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These are the films that wanted so desperately to boldly go out into the world of Star Trek.
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00:00Look, I want to be Star Trek, you want to be Star Trek, that guy in the bushes over there behind you
00:04wants to be in Star Trek as well. There's nothing wrong with that. The Star Trek bit I should
00:08mention. With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferric for Trek Culture and here are 10 films that wanted
00:15to be Star Trek. Number 10, Avengers Endgame. I'm not actually joking. This is one that's
00:20actually been confirmed by the Russo brothers, both of whom openly admitted to being heavily
00:25inspired by Star Trek The Next Generation. Specifically they said that All Good Things
00:29was the main point of reference when putting the film together. Both stories see the heroes
00:33travelling to various points in time, affecting the past and future. Both also see them, when
00:37in the past, trying their hardest not to interfere with the normal flow of time, though this proves
00:42impossible in the big budget film. There's a large emphasis on Technobabble in Endgame,
00:46along with the standard explanations that tended to follow Trek's Technobabble, allowing for
00:50plenty of in-jokes with the audience. Finally, once all was said and done with the film, the
00:54end credits begin to roll. Oddly enough, that's when the Star Trek inspiration is most brazenly
00:59on show. When the big six stars are credited, the signatures appear on screen. While the
01:04original Avengers theme swells around them, this is a direct lift or borrow from Star Trek
01:096 The Undiscovered Country. Another nod to the Star Trek fans and another little inclusion
01:14that makes this movie far closer to a Trek film than many in the audience ever expected.
01:19Number 9, The Quester Tapes. The Quester Tapes was a made-for-TV movie written by Gene Roddenberry
01:24himself. The original idea was a reworking of his script for Star Trek's second season,
01:29Assignment Earth. In that story, a benevolent species sends Gary Seven to protect Earth
01:34from its own mistakes. In The Quester Tapes, a benevolent race installed android protectors
01:38among humanity there to guide and lead them away from harm. In both stories, the rapid advent
01:44of technology changes the parameters of the visitors' missions. The televised version of
01:48The Quester Tapes also contains elements that would appear again in Star Trek The Motion Picture.
01:52Quester is an android lost and looking for its creator. This, of course, is highly reminiscent
01:56of V'ger, though there are also shades of data. When a situation calls for the need to seduce
02:03a lady, Quester states that he is fully functional. The movie almost went one step further. Though
02:08Robert Foxworth, who would later appear as Admiral Layton and Administrator Velas, played
02:13Quester in the film, Leonard Nimoy was originally asked to play the part. He went so far as to
02:18take part in makeup tests before he was passed over for the role.
02:22Number 8, Forbidden Planet. Now, looking at the year of release, 1956, a very obvious question
02:28springs to mind. How could Forbidden Planet want to be Star Trek nine years before The
02:33Cage was even written? Well, this is a slightly more subjective entry than the others on the
02:39list. Forbidden Planet was, in many ways, quite ahead of its time and would easily have
02:44been an episode of the original series. Morbius, Altera, Adams and Robbie the Robot are characters
02:50right out of Star Trek's very Bible. Adams is clearly an inspiration for Kirk. Encounter
02:55Stranded Woman, woo Stranded Woman, bring Stranded Woman away with him. Robbie is also
02:59credited as one of the first depictions of an android beyond a simple automaton, serving
03:04as inspiration for Data. The core threat of the film shows the battle between the conscious
03:08and the unconscious, along with the war between the ego and id. With that, the main villain
03:13of the film is a dream, one made manifest by alien technology and the protagonists don't
03:18understand that. Star Trek itself owes more than a little to this seminal sci-fi film, while
03:23Forbidden Planet, had it simply come along a little later on, might well have suited William
03:27Shatner and Majel Barrett in the heroic roles, and probably would have had Gene Roddenberry half
03:31a chance to say something about it. Number 7, Enemy Mine. Enemy Mine is a 1984 film directed by Wolfgang
03:38Peterson, serving as inspiration for The Enemy, a fourth season episode of Star Trek The Next
03:43Generation. It features Dennis Quaid and Louie Gossett Jr. as Davage and Jerry, two soldiers
03:48from opposing species marooned together on a barely hospitable world. The film is Star Trek to the
03:53core. First, both parties speak in languages that are barely understandable to each other, as both
03:57attempt to overpower the other. Then, as time wears on, they learn to understand each other before
04:03cooperating. The final mission of the film sees one defecting to the other side to
04:07save a child. The film has shades of the original series episode, Arena, in which Kirk fights
04:12the Gorn of Cestus III. That story revealed that the aggression between the Federation
04:16and the Gorn hegemony stemmed from a miscommunication, something that Roddenberry often returned to
04:21in Star Trek. In fact, Star Trek The Motion Picture begins with V'ger unable to understand
04:26why it is not receiving a reply from its creator. Enemy Mine could quite easily slot into the Trek
04:31franchise with minimal changes required, which of course was part of the intentions of the time.
