Star Trek is finally returning to its roots this month with Star Trek: Discovery. There have been six live action series and the animated continuation of Captain Kirk’s Enterprise from the original series, and this latest spin-off will follow a fine tradition of exploring Gene Roddenberry’s vision of humanity’s future in the stars.
The franchise might have a number of films under its belt, starring the crews of William Shatner’s Kirk, to Patrick Stewart’s Picard and the recent reboot with Chris Pine’s take on a younger Kirk, but arguably the core aspects of Star Trek have only really worked on the small screen, where the broader narrative can flesh out the sense of wonder in exploring the stars that the films have to sacrifice for action.
From what we know of the series so far, Star Trek: Discovery will be something different to its predecessors, a long-running story arc rather than episodic adventures. In that sense, it might owe something to the long-running arcs of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine than the self contained tales that Star Trek: The Next Generation favoured.
Talking of those shows, everyone has their favourite. Some prefer the wonder of the original 60’s series, while others prefer the broader scope of The Next Generation. And there are fans aplenty for Deep Space Nine‘s dark storytelling and rich supporting characters. But which is the best? Well I will boldly go where many have gone before and attempt to rank each series from worst to best…
Deep Space 9 is absolutely the best series in Star Trek, it’s cast are brilliant, their stories creative, and the Dominion War is still the best thing that Star Trek has ever done. I’d also put forward that ‘The Battle of AR-558’ is possibly their best episode.