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• Star Trek Series | 2364 - 2378
• Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Best/Worst Seasons of TNG by my arbitrary judgment.

• Thread starter Trekker4747
• Start date Jul 1, 2019

Trekker4747

Boldly going....

• Jul 1, 2019

I love TNG. I could sit down and watch any episode of it right now! Almost... So, I went over a list of the episodes/seasons and sort of took a quick tally of which episodes out of which seasons I'd watch. Occasionally I'll do a watch-through of the series on BD and there are episodes I'll skip out of just not liking them, finding them boring, stupid, or really just ones I don't want to go through as better episodes are beyond them. I took the tallies for each season and generated a percentage. For the sake of the percentage I counted Encounter at Farpoint as one episode (25 episodes in Season 1) and same for All Good Things (25 episodes in Season 7.) Without listing the episodes I checked off: Season 1: 20 out of 25 episodes (80%) Season 2: 20 out of 22 episodes (91%) Season 3: 24 out of 26 episodes (92%) Season 4: 22 out of 26 episodes (85%) (this one surprised me as I consider Season 4 pretty solid, but it had a couple more episodes in that I'm just very tepid on and could skip and not really "miss" it.) Season 5: 23 out of 26 episodes (88%) Season 6: 23 out of 26 episodes (88%) Season 7: 14 out of 25 episodes (56%) It's often felt that Seasons 1 and 2 of TNG are the weakest but, really, that comes more from just the tone and "feel" of the show compared to the other seasons. But really in those seasons there's not a whole lot I dislike. Hell I could watch all of Season 1 any day before watching all of Season 7. So, without me getting into specific episodes here, what do you think of my "ratings" on the various seasons? Where would your numbers stack up?  

JirinPanthosa

• Jul 2, 2019

I think Rotten Tomatoes style ratings don’t work well. They don’t tell you if every episode was just good or every episode was spectacular. For example, I’d put a season where one half are 10/10 and one half are 0/10 over a season where every episode is 6/10.  

Vice Admiral

Season 6 sucks. I've been trying to get through it for months now, but I'm hung up on the disk with episodes where the shuttle crew turns into little kids and Worf and Alexander visit the Old West in the Holodeck. Descent is one of the worst cliffhangers the franchise ever did. Absolute fucking dross. And then you have complete stink pots like Aquiel, Suspicions, Rightful Heir, Man of the People, and Times Arrow pt 2. Honestly, looking at the episode lists, S1 and S2 are much better than 6 and 7.  

Episodes like the S6 ones you mentioned I ranked as "watchable." Because, for me, they have elements in them I like. This wasn't any attempt at a "Rotten Tomatoes"-like rating or anything like that, this was just a simple... "thought experiment" of sorts boiling down to which episodes, for me, were "watchable" on some, or any, level. If I were to get deeper it'd likely be very different. I thought of it like this: Say all of the episodes of the season are on a watchable list, I pressed the "Random" button and episode came on. If that episode came on would I watch it or push the button again to watch something else.  

HaventGotALife

Fleet captain.

After "The Inner Light," I count ten episodes I can watch. Ten, in two seasons. 1. Schisms 2. Chain of Command I & II. 3. Tapestry 4. The Chase 5. Parallels 6. The Pegasus 7. Homeward 8. Lower Decks 9. All Good Things... The First season had a rough beginning. But, when the story becomes serious, and investigates, tests, Picard and crew, about the time "When the Bough Breaks" airs, the stories are imaginative, allegorical, and the meat of the series since "Assignment: Earth" aired in the second season finale of TOS. 10 great episodes in the first season, 14 in the second, and ten from 6-7, the seventh being better. After Gene dies, the beginnings of DS9 and of Generations, the franchise was wildly popular, but churning out some bad products that have not aged well. It took them until about 1995 to recover. The fourth season of DS9, First Contact was in production, and Voyager was in possibly its best season--the first.  

HaventGotALife said: After "The Inner Light," I count ten episodes I can watch. Ten, in two seasons. 1. Schisms 2. Chain of Command I & II. 3. Tapestry 4. The Chase 5. Parallels 6. The Pegasus 7. Homeward 8. Lower Decks 9. All Good Things... The First season had a rough beginning. But, when the story becomes serious, and investigates, tests, Picard and crew, about the time "When the Bough Breaks" airs, the stories are imaginative, allegorical, and the meat of the series since "Assignment: Earth" aired in the second season finale of TOS. 10 great episodes in the first season, 14 in the second, and ten from 6-7, the seventh being better. After Gene dies, the beginnings of DS9 and of Generations, the franchise was wildly popular, but churning out some bad products that have not aged well. It took them until about 1995 to recover. The fourth season of DS9, First Contact was in production, and Voyager was in possibly its best season--the first. Click to expand...

Vger23 said: I agree with your assessment of the later seasons and their best episodes almost 100%. I would have added "Preemptive Strike" to the list. I'd take Seasons 1 and 2 over Seasons 6 and 7 any time. I'd rank them: S3 S5 S2 S1 S4 S7 S6 Click to expand...

To me season 7 might have the lowest “Watchable” percentage, but it also has more “Great” episodes than the first two seasons combined. AGT, Pegasus, Lower Decks, Gambit. Season 7 is like a roided baseball player. Mostly strikeouts and homers.  

• Jul 3, 2019

JirinPanthosa said: To me season 7 might have the lowest “Watchable” percentage, but it also has more “Great” episodes than the first two seasons combined. AGT, Pegasus, Lower Decks, Gambit. Season 7 is like a roided baseball player. Mostly strikeouts and homers. Click to expand...

Imagine Star Trek without Lower Decks. Imagine Star Trek without Q Who? Who had more of a "home run" season? And also had more "watchable" episodes?  

Rear Admiral

• Jul 5, 2019

Sorry but I don't get the view that the music in seasons 5-7 was particularly bad, maybe at times a bit bland but not too much or badly ... I think seasons 3 and 4 were the peak, 5 very close and 7 the worst, 7 the season with by far the most episodes to skip (though also some good gems). 1 and 2 (and 6) were uneven but all the years had a good amount of gems.  

The music in S5-7 wasn't bad it just wasn't... "good."  

• Jul 6, 2019

Generally speaking, I like season 3 the best. I do agree with the notion that the "feel" of season 1 and 2 is unlike basically any show ever made, but the stories are...well, some of them are better left unsaid. I don't think the revolving writers room helped that situation at all. I also can't stand the overly dramatic music used in the first season.  

Seven of Five

Stupid sexy flanders.

S3 S4 S6 S5 S2 S7 S1 After the last rewatch I still find S3 the strongest, though S4 is only a very minor step down from that. The show was still hitting them out every week. S6 surprised me, and I enjoyed it more than S5. However, I would say that S3-6 were definitely, collectively, the best time period of the show. Outside of 5 great episodes, S7 was so mediocre, that I put it below S2. They may not have had everything worked out yet, but it was still a pretty strong season. S1 is a bit of a mess in parts, though there are some good episodes in there. The music was a million times better in S1-4 as well.  

I don't really get the love for S4. Let me go through the episodes... (1- not rewatchable, 2- rewatchable/average, 3- classic/favorite) 1. Best of Both Worlds 2 (2) 2. Family (3) 3. Brothers (1) 4. Suddenly Human (1) 5. Remember Me (3) 6. Legacy (2-1) 7. Reunion (1) 8. Future Imperfect (2-3) 9. Final Mission (2) 10. The Loss (1) 11. Data's Day (1) 12. The Wounded (3) 13. Devil's Due (2) 14. Clues (2-3) 15. First Contact (2) 16. Galaxy's Child (3) 17. Night Terrors (2) 18. Identity Crisis (1) 19. The Nth Degree (1) 20. Qpid (3) 21. The Drumhead (2) 22. Half a Life (2-1) 23. The Host (1) 24. The Mind's Eye (2) 25. In Theory (2) 26. Redemption (2) Nearly 1/3 of the entire season is pretty much comprised of episodes I would not be interested in rewatching / would turn off if they were on TV. There are only 5 "out of the park" episodes (and even that was generous, as I struggled with "QPid" and "Remember Me"). The rest of it is extremely average. Of course, this is all by my personal tastes.  

I appreciate the breakdown. My list basically flips. Lol. First Contact, Clues, Devil's Due, The Wounded, Data's Day, Family, Best of Both Worlds, Family, Half a Life, The Host, The Mind's Eye, Reunion, Brothers, Legacy, The Drumhead, and The Nth Degree, Reunion are all 2 or higher, in my taste. Remember Me, In Theory, QPid, Identity Crisis, The Loss, and Future Imperfect are all not worth rewatching, and of those, I think Identity and The Loss, are just poorly executed great ideas. Thanks for responding.  

Alright...I'm going for it....it's too damn hot out right now. (1- not rewatchable, 2- rewatchable/average, 3- classic/favorite) Season One: Encounter at Farpoint 2.5 The Naked Now 2 Code of Honor 1 The Last Outpost 2.5 Where No One Has Gone Before 3 Lonely Among Us 1 Justice 1 The Battle 2 Hide and Q 2 Haven 1 The Big Goodbye 2 Datalore 1 Angel One 1 11001001 3 Too Short a Season 1.5 When The Bough Breaks 2 Home Soil 2 Coming of Age 2 Heart of Glory 3 Arsenal of Freedom 2.5 Symbiosis 1 Skin of Evil 2 We'll Always Have Paris 2.5 Conspiracy 3 The Neutral Zone 1.5 Season Average: 1.92 Season Total: 48 points  

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The beginner's guide to Star Trek: What to watch first

The Star Trek television world consists of eleven full and distinct television series released across the decades, going all the way back to the mid-1960s. While some of the older sets and effects are certainly dated, some of the issues the shows grappled with back in the day are as relevant now as they were almost 60 years ago.

When Star Trek debuted on September 6, 1966, it was a relatively low-budget TV series with only lukewarm network support. It took two pilot episodes before the series was picked up by NBC, only to be unceremoniously cancelled three years later. Nobody back then knew that Star Trek would create cultural touchstones and iconic characters, or that it would go on to spawn ten more TV series (so far) and thirteen movies (also, so far).

Today, Star Trek is deeply entrenched in modern mythology, with characters like James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard as familiar to us as Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo.

But not everyone is fully up to speed on all things Trek . Perhaps you're seeing promotions for the new shows coming out this year and wonder what all the fuss is about. Perhaps you want to introduce Star Trek to a younger generation or catch up after a long hiatus.

No matter what, we're here to help. In this guide, I'm going to take you through the TV series and help you understand what each is about, give you some hints about watching order, and share with you my subjective perspective on the shows.

Also:  14 unofficial Star Trek series and films

Star Trek has inspired a tremendous amount of media. Beyond the TV shows, there are movies, video games, books, comics, fan fiction and productions, collectables, and more. Because the commercial world of Star Trek fandom is so huge, I'm going to limit our discussion to just the TV shows -- although there will be a few mentions of one or two movies that are requisite viewing for later series' continuity.

How to get started

There are four Star Trek series currently in production right now. More are rumored to be on the way. And there's even a Seth McFarland-helmed homage to Star Trek called The Orville that carries on the Trek spirit (new episodes will be broadcast on Hulu in June).

So, you could get started watching a current show, especially since the visuals and production quality are top-notch. If you feel strongly about starting with new material, I'd recommend kicking off your watching with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on the Paramount+ streaming service. I'll talk more about SNW (most Trek series get abbreviations) in a bit. Another choice would be the gorgeous animated series Star Trek: Prodigy . It's intended to bring kids into the Star Trek universe, but it fires on all cylinders for adults just as well.

But I recommend you start where it all started: Star Trek , the original series ( TOS ) produced in the 1960s. It's here you'll meet Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Scotty the engineer. This is where it all began, and everything builds upon this fundamental mythology.

And with that, let's get started!

1. Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)

The series that began it all.

• Production Years:  1966-1969
• Trek Timeline Years:  2266-2269
• Seasons:  3
• Episodes:  79
• Stream on:   Paramount+
• Buy:   Amazon

This is it. The series that began it all. I recently rewatched the entire run of  TOS  after not having seen it in years, and the thing that made the biggest impression on me was how much they got right in those early years. Roddenberry was building a mythos out of thin air, and yet many of the foundational elements that  Star Trek  folks know and love today were written into those early shows.

Of course, Roddenberry didn't get it perfect right out of the gate. He did two pilots which introduced Captain Christopher Pike instead of Captain Kirk and a female "Number One" as second in command. This pilot, called " The Cage " never made it on the air but was repurposed into a two-parter late in the first season. You'll want to remember Pike and Number One because they're prominent in the new modern-day  Trek  series currently being released.

