While many casual fans would love to get more invested in Star Trek, it's hard to figure
out where to start.
That said, just because something is messy doesn't mean it's not also amazing, and the
franchise is worth your effort.
Here's your guide through the Star Trek timeline.
Most of Star Trek on both the big and small screen takes place in a version of the future
that stretches to the 23rd century and beyond.
That doesn't mean that's always where the story stays, though.
Throughout its long history as a sci-fi franchise, Star Trek has used time travel to tell stories
many times, and as a result there are numerous examples of humanity's past popping up as
part of its future.
The crew from The Original Series went back in time on several occasions, including a
journey to the 1960s, another to the 1930s, and yet another to 1986 so they could bring
a couple of whales to the future.
The Next Generation crew also had its run-ins with time travel, whether journeying to the
1890s or all the way back to the beginning of life on Earth as we know it.
Then there was that time a group of Ferengi accidentally landed in New Mexico in 1947
and became part of the secret history of UFOs in America.
Voyager spent a few minutes hanging out at the big bang.
Those are just a few of the many times Trek history has flirted with the distant past,
and there are probably more backwards journeys to come.
Though humanity seems to have a lot of its scientific priorities in order by the time
of Star Trek's future, that wasn't always the case in the past.
In the late 1990s, human scientists began looking for ways to enhance the human race
through things like selective breeding and questionable genetic engineering.
The experiments produced superhuman beings known as Augments.
The Augments were supposed to be the future of the race, a bright beacon of advancement
and hope.
Instead, they grew arrogant, because,
"Superior ability breeds superior ambition."
Beginning with the Augment known as Khan Noonien Singh, various superhumans began conquering
vast portions of the globe.
This began the period known as The Eugenics Wars.
The wars, between various Augment factions and normal humans alike, raged across the
world.
Whole populations were decimated by the conflict.
Eventually, humanity regained the upper hand.
Khan was exiled into space, genetic engineering was banned, and the Eugenics Wars ended.
It was not the last time Augments would plague humanity, though.
Eventually, humans in the Star Trek universe learn to get along, ditch money, and be cool
with everybody from every background.
However, the process of getting there required a massive conflict to remind everyone just
how much war sucks.
That conflict was dubbed World War III.
This horrific struggle outlasted both of the previous World Wars, ranging from 2026 until
2053.
In the process, countless nuclear bombs were dropped, major governments were toppled, and
eugenics once again had a role to play.
While World War III wouldn't be the last war in galactic history, it was the final one
ever waged between Earthling factions, on Earth's surface, with no alien involvement.
After nearly three decades of fighting, Earth's remaining powers met for a truce in San Francisco,
and society finally got a chance to rebuild.
In many ways, the true heart of the Star Trek story begins in the year 2063, as depicted
in the film Star Trek: First Contact.
At this time, the world is still ailing and poverty-stricken thanks to nuclear warfare,
but humankind is inching toward the stars.
The leader of these efforts is the strange scientist Dr. Zefram Cochrane.
Cochrane manages to invent Earth's first manned, warp-drive ship.
Fittingly enough, considering everything that humanity just survived, he dubs his starship
"the Phoenix."
When the Phoenix warps out into space, it is detected by the Vulcans.
Those good, pointy-eared, logical folks decide that this grand technological achievement
means the time has finally come for humankind to publicly meet beings from another world.
So, the Vulcans zoom down to Earth, the Earthlings finally get over their whole "do aliens exist?"
question, and the road to a brighter future is paved.
In the 2130s, the utopian city of San Francisco gives birth to Starfleet.
This space organization aims
"To boldly go where no man has gone before."
To make this dream a reality, Starfleet builds humanity's first Warp 5 vessel in 2151, the
Enterprise NX-01.
The world's first Enterprise is commanded by a dude named Jonathan Archer, who leads
a quirky crew of humans, a Vulcan, and even a Denobulan across the stars.
Their groundbreaking voyages over the next handful of years are depicted in the series
Star Trek: Enterprise.
Though they simply set out to explore, Archer's crew eventually gets caught up in a war against
some animalistic aliens known as the Xindi.
Unfortunately, this is followed just a few years later by a war against the Romulans,
though we don't get to see that onscreen.
Once the dust settles on all this intergalactic warfare, the year 2161 sees the Earthlings,
Vulcans, Andorians, and the Tellarites meet for a massive summit in San Francisco.
There, they change the galaxy and form the United Federation of Planets.
This massive, ambitious organization turns out to be what the rest of Star Trek history
pretty much centers on.
At this point, we arrive at the prequel series Star Trek: Discovery, which takes place around
the year 2255, about a decade before the events of the original 1966 series.
By this point, the Federation has been in place and reshaping the galaxy for a century.
Things are going swell, for the most part, other than the fact that everybody's caught
in a long-running Cold War with the Klingons.
The series itself follows Michael Burnham, a human specialist raised by Vulcans, who
serves aboard the science vessel the U.S.S.
Discovery.
Now, the fact that a futuristic sci-fi show produced in 2017 is supposed to be a prequel
to a series from the '60s presents some obvious visual challenges.
How do you explain the fact that any advanced tech in Discovery seems way more sophisticated
than the stuff in the original series?
Why does the future of the Trek timeline look older than the past?
The fact that the Discovery is a super-experimental, one-of-a-kind science vessel is one main reason.
