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Published Aug 23, 2023

The Starfleet Insignia Explained

No Star Trek symbol captures the eye or imagination quite like the delta.

StarTrek.com

"The Starfleet Symbol." "The Arrowhead." "The Delta."

Star Trek uses symbols to convey a lot of things, but none captures the eye or imagination quite like the delta. In the years since The Original Series first aired, fans have tried to determine the meaning behind the various insignia shapes we see in the show. To most, it seems that the iconic delta shape is some sort of ship assignment patch meant to represent the U.S.S. Enterprise .

Some arrive at this conclusion because they see various Starfleet personnel wearing a number of different insignia. However, like any puzzle without a key, it’s impossible to precisely interpret the meaning of these other insignia.

The hidden key to the puzzle was finally uncovered a few years ago. The discovery was a memorandum written by producer Robert H. (Bob) Justman to  costume designer William Ware (Bill) Theiss . The subject? STARSHIP EMBLEMS.

A copy of that memorandum has been digitized from the Gene Roddenberry  Star Trek  Television Series Collection (held in the Library Special Collections division of the Young Research Library at UCLA in Irvine, California) and is shown below:

This memo, written during the production of the episode "The Omega Glory," and referencing Captain Ron Tracey, nullifies the long-held assumption that Starfleet assigned different insignia shapes to starships during TOS. Theiss’ inclusion of an alternate insignia for the  Exeter 's captain and chief medical officer, unfortunately, downplays how genuinely ubiquitous the delta insignia is within the  Star Trek  universe. As a result, fans of the series are left with conflicting visual information regarding the meaning of the insignia worn throughout the original series.

Nearly 50 years after Bob Justman wrote his memo, we now have the opportunity to clarify the use of each and every Starfleet uniform insignia used in   TOS. With a wee bit of Scotty's ingenuity, and a pinch of Vulcan logic, the complete picture of what Gene Roddenberry envisioned for the delta insignia should snap into focus.

There are six Starfleet duty insignia used in The Original Series:

• Starship Duty Insignia (Fleet personnel emblem)
• Spacecraft Duty Insignia (Auxiliary Fleet/ Merchant Marine personnel emblem)
• Outpost Duty Insignia (Outpost and Colony personnel emblem)
• Cadet Duty Insignia (Starfleet Academy student emblem)
• Starbase Duty Insignia (Headquarters,  Space stations, Drydocks, and Ground installation personnel emblem)
• Fleet Command Insignia (Senior field commander personnel emblem)

In the  Star Trek  universe, the delta emblem is a direct descendant of the vector component of the old NASA (and later UESPA) logos in use during Earth’s space programs of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Those symbols were worn by some of the first space explorers and adorned uniforms and ships during humanity’s first steps into the final frontier.

United Earth Space Probe Agency integrated with Starfleet as the leading United Earth space exploration service.

The delta insignia was first drawn in 1964 by costume designer William Ware Theiss with input from series creator Gene Roddenberry. The delta — or “Arrowhead” as Bill Theiss called it — has evolved into a revered symbol and one that's synonymous with  Star Trek  today.

The delta also conveys information about the wearer’s duties aboard ship using a series of division symbols. When paired with a distinctive, elongated “star,” the insignia represents someone assigned to the Command division aboard ship. When it displays the “planet” symbol, it represents the Sciences division, a stylized “e” stands for Engineering (later Operations), and a red “Swiss Cross” is worn by starship personnel assigned to the Nursing Corps.

Captain James T. Kirk wearing the Starship Duty Insignia, Command Division.

Let’s continue our study of  Star Trek ’s insignia with personnel assigned to other starships that are wearing the delta insignia.

Before we knew about this memo, we assumed that each ship had its own unique insignia, but there are problems that theory doesn't account for. For instance, does it bother you, or at least seem odd to see the surly guys in Starbase 11’s Officer's Club (in the episode "Court Martial") giving “their captain” a hard time over the presumed death of their mutual friend Ben Finney? Or, to see deceased crew members aboard the  U.S.S. Defiant  (in the episode "The Tholian Web") wearing the delta insignia?

If different starships had different symbols, why weren't they wearing them? Simple. The memo makes it clear that those Starfleet officers are not assigned to the  Enterprise ; they are simply wearing Starfleet’s standard-issue Starship Duty Insignia.