Some episodes of this very early series age well, while others are deeply cringeworthy. Because it's 1960s entertainment (and relatively low-budget entertainment at that), it can be a bit tedious at times. And yet, it touched on some really important themes.  Martin Luther King Jr. actually reached out to Nichelle Nichols , who  played Lt. Uhura , when she was considering leaving the show. He urged her to stay on because he saw her role as a very important inspiration.

If you want to understand all the  Trek  lore that comes after, this is the place to start.

Must watch episodes:   The City on the Edge of Forever, Space Seed, The Trouble with Tribbles

Movies:  There were six movies made with the  TOS  cast. Of them, the best two are  The Wrath of Khan  (which sets up a lot of subsequent mythos) and  The Voyage Home , which is probably the most fun of them all.

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)

The story forward 100 years.

• Production Years:  1987-1994
• Trek Timeline Years:  2364-2370
• Seasons:  7
• Episodes:  178

Star Trek's  continuing popularity during the eighteen years after NBC cancelled the original series was unexpected.  Star Trek , that weird space show with the pointy-eared alien, turned out to have legs. It took ten years of fan pressure and conventions, but in 1979  Star Trek: The Motion Picture  was released. It was... not so good. But three more movies came out over the next eight years, and they were great. So the momentum was in place for a  Star Trek  reboot.

Rather than recasting the original characters, Roddenberry decided to move the story forward almost 100 years, create a version of the  Enterprise  starship whose interior decor most resembled a Marriott hotel in outer space, and give it warp nacelles and photon torpedos. This was  The Next Generation , with Captain Picard, first officer William Riker, the android Data, the boy wonder Wesley Crusher, his mom, the Klingon Worf, and unlucky-in-love engineer Geordi La Forge. Roddenberry even created the role of a mental health counsellor (Deanna Troy) as a key member of its bridge crew.

While Patrick Stewart's Picard was much more  Captain Stubing  than Shatner's Captain Kirk, there's no doubting this Shakespearean actor's talents. Brent Spiner, as the android-who-wants-to-be-human, was another standout performer. The first two seasons were a little rocky. Remember: back then, nobody knew whether this show would last, and the actors and showrunners were still trying to come to terms with how to move beyond  TOS . But subsequent years are among the best science (and societal) fiction you'll ever see on TV.

Must watch episodes:   The Measure of a Man, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Best Of Both Worlds I  and  II

Movies:  There were four movies made with the  TNG  cast. The first one,  Generations , also included key members of the  TOS  cast. I recommend you watch  First Contact  because it's a really good movie. And you might want to watch  Nemesis  because it sets up some details you'll need in later series (but it's definitely  not  the best movie made).

Also: Best video streaming service  

To boldly go...

Once you've watched  TOS  and  TNG , you're pretty much ready to travel wherever you want throughout the  Star Trek  franchise. You'll have a good foundational understanding of the Federation, the various alien species, the rules and regulations of Starfleet, and most of the iconic characters.

My recommendation is to wrap up the early  Trek  productions by taking in the two seasons of the first animated series. Then, move on to the middle period of  Star Trek  production, with  Voyager, Deep Space 9 , and  Enterprise , and then jump forward to the current productions. That's how I'm going to present the remaining series to you, but you can pretty much choose any order you want once you've made it this far.

3. Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS)

Worthwhile animation with tos voices.

• Production Years:  1973-1975
• Trek Timeline Years:  2269-2270
• Seasons:  2
• Episodes:  22
• Buy:  Amazon

A few years after NBC canceled TOS , Roddenberry managed to convince studio heads to let him produce an animated version of the show. While it was considerably less expensive to produce than the live-action  Star Trek , the animated series was the most expensive animated show airing at the time, but that was mostly because nearly all the original series actors (Walter Koenig as Chekov was missing) lent their voices to the show.

While the series was intended as a kid's show, it hews pretty closely to classic  Star Trek  themes and can be considered a proper sequel to  TOS . Watching it in 2022 is a bit weird because cartoons from the 1970s definitely seem a bit weird to our 2022 mindset, but  TAS  is a worthwhile romp, especially since it features the voice work from the core actors who first made  Star Trek .

Must watch episodes:   Yesteryear, The Slaver Weapon, More Tribbles, More Troubles  (because...Tribbles)

4. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (DS9)

Thought-provoking, must-watch tv.

• Production Years:  1993-1999
• Trek Timeline Years:  2369-2275
• Seasons:  7
• Episodes:  176
• Stream on:   Paramount+ , Netflix
• Buy: Amazon

By many measures,  Star Trek: Deep Space 9  is as good as  Star Trek  (or science fiction overall, for that matter) gets. Rather than exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations,  Deep Space 9  takes place mostly on the eponymous space station, Deep Space 9.

The station sits at the junction of a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant (a far off part of space) and the planet Bajor, a planet previously occupied by Cardassians' warlike race (not to be confused with the Kardashians). DS9's leader is played by actor Avery Brooks, who starts off with the Starfleet rank of Commander and later gets promoted to Captain.  DS9  starts off slow but ends with a massive war and some of the best space battles ever put on film.

While there are a few silly episodes, most plotlines are tight, deep, and thought-provoking. Characters develop complex and compelling personalities. And the show takes some powerful swings at issues of the day, with  Far Beyond the Stars  an absolute standout showing issues of racism in 1950s America and yet fitting totally in with the rest of  DS9 . If anything can be considered must-watch TV, chock full of religious and political intrigue, it's  Star Trek: Deep Space 9 .

Must watch episodes:   Far Beyond the Stars, The Visitor, Trials And Tribble-Ations  (because...Tribbles)

5. Star Trek: Voyager (VOY)

A female badass captain who guides her crew on the uss voyager.

• Production Years:  1995-2001
• Trek Timeline Years:  2371-2378
• Episodes:  172

The series starts with the crew of the  Voyager  chasing after a Maquis raider ship in a rough part of space. Suddenly, both ships get pulled into a spatial distortion, only to wind up far, far away from home. A super-powerful being called the Caretaker brought both ships to the Delta quadrant as part of its quest to help a species it cared for.

The plot of the pilot is a bit convoluted, but the Captain Kathryn Janeway makes a decision that strands  Voyager  and the crew of the Maquis ship in the Delta quadrant. The voyage home will take 75 years. Kate Mulgrew was not the franchise's first choice for a Janeway captain. Instead, Geneviève Bujold was originally cast in the role, but she apparently  crashed and burned in a day and a half . That's fortunate because Mulgrew absolutely owns the part, turning the Janeway character into a tough, sensitive, compassionate, and absolutely kick-ass leader.

The  Voyager  crew becomes a blended crew with both Starfleet and Maquis. Early episodes playoff that dynamic, but the early crew conflicts tend to slip away as the series progresses and the crew coalesces. Throughout it all, the series is about how this crew survives all on its own, trying to find a way home and the adventures along the way.

Must watch episodes:  Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy, Year of Hell  (two-parter),  Timeless Worst episode in any science fiction, ever:  Threshold

6. Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT)

The start of the prime universe.

• Production Years:  2001-2005
• Trek Timeline Years:  2151-2161
• Seasons:  4
• Episodes:  98
• Stream on:  Paramount+

With  Enterprise  (the series debuted without the " Star Trek: " prefix), we're starting to move around the "Prime Universe" timeline. So, okay, some definitions are in order. In 2009, J. J. Abrams did a reboot of the original  Star Trek  crew in a three-movie set. That reboot changed some of the  Star Trek  canon (its established mythology) and became known as the "Kelvin Universe". All the  Star Trek  that exists in the unaltered (or mostly unaltered) mythology is called the "Prime Universe." All of the TV shows so far (but not all the movies) are considered Prime Universe.

In the Prime Universe,  series timelines span centuries . The majority of established canon takes place in the  TNG  era, which is 2364-2379.  TOS ,  Discovery , and  Strange New Worlds  take place 100 or so years earlier than  TNG , while  Discovery  eventually jumps to about a thousand years later. But  Enterprise  is a prequel to all of that, showcasing a ship just beginning to travel between the stars. It takes place starting in 2151, a century before the days of Kirk and Spock.

There are some nods to the idea that technology wasn't as advanced in 2151 as it was in later centuries, but since  Enterprise  itself was made 35 years after  TOS , the production value and effects made it seem somewhat more advanced. That will prove to be an ongoing problem with Trek prequels: what do you do when the real tech to produce the prequel is half a century more advanced? What do you do when the actual tech we have in our pockets seems far more advanced than the "future" tech shown in the early shows? Artistic license is used.

The  NX-01 Enterprise  is led by Captain Jonathan Archer (played by  Quantum Leap's  Scott Bakula) and his Number One is a Vulcan named T'Pol (played by Jolene Blalock). In  Enterprise's  time frame, trust between Earth and the Vulcans is tenuous, and that tension plays out over the series. Unfortunately,  Enterprise  only lasted four seasons. It, like most other  Trek , was a bit rocky in the first seasons, but by Season 4, it was producing excellent television.

My biggest question about Enterprise is about Porthos, Archer's adorable beagle. Porthos spent most of his time in Archer's cabin, but I've always been curious about how Porthos took care of business. Did they just walk him around the decks and some crewmember cleaned it up? Was there a spot of grass somewhere in an unused cabin? It keeps me up at night.

In any case, I consider  Enterprise  criminally underrated. It was a great show.

Must watch episodes:   In a Mirror, Darkly  (two-parter),  Carbon Creek, Similitude, Twilight, The Breach  (because...Tribbles)

7. Star Trek: Discovery (DIS)

Discover the fun in star trek.

• Production Years:  2017-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2255-2259, 3188-3190 (so far)
• Seasons:  4 (so far)
• Episodes:  55 (so far)

Star Trek  production effectively went into shutdown for about a decade after  Enterprise . After the success of the reboot movies in the late 2000s,  Star Trek  TV experienced a resurgence in  Discovery .  Discovery  is a hard beast to pin down, and this had the effect of turning off some of the entrenched  Star Trek  fanbase. That said, it's still great TV.  Discovery  was the first of the modern-day  Star Trek  series to be available solely on streaming, via what was then CBS All Access and is now Paramount+.

Somehow (spoiler alert), Micheal Burham goes from the Federation's first mutineer with a life sentence to a beloved starship captain. Burnham is Spock's human sister (yeah, that was a surprise to everyone). Played by Sonequa Martin-Green, the standout feature of  Discovery  is some of its great performances and characterizations.

My favorites are the gangly alien Saru (played with absolute perfection by Doug Jones), the mirror universe emperor Georgiou (played with scenery-eating intensity by Michelle Yeoh), cranky under-utilized engineer Jett Reno (played by the wonderful-in-anything Tigg Notaro), and Captain Christopher Pike, reimagined from the pilot for  TOS  (who was played to such perfection by Anson Mount that the minute he hit the screen, everyone knew a series had to be made around him -- which became  Strange New Worlds ).

The first season takes place ten years before the original series. Klingons don't really look like Klingons, Burnham starts a war,  Discovery  travels to the mirror universe where everything is  Bizarro World , and chaos ensues. The second season is back in the home universe where the crew tries to stop an AI bent on destroying all life in the universe. To avoid that fate, the crew travels 930 years into the future and...okay, let's take a breather for a second.

Do. Not. Try. To. Make. Sense. Of. All. This.  Discovery  is weird enough to be pretty much the  Twin Peaks  of  Star Trek . Just enjoy the fact that the visuals are impressive, the characters (at least most of them) are great, and the stories hold together long enough to make it through each episode as long as you don't think about it too much.  Discovery  can be annoying and sappy, to be sure. But it's also a heck of a lot of fun.

Must watch episodes (so far):  An Obol for Charon, The Sound of Thunder, Short Trek: The Trouble with Edward  (because...Tribbles)

8. Star Trek: Lower Decks (LD)

Focus on life onboard for low-ranking members of starfleet.

• Production Years:  2020-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2380- (so far)
• Seasons:  2 (so far)
• Episodes:  20 (so far)

Back in 1994, there was an episode of  TNG  called  Lower Decks . It focused on lower-ranking crew members and looked at what life onboard a starship was like for the non-hero characters of Starfleet. In 2020, Mike McMahan, previously known for his work on the animated comedy  Rick and Morty , took the lower decks concept into an entire animated  Star Trek  series.

And it works. McMahan also addressed a lot of fan complaints about  Discovery  by including an almost overwhelming array of  Star Trek   Easter eggs  as fan service in the series. If you've ever wondered about  Cetacean Ops , for example, McMahan has an entire episode devoted to Starfleet's underwater crew.

Overall,  Lower Decks  delivers fully  Star Trek  plots, along with a lot of genuinely funny moments. But it doesn't sacrifice good storytelling either for laughs or nostalgia.

