Star Trek: Picard - Season 3

Admiral Picard receives a cry for help from a very old friend: Dr. Beverly Crusher, his former chief medical officer. Warned not to trust Starfleet with the distress call, Picard joins forces with old allies Will Riker and Seven of Nine to surreptitiously guide Seven's new ship, the USS Titan, to a rendezvous with Beverly. The information she shares reveals a danger to the very heart of the Federation, and the returning threat of two of Starfleet's greatest foes.

The old maxim that a Star Trek spin-off show doesn't really start getting good until its third season is, once again, proven correct. Picard's first two seasons had good ideas, solid supporting casts and, naturally, an iconic lead in Sir Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard, but they were also awash with poor and muddied characterisation, vaguely-defined enemies and variable, at best, writing.

The third and final season of Picard doesn't magically solve all of these problems, but it does make one huge commitment to draw in fans of The Next Generation: bringing back the entire cast of that show. Leaving the underwhelming film Nemesis as their last hurrah always felt a bit disappointing, so giving them another final adventure is a good idea...provided it's good, of course.

In some respects, the season makes some of the same mistakes as earlier ones. There's a lot of faffing around pursuing false leads before the real extent of the enemy threat becomes clear, and the show once again suffers from being built around mysteries. Mysteries are a fine, single genre of storytelling, but it feels like modern shows have drawn too many bad lessons from the likes of Lost in hyping up big mysteries and bigger reveals that almost never land, and Picard's final season spends a bit too long on setting up mysterious events, red herrings and false leads rather than engaging in proper storytelling. Particularly problematic is keeping the true scale of the enemy threat under wraps until the last couple of episodes of the series, meaning we get a bit too much wheel-spinning before that revelation and then we have to wrap up that story with almost indecent (if spectacular) haste.

But this season also makes some very good choices. There are distinct character arcs here, and Gates McFadden gets more to do in her first few episodes in this season then she arguably did in the entire seven years of TNG and four subsequent feature films. It's not just limited to the old regulars, with Voyager and Picard vet Jeri Ryan getting a nice arc as Seven of Nine, and Michelle Hurd getting a small but solid storyline as Raffi, the last actor surviving from Picard's completely original cast (the wonderful Orla Brady gets a couple of scenes in the first episode and is then unceremoniously ejected from the story). Newcomers Todd Stashwick, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut and Ed Speleers also get some solid material as Captain Liam Shaw, Ensign Sidney La Forge and Jack respectively.

Arguably the MVP of the season goes to Jonathan Frakes as Captain Riker. Frakes was very good as Riker but had to grow into it (arguably not starting to really nail the character until TNG's second year and episodes like A Matter of Honor), and since TNG ended he has focused on directing and reportedly suffered anxiety before returning to the role since he had not acted for so long. However, he is outstanding, giving a warm and witty performance whether he's bouncing jokes off Worf, arguing with Picard over the correct course of action or engaging in romantic banter with his wife.

The season has been both praised and criticised for its evocation of nostalgia. In one sequence the crew visit the Starfleet Museum and get to see all of the surviving "hero ships" from previous Star Trek shows: the NX-01 from Enterprise, the USS Voyager from the titular show, Kirk's Enterprise-A from three of the original films, and even the time-travelling Klingon Bird-of-Prey from "the whale thing." Professor Moriarty from TNG shows up as a hologram sentry. The show tactically deploys the theme music from every previous Star Trek incarnation like weaponised emotions. The "good old days" are evoked, a lot. This risks being sappy, but the writing also finds actual reasons in the plot for this stuff. Rather than just saying, "hey, remember that Klingon Bird-of-Prey from San Francisco Harbor, that was cool, right?", its antiquated technology actually plays a key role in the plot. Rummaging through a ton of old artifacts in the Daystrom Institute Archive isn't just an excuse to wink at William Shatner's terrible Star Trek novels, but also provides the crew with an important piece of the puzzle.

In this way, Picard's final season manages to keep things balanced between fuzzy-nostalgia and the dramatic stakes of the unfolding story. It even manages to round off a bunch of story and character arcs left hanging from the original series in a relatively organic and interesting way (even if Picard's tendency to reintroduce a beloved side-character only to brutally murder them five minutes later remains fully intact). But it has to be said that the main storyline is a bit on the vague side. The enemy's plot feels uncharacteristically over-complicated and too reliant on Starfleet personnel holding the idiot ball en masse to really work, and there are canon and continuity plot holes you could comfortably steer the new Odyssey-class Enterprise-F through. For a show that's simultaneously making such a huge deal of continuity, there are some curious choices being made here on what old ideas to invoke and which to blatantly ignore.

Ultimately, this season ended up reminding me a lot of The Force Awakens. The plot is often held together with duct tape and clothes pegs. But a promising, young new cast and the steady hand of experienced veterans help paper over a lot of the problems, and effective use of nostalgia and returning characters makes you forgive a lot. The final season of Star Trek: Picard is not the smartest slice of Trek, but it also has a lot of heart, and it is fun in a way the previous two seasons very much were not. For parking your brain in neutral, chuckling at gag callbacks all the way to the start of TNG and cooing over some great action sequences, this is fairly solid entertainment, and it also makes a reasonable case for itself as a backdoor pilot for a new show focusing on the younger characters introduced in this season.

The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard (****) is streaming globally on Paramount+, and also in some territories on Amazon Prime, right now.

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STAR TREK shows gets new seasons and airdates

Paramount have lifted the lid on some of their plans for the Star Trek franchise moving forwards.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will air its second season starting on 15 June, and has been renewed for a third, confirming more adventures for Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and the Enterprise crew in the 23rd Century.

Star Trek: Lower Decks will air its fourth season later in the summer. The precise date is to be decided, but since each of the three previous seasons aired in August, that seems a fairly logical deduction for this season as well. Lower Decks has also been renewed for a fifth season, due to air in 2024.

Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are also getting a special crossover episode as part of Strange New Worlds' third season, mixing live action and animation.

