If you look at the top of my page, you’ll notice that I said this blog has lots of Star Trek on it. That topic’s actually been a bit thin on the ground recently so yesterday I was thinking about all the different Star Treks that are available to us, and I thought it’s about time I put them in the right order.
Asking someone to put Star Treks in rank order is a bit like asking someone to choose their best friend. The problem is most of them have really good attributes and while you’re in the middle of watching them you may think that that one is your favourite. And then of course you watch another series all the way through and you decide that may be your favourite. And saying that invites all kinds of arguments and general arseholery when you put your ideas on a blog and people come at you for them.
But you know what? I just want to sort this out in my own head and whether you agree with me or not is totally up to you. I’m getting to a point in my life where I think I agree with Keanu Reeves (that time he did that interview and he said something like “even if you say to me that 1+1 = 5 I’m just going look at you and say, yeah, great, have fun with that, man”).
So first things first. What kind of Trek are we actually talking about here? To begin with we have every TV show ever made and aired up to this February of 2023. Old series, new series, everything in between, it’s all fair game in this article.
The original series (TOS) is a product of its time. I say this because that phrase can hide a multitude of sins, while still sounding vaguely hopeful. To be honest that’s pretty much how I feel about the original series. For its time, yes, it was groundbreaking and amazing and it goes without saying that without it we would all be very much poorer. However as you watch it through the lens of the next century, you realise that the overall product is very far removed from how TV has moved on since. From the opening narration cold open by William Shatner (where he tells you ‘unbeknownst to us, bad things lay in wait’), to the shooting angles, to the pacing, it’s just as much a different world as most of the planets they visit. That was how shows were shot back then – it was groundbreaking in its colours and arguments, but not in its production styles. I have the luxury of never having seen it when it first aired – I saw it when it was already decades old. Luckily I was a child when I first saw it, otherwise I don’t know that I would’ve continued with it. It wasn’t the costumes, or the sets or the lighting, it was the slow pacing and the fairy institutionalised way of presenting what was on the screen. Everything ages, and there are parts of the original series that have stood the test of time very well. The episode on segregated people due to colour comes to mind. That being said there are also times where it feels like it has not aged well at all. But the purpose of this article is not to bash Star Trek.
The animated series – TAS, to its friends. I have to say, I’ve only seen two episodes of this but it’s appears to be a weird mix of trying-for-the-kids and Sandy Frank on crack. Best watched on a Sunday morning when you have a hangover.
The Next Generation (TNG) is arguably the second best comeback in sci-fi history after Doctor Who (except it happened before the DW comeback, in a wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey kind of way). It continued the comfortable and friendly atmosphere of the original series while also showcasing how Starfleet had evolved over the intervening years. The cast did their best to remain diverse, swapping out Vulcans for androids, and introducing women in higher roles (although giving them meaningful dialogue and things to do was still a challenge apparently – at least for the ultimate evil in the TV universe, Mr Rick Berman). I was just the right age to catch this on TV as it first ran in the UK. It was a very important part of my week, and the ideals and the stories it brought me still stay with me today. However there was one part of this new iteration that was not so satisfying. It was the feeling that everybody was friends and everybody got on with everybody else. People were rarely cross with other crewmembers, people didn’t tend to have fights or arguments. If or when they did it was due to some kind of outside influence, and once the alien of the week had been unmasked or the villain of the piece had been found, then everybody returned to their sunshine personalities and went back to being friends. I guess that was the new kind of vibe that the show runners wanted. And it’s not a bad future let’s face it, but it was a bit too much like the Matrix: everything was going too well, so it was very hard to enjoy it. Also, every week they came across some planet or other that needed help. Once it was done? Warp away, folks, and don’t expect them to be mentioned again.
Deep Space Nine (DS9) is up next, then. While it arrived while TNG was still on the air, and never actually aired without another Star Trek series at the same time, for me this was probably the most important Trek series. Part of this reason was the array of characters, and for the first time in my life I could identify with more than one. It was also the first time that I could identify with a character who was the same gender as me. I guess I liked it to begin with because it was different from the previous two series. Instead of three white men being the core triangle, we had one black man and arguably two women. The fact that at least half of the characters were not prepared to get along with the other half to begin with was a nice change but also made other people believe that it was not correct Trek. The fact that it was based on a stationary space station, and instead of visiting alien planets they had aliens come to them, only made people who should’ve been open-minded argue that this was not the essence of Star Trek and therefore the series should be binned or preferably set fire to. I have seen people on social media who have admitted that the first time they watched the show they abandoned it because they could not accept how different it was to the other series. They then go on to say that on a rewatch with the benefit of the years in between they have come to appreciate the series and some have realised it was their undiscovered favourite. There is no dispute from me; although I do like a lot of Trek series very much, I do still think that DS9 is still my favourite. It has its lacklustre episodes, as all shows do, but when it was right it was stellar.
Voyager (VOY), then: It began airing during the last few seasons of DS9, and once that had run its course Voyager became the only Trek on TV. I did watch through the first two seasons, but unfortunately I did not see anything that would keep me watching. I have dipped in and out of other seasons as it’s now part of my Netflix package, but again for some reason it just doesn’t grab me. There are many things to like about the show but it doesn’t have the extra draw that some of the other series have. I do like Kate Mulgrew and I like Janeway. However the show itself felt a little dated even as it was airing, and like I said, there was nothing to grab me after the highs of DS9.
