Happy Star Trek Day!

Today is the 60th anniversary of the broadcast premiere of the original Star Trek's first episode, so let's take a look at each incarnation in order of appearance to see how they stack up.

Star Trek (1966-1969)--This is where it all began, the mothership, if you will. Despite lackluster ratings in prime time on NBC, it managed to kick start a phenomenon. This one has to be given top marks, because without it, none of the later incarnations would even exist.  

Star Trek (1973-1974)--The animated series shares its title with the original and is, in many respects, a continuation of that initial five-year mission. Initially dismissed as a non-canonical kiddie show, it was hardly standard kiddie fare. Utilizing almost all of the original cast and many of the original writers, the animated series is indeed a worthy successor to the original. It is unfortunate that it came about at a time where hand animation had become prohibitively expensive but computer technology had not progressed to the point where it could take up any of the heavy lifting. When the original series was 'remastered' in the mid-2000s with new computer-generated special effects sequences, I kept thinking how great it would be if this series' low-budget animation could get a similar upgrade. Still, this series remains woefully underrated, especially considering it accomplished one thing the original series didn't--it won an Emmy.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)--The two-hour pilot for an aborted television revival gets expanded into a feature film. Often criticized for its slow pacing and lack of real action, Star Trek's big screen debut had a rocky road to completion, having started production without a completed script. In the end, director Robert Wise managed to pull out a credible science fiction movie, but it wasn't good Star Trek. At least it was good enough to warrant a sequel.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)--Director Nicholas Meyer took the time to watch the original series in its entirety to gain an understanding of what Star Trek was all about, and struck on two first-season episodes from which to draw inspiration: "The Space Seed," which provided the film's backstory, and "The Balance of Terror", which inspired the submarine style space battle at the film's climax. This film brought back the best of what the original series embodied, updating it for a new era.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)--The second of what turned out to be an interconnected trilogy of films and Leonard Nimoy's directoral debut, this film is an entertaining follow-up to its predecessor; in fact, the two could easily be edited together into one continuous, albeit overly long, film. The end of the previous film is, in effect, the beginning of this one. That said, it still stands up well some four decades later, especially as it lays the foundation for Klingons to come. 

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)--The one with the whales, this third installment of the de facto trilogy also saw Nimoy return to the director's chair for an earthly and more lighthearted romp, which audiences found refreshing and those less familiar with the franchise found more accessible than its predecessors. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)--Star Trek's triumphant return to the small screen marked a great departure in that it was set some 80 years further in the future and included an all-new cast of characters. Released directly into syndication, where the original series met its greatest success, the first two seasons struggled to find their way, but by the third, it had found its stride and established for itself a place comparable to the original as it set off the next major phase of Star Trek. 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) William Shatner's directorial debut, this is seen as the weakest of the original cast features, to the point that many wondered at the time of its release whether the word "final" in its title might be prescient. Fortunately, for us, it wasn't. Box office draw was lackluster enough that it was quickly re-released as a double-feature with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. 

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)--With TNG firmly established and the original cast moving past their prime, it was time for one last adventure. Director Nicholas Meyer returned to the helm and collaborated with Leonard Nimoy on the story to give the original cast a fitting sendoff in a film that stands well beside Meyer's previous effort 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-2000)--The second series of Star Trek's new television era flipped the proverbial script. Whereas Star Trek to this point has always been set aboard a starship, in keeping with Gene Roddenberry's original concept of a wagon train to the stars, DS9 is set aboard a space station, essentially Dodge City in space. Instead of setting out to explore strange new worlds, the universe came to them. DS9 eventually ushered in a more serialized mode of storytelling, as opposed to the traditional episodic approach. 

Star Trek: Generations (1994)--Captain Picard enlists the aid of Captain Kirk as the feature film baton passes to the TNG cast. The film itself wasn't at all bad, but neither was it stellar. Still, it managed to usher in the new era of feature films, even if the Enterprise-D was destroyed and Captain Kirk was killed in the process.

Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)--With TNG's jump to the big screen, another starship show was in order, this time fulfilling the idea originally conceived two decades earlier for Star Trek: Phase II, which evolved into STMP, premiering as the flagship show of the United Paramount Network. The show spun off directly from DS9, with which it ran in tandem--back-to-back in many markets and in syndication in areas not served by UPN. Set in a different quadrant of the galaxy, Voyager had the opportunity for its crew to encounter new species, not seen before, although the Borg eventually figured prominently.

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)--The TNG crew's sophomore big screen outing was arguably its best, recalling events hinted at in the original series episode "Metamorphosis" and effectively putting an end to the Borg threat aboard a new Enterprise-E.

