Today I shall be ranking all eight TV shows in the Star Trek franchise! Yes, you read that correctly; there are 8 different series in the Star Trek universe. And that's a good thing, too: the Star Trek world is unmatched in how large and complex it is, and how much interesting stuff there is to explore within it. I love the franchise for its optimistic look at the future, the deep and important themes it deals with, and the revolutionary level of creativity that its writers have poured into the various television shows. Now that the first season of the newest series, Star Trek: Picard, has ended, I have included it in my ranking.
8. Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1975)
I mean...it's fun. It's not top notch television for sure, but it's quite fun. The Animated Series is a straight sequel to the original series, following more of the Enterprise crew's adventures on their five-year mission. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and others reprise their roles, this time as voice actors, as the show is indeed animated, with 22-minute episodes and a more family-friendly tone. It does compare poorly to other Star Trek shows due to the restraints of being a "kids' show" and having a short runtime as well as a small budget. Still, there is a silver lining: the visual effects of the time weren't all that great, so the animated format allowed concepts that wouldn't have been possible in the original series: a gigantic clone of Spock, truly bizarre-looking planets, and aliens that actually look like aliens instead of people with makeup (no offense, The Original Series).
7. Star Trek: Picard (2020-Present)
The first season of the newest Star Trek series just ended last week, leaving me and many other viewers with mixed feelings. Picard's first season wasn't nearly as good as I expected it to be, as it has many flaws that the next seasons could hopefully try to improve upon. That being said, the series also gets many things right, being quite amazing at its best moments. It is very worth watching for a Star Trek fan, but as I mentioned, there are issues: chiefly among them is the show's brand of darkness. I don't mind television shows being dark, but I see this particular one as being dark in the wrong way for a series in the Trek franchise. While other Star Trek shows have been very dark at times, it has always been to the backdrop of the bright utopian future that Gene Roddenberry created in the 60's. Picard often seems borderline dystopian in its use of violence and deception surrounding pretty much every character, and thus doesn't feel all that much like the Star Trek world.
Darkness aside, other parts of the debut season were most enjoyable. Sir Patrick Stewart's role as Jean-Luc Picard in The Next Generation is probably my favorite TV acting performance of all time, so seeing him in the same role again is wonderful. While the supporting cast is also very talented and entertaining, it's Stewart who makes every episode worth watching with his dramatic gravitas and astonishing acting skills. The series also features some very cool sci-fi ideas, intriguing storylines, and heartwarming callbacks to The Next Generation; the definitive highlight of this first season for me was the episode Nepenthe, where the dark undertones of the series are forgotten and Picard spends time on a beautiful planet with some old friends.
6. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)
Star Trek is always at its best when it feels timeless and universal, and isn't strong when it feels like a product of its time (thankfully, this happens quite rarely). This is a problem with Enterprise, however: it often feels more like a generic sci-fi show of the early 2000's than it does like Star Trek. Another problem is with the main cast; while not exactly bad, the main crew isn't nearly as interesting as the main crews from other Star Trek shows in my opinion. Scott Bakula does a fine job as Captain Jonathan Archer but his character isn't written very well when compared to other Star Trek captains, and many of the other crewmembers are quite one-dimensional and uninteresting.
Other than those faults, however, there's a lot to like in Enterprise as well! My favorite thing about the series is its prequel format. It takes place 100 years before the original series, and it's fascinating to see the early days of Starfleet, the formation of the Federation, and first contacts with many of the planets and alien cultures that are familiar from the other Trek shows. There are also many awesome individual episodes and decent longer storylines, and these things make Enterprise worth watching to a fan of the franchise even if it doesn't reach the level of the other live action shows.
Other than those faults, however, there's a lot to like in Enterprise as well! My favorite thing about the series is its prequel format. It takes place 100 years before the original series, and it's fascinating to see the early days of Starfleet, the formation of the Federation, and first contacts with many of the planets and alien cultures that are familiar from the other Trek shows. There are also many awesome individual episodes and decent longer storylines, and these things make Enterprise worth watching to a fan of the franchise even if it doesn't reach the level of the other live action shows.
