How To Get Into Star Trek: An Exhaustive List by a Bored Nerd

Okay, so, Star Trek.

Start with The Next Generation. It's still the platonic ideal of Star Trek which is a double-edged sword: it has great, high concept sci-fi writing and a solid ensemble, but has no idea what to do with its female characters when they're off-duty: the show's romantic plotlines feel like they were written by a prepubescent rock. Also be warned: The first season is so, so bad. Luckily, it's also almost entirely skippable. There are a couple of gems but do not watch the pilot until you're hooked. I love it but it's so slow. It really gets going in season 3 and is pretty much universally excellent, or at least highly watchable, until season 6. Season 7 has some lows, but also some of the best episodes in the series.

Deep Space Nine is the best show, objectively, but start with Next Gen. DS9 is like the Empire Strikes Back/Last Jedi of Trek--it confronts and questions a lot of the things the franchise takes for granted: like how do the Federation and Starfleet actually work and is its post-scarcity optimism just a front for a totalitarian society? Also, how does a utopia fight a war--especially when its allies are blood-crazed warriors (Klingons) and duplicitous spymasters (Romulans)? Like TNG, the first seasons are a little rough (though it has a great pilot) but once the Dominion shows up the show gets good and stays that way. (Just like TNG, the show gets really good once one of the main characters grows a beard...) Probably one of the best examples of tonal balance I've ever seen in a show, in a way you just don't see anymore since each season is over 22 episodes long there's A LOT of variety: from episodes about the horrors of war to a slapstick episode where the principal from the first season of Buffy causes the Roswell Incident in the 1940s. DS9 was also serialized in a way TNG only flirted with, though not as seriously as, say, Game of Thrones. Some episodes are totally disconnected from the overall story, while others are basically 2-5 episode story arcs.

DS9 also has the most diverse cast, anchored by a black captain who is also a widower and single father, and some of its best episodes are as much about black fatherhood as they are about a teleporting spaceman flying a laser-shooting spaceship.

Voyager was an attempt to recapture the adventure of TNG but it's just...worse in every way. Some great episodes in there, though, especially the finale. They also really dig into the Borg, for better and for worse, and some of their "What does it mean to be human?" episodes with The Doctor and Seven are better than the Data episodes they're based on.

Fun fact: writer Ronald D Moore, who is the MVP of 90's Trek, pitched Voyager as "Battlestar Galactica but Star Trek" and tried to introduce real stakes and consequences into the show, which had worked really well in DS9. When the producers got cold feet he quit Voyager to create the reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

Enterprise also tried to recapture the vibe of old Trek, this time with the 'cowboys in space' vibe of the original series, but is even worse than Voyager. Again, some good individual episodes, and the last season is pretty good and actually fulfills the promise of the whole show in setting up The Original Series, but I'd only watch it if you've watched everything else and are desperate for more Trek.

I avoided The Original Series for years because... it's a TV show from the 60s. But it's actually really good if you can get past the casual racism and sexism. (And to be fair, they did their best to address both of these in their own way, most directly in the episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and in the very existence of Uhura, who is not only a woman of colour, but an officer.)

I only included a few episodes of TOS because I'm just not as familiar with it as the others.

A NOTE ON THE NEWER SHOWS:

I don’t have much to say about Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Picard, or Lower Decks. Discovery’s emotionally-driven storytelling just doesn’t work for me and I hate the design of the show—the uniforms, the ship, the ultra-glossy blue everything. I just ricochet off this show anytime I try to watch it. Apparently the last seasons are better? If you find the 90s shows too awkward or stilted, maybe try this one, but even then…

Strange New Worlds is probably what you want. Another throwback to when Trek was fun, this is a spin-off of Discovery but with high-concept episodic storytelling, fun characters who still behave like co-workers and not roommates, and the tasty moral parables I love about the franchise. SNW takes some big swings that don’t always hit, but it’s as close as the new shows have come to Next Generation—I did think the second season was a little weak, however.

Picard is less of a throwback to Next Generation than you’d think. Instead it’s… actually I don’t know what the fuck Picard is. The first two seasons are boring, forced, melodramatic, and depressing. The third season finally reunites the old crew and has a little fun with the premise, but is also beholden to a ton of baggage from season 1 and 2. This is just generic prestige TV crap with a Star Trek filter. Skip to season 3—and only after you’ve exhausted all of TNG (including the movies.)

Lower Decks. God I wish this was just a regular show. Yet another throwback to 90s Trek, Lower Decks is a full-on love letter to the weird, awkward, earnest legacy of TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Unfortunately, it’s also a Rick and Morty ripoff, and the rapid-fire, improvisational “Wait, WHAT?” of it all is really grating. I’ve tried to get into this, because it should be perfect for me, but I can’t do it. I lasted all of three minutes into the crossover episode they did with Strange New Worlds.