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)--This is where the TNG films started to falter, or maybe Paramount just began to lose interest. Dumped into cinemas with almost promotion, it did not fare well at the box office, even though the film itself wasn't all that bad. At the same time it wasn't up to the caliber of its immediate predecessor.

Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)--Originally simply titled Enterprise, this series succeeded Voyager as UPN's flagship series. Set about a century before the original series, it tells the story of an earlier Enterprise and the formation of what would become the United Federation of Planets. Somewhat maligned for its theme song, Enterprise was less popular than its immediate predecessors, but is a solid series nonetheless and held up well over time. Unlike the previous three shows, which ran for seven seasons each, Enterprise only ran for four, cut short by the merger of the UPN and WB networks to form the CW, which apparently did not have room for Enterprise.

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)--The end of the line for the TNG films, it was definitely the weakest of the four. It felt that everyone--the cast, the crew, and Paramount itself--had lost interest, and it showed in the abysmal box office receipts, really begging the question of why it was made at all. 

Star Trek (2009)--Going into pre-production a year after Enterprise aired its last episode, J.J. Abrams' first Star Trek film rebooted the franchise in an alternate timeline. Thus unencumbered by canon, Abrams was able to create his own origin story for the famed Enterprise crew. The film was relatively lighthearted and intended to be accessible to those not familiar with the franchise.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)--A bad ripoff of The Wrath of Khan, J.J. Abrams' second outing is the weakest of the reboot trilogy and the second weakest of the whole franchise. The action was non-stop relentless, which was to its detriment, and let's face it, as accomplished an actor as Benedict Cumberbatch is, when it comes to playing Kahn, he's no Ricardo Montalban. 

Star Trek Beyond (2016)--The third installment in this trilogy was an improvement over its predecessor, but not by much. Director Justin slowed the action down just a little, but tried force a sense of nostalgia that the earlier original cast films evoked. And somehow, the destruction of the Enterprise wasn't nearly as impactful. A fourth installment was teased for almost a decade, but never materialized.

Star Trek: Discovery (2017-2024)--half a year after Star Trek Beyond  hit the cinemas Star Trek's streaming era began on CBS All Access, which would become Paramount+. Like TNG, Discovery took a couple of seasons to find its footing by catapulting the titular starship and its crew some 900 years in the future, exploring in the process a treatment Gene Roddenberry wrote up for a potential Star Trek show that previously saw the light of day in an altered form outside the Star Trek universe as Andromeda (2000-2005). Discovery, re-introduced viewers to Captain Christopher Pike and Number One, as the show's second season turned into an extended pilot for Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Picard (2020-2023)--As the name suggests, This series revisits Jean Luc Picard, and eventually the rest of the TNG cast, some 30 years after their last adventure together. Each 10-episode season is a self-contained story, essentially a novel for television. The third season manages to give the TNG cast the sendoff they deserved but never received, while setting up a premise for a follow-up show that, to date, has not been made.

Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020-2024)--Based on the premise of a TNG episode of the same name, the animated Lower Decks focuses on a group of junior officers aboard a less than stellar starship. Essentially a parody of Star Trek, it focuses on decidedly low brow humor, this one can be difficult to sit through. Thankfully, episodes are only half an hour long.

Star Trek: Prodigy (2021-2014)--A cooperative effort between Nickelodeon and Paramount+, where it ran for its first season, being picked up by Netflix. Targeted at younger viewers, this CGI animated show focused on a group of adolescent aliens under the tutelage of a holographic Captain Janeway. To my tastes, this is a far superior entry to Lower Decks. It is a shame Prodigy wasn't given more of a chance.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2021-2027)--Following the overwhelming viewer response to Discovery's second season, featuring Captain Pike, an updated version of the Enterprise flew again in a prequel series. It started off strong, but over the seasons shown so far, it has steadily degenerated into a succession of gimmick shows. The fourth season, presently under way, has been the worst offender with a gimmick in every episode, going so far as to turn the entire crew into muppets for one. With just three episodes left in this season and a shorter six-episode season ahead next year, there is precious little time left for straight episodes before Captain Kirk takes over the center seat at the end of the series.

Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)-- Arguably the worst Star Trek ever, this Discovery spinoff is best forgotten. It had a promising premise, but it turned out to be a generic sci-fi action movie with no relation to anything from the Star Trek universe, other than a character from Discovery and few familiar looking aliens.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (2026-2027)--Unfairly judged before it even aired, this show was canceled while the first season was in progress. The only reason we're getting a second season is it was already in the can when the plug was pulled. This is a classic case of unrealized potential.

At this time, there are no additional Star Trek movies or TV shows in active production, although a new feature film is apparently in the planning stages. All that has been announced is it will be set further into the future than any other Star Trek to date, and thus will feature no previously established characters. Let's just hope they get things right.