The Best Star Trek Series Viewing Order, 2 Ways To Stream
There are two ways to watch Star Trek's many series: in the order they were originally released or in a chronological order based on Star Trek's in-canon timeline.
There are two ways to watch Star Trek’s series in the order: by which was released first or based on where each series fits in the franchise’s canonical timeline.
Most Star Trek fans would agree that watching Star Trek’s series in order by release date is the ideal viewing experience. To help you do that, we’ve given you a full list of each Star Trek show, ordered by release date, below.
However, should you choose to attempt a chronological viewing of Star Trek’s various series, here’s how you do it…
Star Trek Series In Order By Timeline
To watch Star Trek’s shows in chronological order, you’ll have to start with Star Trek: Enterprise. Enterprise tells the story of Starfleet‘s first real attempts at exploration and takes place before anything else.
Next, you’ll have to watch Star Trek: Discovery season one and season two. Those two seasons of the show occur between the era of Star Trek: Enterprise and the original series. Stop after Discovery season 2, because at the end of season 2 the entire show time travels to an era in a far-off future.
So at this point, if you’re watching chronologically, you’d have watched…
To keep watching every Star Trek series in order based on the timeline, you’ll need to follow Discovery season 2 with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. In order, Strange New Worlds picks up right where Discovery left off and follows Captain Pike in his stint about the Enterprise.
Once you’re done with Strange New Worlds, you’re ready to dive into the original 1966 Star Trek series (sometimes called Star Trek: TOS). Watch all three seasons.
Follow up those three seasons with every episode of Star Trek: The Animated series. It continues the adventures of the original series crew and it’s next in your timeline locked viewing of Star Trek series in order.
When TOS and its animated spinoff are complete, you can start Star Trek: The Next Generation, but you must stop at season 6. Between season 6 and season 7 of Next Gen, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine launches. Captain Picard even shows up in that new series’ first episode.
So at this point, you’ll have watched…
Stop watching Deep Space Nine after season 1 and go back to The Next Generation so you can finish out that final season. You’ll then be free to resume your Deep Space Nine journey with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2.
After DS9 season 2 it gets tricky to maintain viewing each Star Trek series in order by timeline, as Star Trek: Voyager began airing in parallel with Deep Space Nine. Voyager actually occurs, chronologically speaking, smack dab in the middle of DS9 season 3. Your best approach is to alternate Voyager and Deep Space Nine seasons until both shows are totally done.
That means your next group of Star Trek shows would be ordered this way…
- 9. Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7
- 10. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2
- 11. Star Trek: Voyager season 1
- 12. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3
- 13. Star Trek: Voyager season 2
- 14. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4
- 15. Star Trek: Voyager season 3
- 16. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 5
- 17. Star Trek: Voyager season 4
- 18. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6
- 19. Star Trek: Voyager season 5
- 20. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7
- 21. Star Trek: Voyager season 6
- 22. Star Trek: Voyager season 7
You’ve watched a lot of Star Trek, but the march of time continues. Next up, in Star Trek series chronological order, is Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy. Star Trek: Prodigy takes place between seasons 1 and 2 of Lower Decks, so your best bet is to take these Star Trek shows on in this order…
You’re almost done. Your next chronological Star Trek series in order viewing assignment is Star Trek: Picard. Watch all of it. The series takes place many years after the end of Star Trek: Lower Decks.
And then, in the end, you’ll finish ordering your timeline-guided Star Trek series viewing experiment with a show you already started but probably totally forgotten the time since, Star Trek: Discovery.
Remember when the Star Trek: Discovery crew jumped into the future? Well, they jumped WAY into the future. Into a future hundreds of years past the end of Star Trek: Picard,
That means you’ll finish your chronological Star Trek series viewing this way…
Congratulations, you’ve just watched every episode of every Star Trek series in chronological, in-canon order. You understand the timeline intimately and are ready to win any relevant Star Trek series in order trivia challenge.
Which Star Trek Seasons Can I Skip?
If you’re looking to get through your chronological viewing of Star Trek faster, there are a few things you can skip, since they don’t affect the larger continuity of the show and are in the opinion of most fans, just not any good.
First on your skip it list should be season 1 and season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. They’re generally regarded as being very low quality, and they don’t actually matter all that much. Do not skip Star Trek: Picard season 3, because it ties up a lot of important Star Trek loose ends. But you don’t need to see the previous two seasons to enjoy it.
Next you may want to consider skipping all of Star Trek: Discovery. The first couple of seasons of the show are prequels that don’t really impact much and the last few are set in a future so far off it’s irrelevant. And most fans generally agree that Star Trek: Discovery just isn’t any good.
Discovery is so skippable that in the show’s later seasons Paramount went out of it sway to try and get it to retcon itself, fixing all the mistakes it made early on as best they could. So if Paramount doesn’t even want to acknowledge what happened in Star Trek: Discovery, then there’s probably no good reason you need to watch it.
Star Trek: Prodigy may also be a Star Trek series you’ll want to skip in your viewing order. While it’s actually pretty good, the Netflix series is primarily geared towards children and may not operate at the maturity level you’re used to. The show is canon, so what it does matters in the overall Trek timeline, but very little of what occurs on Prodigy has broader implications in the Trek universe. But, the show does bring in iconic characters from other great Star Trek shows, which you’ll have already seen by then and may enjoy seeing back in action.
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