There have been 5 live action Star Trek series over the years, each one different and unique and each one adding to and building upon the Star Trek universe. Each has its own pace and tells its own story, so the argument could be made that none of them is better than the others, they’re all just different. On a certain level, I could and would agree with that. On another level, I also think it is fun to try to rank things and decide and argue which one is best. That’s the point of this post. Which of the series is the best series? Which one is the worst? I’ll be deciding that here, and I’m sure you’ll disagree. All Star Trek fans are pretty passionate, especially when it comes to their own, beloved series. Please let me know which is your favorite in the comments. i would love to hear from you. Here is how I have them ranked:
5. Star Trek: Enterprise
Oh Enterprise, where do I start? I never could get into this series. I tried, I wanted to like it, but I just never could. It was the newest series, but it was supposed to set the furthest back in time of all the series. It was a starship that predated the NCC 1701 Enterprise by about a hundred years. It takes place before there is a United Federation of Planets. In some ways, it was very cool. It was cool to see the struggles of early travel to the stars for Earth, breaking away from the Vulcans who were monitoring everything since First Contact. All of that was interesting, and then it wasn’t.
For me, the highlight of the series was Captain Archer, played by Scott Bakula. He was great, and I had little to no issues with him. He was a cautious captain, but also knew when to take risks. He also ends up being very important for the formation of the Federation. His character was good, and if we were ranking Captains, I don’t know that he would end up in last place.
The low-light for me was the series finale, which was sudden, to say the least, and felt more like an episode of The Next Generation, as a result of the appearances of Troi and Riker, and that they were observing all the events from a holodeck. What a weird way to end a series.
4. Star Trek: Voyager
Alright, I’ll be honest, numbers 4 and 3 are almost interchangeable for me. I enjoyed both series quite a bit, and it is almost unfair to rank one above the other, but I’m going to, and when we get to 3, I’ll tell you why it lands higher on the list for me. One of the best things about Voyager, for me, was that it got back to space exploration, and it introduced a bunch of new alien races, as they were stuck in a completely different part of the galaxy and had to make their way home.
This is a great series to watch if you want to learn about managing and putting together a team. Janeway had her hands full as she had to bring together Star Fleet officers and members of the Maquis, all of whom did not like each other, or the prospect of working together. Janeway was a level-headed commanding officer, and she made it all work, somehow, and brought everyone home.
For me, the toughest stretch in this series is the first season. It is necessary to watch to get what is going on, but the series gets much better after the first season. I love that they have encounters with the Borg, and I also love how the team evolves over time and become a strong crew, despite their initial differences. All around, an enjoyable series.
3. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Let the debate begin. You might argue that Voyager was better, because it was more traditional Star Trek, with a starship and exploration and all of that, and you might be right. Nonetheless, I rank this show higher because this was my wife’s first introduction into my geekiness. We sat down and made our way through all the episodes of DS9 together, and she really enjoyed it. That’s why this one makes number 3, and no other reason.
This was a very different series in that it was driven by long story arcs, instead of being more episodic, like TNG and TOS. If you started watching it, you needed to watch the next episode, and probably the next and maybe even the whole season before all the story lines were wrapped up. That takes some adjusting, and may not be what a lot people preferred for the time, but I think it was ahead of its time, really. How many popular shows are there now that are the same? Long story arcs that draw out over a full season, or possibly longer-it happens all the time now.
This was another series where the finale was not so great. The final episode felt cramped and rushed as the tried desperately to wrap all the loose ends form he entire series, which they didn’t really. Then there’s the whole Sisko becoming a god thing. That was just unexpected and strange. I did love, though, that they eventually brought on Worf to boost ratings. Any show with Worf is ok in my book.
2. Star Trek
This is it, the original series, the show that launched the franchise. As such, it automatically gets moved almost to the front of the line. There was nothing like Star Trek, when the series landed on TV in the 60s. It seemed like it had a history and culture already fleshed out when it began airing, and it created a fan culture unlike any other. The series itself only lasted a few years, unfortunately, and then it was canceled. They tried to bring it back as an animated series, and then it was brought back as a series of feature films.
