What Star Trek series should you start with if you’re new to the brand and why?
Star Trek is a long-running show and really does a good job of encompassing a lot that you wouldn’t think the franchise would dabble in. Be it horror, crime procedurals, war stories and so much more, Trek as a brand has done well to stay relevant.
That said, because there have been so many series within the franchise, it can be overwhelming for new fans to get into it.
So we’re helping the newbies out with a cheat sheet of sorts, giving fans a variety of options to start with, depending on their own personal taste.
What Star Trek series should you start with?
Do you want to go in historical order?
Star Trek: The Original Series
If you want to go in order of how the series is released, you start with the original, 1966’s Star Trek, otherwise known as Star Trek: The Original Series. The franchise got its start in the 60s and while it’s a bit rough to watch back these days, there’s a clever combination of campy fun and genuine debate that makes the show hard to ignore, even if it is nearly 60 years old.
Do you want to start in chronological order?
Star Trek: Enterprise
The very first show in the Trek timeline is Enterprise. It starts at the foundation of the Federation when it was just humanity and the Vulcans working together in any real capacity. The Denobulians eventually came on board, as did various other alien races, but this is the beginning of it all. It features sci-fi legend, Scott Bakula, as the captain of the ship and runs four seasons deep.
The latter half is considered “better” than the first half but I think that’s a lie. While the overall final two seasons have a more interesting conflict, the first two seasons have the better individual episodes. It’s all fantastic, however.
Do you want the best most critically acclaimed?
Star Trek’s The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine
Critically acclaimed, or “most popular” are just fun buzz words that don’t mean anything. Star Trek, like all forms of entertainment media and art, is subjective. Yet, the two shows that most fans rave about are The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
TNG is the series with Patrick Stewart playing Jean-Luc Picard and has arguably the most eclectic core group of characters in the franchise’s history. You have a blind engineer, a robot (android) helmsman, a Klingon at a time when Klingons weren’t too friendly with the Federation, an empath, and a future time traveler. It’s wild
DS9 is both more grounded, and somehow not. At its heart, DS9 is about a father and son living and working on a Federation outpost, while helping the local government put themselves back together after an occupation. At its soul, it’s a tale of spirituality and what constitutes belief.
Do you want the most variety in your genre types?
Star Trek’s Voyager
For my money, if you’re looking for the Star Trek show that best utilizes all possible genres of entertainment, it’s Voyager. They do some of the best horror episodes in the series, but they also tackle some of the best romantic-based stories as well. Most of theirs are about lost love and letting go, as the ship is expected to be gone from Earth and their loved ones for 70-odd years. So if you want some melancholy romance, some intense horror, or even some really solid comedy episodes, Voyager is the brand to start with.
Do you want a family-friendly experience?
Star Trek: Prodigy
One of the newest series is Prodigy, which is an animated show on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon. It’s not the only animated show airing but it’s the only one that’s family-friendly. It features a similar concept to Voyager, a ship lost in space with a crew that’s not entirely sure what to do but it adds the twist of making them all very young and inexperienced. It’s a very delightful series and allows entry into the Trek franchise by coming in from a different part of the story universe entirely. Making past viewings unnecessary but helpful.
Do you want a more trendy pick?
Star Trek: Lower Decks
While I’m not personally a fan of Lower Decks, as I feel it strides away too far from what makes Star Trek what it is, this is a very trending pick. If you’re a fan of Rick and Morty, this is the series for you, as it basically rips off everything that show is. From the humor to the style of the characters, this show was product-tested to be Star Trek’s Rick and Morty. It’s not the best for new fans, as it relies very heavily on things like callbacks, cameos, and in-universe gags that would go over most new fans’ heads. Though, it is a good barometer to meassure what is seen as “cool” currently in the fandom.
Do you want the most recent offering?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Strange New Worlds is the latest show and is a spin-off of sorts from Discovery while serving as a direct prequel to the original series of the 1960s. As of press time, it’s the latest series in the franchise and has already established itself as one of the better series going. Its entire purpose is to not only cater to older fans but bring in newer ones as well. It’s a perfect balance of the two concepts. It’s a great first series to hop in on, as it’ll catch you up with Trek lore while not overburdening you with the need to know it all already.
Do you want Star Trek that isn’t Star Trek?
Star Trek: Picard or Discovery
Star Trek’s Picard and Discovery definitely fit the mold by being non-conventional Star Trek series. Both series are darker, grittier, and far less optimistic series and it took a lot of grief from fans for that. Lower Decks also fits in this area of being far from the standard norm of Trek, but for different reasons.
Discovery and Picard are series that wash away the concept of the Federation being a force for good and look at them through a flawed lens and they certainly match the point in time they were created in. They’re heavier, more preachy but less based on conversation. So much of Trek is about the debate about what to do, not the assumption that there is only one way forward. Discovery really steered into that notion, that there is only a correct way forward. Other series don’t usually go down that road.
Picard also really amps up the gore and violence to an unnecessary degree. It’s supposed to be a show about mortality, but it gets insanely convoluted and completely dismisses its core concept at the end of season one. If you want a non-Trek series, these are the ones to start with.
Do you want to stop watching five minutes in?
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Yikes, this is hard to watch. The animation is the same type you’d see in the early 1970s, with limited movement, a lackluster color pallet, and very janky illustrations. It is voice casted by the same actors from the 1960s series but it’s largely viewed as non-canon as a whole, even if bits of the series were used in future episodes. It’s not really worth sinking time into, not when there are 10 other shows to watch.