---
title: 'How to Get Into Star Trek - Full Franchise Guide'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=NEuDyaazWp8'
video_id: 'NEuDyaazWp8'
date: 2026-07-22
duration_sec: 1152
channel: 'ScreenCrush'
---

# How to Get Into Star Trek - Full Franchise Guide

> Source: [How to Get Into Star Trek - Full Franchise Guide](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NEuDyaazWp8)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive guide for newcomers to the Star Trek franchise, breaking down its three main eras—the original series, the 1990s boom, and the modern streaming era—and explaining what makes each unique. The host offers episode recommendations and explains the core premise of Star Trek as a utopian future where humanity explores the galaxy.

### Key Points

- **Purpose of the Guide** [00:02] — The video aims to help new viewers get into Star Trek by explaining each era and recommending episodes, without being a full recap of franchise history.
- **Star Trek Premise** [00:29] — Star Trek is set in our universe a few centuries from now, where Earth is a utopia without crime, poverty, money, or war. Earth joins the Federation of Planets, which sends starships to explore and make contact with new worlds.
- **Original Series (TOS)** [01:22] — The original series began in 1966, featuring Kirk, Spock, and Bones. Spock's conflict between emotion and logic drives the series. The show was a landmark in American culture, challenging race norms.
- **Two Types of Episodes** [02:46] — Star Trek episodes boil down to two types: silly (e.g., 'Trouble with Tribbles') and serious (e.g., 'City on the Edge of Forever'). The latter is considered one of the best episodes ever.
- **Original Series Movies** [05:49] — After TOS cancellation, six movies were made. 'Wrath of Khan' is a standout, continuing the story from the episode 'Space Seed'. 'The Voyage Home' is a time-travel comedy, and 'The Undiscovered Country' ends the original crew's story.
- **The Next Generation (TNG)** [06:41] — Set 80 years after TOS, TNG features Captain Picard and a more balanced cast. The show is procedural, with standout episodes like 'Measure of a Man' and 'The Inner Light'. The Borg are introduced as a major threat.
- **Deep Space 9 (DS9)** [09:38] — DS9 is set on a space station near a wormhole. It deals with post-war politics and religion, and becomes serialized with a war arc. Episodes like 'Duet' and 'Hard Time' are highlights.
- **Voyager** [11:33] — Voyager features Captain Janeway, the first female captain lead. The crew is stranded on the other side of the galaxy. The show hits its stride with Seven of Nine, a former Borg.
- **Enterprise** [13:06] — Enterprise is a prequel set before TOS, with a less polished feel. It has a controversial theme song and explores early Star Trek lore. Seasons 3 and 4 are considered the best.
- **JJ Abrams Era** [15:05] — Abrams rebooted Star Trek with an alternate reality, focusing on action and visual spectacle. This led to the streaming era with Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy.

### Conclusion

Star Trek offers a wide and diverse universe with something for everyone. The best way to get into it is to pick an era that appeals to you and start exploring.

