian Web." The episode was entirely set within the Mirror Universe and showed the cast of Star Trek: Enterprise playing evil versions of themselves set in this alternate militaristic timeline. The episode was also intended to set up a plotline for Season 5 of Star Trek: Enterprise , which would see the return of the Mirror Universe crew. While filming the two-part episode, the crew got the news that Star Trek: Enterprise had been canceled by UPN, and this would be its final season.

"In a Mirror, Darkly Part I" aired on April 22, 2005, and "Part II" aired on April 29, 2005. Three weeks later, Star Trek Enterprise would air its final episode. While the final season could not bring Kirk back, for the final episode, they brought back Star Trek: The Next Generations characters William Ryker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Tori (Mariana Sirtis) for a major role in a move that was highly criticized for taking away the attention of the Enterprise characters for cheap fan service.

Star Trek Revisited Many of These Ideas Years Later

In 2005, Paramount Pictures started developing a new Star Trek feature film, which would eventually become 2009's Star Trek by director J.J. Abrams. Like the plans for the Mirror Universe episode of Enterprise , Star Trek involved exploring an alternate reality from the original series, but instead of an evil universe, this time one with younger versions of the main crew that splintered off from the main timeline.

J.J. Abrams did consider bringing back William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek but opted out of it, seeing his death in Star Trek: Generations as pretty definitive. To bridge the gap between the original Star Trek franchise and his reboot, he instead opted to bring back Leonard Nimoy as an older version of Spock, picking up from the storyline fans saw play out in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Star Trek is both a prequel to the original series but also a sequel to films and stories like The Next Generation , as the film involves an older Spock meeting the younger versions of the Star Trek crew. This is very similar to how the Star Trek: Enterprise episode would have been both a sequel and prequel to "Mirror, Mirror." This is not to suggest that the creators of the Star Trek film took this idea, as exploring alternate realities and timelines has been a long part of the franchise's history, but it is interesting that the two creative teams had similar approaches to doing Star Trek prequels.

Star Trek Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date

Star Trek would revisit Captain Kirk multiple times in the era. Not only did Chris Pine play a version of the character in the Kelvin timeline set films, but the character would make his return in the main Star Trek canon on Star Trek: Strange New World . Paul Wesley first played an alternate version of Captain Kirk in the Season 1 finale, "A Quality of Mercy," which showed how the story of the Original Series episode "Balance of Terror" might have gone down if Kirk was not Captain of the Enterprise. Meanwhile, another alternate Kirk would appear in the season two episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," which saw a version of Kirk in a timeline that the Federation had never formed. Wesley would finally get to appear as the actual Captain Kirk in the sixth episode of Season 2, "Lost in Translation," and return for the musical "Subspace Rhapsody".

Despite Star Trek: Enterprise not getting to bring back William Shatner as Captain Kirk, it is interesting to see how the franchise has gone on in the years since. When Star Trek: Enterprise was on the air and trying to bring back William Shatner, it was at a low point in the franchise. Now, many of the ideas have been remixed, reimagined, or re-explored in newer Star Trek material when the series is now more widespread than ever. It is clear that they might have just been ahead of their time.

Fans can see Shatner in William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill , a documentary where Shatner recounts his life and career and is currently playing in theaters.

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Star Trek 4 gets a promising update

The film has landed a new screenwriter.

preview for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Official Trailer (Paramount+)

The follow-up to 2016's Star Trek Beyond has faced numerous setbacks in recent years, including director Matt Shakman's departure in August 2022 to direct Fantastic Four for Marvel , leading Paramount to remove the film from its release calendar the following month.

Meanwhile, screenwriter Lindsay Anderson Beer revealed in September 2023 that she had to "hop off" the project to direct Pet Sematary: Bloodlines , though she did also promise that the JJ Abrams-produced film was "still on the tracks".

It looks like this is now finally the case as The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey has been brought on board as the new screenwriter, according to Variety .

chris pine as captain kirk in a still from star trek beyond

Related: New Star Trek movie confirmed – but not the one you expected

While specifics of the storyline remain under wraps, the publication has reported that Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot still intend to deliver this final chapter for the crew first introduced in the franchise's 2009 reboot.

This includes Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, alongside Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Simon Pegg as Scotty, Karl Urban as Bones and John Cho as Sulu.

