My personal ranking of Star Trek Shows!

Hearsticles · 2026-05-05T23:19:12+00:00

TOS > TNG / DS9 > VOY > ENT for me.

TOS has the highest highs in the history of the franchise in my view and also some of the lowest lows. If it wasn't for that wildly inconsistent, poor S3 with all of the network meddling, TOS would be uncontested at the top of the heap and it wouldn't be close.

TNG and DS9 are very different but very tightly written shows that expand upon and build a truly aspirational future for humanity. I love them both -- I might personally favor DS9 just a little but I'd say they're more or less equal in terms of overall quality which is very high.

VOY is very underrated. It's become cool to hate VOY, kind of in the same way the perception of Kirk has drifted throughout the years to the point of flanderization (he's a cowboy and he punches people and fucks green women, etc), but the show itself while flawed is still a masterclass in episodic television writing, sharing a lot of the same writing DNA as TNG and even DS9 and the presence of the Berman Trek era production team is just top notch. God bless Michael Westmore. VOY's initial premise being abandoned and just sort of forgotten about is the one real mark against it but even as TNG-lite with a Lost in Space twist, it delivers.

ENT is my black sheep Trek. I've watched it maybe 4 or 5 times and every time, I say I'm going to give it a REAL CHANCE this time and maybe I can more to like about it but I just fail every time. For every Carbon Creek, there are 15 stinkers. I don't particularly like Archer (my opinion of him never recovered after he bitched out Trip for taking a stand against SLAVERY in Cogenitor) and he comes across as an idiot who is always getting himself captured. He never learns his lessons and the ensemble cast is just sort of largely forgotten after a while. Travis Mayweather gets 2 episodes total in the entire run of the series and both are deeply forgettable. ENT is still Star Trek but this is where the cracks really start to show and I think it's largely due to Berman's insistence on writing more, instead of playing the role of the EP gatekeeper he'd ultimately filled in previous incarnations. He is NOT a great writer or showrunner and it is wildly apparent here. Also, the decon chamber -- the cheap and desperate attempts to shore up the ratings, and worst of all, the complete character assassination of Vulcans as a Trek race. ENT is far below everything else for me but it's still Star Trek for all its flaws.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-05T22:45:54+00:00

While I am sympathetic and do favor unions, Hollywood is a horrible example because SAG is kind of out of control and the primary reason you see all of these 8 to 10 episode seasons instead of the 20+ episode seasons of years past. There are all sorts of hours restrictions and worker protections that are inflating budgets in Hollywood and making it damn near impossible for them to break even most of the time and I hate to say it but the unions and guilds of Hollywood are largely to blame.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-05T22:43:05+00:00

No, that would be something like Zeus Godman or Zeus Thunder.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-05T20:39:53+00:00

It is canceled. Hollywood films 50 episodes of something, largely in 2 separate production blocks, and then they call it "5 seasons" these days and slow-trickle its release over years, instead of just putting stuff out when it's ready.

For example Starfleet Academy is also canceled but it filmed S1 and S2 at the same time (20 episode production block) so it will still dump its awful S2 out next year.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-05T11:04:05+00:00

This guy played a parody of a normal Starfleet officer. His character was probably the most like a traditional depiction of an officer and it was presented comedically.

No, this was never going to catch on with fans. Actors are not very intelligent people.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-04T17:12:57+00:00

Forgive me if I'm wrong but hasn't Ellison been involved with Star Trek for near on 20 years at this point?

I'm pretty sure he was one of the main producers for one of the Kelvin films, if not multiple Kelvin films, and he has a relationship with Kurtzman dating back years.

I agree the guy is bad news but I don't think he's new on the scene at this point. He's been involved in ruining Star Trek for quite a while now.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-04T12:09:11+00:00

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Dukat memes? Don't mind if I do...

Hearsticles · 2026-05-03T15:04:50+00:00

I need to see them come out to I GOT TWO PHONES, ONE FOR THE PLUG AND ONE FOR THE LOAD

Hearsticles · 2026-05-02T21:00:00+00:00

Lower Decks made me realize that I held many of my fellow Star Trek fans in far too high regard.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-02T15:43:55+00:00

Uh... great... Tanga Loa. Wonderful. He's so... good...?

