Star Trek TOS/TNG Films Back Home on Paramount+ Again For Now

Posted in: Movies, Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Paramount appears to be the home for Star Trek again now that those TOS and TNG films have made their way back onto Paramount+.

Published Fri, 18 Oct 2024 08:37:08 -0500

by Tom Chang

It seems like Paramount found out they could have their cake and eat it too, as their deal for Star Trek films from The Original Series and The Next Generation eras are back home on Paramount+ after a brief time off. They’re still on Amazon’s MGM+ and mostly on Prime Video, sans 1982’s The Wrath of Khan and 1996’s First Contact. As the Kelvin universe timeline films starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto haven’t left Paramount+, all 13 Star Trek films are available for fans.

Patrick Stewart & William Shatner in “Star Trek: Generations” (1994). Image courtesy of Paramount.

Star Trek: The Original Series & The Next Generation Films Return Home Again to Paramount+

Since Star Trek: TOS’s three-season run on NBC from 1966-1969 and the shorter run of The Animated Series from 1973-1974, Gene Roddenberry had hopes of some revival in the form of Phase II. Thanks to the success of Star Wars in 1977, that concept was repurposed into what ended up being The Motion Picture in 1979. The momentum spawned a film franchise, including 1982’s The Wrath of Khan, 1984’s The Search for Spock, and 1986’s The Voyage Home. Unfortunately, The Final Frontier in 1989, not connected story-wise to the previous three films, nearly killed the cinematic franchise before 1991’s sixth and final entry, The Undiscovered Country, allowed the TOS cast to bow gracefully.

As TNG ended its run in 1994 on syndication, the inevitable crossover film with three of the TOS cast happened with Generations out the same year. The TNG films would have a considerably shorter run given the mounting pressures of box office success and a far more competitive market with the emergence of bigger blockbusters like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars prequels. While the follow-up film in First Contact in 1996 was a success, the reception of the final two films, 1998’s Insurrection and 2002’s Nemesis, ultimately killed the prime universe in theaters.

Rather than making a new film centering on any of the other TV shows like Deep Space Nine, Voyager, or Enterprise, Paramount opted to repackage the TOS characters with J. J. Abrams creating the alternate Kelvin universe to not interfere with what was established Prime canon with TOS star Leonard Nimoy passing the torch to the new crew as Spock Prime starting with 2009’s Star Trek. While Paramount attempts again at a fourth Kelvin film, its TV streaming counterpart in Paramount+ is evolving beyond its first three shows in Discovery and Picard, with the upcoming fifth season of the animated series Lower Decks being its final, leaving Strange New Worlds as the only active series with the uncertain future of the animated series Prodigy on Netflix and Starfleet Academy in production. Section 31 is a Discovery spinoff film as a streamer exclusive. Enjoy it while you can, or purchase the TOS & TNG film collections on physical media, as there are PLENTY to go around.