Pine himself seemed a little less optimistic about returning to the USS Enterprise when asked for an update last year, though, having called the franchise "cursed" .

director jj abrams and the cast from star trek

Related: Star Trek confirms new Starfleet spinoff show from Discovery boss

"After the last one came out and didn't do the $1 billion that everyone wanted it to do, and then Anton (Yelchin) passed away , I don't know," he told Esquire . "It just... feels like it's cursed."

Elsewhere in the Star Trek universe, it was announced earlier this year that JJ Abrams is producing a new prequel movie set decades before the 2009 reboot.

Andor and Doctor Who director Toby Haynes will helm the project, while The Lego Batman Movie 's Seth Grahame-Smith is writing the script.

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’ S5 Review: Final Season Is Its Best

This season has a brisk pace and the sense of fun that in the past has been crushed under the weight of grave galactic stakes..

Star Trek: Discovery occupies an interesting place in the celebrated franchise. It was the first Trek series of the streaming era, the first to debut behind a paywall, the first produced after J.J. Abrams’ big screen reboot, and the first to put a woman of color in the captain’s chair. Discovery redefined the look and feel of the franchise on television, bringing Trek into the modern world of feature-level photography, effects, and pace of story. It blazed a trail for a new generation of Trek media, like direct spin-off Strange New Worlds and the upcoming Section 31 TV movie. It is also not terribly popular amidst the old guard of Trekkies, nor is it a mainstream hit or a critical darling. Discovery has struggled to find its footing from the very beginning and is still uneven after years of retooling. I do not consider its cancellation after five seasons to be a tragic loss for television. However, Discovery may still have one “first” left to achieve: It may be the first Star Trek series whose final season is its best.

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(A quick personal note to the handful of Trekkies who just clutched their pearls: Season 4 of Enterprise is not better than Season 3, it merely has more familiar stuff for fans to point at with childlike glee. And you’ve likely already read my thoughts on Picard ’s final season .)

Even as a critic of the show, I have to acknowledge that every season of Discovery has started with a bang. It’s the nature of a serialized, season-long story arc to kick off with something resembling the first act of a feature film, and Season 5 is no different. The opening chapter, “Red Directive,” is a fast-paced space adventure packed with flashy action set pieces. The illustrious Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) and her crew are on the trail of Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), a spacefaring Bonnie and Clyde who have stumbled across a secret with enormous implications for the future of the galaxy. Just like the previous three seasons, this sets Team Disco off on another cosmic scavenger hunt, jumping to a new world each week to find the next clue to the season’s grander mystery.

Historically, this is where Discovery has run into trouble. While each chapter tends to have its own contained adventure plot or even a classic Trek “message of the week,” they’re rarely that memorable and they advance the season’s overarching storyline without adding much depth. This season, though, has a brisk pace and a sense of fun that, previously, has been crushed under the weight of grave galactic stakes. Paramount has promoted this season as having an Indiana Jones energy to it , and that’s a fair comparison. The characters are enjoying themselves more, and for the first time since Season 2, the story isn’t built around some unfathomable tragedy. T o my best recollection, none of the episodes provided in advance to critics feature any crying. That’s four consecutive episodes, possibly a new track record.

This is not the only way in which Discovery ’s new season throttles back on the show’s occasionally cloying sentimentality. The season premiere introduces a new character, Captain Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ), a gruff pragmatist who serves as a contrast to Burnham’s soft-spoken, personable, firmly feminine command style. At first, Rayner appears to be a straw man representing aggro, entitled white male authority, a trope Discovery goes to often. As the season progresses, Rayner acquires some depth and even some likability. It’s fun to watch this grumpy old guy interact with a cast full of characters who are totally in touch with their feelings. Most importantly, Rayner provides something that the series has needed ever since Burnham took command of Discovery: a professional peer with whom to disagree and occasionally compromise. It’s an essential role that her first officer, Saru ( Doug Jones ), has become too adoring and loyal to play. Burnham has earned the devotion of her crew, but watching her gracefully manage dissent only enhances her aura of strength and leadership.

