Star Trek documentaries and specials

The following is a list of various documentaries and television specials related to Star Trek. One distinction that can be made between the two is that "documentaries" tend to be of a purely informative nature, mostly providing (behind-the-scenes) background information on the live-action productions, whereas "television specials" often tend to be of a celebratory nature with emphasis on entertainment (habitually featuring guests and entertainers who have otherwise no formal affiliation with the official ), even if background information is incorporated.
This list generally encompasses "unofficial" and "stand-alone" productions (when produced by the official franchise, predominantly of a promotional nature), mainly made by third parties outside Paramount Global's usual franchise home media/video format framework, typically intended for television broadcasts and, more recently, for streaming through the various streaming services and/or postings on social media outlets such as StarTrek.com, Facebook Live or YouTube, as well.
Most "official" documentaries and specials that were specifically created for inclusion on the individual home video format releases of the actual corresponding series and/or film productions as companion pieces, otherwise known as "special/bonus features" or "Value Added Material" ("VAM"), are not listed here and are detailed with their originating home video products and/or their own individual entries.
* 40 Years of Star Trek (The Space Channel, Canada)
* 50 Years of Star Trek
* After They Were Famous: Star Trek
* After Trek
* America Loves... Star Trek
* Bring Back... Star Trek
* Building Excitement: Star Trek: Nemesis
* Building Star Trek
* The Captains
* The Captains Close Up
* The Captains of The Final Frontier
* The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek
* Computer Aided Design T363
* Computer Graphics in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
* Deep Space Nine Chronicles
* E! Inside Star Trek
* E! Inside Star Trek: Voyager
* Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water
* Entertainment Tonight Salutes Star Trek
* FanAddicts!
* For the Love of Spock
* fxguidetv
* Galileo Restoration Project
* Gene Roddenberry: Up Close And Personal
* How William Shatner Changed the World
* ILM Special Visual Effects, Star Trek The Next Generation
* InnerSPACE: Behind The Scenes: Star Trek
* Inside Star Trek - The Real Story
* Jonathan Ross' Essential Guide To Star Trek: First Contact
* Journey's End: The Saga of Star Trek: The Next Generation
* Launch of Star Trek: Voyager
* Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories
* 
* 
* The Making of Star Trek Nemesis
* The Making of Star Trek Deep Space Nine Trials And Tribble-ations
* Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects
* Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime
* Modern Marvels: Star Trek Tech
* 
* MTV Screen: Star Trek: Making The Movie
* Next Gen on TNN: A 5-Day Mission
* Our Star Trek: The Fifty Year Mission
* Pioneers of Television: Science Fiction
* Reading Rainbow: The Bionic Bunny Show
* Regeneration: Engaging the Borg
* Sci-Fi Channel Star Trek Special Edition
* The Science of Star Trek
* Secrets of the Universe
* Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special	
* Star Trek Night
** Star Trek Night, 1996
** Star Trek Night, 2001
* Star Trek Tech
* Star Trek Viewers Choice Marathon
* Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond
* Star Trek: 45 Years of Designing the Future
* Star Trek: A Captain's Log
* Star Trek Beyond First Contact
* Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier
* Star Trek: The Captains' Summit
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Behind the Scenes
* Star Trek Evolutions
* Star Trek: Return of The Next Generation
* Star Trek: Science vs. Fiction
* Star Trek Story (BBC)
* Star Trek: The Next Generation Viewers Choice Marathon
* Star Trek: The Real Story (Smithsonian channel)
* Star Trek: The True Story
* Star Trek: Voyager - Inside the New Adventure
* Star Wars vs. Star Trek: The Rivalry Continues
* The Star Trek Logs: An MTV Big Picture Special Edition
* The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation To The Next
* 
* To The Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager
* The Toys That Made Us
* Trek Fest '95
* Trek Fest '96
* Trekkies
* Trekkies 2
* Trek Nation
* The Truth Is in the Stars
* The Twenty-Five Year Mission Tour aka The 25-Year Mission
* Ultimate Trek: Star Trek's Greatest Moments
* The Weakest Link: Star Trek Edition
* What We Left Behind
* William Shatner's Get A Life!
* William Shatner's Star Trek Memories
* William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge
* Woman in Motion
* Your Guide To ... Star Trek Generations
; French productions
* Téléportation 2161 - Kirk, Spock et nous
==Home video formats==
Several productions, both "unofficial" and "official", which were first broadcast/streamed on television received a VHS/LaserDisc (in the early days), DVD, digital or, more rarely, Blu-ray Disc home video format release afterwards, either in full or in part and as such are specified below.
The early VHS/LaserDisc documentary/special releases were predominantly official franchise productions as means for promotional purposes, and were, save for a handful of curtailed excerpts, never included on the later home video formats as special features afterwards, despite the (sometimes rare) production background information oftentimes contained therein. This has since made these releases actually collectible for "Trekkies", the 1994 VHS-only documentary in particular. Remarkably and with the single exception of Inside Star Trek - The Real Story, all official home video formats saw a release in Europe first, before a home market release followed suit, typically with an one-year delay.
Third-party home video format documentary/special releases started to take off shortly after the turn of the millennium, in the wake of the advent of the DVD format.
