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Space: the final frontier...

Star Trek is a long-running science-fiction franchise. As originally envisioned by its creator, Gene Roddenberry, the science fiction nature of the series was just a method to address many social issues of the time that could not have been done in a normal drama. As such, it was not above being Anvilicious or engaging in thinly-veiled social satire, but considering its origin during The '60s, sometimes they couldn't afford to be subtle. Starting with Star Trek: The Original Series in 1966, it was inspired by such works as Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still in being introspective sci-fi, but pulled from any number of genres to tell a story. The trope Wagon Train to the Stars was taken from Roddenberry's own statements on how he pitched the concept.

The setting in every series is sometime in the distant future featuring a collection of broadly similar rubber-foreheaded polities spanning (fairly small) segments of the so-called 'quadrants' of the Milky Way galaxy, with the stories centered around an Earth-based interstellar government called the United Federation of Planets and the exploits of its fleet of starships, Starfleet. Every series dealt with a particular crew, mostly of various ships named Enterprise.

It is, for the most part, way on the idealistic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism, at least partially because of its solid allegiance to the Enlightened side of Romanticism Versus Enlightenment. While the ships and officers of Starfleet can wield Frickin' Laser Beams, Deflector Shields, Photoprotoneutron Torpedoes and essentially invented Technobabble, the main way they solve problems is by talking, and by finding out the Commonality Connection between us humans and the Monster of the Week. That said, there are still shades of a more cynical future. In general, Star Trek portrays a future you hope will come true, albeit after humanity endured terrible troubles like the Eugenics Wars led by the genetically enhanced conqueror Khan Noonien Singh, and a third world war, and rose above them. All series have sought to show that while you may think the world is falling apart and there is no chance of global unity, all this crap will eventually work itself out. However, that future will of course still have serious problems like hostile interstellar powers and horrific threats like deadly alien monsters and diseases to deal with — though it's nothing that Starfleet can't handle.

The series has also had a profound impact on modern culture and media. Everyone with any exposure to Western pop culture has heard of the starship Enterprise, and the series predicted (and possibly inspired) the PC, tablet, automatic doors, cell phones, natural-language AI and more, decades before their invention. The first African-American woman in space, Dr. Mae Jemison, was inspired to become an astronaut because of Nichelle Nichols' pioneering role as Lt. Uhura, and the prototype Space Shuttle was named after the iconic starship NCC-1701,note  as is Virgin Galactic's first commercial spacecraft.

Finally, while there were previous antecedents (such as the case of Sherlock Holmes and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Star Trek effectively gave rise to Fandom as we know it: when Star Trek: The Original Series began to pick up steam in syndication, fans organized conventions, wrote fanfiction, dressed in costume, and generally made lots of noise. Case in point, the Space Shuttle prototype was going to be named the Constitution until then-President Gerald Ford received "hundreds of thousands of letters" from Trekkies who had different ideas on the subject. A similar letter-writing campaign granted The Original Series a third season. Every fandom since has taken its cues from that original outpouring of activity and devotion.


The franchise consists of:

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Television Series

    "Original Series era" shows (1966-74) 
With origins to the gestations of the original show dating back to 1962, these shows all have a commonality in being overseen primarily by Gene Roddenberry and a handful of recurring writers such as D. C. Fontana and David Gerrold, up until the development and release of the first film.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series, just called Star Trek at the time ("TOS", 1966-1969, NBC)
    Set 2265-2269 — The one everyone has heard of. Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) leads the brave crew of the Cool Starship Enterprise on a mission "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before."

    The format was pitched as a Wagon Train to the Stars, with new planets and aliens encountered every week, though the Klingons and Romulans would become regulars in the Star Trek galaxy. The original series suffered in the ratings, but gained a devoted fanbase. Uncancelled after the second season, and then cancelled again at the end of the third. It really picked up steam in syndication, which was about the time demographics came into play — and the Real Life moon landing happened a week after its last episode aired. The series was also notable for depicting a racially diverse cast of characters working together peacefully; a bold, progressive move at a time when racial tensions were at an all-time high.

    The show's writing was highly innovative and sought out a high-quality cast playing iconic characters, to the point of creating three new archetypes: The Kirk, The Spock, and The McCoy. In fact, this series created so many new tropes that it has left an unmistakable mark on both television and pop culture ever since. Not to mention inspired a lot of mostly affectionate parodies.
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series, also just called Star Trek at the time ("TAS", 1973-1974, NBC)
    Set 2269-2270 — Showcases the final year or so of the Enterprise crew's 5-year mission from The Original Series. Used most of the original cast (and a few additions) to provide voices for the animated versions of their characters. The show was more experimental in this stage, being a lot more flexible in alien designs and fantastical plots, but earned the franchise's first Emmy award. 22 episodes were produced over the course of two seasons.