## Transcript

of this lore. This is how to get [music] in to Star Trek. Now, even if you have might be looking at the newer shows and you feel a little overwhelmed. But don't worry, cadets, I'm here to help. This is not a full recap of TRE history. This is
started so you can pick an era that's right for you. So, we're going to talk about each era of Trek, explain why it's great, and list a few episodes just to give you a feel for what each show or movie is about. And a full list of these
let me start off by explaining the premise of this franchise and why it's awesome. Unlike Star Wars, Star Trek takes place in our universe just a few centuries from now. In this world, Earth is a utopia with no crime, poverty,
money, or war. So, Earth joins a space UN called the Federation of Planets, which sends starships out into the galaxy to explore and make contact with new worlds. They also encounter warlike races who are portrayed as malevolent.
conflict is usually bureaucracy. But above all, to quote the book set phasers unstunned, Star Trek is just fun. It can be hard sci-fi and serious, but at the end of the day, it's a universe for a bellose alien with an exoskeleton will
>> So, we're going to be talking about three distinct eras of Trek. The original series, the '9s family of shows and movies, and the Paramount Plus streaming era. There's also comics and books and games, but we're mostly just
start with the Trek that you are probably loosely familiar with, the lineup that you can probably name just from watching Star Trek parodies. The headstrong daring leader, Bones, his passionate medical officer, and Spock,
who is half human and half Vulcan. See, Vulcan culture demands that you have to purge all emotion and act only with logic. So, Spock's conflict with the crew and with himself drive the heart of the series. The show began in 1966, and
of the effects and sets seem dated on your 4K TVs. Gene Rodenberry created this universe, but he and great writers like DC Fontana were inventing the lore culturally dated. >> That ancient [music] Earth costumeing,
what is it? >> We'll talk about it later. >> But this show is a landmark in American culture. It featured the first lines that challenged race, like this planet of black and white cookie people
who hate each other if your face collars happen to be inverted. Some of the cheesy that they're fun. For instance, like there's a cat with a costume on or overdubbed. >> This is Trana.
I. >> Now, I can recommend two specific episodes to give you an idea of what Star Trek is. See, there are nearly 1,000 episodes of Star Trek, but it all boils down to just two types: silly and
serious. In toos, the classic silly episode is Trouble with Trivbs, where a creatures that reproduce so fast that they're born pregnant.
episode of the original Trek is City on the Edge of Forever, written by the great sci-fi writer Harlon Ellison. This is a time travel story where the crew travels to the 1930s and realizes that they have to make a terrible sacrifice
It might be the single best episode of Trek ever made. Now, personally, I did not start with toos. My introduction to Star Trek was the movies that featured skip the entire run of toos, but you still want to understand those movies, I
would recommend two other episodes. One is a muck time. It is a great Spock episode where he goes into heat and battles Kirk. And there's also Space augmented human from the past named Khan. And that leads us into the films.
animated series. Now, the animated series was created after the original show was cancelled, and it featured the voices of the original cast. It's a little goofy in places, but there are some fantastic episodes. The standout is
Yester Year, where Spock travels back in time to meet his younger self. >> Well, that's the thing. It's up to you. This is all up to you. The original series is foundational nerd culture and it's like an American time capsule. I
have to watch the show to understand Star Trek. In fact, that's true of all Star Trek. You can dive in at any point, which we'll talk about as we go along. Now, if you really want to learn about Tre, one of the best ways is to actually
dive into the universe for yourself. Like as a decadesl long fan of Star Trek, I am so excited that they are making a brand new Star Trek card game that's going to bring together 60 years worth of history, characters, and ships
into one strategic experience. So whether you're a season Trek fan or just Trek curious, you are going to love Star Trek Warp. What's that? I'm glad you card game that is set within the Star Trek universe, and they're the sponsor
of this video. I am so excited for this game to release and you can be one of the first to play using my link to wishlist the game right now on Steam. You can choose characters from a huge roster of Star Trek Legends, heroes, and
locations like 10 forward and the warp core. There are also starships from all across the franchise like the Enterprise or the Borg Cube. I'm excited to collect the entire crew from the next generation so we can take down the Borg. So, your
ships from the series. And that is where the battle strategy is different from choice determines your health, deck size, and unique abilities. And battles are actually happening in seven lanes. So, you have to think strategically to
win. Extra cards also give you unique abilities. So, every battle is a new experience. So, right now, you can wishlist Star Trek Warp on Steam, and it will first be available to founders who purchase a first contact pack, which is
full of exclusive items. After that, it will be open to everyone with hundreds of cards to collect, tons of character abilities to try out, and ships to Star Trek Warp to your wish list today to ensure you get the fullest game
experience. Links are below. Now, a few years after to cancel, Star Trek returned on the big screen for six movies. But, as a beginner, I got to is the movie that truly returned Star Trek to national consciousness. It
continued the story of Space Seed, but you really don't even need to see that episode. Khan kicked off a kind of trilogy within the series. Star Treks 2, story which culminates in the best Trek
film, Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home. The crew travels back in time to the 80s to amazing film. >> Watch where you're going, you dumbass. Well, A DOUBLE DUMBASS ON YOU. >> And then the original crew got a stellar
Undiscovered Country. Remember how Avengers Endgame ended with the cast signatures? They got that from Star Trek 6. And that takes us to the second era of Trek, the boom of the 90s. Now, this era begins with Star Trek: The Next
Generation, or TNG. It's set about 80 years after the original series when the Federation has become more bureaucratic and less cowboy shenanigans. Patrick and his crew includes an artificial lifeorn named Data, who is always
struggling to become human. Another standout of the series is Warf, whose enemies of the Federation during toos and in the films. But TNG picks up at a time of relative peace in the galaxy. Now, this is a procedural show, meaning
hop in on any season and just start watching. The first season of TNG pretty rough in places, so you should probably watch the two-part pilot and then skip and watch it later. Season 2 features a standout episode called Measure of a
prove that he is alive. >> Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well, there it sits. But frankly, the show really hit its stride in seasons three, four, and five. These seasons introduced maybe the greatest
>> Resistance [clears throat] is futile. >> The Borg represent the end result of the Federation's mission. They only value technology and assimilation of mission of exploration and expansion to
its logical conclusion, you get the Borg. They represent what humanity would Kirk. >> Risk is our business. That's what the aboard her. >> TNG also has a far more balanced cast
than the original series. Most toos episodes featured Kirk as the only lead, but TNG often splits its focus among its entire stellar cast. There were episodes home world, about data, building a daughter, Crusher having sex with an
Irish mist, rat. H it's a whole thing. But my favorite Star Trek episode ever is season 5's The Inner Light. I even have a poster of it. The show also has an incredible finale that takes place in three different time periods and gives
Tre a new mission statement. >> Not mapping stars and studying nebula, >> Not mapping stars and studying nebula, but charting the unknown possibilities >> There are also four TNG movies, but the best one by far is First Contact. The
entire crew travels back in time to the dawn of the era of interstellar travel. gets to really chew some scenery in the film. No, [screaming]
>> And you people, you're all on some kind of Star Trek. >> Now, the story of Pequard and the TNG crew did continue decades later in a this show is technically part of the streaming era, I'll talk about it here.
let's just say, controversial. They took some big swings. Maybe they whiffed on a few things, but the show has a stellar third season. Showrunner Terry Matalis and his team gave TNG fans the truly great ending this crew always deserved
and it is a mustwatch after you finish TNG. So, the success of TNG led to a Star Trek boom in the '90s. As TNG transitioned to the big screen, Star Trek spin-offs proliferated on TV. That's how we got what I think is the
best Star Trek series, Deep Space 9. Usually, when fans talk about Star Trek shows, they talk about the seasons you can skip. With DS9, don't skip anything. This show is set on a space station with the titular Deep Space 9, which is
located next to a stable wormhole that goes to an entire other corner of the galaxy. The station was built by the antagonist, the Kardashians, who have just lost a decadesl long war to the people of Beour. And Beor was a planet
that the Kardashians occupied and suppressed for decades. So, the Federation is asked to step in to administer this station as these two pick up the pieces and trying to move forward with life after war. For
called Duet where the survivors of a death camp cope with the horrors of what >> That's what justified my actions. That's what gave me strength. >> Nothing justifies genocide. >> The Bajoran people are also deeply
religious, and many of the show's storylines deal with political and religious leaders vying for power, while the station is bustling with low lives and activity from all corners of the galaxy. See, Deep Space 9 also broke
with Star Trek tradition. It begins with a more procedural format, but gradually becomes more episodic. See, a war begins with a group from the other side of the galaxy. And then the show's overarching arc is about this conflict that slowly
draws in all of these factions that we have been meeting over the years. change in a way we hadn't really seen on Star Trek before. A few of my favorite episodes include Hard Time, where the chief engineer is trapped in a mental
one-act play, and it's just a killer piece of writing. or this all sounds really serious. Some episodes are, but then again, in the middle of a war, the against trash-talking Vulcans. >> Hey, better better step to the
>> Or there's the episode where they traveled back in time into the episode Trouble with Tribles. When it was released, this was the most expensive episode of Star Trek ever made. So, that's DS9. It's great. Watch the whole
Voyager. This show is set in the same time period, but with a totally different premise. It features a blended crew composed of Federation officers and criminal resistance fighters who are now trapped on the other end of the galaxy.
get home, so they have to start their journey to find faster routes back. The show was pioneering for having Trek's first woman captain as the lead, Katherine Janeway, and she is great. >> There's coffee [music] in that nebula.
watching the pilot to dive into the premise of the show. Now, you would half Federation and half criminal resistance fighters would lead to pretty much dissolves early on in the series. After all, this is Star Trek,
where the Federation is a utopia and they mostly focus on outside threats. There is one exceptional episode, however, Mel, which features Griema Worm Tongue himself, Brad Dar. He plays a crew member who is genuinely psychotic,
and the crew struggle with how they can deal with the criminal when they are 70 show truly hit its stride in seasons four, five, and six when they introduced Jerry Ryan as seven of nine. She is a former Borg who very slowly learns to
