The first Star Trek movie seemed poised to snag an Oscar in 1980, but it lost out to a far superior science fiction film. The Star Trek film franchise got off to a slow start with the release of The Motion Picture. Essentially the gap between eras, it was incredibly mixed and largely failed to impress audiences and critics.

Fortunately, the Enterprise crew returned for another adventure a few years later, and The Wrath of Khan put the franchise back on the right course. Critical achievement and box office success came in tandem for most of the Star Trek sequels throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, and Trek even returned to TV in the late ’80s as well.

Because Star Trek is first and foremost a science fiction series, its chances of winning major movie awards are somewhat diminished. However, the Academy Awards does feature quite a few technical categories that are specifically suited for effects-heavy spectacles. Despite releasing a new movie every few years for over 20 years, Star Trek didn’t fare in those either.

The Star Trek movie franchise has lost a lot of Oscars, including the more recent films by J.J. Abrams, but its first loss is particularly powerful. Star Trek: The Motion Picture might be one of the worst of the Star Trek movies, but its Academy Awards failure 45 years ago came at the hands of another sci-fi franchise starter.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Was Nominated For Best Visual Effects In 1980

It Lost All Three Categories It Was Nominated For That Year

Even though Star Trek: The Motion Picture was a disappointment overall, it got a considerable amount of Oscar buzz in certain categories. The movie snagged nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and perhaps most importantly, Best Visual Effects. This was a big win for the movie, since its visuals were its strongest ᴀsset.

While the story was somewhat sluggish and the characters behaved oddly, The Motion Picture couldn’t be faulted for its amazing visuals. The camerawork by Richard H. Kline set the tone for the rest of the original Star Trek movies, and he had the difficult task of creating the look for the franchise’s jump to the big screen.

The movie had a lot of hurdles to clear, not the least of which was establishing a new tone, and Kline’s cinematography helped that transition along. What really stole the show was the visual effects, and they had come light-years from the days of Star Trek: The Original Series.

The space sequences are some of the most beautiful ever put on the big screen, and the practical nature of the work is all the more impressive. CGI was years away, so the heroic sH๏τs of the USS Enterprise were all created using painstaking miniature work and special pH๏τography.

Other effects were crisp, such as the transporter beams and Spock’s journey into V’ger. The extended sequence towards the end of the film borrowed heavily from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which ironically won the Best Visual Effects Oscar in 1969. Sadly, Star Trek: The Motion Picture couldn’t repeat that feat, and actually got swept in all three of its categories.

Alien Won The Award Instead Of Star Trek

The Sci-Fi Horror Film Beat Out Star Trek

1979 was an underrated year for science fiction, and Ridley Scott’s extraterrestrial terror, Alien, was the top of its class. The movie was one of the first to truly blend science fiction and horror, and it is a thrilling ride from start to finish. It also helped kick off a franchise that is still going strong to this day.

Alien was also nominated alongside Star Trek: The Motion Picture for Best Visual Effects, and it would eventually win the category. Legendary Swiss artist H.R. Giger and the movie’s special effects team accepted the award, and it was Giger’s art that really gave Alien its iconic look.

The mix of synthetic and organic designs was unlike anything seen in a film before, and the Xenomorph was a far cry from the rubber-headed alien monsters from previous sci-fi movies. It’s no surprise that Alien beat Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but that’s not to say that the latter didn’t have great effects too.

In a rare bit of forethought from the Academy, Alien won because it wasn’t just an example of strong technical execution, but something never before seen. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was technically perfect, and likely would have won in any other year, but Alien was clearly the better choice at the 1980 Academy Awards.

The Star Trek Franchise Has Endured Bad Luck At The Oscars

Only 1 Win In Nearly 50 Years On The Big Screen

Since the franchise’s first Oscar nomination in 1980, the Star Trek series has only won one Academy Award. Sadly, none of the classic films won any major awards, and installments like The Wrath of Khan were actually completely snubbed. No Trek film has ever been nominated for categories like Best Picture, but that’s to be expected with sci-fi.

After decades of Oscar heartbreak, Star Trek finally broke through when the 2009 eponymous film by J.J. Abrams won Best Makeup. It was the franchise’s most nominated installment since Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but only managed to win one of its four awards.

Even if more Star Trek movies are released in the future, it’s expected that they won’t fare too well at the Academy Awards. Not only are movies like Star Trek not particularly popular with Oscar voters, but there’s a high chance that another film like Alien might come along and snatch up the awards first.