Fans latched onto Star Trek and never let it go. And that all started here with this series. We were racing to get to the moon, and Star Trek provided us an example of what we could do once we got there and then went further. It also painted a picture of a society with intolerance or hate. It was an ideal, utopian society with really cool phasers and communicators, and transporters. The bridge crew was diverse with different nationalities and races represented well, including an alien with pointy ears. The original crew, led by Kirk, will never be forgotten, and there’s a reason that the reboot started with them. Everything we love about Star Trek is thanks to Kirk and Spock and Bones.
1. Star Trek: The Next Generation
What can I say? This was my Star Trek. I don’t think I really realized I was a geek until I started watching this show. I loved it. Granted, watching it now, i wonder how it survived past the first 3 seasons, but I am glad it did. Once “Best of Both Worlds” hit, TNG had cemented itself as the best of the Star Trek franchise, at least in my heart.
This was similar to TOS, but also very different. Everything looked newer and was sleeker, for one thing. no more buttons, it was all touch screen. Picard was a very different captain than Kirk (a debate for another time), and his crew seemed to have a very different mission. Yes, the opening credits said it was the same mission, but in reality, this Enterprise explored less and was more of a diplomatic powerhouse sent in to end in any conflicts within the Federation. The crew had a different chemistry, reflective of the late 80s, early 90s. Picard was in charge, but the crew discussed things a lot more. It was more cooperative, whereas Kirk was much more authoritative.
As I mentioned, the series had a rough start, but got better with each season. I have two measuring sticks when trying to decide if an episode is worth re-watching: 1. How tight are the uniforms? the more skintight, the less likely that it will be one of the better episodes, as this indicates it is an earlier episode. 2. How long is Worf’s hair- the longer the hair, the later the episode, so it may be better.
What do you think? which was your favorite episode? Did you know, that starting in 1987, we had 18 years straight of new Trek on TV. We are now coming up on a full decade without any. I think it’s high time we got a new series of some sort on TV. Trek in the movie theater is one thing, and rebooted Trek is another thing entirely. Where the franchise really belongs is the small screen in a weekly series. That’s what i think most fans want. In any case, let me know in the comments how my list compares to yours. It is always fun to see how people view these things differently.
12 responses to “Ranking the Star Trek Series”
Good post. No right or wrong answers. I have tried to compile this same list in head but can easily be swayed. Anyway, well done.
TOS without it there would be no Star Trek
Enterprise
Deep Space Nine
Voyager
Cartoons
New Gen Besides wolf who really shines on deep space nine not a Charice I liked.
If you asked me straight up which is my favorite, I’ll always say DS9. My son’s name is “Miles Benjamin” for Pete’s sake. But really, TOS and TNG are imprinted on my DNA. I mostly agree with your order, but the intersection of religion and politics and war makes DS9 my usual fave. Unlike you, it really bothered me that they brought in Worf; it felt forced, and a ploy for ratings. And it worked. But I was already so sick of Klingon stories when he came on…would have rather had them explore other characters.
1.-DS9
2.-Star Trek TNG
3.-Star Trek original
4.-Star Trek Enterprise
5.-Star Trek Voyager
This is correct.
If you subtract the prophets and all the backward superstitions displayed in DS9, as well as the Bajorans and Kira, then DS9 …would be superior even to TNG. The war with the Dominion was well made and written except of course the end where the the writers were in a corner and used the old “Zeus ex Machina” approach. As is, TNG is superior, being the true star trek vision of enlightenment, scientific exploration, the scientific method, anti superstition, (see devil’s due and many others), and rationalism.
Best to worst IMO
1. TNG – This is the series that got me hooked on the star trek franchise a few years ago.
2. Voyager – i thought i would hate this series … How would a female captain have the same presence as Jean-Luc Piccard. Kate Mulgrew totally pulled it off. The addition of Jeri Ryan as 7of9 was brilliant.
3. Enterprise – The pilot was horrible and the rest of the first season was not much better but they stepped up seasons 2-4 . Wasn’t really a fan of the end of the series but it didnt last as long as TNG, DS9 & Voyager and seemed like they tossed something together at the last min.
