Which Star Trek film was the first to use computer-generated imagery (CGI)?

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was the first Star Trek film to use computer-generated imagery in a major landmark sequence.

The film’s standout computer-generated moment is the Genesis Device demonstration. In the sequence, a barren planet is transformed into a living world, with mountains, oceans, atmosphere, and vegetation spreading across its surface. Industrial Light & Magic created the sequence using particle-system techniques developed by computer graphics programmer Bill Reeves and his team.

The Genesis sequence is often described as the first entirely computer-generated sequence in a feature film. The movie also used computer graphics for star fields and displays, including tactical graphics seen aboard the Enterprise. These effects were produced alongside extensive miniature, optical, and practical effects, so the film was not computer-generated as a whole.

The wording can cause confusion because later Star Trek films used CGI more extensively. Star Trek: Insurrection, for example, was the first film in the franchise to create its space-based effects entirely with CGI and to avoid physical spacecraft models. That later milestone does not change The Wrath of Khan’s earlier CGI breakthrough.