Star Trek Series Ranking

 So I recently sat down and thought through how I would rank the Star Trek series from best to worst, and then I thought, his should be a blog post. So, here it is, my official current ranking of Star Trek shows. Shows marked with an asterisk are shows I have not finished and thus their rank could easily change. Unranked are The Animated Series and Picard, as I have yet to see any of either.

1) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Its the biggie. I love it like a woman. Actually, no, not at all, but it is my favorite. What really carries this series in my opinion is the characters. Major Kira, Constable Odo, Chief O’Brien, Garak, Nog, Rom, Quark, Jadzia Dax, and Worf all rank as some of my favorite Star Trek characters of all time, and the rest of the cast all have moments they shine as well. Sisko overacts a bit much for my taste, and I actively dislike Jake Sisko, but he is pretty much the only regularly occuring character who isn’t a villain I dislike - and as for the villains, Kai Wynn, Gul Dukat, and Weyoun are probably some of my favorite Star Trek villains of all time, even if they don’t necessarily rank highly for my favorites because Star Trek villains get a lot less screen time than the heroes (for good reason). The serialized plot definitely was mostly an asset to the series, but the real strength is how the relatively light serialization empowered character development, letting the characters really feel like actual people, and more importantly, like a family who all knew and loved one another. The final season is a travesty, though - killing off Jadzia was a huge mistake, I like Ezri but she is no replacement, and about half of the season is entirely serialized and a huge slog to get through. Sisko and Gul Dukat also both get way less interesting throughout this season despite getting a lot of focus. Still, the rest of the series is so good I can overlook the final season.

2) Star Trek: The Next Generation

This is absolutely peak nostalgia for me. I first was introduced to Star Trek when my parents were watching Next Gen on TV, and while I don’t remember absolutely loving it as a kid, it was ubiquitous, and my parents loved it, so it had a calming aura for me. As I got older, I got into first Voyager when it aired, then Deep Space 9, then Babylon 5, all without any way to access or rewatch The Next Generation, both because it was no longer airing new episodes but also because for some reason my parents did not get the box sets, unlike the other three shows. Regardless, it wasn’t until the last five years or so I actually sat down and rewatched it, but there is a reason it has such a sterling reputation. Its great. Its characters are a bit more static than DS9, and its world and plot are way less serialized and thus more static, but the writing episode to episode is just as good, and the fact Picard is probably my favorite Captain, even if he is not my favorite character helps a lot since the Captain always gets so much focus - if an episode focuses on Sisko, particularly in his role as Emissary in DS9, I often feel a bit bummed, but I’m never bummed an episode is focusing on Picard. I also love Data, and as a kid loved Geordie, although as an adult find him a bit too incelly for my taste. I already said I love Worf. I have mixed feelings about Beverly and Troi - both kinda exude the same vibe as my mom when I was a kid, and the show sexualizes them both enough in ways that as a kid I was blind to but now am not, which is rather unconfortable, and Troi in particular is often not well written, whereas Beverly is often paired with Wesley, whom I hate, but overall I like both characters. Wesley is a definite drag on the show, and honestly I dislike Tasha Yar, too - but I like Ensign Ro (although Kira is definitely the superior version of the essentially same character). Riker is fine. The first season is a struggle to get through, and some episodes throughout aged poorly, but honestly I have a hard time even putting this at #2 instead of #1 - DS9 squeaks by purely by it just having deeper characters I like more.

3) Star Trek: Lower Decks

I only just finished watching this show but I fucking loved it. It feels like TNG meets Futurama, another favorite show of mine. I love every main character, especially Tendi, and I also enjoy a lot of the side characters, especially T’Ana, and even though its generally pretty silly and light in tone it really feels like classic Trek to me top to bottom. Honestly the only reason it isn’t vying for a top spot is it is absolutely being held up on the shoulders of TNG and DS9; it would feel like sacrilege to rate it higher than them when it relies upon them so much for its foundation. To be clear, though, this is not merely nostalgia talking, and I could imagine Lower Decks surpassing them… if it got like 35 more seasons so its overall run time remotely approached that of DS9 and TNG. 5 seasons of 10 episodes of 23 minutes each is 1150 minutes total runtime, whereas TNG and DS9 are like 7 seasons of 26 episodes of 50 minutes each for a total of 9100 minutes. Its characters and world just cannot be as fully fleshed out because of its massively shorter runtime, episode count, and number of seasons. I really hope it gets resurrected, though, as honestly it might knock TNG or DS9 off the top slots after a few more rewatchings, its that good, and if we get more, its almost inevitable. My only real complaint is it is just a bit more violent/body horrory and a bit sexier than I’d like - one big advantage of TNG and DS9 and other older Trek is I feel comfortable sharing them with my kids and my wife willingly watches them, but a lot of newer Trek is just too violent or sexy for family viewing, and frankly that sucks, Lower Decks is actually one of the tamer of the new shows, but there are definitely multiple episodes I don’t feel comfortable showing my kids, and my wife watched one episode with me and declared it too much.