Must watch episodes (so far):   No Small Parts, First First Contact, An Embarrassment of Dooplers

9. Star Trek: Prodigy (PRO)

Animated and visually stunning.

• Production Years:  2021-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2383- (so far)
• Seasons:  1 (so far)
• Episodes:  9 (so far)

Prodigy  is the second animated series currently in production. It has a completely different theme and art style from  Lower Decks  and is most definitely its own thing.

The premise is that a bunch of enslaved tweenagers of varying non-human species in the Delta Quadrant find a dormant Federation starship. While exploring, they activate the "emergency training hologram," which turns out to be an animated Captain Janeway (voiced by Kate Mulgrew herself). Hologram Janeway thinks the interlopers are cadets and helps them start the ship up so they can make their escape.

The series is Nickelodeon-branded and is supposed to be for kids, but the episodes are well-written and even suspenseful. The first season ended on a cliffhanger that both newbies to  Star Trek  and long-time fans will find compelling. And can we talk about the visuals? This series is just absolutely gorgeous. Watch it on the largest, brightest TV you can. It's that good.

Must watch episodes (so far):   Time Amok, First Con-tact, Kobayashi

10. Star Trek: Picard (PIC)

New adventures of an older captain picard.

• Trek Timeline Years:  2399- (so far)
• Seasons:  2 (so far)
• Episodes:  20 (so far)

The premise behind  Star Trek: Picard  is simple. Thirty years after  TNG , Admiral Picard goes back out into space for new adventures. Picard (and Patrick Stewart) are much older, and the series addresses the challenges of ageing and how someone who was once the galaxy's hero deals with becoming irrelevant -- just as events reach out to bring the retired admiral back onto center stage once again.

Have you noticed how most of the  Star Trek  series have three-letter abbreviations?  Star Trek: Picard's  should be WTF. There are moments in  Picard  that are wonderful. But a lot of  Picard  is just plain terrible. If you even try to think about all the plot holes and paradoxes in just the final episode of Season 2, you'll find your brain sucked into a wormhole. As much as it's an absolute pleasure to see Patrick Stewart in anything,  Star Trek: Picard  is undeniably the worst television  Star Trek  has yet produced.

Like all of the current-era  Star Trek , it's gorgeous. There's fan service everywhere, and we do get to meet some of the  TNG  characters again. More are promised for Season 3. But something went horribly wrong in the writers' room for the storylines in most of the episodes to be this convoluted, self-referential, internally inconsistent, and rather unbelievable (trust me, suspending disbelief often just doesn't work here). If anything, Season 2 is even more disastrous than Season 1, and that's saying something.

All that said, should you watch  Star Trek: Picard ? Of course. It's a hoot. Plus, the episode  Nepenthe  (where we get to meet a gray-haired Captain Riker and his wife, Deanna Troy, along with their daughter Kestra) makes the whole series worthwhile.

Must watch episodes:   Nepenthe, Stardust City Rag

11. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (SNW)

Referential to established canon for entrenched trek fans.

• Production Years:  2022-current
• Trek Timeline Years:  2259- (so far)
• Seasons:  1 (so far)
• Episodes:  4 (so far)

Strange New Worlds  has been jokingly called the longest order from the pilot to series in television history, but there's some truth to that. The very first  TOS  pilot back in the 1960s spotlighted the main characters of  Strange New Worlds . As the legend goes, NBC didn't like those characters, so Roddenberry retooled and the result was Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

Today, however, Anson Mount is center stage, along with Ethan Peck as the third actor to play Spock, and Rebecca Romijn playing Number One. We haven't seen too many episodes yet, but so far it's good. Really, really good. Sure, this  U.S.S. Enterprise  is supposed to be from a time ten years before Kirk's in  TOS , and it's far fancier. But that's what you get with 2022 budgets and CGI compared to the hand-me-downs that went into the original  Star Trek .

You can follow the story well enough without having seen any other  Star Trek , so it makes for a good first series. But it also is so reverently referential to established canon (while blazing its own way as well) that deeply entrenched Trek fans will undoubtedly enjoy it as well.

Must watch episodes (so far):  Strange New Worlds, Children of the Comet, Ghosts of Illyria, Memento Mori

Also: The 7 best free video streaming services: Watch movies for free

What are the worst to best Star Trek series?

This is a highly subjective list, but I know you're going to want to know. So here it is. My call for worst series to best. You'll be surprised.

10. Picard :  I had high hopes, I love the reunions, but the plots don't hold together if you think about it for just one minute.

9. The Original Series :  Yes, it started everything. And yes, they got a lot right. But some of it is just downright hard to watch.

8. The Animated Series :  Like  TOS , it's a rough ride to watch. Pacing is very late sixties.

7. Lower Decks :  I'm not a huge animation fan, and the silliness is a bit annoying.

6. Prodigy :   Prodigy  is gorgeous, and the plots hold together well. But I'm not as into it as I could be. Perhaps with more seasons.

5. The Next Generation :   TNG  defines  Star Trek , and while there are some great shows there, it's getting old. I'm just not that invested anymore.

4. Discovery :  I really like some of the characters and the modern visuals are spectacular. The focus on one character as a  Mary Sue  gets tiresome, as do the somewhat lazy resolutions for season-long mysteries.

3. Voyager :  Some of the premise broke down in early years, but the overall crew survival dynamic makes for worthwhile TV. I've become attached to some of the characters after watching them grow into their responsibilities.

2. Enterprise :  Yes, I consider  Enterprise  among the best  Star Trek  ever, even though it died an early death. From Archer's relationship with the Andorian commander Shran (played by the wonderful Jeffrey Combs) to some really excellent standalone episodes, I miss  Enterprise  more than any other series.

1. Deep Space 9 :  Yeah, this is just about the best science fiction you're going to find anywhere.

* Strange New Worlds :  I'm not rating  Strange New Worlds  yet. I've only seen a few episodes. But from what I've seen, it has the potential to be among the favorites.

What about you? What's your favorite Star Trek series? Are you Trek-curious and just getting started? Are you coming back after a long hiatus? Share with us in the comments below. Live long and prosper.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz , on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz , on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz , and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV .

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WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek: The Next Generation

If the original Star Trek proved that space was the final frontier, it also suggested that maybe it was a frontier too far for mainstream American television. It got canceled after just three years. Apparently, a lot can change in two decades: When Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987, it launched not only a series that would last for seven glorious seasons, but an era of television dominance for the franchise that would stretch out for decades to come.

We're here to fix that. If you're one of those folks whose never experienced the joys of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), and—yes—even Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), now is the time to get familiar. Get ready to rock your very own "Shut up, Wesley" jokes—here's WIRED's binge-watching guide for Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Number of Seasons: 7 (178 episodes)

Time Requirements: If you watch a couple of episodes a day every day it'll take you just over three months. Sure, there are times where that might seem like a little bit too much, but Starfleet isn't for the weak-hearted.

Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes

Best Character to Follow: The answer to the question of which character you'll follow throughout the series' long run really depends on what you want from the show. Do you want the straightforward Star Trek experience? Then you should stick with Picard, the man in charge of this version of the Enterprise, or Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), playing the Spock role in these proceedings. But perhaps you're looking for something a little more off-base. In that case, Riker provides both the self-aware over-the-top acting and a refusal to take the show too seriously that made the original so appealing. You also might also want to follow Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who provides a horrifyingly clear lesson of the ways in which gender equality really hasn't reached the fictional 24th century just yet.

For our money, though, the best characters to follow are the recurring guests that pop up throughout the show's run: Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney), before he ships off to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , for example, or Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes). Hell, even following omnipotent know-it-all Q (John de Lancie) has its charms. But if you're looking to follow one of the regular cast no matter what, then it really has to be Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn). Not because he's the show's most interesting character (he's not), but because you can always tell roughly where in the series' run you are based upon the length of his hair, which slowly grows over the course of the whole thing.

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:

The easiest, and shortest, way of putting this is "just avoid the first season altogether, and prepare to have a bumpy ride through the second, as well." The first year of The Next Generation is almost legendarily uneven, with more poor episodes than great ones, and some downright terrible ones thrown in for good measure. Things improve in the second year, but the show doesn't really hit a sustained run of good stuff until Season 3.

That said, if you're determined to watch as much of the show as possible, here are some episodes that you really will want to avoid.

Season 1: Episode 3, "Code of Honor" There's probably some way to describe this episode without using the phrase "a surprisingly racist piece of trash," but we're not going to waste time looking for it. Quite how nobody involved in this production realized they were making an episode wherein an all-black alien planet was depicted as tribal savages is baffling, but if only they had...

Season 1: Episode 8, "Justice" If ever there was an episode to make you convinced that the addition of a teenage Wil Wheaton to the cast was not the wisest of moves, this might be the one. Teenage wunderkind Wesley Crusher accidentally breaks the rules of an alien planet by crushing flowers and launches a diplomatic incident. Kids, amirite?

Season 1: Episode 14, "Angel One" Hey, here's a great idea: What if you tried to make a parable about the inhumanity of apartheid, but changed it from racism to sexism and then made the women the sexists? If your response is "that sounds like a terrible and potentially offensive idea," then congratulations: You're more farsighted than the people in charge of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Season 2: Episode 18, "Up The Long Ladder" The Next Generation record when it comes to comedy is, admittedly, more than a little spotty, but no comedic episode is worse than this one, which has to have been created as the result of a dare along the lines of "I bet you can't create an episode based on space stereotypes about Irish people, who end up being the punchline to a joke about their need to keep breeding." Yes, it really is as bad as that sounds, amazingly.

Season 2: Episode 22, "Shades of Gray" Almost definitely the least favorite episode of Next Generation aficionados, "Shades of Gray" commits a cardinal sin for any television program: It's essentially a clip episode. Worse yet, it's the clip show that finished off the show's second season. Based on the tackiness of this, it's impressive that this show returned for Season 3 at all, never mind doing so in such a strong manner creatively.

Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:

The strange truth about Star Trek: The Next Generation 's appeal is that, once it hits its stride in the third season, it's remarkably consistent throughout the rest of the series. What that means in practice is that, once you reach the third season, you pretty much know what you're going to get for the next five years' worth of programming, for better or worse. That said, there are still some peaks to be found in there, like these episodes.

Season 3: Episode 26 and Season 4: Episode 1, "The Best of Both Worlds"/"The Best of Both Worlds Part II" The first of the show's big season-finale/season-opener two-parters, and easily the best, "The Best of Both Worlds" brought the crew of the Enterprise against an unstoppable foe and... watched as they lost. Or, at least, that's how things got started; the second half offers a far more satisfying climax that suggests resistance may not be entirely futile after all.

Season 4: Episode 5, "Remember Me" One of the things that later-era Next Generation did particularly well was do-over high-concept episodes: ones that seemed to be based around one big idea, only to slowly let on that something else is happening after all. "Remember Me," which opens with members of the crew disappearing one by one with no one remembering them except for Crusher, is one of the best.

Season 4: Episode 24, "The Mind's Eye" Sure, the idea of "What if one of our heroes got brainwashed by the bad guys?" sounds like it's something you've seen before, but this episode manages to play everything just right and create a surprisingly unsettling psychological drama in the process. Geordi, you always seemed so nice before...!

Season 5: Episode 2, "Darmok" Based around a suitably high-brow idea (communicating with aliens who can only speak through metaphor), what makes "Darmok" so engaging are the performances of Stewart and guest star Paul Winfield as the two stuck trying to bridge the language gap. For those who aren't into that kind of thing, there's always the first on-screen appearance of Ashley Judd, playing Wheaton's on-screen love interest. (Let that sink in. We'll wait.)

Season 5: Episode 24, "The Next Phase" For a character so often in the background of stories, La Forge certainly got some great spotlight episodes to show off his chops. In "The Next Phase," he gets to see his own funeral after an accident is believed to have killed some of the Enterprise crew—except that they're actually still alive, but invisible and intangible to everyone around them. (Yes, the use of "phase" in the title is a pun.)

Season 6: Episode 4, "Relics" A handful of faces from the original Star Trek showed up in this second series from the franchise, but none so effectively as James Doohan, playing Scotty as a man literally out of time and unsure about his place in the universe. Both funny and touching, this episode—written by Ron Moore, who'd go on to run Battlestar Galactica years later—is a charming celebration of Star Trek as a whole, and the differences between the original series and Next Generation at the same time.

Season 6: Episodes 10 and 11, "Chain of Command, Parts I & II" Picard gets tortured and interrogated behind enemy lines and his replacement decides that the Enterprise crew has been far too relaxed in its behavior until now. Next Generation might have been a serious show, but it was rarely a dark one—which makes this two-parter a welcome break from the norm and far more effective as a result.

