Here's a guide for how to watch the 13 Star Trek movies in chronological order in a couple of ways. Starring William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, Star Trek: The Original Series' 3 seasons aired on NBC from 1966-1969, but the show exploded in popularity in syndication. After the blockbuster success of Star Wars in 1977, Paramount refashioned a planned TV series revival titled Star Trek: Phase II into 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Star Trek officially became a film franchise.
Since the 1970s, every decade up to the 2010s has seen a Star Trek movie produced. Star Trek: The Original Series' cast starred in 6 total films from 1979-2001. The torch was passed to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, who starred in 4 films from 1994-2002. Producer and director J.J. Abrams then rebooted Star Trek: The Original Series, casting stars such as Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Karl Urban to play younger, alternate reality versions of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in a trilogy of Star Trek movies from 2009-2016. Whether you want to watch them in order of theatrical release or in order of when the films stand in the Star Trek timeline, here's how to watch the 13 Star Trek movies.
How To Watch The Star Trek Movies Chronologically In Theatrical Release Order
Watching the Star Trek movies in their theatrical release order is the simplest way to go. The 13 films are broken up into easy-to-digest blocks: the 6 Star Trek: The Original Series films, the 4 Star Trek: The Next Generation films, and the three Star Trek movies produced by J.J. Abrams that are set in the alternate Kelvin timeline. Here are the Star Trek movies in theatrical release order:
Star Trek: The Original Series:
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982)
- Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- Star Trek Generations (1994)
- Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
- Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
- Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Kelvin Timeline
- Star Trek (2009)
- Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
- Star Trek Beyond (2016)
How To Watch The Star Trek Movies By In-Universe Timeline Order
A more interesting, and challenging, way to watch the Star Trek movies is by in-universe timeline order. Although the 'present day' of the Star Trek movies is either The Original Series' 23rd century or The Next Generation's 24th century, some of the Star Trek movies involve time travel and flashbacks, and the J.J. Abrams films are actually set before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. In Abrams' Star Trek 2009, the destruction of the USS Kelvin in 2033 by time-traveling Romulans, which led to the death of James T. Kirk's father Lt. Commander George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), spawned an alternate reality where numerous major events happened in an accelerated pace. Factoring in time travel and alternate universes, here's how to watch the Star Trek movies by in-universe timeline order.
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Main story set in 1986 San Francisco
- Star Trek: First Contact - Main story set in 2063 Bozeman, Montana and the USS Enterprise-E
- Star Trek (2009) - prologues set in 2233/2240s/2255 - Kelvin Timeline
- Star Trek (2009) - present-day set in 2258 - Kelvin Timeline
- Star Trek Into Darkness - present-day set in 2259 - Kelvin Timeline
- Star Trek Beyond - present-day set in 2263 - Kelvin Timeline
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture - present-day set in the 2270s
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - present-day set in 2285
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - present-day set in 2285
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - present-day prologue and epilogue set in 2286
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - present-day set in 2287
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - present-day set in 2293
- Star Trek Generations - prologue set in 2293, present-day set in 2371
- Star Trek: First Contact - prologue set in 2373
- Star Trek: Insurrection - present-day set in 2375
- Star Trek: Nemesis - present-day set in 2379