Chronology – Simplified

This page attempts to create a guide to watching the Star Trek franchise in in-universe order. It is available in two formats: a simplified version detailed below and an episodic format available through the link at left. For the vast majority of viewers, the simplified format will suffice.

Throughout this page, you may see several acronyms used. Except for starship names and registrations, acronyms generally refer to a specific series.

Sections in the simplified guide marked “Choose your own adventure” indicate that the given seasons occur concurrently. I leave it up to the viewer to decide in which order to watch these sequences.

There is an argument to be made that Star Trek: First Contact predominantly takes place before the events of Enterprise, and thus should be viewed first. However, doing so without a basic familiarity with the crew of the Enterprise-D can leave a new viewer quite lost, and Enterprise does a good enough job telling you the basics of how first contact between Humans and Vulcans happened. Regardless, Enterprise covers the events of Captain Jonathan Archer and the Enterprise NX-01 – the first warp-five ship made by humans and our first steps into the galaxy at large.

Created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, Enterprise had its rough edges but still garnered a fairly significant fan following, but only lasted four seasons on UPN before its cancellation despite fan protests. It also broke with tradition, dropping the Star Trek prefix for the first two seasons and opting for a rendition of Rod Stewart’s Faith of the Heart performed by Russell Watson instead of the traditional instrumental theme. Despite these (and other) changes to the proven Star Trek formula, Enterprise itself had a memorable cast and covered first contact with many species viewers have grown to love. Even the design of the NX-01 was well thought out – instantly identifiable as belonging to the Star Trek universe while still being more in line with contemporary ship design than those seen in other series. Its knee-knockers, cramped corridors, and naval-inspired uniforms feel natural to anyone who has served on or spent time on a naval vessel.

Gene Roddenberry’s original pilot for Star Trek failed to impress NBC executives in 1965, but they were interested enough to order a second pilot. This second attempt eventually became the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before, and the two-part episode The Menagerie reused much of the original footage from The Cage. The original pilot was made available on VHS in 1986 and broadcast for the first time on television in 1988.

Despite not being accepted by NBC executives, The Cage is considered a part of the Star Trek canon and introduces viewers to many characters and ideas that would become mainstays through the original run. Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock, who would go on to be Captain Kirk’s First Officer in TOS, was present, but as the Science Officer. In the role of First Officer, we saw Majel Barrett, though she was never named, only referred to as “Number One.” Captain Kirk is absent, the position instead going to Captain Christopher Pike, played by Jeffrey Hunter. The character of Captain Pike would go on to be used several more times throughout TOS, as well as being the focal point of the current series Strange New Worlds, firmly cementing the episode as part of Star Trek lore. The later episode The Menagerie explains these changes by indicating that The Cage happened thirteen years earlier before Captain Kirk took command.

Written for CBS All Access (which became Paramount+) by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, Discovery set the bar for subscriptions to All Access, and continues to be the most viewed original series on Paramount+. Discovery follows the exploits of the unlikely and unwitting heroine Michael Green, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, and the crew of the USS Discovery roughly ten years before the events of TOS.

Discovery brings back the character Captain Pike, though he is only mentioned in-universe until the second season premiere. Also returning are the Klingons, although they’ve undergone a dramatic and poorly received makeover. Thankfully, the makeover is cosmetic and given an in-universe explanation that is mostly believable upon its quick repeal after the first season.

The second season of Discovery introduces us to a new protagonist: the so-called Red Angel. Since I don’t want to give anything away, we’ll leave it at that other than to say that it creates the opportunity to both take Discovery in a bold new direction and introduce our next entry, Strange New Worlds.

Originally intended to be a spin-off series from Discovery, a variety of production delays resulted in Section 31 being reworked as a streaming movie. Set to release January 24th, Section 31 stars Michelle Yeoh, reprising her role as Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery, now working for the shadowy Section 31. The secret Starfleet division has long been teased, first being referenced in the Deep Space Nine episode Inquisition, but this is the first time we’ll be treated to an in-depth look into the life, and operations, of a Section 31 operative.

Strange New Worlds is a spin-off of Discovery written for Paramount+ by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet. It gives a proper backstory to Captain Christopher Pike, portrayed by Anson Mount. Unlike Discovery, Strange New Worlds has been, thus far, completely episodic, although the series is ongoing. As of the last edit date of this post, SNW is in its second season, and Paramount+ has renewed it for a third.