The Paramount-Nickelodeon co-production Star Trek: Prodigy will also start airing its second season before the end of the year, but has so far not been renewed. Prodigy's seasons are double the length of the norm, though (20 episodes each) and usually air in two blocs, so it might be next year before we hear any more about that show's fate.

Star Trek: Discovery will air its fifth and final season in early 2024, whilst Star Trek: Picard is currently wrapping up its third and final, warmly-received season. Whilst there have been discussions about a follow-up series, called Star Trek: Legacy, that has not been formally greenlit yet. There is also no further word on the much-discussed Section 31 TV series which has been in development hell for some considerable time.

Still, that's a reasonable amount of Star Trek to look forwards to in the foreseeable future.

Where to Start with Star Trek? (revised)

This is a revision of an article I originally wrote two and a half years ago, here.

The recent arrival of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has spurred a renewed interest in the venerable SF franchise. New viewers want to check out the older material, but the sheer amount of it is daunting. By the start of 2023, no less than 41 seasons of television will have aired in the franchise, totalling 872 episodes spread across eight separate series airing over fifty-seven years (and counting). It would take you more than 621 hours (or almost 26 days, non-stop) to watch all of that material. In addition, there are 13 feature films in the mix, as well as a plethora of video games and hundreds of novels, audio dramas and fan films. If you want to check out this mass of material where do you start?

There are several different approaches you can take and I’ll run through a few of them below. The one thing I would say first is that, with a few notable exceptions, Star Trek is mostly an episodic franchise, where each episode stands alone with its own beginning, middle and end. That starts to shift in Deep Space Nine, which introduces more serialised elements, and by the time of Discovery and Picard the series has become fully serialised, but for the most part the different series are episodic and in fact designed for each episode to be enjoyed by themselves.

Before we get into the lists, it might be worthwhile briefly brushing up on what each series is about.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Live-action: 1966-69 • 79 episodes • 3 seasons • 6 films (1979-91)
Animated: 1973-74 • 22 episodes • 2 seasons

Also called the original series, the classic series or just Star Trek, this series follows the adventures of Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Constitution-class starship USS Enterprise. They explore strange new worlds, encounter new alien life and seek to uphold the utopian values of the United Federation of Planets in the mid-23rd Century whilst dealing with recurring enemies, including the Klingons and Romulans. The story of this series continues in Star Trek: The Animated Series (which is the same, but as a cartoon) and then in the first six Star Trek feature films.

The first episode of the series, The Cage, was filmed two years before the rest of the series and features a significantly different cast of characters (who do go on to play major roles in some of the films and in Star Trek: Discovery, which revisits the same time period).

Star Trek: The Next Generation
1987-94 • 178 episodes • 7 seasons • 4 films (1994-2002)

Set in the mid-to-late 24th Century, roughly 100 years after the events of the original series, The Next Generation focuses on a brand-new, much larger and vastly more sophisticated Galaxy-class USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The emphasis remains on exploring new worlds and meeting new races. Although the series mostly remains episodic, recurring and more serialised elements creep in towards its end. Most notable is the introduction of the Borg, an overwhelmingly powerful cybernetic threat which remains a key enemy through the next several series, and the Cardassians, a mid-ranking antagonistic enemy. The story of this series continues in the seventh through tenth Star Trek feature films and the sequel-series Star Trek: Picard, set thirty years later.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
1993-99 • 176 episodes • 7 seasons

To date, the only Star Trek series not set on a starship. Instead, the focus is on Deep Space Nine, a Federation outpost established on an abandoned Cardassian space station orbiting the planet Bajor. The Cardassians conquered and ruled Bajor with an iron fist for forty years before withdrawing, leaving the planet in ruins. The Federation are helping them rebuild, their efforts spearheaded by Commander Benjamin Sisko. Unlike most Star Trek series, which focuses on the Federation and Starfleet crewmembers, this series has a large number of civilian and alien recurring characters. Bajor becomes unexpectedly important when a stable wormhole leading to the remote Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy is discovered, allowing the planet to benefit from increased trade (to the fury of the Cardassians). Early seasons revolve around renewed Cardassian/Bajoran tensions before the introduction of the Dominion, the alien alliance which rules the Gamma Quadrant and is unhappy with the Federation poking around its back yard. Later seasons are more heavily serialised and see the outbreak of full-scale war between the Federation and the Dominion.

Deep Space Nine was controversial during its first airing for being perceived as a lot darker than prior Star Trek shows, but in recent years it has undergone a critical reassessment and is now often cited as the best (or at least the most critically consistent) of the Star Trek series.

Star Trek: Voyager
1995-2001 • 172 episodes • 7 seasons

This series opens when the USS Voyager is flung 75,000 light-years across the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant and has to return home, which is estimated will take over seventy years at maximum warp. Captain Kathryn Janeway and her crew seek to find faster ways home with any means at their disposal, whilst upholding Federation values in a desperate corner of space where no one even knows who the Federation are.

Star Trek: Enterprise
2001-05 • 98 episodes • 4 seasons

A prequel series taking place about a century before the events of The Original Series, this show takes place before the Federation or Starfleet even exist. Instead, it follows the adventures of the NX-01 Enterprise, Earth’s first experimental spacecraft with a Warp 5 drive. The series sees the crew trying to engage in interstellar diplomacy, exploration and commerce with much more primitive technology than even in Kirk’s time, whilst also trying to deal with problems such as a brewing conflict between the Andorians and Vulcans, and Earth’s first fumbling dealings with the Klingons and Romulans. The series is almost completely episodic for its first two years, but in its third season explores a series-long arc where Enterprise has to search for aliens who carried out a devastating sneak attack on Earth. The final season is divided into shorter arcs revolving around the formation of the Federation.

Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline Films
2009-16 • 3 films

A series of three films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond) produced by J.J. Abrams, these films are set in an alternate timeline created by time travel. Spock (from the original series) is blasted back in time by his failure to stop the destruction of the Romulan homeworld, pursued by a vengeful Romulan crew. This results in alterations to the timeline, such as a younger James T. Kirk and his fellow crewmembers joining forces and taking command of the Enterprise years earlier than in the original timeline and getting into fresh, new adventures in the mid-23rd Century.

