1989: The Final Frontier and
The Undiscovered Country

While Star Trek: The Next Generation is delighting a new generation of Trekkers, the original crew made two more movies: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

ST5:TFF, directed by William Shatner, is almost universally regarded as the worst Star Trek movie ever, and almost disowned by Gene Roddenberry himself, who reportedly called the movie apocryphal. The plot involved a long lost brother of spock causing trouble... Really. No, I wasn't joking. Spock's long lost brother, Sybok, from a previous marriage, is on a quest for the ultimate knowledge in the center of the galaxy...

The movie actually isn't that bad, it just has a lot of bad parts that tends to overwhelm the good parts.

ST6:TUC was better (which seems to indicate a trend that even movies are good, odd numbered movies are bad). In this one, the Klingons are seeking peace with the Federation, but on the way, the Klingon Chancellor was assassinated, and Kirk was the prime suspect...

This movie is okay, not overwhelmingly good or bad, just above average. There was enough action and intrigue throughout the movie to keep the pace going.

In the meanwhile, Paramount notes that Star Trek: The Next Generation is becoming more and more expensive to make, and soon it will overwhelm its already generous budget. It is time to launch another series, and their choice is to take a part of the universe established in Star Trek: The Next Generation, add some new elements, and the result was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

 

To learn more

Star Trek Movie Universe, linked in Classic Trek

 

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Birth of Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: The Next Generation