Every Star Trek Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

13. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Who would have thought that William Shatner's cinematic directorial debut would end up being such a disaster?

Having cut his teeth helming episodes of TJ Hooker, Shatner jumped into the Star Trek movie franchise on the back of three hits in a row and proceeded to "help" write a story that was a stretch too far even for the Original Series crew. He takes a lot of the blame for his part in the worst film in the series, and it's hard to wholly defend him.

The Final Frontier saw the crew of the Enterprise battling a God-like being with plans to destroy the galaxy, which must have absolutely delighted the Church at the time. The story, which was problematic from the start was hampered further by the 1988 writers' strike and a lower budget than the original film (despite the franchises successes). For some reason Shatner also decided to dial up the comedy, but struggled to actually write anything funny, at the same time as openly critiquing populist religious indoctrination.

That it wasn't very good shouldn't really have come as too much of a surprise. That any more came after it is even more surprising.