A fourth film in this series has been in development hell for several years.

Star Trek: Discovery
2017 onwards • 55 episodes • 4 seasons (to date)

Another prequel series, this time taking place ten years before the events of The Original Series. The focus is on Michael Burnham, the first officer of the USS Shenzhou who badly fumbles a confrontation with the Klingons, inadvertently leading to a massive war. A disgraced Burnham is assigned to the USS Discovery, a highly experimental starship with unusual technology and an oddball, maverick captain, where she is offered the chance to atone for her mistakes.

The show undergoes a drastic format change in its latter seasons, when the USS Discovery is shifted through time to the 32nd Century.

A fifth season will air in 2023.

Star Trek: Picard
2020 onwards • 20 episodes • 2 seasons (to date)

A sequel series set at the end of the 24th Century, Star Trek: Picard picks up story elements left dangling from the end of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, as well as exploring events in the original timeline after the destruction of Romulus (in the original timeline).

A third season will air in 2023.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

2020 onwards • 30 episodes • 3 seasons (to date)

An animated series set several years after the end of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and almost a decade after the end of The Next Generation, Lower Decks is a lighter-hearted show looking at life on one of the "regular" Starfleet ships that doesn't get the high-profile, glamorous missions of other hero ships in the franchise. The show is noted for being an affectionate satire of the rest of Trek, whilst also keeping its ethos intact.

A fourth season will air in 2023.

Star Trek: Prodigy

2021 onwards • 20 episodes • 1 season (to date)

A CG-animated show set a year or so after Lower Decks, Prodigy is notable as the first show in the franchise not to focus on a regular Starfleet cast. Instead, the show features a crew of young aliens who salvage a Federation starship and use it to try to reach Federation space, fed dreams of what it is like to serve in Starfleet by the ship's advisory hologram, based on Voyager's Captain Janeway. However, various problems complicate their mission.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

2022 onwards • 10 episodes • 1 season (to date)

A spin-off of Discovery and a prequel to The Original Series, this show focuses on the adventures of the original USS Enterprise, but almost a decade before Kirk's time. The show instead expands from the original pilot The Cage by concentrating on the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike and his crew. The show deliberately bucks recent trends by consisting of episodic adventures.

The Curated Sample

This order is not exhaustive but what it does is provide a snapshot of the different series and some of the strongest stand-alone episodes which hold up well today. These episodes are stand-alones (not part of multi-episodic arcs) and are designed to showcase some of the different types of storytelling the series indulges in. A viewer can jump from these episodes into the rest of that series if they like what they see.

The Animated Series is effectively a continuation of The Original Series and it would be hard to recommend individual episodes from Enterprise, Discovery or Picard due to their heavy serialisation (Picard is also best-watched having seen some or all of The Next Generation first).

• Star Trek: The Original Series, The City on the Edge of Forever
• Star Trek: The Original Series, The Trouble with Tribbles
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Space Seed
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Measure of a Man
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q Who?
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Inner Light
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Visitor
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Far Beyond the Stars
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, In the Pale Moonlight*
• Star Trek: Voyager, Eye of the Needle
• Star Trek: Voyager, Message in a Bottle

* This may seem to be an exception to the multi-episode arc rule, as In the Pale Moonlight has references to and a big impact on the Dominion War storyline which dominates much of Deep Space Nine’s latter seasons. However, the episode itself is more about Sisko’s journey and how he and Garak bring about a major shift in political events whilst never leaving the station (the Dominion itself does not appear), which can be understood well enough without additional context.

The Pilot Sample

This approach simply has the viewer sampling the first episode of each version of the series to see what grabs their attention straight away, and from there they can choose which series to watch first:

• Star Trek: The Original Series, The Cage (1964)
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series, Beyond the Farthest Star (1973)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Encounter at Farpoint (1987)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Emissary (1993)
• Star Trek: Voyager, Caretaker (1995)
• Star Trek: Enterprise, Broken Bow (2001)
• Star Trek: Discovery, The Vulcan Hello (2017)
• Star Trek: Picard, Remembrance (2020)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks, Second Contact (2020)
• Star Trek: Prodigy, Lost and Found (2021)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Strange New Worlds (2022)

Release Order

AKA the “completionist” approach. This may be the approach everyone ends up taking once they’ve been sucked into the material, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a first run-through. This approach basically means watching the series in order of release and is the best for enjoying the series as it originally aired and was intended (just somewhat compressed).

The primary weakness of this approach is having to watch The Original Series in full before the more recent shows. The original show is certainly great from the perspective of a 1960s TV series and also has many outstanding episodes that have withstood the test of time, but it also has a lot of episodes that…have not. The series underwent an in-depth HD remastering process in 2006 which saw the film quality improved and revamped CG effects added to make the visual quality of the episodes more acceptable to modern audiences, although obviously the writing and performances were not affected.

You can tweak this order for simplicity: there’s nothing stopping you from watching all six films featuring the original cast before watching The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine and Voyager are divorced from one another almost completely, so you could watch DS9 in full before switching to Voyager. TNG and DS9 do have a few more notable crossovers in terms of characters and storylines, but it also wouldn’t be the end of the world if you finished watching TNG in full before watching DS9.

• Star Trek: The Original Series Pilot, The Cage (made in 1964, but didn’t air until later as part of the original series)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1-3 (1966-69)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1-2 (1973-74)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1-2 (1987-89)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3-4 (1989-91)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (1991-92)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 / Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 (1992-93)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 / Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 (1993-94)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 (1994-95) / Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 (1995)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 (1995-96)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (1996-97)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (1997-98)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (1998-99)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 6-7 (1999-2001)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 (2001-02)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2-4 (2002-05)
• Star Trek (2009)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 1-2 (2017-19)
• Star Trek: Picard Season 1 / Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 (2020)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 (2020-21)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 (2021)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 / Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 (2021-22)
• Star Trek: Picard Season 2 / Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 / Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 (2022)

Chronological Order
This order lists the series in the order of when the episodes take place in the order of events within the Star Trek universe.