    The official canonicity of this series has gone back and forthnote , but at least some elements have bled over into the rest of the franchise (most notably, identifying the "T" in James T. Kirk to stand for "Tiberius") and the addition of the cat-like Caitians to the mythos (see Star Trek Into Darkness).
  • Star Trek: Phase II (Cancelled)
    The growing syndication success of the original show and massive fanbase convention turnouts led to the development of new series to head a Paramount Pictures-based network. The series got far enough along with a dozen scripts written plus costumes created and sets built. A combination of a troubled production and development hell led to most of those assets being transferred to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It was to be a direct continuation of the original series featuring a second five-year mission, introducing a number of new characters in conjunction with most the original crew.

    Many of the concepts from Phase II (along with some scripts) made their way into Star Trek: The Next Generation and the series itself is considered deuterocanon — not "true" canon, because it never made it to the screen, but allowed in Broad Strokes to fill a gap in Trek chronology (notice the fictional length of time between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan). See also the Memory Alpha article.

    "Next Generation era" shows (1987-2005) 
While Gene Roddenberry is credited for the development of The Next Generation in 1987, he stepped back to a general consultant role by the second season. Producer Rick Berman became the head of this era of Star Trek until the cancellation of Enterprise in 2005, with other writers and producers such as Michael Piller, Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga and Ira Stephen Behr being common creative forces.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation ("TNG", 1987-1994, First-Run Syndication)
    Set 2364-2370 — The other one everyone has heard of. Takes place in the mid-24th century on the Enterprise-D, with a new batch of Starfleet officers led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on the same mission of exploration as the original.

    The show originally was just an updating Star Trek's episodic adventures, but would go on to redefine many conceptions of what Star Trek can be. The show defined the Klingons as being a society of honor and war, had the omnipotent Q place Humanity on Trial, introduced the holodeck for Holodeck Malfunctionsnote  and the malevolent Borg loomed as the most dangerous enemy of the Federation. The same basic creative team was responsible for the subsequent three television series and often referred to as "The Next Generation Era".
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("DS9", 1993-1999, first-run syndication)
    Set 2369-2375 — Takes place concurrently with the end of Next Generation and the lion's share of Voyager, and conceived as a Spin-Off of TNG. Set on a former Cardassian space station (formerly Terok Nor, renamed Deep Space Nine) led by Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), in a politically unstable part of space near the planet Bajor, with exclusive access to a rare stable wormhole that leads from the Alpha to the Gamma Quadrant.

    The show utilized Story Arcs almost exclusively, rather than persisting with a strictly episodic format. The whole series progressively got much darker, focusing on a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Gamma Quadrant's Dominion and the impact it has on not just the Federation but their nominal allies and rivals of the Alpha Quadrant, escalating into a full-scale war. Generally considered the Oddball in the Series as far as the television shows go, due to very little exploration and the focus on local politics.
  • Star Trek: Voyager ("VOY", 1995-2001, UPN)
    Set 2371-2378 — Another Spin-Off of Next Generation, conceived as a more direct successor to it than DS9. While searching for a group of rogue Federation citizens called the Maquis, both the title ship and the Maquis vessel are flung across the galaxy and stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years and seventy-five years' travel from home (Lost in Space a la Star Trek).

    Introduces Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the first female main character captain in the franchise. Due to its isolation from the rest of Starfleet, there is very little story continuity between this show and DS9, and Voyager persists in a largely episodic fashion as they make their way back home. While there are some story arcs, the Reset Button is used quite frequently and Techno Babble often drives the resolutions. But the show also experimented with some Two-Part Episode tele-movie formats, and because of their isolation had to deal with moral and ethical situations that the other shows wouldn't touch.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise, previously titled as just Enterprise until season 3 ("ENT", 2001-2005, UPN)
    Set from 2151-2155 — The first Prequel series set over a hundred years before the voyages of James T. Kirk, when humans were just getting their space legs (and the Applied Phlebotinum is not nearly as reliable), aboard Earth's first, experimental Warp 5-capable starship, the Enterprise NX-01 led by Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). It began with a Myth Arc involving the Enterprise crew getting caught up in a "Temporal Cold War" being fought by several rival Time Travel factions, all with an eye on Enterprise because they are a focal point in the foundation of The Federation.

    The series played around in their relative backyard for the first two seasons, showing Earths first introduction to classic Trek aliens. The third season then embarked on an ambitious season-spanning Story Arc centering around the sudden appearance of a mysterious new aggressor called the Xindi. The fourth and ultimately final season directed itself to use "mini-arcs" consisting of several two-to-three-episode-long stories, a hybrid of episodic storytelling with more long-form story arcs. These episodes would pick up on past events while also laying the groundwork for the Federation in earnest.