04:36Number 6, Serenity. Serenity, the spin-off and tying up of Firefly, owes a big debt to Star Trek,
04:42as did the series before it. While Joss Whedon said that he set Firefly in a region of space that the
04:47Enterprise would have flown right past, the Alliance forces represent a twisted version
04:51of the Federation from the point of view of the worlds that didn't exactly want to be under
04:56Starfleet's heel. Serenity sees an officer hunting down River and the crew of Malcolm Reynolds' ship,
05:02armed with the full authority of the government. The browncoats are the separatists, so often depicted
05:06as the bad guys in franchises like Star Trek, though shown sympathetically here. The crimes
05:10of the Alliance are revealed, coated in good intentions with disastrous results. Gene Roddenberry
05:15described humanity going through hell to reach heaven, with both ends on show in Whedon's Wild West
05:20here. Reynolds is like Kirk with a greater sense of humour, though like Kirk, Picard and the rest,
05:26he has an infallible sense of doing the right thing even in the wrongest circumstances. It's far
05:31from perfect, but Serenity attempts to show a future where people can do the right thing,
05:36something that Star Trek has preached since its earliest days. Number 5, Hellraiser, Bloodline.
05:42Be honest, this one's a bit of a shock innit? While there was an argument to include Hellraiser 3 on
05:47this list, featuring Terry Farrell in her pre-Deep Space Nine days, the fourth Hellraiser film actually
05:53fits the world of Star Trek a little better than many might assume. For one, the film is primarily
05:58set in space. The film, released in 1996, the same year that Star Trek first contact hit theatres,
06:04sees a time-hopping tale that goes from an advanced future to Earth's past, in a plot that feels more
06:09than a little inspired by the Borg's temporal plans for humanity. The film introduces Angelique,
06:15a new variation on the Cenobites in Demons from Hell. With the film also featuring Adam Scott,
06:20who has a small role as the helmsman of the USS Defiant in Star Trek First Contact, there are
06:24several similarities here. Angelique is easily likened to the Borg Queen, with both attempting
06:29to use temptation to gain power. Trickery is eventually the downfall of both the Borg and
06:34the Cenobites, as the descendant of Le Marchand deduces the way to destroy the Demons, while the former
06:39drone Locutus destroys the Borg. Though Bloodline may be one of the outliers in this list,
06:46there are enough similarities to say that this Hellraiser film was trying its best to be a part
06:51of the final frontier. Number 4, Arrival. In many ways, Arrival feels like a big budget,
06:57extra long episode of Star Trek. The story revolves around the attempt to communicate with a species
07:01not of this world, with little to no emphasis on action. In fact, many of the negative reviews of the
07:07film received highlighted its slow pace and largely dialogue heavy script. Amy Adams stars as the
07:13linguist brought in by the military to try and find common ground with this race of aliens. She feels
07:17like a lift from episodes of the original series, something we say very much as a compliment here,
07:21for when Star Trek was at its best it was attempting to solve the issues of the universal nature of
07:26understanding. Arrival also focuses on the topic of time, something that features again and again,
07:32pun not intended, in Star Trek. Both Star Trek's
07:354 and Star Trek First Contact see the various crews of the Enterprise travelling through time
07:39to save humanity, with many episodes of the various series visiting it as a theme as well.