Even though production was wrapped before Discovery was canceled (with additional shooting after that announcement to tie up loose ends), Season Five feels like a finale from the very beginning. A few characters are moving on with their lives, pursuing new interests and relationships. There are more fun, non-intrusive callbacks to Treks past than in the last two seasons, which makes it feel a bit like a victory lap for the streaming era’s flagship show. Above all, there is a sense of ease, as if the cast and crew have finally got their engine running smoothly and can cruise to the finish line. It’s the energy a series possesses at its peak, a point to which fans will often look back and say “They probably should have stopped there.” Barring a significant misstep in its final six episodes, Star Trek: Discovery will never be past its prime, and that’s a distinction its creators can wear with pride.

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ S5 Review: Final Season Is Its Best

SEE ALSO : Hank Azaria On What It Takes to Change

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Paramount heightens hilarious “Star Trek 4 is happening” joke by hiring another new screenwriter

Chris Pine and the unfortunate fans who would love to see him in a Star Trek movie again

Among Hollywood’s funniest running gags (just behind “ director hired for Star Wars film ” and Sony’s ongoing Spider-Man minus Spider-Man universe), Paramount is doubling down on its long-running Star Trek 4 bit. In the latest news from a movie we sincerely doubt will ever be made, Paramount has hired a screenwriter to write the fourth and final J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek movie. Per Variety , Steve Yockey, who created Max’s The Flight Attendant , will join the ranks of unlucky writers paid to will into existence another Chris Pine-led Star Trek movie. Yockey also wrote for the Scream TV series, Supernatural, and Doom Patrol. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know what his Trek script is about because, since 2016, which, to be clear, was nearly a decade ago, Paramount has hired the following writers to pen Star Trek 4:

1) J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay (Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power)

2) Noah Hawley (FX’s Fargo, Alien)

3) Kaline Vazquez (Prison Break)

4) Lindsey Beer (Pet Semetary: Bloodlines) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel)

Yockey now becomes the latest writer to tackle what is, essentially, a remake of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Of course, the lack of movement on a Star Trek movie hasn’t damaged Paramount’s warp drive. In the years since Star Trek Beyond left theaters, the studio launched Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds—and we didn’t even include Star Trek Shorts. There’s also a Star Trek prequel film from Andor’s Toby Haynes and a streaming movie, Star Trek: Section 31, supposedly on the way.

So will Paramount, after eight years of development, finally land on a script for a Star Trek adventure that gets the green light? That would certainly be a hell of a punchline.

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Chris Pine and the unfortunate fans who would love to see him in a Star Trek movie again

Screen Rant

What went wrong for j.j. abrams' star trek movie series.

J. J. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek movies with great success in 2009, but the franchise soon began struggling. How did things turn sour so fast?

After an auspicious start, J. J. Abrams' rebooted Star Trek movie series soon found fan opinion and box office takings in decline, how and why did the franchise's fortunes shift so dramatically? Star Trek movies have always been a fickle beast in terms of success; there's even a famous pattern that suggests the odd-numbered films are always terrible. Certainly, there have been ups and downs over the years, both in terms of critical reaction and profitability, but Trek has a knack of striking back from adversity with renewed vigor, as demonstrated by the gulf between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath Of Khan .

Another stirring renaissance occurred when J. J. Abrams took the reins for 2009's Star Trek movie reboot. After Nemesis flopped in 2002, The Next Generation 's time on the big screen came to a natural conclusion, but Patrick Stewart's stepping back from the franchise highlighted a distinct lack of potential replacements, with the contemporary TV incarnation ( Star Trek: Enterprise ) not proving popular enough for a cinematic outing. Finally, at the turn of the decade, Abrams was charged with recasting the original Enterprise cast fronted by the charismatic James T. Kirk for a reset of the franchise.

Related: Star Trek Movie & TV Timeline: Original Series, Kelvin & Discovery

At the beginning of 2020, however, that once-promising new dawn for Star Trek is about as responsive as a red-shirt 30 minutes after beaming down to an alien planet. Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond failed to capitalize on the first film's success, leaving the future of the franchise uncertain After years in limbo and several false starts, a new Star Trek film is in development under Noah Hawley , but it remains unclear whether this project is the fourth entry in Abrams' rebooted series or something else entirely. But how did Star Trek on the big screen find itself in this predicament?

