To date, there have been a total of 11 Star Trek movies. The first was released in 1979 and number 11 debuted in 2009. A total of 8 directors were involved with these projects, with 3 sitting at the helm of more than 1 film. Of those 8 famed directors, whom is your favorite because you believe he stayed truest to Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the Star Trek universe?
Best Star Trek: Director: Nicholas Meyer
Best Director: Robert Wise ( easily )
My same top four, except I’d swap Nimoy for Abrams for just nostalgia reasons and I haven’t yet seen Star Trek XII (2?).
As far as the best director who stayed truest to the Roddenberry vision I’d have to say it’s a very close tie between Meyer and Nimoy. I might lean a bit more in the direction of Nimoy simply because of his long and close association with Gene.
@Sam Sloan. From what I’ve read of the kiss-and-tell books on Trek and the movie productions, I am not sure how closely the vision of what Meyer and Roddenberry had for Trek really meshed. From my understanding, Roddenberry was very unhappy with the turn the films took in Star Trek II.
That said, I’m happy Meyer came along when he did. If not for him and Harve Bennett, the film franchise would have ended with Star Trek II and we’d still only have the original 79 episodes to watch in syndication.
Gene always had a problem with any Trek in which he wasn’t the real total decision-maker. Meshing with Gene’s vision was always a tricky matter for directors, even for the television shows under his tutelage (TOS & TNG). With that in mind, looking at actual film stories and overall content, Meyer and Nimoy are the closest clones of the Roddenberry concept, particularly Nimoy with “The Voyage Home”.
Tough call for me… I voted for Meyers, but it was hard not to give Wise props for what he accomplished with TMP.
I’d actually put Abrams in the bottom of the list. Not as impressed with the movie as many were. (Thought it was crap to be honest)
Wise for pure artistry. Also I think he got one of the best performances out of Shatner in a trek movie. Frakes is a close second for combining action with discovery and sense of wonder.
@Skiznot. I’d disagree on Wise and the Shatner performance. To my mind, Meyer got the definitive Shatner performance in Khan. It’s entertaining to listen to the commentary and hear how…LOL
Wrath: “Khhhhhhhaaaaaaannnnnnn!”
Voyage: “The collective works of Jacqueline Suzanne, Harold Robbins….” “Ah, the giants.”
Country: “Where’s Spock?” Where’s Sulu?” “That’s Captain Sulu..”
Oh God, in my 60’s and I still need to get a life! 😉
What is more compelling to me now isn’t the same as when I first saw them but I like the story of Admiral Kirk trying to get the captain’s chair back and the eventual humility when he admits to himself that’s what he’s doing. The quivering lip angry Kirk is definitely iconic but it also kind of makes me laugh and pulls me out of the story sometimes.
I had to go with Meyer.
Even though Roddenberry was the creator and we love him for that, I sometimes feel that Star Trek succeeded in spite of him and not because of him. I hate to admit that being the fan I am.
I can’t vote. Still waiting for them to make a good Star Trek movie. Everytime they run out of ideas, they fall back on time travel. How many of the movies have time travel in them now? 4 or 5?
@krazetrucker Only 3 out of 11 (VII, VIII & XI). I don’t think that can be considered a “fall back on time travel”. Actually, perhaps only 1 (#VIII) because VII was in the Nexus – not really true time travel and XI wasn’t so much about time travel as it was an alternate timeline, although it got created by Nero and Spock’s traveling through time.
@Sam, are you forgetting IV when they went back in time with the klingon ship to get the humpback whales to save earth?
Crap, how could I forget that…..Jeeez! Old timers disease.
From what I’ve read, Nick Meyer inserted story elements that, in my opinion, did more to take away from the vision of Star Trek than contribute.
For all its flaws, Robert Wise approached the first Star Trek movie with the kind of seriousness and “hard sci-fi” feel that I came to love during Star Trek’s first season run, and out of all of the Star Trek movies it is the one that I actually watch more than any other.
Khannnn!