Star Trek – Ranking the Franchise

As noted in my previous post on the latest series, Star Trek has a storied past that is more influential for science fiction and modern genre TV and film that many might give it credit for. While reviving dormant properties for new films or rebooted series may be the norm now, the resurrection of Star Trek a decade after the original series ended was not so commonplace in the late 70s. Yes, the success of Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Battlestar Galactica probably helped, but it was the fans who kept the concept alive for that decade that proved the difference. Those fans have been rewarded many times over since as Star Trek is easily the most prolific sci-fi franchise not named Doctor Who.

For those of us who have consumed all or most of that content, a debate always rages over which incarnation (or crew, captain, ship, etc…) is the best. Of course, that brings me to another of my favorite ranking lists. This list will really only be for genuine Trek fans and will contain some SPOILERS.

This list considers each live action TV series (sorry, no Animated Series as I’ve only seen an episode or two and I’m holding Discovery off for now as well) and groups the films into their three respective crews/iterations. While I am a believer that all Trek is capable of being good Trek, we’ll start at the bottom:

8. Star Trek: Voyager

Right off the bat, I’m sure this list will stir some controversy for putting this below the next entry , but Voyager never really worked for me. Coming off the “definitive” type of Trek that was TNG and the heavily serialized nature of the latter half of DS9, Voyager felt like a step backwards. Intended to bring back the exploratory aspect of Trek, it instead squandered an intriguing premise of a starship flung into an unexplored region of the galaxy by telling mostly low-stakes episodic stories. Even when the show leaned into the concept in installments like “Year of Hell” it quickly found ways to hit the reset button and eliminate all possible consequences. It’s telling that later seasons relied on previous Trek concepts like the Borg, guest appearances by characters from other shows and even ratcheting up the sex appeal by introducing the cat-suited Seven of Nine (admittedly a great character despite the obvious pandering).

Fans of TNG will likely see Voyager as more of a “return to form” but outside of the aforementioned Seven and Captain Janeway, I found very few characters compelling or watchable when they’d get their own narratives. I still couldn’t tell you anything interesting about Chakotay other than his face-tattoo.

I will admit that I missed several episodes of Voyager in the later seasons as my local UPN affiliate was dropped from my cable provider for some time. I returned to watch the final season intermittently and was incredibly disappointed with the finale. I’d always said that the best thing the show could do was bring the ship back home before it ended and showed us how they adjusted to all that had changed in seven years before perhaps rallying them together again for one crucial mission against some threat from the Delta Quadrant. Hey, maybe you could even give it a Gilligan’s Island-style conclusion that sent them right back out again.

7. Enterprise

The series that finally ended Trek‘s nearly 20 year run on TV would probably sit at the bottom of most lists and I’ll confess that it’s the only show I willingly stopped watching after a couple seasons of mediocre stories set in the early days of Earth’s exploration of the galaxy, before the formation of the Federation and when beaming someone up was a lot riskier than it was for most crews we’d seen. When I revisited the remaining seasons years later, I was surprised to find some solid season-long and multi-episode arcs that, in the early 2000s, looked better and were more at home with the changing shape of television than previous series. Themes involving eugenics, a Romulan conspiracy and the kind of “Earth-first” thinking that would probably feel even timelier now helped elevate the dramatic heft of the series to a place I appreciated.

Really, you can put this show and Voyager in a tie for the bottom if you want. Enterprise also featured forgettable characters, some pointless callbacks to better Trek and yet another female character engineered for fanboy service in T’Pol. I mean, the pilot of the show featured a scene with her stripped to her underwear, slathering on some “decontamination gel.” They were equal opportunity in the blatant titillation by getting Trip into his skivvies as well.

Oh, and lest we forget, this was the only Trek with an actual theme song (by Rod Stewart, no less) so horrendous I remember hearing it as muzak in a Hallmark store.

6. The TNG Films

After seven successful seasons in syndication, Star Trek: The Next Generation went out on a high note that all but ensured a new film franchise would be a profitable venture. Sure enough, within six months of the series finale, Star Trek: Generations landed, bringing Picard, Data and the Enterprise-D to the big screen in a movie that also featured some of the original crew and functioned as a baton-passing of sorts.

Generations was a serviceable film, but the pinnacle of TNG theatrical adventures was the follow up, First Contact, which wisely leaned into the action potential of the villainous Borg. At this point, before Voyager bled them dry, the Borg were used sparingly and giving them the high-budget treatment while providing something of a capstone to Picard’s experiences with them in the series made for an exciting, fun flick.

Unfortunately, the next two entries, Insurrection and Nemesis were highly forgettable…the former barely an interesting throwaway TV story and the latter a laughably bad plot involving vampiric Romulan offshoots, a clone of Picard (Tom Hardy in an early role) and yet another Data prototype called…I shit you not…B-4. These movies effectively killed the momentum of Trek on the silver screen.

