Posterized: Star Trek Franchise
Friday, July 22, 2016 at 9:00PM The Star Trek mission statement is a little silly in retrospect, isn't it:
To boldly go where no man has gone before.
The franchise, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, has produced six television series and thirteen feature films so what man hasn't gone there? It's probably bolder to have never taken a ride on the starship Enterprise. But let's do a Posterized. We'll include the series (which each get one poster) in this roundup. So how many of the 19 Star Trek adventures have you seen?
All the posters are after the jump...
Star Trek (1966-1969) - the originals
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974) - the spinoff. You know,... for kids.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) - the one with the beautiful bald woman
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - the one with Ricardo Montalban all muscled up
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) - the one where they undid the Spock death
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - the one where they went to Earth in our time!
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) the first attempt at expanding the franchise beyond the original Enterprise crew. Needless to say, it took.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) the wacky one William Shatner directed where they meet "God"
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) the one where the original team retires
Star Trek Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) the one I absolutely have no memory of it existing
Star Trek Generations (1994) the one with both the originals pass the baton to the new tv cast
Star Trek Voyager (1995-2001) the one with the female commander Kate Mulgrew
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) the one with Alfre Woodard!
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) another one I don't remember existing
Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005) the one with Scott Bakula
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) the one with Young Tom Hardy as the big bad before he was bulky & famous "Tom Hardy"
Star Trek (2009) the reboot in an alternate timeline or something (I don't remember what the excuse was for using the old characters again rather than inventing new ones.)
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) the one where they brought back Khan but whitewashed him in casting so I didn't go see it
Star Trek Beyond (2016) the one that just opened in theaters with Idris Elba as the Big Bad and where we find out Sulu (John Cho) has a husband and kid. Presumably Spock, Kirk, and Uhura have things to do as well.
HOW MANY HAVE YOU SEEN?
The Star Trek franchise really won't leave us alone. In the 50 years it has existed the longest pop culture has ever gone without it is literally four years (1975-1978). Otherwise, beyond a vacation of a year or two here and there, it's constantly either on television or at movie theaters. A new Star Trek television series is also in development (it's been 11 years since the last one ended) which will begin sometimes next year.
Reader Comments (22)
My introduction to Star Trek are the original crew theatricals. Don't give a damn about the outsider consensus on those movies. The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan are the most problematic for me of the original crew features. Though the scores for both of are exquisite. The Next Generation cast was screwed in the feature film department. Yes First Contact is a stone classic in the Trek movies the other movies all suffer problems either with script or execution. Especially Insurrection and Nemesis (which I didn't see theatrically because I saw Chicago instead). Beyond is actually the best of the Nu Trek movies. It doesn't mean it rivals the original crew theatricals. But it has kept the brand going.
Literally only one - the JJ Abrams reboot because my boyfriend of the time wanted to see it. Didn't care for it. I do, however, love the opening theme music for Star Trek Voyager. It used to air after Buffy the Vampire Slayer and so I'd stay up and extra five minutes just for that.
Saw bits and pieces of The Next Generation when I was really young; Saw a few minutes of Voyager because The Rock was on it; I think I saw the pilot of Enterprise; really enjoyed JJs first Star Trek film; liked Into Darkness but didn't love it; and I'm seeing Beyond tomorrow. Honestly, up until the 2009 film, Star Trek wasn't my thing at all. Hell, other than the new films, it's still not really my thing (although I might give the new show a chance).
All of the of course.
I saw one on an airplane. Ca't rememeber wich one.
Almost all of them! The only thing I haven't seen is the animated series, actually... I was a major trekkie growing up. The Star Trek Beyond trailer has annoyed me, but maybe the film is good... I'll certainly see it.
I watched from the first broadcast in 1966, when I was 11, and have been a hardcore fan... up until the 2009 reboot, which I hated. It's not Trek, its biz-as-usual action/adventure that pretends it's Trek... but it doesn't have Trek's commentary on real world issues, or express the optimistic-future Trek philosophy
There have been plenty of ups and downs, but it's been a great ride. I'm afraid that younger (post-Star Wars) folks have NO IDEA how significant the original series was to many of us before the movies and TNG came along. Nor do they realize how it/we invented modern fandom - fanzines, letter-writing campaigns, conventions, filksongs, cosplay, etc. Trek in the sixties and seventies was ground zero for so much of today's SF/fantasy/adventure world.