Why 2009's Star Trek Reboot Movie Was Such A Success

To understand what went wrong for Star Trek movies over the past decade, it's important to understand why Abrams' 2009 effort worked so well. Perhaps the strongest aspect of the film was how Abrams managed to simultaneously craft a reboot and a continuation of the established 43-year story. Admittedly, the time travel mechanic isn't without its faults and wasn't to everyone's taste, but it succeeded in giving Star Trek the freedom to move outside of its own narrative boundaries, while still anchoring the new cast to a world fans were already familiar with. The presence of Leonard Nimoy gave the fresher faces legitimacy and acted as a key selling point for the more casual mainstream audience.

Another key ingredient was Abrams' cast itself, and the chemistry that was instantly forged between the modern Enterprise crew. In Pine, Quinto, Urban, Saldana, Pegg, Cho and Yelchin, Abrams had a group that naturally endeared itself to audiences by feeling fresh, but simultaneously paying homage to their original characters. There was an unavoidable novelty in seeing the Enterprise , the characters and the Star Trek universe given a shiny new coat of paint, but when that awe faded, there was plenty of substance for the audience to enjoy too. The classic characters were developed with the kind of emotional layers modern movie audiences expect from the off, but still respected what came before.

Fans and critics were quick to praise Abrams' new Star Trek , and the gig arguably landed him a job on the other side of the science-fiction divide. The 2009 reboot gave a whole new generation the perfect entry point to a storied, often "uncool" franchise, and even the old guard were mostly satisfied. Financially, 2009's Star Trek performed strongly domestically and worldwide, outdoing previous franchise releases. Everyone was happy, and things couldn't possibly go wrong...

Related: How Gene Roddenberry Lost Control Of Star Trek

Star Trek Into Darkness Shouldn't Have Been A Wrath Of Khan Cover

Things started to go wrong as soon as a story concept for Star Trek Into Darkness was settled upon. As discussed above, the beauty of 2009's Star Trek is that it connects the new cast to the established fictional universe but then sets the Enterprise free, unrestricted from past canon thanks to the creation of a whole new timeline. Chris Pine and co. could go on all sorts of adventures and not have to worry about sticking to the story structure of the original series. Having worked to create this freedom, the Star Trek sequel ended up being a partial remake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .

There was certainly a novelty in seeing an updated version of Khan, even with the misguided casting of Benedict Cumberbatch, but Star Trek Into Darkness ' reliance on key story beats from its 1982 counterpart didn't allow the fledgling franchise to stand on its own feet. Established fans were left with a sense that they were watching one giant Easter egg, while newbies were wondering what the fuss was all about when Benedict Cumberbatch started dramatically shouting his character's name. An entertaining 2 hours Star Trek Into Darkness may well be on first watch, and reviews upon release were also mostly positive, but retrospective opinion on the sequel has soured hugely in the years since. This may be because the Khan novelty wears off with repeat viewings, and the weaknesses of the story (Kirk's miraculous survival, Spock and Uhura's odd breakup, the Alice Eve scene) come to the fore more readily.

Star Trek Into Darkness earned more money than its predecessor worldwide but still fell somewhat below expectations. The stunted box office wasn't helped by the entire marketing campaign resting solely on Cumberbatch's villain and pretending that he wasn't playing Khan when everyone could plainly tell that he was playing Khan. The J. J. Abrams 'Mystery Box' trope struck hard for the Star Trek sequel.

Star Trek Beyond Had No Hook

Despite the negative reevaluation endured by Star Trek Into Darkness , the film's box office performance more than warranted a third outing for the Enterprise, but the threequel's fortunes were mirrored. Taking on board the criticisms aimed at its predecessor, Star Trek Beyond brought a simplified story to the table; a straightforward, fun, adventure romp from a renowned action director that felt more like an extended, modernized episode of the original series than the high-concept expansive mysteries of Abrams. As a result, Star Trek Beyond was more streamlined and less reliant on the past than Star Trek Into Darkness (although still not regarded as highly as 2009's effort) but, on this occasion, it was the box office that suffered.