This order has some strengths, as it roughly matches the historical order of events, but it also has some major weaknesses. It puts Enterprise, arguably one of the weaker Trek series overall, up first and also features a number of spoilers for later series (since the Enterprise writers couldn’t resist pulling in familiar creatures and aliens to the show from later periods, no matter how incongruous). You’re also talking about waiting a long time to get to "the good stuff."

• Star Trek: Enterprise Seasons 1-4 (2151-55, 2161)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Pilot, The Cage (2254)
• Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-2 (2256-57)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 (2259)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Seasons 1-3 (2266-68)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Seasons 1-2 (2269-70)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2271)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (2285)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Seasons 1-5 (2364-68)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 (2369)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 (2370)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 (2371)
• Star Trek: Generations (2371)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 (2372)
• Star Trek: First Contact (2373)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (2373)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (2374)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (2375)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 6-7 (2376-78)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Seasons 1-3 (2380-81)
• Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 (2383)
• Star Trek (2385, alternate 2258), Star Trek Into Darkness (2259), Star Trek Beyond (2263)*
• Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-2 (2399-2401)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 3-4 (3188-90)

* The chronological order of events also makes placing the Kelvin timeline movies awkward, as they rely heavily on knowledge of events after the original show and The Next Generation but are set much earlier, albeit in a parallel universe. Sticking them here is probably the best approach.

What's the best order then? I'd say order of release for those who want to experience the franchise as it was released and understand it could be a bit of a bumpy ride, otherwise one of the curated approaches might be best.

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Latest STAR TREK: PICARD trailer features the new starship Enterprise

The trailer for Star Trek: Picard's third season has arrived and features the surprise appearance of the latest starship to bear the name USS Enterprise.

Eagle-eyed viewers will spot the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-F showing up towards the end of the trailer. The Enterprise-F first appeared in the video game Star Trek Online and, along with many other ships from the game, has been licensed for use in Picard. The ship is an Odyssey-class vessel and is the largest ship in Starfleet, with over 2,000 crewmembers. The Odyssey class has replaced the Galaxy and Sovereign class as the flagship class in Starfleet. Only a few ships of the class exist.

The fate of the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E remains unknown (in Star Trek Online's backstory, which is non-canon, it was destroyed in fluidic space in 2408, during a war with the Undine, better known as Species 8472).

The trailer confirms the return of the main Next Generation cast, with Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn and LeVar Burton returning as Picard, Riker, Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, Worf and Geordi LaForge respectively. Picard regulars Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd also return. The trailer also confirms the return of Brent Spiner, this time playing Data's evil twin Lore, and Daniel Davis as a hologram of Professor James Moriarty. The hologram twice previously caused havoc on the Enterprise-D after Data accidentally gave it sentience and the ability to access the ship's systems. Amanda Plummer will also play a major villain this season, an alien captain named Vadic who harbors a grudge against the Federation.

Star Trek: Picard's third season launches on Paramount+ in the USA on 16 February 2023. Hopefully it will be more consistent and focused than the previous two seasons of the show.

Star Trek: Picard - Season 2

Admiral Picard joins the crew of the brand-new USS Stargazer when a strange signal heralds the arrival of the new Borg Queen. A tense stand-off with Starfleet results in hostilities...and the changing of the timeline. Picard discovers the involvement of his old sparring partner Q, and embarks on a journey into the distant past to reset the timeline and find out what is going on.

The first season of Picard was highly reminiscent of the first two seasons of its label-mate Star Trek: Discovery: a highly promising start, a great cast, some solid opening episodes and lots of good ideas which were slowly compressed through the meatgrinder of confused writing, questionable attention to detail and sloppy pacing until the whole thing kind of fell over at the end in a confused mess. The most recent season of Discovery managed to just about avoid this fate and there were hopes that Picard's sophomore season might follow suit and deliver a more coherent and consistent experience.

The show certainly tries. The opening episode sees some great shots of numerous Federation starships of different types (addressing the complaint of the first season Picard finale which had a whole fleet of cloned ships) and some fun times on the brand-new Stargazer, a successor to the ship that Picard commanded before the Enterprise-D. The way the crew from Season 1 is reassembled is a little contrived, but that's been an issue with Star Trek for a long time (I remember the various stretches they had to do to get Worf involved with the TNG movies when he was also supposed to be a regular on Deep Space Nine). The show does put together its mystery for the season with some skill, resulting in a pretty strong opening episode.

However, by a few episodes in the show is starting to creak under the weight of what feels like an overload of too many ideas. Shoehorning the Borg, Guinan and Q into a Voyage Home-influenced time jump to the same time period as a Deep Space Nine episode already feels unwieldy, which is even before an ancestor of Dr. Soong shows up (so Brent Spiner can have something to do). The show also feels somewhat unkind to its own first season cast: Isa Briones and Evan Evagora are reduced to barely having cameos and the season ends with several more characters being written out.

The show does service other characters better. Santiago Cabrera has a lot more to do as Chris Rios and his storyline has a bit more emotional weight to it than others. Alison Pill and Annie Wersching also have a nice two-hander relationship going on as Jurati has to work with the Borg Queen for most of the season, and Jurati gets more development than she ever did in the first season. Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) also get a bit more time in the sun.

For the other castmembers, it's great to see Orla Brady (a highlight of the first season) having a lot more to do this time around, but Patrick Stewart feels ill-serviced. The first season, for all its problems, gave Picard a believable reason for emotional turmoil and regret. The second season advances the idea that he is lonely and regretting the fact that he never got married or had a family, which is fine as far as it goes (although it seems to go against the Star Trek ethos of people also finding happiness and fulfilment in non-standard living arrangements), but it never really seems to find a way of marrying that to what's actually going on in the plot, some mumblings about legacy and an ancestor in 21st Century LA aside. The major retconning of his family history over what was established on TNG is also decidedly sloppy. It's also a shame he has such little material with a returning and on-fine-form John de Lancie as Q, especially given how hard their reunion was pushed in the marketing.

The season is also stretched at 10 episodes and would have been better-served as a pacier 6-episode mini-series. Although the show never dips as much into filler as the first season did, there's the definite feeling of wheel-spinning in side-stories that don't add much to the central narrative.

