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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 mention.
00:09With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 films that wanted to be
00:15Star Trek. Number 10, Avengers Endgame. I'm not actually joking. This is one that's actually been
00:21confirmed by the Russo brothers, both of whom openly admitted to being heavily inspired by
00:26Star Trek The Next Generation. Specifically, they said that All Good Things was the main point of
00:30reference when putting the film together. Both stories see the heroes travelling to various points
00:34in time, affecting the past and future. Both also see them, when in the past, trying their hardest
00:39not to interfere with the normal flow of time, though this proves impossible in the big budget
00:43film. There's a large emphasis on Technobabble in Endgame, along with the standard explanations that
00:48tended to follow Trek's Technobabble, allowing for plenty of in-jokes with the audience. Finally,
00:52once all was said and done with the film, the end credits begin to roll. Oddly enough,
00:56that's when the Star Trek inspiration is most brazenly on show. When the big six stars are
01:01credited, the signatures appear on screen. While the original Avengers theme swells around them,
01:06this is a direct lift or borrow from Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country. Another nod to the Star
01:11Trek fans and another little inclusion that makes this movie far closer to a Trek film than many in
01:17the audience ever expected. Number nine, The Quester Tapes. The Quester Tapes was a made-for-TV movie
01:23written by Gene Roddenberry himself. The original idea was a reworking of his script for Star Trek's
01:28second season, Assignment 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 among
01:38humanity there to guide and lead them away from harm. In both stories, the rapid advent of technology
01:44changes the parameters of the visitors' missions. The televised version of the Quester Tapes also
01:49contains elements that would appear again in Star Trek The Motion Picture. Quester is an android lost
01:54and looking for its creator. This, of course, is highly reminiscent of V'ger, though there are also
01:58shades of data. When a situation calls for the need to seduce a lady, Quester states that he is
02:05fully functional. The movie almost went one step further. Though Robert Foxworth, who would later
02:10appear as Admiral Layton and Administrator Velas, played Quester in the film, Leonard Nimoy was
02:15originally asked to play the part. He went so far as to take part in makeup tests before he was passed
02:21over for the role. Number 8, Forbidden Planet. Now, looking at the year of release, 1956, a very obvious
02:28question springs to mind. How could Forbidden Planet want to be Star Trek nine years before The Cage was
02:34even written? Well, this is a slightly more subjective entry than the others on the list.
02:39Forbidden Planet was, in many ways, quite ahead of its time and would easily have been an episode
02:45of the original series. Morbius, Alterra, Adams and Robbie the Robot are characters right out of
02:51Star Trek's very Bible. Adams is clearly an inspiration for Kirk, encounter Stranded Woman,
02:56woo Stranded Woman, bring Stranded Woman away with him. Robbie is also credited as one of the first
03:00depictions of an android beyond a simple automaton, serving as inspiration for data. The core threat
03:06of the film shows the battle between the conscious and the unconscious, along with the war between
03:10the ego and id. With that, the main villain of the film is a dream, one made manifest by alien
03:16technology and the protagonists don't understand that. Star Trek itself owes more than a little to
03:21this seminal sci-fi film, while Forbidden Planet, had it simply come along a little later on, might well
03:26have suited William Shatner and Majel Barrett in the heroic roles, and probably would have,
03:30had Gene Roddenberry half a chance to say something about it. Number 7, Enemy Mine. Enemy Mine is a 1984
03:36film directed by Wolfgang Petersen, serving as inspiration for The Enemy, a fourth season episode
03:42of Star Trek The Next Generation. It features Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. as Davage and Jerry,
03:47two soldiers from opposing species marooned together on a barely hospitable world. The film is Star Trek to
03:52the core. First, both parties speak in languages that are barely understandable to each other,
03:57as both attempt to overpower the other. Then, as time wears on, they learn to understand each other
04:02before cooperating. The final mission of the film sees one defecting to the other side to save a
04:08child. The film has shades of the original series episode Arena, in which Kirk fights the Gorn and
04:12Cestus III. That story revealed that the aggression between the Federation and the Gorn hegemony stemmed from
04:17a miscommunication, something that Roddenberry often returned to in Star Trek. In fact, Star Trek
04:23The Motion Picture begins with V'ger unable to understand why it is not receiving a reply from
04:28its creator. Enemy Mine could quite easily slot into the Trek franchise with minimal changes required,
04:33which of course was part of the intentions at the time. Number 6, Serenity. Serenity, the spin-off and
04:39tying up of Firefly, owes a big debt to Star Trek, as did the series before it. While Joss Whedon said that
04:45he set Firefly in a region of space that the Enterprise would have flown right past, the Alliance
04:49forces represent a twisted version of the Federation, from the point of view of the worlds that didn't
04:55exactly want to be under Starfleet's heel. Serenity sees an officer hunting down River and the crew
05:00of Malcolm Reynolds' ship, armed with the full authority of the government. The browncoats are the
05:05separatists, so often depicted as the bad guys in franchises like Star Trek, though shown sympathetically
05:09here. The crimes of the Alliance are revealed, coated in good intentions with disastrous results.
05:15Gene Roddenberry described humanity going through Hell to reach Heaven, with both ends on show in
05:20Whedon's Wild West here. Reynolds is like Kirk with a greater sense of humour, though like Kirk, Picard and
05:25the rest he has an infallible sense of doing the right thing even in the wrongest circumstances. It's
05:31far from 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 five, Hellraiser Bloodline.
