Geek Timelines

22nd Century

• Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) — The first ship named Enterprise (the NX-01) sets out to explore deep space decades before anything you have seen. It is the Wild West of the galaxy: no Prime Directive, no perfect universal translator, and Vulcans treating humanity like a loud teenager. The Xindi arc in season 3 is where the show truly takes off.

23rd Century — Prime Timeline

• Star Trek: Discovery - Season 1 (2017) — Science officer Michael Burnham commits a mutiny that triggers all-out war with the Klingons — and pays for it by becoming a prisoner, until she is recruited by the shadowy USS Discovery, which hides a spore drive capable of instant travel between points in space. It is the darkest, most serialized Trek yet, including a stretch of the season set entirely in the Mirror Universe.
• Star Trek: Discovery - Season 2 (2019) — The Discovery teams up with Captain Pike's Enterprise to investigate seven mysterious signals scattered across the galaxy, tied to a "Red Angel" that may hold the key to the future — or the end — of all sentient life. The season brings a young Spock to the screen for the first time and ends with the Discovery making a desperate jump 930 years into the future.
• Star Trek: Section 31 (2025) — Michelle Yeoh returns as Mirror Universe Emperor Georgiou, now a fugitive disguised as a nightclub owner outside the Federation, recruited by the shadowy espionage organization Section 31 for a dirty job. It promised to be Trek's "James Bond" — it delivered something far less memorable.
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) — Captain Pike, a young Spock, and Una Chin-Riley command the Enterprise in an episodic, colorful, hope-filled series — Paramount's direct answer to fans wanting "classic" Trek with modern production.
• Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) — Kirk, Spock, and McCoy forever define what optimistic science fiction on TV looks like — diplomacy over gunfire, budget-conscious exotic aliens, and speeches about tolerance hidden in space metaphors in the middle of the Cold War. Three seasons of bold exploration that built a cultural phenomenon from scratch.
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) — A mysterious, massive cloud of energy called V'Ger advances toward Earth, destroying everything in its path. Admiral Kirk retakes command of the newly refitted Enterprise for one last mission to investigate the threat — a more contemplative, visually ambitious film than typical action fare, almost a "2001: A Space Odyssey" with Starfleet uniforms.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) — Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically engineered supervillain Kirk exiled fifteen years earlier, returns thirsty for revenge, stealing a weapon capable of creating life — or wiping it from an entire planet. Widely considered the best film in the entire franchise: tense, personal, and with an ending that still brings generations of fans to tears.
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) — Refusing to accept Spock's death as final, Kirk and his crew disobey direct orders, steal the Enterprise itself, and risk everything — careers, freedom, and the ship they love — on a desperate mission to the Genesis Planet to recover their friend's body and soul.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) — An alien probe threatens to destroy Earth while trying to communicate with humpback whales — a species extinct by the 23rd century. The crew's solution? Time-travel to 1980s San Francisco to rescue living whales, sparking a hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy that became the most popular and accessible film in the entire classic saga.
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) — Spock's Vulcan half-brother, Sybok, hijacks the Enterprise on a mystical quest to the center of the galaxy, where he believes he will find God in person. Directed by William Shatner himself, the film tries to blend humor, spirituality, and action, but is generally seen as the franchise's weakest theatrical entry.
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) — After a catastrophic environmental disaster on the Klingon home moon, Starfleet and the Klingon Empire negotiate a historic peace — but forces on both sides conspire to sabotage the deal. Kirk, still carrying old prejudices, is framed for murder in an espionage plot that serves as a moving farewell for the entire original cast.

"Kelvin" Alternate Timeline

• Star Trek (2009) (2009) — The Romulan ship Narada emerges from the future and destroys the USS Kelvin, forever altering history and creating an alternate timeline. Years later, a young, rebellious James T. Kirk joins Starfleet and, alongside a Spock still learning to handle his emotions, faces the villain Nero on a mission that forms the classic crew from scratch — just younger, faster, and with a lot more lens flare.
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) — A shadowy Starfleet agent named John Harrison commits a devastating terrorist attack — but he hides an explosive genetic secret that ties him directly to the franchise's most dangerous past (and future). Kirk must decide how far he's willing to go for revenge, in a story that reinterprets one of Star Trek's most iconic moments in a new light.
• Star Trek Beyond (2016) — Halfway through a five-year exploration mission, the Enterprise is ambushed and destroyed by a relentless swarm of ships commanded by Krall, a villain driven by deep hatred of the Federation. Stranded on a hostile planet, Kirk and his crew must regroup and improvise to survive and stop a bio-weapon from reaching Yorktown starbase.

