Star Trek has released five new series during the streaming era.
Star Trek has released five new series starting with Discovery which makes up the Streaming Era of the series. A sixth if you include the short-lived Short Treks, but I don’t. So with the success of Strange New Worlds, the conclusion of Picard, and the development of two new series, I thought it’d be a good time to highlight the five newest series and rank them in order of my least favorite to most favorite.
This is my list, and you’re free to disagree with it, but keep in mind it’s simply my list.
Quick note, Star Trek: Short Treks won’t be included as that’s nonsense. Snark aside, it featured different characters in different settings and didn’t adhere to a central idea, like a constant main character or a narrative that followed through the entire series.
Plus “Trouble With Edward” was a highlight of everything wrong with Short Treks.
My personal ranking of the new Star Trek series
5. Star Trek: Discovery
Anytime someone describes a show by saying, “yeah, but it gets good eventually”, that’s a sign the show never really got good. You could argue The Office bucks the trend, but the first season only had a few episodes, and then season two really hit it out of the park. Discovery? I can’t sit through two seasons of drek to finally get to the “good” season. Bare in mind, season, as the fourth season was largely seen as unspectacular.
4. Star Trek: Picard
I’ve lived through some things but man, Picard made me depressed. I didn’t like Logan, I sure have hell didn’t like Picard. It’s as poorly written as Discovery – Picard is an android who will die of old age…SURE – but it gets a point due to the constant nostalgia of it all. Bad nostalgia that has damaged several characters, but that’s more than Discovery can say.
3. Star Trek: Lower Decks
It’s Rick and Morty with a Star Trek skin. Its over-the-top humor and constant attempts to create trendy internet memes are everything that’s wrong with modern culture, modern entertainment, and whatever this abomination of Star Trek is. That said, it features one of the best casts in franchise history, and there are some jokes that do land. You can do worse. It’s called The Animated Series.
2. Star Trek: Prodigy
Its first season is utterly forgettable so far, but it’s not bad. It’s just not impactful. A strong voice cast is carrying the show, as well as beautiful animation, but so far it only has one great episode to its name.
1. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Yes, these are in order of the releases; don’t blame me that the company listened to fan complaints as they created these things. Strange New Worlds is peak Star Trek and is among the best-written forms of entertainment in the last decade. It had a first season where at least half of the episodes can now be considered candidates for the Top 100 best Trek episodes ever list. Its reimagining of the Gorn was brilliant, even if it does bend some Trek lore in the process.