Non-Enterprise Starfleet personnel in Starbase 11’s Officer’s Club in Court Martial, and Below: Deceased U.S.S. Defiant crew member wearing the Starship Duty Insignia in "The Tholian Web."

By now, you might be saying, “What about U.S.S. Exeter ’s Captain Ron Tracey and his chief surgeon, Dr. Carter?” As these two insignia patches are the error being addressed in the memo, they need no further explanation. They alone are the anomaly (an anomaly Theiss never repeated), which led to the misconception that every ship has its own assignment insignia.

Above: Captain Ron Tracey of the U.S.S. Exeter, and Below: his CMO, Dr. Carter.

As you can see here, Theiss thoughtfully, if erroneously, provided both officers with unique assignment insignia patches, and in keeping with his fastidious reputation, insured both patches included their appropriate division symbols.

Early in TOS, we get our first look at non-delta insignia. In the episode "Charlie X,"  Antares ’ Captain Rampart and his first officer are wearing the Spacecraft Duty Insignia, which indicates that they are assigned to an auxiliary spacecraft serving in Starfleet's Merchant Marine Corps — just as Justman points out in his memo. 

Antares' Captain Rampart, and his XO wearing the Merchant Marine Spacecraft Duty Insignia.

Not long after that, we get a look at another new insignia. The Outpost Duty Insignia is worn by Starfleet personnel assigned to outposts on the very edge of Federation space, the frontier. This emblem is characterized by a gold spikelet against a black background. Warning: Do not put yourself in a situation where this insignia goes on your uniform. Personnel wearing this badge never seem to live happily ever after.

Outpost Crew from "Balance of Terror" & "Arena" pictured wearing the Outpost Duty Insignia.

A few episodes later, the Enterprise takes shore leave and Kirk reminisces about his days at the Academy. Worn by students attending Starfleet Academy, the Cadet Duty Insignia is characterized by a pewter colored, smaller version of the Starbase Duty Insignia.

Second Class Midshipman Finnegan wearing the Cadet Duty Insignia.

First seen in "The Menagerie," the Starbase Duty Insignia is worn by personnel assigned to Federation Starbases, which include Starfleet Headquarters, space stations, drydocks, and other ground installations. The emblem, which is devoid of any departmental symbol, is a stylized representation of an “Evening Starflower” (a flowering plant native to the western hemisphere of Earth).

Above: Admiral James Komack of Starfleet Command - Sector 9, and Below: Admiral Fitzpatrick.

Miss Piper, assistant to Commodore Mendez, and Lt. Areel Shaw Starbase 11 JAG Officer wearing the Starbase Duty Insignia.

So how does Commodore Wesley in "The Ultimate Computer," or Commodore Decker in "The Doomsday Machine," fit into the spectrum of Starfleet insignia?

Well, let’s talk about commodores for a moment. A commodore is a flag officer rank, one position above captain. A starship captain usually commands a single vessel, but a commodore ordinarily commands more than one ship. Usually, commodores command a group of ships (either close to their flagship or distant), or in the case of TOS, they normally command a starbase.

In charge of evaluating the operational performance of the M5 computer while it's in total control of a starship, Commodore Wesley sits in temporary command of the  U.S.S. Lexington  to lead a battle fleet in war games against the  Enterprise . Throughout the episode, Commodore Wesley continues to wear his Starbase Duty Insignia, while the  Lexington  crew would have been wearing the delta.

Commodore Bob Wesley in the transporter room briefing Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock about the M5 computer.

Finally, we come to one of my favorite characters ever — Commodore Matt Decker in "The Doomsday Machine." We saved him for last because we could only properly discuss his insignia and what it means after we talked about Starfleet’s other symbols first.

William Windom as Commodore Matt Decker

Unlike Commodore Bob Wesley, who was only in temporary command of the  Lexington , Matt Decker is a Flag Officer with permanent field command of a starship. In fact, he's the only Flag Officer we see in  Star Trek  with a field command. As a consequence of Commodore Decker's rank and status as Commander of the  U.S.S. Constellation  (his flagship), he wears the Fleet Command Insignia denoting his status as a Flag Officer in the field. If we had seen Commodore Decker's crew (may they rest in peace), we would have seen the delta shape insignia in use on their uniforms. Commodore Decker's own first officer would have held the rank of Captain and worn the Starship Duty Insignia.

