The Best Way To Watch All Of 'Star Trek'
BOLDLY GOING THE DISTANCE
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Welcome to Fan Service, a guide to engaging with gargantuan, lore-heavy franchises. In each volume, we'll recommend a watch/read order to approach the given series with and dissect our argument for it. Today: Discovering "Star Trek."

"Star Trek" is back. It's sort of exciting — I grew up in a household where "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" were always on the TV. One Halloween I dressed up as a Starfleet officer (my mom remembers she had "a heck of a time" making the two-toned red and black shirt). Our family attended a screening of the premiere for "Enterprise" held at Microsoft multibillionaire Paul Allen's pop culture museum.

The universe Gene Roddenberry created with "Star Trek" continues to find new fans for good reason. It has, in a way, never stopped being relevant; "Star Trek" didn't just change television, it challenged television to do better. There were plenty of times "Star Trek" failed to live up to its own ideals, but for each clunker of an episode or film there's an outstanding story to balance things out. Whether you just want to stick to the stand-out episodes or go the whole way, a little guidance can help you get the most out of your time with "Star Trek" — let's get to it.

A Maybe-Two-Year Mission

Coming up with a watch order for a franchise that's over 50 years old is a trick, especially when you consider that at "Star Trek's" height in the '90s there were years where two series were on the air and a movie hit theaters. "Star Trek" was doing the whole cinematic universe thing over a decade before Marvel gave it a shot. You could try to follow the exact timeline or the real-life release schedule, but both are more trouble than it's worth. If you're so inclined, you can check the footnotes of this article to see exactly when the baton is passed between '90s series.1

Keep in mind there's close to 600 hours of TV and film here. If you're taking in one or two episodes every day, you're still looking at over a year of "Trek." If you're looking to pare that down to something a little more reasonable, you should absolutely feel free to use a skip guide.2 Some episodes are just plain bad — don't torture yourself.

Here's the watch order:

  • Star Trek: The Original Series
  • The Animated Series
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
  • The Next Generation Seasons 1-7
  • Star Trek: Generations
  • Deep Space Nine Seasons 1-5
  • Voyager Seasons 1-2
  • Star Trek: First Contact
  • Deep Space Nine Seasons 6-7
  • Star Trek: Insurrection
  • Voyager Seasons 3-7
  • Star Trek: Nemesis
  • Enterprise
  • Star Trek (2009)
  • Star Trek: Into Darkness
  • Star Trek: Beyond

If you're not sure that a little '60s campiness is your thing, you can start with "The Next Generation" and loop back around to "The Original Series" later. This might seem like heresy to some, but "The Next Generation" is a lot closer in feel to modern television than "The Original Series." While the difference in presentation and production values shouldn't stop you from watch the best of original "Trek," it might be enough to turn off a complete newcomer.

Also, you're definitely better off if you have some appreciation for what the characters from "The Original Series" are like before you watch the movies in the "Kelvin" timeline that begins with 2009's "Star Trek." That way, you'll be able to pick out what's different about their personalities and what's stayed the same. "Beyond" has a few references to "Enterprise" in it, but for the most part the "Kelvin" films don't really tie much into the shows made after "The Original Series."

Where No Show Had Gone Before

"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry had already lived quite the life by the time he turned his attention to television. Roddenberry flew combat missions in World War 2, piloted commercial jets for Pan Am and worked for the LAPD — his first job in television was as an advisor for a crime drama while he still did police work. Over a decade over steady work passed before Roddenberry had his first hit show in 1963: a drama about life on a Marine Corps base called "The Lieutenant."