Okay, Here are my "Get Into Star Trek" episodes in a rough order:

Colin, and you, at The Internet

First Steps

The Next Generation

Darmok This is the greatest Star Trek episode of all time. Curious, earnest, Shakespearean, and not afraid to make fun of itself. I hesitated putting this here because it's pretty weird, but it's just so good.

First Contact You’re gonna hear a lot about The Prime Directive so we might as well get it out of the way now. Riker, disguised as a member of an alien race, is injured and brought to a hospital where the native aliens discover he’s not one of them.

Cause and Effect The ship explodes in the cold open! But then time resets! It’s a timeloop episode! The crew have to figure out how to send a message back to the beginning of the loop. I loved this one as a kid because all the different ways you see the Enterprise explode.

Measure of a Man I love an “are robots people?” story and this is one of the best. A Starfleet scientist wants to dismantle Data to make more of him. Picard argues in court that Data is a sentient being and Riker, according to Starfleet law, has to argue that he is Starfleet property.

Starship Mine Picard is trapped alone on the ship and has to stop a group of thieves from stealing part of the Enterprise’s engine. It’s Die Hard.

The Game A fun riff on Invasion of the Body Snatchers starring a pre-fame Ashley Judd.

Conundrum The crew’s memory is wiped. They have to figure out who they are and completely a time-sensitive mission. Save this one for after you’re familiar with the characters.

Deep Space Nine

Emissary (Pilot) This is a great pilot but don't watch it until you've seen Next Gen’s Best of Both Worlds 1 & 2.

Vortex The best kind of DS9 episode: stands alone, but hints at a bigger story.

Duet The first season of DS9 tells a lot of stories about a society recovering from a brutal, decades-long military occupation. This is a heavy-ass episode but really sets up the kind of storytelling DS9 would strive for.

Past Tense A big part of DS9 is interrogating the nature of a Utopia. In this episode, Sisko and Bashir are sent back in time to 21st century Earth right before the start of “The Bell Riots”: a series of class revolts that helped reset society into what would become the Federation.

Necessary Evil Another episode about how the things soldiers do in war don’t go away when the conflict ends.

Whispers O’Brien starts to believe there is a conspiracy onboard the station. Colm Meaney’s promotion to main cast member is one of my favourite things about the continuity between DS9 and Next Gen. He’s probably the best actor on the show and the episodes that feature him are great.

Far Beyond The Stars DS9 has the strongest cast of all the shows and this time travel episode uses all of them the great effect. This is late in the series so you might be a bit lost at first, but it’s Trek's best attempt at tackling racism head-on

Sacrifice of Angels Oh what the heck! DS9 has the best space battles of the entire franchise (movies included) so I might as well throw this one in there too, though you will have absolutely no idea what’s going on and it’ll spoil a pretty major plot point. If you’re sold on DS9, skip this one for now, but if you think Star Trek is boring, check this one out.

Voyager

Caretaker (Pilot) The only thing I don’t like about Caretaker is that the show never lives up to its potential. Oh and the Kazon.

Year of Hell The ship is caught in a series of timeline-changing energy waves. A year passes as Voyager gets more and more beat up and characters are killed off. A fun look at what the show could have been under Ron Moore’s original “Star Trek meets Battle Galactica” pitch.

Timeless Yes this is another time travel episode but it’s solid. Features the return of LeVar Burton and the memorable image of a crashed Voyager frozen in ice.

Counterpoint A terrific episode about harbouring refugees from a totalitarian police state. Voyager abandoned the complexity and maturity of DS9 in favour of high-concept crisis of the week stuff, but this is just a terrific hour of dramatic television. Apparently, it’s Kate Mulgrew’s favourite episode.

Enterprise

Broken Bow (Pilot) See my comments on “Caretaker (Pilot)” above

The Andorian Incident This is when Enterprise hits its stride. It’s a fun, tense, smart episode that works well with the premise of the show. Features the return of The ReAnimator himself, Jeffrey Combs—one of Trek’s favourite recurring weirdos.

Original Series

Where No Man Has Gone Before After the first pilot failed, Gene Roddenberry made this one a few years later. The best TOS episodes feel like classic 60s sci-fi short stories, the kind of high-concept stories and allegories for modern life that were being written by Bradbury, Le Guin, and Herbert. This is one of those, and it’s pretty fun to see how fully-formed the world of Star Trek was all the way back in 1966.

Balance of Terror Basically The Hunt For Red October in space and features the first appearance of the Romulans. Because the budgets were so thin, most of this episode is William Shatner and Mark Lenard acting at each other through a viewscreen. It’s genuinely thrilling.

We have engaged the Trek.