Season 6: Episode 12, "Ship in a Bottle" Another fun episode that isn't all that it appears to be, "Ship in a Bottle" is probably the best of the series' Holodeck episodes, exploring the limits (and lack of limits, from a certain perspective) of the show's virtual reality playroom in a way that went beyond the "our characters play dress up" method it traditionally opted for. What is reality, anyway...?

Season 7: Episode 15, "Lower Decks" After six-and-a-half seasons of showing what the upper echelon of Enterprise staff gets up to, "Lower Deck" flipped things up and gave us an adventure as seen by the grunts: the ones who don't really know what's going on. For those looking for an episode in which everything is explained away easily and ends happily, this isn't going to do it for them, but if you've been wanting more of an idea of how the Enterprise works, then this really is a pretty good place to go.

Season 7: Episodes 25 and 26, "All Good Things..." The show’s final episode (a two-parter) is, impressively, one of its strongest, looking back at the earliest days of the series as well as the far-future of the characters while simultaneously retroactively imposing a structure and coherence on the last seven years that hadn't been there before. Part fan-service, part nostalgiafest and part solid episode, All Good Things..." let the show go out on top. It's something that, let's be honest, is a rarity for most shows that go on this long.

(For those who are continuity-conscious, you can't skip "Encounter at Farpoint" (Season 1, Episode 1) or "Skin of Evil" (Season 1, Episode 23) and "Q Who" (Season 2, Episode 16), either. Also, way back in 2012 , WIRED readers picked their own favorite episodes, so check that list out as well.)

Why You Should Binge:

After a rough start, Star Trek: The Next Generation proved to be a worthy successor to the original show, eschewing Star Wars -esque action and escapades in favor of television that tried to be thought-provoking and entertaining in a more cerebral manner. In the process, it became a phenomenon that didn't just set the tone for the next three Star Trek shows, but also for a lot of science fiction that followed for the next decade or so. There's a lot to enjoy in this series, and enough of it to find yourself getting sucked into the minutiae in the best ways. Before too long, you too will find yourself believing that the only way to order tea is to demand "Earl Grey, hot," and be unable to rise from a chair without self-consciously tugging down your sweater.

Best Scene—"I Am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is Futile"

The first half of the "Best of Both Worlds" two-parter has a great cliffhanger that the show never quite lived up to ever again: The Captain of the ship has been kidnapped and turned into one of the emotionless enemy, and his second-in-command has given the order to fire! How could anything be the same again after this? (Spoilers: They find a way.)

The Takeaway:

Binge-watching a show that defined the childhood of so many nerds and ne'er-do-wells? Make it so.

If You liked Star Trek: The Next Generation You'll Love:

Both of the Next Generation spin-off shows, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager play with the core DNA of the show in different ways and come up with twists on the formula. Just remember that, while the show inspired a raft of sci-fi shows in the early '90s, none of them are worth your time or attention. No, not even SeaQuest DSV . Trust us on this.

The 15 Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes, Ranked

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If you're even remotely interested in science fiction and television, chances are pretty good that someone has recommended you watch Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Unless you've seen it and are sure you don't like it, that person was right: you should watch it!

But we don't blame you if you find it somewhat daunting—considering Star Trek: The Next Generation has hour-long episodes and lasted for seven seasons.

If you're not sure where to start, or if you're a longtime fan looking to rewatch a few excellent episodes, here are the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes you should definitely watch.

How to Watch Star Trek: TNG

Anyone who isn't a die-hard fan of Star Trek should probably stick to streaming episodes on Amazon Prime or Hulu. The show may not always be available in the future on either platform, but if you're already subscribed, you can watch while you can.

But any die-hard fan should seriously consider getting the entire series on DVD or Blu-ray. A vintage series like this may not always be around, in which case you'll thank yourself for owning a physical copy rather than being beholden to streaming services.

1. "Measure of a Man"

The Next Generation was still finding its feet in the second season, but "Measure of a Man" was one of the first truly great episodes of the series.

This episode focuses on Lt. Commander Data, specifically his rights as an android, when a scientist who wants to dismantle him to create copies of him.

2. "Q Who?"

Q made his debut in the series debut episode "Encounter at Farpoint," but this episode is where John de Lancie really begins to shine in his role. Q tries to prove that the crew of the Enterprise needs him as an ally. How? By putting them in incredible danger.

3. "Manhunt"

Normally, episodes of The Next Generation that feature Deanna Troi's mother Lwaxana are groan-worthy—and this one is too, but in a way that works.

Lwaxana is on the prowl for a mate (hence the episode title), and Captain Picard is doing his best to avoid her. This episode also features a cameo from Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood.

4. "The Defector"

If you're a fan of the recent The Next Generation follow-up show Star Trek: Picard , this season three episode is a must see. It gives excellent background on the Romulans, and also just happens to be a great episode on its own merits.

5. "Deja Q"

Yep, another Q episode. This one is unusual, as Q spends most of the episode without his powers aside from his intellect.

After seeing him as a near-omnipotent antagonist in other episodes, seeing Q dealing with human problems is strangely satisfying, even if he does regain his powers by the end.

6. "Yesterday's Enterprise"

Whenever time travel pops up out of nowhere in a sci-fi show, you know it's probably going to be a good episode. This is especially true with "Yesterday's Enterprise," a fan and cast favorite that features a new take on the death of a character from season one.

7. "The Offspring"

This is another episode that ties well into Star Trek: Picard . It's also the first episode of the episode directed by a cast member, in this case Jonathan Frakes, whose directorial touch makes this episode (in which Data creates a daughter for himself) a favorite of numerous cast members.

8. "Captain's Holiday"

As the title implies, this episode begins with Captain Picard taking a vacation, only to be drawn into an almost Indiana Jones -style adventure. It also happens to feature time travel—which, again, almost always makes for a great episode.

9. "Best Of Both Worlds"

"Best Of Both Worlds" is more or less legally required to be on any list of the best episodes of this show. This two-parter that spans season three and season four sees Picard captured and assimilated by the Borg...

...and a cliffhanger that had fans impatiently waiting for season four to begin. This two-part episode is so good that it was released as a standalone Blu-ray disc.

10. "Brothers"

This episode isn't the first episode to feature Data's brother, Lore, but it's the best. If you're a fan of Data (is it possible to watch this show and not become one?), this is a must-watch for the background the episode gives to his character.

11. "Data's Day"

Speaking of Data, "Data's Day" is about, well, Data's day. This is one of the funnier episodes of the show, as well as essential viewing if you plan to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine thanks to its focus on Miles and Keiko O'Brien.

12. "I, Borg"

Here's another episode that provides great background for Picard . "I, Borg" sees the Enterprise crew find an injured Borg and initially decide to use him as a weapon against the Borg. Instead, he starts to develop free will and even takes a name: Hugh.

13. "The Inner Light"

While "Captain's Holiday" lets us see a slightly different Picard we don't normally see on the show, "The Inner Light" shows us a radically different Picard. The Captain literally lives another life while only a few minutes pass for the rest of the crew.

14. "Tapestry"

Another Q episode, but with a much different tone than normal. After Picard dies (yes, you read that right), Q gives him a chance to go back in time and change events, It's A Wonderful Life -style.

Of course, nothing goes as planned. Writer (and later Battlestar Galactic creator) Ronald D. Moore told fans this was one of the best episodes he'd written.

15. "Genesis"

It was tough not to round out this list of episodes with "All Good Things," the final episode of the show, but that's kind of a bummer.

Instead, we'll go with "Genesis," one of the weirdest episodes of the show, which sees most of the crew turned into primitive beings including a spider, a venom-spraying mega-Klingon, and cavemen.

Can't Get Enough Star Trek?

Narrowing down the entire run of Star Trek: The Next Generation to the best episodes is effectively impossible, because it means leaving out a ton of great episodes.

If you're really looking to get into the series, start from the beginning and watch it all. Yes, the first two seasons can be a little rough, but the plot points they set up will pay off seasons later.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode guides, brief reviews and ratings

The truth is that, had Paramount executives not taken a chance on rebooting Star Trek in the 1980s (decades before the term “reboot” was commonly applied to the revivification of entertainment franchises, no less), Star Trek could well have died after The Undiscovered Country . Instead, TNG’s seven-year run included story lines and episodes that one-quarter century later still resonate in the public consciousness: stuff like “Darmok”, “The Inner Light” and “Best of Both Worlds.” Remind yourself of just how great TNG was with a perusal of our episode guides.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 2 episode guide

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Notable episodes

Season 1 – crew getting its feet wet; no one but Stewart is really comfortable with his/her character. Writers too are unsure … after “Encounter at Farpoint” (episode #1), the only notables are “Datalore” (#13), which introduces Data’s “brother” Lore and thus allows the great Brent Siner to flex those acting muscles a bit, and “Skin of Evil” (#23), which features the death of Lt. Tasha Yar.

Season 2 – The tone is set for the remainder of ST:TNG’s run in episode #9, “The Measure of a Man”; in this episode, a hearing is held regarding Data’s individuality as a sentient being, a hearing which often evolves into questions of existence and consciousness. Intelligent stuff here, is balanced by the excellent character development throughout the season, culminating in “Peak Performance” (#21). The real notable in this season, though, has got to be “Q Who” (#16), featuring the first appearance of the Borg.

Season 3 – The character of Guinan is introduced in season 3, as the twists and turns come fast and furious. The alternate-universe episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (#15) has simply got to be among any ST’s fan’s top 10 TNG stories and was among the first to truly take advantage of this wacky new continuity thing. Of course, season 3 is perhaps most remembered for its cliffhanger ending in “The Best of Both Worlds” (#26), which vaulted the Borg (and Riker) to new levels of badassery.

Season 4 – Starting tremendously strong with “The Best of Both Worlds”, “Family” and “Brothers”, season 4 kicked the “head trip” episodes, i.e throw a character into an insane situation and divulge the details slowly, into full gear with stuff like “Remember Me” (#5) “Future Imperfect” (#8) and “Clues” (#14). We also get the introduction of Romulan baddie Sela, the very embodiment of plot twist, in “The Mind’s Eye” (#24). Throughout the season, Lt. Worf and his family’s relationship with the Klingon Empire is continuously revisited until the season’s concluding episode, “Redemption, Part I.”

Season 5 – Season 5 of TNG saw the introduction of Ensign Ro Laren (in episode #3) and the return of some guy named Spock (“Reunification,” #s 7-8). Again typically strong stuff, this season contains several popular favorites, including “Darmok” (#2) and “The Inner Light” (#25)

Season 6 – With Jeri Taylor joining the production team as co-producer (and presumably the principals’ salaries getting raised), seasons 6 and 7 of TNG tended to focus on smaller-scale stories ranging from the incredibly dark “Chain of Command” (#s 10-11) to the laugh-a-minute “Tapestry” (#15), the latter of which is dominated by scenes featuring only Picard and Q. The season-ending cliffhanger concludes with part one of an intriguing-sounding team-up of Lore and a group of Borg in “Descent.”

Season 7 – The conclusion to “Descent” may have been anticlimactic, but the conclusion to the TNG series sure wasn’t. ST:TNG finished strong, closing out with the excellent “Preemptive Strike” and “All Good Things”, three episodes’ worth of twisty character development and head trip, respectively.

Star Trek Best Trek

Star trek: the next generation.

The Next Generation jumps several decades into the future after The Original Series and The Animated Series . It features a less untamed galaxy with more worldbuilding establishing the Federation and its neighbors, along with more recurring faces and story arcs.

The ideals hinted at in those previous series - truth, freedom, equality, cooperation, and so on - are much more clearly the founding principles of the Federation and what Starfleet is working to protect. If The Original Series imagines a humanity that has progressed technologically and expanded into space, The Next Generation imagines one that has also progressed culturally and solved things like prejudice, poverty, and war.

Episodic or serial?

Mostly episodic. There are a couple of arcs and several two-part episodes, and a number of significant events get referenced or have interesting consequences. But most episodes are fairly standalone and the characters and their relationships stay largely unchanged. The show is best experienced in order, but jumping around is workable too.

Idealistic or cynical?

Idealistic. While there are moments of darkness and some tragic events, this is a show where sticking to your principles pays off and good defeats evil. Additionally, the Federation itself is largely presented as a utopia.

Worth watching?

Oh my, yes. Along with Deep Space Nine , this is a strong candidate for the best Trek series and the best embodiment of the franchise’s values. The things that make people love Trek are at full force here. And there’s a reason that this show’s captain is the only character in Trek to get their own series .