It should be noted that "The Doomsday Machine," which was filmed early in Season 2, is not referenced in Bob Justman’s memo. Some speculate that Decker’s absence from the memo is further indication of the inconsistent use of emblems in  Star Trek , but that presupposes that the production staff missed that detail. However, the very existence of the Justman memo, and a whole forest of others just like it, demonstrates that the opposite is true.

The production team of  Star Trek  worked diligently to ensure that every aspect of the future they were busy creating held up under scrutiny. Gene Roddenberry was notoriously rewriting scripts himself to ensure no less than exactly what he wanted ended up on-screen, and that fastidious nature permeated the entire production staff. That Decker’s unique emblem is not mentioned in the production memo indicates that his particular insignia isn't an error at all; but represents something else.

Check out Commodore Decker's insignia. Remember that when Theiss created the insignia for Captain Ron Tracey, he went out of his way to ensure it was emblazoned with a Command Star department symbol. Commodore Decker has no such departmental symbol in his insignia patch, which places it in the same design lineage as the Starbase Duty Insignia, which is also devoid of any departmental symbol.

At this point in  Star Trek , we’ve seen a number of flag officers; but they have all worn the Starflower shape, which indicates assignment to a starbase, while Matt Decker alone in TOS series serves as a flag officer in permanent command of a starship. He is wearing an insignia that conveys his unique status, the Fleet Command Insignia, and if you look closely, you'll see that Matt Decker’s emblem is visually related to the Starbase Duty Insignia. Decker’s insignia is a stylized representation of an individual petal from the same “Evening Starflower” emblem that comprises the starbase symbol. This insignia isn't mentioned in the production memo because it's not an error at all.

Hopefully, by now, you can see how consistent the  Star Trek  costume department really was in their use of insignia, and that Bill Thiess never repeated the error he made during "The Omega Glory" after it was pointed out by the memo.

Returning to the delta, Roddenberry and Justman intended it to be a very special symbol that communicates something important. The insignia worn on Starfleet uniforms is the equivalent of the badges worn by U.S. Service members — to show how they serve, not where they serve. Both men served with distinction in World War II. Roddenberry was an Army Air Corps pilot and Justman was a radio operator in the Navy. In the air and at sea, they understood the value of visual communication. In uniform, they themselves carried those values on their chests, on their collars, and on their sleeves. Twenty years after they wore their own various insignia, they helped to create something new — a symbol to inspire others. In the 1960s, the Starfleet delta had far more in common with the golden pin awarded to a NASA astronaut than a simple mission patch, and it was intended to equal that proud emblem in both use and sentiment.

The NASA Astronaut Pin. There are two versions of this pin, a silver pin awarded to those who complete their training, and a gold pin awarded only to astronauts who have flown in space.

The delta proclaims that the person wearing it has achieved the goal of every cadet entering the Academy, and the dream of many a devoted fan — to serve aboard a starship and set sail in an endless sea of stars.

Starfleet Insignia Badge, Command Division from Star Trek Discovery

They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to.

Captain James T. Kirk

I am grateful to have an experienced and learned group of expert Star Trek fans who helped with the research on this article — Steve Fronczek, Creative Services Manager, ANOVOS; Lieutenant Commander Michael J. Quigley, United States Navy; and Dayton Ward, Star Trek author.

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This article was originally published on October 7, 2018

John Cooley is a lifelong Star Trek fan.

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Star trek: how stardates are calculated (& what they really mean).

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I’m Glad Voyager’s Tom And B’Elanna Are No Longer Star Trek's Only Successful Romance

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The stardate system used in the  Star Trek franchise can sometimes feel like a random selection of numbers, but there is some degree of meaning and calculation involved. When first devising and conceptualizing the futuristic world of  Star Trek , Gene Roddenberry decided that the advent of long-range space travel would necessitate a brand new way of measuring time, instead of the standard Gregorian calendar used in the real world. In 1988's  Inside Star Trek documentary, original series researcher, Kellam de Forest, revealed that he took inspiration from the 16th century Julian system, which has been implemented by astronomers ever since. Featuring a way of counting days, ignoring leap years and removing the AD and BC system, the Julian method formed the foundation for  Star Trek 's stardates.

