50 Fun Facts About Star Trek Movies

Which species of whale do Kirk and his crew bring back from 1986 in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home?

Humpback song is the only reply an alien probe will accept, and by the 23rd century the species is extinct. Few of the whales on screen were real: most were animatronics and small motorised models.

Which original Star Trek cast member directed both The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home?

Leonard Nimoy became the first Star Trek cast member to direct one of the films with The Search for Spock. He was promptly asked back and given greater freedom over the sequel.

Which actor took over as James T. Kirk in the 2009 Star Trek film, opposite Zachary Quinto's Spock?

Chris Pine called his first audition awful, because he could not take himself seriously as a leader. Once cast, he wrote to William Shatner and got back a letter of approval.

Which British actor played Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, a casting kept secret behind the name John Harrison?

Benedict Cumberbatch was billed as a rogue officer so that viewers would learn the truth only when the crew did, about 45 minutes in. Director J. J. Abrams said he wanted to preserve the fun.

Which English actor, then little known, played Picard's young clone Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis?

Tom Hardy auditioned by tape from Morocco, where he was shooting another film, after Patrick Stewart asked his agent for suggestions. The director had specifically wanted an unknown.

Which actor, then known for the sitcom Taxi, played the Klingon commander Kruge in Star Trek III?

Christopher Lloyd took the part a year before Back to the Future made him Doc Brown. He was cast for his knack for powerful villains, and brought a welcome theatricality to the Klingon.

Which planet does the Romulan miner Nero destroy with a black hole at its core in the 2009 Star Trek film?

Vulcan is bored through to its core by Nero's mining ship, the Narada, before the black hole swallows it. The attack is his revenge on Spock for failing to save Romulus from a supernova.

Which enemy travels back in time to stop humanity's first warp flight in Star Trek: First Contact?

The Borg were redesigned for the film to look as if machinery had converted them from the inside out. The new look took four times as long to apply as it had on television.

Which real nuclear disaster inspired the exploding Klingon moon Praxis in Star Trek VI?

Chernobyl gave director Nicholas Meyer his opening: one blast that cripples an empire and forces it to seek peace, as the Cold War was ending. Chancellor Gorkon was modelled on Mikhail Gorbachev.

In which national park is Kirk rock climbing on shore leave at the start of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?

Yosemite hosted the location shoot, though a fibreglass rock face stood in for the real cliff in close-ups. William Shatner trained for weeks beforehand on a wooden replica at the studio.

Which actor returned as Khan in Star Trek II, fifteen years after first playing him on television?

Ricardo Montalbán enjoyed the part so much that he played it for far less than he was offered. The film was nearly approved before anyone asked if he could get time off from Fantasy Island.

Which no-win Starfleet training test did Kirk beat as a cadet by reprogramming it, as revealed in Star Trek II?

Kobayashi Maru is the stricken ship that cadets are sent to rescue in the simulator. Kirk won on his third attempt, after rewriting the program so that a rescue became possible.

Which Shakespeare play gives Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country its title, in a phrase about death?

Hamlet uses the phrase for what lies beyond the grave, but the film applies it to a future in which Klingons and humans coexist in peace. The words come from the play's most famous soliloquy.

Which Star Trek television actor directed both Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection?

Jonathan Frakes got the job after two better-known directors turned it down, so that it went to someone who understood Star Trek. He had never directed a feature film before.

Which studio scrapped a planned TV revival, Star Trek: Phase II, to make the first Star Trek film instead?

Paramount changed course after Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind cleaned up at the box office. The cancelled show's pilot script was hurriedly reworked into the film's story.

Which two Enterprise officers marry in Star Trek: Nemesis before leaving for the USS Titan?

Riker and Troi celebrate their wedding early in the film, and he leaves to captain his own ship at the end. Marina Sirtis said her dress for the scene was nicer than the one at her real wedding.

Which relative of Admiral Kirk is killed by Klingons on the Genesis planet in Star Trek III?

His son, David Marcus, is killed while defending Saavik from Kruge's hostage-takers. Kirk never forgives the Klingons, and the grudge makes him oppose peace with them in Star Trek VI.

