The Best Star Trek TV Series, According To Rotten Tomatoes

It's widely accepted among Trekkies that no "Star Trek" series starts with its best foot forward. Almost every single series, from the 1960s all the way up to the Paramount+ era, has a rocky first season, presenting clumsy storytelling and strange character conceits that many Trekkies look back on with a wince. Generally speaking, a Trek series doesn't hit its stride until about season three (an awkward trend that cut off titles like "Star Trek: The Animated Series" and "Star Trek: Prodigy," shows that only lasted two seasons). 

I will hasten to note that even when Trek shows are struggling through their "bad" seasons, they usually still feature strong characters and a dynamic setting, so a curious viewer will not have to endure years of bad TV before it gets good. They'll just have to endure some awkward writing until it gets excellent. If one wants to watch "Star Trek: The Next Generation," one could simply start with season 3, and then ask a Trekkie friend to recommend vital episodes from seasons one and two. 

But one notable show bucked this trend and started with all cylinders firing. It received mostly positive notices when it first started airing, and was immediately embraced by fans. It likely helped that the series had a "soft opening," as it were, using an entire season of "Star Trek: Discovery" to introduce its characters and ideas. The series is "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," and it currently sports a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's the highest percentage of positive reviews of any other "Star Trek" TV show or movie. This is no small feat. 

And, yes, /Film gave the series an overwhelmingly positive review, contributing to that percentage. 

"Strange New Worlds," for the unfamiliar, takes place on the same U.S.S. Enterprise that Kirk (William Shatner) captained in the original series, but follows the five-or-so-year period before Kirk took command. The captain of the Enterprise is Christopher Pike, played by Anson Mount. Pike was previously seen in the 1966 "Star Trek" pilot episode "The Cage" where he was played by Jeffrey Hunter. Pike also appeared in J.J. Abrams' rebooted "Star Trek" film series, wherein he was played by Bruce Greenwood.

Indeed, "Strange New Worlds" featured multiple characters seen on the original series or in "The Cage," all of them played by new actors. Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) is now played by Jess Bush, Dr. M'Benga (Booker Bradshaw) is now played by Babs Olusanmokun, Number One (Barrett) is now played by Rebecca Romijn, Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) is now played by Celia Rose Gooding, and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is now played by Ethan Peck. Over the course of the series to date, audiences have also been introduced to James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) and Scotty (Martin Quinn). 

And while nostalgia is one of the central currencies of "Strange New Worlds," the showrunners are careful to give these versions of the characters personalities of their own. When Jeffrey Hunter played Pike, he was stern, angry, always full of wrath. Mount's Pike is, in contrast, a lighthearted, affable, almost unprofessional figure, happy to have breakfast in his quarters with all of his officers. Indeed, "Strange New Worlds" is mostly whimsical, offering sillier episodes than most "Star Trek" shows. The series has already had its characters transform into fairy tale characters, crossed over with an animated series, and even done a full-blown musical. 

"Star Trek: Discovery" was, back in 2017, met with a great deal of suspicion. "Discovery" turned "Star Trek" from an episodic enterprise into season-long stories full of bleak violence, unending incident, and many, many deaths. It wasn't quite in the spirit of "Star Trek," and many old school Trekkies rejected it. In an attempt to get said Trekkies hooked on the show, the showrunners rushed in the familiar U.S.S. Enterprise. Many saw it as a lazy ratings-grab, but the conceit actually worked. Pike was a welcome addition, and all the kinks of a potential "Strange New Worlds" first season were handily smoothed out. By the time "Worlds" debuted (as an episodic series), audiences were ready and the showrunners knew what they had. In a way, "Strange New Worlds" bypassed the notorious first-season jitters. 

The second highest-rated "Star Trek" series on Rotten Tomatoes is, perhaps bafflingly, "Star Trek: The Animated Series" from 1973. While Filmation's animation on that series was stodgy, the writing was better than on the original "Star Trek." It also helped that the show was only 30 minutes per episode, allowing the sci-fi conceits to shine outside the pesky character work. It's a better series than it gets credit for, and critics agree. 

Third highest rated on Rotten Tomatoes is another animated "Star Trek" series, "Star Trek: Prodigy," an ambitious series about teenagers from across the galaxy who learn about Starfleet for the first time when they discover an abandoned ship called the Protostar. They get involved in a long-range chase with an evil villain, and become gentle, mature officers with the help of an instructional hologram of Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). 

Fourth-highest on the list is the animate "Star Trek: Lower Decks," a comedy series set after the events of "Star Trek: Voyager," set on the U.S.S. Cerritos, a really crappy ship tasked with the Federation's most boring missions. It seems that critics love "Star Trek" when it's animated. 

Fifth on the list is "Star Trek: The Next Generation," sixth is "Deep Space Nine," seventh is the mostly-abysmal "Picard" (!), eighth is "Discovery," ninth is the original series (!!), and tenth is "Voyager." The only "Star Trek" show to get a "rotten" rating, with 56% approval, is "Star Trek: Enterprise."