Against that there's some very good visual effects, some of the character arcs are decent and there's a promising story lurking around here. The second season of Star Trek: Picard (***½) is watchable and, at times, genuinely fun with a great cast, but it also overstays its welcome, doesn't seem entirely sure what story it wants to tell and sometimes over-relies on fanservice in favour of compelling storylines. The season is available now on Paramount+ in the United States and on Amazon Prime Video in most of the rest of the world.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION crew to reunite on the final season of PICARD

The main cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation is to reunite for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard.

LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Worf) and Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher) will return to the franchise for the first time since 2002's feature film, Star Trek: Nemesis. Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Brent Spiner (Data) previously appeared in the first season of Star Trek: Picard, with Frakes and Sirtis also reprising voicing their roles on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

It is unclear if Spiner will be playing the destroyed Data, his evil twin brother Lore, android B-4 or the human character Altan Soong, whom he played in Picard's first season.

Recurring Next Generation actors Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan) and John De Lancie (Q) are appearing in the currently-airing second season of Picard.

So far it has not been confirmed if other former Next Generation regulars like Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar/Sela) or Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) will return.

Filming recently wrapped on the third season of Picard, which is expected to air in 2023.

Production concludes on STAR TREK: PICARD

Star Trek: Picard has become the first of the new generation of Star Trek shows to face the final curtain, with production ending on the series after the third season. Rather than being cancelled, however, the show has bowed out on its own terms. On Twitter, actress Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine, reprising the role from Star Trek: Voyager) has confirmed that the show was always planned to last for three seasons.

The first season aired in early 2020 to a mixed critical reception, but commercial success. Two more seasons were ordered and shot back-to-back, although the marathon shoot was interrupted several times by delays incurred by the COVID19 pandemic. The second season began airing last week on Paramount+ in the USA and Amazon Prime Video in much of the rest of the world.

Season 3 is expected to air in 2023. The other current Star Trek shows - Discovery, Lower Decks, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds - have all been renewed for additional seasons. Two more shows, one based around Section 31 starring Michelle Yeoh and another around the character of Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation, are currently in development. A further show about Starfleet Academy is also believed to be in early development.

Paramount renews STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, STRANGE NEW WORLDS and LOWER DECKS

Paramount have renewed the remaining two of their three live-action Star Trek shows. Discovery will be returning for a fifth season, whilst Strange New Worlds has had a second season confirmed before its first season even debuts. Animated show Lower Decks will also be returning for a fourth season. Picard was renewed for a third season back in September and production is already underway. 

All three shows have also had their launch dates confirmed: the final batch of episodes from Discovery's fourth season will start airing on 10 February, whilst Picard's second season will launch on 3 March. Strange New Worlds will then debut on 5 May. In addition, animated show Lower Decks is expected to return with its third season in the summer, with CG-animated show Prodigy already working on a second season, expected to debut late this year or early next.

Paramount+, the rebranded version of CBS All Access, has enjoyed significant success with its streaming service, last year reporting they were two years ahead of schedule with their expected customer base. Much of the service's success has been pinned on Star Trek, with the streamer inking a $160 million deal to keep Star Trek showrunner Alex Kurtzman on board until the end of 2026. The only other long-term success on the network is The Good Fight. However, the streamer is diversifying with a larger slate of drama and comedy projects, with the mega-budgeted Halo TV series due to launch in the coming months, as well as a Frasier sequel series in late 2022 or 2023.

The streamer is also making the bold choice to go international. Paramount+ will be launching overseas versions of its content in several dozen countries starting in the Spring, in some areas in conjunction with local streaming services. Controversially with the fanbase, Paramount has started pulling its Star Trek content from Netflix and Amazon Prime ahead of the move.

The multiple renewals also mean that Star Trek is catching up on Doctor Who in terms of the number of seasons confirmed in a franchise. Doctor Who has aired 39 seasons since its its inception in 1963, with a 40th already confirmed for 2023, as well as four seasons of spinoff show Torchwood, one of Class and five of The Sarah Jane Adventures, for a total of 50 seasons. These renewals will put Star Trek on 46 seasons.

Some rumours are stating that the third season of Picard will be last one, due to Sir Patrick Stewart's age (Stewart turns 82 in July), and once it ends it will be replaced by one of two new Star Trek series in development behind the scenes, a long-gestating series about Section 31 starring Michelle Yeoh, and a series focusing on the Next Generation fan-favourite character of Worf. No official confirmation of this has been given.

Paramount announce launch dates for new seasons of STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, PICARD and PRODIGY

Paramount have announced the launch dates for their next raft of Star Trek series.

In addition to Season 2 of Lower Decks, currently airing on Paramount+ in the USA and Amazon worldwide, the first season of Star Trek: Prodigy debuts on 28 October.

The new series, the first Star Trek show to be completely 3D CG-rendered, returns to the Delta Quadrant for the first time since the conclusion of Star Trek: Voyager in 2001. The series, set five years after the end of Voyager, features an all-alien, non-Starfleet cast of characters who stumble across the USS Protostar, an experimental Starfleet vessel despatched to the Delta Quadrant. The vessel is abandoned for reasons unknown, until it is found by a group of young aliens. The ship comes equipped with an Emergency Training Hologram, based on Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew reprising her role from Voyager), who helps them get to grips with piloting the vessel.

Prodigy is swiftly followed by Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery, which will debut on 18 November, marking the first time since 1999 that two Star Trek series will air new episodes simultaneously (when the seventh and final season of Deep Space Nine overlapped with the fifth season of Star Trek: Voyager). The new season of Discovery sees the crew adjusting to life in the 32nd Century as they help the Federation and the Milky Way galaxy rebuild after the cataclysmic event known as the Burn, only to encounter a new anomaly which could threaten everything.

Finally, the second season of Star Trek: Picard will debut in February 2022. In the new season, a returning Q (an also-returning John de Lancie) apparently changes time into a dystopian nightmare, as part of a test for Picard. Picard and his colleagues utilise knowledge from a captive Borg Queen (Anna Wersching) to time travel back to the 21st Century and repair the damage done by Q.

