I have now seen all of the Star Trek movies and varying amounts of all of the TV shows (bar the animated series). I’ve seen all of Picard, Discovery and Enterprise, a handful of episodes of TOS and the first seasons of TNG, Voyager and DS9. I should probably wait until I have seen more of the shows (they do have seven seasons after all) but I feel like rambling about this now.

This post started off as an attempt to rank the various movies and TV shows in order of how much I like them. However, I ran into problems with that. In a lot of respects it’s hard to compare the shows against one another because they are different. I was just talking with a friend about trying to do this and we said that we like things for different reasons – so how can you put one above another?

Watched Star Trek: Insurrection and I really do wonder why some people are surprised that the Federation is where it’s at in Picard. Really the Federation has no trouble deciding who is more important. I was sympathetic to the Klingon position (but obviously not their aggression) on Discovery because the Federation is expansionist and does protect its territory. This “move just a few people and steal their stuff” is part of a larger pattern.

I find it fascinating. The Federation as an ideal is amazing but there are issues and I do love that the verse doesn’t shy away from that. I especially like on Picard they are showing flaws in Picard. Often the Captain is the foil that stands up and is the good guy in comparison. That is still true but I do love it when it is nuanced.

I finished season 1 of Voyager. I looked up and Seven of Nine doesn’t come into it until season 4 apparently so a way to go.

I started DS9 (if I haven’t said that before). I was finding it a bit rocky but then Dax caught my attention as well as a spark of something with Sisko. Still early days. I’m finding Dr Bashir hard to take. Is he always such a creep?

Anyway I have now seen all the Star Trek movies. It’s a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t wait and watch them in the correct order along with the shows but I only had access to them this month, so it was watch or not see. Hopefully I can mentally place them later.

I can totally see why it is considered the best Star Trek movie.

The plot was tight and continuous. There was some good banter and some great character moments. Bones was my favourite again (clearly I’m destined to like every incarnation of Bones). Kirk was a lot more likeable in this than the first movie. I was suspicious from the very first time David Marcus brought up Kirk that maybe Kirk was the father but I wasn’t expecting it to be true! That took me by surprise, I hadn’t heard about that.

And then there was Spock. Oh dear Spock. On the Kobayashi Maru test at the beginning I thought “dramatic isn’t he?” when Spock play-acted getting hit and falling down. But of course there was the iconic ending scene. Kirk’s look of desolation and the sprinting down the corridors and then the fateful line “I am and always shall be your friend.”

I think iconic kinda sums it up.

Khan was insane. I suppose revenge kinda is insane. I haven’t seen him in the TOS and I really should because I thought he was a clever calculating adversary. The superior intellect wasn’t really on display here. However, please don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining. Like I said the plot was tight and made sense. I mean after losing loved ones and being marooned for 15 years in hell I’d definitely be insane too!

The uniforms were still a bit weird. The engineers were clearly spacesuit inspired but the bridge crew? What was that weird white flap? Still a million times better than the pyjamas of the last movie. My big question though is WHY didn’t they just stick with the original uniforms of the TV show? Trying to be different for a movie I guess but still don’t fix what isn’t broken.

If I’m honest it’s not my favourite Trek movie *ducks rotten tomatoes*. Also I’ve seen Into Darkness a few times and Kirk’s realigning the warp core sequence was a lot more dramatic than Spock’s steaming cooking pot but I think that’s a product of the times.

Would definitely recommend this one. Solid movie. Great soundtrack. I cheered when it started up because iconic Trek tune. I now definitely want to see the next one because it left a positive feeling – thumbs up!

I have to admit I wasn’t going to see this at the cinema. I usually don’t go to the cinema as it’s very expensive to do so, and I don’t feel that it is value for money. However, rather impulsively, last night I decided to go out. Man of Steel was released yesterday but I don’t like seeing movies when they are brand new, they are always busy and I much prefer an emptier room. It was a Friday night so it wasn’t as deserted as it usually is when I go. I have been known for the entire place to be empty, or only one other person there.

Anyway, back to the actual movie. My friend Waya had seen it and told me that he thought it was ok. I can’t remember specifics of what he said as I asked him ages ago, and quite frankly I’ve forgotten. I didn’t read reviews of it before I went, so I was just primed with lots of trailers, which proved to be somewhat of a problem. Spoilers abound, so don’t read if you haven’t watched and don’t want to know things.

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