Unfortunately, it does have a rocky beginning. The first season is full of cheesy episodes, weak pacing, and inconsistent characterization. But there’s a lot of worldbuilding that comes back later and is useful to know. Most of the episodes I recommend watching in this season lay a foundation or set up later story arcs; for any episodes that set up useful information but aren’t quite worth watching notes are provided so you can just read those instead. If you find this season unbearable, don’t feel bad about skipping ahead - the show gets much better and most of what you need to know will be explained to some degree in the episodes where it comes back. But if you can stick it out, you’ll be rewarded - several later episodes are considerably more enjoyable if you’ve seen these early ones.

The second season is where the series starts to show its true potential, but it was also hampered by a Writer’s Guild strike. As a result, the season opens with a recycled script, features some excellent episodes but some stinkers as well, and ends after only 22 episodes. (Surprisingly, the fact that the finale is essentially a clip show was actually due to budget overruns, not the strike.) The good news is that the second season’s best episodes are legitimately good and there’s fewer bad episodes that turn out to be important later, so you can be more confident that the episodes I say to watch are genuinely worth watching on their own merits.

Season three is where the show really hits its stride. From there on out, each season features some of the show’s best episodes and even the few I suggest skipping are mediocre at worst. Starting in season three, if you don’t feel like checking the guide you can just watch all the episodes and you won’t often go wrong. Even the seventh and final season, where the writers seem to be running a bit short on ideas, has plenty of great episodes and a strong finish.

Note: This guide assumes you want to enjoy most of the show and just skip the worst of it. If you’re looking to save more time and just see the absolute best that The Next Generation has to offer, there are other more aggressive guides out there.

Anything else that should be watched first?

No hard requirements, but it wouldn’t hurt to have seen some of The Original Series .

A few episodes directly reference events or characters from The Original Series and you can better appreciate how The Next Generation ’s expands and improves on its legacy if you’ve seen where it all began.

What should be watched after this?

If you want more of this crew, there are also four feature films . Some of them are worth watching.

Then you should head on to Deep Space Nine .

( Picard is a significant jump ahead and tonal change so I’d recommend waiting on that.)

Our episode database profiles every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Each episode features background information (plot • trivia • interviews • behind the scenes info • shooting script) and Blu-ray screencaps.

Jump to Season : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

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This Is The Correct Order In Which To Watch The Star Trek Franchise

Don't look now, but "Star Trek" is a thing again. It's been a while — after redefining television in the 1960s and enjoying a resurgence in the '80s and '90s, the final episode of ""Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2005 marked the beginning of a dark period in which there was simply no "Trek" to be had. Then, in 2017, the drought ended with the premiere of " "Star Trek: Discovery ," and when it rains, it pours. "Discovery" heralded the arrival of a whole new era of ""Star Trek," and that's just the beginning — Paramount+ will soon play host to two new "Star Trek" shows, with three more currently in development, and there's a new movie scheduled for release in 2023 . Suddenly, we are awash in "Trek," which means that if you're unfamiliar with Gene Roddenberry's universe, it's a pretty good time to jump on board. Only where do you start with a franchise this big — and more importantly, what's the proper watch order?

These are the questions we're here to answer. While it's tempting to try and watch "Star Trek" chronologically, using either the fictional timeline or release dates, we recommend an order that's a bit of a blend of both. Following this list should result in an experience that provides a complete picture of what "Star Trek" is while also remaining easy to binge. With that in mind (and with the understanding that a few spoilers are unavoidable ), it's time to boldly go where every previous "Star Trek" installment has gone before!

The Original Series

When you watch "Star Trek," you really need to begin at the beginning. Not with Enterprise, which is set earlier in the "Trek" timeline than any show, but with "Star Trek" — or as it's lovingly called these days, "The Original Series." This is the show that ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969, forever altering the television medium, the science fiction genre, and the experience of being a fan. While some viewers may find the special effects laughable or the political themes unsubtle, the most astonishing thing about "TOS" is how well it holds up, even more than 50 years later. The first two seasons, in particular, are absolutely riddled with classic episodes, and while the third season is significantly worse due to changes in the creative team, it's still fun to watch William Shatner ham it up as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy raise a single Vulcan eyebrow as Mr. Spock, and the original Starship Enterprise soar through space. Most importantly, though, those first 79 episodes introduce rules, concepts, and even characters that "Star Trek" is still playing with today, from Class M planets and the Prime Directive to Khan and the Klingons.

The Animated Series

The unofficial fourth and fifth seasons of "Star Trek," "The Animated Series" aired on NBC from 1973 to 1974, after tempers had cooled somewhat between NBC and Roddenberry, who left "Star Trek" after its second season out of frustration with the network. Not only was the entire original cast back (minus Walter Koenig), but so was Roddenberry, and so was D.C. Fontana, Roddenberry's longtime assistant who had grown into one of the most celebrated "Trek" writers and had also departed after Season 2. Between the return of some of the show's original creative minds and cast, and the fact that animation allowed them to do so much more than live action special effects of the era, "TAS" is pure, undiluted "Star Trek."

It's never been made explicitly clear whether "TAS" is canon, but considering the number of "TAS" ideas re-used in later live-action shows, plus the introduction in "TAS" of canon pieces of backstory, like Kirk's middle name, it's silly at this point to believe otherwise. And it's required viewing for completists who want to see every televised adventure undertaken by the original Enterprise crew.

The first six films

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was released by Paramount in 1979, and while it's not an especially good film, it holds historical importance as the launching point for the "Star Trek" movie franchise. The real highlights in this part of the list, though, are the three films that followed. The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home essentially form their own trilogy of movies within the larger "Trek" saga, and are some of the most popular and critically acclaimed installments in the franchise. "The Wrath of Khan," in particular, tends to show up near the top of "best science fiction films in history" lists, making the titular Khan such an iconic villain that he was recast for the J.J. Abrams reboot movies, while "The Voyage Home" is probably the most charming "Star Trek" film, as the Enterprise travels to the past to rescue the humpback whale species from extinction.

Even the most dedicated binge-watcher can safely skip the horrendous fifth movie, "The Final Frontier," but "The Undiscovered Country" is an absolute masterpiece, and taken together, these six films provide a worthy capstone to the franchise's inaugural era.

It might seem counterintuitive to follow up the oldest "Star Trek" series with one of the newest, especially given that "Star Trek: Discovery" actually takes place prior to "The Original Series." But there's a good reason to jump from the tales of Kirk and Spock to the tales of Michael Burnham and...well, and Spock, who shows up in Season 2. "The Original Series" and its accompanying animated and film extensions are foundational to "Discovery," which is set shortly after the events of the rejected "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage." And characters from "The Cage" show up in Season 2 and are also appearing in their own spinoff, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

While an in-universe chronological watch order would put the first two seasons of "Discovery" before "TOS" and the third season at the very end (as the crew travels forward in time to the far future) it makes more sense to us to treat "Discovery" as its own story. The third season does occasionally reference "past" events from other shows, but that does lead nicely into the next "Trek" installment...

The Next Generation (Seasons 1-5)

For many Trekkies today, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was their introduction to the franchise, and for good reason. If any one series beyond the original can lay a claim to being the single most iconic "Star Trek" story, it's Next Generation, which premiered in 1987 and went on to not only have seven seasons of its own, but to jumpstart a chain of interlocking "Star Trek" shows that would thoroughly dominate the 1990s. Before that, though, the first five seasons of Next Generation stood alone, and if you're trying to get somebody instantly hooked on Trek, this might actually be the place to start, despite the fact that the first couple of seasons don't hold up incredibly well.

If you're absorbing all of "Star Trek," though, "Next Generation" has to be the place to start. After all, it's the next generation of what, exactly? The answer is the Starship Enterprise, which comes with an entirely new cast and crew, introducing the world to Worf, Data, Counselor Troi, and Geordi LaForge, and permanently branding the hearts of a thousand Trekkies with the image of Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard .

The Next Generation (Season 6) / Deep Space Nine (Season 1)

Okay, this is where it gets weird. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" debuted in January 1993, just a few months after "Next Generation" kicked off its sixth season — a season full of unmitigated classics, incidentally, from the return of Montgomery Scott in "Relics" to the legendary two-parter "Chain of Command." Picard even makes a cameo in the first episode of "DS9," which takes place aboard a space station and uses the ideas and events of earlier "Next Generation" episodes to inform characters like Commander Benjamin Sisko and Quark. It's essentially impossible to understand Sisko's backstory, for example, without first having seen the "Next Generation" episode "The Best of Both Worlds."

Despite the fact that they take place over roughly the same time period, we recommend watching the entirety of Season 6 of "Next Generation" followed by the entirety of Season 1 of "DS9," if for no other reason than the former has more episodes than the latter, making it a complicated process to intercut between them. But however you choose to do it, these two seasons really should be watched back to back.

The Next Generation (Season 7) / Deep Space Nine (Season 2)

Similarly, the second season of "DS9" coincides with the last "Next Generation" season. While it might lack the standout episodes of earlier seasons, Season 7 manages a few achievements. For one thing, it puts a bow on one of the most beloved shows in television history with a flourish, ending the program with an ambitious, timeline-jumping two-parter that ties directly into the events of the very first episode. It also inadvertently lays the groundwork for a much more modern "Trek" show with an episode about junior officers called "Lower Decks." But most importantly, it ties into and reinforces "Deep Space Nine," most notably in the penultimate episode "Preemptive Strike," which deals with concurrent "DS9" problems like the Cardassians and the Maquis.

By the end of Season 2, "DS9" has already proven capable of standing on its own, having picked up and ran with the Maquis threads from earlier "Next Generation" episodes, returned to the Mirror Universe first introduced in the original series, and introduced the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar, who will serve as the series' primary antagonists. But the stories of Picard and company were far from over...

Generations

The four feature films built around the cast of "Next Generation" are a direct continuation of the movies that came before, not least because the first one, 1994's "Generations," serves as a bridge between "TOS" and its descendant, and between Kirk and Picard, in about the most literal way you could imagine. This movie marks the final appearance of several characters from the original show, including Kirk himself (the one played by William Shatner, at any rate) which makes it a crucial piece of the "Star Trek" timeline, as does the introduction of Data's emotion chip. Of course, some might consider the movie worth it just to see Malcolm McDowell chew the scenery like he hasn't eaten in three days, and we can't say they're wrong.

"Generations" launched Picard's crew onto the big screen almost immediately after their exit from the small one, meaning they would continue to be the face of "Star Trek" for the remainder of the decade. But back in the realm of "Trek" TV, things were only heating up, as a new series prepared to take the field and challenge "DS9" for television dominance.

Deep Space Nine (Season 3) / Voyager (Season 1)

Once again, it's time to switch between two seasons of "Star Trek," as the third season of "DS9" overlaps with the debuting "Star Trek: Voyager." The first "Trek" series to feature a woman (Kathryn Janeway) in the captain's chair, "Voyager" also had a unique and fascinating premise. Much of the "DS9" action is driven by the existence of a nearby wormhole that leads to the Gamma Quadrant, a section of space far away from the Federation's native Alpha Quadrant. This allows the titular space station and its intrepid crew to encounter any number of new and dangerous alien species. "Voyager" goes even farther, literally — a solitary ship finds itself transported to the even more distant Delta Quadrant and spends the rest of the series trying to get home.

Due to this premise, there's no reason whatsoever to jump between individual episodes of these two seasons, as the events of one show don't affect the other in any way. But jumping between shows by the season provides a fun and accurate experience of what it was like to watch the interlocking "Star Trek" programs of the 1990s.

Deep Space Nine (Season 4) / Voyager (Season 2)

Like most "Star Trek" shows, "Voyager" takes a couple of seasons to find its feet, and Season 2 in particular contains some of its most notoriously bad episodes, from the tone-deaf Native American implications of "Tattoo" to Janeway and Voyager pilot Tom Paris turning into salamanders and having salamander babies together in "Threshold" to the utter abomination that is "Tuvix." At least it has the consideration to get them all out of the way early on.

"DS9," meanwhile, was encountering its own problems in Season 4, which took a sharp turn away from the burgeoning conflict with the Dominion and instead spent most of its time dealing with the newly antagonistic Klingon Empire. Fortunately, even as the overarching plot went briefly off the rails, the writing was getting better and better, and the diversion is, if nothing else, entertaining. As a bonus, Season 4 features one of television's first lesbian kisses, and also brings in Worf, the Klingon security officer from "Next Generation" — until Picard, Michael Dorn was the only actor to star in the main casts of two different "Star Trek" shows.