Picard has been renewed for a third season, alongside rumours this may be the final season since Sir Patrick Stewart turns 82 next year and Paramount+ is developing several more shows with a view to one of them replacing Picard once it runs its course.

STAR TREK executive producer Alex Kurtzman extends deal until 2026

Alex Kurtzman, the showrunner-in-chief of Paramount+'s Star Trek franchise, has extended his deal with the streamer for another five and a half years. Kurtzman will continue to create, produce and spearhead Star Trek shows for Paramount until the end of 2026, in a deal worth $160 million.

Kurtzman began his association with Star Trek as a producer and writer on the JJ Abrams-directed movies Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He was recruited by new streamer CBS All Access (as it was then) to help Bryan Fuller and his team helm the first Star Trek television series in over a decade, Star Trek: Discovery (2017-present). Fuller left during pre-production, reportedly over budget and creative issues, and Kurtzman was promoted to showrunner. With Star Trek: Discovery a huge hit for the nascent streamer, Kurtzman has overseen the franchise's expansion to incorporate multiple spin-off shows: Picard, Lower Decks and the to-debut-shortly Prodigy and Strange New Worlds. CBS and Paramount merged last year, with CBS All Access being rebranded Paramount+. It seems that the new corporate overlords are happy enough with the franchise's popularity to retain Kurtzman's services.

However, Kurtzman has proved a divisive figure with long-term Trek fans, due to a relaxed attitude to continuity and a perceived focus on cutting-edge visual effects over character. A repeated criticism is that major character development too often happens off-screen, and sometimes audiences are asked to care about the fate of a background character who's barely uttered a line of dialogue on-screen. His plots are often incoherent and muddled. However, some of his work has been better received; Lower Decks, in particular, has attracted critical and fan acclaim for its respectful-but-fun take on Star Trek's mythos. It also sounds like Kurtzman is adopting less of a direct role in each show to focus more on the business of running the whole franchise, with individual writers and showrunners much more responsible for each show. It sounds like he's becoming more like Rick Berman once Deep Space Nine and Voyager launched, entrusting shows to individual writers whilst making more big-picture, financial decisions behind the scenes.

It also sounds like active development has resumed on several projects previously put on hold. Kurtzman had indicated that five shows was a "sweet spot" for Star Trek and he didn't want to put another one on the air until one of the existing shows - probably Picard, since Patrick Stewart (who recently turned 81) is unwilling to play the role for a long run - reached a natural conclusion. However, the article suggests that they have resumed development on the Michelle Yeoh-starring Section 31 and an unusual new take on Star Trek, focusing on the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine character of Worf.

According to ill-informed YouTube channels, Kurtzman has continuously been on the edge of being fired and his shows cancelled for the past four years. No doubt they will continue to report that this will be the case.

Paramount+ drops a ton of STAR TREK news

Paramount+ - the revamped version of CBS All Access - have dropped a motherlode of news about the upcoming Star Trek seasons via Twitter. There's a lot to unpack here.

First up, Paramount and Nickelodeon have unveiled the look for Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Prodigy. They also confirmed that Janeway herself is not appearing in the show. Instead, it turns out that Janeway is the face of Starfleet's Emergency Training Hologram, used to help civilians pilot a Federation starship if the crew are incapacitated. They also revealed that Star Trek: Prodigy takes place in 2383, five years after the USS Voyager returns to Federation space, but will be set in the Delta Quadrant, raising interesting questions about how the Federation starship (presumably the USS Prodigy) central to the story ended up there. We still don't have an air date for Prodigy, although it was originally targeting a mid-2021 release.

Second up, Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 will air in August this year and will see a return for Jonathan Frakes as Captain William Riker of the USS Titan, although given how Season 1 ended, that's not a major surprise. The producers have also confirmed that Lower Decks has been renewed for a third season, presumably to air in 2022. The trailer also indicates that at one point the team gets to pilot a Miranda-class starship (think of the USS Reliant or Saratoga).

Next, Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 (which wraps shooting soon) has a shiny new trailer and confirmation of a 2021 air date, probably in the autumn.

Finally, Star Trek: Picard Season 2 also has a new trailer and confirmation of a 2022 debut. Tantalisingly, the trailer (and a separate tweet) confirms the return of John de Lancie as Q in live-action. Q had a brief cameo appearance in Lower Decks but it's good to see him return to test his wits against Picard as well.

Paramount reveals more information on STAR TREK's future on TV

On 4 March, US streaming service CBS All Access will be rebranded as Paramount+, a move that the company hopes will attract a swathe of new subscribers. The streamer is weaponising nostalgia on a formidable scale, recently announcing plans to reboot shows such as Frasier and Rugrats in an attempt to attract new (or old) viewers.

CBS All Access itself has enjoyed surprising success, wracking up 20 million subscribers in its first three years on air (reportedly a target the streamer had not expected to reach until several years later). Although not troubling the likes of Netflix (who have more than 100 million more subscribers), it's an impressive performance for a service with a limited roster of shows only available in the United States. Much of this success has been credited to the Star Trek franchise: every legacy episode  of the original series and spin-offs is on the service, along with new shows Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks, and the forthcoming Prodigy and Strange New Worlds.

The Star Trek team, led by Alex Kurtzman, has also several more shows planned, with one announced: Section 31, to be headed by Michelle Yeoh. However, that series has been delayed several times, reportedly being gazumped in the production schedule by Strange New Worlds. In a new interview with Deadline, Kurtzman has confirmed that Section 31 is currently on hold pending one of the existing shows finishing. The feeling was that the fan hunger for Strange New Worlds was greater than for Section 31 (fan anticipation for which is, it has to be said almost non-existent).

In the same interview Kurtzman also confirms that they have decided that five is the sweet spot for Star Trek shows in simultaneous production, and will not bring in a new show until one of the current shows finishes. Discovery is currently shooting its fourth season, Picard and Lower Decks are both filming their second years and Strange New Worlds is just about to start shooting its debut season, whilst Prodigy is wrapping production on its first season ahead of an anticipated mid-2021 debut.