In whose mind does the dying Spock place his katra, or living spirit, as revealed in Star Trek III?

Dr McCoy would have died from carrying the katra for long, which is why his friends steal the Enterprise. A dangerous ritual called fal-tor-pan finally reunites it with Spock's body.

Which actress, a teen star of the late 1980s, played Spock's human mother in the 2009 Star Trek film?

Winona Ryder took the small role of Amanda Grayson during a quiet spell in her career, and the press noted her return to film. Stranger Things later completed the comeback.

Which Oscar-winning actress returns as the Enterprise bartender Guinan in Star Trek Generations?

Whoopi Goldberg asked to see Nichelle Nichols as soon as she arrived on set, hoping Guinan and Uhura would at last share a scene. She had to be told Nichols was not in the film.

Which hip-hop group's song "Sabotage" is broadcast to destroy an alien swarm in Star Trek Beyond?

Beastie Boys had already featured in the first film of the rebooted series. Even so, many fans felt the track sounded out of place when it turned up again in the trailer.

Which British actor played Krall, the mutated former Starfleet officer, in Star Trek Beyond?

Idris Elba's villain turns out to be Balthazar Edison, once commander of the long-lost USS Franklin. His swarm of small ships overwhelms the Enterprise and tears it apart.

Which British actor played Soran, whose scheme leads to Captain Kirk's death in Star Trek Generations?

Malcolm McDowell relished the chance to kill off William Shatner's character. He also asked that Soran have no alien features, so that he could avoid lengthy sessions being fitted with prosthetics.

Which actress played the traitorous Lieutenant Valeris in Star Trek VI, having once auditioned to play Saavik?

Kim Cattrall refused to become the third actress to play Saavik, and signed on once the part became someone new. She chose the name's root herself: Eris, the Greek goddess of strife.

Which one-eyed Klingon, played by Christopher Plummer, quotes Shakespeare throughout Star Trek VI?

General Chang was written specially for Plummer, who was reluctant at first and asked for a less severe, more human Klingon look. He and William Shatner had once performed together in Montreal.

Which actress made her feature film debut as Spock's protégée Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?

Kirstie Alley's Saavik weeps at Spock's funeral, and the director kept it in despite objections that her people do not cry. He said that was exactly what made her interesting.

Which actor played Zefram Cochrane, the hard-drinking inventor of warp drive, in Star Trek: First Contact?

James Cromwell had the part written with him in mind, although the studio floated Tom Hanks, a big Star Trek fan. His Cochrane starts out as a cynical, selfish drunk.

Which James Bond star turned down the role of Sybok, Spock's half-brother, in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?

Sean Connery was busy with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, so the film named its mythical planet Sha Ka Ree in his honour. Laurence Luckinbill took the part instead.

Which futuristic material's formula does Scotty trade for the whale tank's walls in Star Trek IV?

Transparent aluminum buys the materials for a tank big enough to carry two whales home. Scotty hands its formula to the plant manager of a firm called Plexicorp.

Which lost NASA probe lies at the heart of the alien cloud threatening Earth in Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

Voyager 6 is known to the machine only as V'Ger, the letters still legible on its damaged nameplate. Audiences in 1979 had just watched the real Voyagers 1 and 2 fly past Jupiter.

Which classic novel, seen among Khan's books in Star Trek II, has Picard compared to its captain in First Contact?

Moby-Dick lends Khan his obsessive pursuit of revenge, and the director added a visible copy to his dwelling to make the parallel clear. The First Contact writers found the idea too good to leave out.

Which animation studio grew out of the Lucasfilm computer team that made the Genesis sequence in Star Trek II?

Pixar was spun out of that group in 1986, four years after its shot of a barren planet bursting into life became cinema's first entirely computer-generated sequence.

Which long-awaited upgrade does the android Data finally install in Star Trek Generations?

An emotion chip, recovered from his brother Lore, lets Data feel the full range of emotions for the first time. One critic called his subplot the most enjoyable part of the film for non-fans.

What is the name of the realm of wish fulfilment where Picard finds Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations?

The Nexus lies outside normal space-time and is reached through a travelling ribbon of energy. Soran is ready to destroy a star, and the planets around it, just to get back inside.