First Contact

As a result of his dual roles, Worf would spend the next several years hopping back and forth between television and the movies. One reason it's important to watch Season 4 of "DS9" prior to watching "First Contact," the second film starring the "Next Generation" cast, is because in order to include Worf in the story, the latter is obligated to include a scene in which the Enterprise rescues another ship called the Defiant, introduced in "DS9" and captained by Worf himself. Future "Next Generation" movies, which decline in quality moving forward, come up with increasingly hand-wavy reasons for his presence on the Enterprise bridge.

"First Contact" itself, however, is by far the best of the "Next Generation" films and one of the best "Star Trek" films in general, as the crew travels back in time to prevent the cybernetic hive mind known as the Borg from altering history. Not only is "First Contact" a great movie (and the film directorial debut of Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander William Riker), it also kicks off a spectacular "Star Trek" run that can stand up against any other period in franchise history.

Deep Space Nine (Season 5) / Voyager (Season 3)

With Season 5, "DS9" gets back on track after the previous outlier season, quickly focusing around a single unified threat thanks to an alliance between the show's original antagonists the Cardassians and the Dominion. The presence of the sinister Changelings adds an intrigue element to the story, as any character could potentially be a Changeling in disguise — a concept that would be used to great effect years later in the 2004 reboot of "Battlestar Galactica." The season concludes with the official start of the Dominion War, a conflict that would dominate the remainder of the show.

"Voyager," meanwhile, was also getting back on track in its third season, which generally sees an uptick in quality — particularly toward the end, with episodes like "Before and After," "Real Life," and "Worst Case Scenario." Robert Picardo, who plays Voyager's holographic doctor, also gets to make a cameo in "DS9" as the Doctor's creator, Lewis Zimmerman, in the episode "Doctor Bashir, I presume." And Season 3 ends with the first installment of "Scorpion," which catalyzed "Voyager's" official rise to greatness in part thanks to a memorable new character.

Deep Space Nine (Season 6) / Voyager (Season 4)

These two overlapping seasons, airing in late 1997 and early 1998, represent the pinnacle of "Star Trek's" '90s golden age. In "DS9," the Dominion War is in full swing, the series' much-discussed religions themes are building in prominence, the mysterious Section 31 is introduced, foreshadowing its prominent role in both "Enterprise" and "Discovery," and most memorably, the showrunners do what almost no iteration of "Star Trek" has ever dared to do: permanently kill off a member of the main cast.

Casting changes are also a major part of Season 4 of "Voyager," which jettisons the little-loved character of Kes and officially introduces Seven of Nine , a liberated Borg drone played by Jeri Ryan who quickly joins the ranks of the franchise's most widely known characters. It's an oversimplification to suggest that the overall brilliance of Season 4 is the direct result of Ryan joining the cast, but no matter how much of it you attribute to her, it's a phenomenal season of television, filled from start to finish with some of the best "Voyager" episodes (and also "Retrospect," but we don't talk about that one).

Insurrection

It's not "First Contact," but 1998's "Insurrection" is still a pretty good "Next Generation" movie, another solid offering from Jonathan Frakes. While "Insurrection" doesn't interact much with the events of "DS9" or "Voyager," watching it at this point in the "Trek" timeline provides an overall context for the state of the Federation, which has been intermittently challenged, as the movie's primary villain points out, by the Borg, the Cardassians, and the Dominion. A sense of the Federation being assailed from all sides isn't strictly necessary for the film's story of familial betrayal on a planet that confers immortality, but it does make viewing it a more interesting experience (though again, the perfunctory inclusion of Worf simply because he's expected to be in "Next Generation" movies is potentially jarring for "DS9" fans who have become invested in his character development, which "Insurrection" largely ignores).

"Insurrection" is Frakes' last "Star Trek" movie as director (though he would later direct episodes of "Discovery" and "Picard") and marks the beginning of the end of the '90s "Trek" boom. There's still plenty of great "Trek" ahead, but the curve is now pointing down.

Deep Space Nine (Season 7) / Voyager (Season 5)

The final season of "DS9" represents one of the single greatest creative accomplishments in "Star Trek" history, as no "Trek" show to date has managed to stick such an ambitious and satisfying landing. In a unique move, the last 10 episodes of the season form a single, series-ending story, and the feature-length finale, "What You Leave Behind," is considered one of the greatest "Trek" episodes of all time. "DS9" had been great for at least two seasons prior to this one, but the success of Season 7 cemented it as a foremost jewel in the crown of the "Star Trek" franchise.

"Voyager," meanwhile, continued its stellar run of episodes, capping off a three-year rehabilitation effort that saw one of the franchise's shakiest shows become one of its best. It was good timing, too, because with "DS9" wrapping up ("What You Leave Behind" aired the week after the Season 5 "Voyager" finale, "Equinox"), Captain Janeway and her crew were suddenly the only starship in the galaxy. And you, intrepid binge-watcher, can finally stop switching between two different shows.

Voyager (Seasons 6-7)

Unlike "DS9," the final seasons of "Voyager" are not its best, though admittedly, after Seasons 4 and 5, that's a high bar to clear. Season 6 comes close with a steady stream of classics, introducing both the popular Holodeck scenario Fair Haven and the "Pathfinder" storyline that sees "Next Generation" vets Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi join up as recurring characters. By Season 7, however, the quality of "Voyager" has begun to dip noticeably — the final season contains few memorable episodes and at least one extremely ill-conceived romantic subplot. It earns some redemption, however, with the two-part series finale "Endgame," which, whether you like it or not, at least fulfills the promise of the show's premise and comes to a definitive conclusion about whether the ship and its crew are ever getting back to the Alpha Quadrant. It's a moment that would have been easy to shy away from, and "Voyager" meets it head on.

"Endgame" aired in May 2001, and in retrospect, the title didn't only apply to "Voyager." The continuous story that "Star Trek" had been telling for the past 14 years over the course of three different shows and three different movies was over. There was, however, one last (incredibly depressing) chapter to get through.

The final "Next Generation" film, released in 2002, is by far the worst of them, and the worst "Star Trek" movie in general since 1989's "The Final Frontier." It was so bad, in fact, that it notoriously killed "Star Trek" — plans for a fifth "Next Generation" movie were scrapped after "Nemesis" bombed at the box office, and creatively, it's an absolute nightmare, introducing a Romulan sister planet with the unfortunate name of Remus, blatantly attempting to restart Data's entire character arc via a literal copy with the also unfortunate name of B-4, and tying these and other unfortunate decisions together with a nonsensical plot featuring Tom Hardy as a secret clone of Picard. After "Nemesis," the scuttling of future franchise installments can honestly be seen as a mercy killing.

"Star Trek" wasn't quite dead in 2002, however. While we've now officially made it through the combined stories of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager," there's one more show, independent from the others, that now enters the viewing order. And watching it involves going back to the very beginning... and even before that.

In a chronological viewing, "Star Trek: Enterprise" would actually be the first show you watch, since it takes place a hundred years prior to "The Cage." Indirectly spinning off from the events of "First Contact," it tells the story of Earth's first warp starship, appropriately named the Enterprise and captained by Scott Bakula's Jonathan Archer, and of humanity's early relationships with alien species like the Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, and Andorians. Despite its status as a prequel, the sheer degree to which "Enterprise" relies on its audience having knowledge of other "Star Trek" properties makes it almost impossible to recommend as an entry point. It fits much better here, as the official end of the franchise's second major era, especially given that the final episode, "These Are The Voyages...," frames itself as a holodeck simulation being watched by the Enterprise crew from "Next Generation."

"There Are The Voyages..." aired on May 13th, 2005. There wouldn't be another "Star Trek" show for more than 12 years. At this point, our watch order breaks away from order of release, but we feel strongly that it's how "Star Trek" from 1987 to 2005 should be watched.

Lower Decks

If you think 12 years is a long gap between "Star Trek" installments, that's nothing compared to the 45 years that went by between "Trek" stories told via animation. "Short Treks" was technically the first "Trek" show since "The Animated Series" to include animated episodes, and that aired in 2019, but 2020 gave us the first season of "Lower Decks," an entirely animated show about the people who don't get to hang out on the bridge.

The first franchise installment to ever concern itself primarily with characters who are not in command of a starship or space station, "Lower Decks" is the "Star Trek" equivalent of shows like HBO's "Harley Quinn" — an irreverent, adult-oriented comedy that revels in its TV-MA rating, delivering violence, sex, and swearing at warp speed frequencies. Chronologically, it's set shortly after the events of "Nemesis," but more importantly to the binge-watcher, it's the dessert following a feast — a vital dose of pure fun after absorbing almost four full decades of space drama.

The Kelvin timeline

After the box office failure of "Nemesis" brought an abrupt end to the "Next Generation" movies, there wasn't a new "Trek" film until 2009. And far from being a continuation of the existing movie franchise, this new version, simply called "Star Trek," was a reboot of "The Original Series," casting new, younger versions of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the first Enterprise crew. Sequels to the reboot followed in 2013 and 2016.

Watching these three movies as part of a "Star Trek" binge is pretty much entirely optional, since they take place in an alternate timeline created when the USS Kelvin was destroyed in battle with time-traveling Romulan ship from the 24th century, leaving an infant James T. Kirk without a father in the process. Moreover, the trilogy is widely considered to be of uneven quality (though the third movie, "Star Trek Beyond," is considerably better than its predecessor, possibly due to the departure of director J.J. Abrams). Still, if you're going to watch them, this is the place in the viewing order to do it, as a key plot point of the first film — the Romulan sun going supernova — plays a major role in "Picard."

Short Treks

The Kelvin movies might not exert much direct influence over the larger plot of "Star Trek," but they played a major role in the future of the franchise by bringing in Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman is the showrunner on "Discovery," and with the exception of "Lower Decks," he has been directly involved in every modern "Trek" series. In 2018, after the successful first season of "Discovery" led to a new expansion of the "Star Trek" franchise, Kurtzman and co-creator Bryan Fuller (formerly a writer on "DS9" and "Voyager") premiered "Short Treks," an anthology series of short, unrelated stories. As of this writing, there have been two seasons and 10 total episodes, some live-action, some animated.

"Short Treks" spans almost the entire "Star Trek" timeline — two episodes are set in the period of time between "Enterprise" and "The Original Series," while a third takes place in the far future. As a result, watching it requires a sense of the entire scope of the "Trek" universe. It's the penultimate entry in this watch order, however, because the Season 2 finale, "Children of Mars," leads directly into the final entry: "Picard."

"Star Trek: Picard" is the first of the modern "Trek" offerings to look forward rather than back, giving us a story set after the events of "Next Generation," "DS9," and "Voyager." Indeed, not only does the series follow up with Jean-Luc Picard 20 years after we last saw him (and 12 years after the Romulan sun went supernova) but it also brings in an older version of Seven of Nine, once again portrayed by Jeri Ryan. As mentioned, Picard also ties into the most recent installment of "Short Treks," which involves a terrorist attack by synthetic life forms that eventually leads to a ban on their creation — one of the many plot elements of "Picard" that has drawn criticism for being inconsistent with the original utopian vision of "Star Trek."

With so many new "Trek" shows on their way, this list will quickly become outdated. But all the upcoming series will reward previous "Trek" viewing, from Janeway's return on "Star Trek: Prodigy" to a show focused entirely on Section 31. So if you're going to binge all of "Star Trek," you might want to get started now!

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Star Trek TNG Re-watch

• Thread starter Mercurius
• Start date Sep 9, 2020

• Sep 9, 2020

A few weeks ago I started binge re-watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, which while I've seen probably 80% of the episodes, never seen all the way through and haven't really watched much of since it came out. First of all, while Season One is famously sub-par, I actually thought S2 was worse, or at least not better enough to make up for the loss of that fresh feeling. I'm now deep into S3 and there seems to be a marked improvement. Secondly, the show is good. Sometimes really good, and in stark contrast to the shows of the last couple decades in terms of its optimism and big-thinking. I can contrast this with the show Sharp Objects, which I just watched and enjoyed, but--while a very different genre--was just so damn dark and depressing, with no sense of hope about humanity. I really like the fact that Gene Roddenberry tried to depict a future humanity that had actually evolved in terms of culture and relationships, not just technologically. Most of all, it is really fun to watch a show not focused on human pathos or trauma, but Big Ideas. Anyhow, I plan to continue my Startrekaganza for months to come, watching the rest of TNG and re-watching the films and then moving on to Picard, which I still haven't seen. After that, I'll play it by ear. I might go back and finish the first season of Discovery, watch the second season, or maybe dive into either Deep Space Nine (which I never watched a full episode of) or Voyager (which I only watched the first season of). I may or may not try Enterprise. I love the original series, but have watched some of those more recently.  

trappedslider

Mercurius said: Deep Space Nine (which I never watched a full episode of) Click to expand...