Essentials

Hooked? Here are the best episodes for every series.

TNG

These aren’t in any particular order, unless specifically mentioned. TNG is only lightly serialized so feel free to jump around a bit based on what sounds interesting.

The Inner Light Know someone who thinks science fiction can’t be good drama? Show them this episode.

Encounter at Farpoint (Pilot) TNG’s pilot is slow and awkward but it also introduces some things that pay off in later, better episodes, so you should watch it now that you’re more familiar with it's vibe. Plus, it’s fun to go back to season 1 and remember what a fucking asshole Picard was to everybody (which, again, they reference in later episodes.)

Conspiracy

The Drumhead

Skin of Evil Not a great episode on its own, but sets up a major event that gets referenced a lot later on.

Q Who This episode features Q, who is basically Space Puck/Loki, played by the absolutely delightful John de Lancie. It introduces TNG’s “main villain” and the show’s greatest contribution to the franchise, if not science fiction in general.

Best of Both Worlds 1 & 2 The greatest television cliffhanger ever. Watch Part 1 and try to imagine having to wait all summer for Part 2—especially if you’re five like I was.

Family An hour-long epilogue to Best of Both Worlds that shows the astonishing range of TNG, from high-concept sci-fi action to family melodrama.

I, Borg These four episodes (Q, Who; BOBW; Family; and I, Borg) are all connected and amazing, but watch some eps between "Q Who" and "Best of Both Worlds" -- it's scarier that way.

Tapestry A personal favourite.

Yesterday's Enterprise A solid “What If?” episode. Watch Skin of Evil first.

Sins of the Father This is the beginning of Ronald D Moore's attempt to really solidify Klingon culture and society, which he continues in DS9.

Chain of Command Another great episode featuring two Shakespearean actors duking it out, Ronnie Cox playing a complete asshole, and begins to flesh out the Cardassians who are a major focus of DS9.

All Good Things... In the conversation for best series finale ever

Deep Space 9

A major departure from TNG, DS9 is serialized (though not as much as modern TV like Game of Thrones.) These recommendations are listed in order, so once you’re hooked on DS9’s specific flavour of Trek, watch them like this:

The Maquis The Maquis are a paramilitary group of former Starfleet and Bajoran officers frustrated by Starfleet’s inaction against the Cardassians. The political tension between Starfleet and The Maquis, and the philosophical friction between their followers, is one of the more interesting ideas DS9 picks at over the course of the series. One of the great successes of DS9 is how the Federation slowly, reluctantly slides into war.

The Jem'Hadar This episode fully introduces the main antagonists of the series with a shocking act of violence that shows just how unprepared our heroes are for what’s coming.

You should pretty much watch all of Season 3. If you’re still on the fence then definitely watch these, in this order:

The Search This two-parter is a direct sequel to The Jem’Hadar and was the beginning of Ronald D. Moore’s time writing for the series. Moore pushed DS9 towards the full-on serialization he would perfect with Battlestar Galactica. This is also a terrific Odo-focused story that builds on Vortex and introduces a major new element to the show.

The Defiant What could have been a cheeky cameo from a fan favourite character turns into a terrific showcase for what DS9 would grwo into: an exciting action story that still has some classic Trek philosophizing. It also wraps up a dangling plot thread from TNG and moves the DS9 story forward. Can you tell I think Ron Moore is a genius?

Improbable Cause One of the criticisms people have of Star Trek are that its aliens are just simplistic stereotypes of human behaviour: the Klingons are violent, the Romulans are duplicitous, the Ferengi are greedy, etc. Just like everything else, DS9 digs deeper and looks for the meat behind the stereotype. With Garak, the “humble tailor” who is definitely not a Cardassian spy (or if he was at one time, and he’s not saying he was, he is most definitely currently retired and, he might add, totally harmless) the show explores complex themes of loyalty, patriotism, duty, and friendship. Andrew Robinson is unbelievably good in this show.

The Die is Cast This is technically part two of “Improbable Cause” and is the “point of no return” for the series.

If you’re not hooked after this I don’t know what to tell you. You could probably find an “essential episodes” list for season 4, but at this point you should just watch all of season 4, 5, and 6. Even the ones that don't directly connect to the overall story fill in interesting gaps or give you some downtime with the characters who, again, are played by the strongest cast in the franchise. Season 7 is a little wonky and loses some steam midway through, but the last ten episodes are all one long story arc that bring the show to an extremely satisfying conclusion.

Voyager

Deadlock

Scorpion

Blink of an Eye

Eye of the Needle

Mortal Coil

Dreadnaught

The Equinox

Latent Image

Endgame <- another great series finale

Enterprise

Regeneration <- this is a cute epilogue to the Next Gen movie "First Contact" so maybe watch that first. This episode is sort of a Star Trek riff on The Thing.