The series has also gone to great lengths to establish that the 1966 show's dated aesthetics
are due to the influence of Captain Christopher Pike.
Pike is an old-fashioned dude who prefers old-fashioned tech.
While it's never spelled out exactly, it can be assumed that Pike, a character who dates
back to the original series pilot, probably passed down his dated style choices to Kirk.
Before all those prequels, there was The Original Series.
The show takes place between the years 2265 and 2269, and follows Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Bones,
Uhura, Scotty and the rest of the gang on Trek's very first TV voyages.
The original series features a five-year mission of exploration, Klingon tension, a bunch of
fluffy Tribbles, battles against lots of aliens, and more.
This era is, and will forever be, the heart of all things Star Trek.
By this point, the human race has evolved way beyond all the arguments that were still
going on in the Enterprise era, but they still aren't quite at perfection.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture takes place about a decade later, in the 2270s, and follows
now-Admiral Kirk bringing the band back together on a remodeled Enterprise for yet another
mission.
The next five Star Trek movies all take place within the same general time frame, and cover
everything from the return of Khan to a journey to find "God."
Once the original crew finishes their fun, a long time passes before we arrive at Star
Trek: The Next Generation.
The new series takes place almost a century later in 2364, and features Captain Jean-Luc
Picard taking over the U.S.S.
Enterprise-D on yet another mission of exploration.
By this point, the Federation is so cool with the Klingons that they even have one serving
as Picard's junior Lieutenant, and technology has advanced to the point of producing holodecks,
badge communicators, and more.
Picard proves to be a level-headed leader, and probably the person you most want commanding
your ship if you ever encounter a species of freaky cyborg aliens who fly through space
in giant cubes.
They're called the Borg, and a fair portion of Next Generation deals with them nearly
exterminating the Federation as they try to assimilate humanity into their ranks.
At one point, they nearly succeed, and almost take Picard down with them.
While most of Next Generation is episodic and deals with a space anomaly or alien of-the-week,
the overarching theme comes back to Q, an all-powerful alien from an all-powerful race
of aliens, also called The Q, who have put humanity on trial for unknown reasons.
Over seven seasons, Q returns to the Enterprise again and again to check in, and by the end
of the series, Q admits that mankind is more or less on the right track.
Star Trek Deep: Space Nine, a series set around the last few years of The Next Generation,
kicks off its story in 2369.
This cult favorite series begins with the liberation of the planet Bajor from a 50-year
occupation by the warlike Cardassians.
Once Bajor is free, the Federation moves into nearby space station Terok Nor, renames it
Deep Space Nine, and puts Commander Benjamin Sisko in charge.
It's Sisko's job to keep the peace, calm all the conflicts, and guide Bajorans into joining
the Federation.
Instead, he accidentally discovers a wormhole, talks to strange alien beings known as the
Prophets, and ends up being hailed by Bajorans as a religious figure called "The Emissary."
Sisko's heartfelt, off-the-cuff leadership style ends up being a perfect fit for DS9,
particularly when the aliens on the other side of the wormhole charge into warfare with
the Federation.
This is The Dominion War, a battle against shapeshifters called "Founders."
The Federation wins, largely thanks to Sisko…but also thanks to some extremely shady biological
warfare perpetrated by Starfleet.
Around the same time as Deep Space Nine, you have Star Trek: Voyager, set in 2371.
This show depicts the adventures of Captain Kathryn Janeway, whose U.S.S.
Voyager accidentally gets warped to the Delta Quadrant, a region of space that's at least
75 years from Earth.
This puts them in a desperate situation where they have no easy way to communicate with
the Federation, and no familiarity with most of the aliens they encounter.
Worst of all, they find those Borg creeps at their throats again.
If you've been trying to figure out where those new Star Trek movies that began in 2009
come in, here they are.
Those films actually belong to an alternate universe dubbed the Kelvin Timeline.
In 2387 of the original "Prime" timeline, a few decades after Next Generation ends,
the galaxy is threatened by a deadly supernova.
Sadly, the catastrophe destroys the planet Romulus and everyone on it.
Flying to the rescue is an elderly Spock, who attacks the supernova with a mysterious
substance called "Red Matter."
But while this fixes the problem, it can't bring back Romulus.
To make a bad situation worse, a Romulan miner named Nero blames Spock for the whole disaster.
Nero crashes both his and Spock's ship into a black hole caused by the Red Matter, sending
them back to the year 2233.
And that's where Nero, along with his ship full of angry Romulans, attacks a Federation
vessel called the U.S.S.
Kelvin.
The ship goes down, killing first officer George Kirk on the day of his son's birth.
This not only leaves future Captain James Kirk to grow up without a father,
"Let's call him Jim."
...but it also creates an alternate universe which spins in a different direction, while
the original timeline remains unaltered.
Think of it like another Star Trek mirror universe…just with less beards.
Until recently, the fate of any characters in Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager
beyond the end of their respective shows and movies was left mysterious.
Then, Star Trek: Picard was greenlit.
This 2020 sequel series depicts an elderly Jean-Luc Picard in the year 2399, on the cusp
of the long-awaited 25th century, dealing with the fallout from the destruction of Romulus.
After nearly two decades of every Star Trek release being either a prequel or a reboot,
it seems fitting that this vision of utopia will finally move to the next level, and that
Admiral Picard will be the one to make it so.
"Engage."
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