Yeah, season 2 TNG, I’ve seen each of those episodes once, only. Aside from stories and pacing, I don’t know if it was the character or the actress delivery, but I was just bothered anytime dr Pulaski spoke.  

Ok, since you've seen S1 of Voyager, you already know you'll have to tough it out for a bit until it improves. If you can get through S2? Then things improve S3+ (when the writers start getting creative with the hologram doctor).  

Well, that was fun

• Sep 10, 2020

Yeah, TNG was pretty dire until s3 or 4. The early uniforms and cruddy CGI didn't help, either. And how young does everybody look? Yikes! Riker's a baby!  

We tried as non trekkies a couple of years ago and got bogged down early season 1. Never really got that from DS9 and we managed to get through and enjoy it a lot. I've had trekkies recommend just to skip to season 3.  

Bayushi_seikuro

I try to avoid any Next Gen where Riker hasn't adopted a beard yet. There's a reason the reverse of the 'jump the shark' trope is called "Riker's Beard" I am generally more of a DS9 person myself because as soemone said, it shows the Federation and more of a 'real' galaxy. I always loved that Bashir arrived on the station all excited to be a 'frontier doctor' and tending to the 'natives' and Kira disabused him of that notion pretty quickly.  

Bayushi_seikuro said: I try to avoid any Next Gen where Riker hasn't adopted a beard yet. There's a reason the reverse of the 'jump the shark' trope is called "Riker's Beard" I am generally more of a DS9 person myself because as soemone said, it shows the Federation and more of a 'real' galaxy. I always loved that Bashir arrived on the station all excited to be a 'frontier doctor' and tending to the 'natives' and Kira disabused him of that notion pretty quickly. Click to expand...

I tried to get my kids into TNG a few years back. Made the mistake of opting to start from the beginning. They were not at all impressed by "Encounter at Far Point" and that was the end of it. I've been thinking about doing some "highlights tours", though ... like watching all the Q-related episodes and all the Borg-related ones and so on. Haven't seen Picard yet either. I liked DS9 and hated Voyager. Stopped watching both around the time TNG ended.  

pukunui said: I tried to get my kids into TNG a few years back. Made the mistake of opting to start from the beginning. They were not at all impressed by "Encounter at Far Point" and that was the end of it. I've been thinking about doing some "highlights tours", though ... like watching all the Q-related episodes and all the Borg-related ones and so on. Haven't seen Picard yet either. I liked DS9 and hated Voyager. Stopped watching both around the time TNG ended. Click to expand...

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Where To Watch Every Star Trek TV Show and Movie in Order

A Guide to Binge Watching 7 Great STAR TREK Arcs

Star Trek has spanned over 50 years, six live-action series, and 13 feature films, not to mention decades worth of ancillary material. And while there may be plenty of  Trek  to devour, the non-serialized nature of the early series makes it seem like they may not be great candidates for modern binge watching. But if you focus on the episodes that form thematic arcs, you can come up with some very satisfying marathon viewing sessions. We’ve done the hard part for you, so here are a few different theme-specific  Star Trek  binge-watch-a-thons you can sit back and enjoy!

The Best of Spock

The original Star Trek was almost entirely unserialized, but there are several episodes that, when watched together, make for a terrific deluge of Leonard Nimoy just delivering the goods. These episodes show the usually calm and collected Spock losing control of his emotions and dealing with family drama. Also, the two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Unification” shows how Spock chose to spend his twilight years, dedicated to reuniting two halves of the same species in conflict with each other. That’s the perfect metaphor for his own personal struggle. Here are the eps:

“The Naked Time” ( TOS season one, episode four) “The Menagerie Part I” ( TOS season one, episode 11) “The Menagerie Part II” ( TOS season one, episode 12) “This Side of Paradise” ( TOS  season one, episode 24) “Amok Time” ( TOS  season two, episode one) “Journey to Babel” ( TOS  season two, episode ten) “All Our Yesterdays” ( TOS  season three, episode 23) “Unification Part I” ( TNG  season five, episode seven “Unification Part II” ( TNG  season five, episode eight)

The Best of Captain Kirk

What with his being the Captain of the Enterprise , almost every episode of the original Star Trek was technically a James T. Kirk episode. Having said that, there are a handful of chapters that really highlight who Kirk is as a human being and as a commanding officer, beyond just the stalwart leader and intergalactic playboy. These are all among William Shatner’s most memorable episodes , and a few even give hints to his past before taking command of the Enterprise . Among these are some of the very best episodes of Star Trek ever (including the very  best: “The City on the Edge of Forever”).

“The Enemy Within” ( TOS  season one, episode five) “The Corbomite Maneuver” ( TOS  season one, episode ten) “Arena” ( TOS  season one, episode 18) “Court Martial” ( TOS  season one, episode 20) “The City on the Edge of Forever” ( TOS  season one, episode 28) “Obsession” ( TOS season two, episode 13) “The Paradise Syndrome” ( TOS  season three, episode three)

The Enterprise Vs. The Borg

The Borg are considered the greatest enemies of the crew of the Enterprise -D, but you might be surprised to learn that they are in only six episodes of  The Next Generation ‘s seven-season run. But watched together, those six episodes make for a single incredible story arc, as we find the Federation faced with an enemy far more powerful and technologically advanced than they are. These episodes also includes Captain Picard’s most personal storyline in the series: when he becomes part of the Borg collective.

“Q Who” ( TNG  season two, episode 16) “The Best of Both Worlds Part I” ( TNG  season three, episode 26 “The Best of Both Worlds Part II” ( TNG  season four, episode one) “I, Borg” ( TNG season five, episode 23) “Descent Part I” ( TNG  season six, episode 26) “Descent Part II” ( TNG  season seven, episode one)

The Mirror Universe Saga

The Mirror Universe , a parallel world in which all our heroes exist as ruthless and dark, was introduced in a classic TOS  episode “Mirror, Mirror” back in 1967. Although it was supposed to be a one-off episode,  Deep Space Nine returned to that universe for several episodes over their entire run; both Enterprise and most recently, Discovery , showed us that alternate universe’s origins. If you enjoy your heroes acting like bad guys, these episodes make for a great way to spend a whole day.

“Mirror, Mirror” ( TOS  season two, episode four) “Crossover” ( DS9 season two, episode 23) “Through the Looking Glass” ( DS9 season three, episode 19) “Shattered Mirror” ( DS9 season four, episode 20) “Resurrection” ( DS9 season six, episode eight) “The Emperor’s New Cloak” ( DS9 season seven, episode 12) “In a Mirror, Darkly Part I” ( Enterprise  season four, episode 18) “In a Mirror, Darkly Part II” ( Enterprise  season four, episode 19) “Into the Forest I Go” ( Discovery season one, episode nine) “Despite Yourself” ( Discovery  season one, episode ten) “The Wolf Inside” ( Discovery  season one, episode 11) “What’s Past Is Prologue” ( Discovery  season one, episode 13) “The War Without, the War Within” ( Discovery  season one, episode 14) “Will You Take My Hand?” ( Discovery  season one, episode 15)

The Dominion War Begins

Although   its predecessors were largely un-serialized, Deep Space Nine went in whole hog. This was particularly evident by the show’s final few years, when the Federation and their allies went full steam against the incursion of the Dominion, a new adversary from the other side of the galaxy. The end of season five and the beginning of season six saw the Dominion actually take over the show’s titular space station, and the crew’s journey to retake their home made for some of the best sci-fi television ever.

“In Purgatory’s Shadow” ( DS9 season five, episode 14) “By Inferno’s Light” ( DS9 season five, episode 15) “Call to Arms” ( DS9 season five, episode 26) “A Time to Stand” ( DS9 season six, episode one) “Rocks and Shoals” ( DS9 season six, episode two) “Sons and Daughters” ( DS9 season six, episode three) “Behind the Lines” ( DS9 season six, episode four) “Favor the Bold”( DS9 season six, episode five) “Sacrifice of Angels” ( DS9 season six, episode six)

The Klingon Civil War

What started out as a simple Worf episode, exploring his relationship with his long lost brother and returning to the Klingon homeworld, became an arc that ran through three seasons of The Next Generation and explored the nature of the Klingon Empire in ways we’d never seen before. If you’re a fan of Game of Thrones , we think you’ll love this storyline in particular, and find many similarities to Westeros.

“Sins of the Father” ( TNG season three, episode 17) “Reunion” ( TNG  season four, episode seven) “Redemption Part I” ( TNG  season four, episode 26 “Redemption Part II” ( TNG  season five, episode one)

Voyager vs. the Borg

While The Next Generation only used the Borg sparingly as a way to maximize their effect, Voyager leaned in hard on the cybernetic drone species, as the latter series was set in the Borg-controlled part of space. Although these episodes demystified the Borg quite a bit, they also introduced us to one of Trek ‘s most memorable characters: Seven of Nine, a Borg drone trying to rediscover her humanity. Through a story arc that spanned several seasons, we experience a new side to these implacable foes that previous series only hinted at.

“Scorpion Part I” ( Voyager  season three, episode 26) “Scorpion Part II” ( Voyager  season four, episode one) “Drone” ( Voyager  season five, episode two) “Dark Frontier Part I” ( Voyager  season five, episode 15/16) “Collective” ( Voyager  season six, episode 16) “Unimatrix Zero Part I” ( Voyager  season six, episode 26) “Unimatrix Zero Part II” ( Voyager season seven, episode one) “Endgame” ( Voyager  season seven, episode 25/26)

Images: CBS 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast & Character Guide

10 best star trek: the next generation episodes to hook new fans, best star trek: tng episode of each uss enterprise-d main character.

• Star Trek: The Next Generation had some phenomenal episodes, but not all of them were hits. Some lacked polished scripts due to time constraints.
• The presence of beloved characters like Captain Picard and Lt. Commander Data made up for mediocre storylines in the worst episodes.
• Despite its flaws, even the weakest episodes of TNG still showcased the compelling main characters that fans love.

Star Trek: The Next Generation produced 178 episodes in its seven-season run, so it's no surprise that some worked far better than others. Following the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise-D, TNG introduced one of Star Trek's most beloved casts and produced some phenomenal science fiction television . While some TNG episodes, such as season 5's "The Inner Light" or the "Best of Both Worlds" two-parter continue to be lauded as some of Star Trek 's greatest stories, other episodes didn't quite make the cut.

The television landscape of the 1980s and 1990s was much different than it is today, and Star Trek: The Next Generation had long 22-26 episode seasons. This meant that the show's writers and producers were often pressed for time, leading to scripts that could have used some more polishing. TNG's first and second seasons, in particular, faced difficulties behind the scenes as writers came and went with surprising regularity even before the Writer's Strike of 1988 impacted TNG' s production . Still, even the worst episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation feature the show's compelling main characters, and the presence of Captain Picard or Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) often made up for a mediocre storyline.

IMDb, or the Internet Movie Database, is a database website that provides production information about movies and television shows, and the actors who star in them. Viewers can rate media on a 10-star scale and leave personal reviews about the films and television shows they watch.

Star Trek: The Next Generation has one of the most beloved cast of characters in all of science fiction. Here are the major characters of the classic.

"Up The Long Ladder" (6.2/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 2, episode 18.

Some decent scenes between Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) and Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) cannot save this lackluster TNG season 2 episode. When the Starship Enterprise rescues a primitive human colony from Bringloid V, they soon find another, more technologically advanced colony known as Mariposa . Both colonies originated from the same Earth ship, but the Mariposans had to use clones to repopulate their colony. The two disparate plots are shoved together at the end, but the whole thing feels disjointed. Plus, the Bringloidi are based on outdated Irish stereotypes, and the episode is not nearly as funny as it tries to be.

"Too Short A Season" (6.1/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 1, episode 16.

"Too Short a Season" sidelines the main cast of TNG in favor of the unlikable Admiral Mark Jameson (Clayton Rohner). As a young man, Jameson dealt with a conflict on Mordan IV by providing weapons to two warring tribes - a clear violation of the Prime Directive . This led to a decades-long war, for which the Mordan governor blames Jameson . When en route to the planet to right his past wrongs, Jameson takes a combination of drugs that reverse aging. What should have been a revolutionary step forward for Federation science and medicine is glossed over in favor of a story that focuses too much on Jameson's past.

The questionable old-age makeup and Clayton Rohner's overacting do not do the character of Admiral Jameson or "Too Short a Season" any favors.

"Masks" (6.1/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 7, episode 17.

When the USS Enterprise-D comes across a comet containing an archive from an ancient culture, Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) is overtaken by the personalities of people and mythological figures from that culture. As the personalities begin to affect the ship, Captain Picard takes on the persona of another mythological figure to confront the queen Masaka who has taken over Data. Even two of TNG's best actors, Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner, cannot save this incoherent episode , which never provides a satisfactory explanation for anything that happens. Spiner himself laughs when looking back on "Masks," calling his own performance "preposterous."