episode where she feels emotional pain for the first time in decades, and it's heartbreaking. >> You must comply, >> And if that sounds too heavy for you, there's also an episode where they find
Amelia Heheart, and one episode features The Rock. Now, there is also a short button to this era of '90s Trek, [music] Enterprise. This series launched in the 2000s, and it only ran for four seasons. It takes place a few decades before the
original series, and it features the very first starship of humans to go into industrial. It's less polished, and Scott Bula's Captain Archer refuses to ever sit in his chair. The show tried to expand Star Trek beyond its fan base by
title and giving it the most controversial Trek theme of all time. >> of the heart. >> Believe it or not, the theme was actually supposed to be beautiful day by YouTube, but it was too expensive, but
here cuz we'll get demonetized. So, just ceue up Beautiful Day on one speaker and works great. Now, new viewers might actually identify with this crew because the crew are learning about Star Trek lore as the series progresses. Like the
Federation's old enemies, the Klingons. >> Klingant. A Cllingon. They also amp up the sex appeal with scenes like to Paul getting a gel rub in the demp room. So while I would recommend the pilot to get a sense
of the series, in many ways the show is too relatable after the terror attack on Earth. The second season veers into a 9/11 metaphor that might feel dated today. However, seasons three and four are when this series truly hits its
excellent two-parter that takes place in the mirror universe. That's an alternate dimension where humans took to the stars to conquer instead of explore. Now, apart from the pilot, season 4, episode 17, Bound, is a terrific episode of Star
Orion dancing girls who we saw in the original series, but now it's revealed society by emitting pherommones to control the men. There's also a great three-parter that features the ancestor of Data's creator. That episode also has
subtle tie-ins to Wrath of Khan and also sets up the creation of Data over a 100red years later. Now, when Enterprise was canceled in 2005, it marked the first time in nearly 20 years that a Trek show is not being created. And this
opened the door for a new voice to step in, J.J. Abrams. So, this begins the third and final era of Trek, the Abrams Kurtsman era that is now coming to a close. J.J. Abrams had the idea to relaunch Star Trek with the original
cast, but not tied into the already established continuity. After all, he >> I never liked Star Trek when I was a kid. I stopped listening to you when you the rebooted franchise, just called Star Trek, took place in an alternate
reality, free from continuity. It's a fun series of movies and a pretty good franchise. However, these are first and foremost action movies that are filled with Star Trek cliches, but little of its subtext. But this franchise launched
a new visual language for Star Trek. Fast-paced, actionoriented camera movements, lens flares, and an emphasis on cinematic storytelling. The Abrams movies brought a lot of new fans into Trek and this was the precedent that the
launched a new series Star Trek Discovery. Discovery or Disco is set 10 years before to disco with each season telling a long story. Cllingon war and visit the mirror versse. People call this new Trek
because it looks very, very new. There is more naturalistic dialogue. is more naturalistic dialogue. >> Mor might get through. >> There's cursing. You guys, this is soing cool.
>> No, cadet. It is cool. >> Sir, get off my ass, sir. >> And most importantly, the show centers on a single protagonist who is not a captain, Michael Burnham. Now, with this
show, I can't recommend an individual episode to get you on board because the pilot, and if you watch that and you're hooked, keep going. You'll like the show. Now, season 2 then begins to add in more classic Trek characters like a
recast Spock played by Ethan Peek. And then seasons 3, 4, and 5 made a very bold move to send the Enterprise almost a thousand years in the future, where Federation. Season 2 also reintroduced the classic Tre character Christopher
Pike, who would go on to helm the spin-off Strange New Worlds. Now, this show, for my money, is one of the best onboard ramps New Trek has for new fans. world war and giving a speech that I think defines Star Trek.
>> Maybe that's the good in in seeing my future that I might remind you that be worn gloriously. >> The show is sexy. It's bright, but it has real emotional pos. Pike has seen a vision of his future where he suffers a
horrible injury. So, he, like the audience, knows how his story ends, and this leads to great dramatic tension throughout the show. But above all, it's just fun. There's even a musical episode.
>> The show also offers deepcut lore for hardcore Star Trek fans, but its core idea is that we only get one life, so we should make it count. Hit it. >> New Trek also introduced the terrific animated show Star Trek Prodigy. Now,
this is a great introduction to Tre for younger viewers. It follows a group of starship, and then they have to learn what the Federation is, which is a great onboarding for kids. There's not really an onboarding episode for this show. I
enjoy yourself. But the best animated Star Trek show is near and dear to my heart, Lower Decks. It's an animated comedy about the non-commissioned are huge Star Trek nerds. >> Get out of here, Q. NO, WE ARE DONE WITH
WITH ANY OF your Q bull. >> This is another show that is great from the ride. >> I got it from a old guy with an EYE >> COME SPAR WITH ME. AND FINALLY, we have the newest show, Star Trek: Starfleet
Academy. This is a spin-off of Discovery and occurs a few hundred years in the seen this show, and that's okay. Star Trek is a show about discovery, and there is always more Star Trek to explore. There's also great comics made
by IDW, the novels by great like Peter David. There's the shows, the movies. Tre is so wide and diverse that there is literally something for everyone. So, instead of listening to me, go discover the galaxy for yourself. Engage.