Here’s the fifth set of movies in my onging Patrick’s 100.

I decided to do a collection of science fiction films in this grouping of ten, with a big concentration on Star Trek and Star Wars (and a few others thrown in for good measure).

As before, these are in no particular order.

41. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) - This is a lousy movie. It’s almost an exercise in how not to do a science fiction film when it comes to spending an hour and a half on special effects and about ten minutes on character development. But still, it’s important because it resurrected the Star Trek franchise and there are fascinating looks at the good old Enterprise that we’ve never seen before (or since). It also gave a new generation of fans the chance to warm up to what started at that weird little TV show.

42. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - In a perfect world, this would have been the movie that relaunched Gene Roddenberry’s dream. This one had everything: a fantastic villain, special effects that didn’t get in the way of the story, action, adventure, location, and the connection between the characters that was oddly missing from the first picture. It is the second best of the Star Trek movies in my book, and I note with amusement that it contains what my mom calls one of the most annoying lines ever: when Kirk and company are looking at the Genesis project’s results inside the dead moon, Dr. Carol Marcus looks at Kirk and says, “Can I cook or can’t I?” Mom says she just wants to slap her over that line.

43. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) - Everyone knew Spock couldn’t stay dead, especially after dying twice in the second movie. But this story carried the family aspect of ‘Trek’ to the next level in a story about sacrifice and what friends will really do for each other when they’re important enough.

44. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - I debated whether to include this one. It’s a great movie, but I have to admit no wealth of patience with a movie set hundreds of years in the future that then “cheaps out” by having characters come back in time to “present day” so they can shoot on location without building any elaborate “city of tomorrow” sets. Still, it’s a good story that unfortunately sets us up for film that seemed to want to take the “worst” title away from the first one.

45. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - Other than a cameo for a couple of the original cast members in the next film, this was essentially the swan song movie for the cast of the original series. The elements of family here are alive and well and stronger than ever. This is easily, hands down, the best of the ‘Trek’ films; part of me wishes they would have just stopped here. And that collection of autographs that appear on the screen as the Enterprise makes its final trip home actually manages to still choke me up because it comes as the period of such a beautifully-rendered sentence.

46. Star Wars (1977) - I was seven when this movie came out. Archie was born that year. Ouch! This was the first “real” science fiction movie I saw in the theater, and it was the first science fiction film that made me like the genre. In fact, it was only after watching Star Wars so many times that I gave Star Trek, the TV series, a real try.

47. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - This was a great movie, but there was just something odd here. It seemed to suffer from some kind of “middle child syndrome.” It was just stuck in the middle between the first one, which is great, and the last one, which was good, but it doesn’t seem to have a real ending to me. In fact, the first time I saw it, I thought maybe the theater had forgotten to show the last reel before rolling the credits. Still, it’s an enjoyable film, though I’d recommend having the next movie on my list warmed up and ready to play right behind it.

48. The Return of the Jedi (1983) - What a way to end a story. The good guys win — as if anyone thought they wouldn’t — the Force survives, and even evil gets its redemption. I’m not particularly interested in what happens after this picture because it ended so beautifully. And I never could get that interested in what happened before six pictures earlier, because I already knew what was going to happen four pictures later. So to me, the Star Wars trilogy will always be all she wrote on that franchise. Sorry, Jar Jar, “yer out!”

49. Soylent Green (1973) - And now for something completely different…this is a chilling movie, because somehow, despite all of the dire, worst-case scenario conditions depicted, somewhere, in the back of your mind, it seems like it could actually happen. Even when that famous last line comes, somehow, society seems just capable of doing what is being depicted. That’s a scary thought.

50. The Truman Show (1998) - If Jim Carrey makes a movie, there’s a 98% chance that I won’t watch it. I don’t like his brand of campy, over-the-top silly comedy. I don’t find it funny. But both of the movies on my list in which Carrey appears are roles in which he largely plays it straight, and this is one of them. I think on some level, we’ve all wondered what it would be like if our life was some weird reality show; I know I’ve had moments where I have felt like any minute some producer would step out from behind a wall and tell me that I was on Candid Camera or something like that. I like that it’s also a kind of commentary on society that everyone else would get so caught up in what ends up being…just a TV show.

There are more of my 100 Movies coming before the Arch-a-thon wraps up at noon, so stick with me.