There was a long break in Trek as every fan will tell you before we got the next instalment – Enterprise (ENT). One thing I did not agree with was the idea that this was set before Captain Kirk. For me Trek has always been about going forward and to have a show set before the timelines of the shows we already know means that you can’t really break new ground in terms of places, aliens, or characters. Even with the reboot movies changing timelines from Captain Kirk’s literal birthday, the Trek universe before Kirk is already canon. To be a writer on the Enterprise series must have felt quite confining at times. Yes, you’re given an amazingly huge sandbox to play in but you can’t change the toys inside the sandbox. You cannot suddenly bring in brand new aliens because if they were around before Kirk how come we never saw them after the events of the Enterprise series.(They did actually bring in new aliens and appear to get away with it, however I do still want to know how come the Xindi seem to disappear from Federation space and in fact all the undiscovered parts that subsequent shows would investigate until they were mentioned in Star Trek Beyond, technically movie number 13.) Unfortunately, the show did not draw me in as much as other seasons, and even some of the episodes felt like they were retellings of other Trek show episodes (ENT: Oasis and DS9: Shadowplay come to mind – almost carbon copies with the names changed). The one area it excelled in was interpersonal relationships, most notably the idea of a human and a full Vulcan sharing some kind of intimate relationship. While this was groundbreaking for Enterprise, in the Trek universe itself it had already been done. The reason I say the series excelled in this area, was because it was full of ups and downs and was not a rose tinted romantic affair. Full disclosure: I never saw the final episode of Enterprise as everyone I knew and some people I didn’t warned me against it. I still haven’t seen it and I’m very glad.
Finally after many many many years, there was news of a new Trek series. I was excited as we would finally have Trek on TV again. When it eventually hit our screens, Discovery (DISCO) turned out to be a thought-provoking, interesting rollercoaster ride of struggling to do the right thing when you’re not even sure what the right thing is. This felt like a very TOS story told in a TNG setting; it was designed to be almost like a teaching moment but in a gentle kind way. Any yet when you see where they have to visit and the people they have to interact with you realise that some of that DS9 uneasiness and edginess is also present. I have enjoyed all four seasons of Discovery so far, and I feel like I’ve been rewarded for putting up with the fact that again it was going backwards in time rather than forward. When things happen and they decide the only safe place is very far in the future, the one-way trip that they make guarantees that from now on things will be a very different kind of show. It was brave, it was exciting, and this is now the furthest forward in time we’ve ever stayed in Trek. I have everything I want from this new show including some very welcome diversity in all kinds of areas. I have characters that I like and I have characters that I really enjoy not liking and it has been far from predictable. I can only hope that they bring us more seasons of the same.
Star Trek Picard (PIC) was an unexpected move, I felt. At first it felt like they just wanted an excuse for Sir Patrick Stewart to play Jean-Luc Picard one more time. However as the episodes went on I realised a lot of this is for an American audience that still has trouble getting past certain life changing events. As we start the final season, season 3, I can see we’re ramping up the nostalgia and linkage, and even though I liked the first two seasons, this new final one may be my favourite.
As Discovery continued into the future, Star Trek Prodigy (PRD) popped up as a Nickelodeon joint mission. Animated and very firmly aimed at young Doctor Who viewers, it’s good viewing for your average adult too. Some tie-ins and mentions are for older fans, sure, but it’s as much about learning to be a young person with morals as it is giving us the Janeway I wanted. Sometimes it’s the highlight of my week – the episodes have a lot of heart without being cheesy or overdone. And most of the time, it is a certified goddamn delight.
Lower Decks (STLD), then. I’ll be honest – I saw the trailer and wondered if I would actually like it. It’s very American, very atmospheric and cut fast in the current American animated style. You can’t get away from how US it is, but that’s only fair – it’s made there. That being said, I was sold when Mariner complained about her day (“and it wasn’t even because it was bad, it was because he was just being a dick!”) and from then on I’ve just enjoyed it. It’s a literal love letter to fans – every scene is nuanced in Star Trek, steeped in lore and canon and in-jokes. If you don’t get them, it doesn’t matter. If you do, it adds a dimension that has been missing in other series. Yes, others reference other shows in that they mention the Xindi or the Cardassians etc., but only Lower Decks goes so far as to say ‘remember that time Riker did a thing?’ and they all laugh, because they’re seeing it the same way the audience does. It’s hilarious and a welcome addition to canon.
And here we are – Star Trek Strange New Worlds (SNW). How different this is from all that’s come before – and how identical. It’s basically TOS rebooted; remember when Captain Pike had a pilot show with Spock as his science officer and a lady as Number One? Well it took 56 years but that pilot finally got its own show. This is the 5 year mission before Kirk takes command, before Pike is horribly injured beyond the help of even Federation medicine. He has Una Chin-Riley as his Number One (she gets a name now and everything), Spock as his science officer, a young cadet called Uhura who, over the course of season 1, does her rotation of the ship and decides she’s going to specialise in Comms. We have a chief engineer who is not yet Scotty (although I feel Hemmer is underused). Nurse Chapel, Doctor M’Benga – they’re all here and they’re all ace. We have Ortegas as a very Tom Cruise Maverick kind of pilot – but then you need someone who’s assured they can pull off any manoeuvre at any time at the helm. Mitchell and a certain far-flung relative of Kahn Noonien-Singh round out a good sea of faces and while some episodes have been hit and miss, they have had some very Star Trek Star Trek. It feels to me like TOS made by the Star Trek Beyond production crew, and I like it – I like it a lot. It’s just finished its first season and I hear they’ve wrapped filming on the second, so after a fair bit of post-production and some hyping up by Paramount+, we should get it sometime in the next 6-8 months. We can only hope. I need to know what’s happened to certain characters and I need to know how we get others back.
One thing I do know – we’re in for more good Star Trek, and after a dearth of years and years, I can finally say that Star Trek is again airing / streaming on TV across the globe. That in itself is a comfort.
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