07:44All else aside, Arrival is a film that dares to take its time to tell its story. Though visually
07:49impressive, it relies less on the CGI of the world that it creates and more on the story built within
07:54said world. It falls into the same type of sci-fi in which Star Trek lies, boldly going forward
08:00rather than simply blowing things up. Number 3, Silent Running. Silent Running is a
08:051972 film directed by Douglas Trumbull, who would go on to create the effects for Star Trek The
08:10Motion Picture. The film depicts Bruce Dern as Freeman Lowell, an astronaut and botanist who
08:14serves aboard the Valley Forge. It's a biodome orbiting Saturn tasked with keeping various
08:19plants and fauna alive to later be returned to an earth that is currently unable to manage them.
08:24The film's theme of conservationism is pure trek, with Lowell rebelling against his human superiors to
08:29protect the plant life aboard a ship. He befriends three drones, Huey, Louie and Dewey, who help him
08:34care for the greenery, though Louie is lost along the way. While there is a logical issue within the
08:38movie, how did everyone forget the plants need sunlight to survive? It's still a surprisingly
08:43forward-thinking environmentalist film for the time. The Valley Forge's mission would be borrowed
08:48by Star Trek Discovery, this time portrayed by the USS Teacov. While the Valley Forge itself takes its name
08:53from the aircraft carrier, there was also an Excelsior-class ship serving with that name during
08:58the Battle of Chintaka in Deep Space Nine. The film may owe more to 2001 than it does to Star Trek,
09:03but it still deals with the theme of humanity's own short-sightedness, a theme that had already been
09:08and would again be visited in Star Trek many, many times.
09:12Number 2. Star Wars A New Hope Now, put down your lightsaber for a second.
09:17When George Lucas was writing his space opera, Star Trek had been around for almost a decade. The
09:23galaxy far far away takes inspiration from some of the more militaristic elements of Star Trek
09:28while still forging an entire universe of its own. In a strange case of a snake eating its own tail,
09:33Star Wars followed on from Gene Roddenberry's works, while also inspiring Paramount to scramble to
09:39get the motion picture up and running. Lucas himself stated that Star Wars stood on the shoulders of
09:43Star Trek as the latter had softened the audience to the idea of fantasy in outer space. While Trek had
09:49stumbled through a second life with the arrival of the animated series,
09:52its fans had kept the franchise alive long enough for other attempts at sci-fi fantasy
09:57to make a name for themselves, including the tale of young Master Skywalker. To say that there has
10:02been a rivalry between Star Wars fans and Star Trek fans is a little bit of an understatement,
10:07but the original creators both saw the merit of each other's franchises. No matter which side of the
10:12debate one comes down on, it's clear that they both owe a debt of gratitude to each other.
10:16Number 1. Galaxy Quest What list of Trek-themed films would be complete without Galaxy Quest? The 90s
10:22parody that was effectively a forerunner to Seth MacFarlane's The Orville. It's both satire and a
10:26loving tribute to the original series, while also standing as its own thoroughly enjoyable adventure.
10:31The film began life as Captain Starshine, a script by David Howard, who struck on the idea of
10:35extraterrestrials believing that the actors really were astronauts. Although this version of the story
10:40was ultimately scrapped, the idea was passed to Bob Gordon, who added far more humour than had
10:44originally been present. Harold Ramis was hired to direct, though he passed on the project after Tim Allen was
10:49cast as Nesmith. Ramis wanted action stars who could do comedy, as opposed to comedians doing an
10:54action film, though he did eventually praise Allen's performance. The film has achieved cult
10:58status as both a movie in its own right, but also as a de facto Star Trek film, with the Protector now
11:03considered another ship in Starfleet, even if it's a little bit more like the Cerritos in terms of its
11:08standing. That's everything for our list. If you reckon we missed anything, please drop it into the
11:11comments below. Please don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember that if you want to get in touch with us,
11:17you can follow us over on Twitter at TrekCulture, and you can catch myself over on Twitter at SeanFerrick
11:22as well. We want to take this opportunity to express our solidarity to our friends over in the Ukraine.
11:27We wish them peace, we wish them safety. Je ti dovo, i prost fitati. Thanks very much.
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