5. The New Star Trek Films…AKA the Abrams-Verse…AKA the Kelvin-Verse

Star Trek has been a wildly successful franchise in the past and while its appeal waned at the turn of the century, formerly successful concepts are catnip to Hollywood. While the first of the rebooted film series came out only four years after the end of Enterprise it felt like much longer. Of course, just another entry would have appealed to only the most diehard fans so the old “reboot” trick was pulled, courtesy of probably the biggest director of the moment, JJ Abrams. A retelling of the early adventures of Kirk, Spock and the classic Enterprise gets an attractive young cast, a glossy, modern filmmaking look (with plenty of Abrams’ trademark lens flare) and even manages to somewhat appease the continuity fans by justifying the changes to established stories as alternate-universe, time-travel shenanigans.

Many fans will disagree, but I think these are fun, exciting movies. Yes, they are completely spectacle-driven action-adventure pieces devoid of the kind of thoughtful societal reflections the various series were know for but I would argue that’s exactly what I want from big screen Trek and it’s the only way we will get more movies with sizable budgets and big name directors/actors. The Star Trek fan base may be large but a successful film needs to attract more than just the geeks like you and me that know what happened at Wolf 359. The first film does that with ease…if my wife who hates most science fiction can enjoy it knowing next to nothing about Trek and it still appeals to a longtime Trekkie like myself, that’s special.

I didn’t like the first sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness, at first viewing, mostly because they worked far too hard to pretend the movie was going a different direction from where we all thought. Had the marketing simply leaned into the idea that this was a re imagination of The Wrath of Khan, I wouldn’t have been so disappointed waiting for something that didn’t happen and simply enjoyed it for what it was. Once that initial feeling was out of the way, subsequent viewings have proven it just as top-notch as the first. The most recent movie, Star Trek Beyond was much weaker than the prior entries but still an enjoyable “watch at home” movie if you liked the first two.

4. Star Trek…AKA The Original Series

Obviously, this list and every other entry wouldn’t exist without the original, classic Trek. I can only imagine how original, fresh and exciting this show was to sci-fi fans in the late 60s, a vision of the future where humans and aliens lived and worked together, where exploration and science ruled and despite traveling light years from Earth, the problems and issues that plagued out own society could still rear their ugly heads. Science fiction is at its best when it creates a world that’s tangible while still being very different, a reflection of both our immense potential and flaws. Star Trek lived in a world where the flaws were correctable with the right words or leadership. It’s an idea that may not feel as believable anymore but it was the backbone for a beloved franchise.

While it’s easy to point at what was hokey about the Original Series (cheap sets, some goofy plots, the effects, William Shatner), some of the greatest stories in the genre by some of the greatest writers can be found in this show. Harlan Ellison may not have liked the watered-down result but “City on the Edge of Forever” is one of the great examples of Dangerous Ramifications of Time Travel® and an absolute classic. “A Taste of Armageddon” is a believable future of technological warfare tale. “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” is a heavy-handed allegory on racism that still feels far too fresh today. “Mirror, Mirror” played with the idea of an alternate universe and all the fun new takes on familiar characters. Yeah, there are more than a few clunkers, there’s some clear sexism problems and it can be a painfully outdated show to watch today but this series did enough in three seasons to not only build a franchise but inspire decades of artists and creators to come.

3. The TOS Films

The fact that the original Star Trek series inspired enough interest and ongoing fandom that a decade after cancellation an expensive feature film was commissioned is one thing. Digging up, dusting off and throwing out long-dead ideas is a Hollywood staple now, if not in 1979. That there would be five more films to follow was also unexpected. Other than James Bond and Godzilla, name a franchise prior to the 1990s or so that could muster up enough interest for more than a sequel or two if they were lucky? Even Star Wars would settle for a trilogy for nearly 20 years.

Even more amusing is the fact that Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a rather dull, bloated film that aimed for 2001 levels of importance without the story to truly support it. Initially intended to be the pilot for a new series, the more lethargic TV pacing is evident in the finished product but it was “proof of concept” enough for the studio to commissioner a sequel with some more action. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan may be better credited with keeping Kirk, Spock, McCoy and company on screen for the next decade and perhaps keeping Star Trek alive and beloved enough to justify a new series in 1987. Picking up as a sequel to an Original Series episode, it finds the perfect balance of classic Trek themes while also exploring the realities of an aging crew, letting Ricardo Montalbán chew so much scenery as Khan and even daring to kill off a main character after a cat-and-mouse game that would be at home is the best submarine movies. It is the best Star Trek movie to date, by far.

It’s long been noted that every other Trek movie seems to be the better entries. The Search for Spock accomplishes its titular mission and blows up the Enterprise in the process but struggled to live up to its predecessor. The Voyage Home wraps up the unofficial trilogy that Khan began with an absurdly fun trip to 1980s San Francisco to rescue some whales…yeah, you read every bit of that right and I still recommend the hell out of this movie. The Final Frontier is often considered the worst of the films, but it does give Kirk the best/worst line: “What does God need with a starship?” Finally, The Undiscovered Country sends the crew off in style with a murder mystery and a few ties to  The Next Generation, already deep into its run.