SNW brings back fan favorites and underutilized species, such as the inclusion of Mr. Spock, brilliantly portrayed by Ethan Peck, and several episodes featuring the Orions and Gorn. Given the episodic nature of SNW, I can’t say much more without giving away too much, but it’s an excellent addition to the Star Trek universe.

Gene Roddenberry’s original masterpiece, Star Trek, commonly referred to as “The Original Series,” set the bar for our species high. Gene envisioned a world in which we had progressed far enough to be not only living in harmony as a species but, for the most part, those species with whom we share the galaxy.

The Original Series introduced us to a better world, along with species and characters who would become household names even among those who don’t follow the show. Despite being over half a century old, Star Trek has endured the test of time and, to this day, has a dedicated fan base. The journey of William Shatner’s Captain Kirk inspired many of the inventions of the last few decades as well as the minds of a generation.

After the cancellation of Star Trek, Gene found it had gained such a following that a sequel was in order. The Animated Series ran Saturday mornings from 1973-1974 and featured most of the original crew, with an addition or two. Much of the original cast returned as well to voice their animated counterparts.

Despite being written by Gene Roddenberry and the first time a Star Trek property won an Emmy Award, TAS is officially considered non-canon. However, it also doesn’t conflict with canon and is a direct sequel to TOS, so I’m including it. If you don’t like it, feel free to skip it, and you can still say you’ve watched the entirety of the Star Trek franchise.

The 1979 movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture saw the big-screen debut of the crew of the Enterprise. Despite early studio misgivings regarding the success of science fiction in movies, the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced them that it was worth the gamble.

In 1978, Paramount announced that they were working on a $15 million film adaptation of Star Trek. The cost of production quickly rose to $44 million but brought in $139 in theaters. The Motion Picture was far from the best we’ve seen from the franchise but expands upon our knowledge of Kirk’s family in a completely self-contained storyline. Despite both mixed reviews and netting less than anticipated, its relative success convinced Paramount that the series could survive on the big screen and lead to the production of a second feature film.

The Wrath of Khan was released in 1982 and featured an older, but maybe not wiser, cast and crew. The now-Admiral Kirk is brought face-to-face with the worst humanity has to offer in a spiritual sequel to the TOS episode Space Seed with the return of Khan Noonien-Singh and his band of genetic augments.

With predominantly positive reviews, The Wrath of Khan set a world record for first-day box office gross and has the distinction of being the first movie to include an entirely computer-generated scene. Much of the Star Trek fanbase considers The Wrath of Khan to be the best film in the series, and it is often said to have brought the series back from the brink of extinction. I don’t consider it the best film in the series, but it is an excellent movie.

A mere two years after the success of The Wrath of Khan, Paramount released The Search for Spock. It picks up where its predecessor left off, with the crew breaking all the rules to help everyone’s favorite Vulcan.

For reasons obvious to anyone who has seen the movie, I’m going to leave this one at that on the off chance that someone who lives under a rock reads this post. I dislike spoilers, and there’s no way to say more without this being one. Regardless, The Search for Spock didn’t quite live up to The Wrath of Khan but did manage to garner mostly positive reviews.

An immediate sequel to The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home is commonly referred to as “the one with the whales.” The only feature film in the franchise to date not to feature an incarnation of the USS Enterprise, it saw the crew of the Enterprise aboard a captured Klingon Bird of Prey arriving in what was, at the time, modern-day 1986. Watching a Vulcan try to adapt to life in 1980s America is comedy gold, to say nothing of a Russian from the future stuck in America at the height of the Cold War.

Its unconventional storyline and situational comedy made it a hit and the top-grossing film at the weekend box office. All told, it brought in $133 million worldwide.

The fifth film in the TOS movie arc, The Final Frontier, was hands down the worst film in the franchise. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t watch it. Despite mixed negative reviews, it is still considered canon. I still find it a decent movie, although it doesn’t come nearly to the bar set by the rest of the series.

The Final Frontier follows Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise 1701-A as they pursue a renegade Vulcan named Sybok, who is intent on finding God, who he believes is at the center of the universe. It’s unique, and according to its producer, it “nearly killed the franchise,” and that’s all I can say about it.

The final film in the TOS movie arc, 1991s The Undiscovered Country features now-Captain Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior discovering the destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis. In the ensuing turmoil, the Klingon Empire can no longer afford a war, so they pursue peace with the Federation. Starfleet sends Kirk, who isn’t loving Klingons right now, and the Enterprise to meet with the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon. And obvious hijinx ensues. That said, it’s a solid entry in the franchise and grossed $98.6 million worldwide. It’s also the only film in the franchise to receive the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.

