Ten movies, five plots

February 27, 2009 1:51 PM

Does anyone remember an article discussing how of the 10 Star Trek movies to date, there have only been 5 plots?

I remember an article that was posted on the internet around the time Star Trek: Nemesis came out that discussed how, out of the ten Star Trek movies to date, there were only five (or less) plots, and most of the movies incorporated two or more plots. For example:

1. Crew travels through time: The Voyage Home, Generations, First Contact.

2. One villain is pulling the strings in the background to destroy the Enterprise: Wrath of Khan, The Undiscovered Country, Generations, Nemesis

3. One villain is pulling the strings to change the galaxy in some way: The Final Frontier, The Undiscovered Country, Generations, First Contact, etc.

Does anyone remember this article, have a link to it, or remember the specific plot lines and examples? I've been trying to remember this info and can't remember exactly what the plots were, and google does not turn up anything on this.

posted by zompus to media & arts (6 comments total)

No, but the article must have made the claim that V'ger and the God thing on Shaka-Ree were basically the same device...
posted by Kirklander at 1:56 PM on February 27

Kirklander, I bet it did. Unknown object/entity that the crew has to deal with: The Motion Picture, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, Generations, First Contact (debatable).
posted by zompus at 2:31 PM on February 27

Right, often with the idea that humanity will be put on trial (for pollution in The Voyage Home, for religion in The Final Frontier and in the original story "The God Thing" that became Star Trek: The Motion Picture.)

I hope the sequel to the new movie breaks with this tradition and has Kirk battle Gary Mitchell in a Dark Knight kind of vein.
posted by Kirklander at 2:48 PM on February 27

Is it this Insurrection review from the Brunching Shuttlecocks?
posted by avocet at 3:14 PM on February 27 [1 favorite has favorites]

Ah, searching for "10 movies five plots" rather than "10 movies 5 plots" has yielded the answer!

Original story: New York Times

Where I found it: Slashdot: Pick a Plot

So I guess we'll see if the new one falls into any of these plots.
posted by zompus at 5:52 PM on February 27

zompus: From leaked indications, largely 3, but with possible elements of 2 and 1 appearing as well.
posted by dhartung at 9:53 PM on February 27