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation

If the Original Series films were a gamble for the Star Trek franchise, the return to television was Paramount putting all of their chips on the table. Launching the series in syndication–then a place for game shows, daytime TV and reruns–was a masterstroke, preventing network interference and prime-time competition (depending on when your local affiliate aired it). The casting was perfect, from the charismatic Shakespearean Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard to Brent Spiner as Data, who fully embraced the non-emotional Pinocchio aspect of his character. Perhaps they could have done a better job with their female leads, but there was effortless diversity in the cast (for late 80s/early 90s) and even recurring characters like Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan that made the Enterprise-D feel like a living, breathing city in space, not just a vehicle to move from one plot to the next.

TNG could be much more episodic than we may like our television to be now, but, like the Original Series, there are some classic pieces to be found. Unlike that show, though, many work because they are TNG stories, not in spite of it. “The Inner Light” is perfect because it gives Picard a life he willfully turned his back on and is unlikely to ever experience. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” forces the crew to grapple with preserving a history they don’t even know and sacrifice a character they already lost once before. “The Measure of a Man” confronts the dilemma of Data as property or person. All great stories, but none work quite the same outside of the context of TNG. Even the series finale stands out as the best of Trek and one of the more satisfying ways to close out seven years with these characters.

Odds are, if you’re a Star Trek fan under the age of 50, it’s because of The Next Generation and it still holds a special place in your heart. I had seen a few eps of the Original Series, perhaps one or two movies and I actually came into TNG in its penultimate season but I was immediately hooked and obsessed. It set the Trek standard in look and design for years. It’s still massively influential today and probably the most recognizable Trek to non-fans. It’s so ingrained in my own geek history that I’ve happily been listening to a podcast (The Greatest Generation) devoted to recapping the entire series and haven’t really needed to rewatch a single episode to remember them. There’s humor to mine but also an obvious fondness and a fun community that the old school fans trying to bring Trek back over 40 years ago would appreciate.

I won’t fault anyone who puts TNG at the top of their Trek mountain but for me…

1. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I’m a TV junkie. I’m not sure where it started exactly (The X-Files? TNG? Knight Rider?) but I’ve seen an absurd amount of series start to finish and still find new ones every year to fall in love with. I’ve also learned what I do and don’t like in a good series and the ones that stick with me and make it on to my “best of” lists are usually dramas with strong, complex characters and long-form narratives that tell a single story or at least the undercurrent of one. Those are rather routine today but not in the mid-90s and certainly not for science fiction programming (what little there was).

Along came two series with some similar DNA, Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5, that quickly became two of my favorites simply by telling stories that lasted longer than that week’s allotted 40-odd minutes between commercials. I love DS9 for many of the reasons other fans do not. It’s a stationary Trek for the most part…while there is plenty of exploration and “new worlds and new civilizations” over the course of seven seasons, the primary place is a space station near a struggling post-occupation planet and a wormhole to an unexplored region of the galaxy. It’s a darker, more political, issue-driven series, as apt to dive into the psychology of religious zealotry, war and terrorism as it is to introduce a new alien. Early episodes follow the story-of-the-week formula but DS9 found its sweet spot when it explored the enemy-is-among-us dynamics of The Dominion and eventually went to war for sweeping arcs in the final seasons. If TNG represented the boundless optimism of the future and where technology, peace and curiosity could take us, DS9 is the reminder that there are still dark, hard-edge corners of the universe when the Enterprise zips away.

Let’s talk about the characters. Commander Benjamin Sisko, a man with a chip on his shoulder and a questionable attitude toward his assignment. He’s a noble guy but there are more than a few times he makes choices that the typical Starfleet captain would never dream of entertaining. Major Kira, the badass Bajoran scarred by her history and devotion to her people. Odo, the “other” character of this series in the tradition of Data and Spock, whose struggle to learn his origin leads to revelations that set the back half of the entire series in motion. Dax, a being in a symbiotic relationship with a creature that has carried its/her identity across multiple bodies…a subtle exploration of gender identity and fluidity long before we even had terms for them. Even one of the villains of the series, Gul Dukat, is a complicated character that you’ll find yourself liking and hating equally.

Like Voyager, I lost access to this show just before season six (apparently I live in a sci-fi unfriendly area…the local Fox station dumped DS9, UPN wasn’t accessible to cable subscribers and Babylon 5 aired at 3:00 AM on Saturdays) but was so desperate to keep up, I did so via Jammer’s Reviews and I remember reading the series finale novelization in one night. It wasn’t until I could get the DVDs through Netflix (remember when that was their business?) years later that I got to actually see them.

Now that the aforementioned Greatest Generation podcast has moved on to this series, I am eagerly re-watching it, even in standard definition, on Netflix. I have a feeling that many of its themes will feel more relevant than ever and it will still sit atop my list with no regrets.