05:42Be honest, this one's a bit of a shock innit? While there was an argument to include Hellraiser
05:473 on this list, featuring Terry Farrell in her pre-Deep Space Nine days, the fourth Hellraiser
05:52film actually fits the world of Star Trek a little better than many might assume. For one, the film is
05:58primarily set in space. The film, released in 1996, the same year that Star Trek first contact hit
06:03theatres, sees a time-hopping tale that goes from an advanced future to Earth's past,
06:08in a plot that feels more than a little inspired by the Borg's temporal plans for humanity. The
06:13film introduces Angelique, a new variation on the Cenobites and demons from Hell. With the film
06:18also featuring Adam Scott, who has a small role as the helmsman of the USS Defiant in Star Trek First
06:24Contact, there are several similarities here. Angelique is easily likened to the Borg Queen, with both
06:29attempting to use temptation to gain power. Trickery is eventually the downfall of both the Borg and the
06:34Cenobites, as the descendant of Le Marchand deduces the way to destroy the demons, while the former
06:39drone, Locutus, Jean-Luc Picard, destroys the Borg. Though Bloodline may be one of the outliers in this
06:46list, there are enough similarities to say that this Hellraiser film was trying its best to be a part of
06:51of the final frontier. Number 4, Arrival. In many ways, Arrival feels like a big budget, extra long
06:57episode of Star Trek. The story revolves around the attempt to communicate with a species not of this
07:02world, with little to no emphasis on action. In fact, many of the negative reviews of the film
07:07received highlighted its slow pace and largely dialogue-heavy script. Amy Adams stars as the
07:12linguist 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
07:26nature of understanding. Arrival also focuses on the topic of time, something that features again
07:31and again, pun not intended, in Star Trek. Both Star Trek's 4 and Star Trek First Contact see the
07:37various crews of the Enterprise travelling through time to save humanity, with many episodes of the
07:41various series visiting it as a theme as well. All else aside, Arrival is a film that dares to take
07:47its time to tell its story. Though visually impressive, it relies less on the CGI of the
07:51world that it creates, and more on the story built within said world. It falls into the same type of
07:56sci-fi in which Star Trek lies, boldly going forward rather than simply blowing things up.
08:02Number 3, Silent Running. Silent Running is a 1972 film directed by Douglas Trumbull,
08:07who would go on to create the effects for Star Trek The Motion Picture. The film depicts Bruce Dern as
08:12Freeman Lowell, an astronaut and botanist who serves aboard the Valley Forge. It's a bio-dictor,
08:16it's a bio-dome orbiting Saturn tasked with keeping various plants and fauna alive,
08:21to later be returned to an Earth that is currently unable to manage them. The film's theme of
08:25conservationism is pure Trek, with Lowell rebelling against his human superiors to protect the plant
08:30life aboard a ship. He befriends three drones, Huey, Louie and Dewey, who help him care for the
08:35greenery, though Louie is lost along the way. While there is a logical issue within the movie, how did
08:39everyone forget the plants need sunlight to survive? It's still a surprisingly forward-thinking
08:44environmentalist film for the time. The Valley Forge's mission would be borrowed by Star Trek
08:48Discovery, this time portrayed by the USS Tikov. While the Valley Forge itself takes its name from
08:53the aircraft carrier, there is also an Excelsior-class ship serving with that name during the Battle of
08:58Chintaka in Deep Space Nine. The film may owe more to 2001 than it does to Star Trek, but it still deals
09:04with the theme of humanity's own short-sightedness, a theme that had already been and would again be
09:09visited in Star Trek many, many times. Number two, Star Wars A New Hope. Now put down your lightsaber for
09:17a second. When George Lucas was writing his space opera, Star Trek had been around for almost a
09:22decade. The galaxy far, far away takes inspiration from some of the more militaristic elements of
09:27Star Trek while still forging an entire universe of its own. In a strange case of a snake eating its own
09:33tail, Star Wars followed on from Gene Roddenberry's works, while also inspiring Paramount to scramble to
09:38scramble to get the motion picture up and running. Lucas himself stated that Star Wars stood on the
09:43shoulders of Star Trek as the latter had softened the audience to the idea of fantasy in outer space.
09:48While Trek had stumbled 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 to make a name
09:58for themselves, including the tale of young Master Skywalker. To say that there has been a rivalry
10:03between Star Wars fans and Star Trek fans is a little bit of an understatement, but the original
10:08creators both saw the merit of each other's franchises. No matter which side of the debate
10:12one comes down on, it's clear that they both owe a debt of gratitude to each other.
10:16Number one, Galaxy Quest. What list of Trek-themed films would be complete without Galaxy Quest,
10:22the 90s parody that was effectively a forerunner to Seth MacFarlane's The Orville. It's both satire and
10:26a loving tribute to the original series, while also standing as its own thoroughly enjoyable adventure.
10:30The 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
10:49Allen was cast as Nesmith. Ramis wanted action stars who could do comedy, as opposed to comedians
10:54doing an action film, though he did eventually praise Allen's performance. The film has achieved cult status
10:58as 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
11:08its standing. That's everything for our list. If you reckon we missed anything, please drop it into
11:11the comments below. Please don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember that if you want to
11:16get in touch with us, you can follow us over on Twitter at TrekCulture, and you can catch myself over
11:21on Twitter at SeanFerrick as well. We want to take this opportunity to express our solidarity to our
11:25friends over in the Ukraine. We wish them peace, we wish them safety.
11:32Thanks very much.
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