With a long and successful career as one of the most popular franchises in television and film history, Star Trek has experienced a renaissance in recent years, due to the success of new series like Discovery and Picard.

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This success has spurred more Trek series to be developed for the small screen, including the Captain Pike-era centered Strange New Worlds and the Michelle Yeoh Discovery spinoff revolving around the mysterious shadow organization known as Section 31. With adherents and detractors amongst diehard Trekkers and general viewers alike, here are the best Star Trek series to date, according to IMDb.

Lower Decks - IMDb Rating: 6.9

Star Trek Lower Decks Second Contact

Star Trek: Lower Decks is notable in that it is the second Trek animated series to air since the 1970s and the focus of its narrative is not on captains or high-ranking officers, but junior and low-ranking officers. The adult-oriented cartoon also takes place in the TNG-era on a relatively unimportant ship in the Federation fleet, the USS Cerritos.

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Ensigns Beckett Mariner, Brad Boimler, and D'Vana Tendi provide humor as they navigate mundane careers in Starfleet, occasionally crossing paths with notable Star Trek characters like William Riker and Q.

Discovery - IMDb Rating: 7.2

Sonequa Martin-Green Anson Mount and Doug Jones in Star Trek Discovery Season 2

Discovery’s premiere in 2017 marked the end of a long period in which Star Trek was absent from television, arguably the medium that bests suits it. The show quickly established itself as different than previous iterations of Trek, with a serialized approach to its narrative and a focus on darker themes.

Rather than center upon a captain as its main character, like the Trek series that had come before it, Discovery revolves around Michael Burnham, a disgraced first officer. There’s no denying Discovery has breathed new life into the Star Trek franchise.

The Animated Series - IMDb Rating: 7.4

Characters from Star Trek: The Animated Series.

When the original Star Trek series went off the air in 1969, fans all over the world commiserated. Yet the popularity of the show would not die, and the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, decided to continue the adventures of Captain Kirk and the intrepid crew of the Enterprise in an animated format.

As a direct sequel, the show featured the return of the entire original cast in the voices of the roles they made famous and featured many popular secondary characters and settings from the live-action series. Due to the freedom an animated series could afford producers in depicting alien life forms, many new characters also made their debut on this show.

Enterprise - IMDb Rating: 7.5

Enterprise - Complete Guide to Star Trek

Named after the most famous ship in the Star Trek universe, Star Trek: Enterprise was the earliest Star Trek series in terms of chronology, taking place shortly after First Contact and before the creation of the Federation.

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The galaxy Captain Archer and the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise found themselves in was definitely bigger, less familiar, and less technologically advanced than what viewers had come to expect from a Trek series, but they definitely made due. Though not as beloved as previous Trek shows, Enterprise forged its own unique path as a prequel series.

Picard - IMDb Rating: 7.5

Picard and Raffi standing next to each other in Star Trek: Picard

Picard picks up years after the final Next Generation film Nemesis and sees the legendary captain retired on his family winery in France. Viewers are quickly brought to speed as to recent events: a supernova has destroyed the Romulan homeworld, and an attack on the shipyards on Mars by rogue synthetics crippled the Federation’s relief efforts.

Haunted both by his failure to save the Romulan survivors and the death of his friend Data, Picard comes out of retirement to fight for the rights of synthetic lifeforms all across the Federation.

Voyager - IMDb Rating: 7.8

Voyager Cast Photo

Boasting the first female captain in a lead role for a Star Trek series, Voyager had an interesting premise: the ship would be manned by a crew combined of Starfleet officers and Maquis fighters and would be catapulted to the Delta Quadrant, 70 000 light-years away from Earth.

The show didn’t disappoint on narrative tension, as the crew learned to accept each other’s differences and encountered new civilizations and stellar phenomenon. Midway through the show’s run, the crew even rehabilitated a Borg drone and made her part of the crew--no easy feat for any captain!

Deep Space Nine - IMDb Rating: 8.0

The cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

When Deep Space Nine premiered in 1993, it stood out as being the only Star Trek spin-off to take place entirely on a space station. The series took about two seasons to find its footing, and really picked up the narrative pace when it introduced the empire on the other end of the wormhole, the Dominion. With their Jem’Hadar shock troops, the Dominion wreaked havoc on the Alpha Quadrant for four seasons.

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Often considered the “black sheep” of the Star Trek universe for showcasing darker themes and morally ambiguous characters that purists believed were not conversant with Gene Roddenberry’s utopian vision, Deep Space Nine was nevertheless a compellingly thought-provoking and worthy entry into Star Trek canon.

The Original Series - IMDb Rating: 8.3

The crew of the Enterprise gather on the bridge from Star Trek

The series that started it all, Star Trek premiered in 1966 and differed from other science fiction shows significantly. Rather than depict a dystopian wasteland as a future, it showcased humanity’s ability to overcome its lesser instincts and conquer its predilection for things like war and disease. Traveling the stars in search of new worlds and new civilizations as part of a galactic Federation dedicated to knowledge and peace appealed to an audience desperate for hope in the face of the Cold War and civil unrest.

Built on the interplay between the passionate Dr. McCoy, coldly logical Mr. Spock, and unflappable Captain James T. Kirk, this series was the template for all other Star Trek series to come.

The Next Generation - IMDb Rating: 8.6

Star Trek: Next Generation Cast

Considering the reverence accorded the original series, starting a whole new show with none of the original actors was a huge gamble when Paramount launched Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. However, the show quickly found its footing and a loyal viewership after an uneven first season.

Stewarded by the diplomatic yet decisive Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the series introduced new characters, worlds, and alien races to the Star Trek universe and plumbed narrative depths that were rewarding to watch. The show fulfilled creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a utopian future and is arguably the best Star Trek series to date.

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