Before introducing the world to the diverse cast of "Star Trek," Roddenberry tried pushing the envelope with "The Lieutenant." "To Set It Right," an episode written by Lee Erwin, dealt with racial prejudice in the Marines. Sadly and quite predictably, it got axed. Given the subject matter, the episode likely had few supporters at the network. "To Set It Right" featured television newcomer Nichelle Nichols in a guest role. One of her scenes from the episode can be seen here:

 

After "The Lieutenant" ended, Roddenberry set to work on what became "Star Trek" — eventually. Two pilots were made for the show: the first was rejected by NBC (with the footage later cannibalized to help make another episode) and the second introduced a number of series regulars including William Shatner as James Kirk, Captain of the starship "Enterprise." The role of Spock was played in both pilots by Leonard Nimoy, who had appeared in "The Lieutenant." The story goes that NBC would never had ordered a second pilot if the head of Desilu, the production company for "Star Trek," hadn't personally petitioned the network — Trekkies and Trekkers owe Lucille Ball a great deal of thanks.

"The Original Series" did a lot with its limited time. It's worth trying it out even if you find it hokey and outdated. The show essentially created the fan convention as we know it and no other show at the time had a more visibly diverse cast. Famously, Nichelle Nichols' role as Lieutenant Uhura made "Star Trek" Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite television show, a fact King personally told Nichols when he convinced her to stay on for another season. "Star Trek" wasn't a ratings success, though. It took a fan letter campaign to keep the show on the air for its third season. That season ended up being the worst and last of "The Original Series," but the success of that letter campaign went on to inspire similar efforts for later shows like "Twin Peaks."

Roddenberry was disappointed by how "Star Trek" ended, but it didn't keep him away from science fiction. He worked on a few other sci-fi show concepts that didn't become full series before getting pulled back to "Star Trek" in the form of "The Animated Series." Though similarly short lived, "The Animated Series" continued in the spirit of the original show before it and featured most of the original cast.

Hey, Uh, Have You Heard Of This Thing Called 'Star Wars?'

In 1977 a little film called "Star Wars" came out and made pretty much all the money in the universe. Suddenly, between that and Steven Spielberg's more cerebral "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," sci-fi was looking a lot more in-vogue and profitable. Paramount (which bought Desilu a decade earlier) forged ahead on making the first "Star Trek" film. Work had actually started on a film version of "Star Trek" in the mid-'70s, but those plans were jettisoned in favor of "Star Trek: Phase II," which would be a return to television overseen by Roddenberry. That work was cannibalized for the movie, with the pilot script for "Phase II" being turned into the script for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

"The Motion Picture" is a lot more "2001: A Space Odyssey" in its feel and pacing than it is "Star Wars" or any other blockbuster sci-fi flick, and it suffered critically as a result. It probably didn't help that the high concept ideas being toyed with in "Phase II" had little room to breathe in the context of a feature film — the entire look of "Star Trek" had been redesigned from the ground-up, which was probably jarring for fans of the show who'd grown accustomed to the bright uniforms and colorful sets of "The Original Series." You might not like "The Motion Picture" when you watch it, but it's a worthwhile look at what "Star Trek" could've ended up being if its television revival had come early.

The first film still did well enough for a sequel, but higher-ups at the studio didn't want Roddenberry to deliver another film in the same vein. Roddenberry wasn't involved in 1982's "The Wrath of Khan," but it nonetheless went on to become one of the best-regarded "Star Trek" films. Bringing back Ricardo Montalbán's iconic villain Khan Noonien Singh from "The Original Series" and shifting towards a more adventurous tone turned out to be exactly what the franchise needed.3

New Cast, New Century, Same Old Problems

Production of "Star Trek" films with the original cast continued throughout the '80s. By '86, the powers that be were ready to try another stab at televised "Star Trek" with Roddenberry's involvement. Instead of following the original crew, the story of "The Next Generation" jumps ahead 100 years to the 24th century and a new ship, the "Enterprise-D." The new, far larger ship doesn't just accommodate its crew — it also carries civilians and crewmembers' families. At Roddenberry's direction, the show was to be far more progressive and utopian in its bent than even "The Original Series" had been.4 Galactic conflicts from the previous century had been resolved and Roddenberry mandated that interpersonal conflicts between "Enterprise-D" occupants should be kept to a minimum.5