"Aquiel" (6.1/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 6, episode 13.

In this forgettable episode, the Enterprise arrives at a relay station to find it abandoned save for one of the officer's dogs. Lt. Aquiel Uhnari (Renée Jones) is soon found with a group of Klingons who had been harassing the planet. Aquiel then becomes the subject of a murder investigation, and Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) develops feelings for her . Geordi falls for Aquiel based on her video logs before he ever sees her in person, adding another example to his list of creepy interactions with women. The murder mystery plot of "Aquiel" is fairly rote, the Klingons feel unnecessary, and the final reveal is ultimately underwhelming. At least the dog is cute.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever, and these 10 episodes will hook even the most skeptical of viewers.

"The Loss" (6/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 4, episode 10.

After Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) loses her Betazoid empathic powers , she resigns from her position as ship's counselor. At the same time, the Enterprise becomes trapped within a field of two-dimensional lifeforms. Captain Picard and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) convince Troi to try to communicate with the lifeforms, and she eventually realizes that her powers were overwhelmed by the creatures' emotions. As a character, Deanna doesn't fare particularly well in this episode , and it would have been interesting to see her take more time to truly come to terms with the loss of her power. As it is, everything returns to the status quo by the episode's end.

The writing staff of TNG briefly considered making Troi's loss of her empathic abilities permanent but ultimately decided against it.

"Justice" (6/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 1, episode 8.

In its first season, Star Trek: The Next Generation was still trying to establish the Starfleet of the 24th century, and "Justice" takes on the Prime Directive . The Federation's most important rule, the Prime Directive states that Starfleet officers must not interfere with the progression of other cultures. When Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) accidentally crushes a flower display on the planet Edo, he is sentenced to death, as that is how the Edo people punish all crimes. Captain Picard must then find a way to save Wesley's life without violating the Prime Directive . While the Prime Directive would be better defined as TNG went on, its application in "Justice" doesn't quite make sense and the episode never fully commits to its moral dilemma.

"Man of the People" (5.8/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 6, episode 3.

Another Troi episode that doesn't do the character justice, "Man of the People" begins with the arrival of Ambassador Ves Alkar (Chip Lucia) on the Enterprise. Soon after his arrival, Alkar tricks Deanna into performing a ceremony that allows him to channel his negative emotions into her. This causes Troi to age rapidly and behave strangely, which eventually leads Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) to uncover the truth about Alkar. Alkar shows no remorse for his actions, making him one of the vilest characters in TNG . A spin on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray , "Man of the People" fails on almost every level, although Marina Sirtis does the best she can with what she's given.

"The Child" (5.8/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 2, episode 1.

Based on a leftover script from the never produced Star Trek: Phase II , "The Child" does not feel like a season premiere. The story focuses on Counselor Deanna Troi, who unexpectedly finds herself impregnated by an unknown alien species. Her pregnancy then progresses rapidly, and the child she bears, named Ian (R. J. Williams), then ages incredibly quickly. Ian's motivations for his actions don't make much sense, and the episode never acknowledges the nonconsensual way the alien used Deanna's body . While it's nice to see an episode that focuses on Troi, her character often gets saddled with questionable storylines, and "The Child" is no exception.

All of the main characters of Star Trek: The Next Generation get their moment in the spotlight, and these are the Enterprise-D crew's best episodes.

"Angel One" (5.7/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 1, episode 14.

In this TNG episode that aged poorly , the USS Enterprise visits the planet Angel One searching for survivors of a crashed Federation ship. Commander Riker leads an away team, finding a matriarchal society led by a woman named Beata (Karen Montgomery), who quickly takes an interest in Riker. The Enterprise team discovers that the Federation survivors tried to make a life for themselves on Angel One, but were banished for questioning the rules of the society. In the end, Riker is the one who convinces Beata not to execute the fugitives, which undercuts the episode's point . While "Angel One" attempts to critique sexism, the story falls into the same sexist tropes and stereotypes it tries to criticize.

Sometime after this episode, Angel One becomes a tourist destination, as revealed in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 5, "Empathological Fallacies."

"Code of Honor" (5.2/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 1, episode 4.

When the Starship Enterprise travels to Ligon II to collect a desperately needed vaccine, the planet's leader, Lutan (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson), develops a fascination with Security Chief Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) . Even the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation cite "Code of Honor" as one of the series' worst outings, with Jonathan Frakes going so far as to call it a "racist piece of s***" at Star Trek Las Vegas Con in 2011. The story does not work for a number of reasons and the decision to cast only Black actors as the primitive Ligonians is baffling and unnecessary.

"Sub Rosa" (4.9/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 7, episode 14.

Despite being a compelling and likable character, Dr. Crusher does not often get to be the main character, and "Sub Rosa" certainly isn't one of Beverly Crusher's best episodes . Like Deanna Troi, Crusher often ended up with some of the show's weakest storylines. In "Sub Rosa," Beverly falls in love with the ghost of her late grandmother's lover , who emerges from a candle taken from her grandmother's home. The ghost turns out to be a non-corporeal alien who tries to possess Dr. Crusher's body before she manages to destroy him. It's an odd premise for any episode of television, but it feels especially out of place on Star Trek.

"Shades of Gray" (3.4/10)

Star trek: the next generation season 2, episode 22.

After TNG blew its second season budget on episodes like the period piece "Elementary, Dear Data" and the effects-heavy "Q Who," they needed a cheap episode that could be filmed quickly. Then-showrunner Maurice Hurley proposed the idea of a clip show, and "Shades of Grey" was born. The only plot here features a comatose Commander Riker, who must relive past memories in order to drive an alien virus out of his body . This is already a paper-thin premise that makes little sense, but the addition of 21 clips from previous episodes certainly does not help matters. Clip shows are tricky under the best of circumstances, but Star Trek: The Next Generation thankfully learned from its mistake and never did another one.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

10 Moments of Beauty at the Paris Olympics

The Summer Games are known for athletic excellence, but they provide plenty of aesthetic excellence along the way.

Léon Marchand and the rest of the Olympians at the Paris Games have put on a show — in more ways than one. Credit... James Hill for The New York Times

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By Sadiba Hasan

• Published Aug. 9, 2024 Updated Aug. 12, 2024

Some people watch the Olympics for the events. Others watch for the hot athletes.

This is nothing new. Going all the way back to the first century, the orator Dio Chrysostom praised the “beauty” of the boxer Melankomas, who competed in the ancient Greek athletic games .

That same feeling resonates in 2024. A number of participants in the Paris Summer Olympics have distinguished themselves for things beyond their athletic talent. In an extreme case, a pole-vaulter gained a great deal of attention — some might say notoriety — for failing in a unique way. Others caught the public’s attention through moments of love or kindness — a different but equally palpable form of beauty.

There are numerous options to choose from, but here are 10 moments of beauty at the games.

Swimmers and Their Abs

After Italy won bronze in the 4 × 100-meter freestyle relay on July 27, the Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon, 23, raised his arms in celebration. In doing so, he unintentionally bared his well-cut abs , which had many thirsting on the internet .

(Ceccon, who won gold in the 100-meter backstroke, was later found sleeping on the ground next to a bench in Olympic Village after he had complained about the conditions at the village.)

Triple Play

For the first time in Olympic gymnastics history, three Black athletes shared a podium, with Rebeca Andrade of Brazil earning gold in the women’s floor exercise final, Simone Biles receiving silver and Jordan Chiles taking bronze. At one point, while they were on the podium, Biles and Chiles, both of the United States, bowed down to Andrade .

Each had their “ face cards ” locked down, with floor routines rife with sexy moments. Chiles had a wink to the camera when she opened her routine , Biles had her hand over her mouth when she closed out hers and Andrade impressed with her confident fluid movements to a soundtrack of Brazilian funk.

Suspended in Midair

The Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, 30, was the subject of one of the most eye-catching photographs at this Olympics . In it, he defies gravity as he floats in the air and poses with one finger pointed toward the sky, his surfboard parallel to him, seemingly mimicking his stance. Aside from being the subject of a stunning photo, Medina took bronze at the surfing competition, which was held in Tahiti — 9,800 miles from Paris.

A Clutch Comeback

In the men’s basketball gold medal match, Stephen Curry made a series of clutch three-pointers in the draining minutes of the game, each more impressive than the one before, to lead the United States to a 98-87 win over France.

And after each of those artful shots, he flashed his signature “night, night” celebration , pressing his palms together, laying them against the side of his face, and tilting his head — motioning France to go to bed. His teammates joined him, including LeBron James.

Curry scored 24 points as the United States won its fifth straight gold medal in men’s basketball, with plenty of help from fellow N.B.A. stars like James and Kevin Durant. He similarly delivered in the semifinal match against Serbia , scoring 36 points and leading the team to overcome a 17-point deficit.

Rumors of Romance

Devin Booker, an N.B.A. star and a player for the U.S. men’s basketball team, shared a video on Instagram of the footage he captured from the stands at the women’s individual all-around final in gymnastics. He recorded routines on a camcorder like a proud parent, cheering on Sunisa Lee, Biles and Andrade, with his teammates, including Curry, sitting next to him. During Lee’s floor routine, he chanted “Vamos, vamos!”

Then Booker posted a photo on Instagram of himself with Lee, which quickly drew attention. Though it might have just been a sweet pic of two athletes posing together, many were swooning over how good they looked together. Her body is tilted in his direction, and there’s a massive height difference — she’s 5 feet and he’s 6-foot-6.

Love has been in the air at the games, with at least six proposals involving athletes taking place so far.

After breaking the European women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase record, the French athlete Alice Finot celebrated by proposing to her boyfriend, Bruno Martínez Bargiela, in the stands. She proposed with an Olympic pin that reads “Love is in Paris.” .

The French skiff sailing partners Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon were proposed to by their boyfriends after winning bronze in the women’s skiff 49erFX.

And the Chinese badminton player Liu Yuchen proposed to his teammate Huang Ya Qiong with a bouquet of flowers after she won a gold medal in the badminton mixed doubles final.

Showing Confidence — and Versatility

When Noah Lyles, 27, won gold in the men’s 100-meter , he did so wearing a diamond-covered chain-link necklace, pearls in his hair and nails that featured stars, a cross and a lightning bolt in red, white and blue. After claiming the title of the world’s fastest man by fractions of a second, Lyles, who is known for performing well under pressure, exclaimed to a camera, “I told you America, I got this.” (Later, he inspired some debate by winning bronze in the 200-meter after he had been diagnosed with Covid.)

Two days later, another stylish American runner, Gabby Thomas, 27, won gold in the women’s 200-meter — proving she can do it all. Back home, she graduated from Harvard with a degree in neurobiology and earned a master’s degree from the University of Texas in public health with a concentration on epidemiology. Her day job is volunteering at a health care clinic.

The Sharpshooters

Many people on social media reimagined the pistol shooters at the Olympics as characters from action movies .

There was the Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec, who nonchalantly competed with both eyes open, no special equipment (i.e., ear protector, specialized lens, eye cover) and one hand in his pocket. Dikec, 51, took silver in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event, his country’s first medal in shooting. When he found out about his internet stardom, Dikec told the Turkish media , “I did not need special equipment. I’m a natural, a natural shooter.”

And then there was the Korean shooter Choe Dae-han . In a photo that spread quickly online, Dae-han is seen wearing a cyberpunk leather jacket and shooting with a deep arched back.

The Legend and the Future

After winning his fourth gold medal at his first Olympic Games, the French swimmer Léon Marchand, 22, held up four fingers at the end of the 200-meter individual medley race. When asked how he was feeling after becoming the fourth swimmer to win four golds at the same Olympics, Marchand said, “ I was more relaxed than usual, because I won three gold medals before. ” Light work.

And during Marchand’s moment of triumph, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all, was in the stands, contorting his face and cheering along as Marchand beat his Olympic record in the 200-meter individual medley. Adding to the spectacle, Phelps had his hair in a tightly packed bun that drew plenty of opinions online.

An Act of Kindness

After a dominant 4-0 win over the U.S. men’s soccer team, Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, 25, consoled the American soccer player, Kevin Paredes, 21. Hakimi, a defender for Paris St.-Germain, knelt down to comfort Paredes , who was crying. Hakimi lifted him up, put his arm around his neck and walked down the soccer field with him. Morocco went on to beat Egypt, earning the bronze medal.

Sadiba Hasan reports on love and culture for the Styles section of The Times. More about Sadiba Hasan

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A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern. A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern. A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern.

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