Related: How Star Trek Fans Reacted To Spock's Death (Badly)

Although this poor performance can be partly attributed to the failings of Star Trek Into Darkness , marketing a Star Trek movie as a run-of-the-mill sci-fi action adventure was never going to be a strong enough hook to bring in casual fans, and also served to deter some more passionate followers who prefer Trek at its more cerebral. Star Trek Beyond , regardless of quality, struggled to get patrons into theaters. Star Trek 2009 had the novelty of the reboot, Star Trek Into Darkness had Khan (a hook, for better or worse) but nothing in Star Trek Beyond 's marketing felt must-see. Unfortunately, this failure all but killed off the franchise, as Paramount desperately tried to force a Chris Hemsworth return, lost their Captain Kirk, received a random pitch from Quentin Tarantino, and then lost their appointed director, S. J. Clarkson. With so much chaos and no guarantee of profit, the whole thing was put into suspended animation. Exactly what Star Trek will look like upon its reanimation remains to be seen.

More: Star Trek 4 Has Some Big Hurdles To Overcome

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Star Trek Movies in Order
All 6 J.J. Abrams Films Ranked!
'Star Trek' Movies in Order: Watch in Chronological Order
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COMMENTS

Star Trek Movies in order
Star Trek Movies in order. Menu. Movies. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. ... Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch. Votes: 496,563 | Gross: $228.78M. Star Trek XII. 13.
Star Trek movies in chronological order
2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. (Image credit: Paramount Pictures) Release date: June 4, 1982. Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban. Ask a Star Trek fan what the best Star ...
Jj Abrams Star Trek Movies In Order
3. Star Trek Beyond (2016): In the final chapter of JJ Abrams' Star Trek trilogy, director Justin Lin takes over the reins to deliver an exhilarating space adventure. The crew finds themselves stranded on an uncharted planet after their ship is attacked by a ruthless alien warlord named Krall (played by Idris Elba).
Every Star Trek Movie In Chronological Order
The 13 films are broken up into easy-to-digest blocks: the 6 Star Trek: The Original Series films, the 4 Star Trek: The Next Generation films, and the three Star Trek movies produced by J.J. Abrams that are set in the alternate Kelvin timeline. Here are the 13 Star Trek movies in theatrical release order: Star Trek: The Original Series Movies.
How to Watch Star Trek in Order: The Complete Series Timeline
The fourth Star Trek series or movie you should watch in the order is the one that started it all - Star Trek: ... 2009's Star Trek, which was directed by J.J. Abrams, kicked off a whole new era ...
How to watch Star Trek in order
In JJ Abrams' first Star Trek movie (2009), the destruction of Romulus and Spock Prime's accidental trip back to the pre-Original Series era (in the Kelvin timeline) also take place after the ...
The Right Order To Watch ALL Of Star Trek
The Kelvin Timeline. In 2009, J.J. Abrams created a Star Trek reboot that explored the idea of an alternate timeline, otherwise known as the Kelvin timeline.The movies, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek: Beyond (2016), explore the world where the Romulan Nero went back in time to destroy the first Starfleet ship he met, which was the USS Kelvin.
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek: Directed by J.J. Abrams. With Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana. The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.
How to Watch the Star Trek Movies in Order
The second era is spun off from Star Trek: The Next Generation and features characters from that TV series. Fittingly, these are known as The Next Generation films. Finally, the Kelvin timeline kicked off with the J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek in 2009. This era is an alternate timeline featuring a significantly different history from the "Prime" universe.
'Star Trek' Movies in Order: Watch in Chronological Order
In the meantime, the complete list of Star Trek movies in chronological order is as follows: Star Trek "Original Series" Movies in Order. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Star Trek II: The ...
List of Star Trek films
Logo for the first Star Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise that started with a television series (simply called Star Trek but now referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series) created by Gene Roddenberry.The series was first broadcast from 1966 to 1969. Since then, the Star Trek canon has expanded to include many other ...
Discovery Officially Makes JJ Abrams' Star Trek Movies Canon
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery season 3, episode 9, "Terra Firma, Part 1".. Star Trek: Discovery season 3 has officially acknowledged the existence of the Kelvin timeline and made J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies part of the Prime Universe canon. Now that Star Trek: Discovery is set in the 32nd century, over 900 years after the events of the prior seasons and of Abrams' trilogy, CBS ...
Star Trek (film)