Serving as a spiritual hand-off from Captain Kirk to Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart, but you really should know this one), this one is where things get interesting. In-universe, the first eighteen minutes of this entry take place in 2293. Retired Starfleet officers James Kirk, Montgomery Scott (portrayed by James Doohan), and Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) are present for the maiden voyage of the Enterprise 1701-B under the command of Captain John Harriman (portrayed by Alan Ruck). Disaster strikes as one may expect, and suddenly you find yourself on an old-fashioned ship at sea. Stop watching here.

Without giving too much away, the remainder of the movie happens much farther down the line and features the crew of the Enterprise 1701-D. It did reasonably well at the box office, grossing $118 million worldwide, but wasn’t overly well received.

Captain Picard and the crew of the NCC-1701-D brought Star Trek into the modern era in 1987. With Gene Roddenberry back at the helm, we got to another seven seasons in what many consider the “Golden Age” of Star Trek.

A predominantly episodic entry, TNG saw as many as 12 million regular viewers, with the series finale being watched by 30 million. Its success prompted the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the second round of Star Trek movies. It’s also when things start to get a little hectic. You only want to watch through the fifth season before reading the “Choose your own adventure” section below.

• Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 06-07)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 01-02)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ran from 1993-1999 and was the first franchised series created without the direct involvement of Gene Roddenberry. The first two seasons of DS9 focus on a Federation-held space station caught up in a long-standing conflict between the Bajorans and Cardassians and was a much grittier entry in the franchise than any previous series.

Chronologically, these seasons coincide with seasons six and seven of TNG, which follow the traditional episodic formula.

This is where we go back and finish Star Trek: Generations with a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are on the holodeck celebrating Worf’s promotion to Commander when the Captain receives word that his brother and nephew have died. This news causes him distress at the realization that the Picard family line will now end with him. The Enterprise receives a distress call from a nearby observatory and responds, which kicks off a series of events that ends in a planet’s destruction and Picard entering an extra-dimensional realm known as the “Nexus.” In the Nexus, he meets James Kirk, and eventually, they join forces to prevent the destruction of the previously mentioned planet.

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 03-04)
• Star Trek: Voyager (Season 01-02)

In 1995, Star Trek: Voyager was released on UPN and ran for seven seasons. Voyager took the Star Trek universe to the Delta Quadrant on the other side of the galaxy, opening up innumerable new worlds to explore and new species to introduce.

Captain Kathryn Janeway (portrayed by Kate Mulgrew) and the crew of the USS Voyager are sent to find a ship of Maquis rebels that disappeared in the Badlands with her Chief of Security aboard. In their search for the Maquis, they are caught in an energy ribbon and find themselves, and the Maquis, on the other side of the galaxy. The series follows the struggles of these two very different crews as they try to make their way home.

At the same time the first two seasons of Voyager take place, Deep Space Nine opened up a new galaxy of their own by adding a new ship to their repertoire: the USS Defiant. This addition allowed them to travel beyond the confines of the Bajoran system.

In 1996, Captain Picard returned to the big screen with his crew aboard the Enterprise 1701-D for an epic showdown with the Borg. The Borg have determined that the best way to assimilate humanity is to go to the past and prevent us from discovering warp technology. The Enterprise manages to follow them back and must find a way to stop them without doing anything that would impact the timeline.

First Contact was the highest-grossing film at the box office opening weekend and eventually made a total of $146 million worldwide. And best of all, we finally got the full story behind the first contact between Humans and Vulcans.

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 05-06)
• Star Trek: Voyager (S03-S04)

Seaons five and six of Deep Space Nine give the Cardassians a break and introduce a new antagonist: the Dominion. The interstellar military superpower from the Gamma Quadrant would introduce us to the Jem’Hadar, the Vorta, and eventually explain much of the enigmatic Odo’s past with the Founders.

Although the third and fourth seasons of Voyager continued its episodic tradition, we are finally told where the Borg originated and introduced us to everyone’s favorite Borg ex-drone, Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine.

The third TNG movie, Insurrection, came out in 1998 and focuses on two new species: the Son’a and Ba’ku. Lieutenant Commander Data (portrayed by Brent Spiner) is temporarily on assignment on an undercover mission among the Ba’ku when he malfunctions. Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise 1701-D are thrust into the middle of a planetary turf war when they disobey orders and go to rescue him.