Season 4 is all pretty good and full of little 2 or 3 episode arcs, but especially “Borderland”, which features Data actor Brent Spiner, and “In the Mirror, Darkly”

To buck the trend, Enterprise has probably the worst series finale of the franchise. I’d skip it.

Original Series

Mirror, Mirror

The Trouble with Tribbles

Space Seed

City on the Edge of Forever

Original Series Movies

Good rule of thumb, the even-numbered ones are good, the odd-numbered ones are bad.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture The new recently-released cut of this is a decent slow-burn sci-fi picture. It’s not amazing but it has some lovely visuals. It’s basically a two-part episode with 100x the budget of the show.

The Wrath of Khan Basically a feature-length version of the episode Face Of The Enemy and a sequel to the episode Space Seed. I have complicated feelings about Wrath Of Kahn. I think it’s a great movie, but for years it was the knee-jerk response to claims that Star Trek is too boring for a mainstream audience. The franchise has riffed, remixed, and remade Wrath Of Kahn so many times that the movie itself has been canonized into something it’s not.

The Voyage Home Hey, Star Trek is fun. This one starts weird because of what happens in 3, but 3 isn't that great despite featuring Christopher Lloyd playing a Klingon so you should skip it.

The Undiscovered Country This was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre. It’s basically a grab bag of Star Trek stuff and everyone is a bit too old but it’s fun, snappy, looks good, and is generally very well executed. Also Christopher Plummer plays a Shakespeare-quoting Klingon general with an eyepatch bolted onto his face with little screws that have the Klingon Empire logo on them.

If you’ve made it this far, you might as well watch the Robin Hood episode.

Totally great but non-essential

TNG

Offspring Bring tissue

Masks These two are solid Data episodes

Disaster A riff on The Poseidon Adventure. I love seeing some of the “backrooms” of the Enterprise and treating the ship like the massive industrial hazard it is.

The Chase This is both a fun episode and explains why all the aliens in Star Trek look like humans in makeup

Tin Man

Data's Day

Thine Own Self

Relics This features James Doohan as Scotty, but instead of being a lame episode built around a cameo it manages to tell a great story about getting old.

Descent This is a 2-parter that ties up two major storylines near the end of the series, but the best part is Crusher getting to command the ship.

Mind's Eye LeVar Burton is a really great actor trapped in a pretty boring part. This is one of the few great Geordi episodes.

Pegasus

The First Duty

Captain's Holiday TNG’s best asset is Patrick Stewart, a wildly over-qualified actor who never mocks, looks down on, or sneers at the ridiculous shit he has to say and do. In this episode, Picard goes on vacation and gets wrapped up in an Indiana Jones-style romantic romp with a sexy thief trying to steal an artifact from time travelling alien cops. It’s a blast.

Gambit Part 1 & 2 What starts as Riker and the crew investigating Picard’s apparent death turns into a pirate adventure. A pretty good companion to Captain’s Holiday.

Qpid Q turns the crew into Robin Hood and the Merry Men. It is exactly as stupid and fun as it sounds.

Ensign Ro Introduces Michelle Forbes and the Bajorans who go on to be a major focus of DS9. Forbes was offered a series lead on both DS9 and Voyager, it’s pretty clear who she would have played on both shows.

The Next Phase A solid Ro & Geordi episode.

TNG Movies

Generations Feels like a big-budget episode and suffers from Paramount executives’ baffling fear that people wouldn’t go to a Star Trek movie that didn’t have Kirk in it, even though Next Gen had been on for seven seasons and was extremely popular. Ticks a few boxes on the Star Trek bingo card: a beloved British thespian (Malcolm McDowell) playing an over-the-top psychotic villain, a recurring minor villain (Lursa and B’Tor Duras, aka the Klingons with the boob windows in their armor), and the Enterprise blowing up.

First Contact

DS9

The Visitor Bring tissue

Crossover One of a few trips DS9 makes into the Mirror Universe, which is a fun excuse for the actors to play evil versions of the characters.

Little Green Men The episode I mentioned earlier where Quark, Rom , and Nog become the basis for the Roswell aliens, which also makes this episode the basis for The X-Files if you don't think about it too much. Star Trek’s comedy episodes are usually pretty bad but this one is a blast.

Trials and Tribble-ations A ridiculously fun episode where the crew of DS9 are transported (somehow) right into the beloved Original Series episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles.” And I mean literally transported: this episode features groundbreaking effects where the modern actors are Forrest Gump-ed into scenes with Shatner, Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley that were shot way back in the 60s.

So, you finished all of Star Trek?

Well, let me introduce you to the actual best 90s science fiction show:

Pssst… Babylon 5 is better than all the Trek’s combined…