Star Trek is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by J. J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.It is the 11th film in the Star Trek franchise, and is also a reboot that features the main characters of the original Star Trek television series portrayed by a new cast, as the first in the rebooted film series. The film follows James T. Kirk and Spock (Zachary ...
All 'Star Trek' Movies In Order
J. J. Abrams kicked off the Star Trek reboot films with a new Kirk and Spock in Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto respectively, a nifty new starship Enterprise, a touch of Beastie Boys, and a ton of ...
Star Trek Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date
Nicholas Meyer. Cast. William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , Deforest Kelley , James Doohan , Walter Koenig , George Takei. Runtime. 113. A massive time jump, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan takes ...
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Star Trek Into Darkness: Directed by J.J. Abrams. With Leonard Nimoy, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana. After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable ...
The Legacy of JJ Abrams' STAR TREK
JJ Abrams' Star Trek hit theaters on May 8, 2009. Ten years later, it remains not only an entertaining movie with an incredible cast, but it is also far more influential than it gets credit for.
10 J.J. Abrams Star Trek Movie Positives You Only Notice On Rewatch
Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Star Trek Beyond (2016) J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies successfully rebooted the franchise's stalled run of feature films, bringing fun and a fast-paced flair to the space-faring show's modern audiences. Blending what went before with a future yet to come, the movies' distinctive style and epic ...
In defense of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies
Paramount Plus Essential - Yearly. $59.99. /year. View Deal. at Paramount+. While shows like Discovery and Lower Decks take us to a new branch of Starfleet or a new story in the Star Trek universe ...
JJ Abrams: 'I never got Star Trek'
Add in TV shows like Alias and Fringe, and movies like Cloverfield and Mission: Impossible III and he's one of the most powerful forces in the industry. Now, with the addition of Star Trek's ...
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Timeline Could Still Get One Last Movie
While new "Star Trek" TV content is available for fans, the franchise hasn't had a film entry since J.J. Abrams' 2016 "Star Trek Beyond." However, Variety reports that Steve Yockey ...
10 Star Trek Characters J.J. Abrams Introduced To Canon
Summary. J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek in 2009 with a new USS Enterprise crew and the creation of the Kelvin Timeline. George Kirk, Winona Kirk, and Jaylah are key characters introduced into the franchise by Abrams. Abrams' Star Trek Kelvin-universe movies prioritize character and crew-based tension, with notable character developments and ...
Why Star Trek Producers Didn't Want William Shatner ...
J.J. Abrams did consider bringing back William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek but opted out of it, ... Star Trek Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date
Star Trek 4 gets a promising update
Star Trek 4 may finally take flight, as the film has just landed a new screenwriter.. The follow-up to 2016's Star Trek Beyond has faced numerous setbacks in recent years, including director Matt ...
Star Trek Is Facing A Fanbase Problem No One's Quite Sure How To ...
"Star Trek" had a taste of a younger audience in 2009 when J.J. Abrams rebooted the franchise to feature a younger, sexier cast. Abrams' 2009 film was the most successful movie "Star Trek" had ...
'Star Trek: Discovery' S5 Review: Final Season Is Its Best
It was the first Trek series of the streaming era, the first to debut behind a paywall, the first produced after J.J. Abrams' big screen reboot, and the first to put a woman of color in the ...
12 Biggest Ways Star Trek Is Different In J.J. Abrams' Movies
8 Vulcan Was Destroyed. Vulcan is a hugely important planet in the Prime Star Trek universe, so it was a bold statement of intent to destroy it in the first Abrams movie. The destruction of Vulcan was part of Nero's revenge for the Romulan supernova, and robbed Spock of his mother Amanda, and perhaps even his betrothed, T'Pring.
Paramount heightens hilarious "Star Trek 4 is happening" joke ...
In the latest news from a movie we sincerely doubt will ever be made, Paramount has hired a screenwriter to write the fourth and final J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek movie. Per Variety, Steve ...
Star Trek: What Went Wrong With JJ Abrams' Movie Series
To understand what went wrong for Star Trek movies over the past decade, it's important to understand why Abrams' 2009 effort worked so well. Perhaps the strongest aspect of the film was how Abrams managed to simultaneously craft a reboot and a continuation of the established 43-year story. Admittedly, the time travel mechanic isn't without its faults and wasn't to everyone's taste, but it ...
Star Trek: New Genesis Kelvin Addon file
Description. The Kelvin Addon is part of the Star Trek: New Genesis mod, which is compatible with the mod but optional. The New Genesis Mod is not required but aids in the portrayal of the vessel. The mod features the J. J. Abrams Constitution Class, from the movie Star Trek (2009).