Hello All
Having grown up in a family of non-sci-fi watchers, I missed most Star Trek movies and TV shows when they were on, and was too young for the really original stuff.
I’m going to embark on watching the original Star Trek movies, and I am wondering where is best to start? I was going to go through them numerically, but I’ve heard that number 1 is dull and that Wrath of Khan is where it’s at. Will I miss plot points if I skip movies?
Any suggestions?
You’ll be fine if you start with Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn and continue with 3 & 4 (story arc). You can always go back to watch the first movie later.
Gryper is correct. I started my first run-through of ST movies in 2009, and I started with #1, which is mroe stand-alone than the movies that came after, especially the loose trilogy of 2-4.
Still, I wouldn’t sleep on the first one. Some feel it is the most true to the original Star Trek.
Agreed - go with 2-4 and wrap it up with 6 and it’s all good.
Thanks guys! You are super on the ball. 
I don’t know if it’s available down there, but last year I picked up a DVD set of 2, 3 & 4 for about what one of the movies normally costs.
And yeah, you can skip TMP and not miss a thing.
It’s not absolutley necessary but might be fun to watch the Star Trek ep “Space Seed” in order to find out who Khan is and why he was marooned on Ceti Alpha V.
Enjoy!
Oh yeah, good point. It’s not required, but it’ll give you the background.
While you’re at it, watch the episode The Changeling and you’ll pretty much have seen TMP in about half the time.
Ooh, all great information, thanks Pike and Thot
Cackleberry, i’d take the time to watch 1. Yes, it drags and is ponderously slow, but the storyline is a cracker…
Gaf
Sweet, thank Gaf!
It is especially interesting to know that TMP was supposed to have kicked off a new series and that many of the stories they had written for that series were used in TNG. The Riker and Troi character evolved from two of the main non-core cast from TMP.
Steve is quite correct. The Commander Decker & Ilia characters from TMP were prototypes of Riker and Troi. The entire movie itself was basically the pilot script for what would have been the new TV series Star Trek: Phase II. When Star Wars was released and became a huge phenomenon, the Paramount folks scrapped the TV plan and gave the order to make a movie instead.
I think that’s probably why TMP seems talky and draggy, because it was originally intended for the medium of television. Still, if you can make it thru, TMP has some really grandiose imagery, such as Spock’s spacewalk into the heart of V’Ger. Watch the “trilogy” of 2-4 first, like everyone says, and then check out TMP. Or maybe wait until you’ve finished 5 & 6, because 5 is hard to get through, too, and you don’t want to watch 1 & 5 in a row.
Also good ideas. I think now that I know that 1 might be slow, I won’t give up at the first hurdle. Thanks everyone for your input.
I always felt like 1 and 5 would have made good episodes of the TV series, but 2, 3, 4 and 6 were all great movies.
I wish I could have 5 removed from my memory permanently, it should never have been made. Do yourself a favor and skip it, it is kind of like Highlander two, skip over it and move on as if it was never there. 
But if you do watch (you sadist) be sure to have lots of liqour nearby, you will need to heavily medicate yourself to get through it. There are a lot of ‘heavy groaners’ in it, where you will shake your head and go, “Did they really do that?” “Why?” “Have they never looked at the blueprints?” “Did they really think their fans would not notice that?” “WTF?” “When did the shuttlebay become a frakkin TARDIS?!?” :eek: And so forth…
Save yourself the agony…
That video makes the movie worthwhile, no doubt
That was even better than the movie!
Thanks Talos.
I will admit to enjoying the row-row-row your boat part.
The scene in the observation deck is pretty cool, as well. When Spock, McCoy, and Kirk are forced to face their pain. The performances by the actors are great. Although, the scene bothers me because Spock and McCoy get brain-washed and are brought to their senses by Kirk. IMO, I like when Kirk learns something from Spock or McCoy.