The Best Star Trek Series of the Modern Era (and the Worst)

Star Trek's enduring legacy spans decades, making a straightforward ranking of its modern era productions a fascinating, yet complex, task. For the sake of clarity, we'll divide the franchise's output into distinct eras: the classic Original Series, the subsequent films featuring the original cast, the Rick Berman era (encompassing The Next Generation through Enterprise), and finally, the current Paramount+ era, which began with Discovery in 2017.

This discussion focuses specifically on the Paramount+ era, a period that in less than eight years has yielded five new live-action series, two animated series, and a collection of short films known as Short Treks. The recent release of the Star Trek: Section 31 movie, initially conceived as a series, further expands this modern era.

Comparing these diverse projects—ranging from dramatic sci-fi to comedy, animation, short-form content, and feature-length films—presents unique challenges. Furthermore, the quality of individual shows can fluctuate across seasons. Therefore, our rankings consider each series' complete run, not just its peak performance.

Ready to boldly go where no ranking has gone before? Let's explore the best and worst of modern Star Trek!

The Best and Worst Star Trek Series of the Modern Era

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