While Insurrection was a change of pace from past movies, it got mixed reviews. Still, it’s a reasonably solid movie and brought in $117.8 million worldwide.

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (S07)
• Star Trek: Voyager (S05)

Honestly not much to say for this one; you should already know the formula. Deep Space Nine concluded the war with the Dominion. They also concluded their run. The crew of Voyager continued along their (not so) merry way to the Alpha Quadrant and home.

The final two seasons of Voyager have a much more significant focus on the Borg while still maintaining their generally episodic format. I don’t believe it’s giving too much away to say that Voyager does make it home in time for the series finale.

The 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis brought the TNG crew together for one last adventure, this time facing them off against the Remans, neighbors, and slaves to the Romulans. Starfleet sends the Enterprise on a diplomatic mission to Romulus, where they meet Shinzon, a Reman who has staged a coup and destroyed the Romulan Senate.

For the first time in Star Trek history, a film was a box office failure. Nemesis only brought in $67 million on a $60 million budget. It was by far the least successful film in the franchise and was the last nail in the coffin for TNG. Still, it’s canon, and it’s better than The Final Frontier.

Based on the TNG episode of the same name, the ongoing series that debuted in 2020 is the second animated series on the list. Like its namesake, The Lower Decks focuses less on the bridge crew and more on the grunts that make the day-to-day minutia of running a starship work. Unlike previous entries in the franchise, The Lower Decks is explicitly comedic. It follows the adventures, or more accurately misadventures, of one of the least-important ships in the fleet: the California-class USS Cerritos.

It’s nothing like its predecessors, but somehow still entirely Star Trek. Even better, for those of us who served in the military on the “lower decks,” it’s a brilliant, hilariously accurate depiction of what life is truly like at the bottom of the ladder.

Airing on both Paramount+ and Nickelodeon, Star Trek: Prodigy released in 2021 as the first franchised property to target younger audiences. It’s also the first franchised property created completely using 3D animation. Prodigy takes place shortly after the return of Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant and centers around a group of young misfits aboard a not-quite-legally-obtained prototype starship, the USS Protostar.

Despite receiving mostly positive reviews, Paramount+ canceled the second season and pulled it from their service. The second season is being completed by Nickelodeon, with plans to find another streaming provider. If you can find a way to watch the first season right now, it’s worth a watch, and I’ll be updating this guide if and when season two is made available.

Star Trek: Picard was released in 2020 and followed the adventures of a retired, aging Jean-Luc Picard twenty years after the events of Nemesis. It features frequent guest appearances by members of the TNG crew, as well as re-introducing Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine in its second season. It lasted its intended three seasons and was slower and more character-driven than the previous series. It received mostly positive reviews throughout its run, and cast and crew have expressed interest in a continuation or spin-off, so who knows what the future holds for Picard.

Pretty good chance that this one will likely always be near the end of the list. The season two finale saw the crew of the USS Discovery bidding a fond farewell to their homes and voluntarily exiling themselves to the 32nd century, more than 900 years in the future. Seasons three and four tell their story as they try to navigate the future as a ship, and crew, out of time. Season five is the final season in the Discovery story arc and includes an amazing callback to TNG. I’ll refrain from saying any more to prevent giving too much up, but it’s a stellar farewell to Discovery.

At the moment, we don’t know a whole lot about the upcoming Starfleet Academy series. We do know that it fits into the timeline at the end of the final season of Star Trek: Discovery, meaning in the 32nd century, as the Federation works to rebuild after the events depicted in Discovery. The idea of doing a series based on Starfleet Academy has long been discussed, and I’m excited to see how this newest edition to the chronology does, despite not being the Academy we expected. In truth, being set in the 32nd century has the potential to make it an even more exciting series – they’re truly going boldly where none have gone before.

While I’d like to say this guide is exhaustive, it is currently missing two properties from the Star Trek universe: Star Trek: Short Treks, an anthology series first released in 2018, and the Kelvin timeline. Short Treks story arcs are just that – short, and take place at various points in Star Trek history. I promise I’ll get around to adding them soon.

The Kelvin timeline is another story. The Kelvin timeline is a short-lived story arc following the adventures of Captain Kirk and crew in an alternate timeline. Its three movies, Star Trek, Star Trek: Beyond, and Star Trek: Into Darkness, are canon and the Prime universe sequences take place after Prodigy, so expect them to be added at some point as well.