Sixty years ago Gene Roddenberry put Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise on television and changed what science fiction was allowed to dream about. From 1966 to 1969 the original series ran. It got cancelled. And then it became one of the most enduring cultural forces in American popular entertainment, spawning films, spinoffs, conventions, and an argument about the future of humanity that never really stopped.
The Belcourt Theatre at 2102 Belcourt Avenue is celebrating all of it the right way. Four original films. Four days. September 4th through 7th. Each film paired with a key thematically connected episode from the original television series, shown on the big screen for the first time.
This is not a casual tribute. This is the real thing.
Before the films even start, the Belcourt is kicking things off Saturday August 29th with a seminar called Dilithium Sparks and Recursive Arcs at 10AM. A full hour following the narrative path of human storytelling from 1960s television through the late 70s and early 80s big screen era. Free your Saturday morning and learn something.
Then September begins.
Friday September 4th opens with Star Trek: The Motion Picture paired with the original series episode The Changeling. Admiral Kirk boards the sleekly updated Enterprise and reunites the crew to stop an immense destructive alien construct before it reaches Earth. Robert Wise directed it. The human adventure was just beginning. Screenings at 2PM and 8:15PM.
Saturday September 5th brings the one everyone has been waiting for. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan paired with Space Seed, the original series episode that introduced Khan in the first place. Ricardo Montalban. William Shatner. The greatest villain showdown in the history of the franchise and one of the most emotionally devastating endings in science fiction cinema. If someone in your life has never seen Wrath of Khan on a big screen, September 5th is the correction. 2:30PM and 8:15PM.
Sunday September 6th is Star Trek III: The Search for Spock paired with Amok Time. Khan is defeated and the Genesis planet exists but Spock is dead and McCoy is losing his mind and Sarek shows up with information that changes everything. 2:30PM and 8:15PM.
Monday September 7th closes the run with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home paired with The City on the Edge of Forever, which is widely considered the greatest episode the original series ever produced. The crew time travels to 1986 San Francisco to save mankind. They encounter punk rock, pizza, and exact-change buses. It is funny and warm and completely earned after the weight of the three films that came before it. 2:30PM and 8:15PM.
The full series pass is $40. Belcourt members pay $30. Individual tickets are available at the door.
Star Trek has always been about what humanity could be if it chose to be better. The Belcourt is giving Nashville the chance to sit in a dark room together and remember why that vision mattered enough to survive cancellation and become a sixty year conversation.
Get the tickets at belcourt.org/events/startrek60.
Live long and prosper, Nashville. You have earned this weekend.