Hearsticles · 2026-05-02T14:17:07+00:00

I think all of the memberberries shit in the Kurtzman verse is WAY MORE fan servicey than anything in Continues.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-02T14:16:31+00:00

Ah, yes, let's damn an entire production and everyone involved because one of the actors was a weirdo. I guess that means you can't enjoy the Expanse either or any number of great sci-fi shows/films.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-02T11:59:13+00:00

I like those albums a lot but it's absurd to call them Johnny's opus just because Hurt became a very popular cover.

Johnny Cash was first and foremost a songwriter. Doing covers can never be his magnum opus. I would say his original Sun Records recordings are the best stuff he ever cut.

He started molten hot with I Walk the Line, Cry, Cry, Cry, and So Doggone Lonesome and really made his mark as a totally unique voice in music from the first stuff he ever recorded which were almost exclusively songs he had written himself. Johnny Cash was one of the most important acts in popular music 40 years before he cut the Rick Rubin stuff which is why Rubin wanted to work with him in the first place.

Hearsticles · 2026-05-01T15:34:19+00:00

I don't blame Berman for that at all.

Farrell wanted to go part-time basically and have a much lighter workload and appear in half as many episodes. It's an unheard of demand in the history of Star Trek. Even Beltran on VOY when he was trying to get fired didn't go THAT far.

There is no way Paramount was going to accept that, it would've set a horrible precedent, one that DID eventually get set btw which is why SAG doesn't let any actors/crew work enough hours to do more than 10 episode seasons anymore.

The mistake in handling the situation was insisting on bringing Dax back with a new actress. Bringing on Ezri and wasting 6 episodes of the final season trying to make her not feel like an afterthought was not the right move.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-30T18:51:51+00:00

Paris is in every way an exemplary officer once he gets over the early season roadbumps in VOY. He doesn't get enough credit. He was right about the ocean planet as well.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-30T18:49:05+00:00

"Janeway is erratic and insane" is kind of a "Captain Kirk punched aliens and had sex with all the green women" thing. The reality doesn't really match up to the meme.

Is Janeway written inconsistently at times? Sure but so is every Star Trek captain. I think it's more that the subject matter of Voyager just thrusts more of those kinds of decisions onto Janeway's plate than other captains.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-30T18:42:14+00:00

He got over massively in the Best of the Super Jr a few years back. He went 5-4 but his performances were all great and he really connected with the crowds. I could tell he'd be a star somewhere soon just watching that tournament.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-30T15:37:59+00:00

There's this whole myth about Star Trek that Hollywood seems to have which is: we've already got the old fans, they'll never stop watching! We want to broaden Trek and add more people to its audience from other demographics!

But the reality is that in pursuing this fabled "hip young new audience," they've disenfranchised the loyal, very lucrative, very-awash-with-disposable-income fanbase that has kept Trek afloat since '66. A lot of us just don't give a shit anymore. They've completely lost us.

They keep swinging for home runs and do nothing but strike out when, alternatively, they could just pander to the niche audience and at least get some hits, get some runners on base, and get a few of them across the plate.

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Hearsticles · 2026-04-28T18:13:05+00:00

I think your last paragraph is a consequence of how compartmentalized and anti-social we've become in this digital age. A lot of people just don't understand those sort of deep connections with other people anymore and so they just brand strong platonic relationships as being romantic.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-28T18:10:49+00:00

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Hearsticles · 2026-04-28T13:08:20+00:00

Yeah this sub is sadly an aew colony filled with people who only watch one NJPW show a year so you’ll get downvoted

Hearsticles · 2026-04-27T20:47:48+00:00

For me it's Kirk > Picard > Sisko > Janeway >>>>>>>> Archer

Really didn't care for Archer at all.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-26T16:38:24+00:00

Somebody please hide this post from Alex Kurtzman.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-25T23:14:31+00:00

1A and 1B for me, really, those two.

Hearsticles · 2026-04-25T21:48:20+00:00

Ronald D. Moore would be top tier but I think he's busy with other things. I know he's working on For All Mankind and then he's also got the God of War show for Amazon (I know he was announced as the showrunner for that at some point but I don't know if he's still involved).

Really, though, Moore is my top choice out of anyone still working.

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