5. Star Trek: Discovery (2017-Present)
Discovery has only aired its two first seasons as I write this, and based on them it's an excellent (if not perfect) addition to the Trek universe. It feels very different from all other Star Trek shows on multiple fronts: it focuses heavily on a fleshed-out protagonist instead of a crew of main characters, it's more focused on longer story archs than individual episodes, and the visual effects of the 2010's make for an outstanding outlook compared to the shows that came before it. While there are flaws that later seasons will hopefully improve on, a majority of Discovery has been very enjoyable to me. The characters are likable, the science fiction is creative, and the story takes very interesting risks and directions (I especially enjoyed the 6-episode arch in the middle of the first season that is spent trapped in an alternate universe).
Some fans of the franchise have criticized Discovery for being too dark, but I see it as being dark in the right way for this franchise. Quite similarly to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (more on that series later), the story often gets darker than in older Trek shows, but the ideals and optimism of the franchise are always in the background. As opposed to the problems I had with Star Trek: Picard, I think Discovery never loses its sights of being part of Star Trek's bright look on the future; it just has higher stakes in the challenges that the franchise's utopic future faces, always making clear the values that the main characters are fighting for.
4. Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)
Voyager is generally quite opinion-splitting among Star Trek fans, and I'm definitely on the pro-Voyager side. The series isn't perfect: every season has some very weak episodes and the consistency of the writing isn't on the same level as some of the other Trek shows. But there are three elements that make me absolutely love this show. First, the premise: the series follows the USS Voyager which is, in the pilot episode, sucked through a wormhole to the far side of the universe, and begins its way home. The whole series is about the ship's way back home, as it takes many years even at maximum warp. This allows the series to explore a whole new side of the Star Trek galaxy, truly going where no one has gone before with the creative planets and species that the Voyager crew encounters.
Second, the cast: the main crew of Voyager is lovable and amazing. Kate Mulgrew is awesome as Star Trek's first major female captain Kathryn Janeway, and characters such as the sentient hologram Doctor (Robert Picardo) as well as the former Borg drone Seven-Of-Nine (Jeri Ryan) are fun and likable while also making for some incredible philosophy in their quest to find their humanity. And third: at its best, Voyager is absolutely perfect. While there are weak episodes and story arch, there are also mind-blowingly amazing ones. Episodes like Timeless and Blink Of An Eye are arguably even more adventurous, philosophical and creative than the likes of the original series, and thus very appropriate for the Star Trek franchise.
3. Star Trek (The Original Series) (1966-1969)
In the 1960's, Gene Roddenberry had a vision that many deemed controversial and ridiculous: a future where humanity has overcome its need for war, violence, greed and racism, and different people just get along - and this would be followed in a TV series about a starship crew that includes an alien, an African-American woman as lieutenant, a Russian who gets along fine with his American colleagues (remember, this was pitched during the height of the cold war), and so on. The studio wanted to change the cast to a group of white men due to the norms of the era. Roddenberry wouldn't have any of that, insisting that this series needs to show that things can change for the better in the future. That right there is the essence of Star Trek, and so Gene Roddenberry changed the world for the better.
Sure, the original series can often be so campy that it can't be taken entirely seriously, but so what? It's a classic that saw way ahead of its time with its larger ideas and themes, if not with its visual effects. Every episode has some deeper meaning behind it, whether it's an allegory for the Vietnam war, a criticism of xenophobia or a harrowing look at obsession. In addition, the series completely revolutionized the science fiction genre with its stories of time travel, alternate universes and artificial intelligence in many forms, while introducing some of the genre's most iconic staples such as the Klingon, Vulcan and Romulan species. The character Spock (Leonard Nimoy) acts as a philosophical look on humanity by showing what humans would be like if they favored logic over emotion, and his interactions with the crew are as thought-provoking as they are entertaining. The original series is quite simply a masterpiece.
2. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
I don't know how the writers of The Next Generation were able to take everything great about the original series and make all of those elements even a tad better, but somehow they pulled it off. The series is very similar to the original in its premise: 50 years later, a new version of the USS Enterprise sets out with a new crew to do the same thing: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before (they changed the "no man" of the opening monologue to the gender-neutral "no one", proving that they were even more ahead of their time than the original series). And, like I said, everything about this sequel series was even a bit better than its impressive predecessor!
As much as I love the crew of the original series, the Next Generation crew does one-up them with the combination of Patrick Stewart's Shakespearean acting as Captain Picard, the thought-provoking android character Data (Brent Spiner) and the one-man culture clash Worf (Michael Dorn) who is the first Klingon to become a Starfleet officer, just to name a few. The themes are even deeper here with episodes like The Measure Of A Man and Tapestry being worthy of being shown as examples of ethical dilemmas in a philosophy class, yet the uplifting utopia of the Trek world is very present even with all the philosophical problems. The sci-fi is even more creative and genius, with the addition of story elements such as the Borg collective and self-repeating time loops among other into the Star Trek world. While the series has many superlatives to its name, there is one especially that deserves mentioning: the third season ends with The Best Of Both Worlds: Part 1, which features without a doubt the single best cliffhanger of TV history (possibly of any work of fiction).
1. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
I criticized Star Trek: Picard for being too dark, yet my favorite Trek series of them all is the famously darker-than-its-predecessors one. That's because of a major difference between the two shows: Picard is dark in a way that changes the entire Star Trek world as the same core values aren't cared for and people just do bad things all the time; Deep Space Nine is one hundred per cent Star Trek in its world, but the characters simply face big challenges with high stakes. The utopian future that Gene Roddenberry envisioned is very much present but simply at risk, and the main characters must fight and occasionally bend moral rules in order to defend it. This makes for some breathtaking moral dilemmas, dealt with through philosophical debates that have always been a part of Star Trek.
But here's the real magic: while Deep Space Nine may be the darkest Trek, it manages to simultaneously be the coziest. As draining as the series can be, the vibrant space station setting is one of the most home-like TV settings I have ever seen. A combination of set design, soundtrack and just the most lovable characters one can imagine makes for a series that's always fun and endearing to watch, despite the show's gripping nature. There are episodes that deal with the psychological ramifications of war, decisions that can cause multiple casualties and religious extremism among other themes, but these episodes also feature heartwarming moments of friendship, fun subplots about holodeck adventures and pub games, and humane humor done in good taste. Watching an episode of Deep Space Nine is often like watching The Shawshank Redemption: you'll be forced to think about some harsh realities, but when all is said and done, you'll ultimately feel a bit better about yourself, the world you live in, and the future. And that right there is what Star Trek is about.
Thank you for reading! Next week I'll be celebrating the airing of Modern Family's series finale by sharing my list of the top 10 TV sitcoms of all time. Feel free to subscribe via the box below if it please you. Live long and prosper!
But here's the real magic: while Deep Space Nine may be the darkest Trek, it manages to simultaneously be the coziest. As draining as the series can be, the vibrant space station setting is one of the most home-like TV settings I have ever seen. A combination of set design, soundtrack and just the most lovable characters one can imagine makes for a series that's always fun and endearing to watch, despite the show's gripping nature. There are episodes that deal with the psychological ramifications of war, decisions that can cause multiple casualties and religious extremism among other themes, but these episodes also feature heartwarming moments of friendship, fun subplots about holodeck adventures and pub games, and humane humor done in good taste. Watching an episode of Deep Space Nine is often like watching The Shawshank Redemption: you'll be forced to think about some harsh realities, but when all is said and done, you'll ultimately feel a bit better about yourself, the world you live in, and the future. And that right there is what Star Trek is about.
Thank you for reading! Next week I'll be celebrating the airing of Modern Family's series finale by sharing my list of the top 10 TV sitcoms of all time. Feel free to subscribe via the box below if it please you. Live long and prosper!
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