The inspiration for the stardate system may have been simple enough, but applying it to the scripts proved far more complicated, and the exact correlation between  Star Trek  time and real-world time has changed throughout the various TV series and movie iterations. For the original  Star Trek series , the show's bible instructed writers to pick four numbers and a decimal, with the final digit roughly representing a tenth of a day. The example given is that if noon today was 1313.5, noon tomorrow would be 1314.5.

Related: The Odd-Numbered Star Trek Movie Curse Explained (& Is It True)

However, it's important to note that Roddenberry's initial system of dating was intentionally vague, with pilot episode writer, Samuel A. Peeples, revealing that the stardates weren't designed to be decipherable. Roddenberry was initially reluctant to pin  Star Trek  down to a specific time, so the stardate increments were uneven from episode to episode. Unfortunately,  Star Trek encountered a problem when the series first began to air - the network were showing the episodes out of order. This meant that while the stardates were originally supposed to increase as the series progressed, they actually fluctuated wildly. Roddenberry provided an in-narrative explanation for this phenomenon, claiming that stardates took into account the Enterprise 's speed and position in the galaxy, and therefore were relative to both space and time.

This somewhat clunky system was overhauled for  Star Trek: The Next Generation . As well as adding an extra digit,  The Next Generation 's writer's guide reveals that a more structured way of calculating stardates was implemented. The first number indicates the century (4 = 24th), the second number represents the season number (1 = season 1) and the following two digits would be largely random and vary with each episode, much like in the original  Star Trek series. The fifth digit functioned as a day counter, while, as in Roddenberry's original model, the decimal still represented a tenth of a day. This pattern was retained for both  Deep Space Nine and  Star Trek: Voyager .

When J. J. Abrams rebooted the  Star Trek movie series and splintered into the Kelvin timeline , a brand new dating system was introduced that bore a stronger resemblance to the real-world model. As revealed in the revised Star Trek Encyclopedia , the first two digits would represent century (22 = 23rd century), and the second two digits would calculate the year within that century. The 2009 movie also added more numbers after the decimal point, and these would indicate the day of the year. Therefore, 2235.78 would mean the 78th day of the 35th year of the 23rd century.

Beginning with  Star Trek: Discovery , CBS are now in the process of launching a whole new world of content set within the  Star Trek universe that will include  Star Trek: Picard and a Section 31 spinoff . Looking at the stardates used so far in Star Trek: Discovery , it appears that the franchise will come full circle, returning to the stardate system used in  Star Trek: The Original Series . However, with  Star Trek: Discovery  season 2 ending in the far future, the entire stardate system could become redundant when the show returns.

More: Star Trek: Discovery Makes A Bad Original Series Movie Better

Star Trek: Picard  is set to premiere in early 2020 on CBS All Access.

Sources:  Inside Star Trek ,  Gene Roddenberry: The Myth & The Man Behind Star Trek ,  The Making of Star Trek ,  Star Trek Encyclopedia

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Star Trek, explained for non-Trekkies

Celebrate the legendary sci-fi series’ 50th anniversary with these 25 essential episodes.

by Caroline Siede

There are few pop culture franchises more intimidating to the uninitiated than Star Trek. While “Beam me up, Scotty” and the Vulcan hand salute have worked their way into the mainstream lexicon, it can feel virtually impossible to find a way into the expansive franchise, which spans five live-action TV shows, one lesser-known animated series, and 13 feature films, including the three rebooted films starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto .

It’s a lot to wrap your head around in writing, much less onscreen. So just in time for the TV show’s 50th anniversary, we’ve rounded up 25 possible entry points to help Star Trek newbies boldly go where many have gone before.

These aren’t necessarily the 25 best Star Trek episodes (although some definitely qualify), but they demonstrate the depth and breadth of what the iconic franchise has to offer. And, most importantly, they should play well for complete novices.

