Star Trek movies

This week, Star Trek makes a triumphant return to form, as we are joined by Tom Salinsky to watch the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, in which the crew of the Enterprise meet their match, as they confront the most terrifying alien species of all time — Americans from the 1980s.

Here’s a link to Tom Salinsky’s Trekaday blog, which is currently heading towards the end of Star Trek: Enterprise. You can also pre-order his upcoming book on Star Trek from Amazon UK.

The quintessential odd-numbered Star Trek film, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier roared onto our screens in 1989, delighting and enthralling basically no one at all. Still, despite the glacial pace, the lack of incident and the horrendous special effects, it has something to say — something about the love and friendship between weird and grumpy old men who have known and annoyed one another for decades. And if you’ve got that, who needs Sha Ka Ree?

Star Trek: Generations is a Christmas movie, but more than that, it’s the moment when Star Trek: The Next Generation makes its first tentative and ultimately unsuccessful step into the venerable movie franchise. Julian Bashir’s crazy uncle has a horrific plan to get to heaven by killing a bunch of people we don’t see and don’t care about, and can only be stopped by two middle-aged white guys clambering over some gantries or something. Oh, and the Enterprise crashes and the whole crew is killed. Happy holidays, everyone!

After a botched first attempt back in 1994, the Star Trek movie franchise brings back many of the beloved characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation in a thrilling adventure, packed full of action, scares and laughs — as well as some sexy moments with an undead cyborg lizard and an optimistic message about the future of humanity. Five stars, really.