Regarding holiday movie pairings, Thanksgiving is undoubtedly an odd one. Unlike Halloween or Christmas, where there are plenty of options, Thanksgiving does not have a strict set of movies associated with the holiday. While certain films have been linked to the holiday due to being set during Thanksgiving like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, the idea of a Thanksgiving movie is a much more loose concept. More than Halloween and Christmas, the idea of a Thanksgiving movie is more something the audience makes to it as opposed to an aesthetic.
Many franchises have close ties to the holidays, from the Twilight and Hunger Games movies to Disney animated features and even the James Bond series. Yet one film franchise that fits surprisingly well with the Thanksgiving season is the Star Trek movies.
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While Star Trek may not have the fall colors or the ship crew gathered around for a turkey meal (although at one point they do share a meal with the Klingons), the Star Trek films might be the perfect pairing for the holiday due to the franchise’s history with the month, the themes of found family, and how it offers a more optimistic parable to the Thanksgiving story people have been told for generations. Looking for something to watch before or after the meal, here is what makes the Star Trek films a great Thanksgiving pick.
Star Trek Has a Long History With November
Paramount Pictures
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was released in theaters over Thanksgiving weekend on November 26, 1986, and became one of the biggest hits of the year and the most successful Star Trek film at the time. After a brief attempt with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier to put the franchise back as a summer series failed, the franchise moved to be a winter holiday staple. Both Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact opened the week before Thanksgiving and went on to become box office hits. While the rebooted series moved to a summer release window, their home video releases tended to arrive close to Thanksgiving making them the most recent new home viewing option for families gathered at home.
While this is primarily focused on the films it is worth noting that even on the small screen, Star Trek has become an unofficial Thanksgiving tradition. Paramount+ tends to release new episodes of their Star Trek series on Thursdays, meaning a new episode tends to align with Thanksgiving.
Star Trek: Discovery season three’s legacy episode “Unification Part III” aired on Thanksgiving 2020 and the second episode of season 4 aired the following year on the holiday. While Star Wars has recently become associated with Christmas due to the release of the sequel trilogy films and The Mandalorian, Star Trek has roots firmly around Thanksgiving.
Star Trek is About Found Family
Thanksgiving is, even more so than Christmas, the busiest travel day of the year. It is a holiday not only meant as a harvest celebration but also for friends and family to come from across the country and sometimes the world to unite and share time with one another. It is one about bonds between friends and family. In recent years the mainstream popularity around the concept of Friendsgiving has highlighted the nature of how family can mean blood relatives but also the chosen family one picks.
The various crews across the Star Trek franchise function less like coworkers and more like a shared family unit. This is clear in the original film series where the main cast is there at Spock’s funeral but also his resurrection, but the point is underlined across the Kelvin trilogy films. Kirk obviously has close friendships with Bones and Spock, but Spock’s romantic relationship with Uhura highlights the bond these people share. Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov all have close bonds with one another, and by the most recent entry Star Trek: Beyond the group gathered together for drinks watching their ship being reconstructed shows how far they have all come together. The Star Trek films are a reminder of the importance of family.
Star Trek is More About What We Wish Thanksgiving Could Be About
Thanksgiving as a holiday has a complicated historical and memorial history. Some observe Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning, an acknowledgment of the conquest and genocide inflicted on Indigenous peoples by colonists. Many groups take issues with the embellished story of Native Americans and white Pilgrims setting aside their differences to break bread. While not all Native American tribes share this view of Thanksgiving, it is a holiday with a complicated legacy that might be tainted for some people and that is on a case-by-case basis.
Yet this might be what makes Star Trek an unintentionally ideal Thanksgiving viewing experience. The very idea of Star Trek as a franchise is about exploration, but never exploitation. It is the idea of exploring strange new worlds but never tampering with them or taking advantage of culture. The Federation of Planets is about various groups coming together to share resources for a stronger united front, the very ‘breaking bread’ idea that Thanksgiving has baked into its roots. It is the ideal vision many Americans have of Thanksgiving, but without the real-world tragedies that follow. Star Trek represents a high ideal of what people can strive for. It is important to remember the past and acknowledge history, but also look for how the future can be better.