In which US state does young Kirk watch the Enterprise being built in the 2009 Star Trek film?

Iowa was played on screen by Bakersfield, California, which stood in for Kirk's childhood home. The writers felt free to build the ship there because canon had never settled where it was made.

Which fictional substance does the elder Spock carry to stop a supernova in the 2009 Star Trek film?

Red matter is shown as a floating crimson ball, a motif director J. J. Abrams had used since the pilot of his TV series Alias. Once ignited, it creates the black holes that drive the plot.

Which comedian, a Star Trek fan, was once lined up for a starring role in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home?

Eddie Murphy was to play a professor who believes in aliens and plays whale songs, but he disliked the part and made The Golden Child instead. It was merged into marine biologist Gillian Taylor.

Which Academy Award did the 2009 Star Trek film win, the first Oscar ever won by a Star Trek film?

Best Makeup was one of four nominations for the film, alongside sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects. No Star Trek film before it had taken home an Academy Award.

In what kind of real industrial building was the Enterprise engine room filmed for the 2009 Star Trek film?

A brewery, the Budweiser plant in Van Nuys, California, doubled as the starship's engine room. A power plant in Long Beach did the same job for the doomed USS Kelvin.

Which director of The Sound of Music and West Side Story took charge of Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

Robert Wise had seen only a few episodes of the TV series, so the studio gave him about a dozen to watch. He already knew science fiction, having made The Day the Earth Stood Still.

To which frozen Klingon prison planetoid is Kirk sentenced for life in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country?

Rura Penthe is a mining gulag where a shapeshifter lures Kirk into a staged escape, so that his death will look accidental. Its alien inmates wore costumes reused from The Next Generation's first episode.

On which planet, turned to desert when its neighbour exploded, did Kirk maroon Khan before Star Trek II?

Ceti Alpha V became a wasteland just six months after Khan's exile began. The crew of the USS Reliant beam down there by mistake, believing they are on the world next door.

Which Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera do Picard and Data sing a duet from in Star Trek: Insurrection?

HMS Pinafore replaced an earlier idea of Picard and Data reciting Shakespeare. Patrick Stewart proposed a number from The Mikado instead, but the producers judged it too vulgar.

Which peaceful people does Picard defy Starfleet to protect from forced relocation in Star Trek: Insurrection?

The Ba'ku are effectively immortal thanks to particles from their planet's rings, which the Son'a plot to harvest. Early drafts of the story cast the Romulans as the villains instead.

Which Hollywood star, the son of the film's casting director, has a brief cameo in Star Trek VI?

Christian Slater owed the walk-on to his mother, Mary Jo Slater, who cast the film. She loaded it with as many Hollywood stars as the production could afford.

Into which nebula does Kirk lure Khan for their final battle, where shields and sensors fail, in Star Trek II?

Mutara evens the odds between Kirk's battered ship and the stolen USS Reliant. The Reliant was given a different shape so that audiences could tell the two vessels apart in the murk.

Which Starfleet warship, commanded by Admiral Marcus, does Khan crash into San Francisco in Star Trek Into Darkness?

USS Vengeance is far larger than the Enterprise and cripples it near the Moon. Khan, who knows the warship's design, kills Marcus on its bridge and takes control himself.

Which actor, soon to win four Emmys for a courtroom sitcom, played the Klingon officer Maltz in Star Trek III?

John Larroquette played Maltz in the same year that Night Court began, the show that brought him four consecutive Emmys. His character was meant to be the thoughtful Klingon on Kruge's bridge.

On which ice planet does Spock maroon Kirk, who then meets Scotty there, in the 2009 Star Trek film?

Delta Vega was really a parking lot outside Dodger Stadium, dressed with fake snow. The filmmakers considered Iceland before choosing the challenge of staging winter in southern California.

Which Steppenwolf song, a rare licensed rock track for the series, is heard in Star Trek: First Contact?

Magic Carpet Ride and Roy Orbison's Ooby Dooby were the two licensed songs on the soundtrack, a break with Star Trek film tradition. Jerry Goldsmith's orchestral score filled most of the album.