That rule proved to hamstring the early seasons of "The Next Generation." By most accounts the show took a while to find its footing.6 Thankfully, Paramount's decision to distribute the show to individual stations instead of partnering with a single network worked to help "Trek" guarantee a wide audience and enough creative runway to work out the kinks. Around the same time Gene Roddenberry's health worsened and he had to distance himself from the production. While the production staff didn't take it as an opportunity to entirely disregard Roddenberry's vision for the show, later seasons of "The Next Generation" allowed for richer, more complicated relationships between the main crew members.7

The later seasons of "The Next Generation" are regarded as some of the best in "Star Trek" history, and the show was popular enough at the time to warrant a spin-off. By the time "The Next Generation" wrapped up they had made 100 more episodes of it than "The Original Series" and plans were being made to have the seventh "Star Trek" movie center on the cast of "The Next Generation."

The Nineties Were The Best Time To Be Into 'Trek'

While "The Next Generation" was very clearly intended as a reinvention of the concept at the core of "The Original Series," the show that followed it proved to be the most daring in the franchise. "Deep Space Nine" premiered in 1993 with a flashback to a pivotal battle in "The Next Generation," this time told from the perspective of Avery Brooks' character Benjamin Sisko. Sisko's wife dies in the battle — when he is given command of the series' titular space station, he still harbors his grief and a heavy dose of resentment towards Starfleet over the outcome of the battle. Sisko and his crew are wrapped up in political and religious drama from the jump, establishing a continuing arc that runs throughout the seven seasons of "Deep Space Nine".

By allowing for conflicts and stories that played out over the span of entire seasons, "Deep Space Nine" gave more depth to the "Star Trek" universe and allowed more room for characters to grow. Many people consider it to be the best series. Prominent writer and producer Ronald D. Moore went on to give a similarly complicated spin to the mid-2000s reboot of "Battlestar Galactica."

Just as Sisko's story began with a baton-pass from "Next Generation" cast members, the crew of "Voyager" began their journey in 1995 by setting off from "Deep Space Nine." The pilot episode quickly flings the crew of "Voyager" and a group of rebels to a far-off, unexplored region of the galaxy. The starfleet and rebel crews suffer heavy losses, requiring "Voyager's" Captain Kathryn Janeway (played by Kate Mulgrew) to unite the two crews before embarking on a potentially life-long journey home. While it started with a similarly ambitious premise as "Deep Space Nine," the struggles of being removed from Federation space weren't quite as palpable as one might expect.8 Still, "Voyager" has its share of well-defined characters and outstanding episodes — nobody can point to it as threatening the continued success of "Star Trek" in its time.

The End Of Televised 'Trek,' Of 'Next Generation' Movies And The Birth Of 'Kelvin'

The follow-up to "Voyager," initially just titled "Enterprise," is set a little over 100 years before the events of "The Original Series." The Federation has yet to be formed and this incarnation of the "Enterprise" is an experimental ship captained by Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). While the idea of a straight prequel was promising, "Enterprise" was not content with that. One of the recurring plot threads in "Enterprise" gestures to the far-flung future of the "Star Trek" universe and one episode even goes as far to awkwardly shoehorn a recurring villain from "The Next Generation" in over 200 years before their forces reach that section of space. Though shorter-lived in "Star Trek" terms, "Enterprise" did make it to four seasons. It found a better rhythm too late: a string of more promising episodes lead up to a polarizing finale in 2005.

At this point a wide swath of fans were frustrated with long-time producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who had worked on the various series and films throughout the '90s and early '00s. The films "Insurrection" and "Nemesis" were not well-liked (55% and 37% on Rotten Tomatoes respectively), "Voyager" had been confused in execution and even the finale of "Enterprise," intended to be "a valentine" to all of "Star Trek," was widely hated. Paramount wasn't ready to give up on "Star Trek" entirely, but as early as 2005 they were looking to continue it with other people.