4. DS9 – The whole Religious and superstitious overtone of DS9 kills the show. Avery Brooks’ overacting is also eye-roll worthy but i get that he was classically trained and you kind of get use to the character as the episodes go on. Jake, his kid was fun in the beginning but once he started the whole “i want to be a journalist” crap, it killed the character and he was quite whinny at that point too. Would have been great if he followed in his father’s footsteps….let nog take the journalist route. Garak, Quark, Odo and Dukat were my favorite characters. Louise Fletcher’s Winn Adami was my least favorite character.
5. TOS – Its just horrible iMO. The writing is sound … i cant stand William Shatner and with the 1960’s cameras and stage sets … it makes it unbearable for me.
Star Trek first appeared when I was 10, and Spock was very influential to me. I didn’t realize how close his philosophy was to Classical Greek Stoicism until my late teen age years and my introduction to formal logic and philosophy. Growing up in the service, I also found Kirk and Spock to have the closest to what I would consider military bearing, except maybe for Sisko.
As far as writing and acting go, the best cast was DS9 and the stories were the most complex with fewest logical inconsistencies.
TNG seems very dated and had the most “awful” actors. Crosby, Sirtis, Frakes and Wheaton couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag. It did get better after the first two seasons, but much of the show reminded of my years as a corporate executive, with meetings, an HR staff and consensus building.
We are trying to get into Voyager, but Neelix and Kes and the nameless faceless crew are preventing that.
We can’t get past the theme music of Enterprise and Jolene Blalock is no Vulcan.
So, that is my order.
1. TOS- because Spock is me and I am Spock.
2. DS9- Best writing and acting and adult story line.
3. TNG- Occasionally compelling stories marred by 80s sensibilities and poor acting from several cast members.
4. VOY- snoozerific.
5. Enterprise- Everything about it is wrong.
Trust me once you get past 1, or 2 season depending on how boring you think it is voyager really picks up, especially when 7 of 9 joins the crew.
Ds9 and tng are equal to me. Start great and end lame. Then the original series and the last two are interchangable. Extremely hit and miss.
I am old enough to have watched every one of the shows,like others who have posted. Some say they started watching years after the original series was cancel, I believe they don’t have the same prospective, not saying they are incorrect – it’s subjective. The difference being TV was primitive, so how we digested Star Trek was awesome, far from the Rifleman or Gunsmoke etc. Your choices of TV were very limited also-NBC,CBS, ABC was about it.
1) Original Star Trek – without Roddenberry getting it produced nothing would follow
2) Tie; Next Generation and Enterprise – NG had everything and Enterprise was refreshing as a history buff, u have to know where you came from to know where your going.
3) Voyager – just because I liked it more than than DS9
4) DS9 – Didn’t like the cartoonist characters, Ala Star Wars.
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My favorite list somewhat differ from the main stream.
1) Enterprise, probably because , as a tech guy, I appreciate the upgraded cdg graphics a lot. I frankly can’t understand people’s hate for Enterprise. its about an era never seen before in all the other series and I always wondered how it was like during that point in town.
2) Voyager is my close second, again, high teck an eye candy brought me to it.
3) TNG , cause despite the dated 90s tv technology, the stories and character are very interesting and I think its the most”star treky” show of them all.
4) DS9 was hard to watch the first time around but I don’t mind rewashing it every once in a while I Just have a hard time getting over all the religious crap and the Painfully bad actin of Sisco.
5) TOS was by far to me the worse star trek ever made. the actors are horrible! I can barely watch a scene witout rolling my outs at such bad over acting and pretty much inexistent TV tech. the plastic decors, bad shake sync on the bridge. As an Atheist, the constant references about god and region makes me want to hit the stop button every time. That low budget, poorly acted piece of garbage of a show should have been canceled after the “lets not even mention how bad it was” Pilot episode. But I guess we would have never gotten the great spinoffs that came out of it. I must admit I’ve watched them over and over for as long as I had a computer… (1994). but never got through more than 2 season of TNG.
6) Cartoons… no thank