===VHS ===
Note: For all tables applies,
:*† = official franchise production
Release 	Cover	Release date 	Release date
Release 	Cover	NTSCContrary to the optical DVD and Blu-ray disc formats, a form of geo-restricting region encoding did not exist for the VHS and LaserDisc home video formats. Instead, the format releases were dependent on the television system employed by the region of release, which in broad strokes consisted of for the Americas and Japan, for Europe, Asia and Oceania, and for the Francophone world and Russia. Most of the contemporary high-end players were able to play all system releases at the time, legally as a matter of fact – and again in contrast to the DVD/Blu-ray players (formally that is at least, as many manufacturers surreptitiously provided their clientele with means to crack the region encoding on their players)	PAL/Secam
† 	 	(US) 	(UK) (Germany)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Behind the Scenes † 	 	(US) 	(UK, combo release with )
The Twenty-Five Year Mission Tour 	 	(US) 	(UK)
Your Guide To ... Star Trek Generations † 	 	- 	(UK) (Australia/Germany/Benelux/Spain)
† 	 	(US) 	(UK, combo release with )
Jonathan Ross' Essential Guide To Star Trek: First Contact †	 	- 	(UK) (Germany/Benelux)
† 	 	(US) 	(UK, as part of the Star Trek - The Movies set) (Benelux, as part of the Star Trek - The Movies set)
† 	 	(US) 	(UK, as part of the Star Trek - Greatest Battles set) (Benelux, as part of the Star Trek - Greatest Battles set) (Germany, as part of the Star Trek - Greatest Battles set)
† 	 	(US) 	(Germany) (Japan) (Australia)
Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime 	 	(US) 	(Germany)
===LaserDisc ===
Release 	Cover	Release date 	Release date
Release 	Cover	NTSC 	PAL/Secam
†	 	(US) (Japan, as part of the Star Trek: The Complete Collection set)	-
 	 	(Japan, as part of a three-volume set) 	-
†	 	(Japan) 	-
†	 	(US) 	-
†	 	(Japan) 	-
†	 	(Japan) 	-
===DVD ===
After the advent of the DVD, the official franchise opted to waive the production of their standalone (promotional) documentaries/specials on home video formats, and leave that field henceforth to outside producers. Some of the more independent ones, 455 Films (through their home video format licensees) in particular, choose to release their productions as "region free", undoubtedly as a means to increase their chances of achieving a positive financial result.
The more institutionalized parties who were reliant on close cooperation with the franchise, such as The History Channel, The Smithsonian (Building Star Trek, 50 Years of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Real Story) and the parties behind both Trekkies and What We Left Behind (which in the latter case included 455 Films as well), erred on the side of caution by continuing to adhere to the (mandatory) region encoding.
Release 	Cover	Release date 	Release date 	Release date
Release 	Cover	Region 1 	Region 2 	Region 4
† 	 	(US) (US reissue)	(Germany) (Japan) (UK) (Japan reissue) (Japan reissue)	(Australia) (Australia reissue)
Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime	 	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)
: (Japan)
: (UK)
: (UK reissue)
: (Australasia)	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)
: (Japan)
: (UK)
: (UK reissue)
: (Australasia)	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)
: (Japan)
: (UK)
: (UK reissue)
: (Australasia)
Star Wars vs. Star Trek: The Rivalry Continues 	 	(US) 	- 	-
Trekkies 2 † 	 	(US) 	(Germany) (UK) (Japan) 	-
Gene Roddenberry: Up Close And Personal 	 	(US) 	- 	-
The Twenty-Five Year Mission Tour 	 	Region free
: (US)	Region free
: (US) 	Region free
: (US)
How William Shatner Changed the World 	 	(US) 	- 	(Australia)
The Captains 	 	Region free
: (US)
: (Canada)
: (Germany)	Region free
: (US)
: (Canada)
: (Germany) 	Region free
: (US)
: (Canada)
: (Germany)
The Captains of The Final Frontier 	 	Region free
: (UK)
: (Australia)	Region free
: (UK)
: (Australia) 	Region free
: (UK)
: (Australia)
Sense of Scale 	 	Region free
: (US)	Region free
: (US) 	Region free
: (US)
Trek Nation 	 	(US) 	- 	(Germany)
The Captains Close Up 	 	Region free
: (US)	Region free
: (US) 	Region free
: (US)
 	 	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany) 	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)
William Shatner's Get A Life! 	 	Region free
: (US)	Region free
: (US) 	Region free
: (US)
 	 	Region free
: (Germany)
: (Australia)
: (UK)	Region free
: (Germany)
: (Australia)
: (UK) 	Region free
: (Germany)
: (Australia)
: (UK)
50 Years of Star Trek 	 	(US) 	- 	-
 	 	(US) 	- 	-
 	 	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany) 	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)
 	 	(US) 	- 	-
 	 	(US) 	- 	-
 	 	(US) 	- 	-
===Blu-ray Disc ===
In the US home market Star Trek documentary releases in the HD Blu-ray Disc format are quite rare, the – unofficial – documentary having been one of the very rare exceptions. The German New KSM production company on the other hand, had already exhibited more zeal in the mid-2010s by remastering several older productions into HD standards for Blu-ray disc home video releases in German-speaking Europe.
Release	Cover	Release date	Release date
Release	Cover	Region A 	Region B
 	 	 	(Germany)
, 	 	- 	(Germany)
 	 	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)	Region free
: (US)
: (Germany)
 	 	 	-
 	 	 	-
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fr:Documentaires et émissions spéciales
 Documentaries