I am one of the Old Ones, the ones who made us.
15. From what I've seen of them I'd say that Deep Space Nine was easily the best of the series - though Patrick Stewart may be the best/most engaging actor on all of those shows (and TNG probably features my favorite episode or two). Most of the movies are weak to middling, and I will likely skip Beyond. But there are things I like in Wrath of Khan, Undiscovered Country, Generations (Malcolm McDowell!), First Contact, and Star Trek 2009. And I agree with /3rtful that the scores of the first two films are very strong.
@ScottC
I encourage you to see Beyond. Best of the Nu Trek movies from the script level. And it handles paying tribute to the past franchise and its cast in a way where I was misty eyed walking out the theater.
I will always have a soft spot for any Star Trek movie and I've liked most of the TV series.
@Dr. Strange - I'm another old timer, Star Trek Voyager with Kate Mulgrew as a captain was a big deal. Loved TNG & DS9 for all the interesting characters.
In fact that's the beating heart of this fandom - way more characters to follow, different villains, and the moral dilemmas that can occur while exploring the unknown.
This might be the obvious choice, but TNG was the most sophisticated and intelligent this series ever was -- really ingenious episodes, even within the constraints of the self-contained episode standard. TNG had great characters, especially the villains -- Q, the borg, Lore. And the music for these shows has always been an underappreciated strength.
LadyEdith, DS9 was the one Trek series I never really got into. I watched the first couple of seasons religiously, but the rest of it coincided with the endless exhaustion of my kids' early childhood, and the show's then-new arc-driven storytelling made it difficult to drop in on the occasional episode and have a clue what was happening. (There were no ways to binge-watch then, apart from videotaping every episode, and I didn't ever like the characters enough to do that.)
I know that for Trek fans of a certain age, DS9 is a favorite because it was their teenage introduction to moral complexity. And I don't dismiss its importance in showing a new side of the Trek future, and I enjoy some of its great episodes (e.g., "Beyond The Farthest Star" with its dramatic recreation of fifties sexism and racism). But I have tried to watch the later seasons many times... and have just never warmed up to it. I much preferred Voyager, and while a lot of Enterprise was wrong-headed, it had its moments too. As for the films, "First Contact" was the last one I really enjoyed.
Maybe this is a concept that's just played out now? The New Frontiers Democrats in Space of the original series is a long way in the past now, and even the Detente Era diplomacy of TNG seems antiquated. It's interesting how each additional approach - dark and gritty nineties DS9, big budget buddy SF in the film series, Feminism in Voyager, revisionism in Enterprise - has continued to reflect the periods when they were made. So I guess the dumbed-down spectacle approach of the current films is right in line.
Well, okay, on that recommendation I'll see it. Thanks, /3rtful.
I've only seen Galaxy Quest. Does it count?
I've only seen Galaxy Quest. Does it count?
No. Seeing Space Balls is not equivalent to watching a Star Wars movie.
I've watched all of the TV series except the animated one and seen ten of the movies, I'm pretty sure. Definitely all of them starting with Generations (except the new one).
I've seen just 6 of the movie and 2 of the series. Star Trek isn't really my thing but i'm occassionally roped in by family or friends
Every single one.... And Beyond is awesome. Also Deep Space Nine is epic!
I've seen most of them from the original series - to the cartoon- to the movies- Live Long and Prosper
I've only seen the first two from the new set of films. I wouldn't mind seeing one of the old films/series to get a feel for it. I wasn't huge on space shows growing up, except maybe for the cartoon series Silverhawks. I didn't watch Star Wars films properly until I was in high school.
I've seen everything Star Trek related except the animated series.
Complains about Khan being "white washed" for into Darkness, forgets that Montalban is Mexican and not at all Indian...."brown washing" is OK I guess.
Sigh