Enter J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who started work on a new movie in 2006. The trio decided to do a soft reboot of the franchise by way of some time-travel shenanigans: in 2009's "Star Trek," an event in the 24th century leads to a forked timeline starting in the 23rd. From there the film goes about uniting the characters from "The Original Series," now played by a younger cast including Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Zoe Saldana (Uhura). The timeline of these films is officially called the "Kelvin" timeline after a long standing J.J. Abrams easter egg.

"Star Trek" and its sequels "Into Darkness" and "Beyond" are markedly different in tone from any of the films preceding them. The revised takes on the characters have a different group dynamic, there's significantly more action and none of the three films are all that "high concept" in their premises. "Into Darkness" was perhaps a bit of a misstep — trying to play off the best "Trek" film with the help of Benedict Cumberbatch was maybe not a good idea — but "Star Trek" and the third film "Beyond" are fun romps. The fresh focus on the comradery amongst the "Enterprise" crew is best exemplified in "Beyond," where "Fast & Furious" director Justin Lin sprinkles the "family" refrain from those films over the "Star Trek" universe (and, in one particularly inspired action scene, uses the giant ships of "Star Trek" in a spectacular smash-up as though they're just big cars).

The Future

"Star Trek's" 50th anniversary was celebrated in 2016 with the release of "Beyond" in theaters, but the wait for a new series was pushed further and further into 2017 after the departure of "Hannibal" showrunner Bryan Fuller and other production setbacks. The new show, "Star Trek: Discovery" is set in the original timeline of the other shows and takes place about 10 years before "The Original Series." The first season will run for 15 episodes, which is more than most shows get nowadays but a shorter run than any normal "Star Trek" season before it. Like "Deep Space Nine," the plan is for "Discovery" to tell a serialized story throughout its run. The show is also breaking new ground for "Star Trek" — it's the first time "Star Trek" has had a woman of color as its lead and it's the first series to have an openly gay character in the main cast. Most of the world will be able to watch "Discovery" through Netflix, but US fans will have to subscribe to CBS' own streaming service (you can read our review roundup for the pilot here).

 

Meanwhile, there are plans — albeit shaky ones — for another "Star Trek" film in the "Kelvin" timeline. The earliest buzz confirmed that (spoilers) a certain character is supposed to return by way of some time-travel trickery, but as of yet the film doesn't have a finished script or director attached. Shortly before "Beyond" was released in 2016, Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov) died in a vehicular accident. "Beyond" was subsequently dedicated to Leonard Nimoy, who passed away a year earlier, and to Yelchin. Abrams has said there are no plans to recast the role of Chekov if plans move ahead for a fourth movie.

Between the new show and the potential for more movies in the Kelvin timeline, there hasn't been a better time to be a fan of "Star Trek" since its '90s heydey. Given the ups and downs of the last 50-odd years that's not a surefire guarantee of more "Trek" goodness to come, but here's to hoping it lives long and prospers.

1

The last episode of "The Next Generation" to air before "Deep Space Nine" is Season 6, Episode 11 "Chain of Command, Part II." The last episode of "Deep Space Nine" to air before "Voyager" is Season 3, Episode 12 "Past Tense, Part II."

2

The skip lists at Skippable are quite good.

3

"Wrath of Khan" was the first to establish an oft-repeated joke amongst "Star Trek" fans: that the even-numbered installments of the films are better than the odd ones.

4

From the ubiquity of the replicator to the moneyless society of the Federation, "The Next Generation" was positively post-capitalist if not socialist in its political leanings.

5

This, combined with a reluctance to honor continuity, was coined as the show's "reset button."

6

Infamously, the second proper episode after the pilot is infamous for being an outrageously racist misstep.

7

Amongst fans, this rebound in quality is referred to as "Growing the beard," in recognition of the fact that Jonathan Frakes' character William Riker doesn't sport his lush facial follicles until the show's second season.

8

For instance, in the pilot they say exactly how many torpedoes the ship is carrying — stranded away from the rest of starfleet, "Voyager" should be unable to make more. This video tracks how shoddy the accounting is throughout the series.

<p>Mathew Olson is an Associate Editor at Digg.</p>

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