60 years ago on September 8, 1966, The USS Enterprise warped across television screens everywhere and ushered in a new age of science fiction television that is still going strong today. The original 5 year adventure only lasted 2 seasons, but an unprecedented letter writing campaign headed up by Bjo Trimble, saved the show and got it a third season, before it ended for good, or so everyone thought. In 1973, Star Trek:The Animated Series(TAS) ran for another year with the stars of the original series(TOS) reprising their roles.
Then in 1979, Star Trek:The Motion Picture(TMP) came out, a rather cerebral movie, that has aged like fine wine. Movies kept coming out every two years, Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan(TWOK) hit screens in 1982, and fans loved that they brought back Ricardo Mantalbon from the episode Space Seed. In 1984 we got Star Trek III:The Search for Spock(TSFS) an immediate followup to TWOK. In 1986 we got Star Trek IV:The Voyage home(TVH), which then led into Paramount creating the best loved TV Series, Star Trek:The Next Generation(TNG). TNG ran for an amazing 7 years, and revitalized the fan base for the series. In 1989 we got the 5th movie with the “classic cast”, Star Trek V:The Final Frontier(TFF). This Movie directed by William Shatner was considered a letdown, but I actually have grown to like it, “What does God need with a starship”?
In 1991, we got to send off the original crew is classic fashion with Star TrekVI:The Undiscovered Country(TUC), an absolute smasher of a film, and the perfect way for Kirk and crew to exit stage left.
In 1993, we got Starfleet on a space station, with Deep Space 9(DS9), the grittiest Trek show in history, with epic space battles that lasted entire seasons. In 1994 we got the movies to pass the torch with Star Trek Generations(GEN), that saw James T. Kirk pass wisdom onto Jean Luc Picard, and was an OKAY film, that gave Kirk a heroic death. In 1995 we got another series with Voyager(VOY), Giving us Star Treks version of “Lost in Space” for 7 years, and gave us entire arcs of battles. This was followed by more TNG movies, First Contact(FC), Insurrection(INC)(which was a really fun film) and Nemesis(NEM). This was followed up by Star Trek:Enterprise(ENT), a show that was criminally under rated and the ending was a complete letdown.
After that we got the Kelvin Timeline of movies from 2009-2016, Star Trek(STO9), Star Trek:In to Darkness(STID) and Star Trek:Beyond(STB). Then we were given “Kurtzman Trek” which was either loved or hated by the fans:
- DSC (or DIS): Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)
- SHO: Star Trek: Short Treks (2018–2020)
- PIC: Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)
- LD (or LOW): Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020–2024)
- PRO: Star Trek: Prodigy (2021–2024)
- SNW: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–present)
- SFA: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (2026–present)
And we got Star Trek:Section 31(S31), which despite an interesting premise, was universally hated, by pretty much everyone.
What does the future hold, no one knows, as we are still waiting to see what direction Skydance Media takes with the series, as they haven’t announced anything really concrete since the Merger closed last year.
