Best Star Trek Series

Star Trek has been on the small screen since the golden age of television, and the original series was canceled after only three seasons. Today, twelve shows are playing on various streaming services, with another, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy currently in production and expected to launch in late 2025.

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By  Tom Thandi

The following shows are ranked in order of their release in real life as opposed to their chronological order in the fictional universe, which might be hard to pinpoint these days due to some selections taking place in different centuries. Fans will continue to argue over which is the best as they look forward to more shows in the future, considering how popular the franchise continues to be.

Upcoming - Starfleet Academy

• Expected Air Dates: Sometime in 2025 or 2026

The Starfleet Academy, a famous place in San Francisco of the 23rd century, is an entity that is frequently mentioned in the Star Trek universe. It's been used as a setting and a reference point in several other movies, shows, video games, and various other media in the franchise.

Not much is known about the finer details yet, but confirmed details include that the show takes place in the 32nd century after a cataclysmic event, and follows a group of cadets as they pursue careers in space.

12 Star Trek: The Animated Series

A Forgotten Part Of Trek History

• Original Air Dates: September 8, 1973 – October 12, 1974
• 2 Seasons, 22 Episodes

There was a long hiatus between the end of TOS in the late 1960s and The Next Generation airing its first episode in 1989, which is one of the reasons why these 22 animated shows fell into obscurity for several years.

Star Trek: The Animated Series is currently showing on Paramount and Netflix after being lost in the vault for decades, and despite the animation quality, the voice acting of the original cast is solid, and the writing is still of Roddenberry quality.

11 Picard

The Future Of The Next Generation

• Original Air Dates: January 23, 2020 - April 20, 2023
• 3 Seasons, 20 episodes

The Next Generation was popular enough to last for seven years, in addition to the cast being featured in several movies. It seems to have taken a long time for another series to celebrate its best and most popular character with a new adventure.

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Picard takes place when the planet Romulus has been destroyed, and Starfleet is still reeling from the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. It's a character study of Picard, but the usual goal of adventure and discovery is still a part of the show.

10 Prodigy

Part Of Voyager's History

• Original Air Dates: October 28, 2021 – December 29, 2022
• 2 Seasons, 42 Episodes

It's not exactly a Voyager sequel or spinoff, but it's intended to take place in the years after Voyager returned to Earth, and features some of the same characters. Captain Janeway returns in animated form in a unique show that's designed for a younger audience but still has universal appeal.

The story of Star Trek: Prodigy begins when the main characters find the wreck of the USS Protostar, and despite their differences, manage to make it fly again.

9 Voyager

Lost In The Delta Quadrant

• Original Air Dates: January 16, 1995 – May 23, 2001
• 7 Seasons, 172 Episodes

Instead of being explorers, the crew of the USS Voyager had to be survivalists. The ship were sucked into the Delta Quadarant and had to dodge, defeat, and live through some of the wildest and most dangerous parts of deep space. It took seven years for them to get back, or twenty-seven, depending on the timeline.

Star Trek: Voyager broke new ground in the universe by giving audiences its first female captain as a leading cast member and featuring some of the most terrifying, up-close and personal encounters with the Borg.

8 Enterprise

The Human Race In Space

• Original Air Dates: September 26, 2001 – May 13, 2005
• 4 Seasons, 98 Episodes

This show was so deep in prequel territory that its original title was simply "Enterprise" without the "USS" prefix to drive home the point that this show takes place before the formation of Starfleet. Earth is still a novice among the more advanced races in the galaxy, like the Vulcans, and there's more rivalry than respect in the early days of space travel.

Star Trek: Enterprise ended abruptly and only lasted for a few seasons, but at least the adventures of Jonathan Archer and his crew live on in several novels and books.

7 Discovery

Modern And High-Tech Trek

• Original Air Dates: September 24, 2017 - May 30, 2024
• 5 Seasons, 65 Episodes

Star Trek: Discovery is another prequel series, but not exactly in the same spirit as Enterprise. Discovery's first season takes place only about ten years before the start of the Original. In the next few seasons, the timeline skips to the 32nd century, which explains the higher level of technology and the focus on Section 31 and the Mirror Universe.

The show was controversial for some of its writing choices, but it defied the critics and was popular enough to inspire a spinoff show.

6 Short Treks

Part Of The Discovery Storyline

• Original Air Dates: October 4, 2018 – January 9, 2020
• 2 Seasons, 10 Episodes

This series ran concurrently with Discovery, included the same characters, sets, and settings, but also added some other exotic locations in the Star Trek universe. The episodes were consistently only 18 to 20 minutes long, hence the name, and were always standalone episodes that could fit anywhere in the overall timeline.

Several episodes of Star Trek: Short Treks were released as part of the publicity for the next Star Trek show, which started before Discovery ended.

5 Strange New Worlds

The Stars Of The Original Pilot

• Original Air Dates: May 5, 2022 – present
• 2 Seasons, 20 Episodes

The popularity of legacy characters like Christopher Pike and Spock drove the momentum for this Discovery spinoff, which tells the story of the USS Enterprise before James Kirk was the captain. This was also the setting featured in the pilot episode almost fifty years ago, but the cast and crew were changed almost completely when TOS officially started.

Younger versions of both Kirk and Spock appear on the show, along with several characters who were present in the pilot or TOS but never got a chance to shine.

4 Lower Decks

Another Animated Idea

• Original Air Dates: August 6 – December 19, 2024
• 5 Seasons, 50 episodes

The animated style of Lower Decks is part of the comedy aesthetic, referencing other shows like Family Guy and American Dad, which are also popular animated shows for adults. The twist here is that the main characters aren't officers or famous people, but lowbies with menial and unromantic jobs.

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There's still a lot of adventure, even though the main characters aren't exactly the ones at the helm, but fans seem to like a change to the usual formula.

3 Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Mission Continues

• Original Air Dates: September 28, 1987 – May 23, 1994
• 7 Seasons, 178 Episodes

Patrick Stewart, a dedicated thespian, only took the job because he thought the show would be canceled within two seasons at most. Seven years, a few movies, and a spinoff series later, it's easy to make the argument that TNG is the most popular Star Trek series of them all, and Picard one of the best-loved characters.

Other shows often reference Star Trek: The Next Generation, given that it covers such a substantial history of the 24th century as part of its timeline. That includes some of humanity's first encounters with the Borg and the Q Continuum.