    "Discovery era" shows (2017-ongoing) 
With the Kelvin Timeline movies reaffirming Star Trek to the general public, writer/producer Alex Kurtzman was charged to spearhead a collection of new Star Trek TV shows and short films, all handled through his production company Secret Hideout. What most characterizes this era is the wider focus of productions: "Star Trek" is treated as a sort of super-genre and every show is largely independent from each other in terms of the creative team, with any given premise being essentially, Recycled In Space, with the "IN SPACE" part being "in Star Trek".
  • Star Trek: Discovery ("DIS", 2017-2024, Paramount+)
    Set 2256-2258 & 3188-ongoing — Co-created by Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of the first two Kelvin Timeline films, and Bryan Fuller, this is set in the Prime Timeline about ten years before "Action-Adventure" show in the stable. In a break from the usual Star Trek formula, the show's central protagonist is not The Captain: Starfleet officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is a disgraced first officer who was demoted and reassigned to USS Discovery (NCC-1031) as the Science Officer, experimenting with advanced tech during a period when tensions with the Klingons had escalated to full-scale war and Burnham seeks to redeem herself.

    The show uses serialized season-long Story Arcs, with each new season having a Retool as the stakes are changed, parts of the cast rotate out and a new Captain takes command. Most notably, the second season finale sees the USS Discovery sent forward in time 930 years to an era where the Federation has fallen apart due to a mysterious cataclysm called "the Burn" and they seek to acclimate to the new time period.
  • Star Trek: Picard ("PIC", 2020-2023, Paramount+)
    Set 2399-2402 — Patrick Stewart returns to the titular role of Jean-Luc Picard after 17 years. It ran for three seasons and 30 episodes. It is the "Gritty Character Drama" show, giving each season its own Story Arc. The first season starts 20 years after we last saw Picard in Nemesis. It takes place after the Romulan supernova that kicked off JJ Abrams's Kelvinverse, and explores some of the ramifications. Picard is long since retired from Starfleet due to ideological differences but gets dragged back into space by a cry for help from a young woman with ties to Data and Picard rallies a new crew to unravel this mystery.

    The second and third seasons continue the theme of revisiting old wounds, the second season features an Alternate Timeline plot instigated by the Trickster Mentor Q and the third season finds Picard needing to call upon his old crew to investigate a conspiracy within Starfleet. All three seasons feature a few new characters but with returning characters and picks up on story arcs that have gone silent since the conclusion of TNG and its' movies.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks ("LD", 2020-ongoing, Paramount+)
    Set 2380-ongoing — In a radical departure from the franchise's usual output, this is a half-hour animated series functioning as a sci-fi Work Com (and Affectionate Parody) developed by Mike McMahan of Rick and Morty fame. It focuses on Military Maverick Ensign Beckett Mariner (voice of Tawny Newsome) and Ensign Newbie Brad Boimler (voice of Jack Quaid), two of the lowest-ranked crewmembers on the USS Cerritos, NCC-75567), "one of Starfleet's least important ships."

    The show focuses more on the bureaucracy and hard labor involved in following up on First Contact missions and maintaining Starfleet outposts, with a high density of Continuity Nods and Mythology Gags. At its' core it is a Coming of Age story where the low ranking officers learn about the excitement of exploration and the danger of conflicts that comes with being part of Starfleet, which is reflected even by the senior officers who feel they are ignored as a clean-up crew. Most episodes are independent from each other, but there is some ongoing story arcs and moments where things get a lot more serious.
  • Star Trek: Prodigy ("PRO", 2021-ongoing, Season 1: Paramount+, Season 2: Netflix)
    Set 2383-ongoing — An All-CGI Cartoon aimed at children, co-produced with Nickelodeon. Set in the Delta Quadrant, it focuses on a group of alien teenagers who escape from a prison colony in an abandoned Starfleet ship, the USS Protostar (NX-76884). Kate Mulgrew reprises her Voyager role as Kathryn Janeway – a holographic version of Janeway, to be exact, who is the ship's Emergency Training Hologram. Nickelodeon, which gave it a two-season order, was initially set to air it alone, until it was announced that the episodes would be streamed on Paramount+ first before landing on the cable network. It was aired in two parts for its first season; however, it was canceled by Paramount, the third such Trek series to meet this fate, with its second season mostly complete. Both seasons were subsequently picked up by Netflix.
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ("SNW", 2022-ongoing, Paramount+)
    Set 2259-ongoing — This show stars Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Spock (Ethan Peck), picking up after the events of Discovery season 2, and features their adventures on the USS Enterprise prior to the events of The Original Series. This does not mean that other familiar characters from The Original Series don't appear; Jess Bush plays Nurse Christine Chapel, Celia Rose Gooding appears as Ensign Newbie Nyota Uhura, and Paul Wesley takes on the guest-star role of Lt. James Kirk.