4) Star Trek: The Original Series*

My parents never owned this, it wasn’t on TV, and I was honestly afraid it’d be too cheesy for me to enjoy, so I never watched this as a kid, and only very recently started watching it… and I fucking love it. I really regret not trying it sooner. I am incredibly pissed off that only the remastered version is easily available, as I want the original effects, and I’m still in the first season, so I don’t have loads to say, but its great. Obviously parts of incredibly sexist, there is no serialization to speak of so at least so far the characters are pretty static, but I dunno. It has the vibe. I wouldn’t be surprised if this moves up as I watch more of it, although its got stiff competition.

5) Star Trek: Voyager

This is the first Trek series I watched of my own volition and followed when it was on air. I love it, but definitely a lot for nostalgic reasons. I’m revisiting it now and it feels like almost every episode is a “bad” Trek episode - y’know, one where the concept is kinda half baked and they kinda almost miss their own moral point, but is still entertaining to watch. I like Trek when it is bad, but it is still bad when it is bad, you know? It also has the most shrug characters and characters which actively make the show worse - like Neelix and Tom Paris and Chakotay. Also Janeway murdering Tuvix and Kes being 2 and Kes and Neelix’s relationship… its rough. Still, I do love it, I just love it the way you love a really ugly, disobedient puppy who poops everywhere.

6) Star Trek: Enterprise*

This was on when I was in high school, and I did not watch it as it aired. Why? I couldn’t really tell you. At the time I had a weird hipster idea that I wasn’t going to watch TV anymore - broadcast, anyway, for some reason box sets didn’t count - and so I didn’t catch it live. I did revisit it after college with the wife and watched the first season and enjoyed it, but then I went on an archaeological dig and she watched the second season without me, so when I got back we couldn’t continue, and we just never came back to it. Someday I’ll have to. I liked what I saw, but I definitely did not see enough to rate it fairly, so here it sits.

7) Star Trek: Strange New Worlds*

I’m watching this now and loving it. It really captures the feel of classic Trek to me. So far a lot of the episodes have weird little hiccups that don’t quite land for me - like why did Spock and La’an mindmeld in their shuttle mission rather than at any other point in the episode? Why did Kirk stupidly touch that thing? Why did Uhura do a racism and ableism to Hemmer immediately upon meeting him? It feels like a lot of the episodes could use a second pass by the writing team, but nevertheless, its hitting all the right buttons, and I am excited to watch more. If it continues as it is, I would expect this to increase in rank over time, and if it gets better, while I severely doubt it could challenge TNG or DS9, I could see it beating out any other show on this list. So far Hemmer is my favorite character, but I don’t dislike anyone, which is good.

8) Star Trek: Discovery: I’ve talked about this a lot lately. I hated Season 1 so bad I had to put it down, Season 2 was better but still managed to piss me off at the end bad enough I had to put it down a second time, Season 3 is fine, and Season 4 and 5 are actually pretty good. But at the end of the day, while it certainly is Star Trek, it doesn’t feel the way I want Star Trek to feel - its too dark, too action focused, too focused on just one character, and it also is packed with silly and sloppy writing that requires so much hand waiving that people legitimately like to claim it isn’t canon. I ended up liking it overall, but I do hope it stops being the model going forward and we shake things up.

9) Star Trek: Prodigy*

I’ve only watched the first season. It had a slow start, and to be honest, I actively disliked it at first, and I think a lot of blame for that can be placed on its main character, Dall or whatever, his edgy love interest tentacle girl, and the serialized plot with her dad, all of which it failed to get me invested in. Over time, though as I got to know the other characters and the plot becomes less serialized and more episodic, I began to enjoy it more, and by the end of the season I actually liked it. I do think it suffers from being what it is, a kid’s show. Its short runtime means episodes cannot be as deep as a normal Trek episode, and oftentimes they feel overpacked and become hard to follow as things change so rapidly and we jump from scene to scene with not enough connective tissue. That beings said, I did like it, and if the second season continues its upwards trend, I could see this being ranked much higher. Alas, since it was cancelled, probably won’t ever be one of my favorites, as there just isn’t enough of it to really compete with the heavy weights.

10) Star Trek: Starfleet Academy*

I thought the first season showed a lot of promise. Before I heard it was cancelled I was legitimately excited at the prospect of getting more of it. It has some issues: much like Prodigy, I don’t like the main character or his stupid love interest or the way they handle her (dis)ability, and its serialized plot weighs down the series and doesn’t match tonally with the otherwise lighthearted school shenanigans. But I love the concept and so many of the other characters, especially Jay-Den, the Klingon/JemHadar teacher, the Chancellor of Starfleet academy Pixarmom McBarefoot, beloved Sam, returning favorites Jet Reno and Tilly. Fish Guy and Eyebrow girl are whatever, but they are growing on me, So why is it ranked last? Mostly because I like Star Trek a lot, so its got a lot of competition, and its unfinished and only has one season. If it got a full seven seasons with twenty some episodes a season, I bet it could find its voice and I bet it could challenge some of the top contenders. A lot of shows need a chance to figure their identity out before they get good, and streaming services just don’t let them anymore. As it is, I could see it beating out Discovery relatively easily, as I like its Season 1 far more than Discovery Season 1, but other than that, its probably gonna be stuck down here for the simple reason it got cancelled so its never really going to get the chance to be great. Oh well, I still like it.

Oh, and all the TOS reboot movies can live down here at the bottom, I hate those. I haven’t seen the TOS movies and the TNG ones I’m including in TNG’s score, except Nemesis, which I have not seen.