Star Trek is a series of television programming.
The Star Trek film series is the cinematic branch of the Star Trek media franchise , which began in 1966 as a weekly television series on NBC , running for three seasons until it was canceled in 1969 because of poor ratings . The early Star Trek films , the first to tenth film , were originally released on VHS ; competitive pricing of The Wrath of Khans videocassette helped bolster the adoption of VHS players in households . Star Trek Into Darkness is a 2013 American science fiction action film directed by J. J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci , Alex Kurtzman , and Damon Lindelof .