Popularised, but not actually created, by Simon Pegg in his sit-com Spaced, is the notion that “every odd-numbered Star Trek movie is shit”. This supposed joke has been passed around by so many sufferers of Asperger’s Syndrome that no-one’s even sure that it was ever supposed to have been a joke anymore. E14 decided to investigate as only E14 can...by getting a grumpy twenty-something Star Wars fan to watch all of the movies again.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Good, Bad or Middling?: It depends on what your opinions of stupid plot ideas and unnecessarily long shots of the Enterprise flying through space are. Everyone’s new uniforms look ridiculous. The story is boring as hell.
Budget: $46m
US Gross: $82m
Myth Status: Confirmed. Odd numbered movie = Bad.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Good, Bad or Middling?: The Wrath of Khan passes beyond being a good Star Trek movie, and is just a good sci-fi movie. It has an epic Shakespearean feel, and the ending is genuinely moving. It’s got that “Khaaan!” bit in it, as well. No wonder this is still the joint-first best Star Trek movie ever.
Budget: $11m
US Gross: $79m
Myth Status: Confirmed. Even Numbered Movie = Good
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Good, Bad or Middling?: You know what? I actually quite like this one. It’s a pretty good Star Trek movie. It’s not on a par with the truly great ones, but it’s far from terrible either. Its main problems lie in its budgetary constraints, which make some of the sets and effects look on a par with the original TV series, which is a shame. The only thing that really bugs me is that after Spock is brought back to life and David Kirk killed, it does almost completely invalidate everything that happened in The Wrath of Khan.
Budget: $17m
US Gross: $76m
Myth Status: Plausible. Odd-Numbered Movie = Not great, not truly bad.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Good, Bad or Middling?: It’s a good one. Star Trek is rarely genuinely funny, but this one takes the comedy ball and runs with it, in a gamble that really pays off. And Chekov says “Nuclear Wessels” again and again and again. 'Trek can be great when it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and this is a fun ride.
Budget: $27m
US Gross: $110m
Myth Status: Confirmed. Even-Numbered Movie = Good.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Good, Bad or Middling: See, when I was a kid, this was my favourite Star Trek movie. Of course, this was only because a) it was the only Star Trek movie I had ever seen, and b) kids are stupid. It’s pretty damn awful. Possibly because it was directed by Shatner, possibly because Uhura tries to be erotic and fifty-six years old at the same time. Possibly because it tried to be Star Trek Vs God.
Budget: $27m
US Gross: $52m
Myth Status: Confirmed. Odd-Numbered Movie = Bad.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Good, Bad or Middling: Good. Beyond good, actually. This is, for my money, the joint-best Star Trek movie, along with The Wrath of Khan. It takes the Shakespearean elements that made number two great, adds explosions, murder and great action sequences...it’s just a lesson in how to do Star Trek. It’s also a genuinely moving conclusion to the adventures of the original crew.
Budget: $17m
US Gross: $75m
Myth Status: Confirmed – Even-Numbered Movie = Good
Star Trek: Generations (VII)

Good, Bad or Middling: Bad. A terrible way to merge the two storylines, and Malcom McDowell is hardly a seal of quality is he? He’s one of the most underrated actors of the past few decades, but his choice in projects is terrible. And you know that when a sci-fi franchise feels a need to cross dimensions to make a story work, they’ve totally lost it. Except for the He-Man/She-Ra movie The Secret of the Sword. That was the bomb.
Budget: $35m
US Gross: $76m
Myth Status: Confirmed – Odd-Numbered Movie = Bad
Star Trek: First Contact (VIII)

Good, Bad or Middling: Good. In fact, this is probably my second favourite 'Trek movie. Not just because it has the Borg in it, but also because it features oodles and oodles of Picard kicking more arse than you would have believed a prematurely bald Shakespearean actor to be capable of.
Budget: $45m
US Gross: $92m
Myth Status: Confirmed. Even-Numbered Movie = Good.
Star Trek: Insurrection (IX)

Good, Bad or Middling: Middling. Whilst it’s far from bad, it does feel rather like a double length episode, rather than a full film. It doesn’t feel big enough to justify a cinema release – especially as Star Trek: The Next Generation had some excellent double-length episodes, anyway. Time’s Arrow is better than this.
Budget: $58m
US Gross: $70m
Myth Status: Plausible. Odd-Numbered Movie = Not good.
Star Trek: Nemesis (X)

Good, Bad or Middling: Bad. A really lame way to finish with the Next Generation crew. Brent Spiner writes himself into every conceivable scene. And is it just me, or are there fucking Yuuzhan Vong in this one? Oh, lordy, this be overlong, unwelcome wank.
Budget: $60m
US Gross: $43m
Myth Status: Busted. Even-Numbered Movie = Bad. Doesn’t feel like a victory in the conventional sense.
Star Trek (XI)

Good, Bad, or Middling: Middling. All things considered – if you were to line all the 'Trek movies up from good to bad, this would land pretty much in the middle – along with The Voyage Home and Insurrection. It’s passable, but doesn’t ever really feel like Star Trek.
Budget: $150m
US Gross: $258m
Myth Status: Plausible. Odd-Numbered Movie = Not bad.

Conclusion: So if we consider the original hypothesis (Odd Numbered = Bad, Even Numbered = Good), we can see that the stats look like this.
Support Hypothesis: 7 (63.6%)
Contradict Hypothesis: 1 (9.1%)
Neither Support nor Contractict Hypothesis: 3 (27.3%)
So, the general trend appears to be that a Star Trek movie has just under a two-in-three chance of obeying “Odd Numbered = Bad, Even Numbered = Good” rule.
Before we celebrate too much, let’s look at those statistics again, from a different perspective:
Of the six odd-numbered movies, only three of them were confirmed as “Bad”. Of the five even numbered movies, four of them were confirmed good. This means that an odd-numbered movie has a 50/50 chance of being bad; whereas an even numbered movie has an 80% chance of being awesome.
In summary, it appears that the “Odd Numbered = Bad, Even Numbered = Good” rule does actually work. We can all rejoice now, knowing that June 2012 will bring us a Star Trek movie that has an 80% change of not being shit.
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