Intriguingly, Kurtzman also confirms that Picard has a relatively short shelf-life, determined by the availability and health of lead actor Patrick Stewart, who turns 81 this year. What that shelf-life is, is unclear, but it indicates that the plan might be to wrap that show after two or three seasons rather than it being an ongoing concern, as Discovery and Strange New Worlds are.

Kurtzman also indicates that will no MCU-style big crossover plans for the franchise, with the plan being to keep the shows separate for the time being.

The move may be part of a decision by Paramount - which re-merged with CBS last year after a decade of separate operations - not to put their eggs all in one basket. CBS All Access was seen as being too reliant on Star Trek fans, whilst the plan now seems to be to bring in other shows and franchises to help boost Paramount+'s success.

Star Trek: Prodigy, is the next show to debut on the streamer. A 3D-animated series aimed at a younger audience, the show will have the first-ever all-alien cast in Star Trek, and will see Kate Mulgrew reprise her role as Captain/Admiral Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager in a recurring role.

Where to Start with Star Trek?

The recent arrival of Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access and Amazon Prime has spurred a renewed interest in the venerable SF franchise. New viewers want to check out the older material, but the sheer amount of it is daunting. By the summer of 2020, no less than 34 seasons of television will have aired in the franchise, totalling 777 episodes spread across eight separate series airing over fifty-four years (and counting). It would take you more than 570 hours (or almost 24 days, non-stop) to watch all of that material. In addition, there are 13 feature films in the mix, as well as a plethora of video games and hundreds of novels, audio dramas and fan films. If you want to check out this mass of material where do you start?

There are several different approaches you can take and I’ll run through a few of them below. The one thing I would say first is that, with a few notable exceptions, Star Trek is mostly an episodic franchise, where each episode stands alone with its own beginning, middle and end. That starts to shift in Deep Space Nine, which introduces more serialised elements, and by the time of Discovery and Picard the series has become fully serialised, but for the most part the different series are episodic and in fact designed for each episode to be enjoyed by themselves.

Before we get into the lists, it might be worthwhile briefly brushing up on what each series is about.

Star Trek: The Original Series
Live-action: 1966-69 • 79 episodes • 3 seasons • 6 films (1979-91)
Animated: 1973-74 • 22 episodes • 2 seasons

Also called the original series, the classic series or just Star Trek, this series follows the adventures of Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Constitution-class starship USS Enterprise. They explore strange new worlds, encounter new alien life and seek to uphold the utopian values of the United Federation of Planets in the mid-23rd Century whilst dealing with recurring enemies, including the Klingons and Romulans. The story of this series continues in Star Trek: The Animated Series (which is the same, but as a cartoon) and then in the first six Star Trek feature films.

The first episode of the series, The Cage, was filmed two years before the rest of the series and features a significantly different cast of characters (who do go on to play major roles in some of the films and in Star Trek: Discovery, which revisits the same time period).

Star Trek: The Next Generation
1987-94 • 178 episodes • 7 seasons • 4 films (1994-2002)

Set in the mid-24th Century, roughly 100 years after the events of the original series, The Next Generation focuses on a brand-new, much larger and vastly more sophisticated Galaxy-class USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The emphasis remains on exploring new worlds and meeting new races. Although the series mostly remains episodic, recurring and more serialised elements creep in towards its end. Most notable is the introduction of the Borg, an overwhelmingly powerful cybernetic threat which remains a key enemy through the next several series, and the Cardassians, a mid-ranking antagonistic enemy. The story of this series continues in the seventh through tenth Star Trek feature films and the sequel-series Star Trek: Picard, set thirty years later.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
1993-99 • 176 episodes • 7 seasons

To date, the only Star Trek series not set on a starship. Instead, the focus is on Deep Space Nine, a Federation outpost established on an abandoned Cardassian space station orbiting the planet Bajor. The Cardassians conquered and ruled Bajor with an iron fist for forty years before withdrawing, leaving the planet in ruins. The Federation are helping them rebuild, their efforts spearheaded by Commander Benjamin Sisko. Unlike most Star Trek series, which focuses on the Federation and Starfleet crewmembers, this series has a large number of civilian and alien recurring characters. Bajor becomes unexpectedly important when a stable wormhole leading to the remote Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy is discovered, allowing the planet to benefit from increased trade (to the fury of the Cardassians). Early seasons revolve around renewed Cardassian/Bajoran tensions before the introduction of the Dominion, the alien alliance which rules the Gamma Quadrant and is unhappy with the Federation poking around its back yard. Later seasons are more heavily serialised and see the outbreak of full-scale war between the Federation and the Dominion.

Deep Space Nine was controversial during its first airing for being perceived as a lot darker than prior Star Trek shows, but in recent years it has undergone a critical reassessment and is now often cited as the best (or at least the most critically consistent) of the Star Trek series.

Star Trek: Voyager
1995-2001 • 172 episodes • 7 seasons

This series opens when the USS Voyager is flung 75,000 light-years across the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant and has to return home, which is estimated will take over seventy years at maximum warp. Captain Kathryn Janeway and her crew seek to find faster ways home with any means at their disposal, whilst upholding Federation values in a desperate corner of space where no one even knows who the Federation are.

Star Trek: Enterprise
2001-05 • 98 episodes • 4 seasons

A prequel series taking place about a century before the events of The Original Series, this show takes place before the Federation or Starfleet even exist. Instead, it follows the adventures of the NX-01 Enterprise, Earth’s first experimental spacecraft with a Warp 5 drive. The series sees the crew trying to engage in interstellar diplomacy, exploration and commerce with much more primitive technology than even in Kirk’s time, whilst also trying to deal with problems such as a brewing conflict between the Andorians and Vulcans, and Earth’s first fumbling dealings with the Klingons and Romulans. The series is almost completely episodic for its first two years, but in its third season explores a series-long arc where Enterprise has to search for aliens who carried out a devastating sneak attack on Earth. The final season is divided into shorter arcs revolving around the formation of the Federation.

Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline Films
2009-16 • 3 films

A series of three films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond) produced by J.J. Abrams, these films are set in an alternate timeline created by time travel. Spock (from the original series) is blasted back in time by his failure to stop the destruction of the Romulan homeworld, pursued by a vengeful Romulan crew. This results in alterations to the timeline, such as a younger James T. Kirk and his fellow crewmembers joining forces and taking command of the Enterprise years earlier than in the original timeline and getting into fresh, new adventures in the mid-23rd Century.

Star Trek: Discovery
2017 onwards • 42 episodes • 3 seasons (to date, as of the end of 2020)

Another prequel series, this time taking place ten years before the events of The Original Series. The focus is on Michael Burnham, the first officer of the USS Shenzhou who badly fumbles a confrontation with the Klingons, inadvertently leading to a massive war. A disgraced Burnham is assigned to the USS Discovery, a highly experimental starship with unusual technology and an oddball, maverick captain, where she is offered the chance to atone for her mistakes.

Star Trek: Picard
2020 onwards • 10 episodes • 1 season (to date)

A sequel series set at the end of the 24th Century, Star Trek: Picard picks up story elements left dangling from the end of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, as well as exploring events in the original timeline after the destruction of Romulus (in the original timeline).

The Curated Sample

This order is not exhaustive but what it does is provide a snapshot of the different series and some of the strongest stand-alone episodes which hold up well today. These episodes are stand-alones (not part of multi-episodic arcs) and are designed to showcase some of the different types of storytelling the series indulges in. A viewer can jump from these episodes into the rest of that series if they like what they see.

The Animated Series is effectively a continuation of The Original Series and it would be hard to recommend individual episodes from Enterprise, Discovery or Picard due to their heavy serialisation (Picard is also best-watched having seen some or all of The Next Generation first).

• Star Trek: The Original Series, The City on the Edge of Forever
• Star Trek: The Original Series, The Trouble with Tribbles
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Space Seed
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Measure of a Man
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q Who?
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Inner Light
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Visitor
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Far Beyond the Stars
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, In the Pale Moonlight*
• Star Trek: Voyager, Eye of the Needle
• Star Trek: Voyager, Message in a Bottle

* This may seem to be an exception to the multi-episode arc rule, as In the Pale Moonlight has references to and a big impact on the Dominion War storyline which dominates much of Deep Space Nine’s latter seasons. However, the episode itself is more about Sisko’s journey and how he and Garak bring about a major shift in political events whilst never leaving the station (the Dominion itself does not appear), which can be understood well enough without additional context.

The Pilot Sample

This approach simply has the viewer sampling the first episode of each version of the series to see what grabs their attention straight away, and from there they can choose which series to watch first:

• Star Trek: The Original Series, The Cage (1964)
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Encounter at Farpoint (1987)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Emissary (1993)
• Star Trek: Voyager, Caretaker (1995)
• Star Trek: Enterprise, Broken Bow (2001)
• Star Trek: Discovery, The Vulcan Hello (2017)

Release Order

AKA the “completionist” approach. This may be the approach everyone ends up taking once they’ve been sucked into the material, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a first run-through. This approach basically means watching the series in order of release and is the best for enjoying the series as it originally aired and was intended (just somewhat compressed).

The primary weakness of this approach is having to watch The Original Series in full before the more recent shows. The original show is certainly great from the perspective of a 1960s TV series and also has many outstanding episodes that have withstood the test of time, but it also has a lot of episodes that…have not. The series underwent an in-depth HD remastering process in 2006 which saw the film quality improved and revamped CG effects added to make the visual quality of the episodes more acceptable to modern audiences, although obviously the writing and performances were not affected.

You can tweak this order for simplicity: there’s nothing stopping you from watching all six films featuring the original cast before watching The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine and Voyager are divorced from one another almost completely, so you could watch DS9 in full before switching to Voyager. TNG and DS9 do have a few more notable crossovers in terms of characters and storylines, but it also wouldn’t be the end of the world if you finished watching TNG in full before watching DS9.

• Star Trek: The Original Series Pilot, The Cage (made in 1964, but didn’t air until later as part of the original series)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1-3 (1966-69)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1-2 (1973-74)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1-2 (1987-89)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3-4 (1989-91)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (1991-92)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 / Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 (1992-93)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 / Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 (1993-94)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 (1994-95) / Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 (1995)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 (1995-96)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (1996-97)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (1997-98)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (1998-99)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 6-7 (1999-2001)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 (2001-02)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2-4 (2002-05)
• Star Trek (2009)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 1-2 (2017-19)
• Star Trek: Picard Season 1 (2020)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 (2020)

Chronological Order
This order lists the series in the order of when the episodes take place in the order of events within the Star Trek universe.

This order has some strengths, as it roughly matches the historical order of events, but it also has some major weaknesses. It puts Enterprise, arguably the weakest Trek series overall, up first and also features a number of spoilers for later series (since the Enterprise writers couldn’t resist pulling in familiar creatures and aliens to the show from later periods, no matter how incongruous). You’re also talking about waiting a long time to get to the good stuff.

• Star Trek: Enterprise Seasons 1-4 (2151-55, 2161)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Pilot, The Cage (2254)
• Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-2 (2256-57)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Seasons 1-3 (2266-68)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Seasons 1-2 (2269-70)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2271)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (2285)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Seasons 1-5 (2364-68)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 (2369)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 (2370)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 (2371)
• Star Trek: Generations (2371)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 (2372)
• Star Trek: First Contact (2373)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (2373)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (2374)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (2375)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 6-7 (2376-77)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)
• Star Trek (2385, alternate 2258), Star Trek Into Darkness (2259), Star Trek Beyond (2263)*
• Star Trek: Picard (2399)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 (c. 3160)

* The chronological order of events also makes placing the Kelvin timeline movies awkward, as they rely heavily on knowledge of events after the original show and The Next Generation but are set much earlier, albeit in a parallel universe. Sticking them here is probably the best approach.

What's the best order then? I'd say order of release for those who want to experience the franchise as it was released and understand it could be a bit of a bumpy ride, otherwise one of the curated approaches might be best.

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