24th Century — Prime Timeline

• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) — Almost a century after Kirk, Captain Jean-Luc Picard commands a new, much larger and more diplomatic Enterprise, alongside the android Data, first officer Riker, and a crew that takes the franchise to its cultural peak. Seven seasons more philosophical and less "space western" than the original series, with the Borg becoming the biggest collective trauma of 90s geek TV.
• Star Trek Generations (1994) — In a symbolic passing of the torch, Captain Kirk — presumed dead years earlier — is found alive inside a temporal dimension called the Nexus, and teams up with Picard to stop a scientist obsessed with returning there, even if it means destroying entire star systems. The first film fully centered on the "Next Generation" crew.
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996) — The Borg travel back in time to 2063 to prevent humanity's first warp-speed flight — the event that leads to official first contact with an alien civilization and the founding of the Federation itself. Picard and his crew chase the collective through time in a desperate race to protect the very birth of the future they know.
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) — The Federation plans to forcibly relocate the few thousand inhabitants of a peaceful planet whose regenerative atmosphere works like a genuine fountain of youth. Picard rebels against orders from above to defend the residents, in a smaller-scale story loaded with ethical dilemmas about the Federation's own limits.
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) — A young, embittered clone of Picard, created by the Romulans as a secret weapon and now the leader of a coup within the Romulan Empire, challenges his "original" to a personal confrontation that threatens the entire Federation. The film closes out the "Next Generation" film line with Data's ultimate sacrifice and Riker and Troi's wedding.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) — The franchise's brilliant black sheep: instead of a ship exploring the unknown, a space station parked near an alien wormhole, steeped in religion, colonial occupation, and an all-out war against the Dominion. This is where Trek finally admits politics is messy.
• Star Trek: Voyager (1995) — A ship stranded 70,000 light-years from home in the Delta Quadrant, trying to get back to Earth on a 75-year journey they try to shorten. The first Trek commanded by a woman (Captain Janeway), and home to the franchise's most "humanized" Borg with Seven of Nine.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020) — Trek finally laughs at itself: the low-ranking crew of the USS Cerritos, a "second-tier" ship full of everyday mediocrity. Deep-cut comedy loaded with canon references only die-hard fans will catch.
• Star Trek: Prodigy (2021) — A group of young people with no ties to the Federation find an abandoned starship and use it to escape a prison planet, learning Starfleet values from scratch — designed to be Trek's entry point for kids and teens.

25th Century

• Star Trek: Picard (2020) — Jean-Luc Picard, retired and weary, is pulled back into action by a mystery involving Data's android "children" — and the series evolves into, by season 3, the definitive reunion of The Next Generation cast against a threat striking at Starfleet's heart.

32nd Century

• Star Trek: Discovery - Season 3 (2020) — Burnham and the Discovery finally complete the 930-year jump and find a Federation in ruins, reduced to a handful of isolated planets after "The Burn" — a catastrophic event that detonated nearly all the dilithium in the galaxy at once. The season becomes an investigation into what caused the Burn, as the crew tries to reignite hope for a fractured Federation.
• Star Trek: Discovery - Season 4 (2021) — A mysterious, devastating Dark Matter Anomaly threatens the entire galaxy, forcing Burnham — now captain of the Discovery — and the resurgent Federation to make first contact with an entirely new alien civilization, Species 10-C, whose technology may be behind the anomaly. A season about diplomacy under extreme pressure.
• Star Trek: Discovery - Season 5 (2024) — In the show's final season, Burnham and the crew embark on a high-stakes treasure hunt across the galaxy for legendary technology left behind by the Progenitors — ancient beings tied to the origin of all known humanoid life — before it falls into dangerous hands. A pure-adventure send-off to close out Burnham's journey in style.
• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (2026) — The franchise's newest bet: a coming-of-age series set at Starfleet Academy, following cadets in an era when the Federation is still rebuilding from the Burn. Designed to attract a younger audience, directly continuing the 32nd century opened up by Discovery.