    The show is ultimately unique in that it forgoes a season-long plot arcs of contemporary shows — if we go by the "Recycled In Space" premise, then, yes, this show is indeed "Star Trek, but in Star Trek". While there are recurring themes and character arcs, the show is content to let each episode largely stand alone.

    Upcoming Shows 
  • Star Trek: Section 31, another spin-off from Star Trek: Discovery focuses on the Elite Agents Above the Law Starfleet agency Section 31, with Michelle Yeoh in the leading role. Announced in 2019, it was put in Development Hell for some time before being re-announced in 2023 as a special event film, to stream exclusively on Paramount+.
  • Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, announced in March 2023, will be a Coming of Age Story focusing on the titular Academy training new generations of Starfleet cadets. Its marketing blurb, which claims the Academy is re-opening after 125 years, implies it to take place after Discovery's time travel. It's not slated to begin production until 2024.

Movie Series

    Original Movie Series 
When the Phase II network project died and the insane success of Star Wars made sci-fi films profitable again, Paramount elaborated the series pilot into The Movie, which ultimately led to a whole line of movies.

Movies in the franchise include:

    Kelvin Timeline Movies 
After the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005, 2006 was the first year with no Star Trek shows or films since 1985. After a few years of dormancy, Star Trek was revived with a Film of the Series by J. J. Abrams that created an Alternate Timeline with new actors playing the original series characters, kicking off a whole new series of movies:
  • May 8, 2009 — Star Trek (2233 - 2258) — An Origins Episode of sorts where characters from The Original Series come together on their (new) first adventure to stop an Ax-Crazy, Time Traveling, continuity-rebooting Romulan from destroying Federation space.
  • May 17, 2013 — Star Trek Into Darkness (2259 - 2260) — Kirk and crew finds themselves dealing with an enigmatic and powerful terrorist intent on Revenge against Starfleet.
  • July 22, 2016 — Star Trek Beyond (2263) — The crew of the Enterprise fights to escape the clutches of a ruthless warlord after being stranded on an alien planet.

Invariably (and unofficially) referred to as the "Abramsverse" or "JJverse" among fans since the 2009 film's release, this new continuity was officially named the "Kelvin Timeline" (after the Point of Divergence in the first movie's prologue where Romulans destroy the USS Kelvin with Kirk's father within, changing the captain's upbringing) shortly before the release of Star Trek Beyond. Also referred to as simply the "Alternate Reality" by the Star Trek Wiki "Memory Alpha". This also makes the original continuity referred to as the "Prime Timeline".

    Upcoming Movies 
  • Date unknown — Star Trek 4 (Tentative Title) — Confirmed by Paramount on April 2021. Little is known about the film other than the fact that it will be produced by Abrams and serve as the Grand Finale for the Kelvin Timeline. A director (Matt Shankman of WandaVision fame) was attached for a over a year before he left the project in late August 2022, with no replacement named or even in sight. However, on March 28th, 2024, it was announced that Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant) would be joining the film as a scriptwriter.

In total, to watch every minute of Canon Star Trek would require 23 days and 25 minutes of your time. Of Science Fiction franchises, only Doctor Who and its various canon spinoffs are even within a week, and the Super Sentai franchise, which started later than Star Trek or Doctor Who, but has been running continuously since 1979.

     Expanded Universe 
  • The Star Trek Expanded Universe consists of the expected novels and video games; these are somewhat infamous in many circles (compared to the Star Wars counterparts) for the casual disregard the producers of the shows often hold for them.
  • The Star Trek Novel 'Verse, a collection of novels which generally have a single continuity, including various "relaunch" series detailing what happened after the finales of the Trek shows.
  • The Star Trek Shatnerverse written by William Shatner and co-writers that have a continuity centered around James T. Kirk's resurrection following the events of Star Trek: Generations.
  • The Star Trek: Discovery novels, are a collection of novels set in their own continuity from the Star Trek: Discovery television show.
  • The Star Trek: Picard novels, are a collection of novels spinning off into their own continuity from the Star Trek: Picard television show.
  • The Star Trek Autobiographies series that follows its own separate continuity.
  • The Star Trek library that contains dozens of video games produced for the franchise.

See also

  • The Trek Verse — a discussion of internal Trek history as viewed from a real-world perspective as well as how it affected modern culture.

Tropes common across all series:


...To boldly go where no one has gone before!

 
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In "Bride of Chaotica!" from "Star Trek: Voyager," aliens from an alternate universe accidentally wander into Tom Paris's holodeck fantasy. Paris discovers a telegraph message explaining as much and reads it off in this style for Tuvok's benefit, until Tuvok cuts him off, asking him to just summarize the message.

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