A quick overview of Star Trek ’s 50-year journey through space

Dreamed up by writer and former Air Force pilot Gene Roddenberry , Star Trek began life as a humanistic science fiction TV show on September 8, 1966. Though The Original Series , as it was later dubbed, was canceled after only three seasons, it would turn out to have unprecedented cultural influence.

Thanks to Star Trek ’s success in syndication during the 1970s, the original cast reunited for six feature films. The success of that film franchise then inspired four spinoff TV shows in the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s. The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , and Enterprise each focus on a new captain and his or her loyal crew. Four movies starring The Next Generation cast round out the Star Trek canon.

Except for the recent Pine/Quinto films, which establish an alternate timeline, all of this Star Trek material is set in the same universe. That means the more you watch, the more you’ll come to understand Star Trek . But each of the TV shows and movies are (mostly) designed to function independently as well. So each one can serve as a potential entry point to the larger franchise.

Star Trek: The Original Series

The basics: Ran for three seasons (79 episodes) from 1966 to 1969

Nickname: TOS

The premise: A five-year mission of space exploration in the 23rd century

The first Star Trek series is still the most iconic in the eyes of many fans, and its characters will be familiar to anyone who has seen the rebooted Trek films. With roguish Captain James T. Kirk ( William Shatner ) in command, the crew of the starship Enterprise completes a five-year mission of scientific exploration and intergalactic diplomacy. They operate as part of a pseudo-militaristic organization called Starfleet, which itself is part of a larger diplomatic organization called the United Federation of Planets (or just “the Federation”).

The Original Series establishes the two most crucial elements of the Star Trek ethos: The show is set in a utopian future in which divides based on race, gender, and nationality are a thing of the past (reflected in the unprecedented diversity of the main cast), and it uses the lens of alien cultures to comment on contemporary issues. So while humanity may have ended bigotry, the half-black, half-white aliens of the planet Cheron are still torn apart by prejudice. That allows Star Trek to both imagine a better world and comment on the harsher realities of our real one.

Though the rubber alien suits, foam rocks, and slower pacing can feel dated to modern eyes, there’s still a remarkable relevance to the boundary-pushing Original Series. (The show broadcast one of the first interracial kisses on TV .)

Best for: Those who want to watch the most iconic aspects of Star Trek; fans of older TV shows; those who enjoy the characters from the rebooted films

Recommended viewing order: There’s no serialization, so you can either start from the beginning or hop around to episodes that interest you. The first two seasons are the strongest, while the third — which Roddenberry was less involved in — features a significant drop in quality.

“The Devil in the Dark” (season one, episode 25)

Star Trek could occasionally overreach in its attempts at direct political allegories, and the show was often stronger when it dealt with broader themes of tolerance instead. In this episode, the Enterprise is called to help a mining colony deal with a subterranean monster threatening its operation. But during their investigation, Kirk and his crew begin to realize the creature might not be quite as monstrous as it appears.

“The City on the Edge of Forever” (season one, episode 28)

Widely considered the best episode of The Original Series and one of the best Star Trek episodes of all time, “The City on the Edge of Forever” combines sci-fi concepts, fish-out-of-water comedy, and human drama in a standout hour of television. When Kirk, Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ), and Dr. Leonard McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ‎) pass through a mysterious “doorway to the past,” they wind up stranded in 1930s New York City. Desperate to fix a broken timeline, they must decide what they’re willing to sacrifice in order to return the universe to its proper order.

“Journey to Babel” (season two, episode 10)

Vulcan First Officer Spock remains one of Star Trek ’s most iconic characters thanks in no small part to Nimoy’s pitch-perfect performance as a logical alien devoid of emotion. Spock also established an archetype Star Trek would return to in all of its future franchises: the outsider struggling with identity. “Journey To Babel” puts Spock front and center as he receives a visit from his Vulcan father and human mother. Though the episode perhaps bites off more than it can chew — there’s also a subplot about a Federation peace conference — that makes it a good example of the breadth TOS has to offer.

“The Trouble With Tribbles” (season two, episode 15)

While Star Trek was never intentionally campy in the vein of Adam West’s Batman, it could still be a profoundly silly show. And “The Trouble With Tribbles” stands as one of the most successful comedic entries in Star Trek history. A tense standoff with the Klingons — a warlike enemy of the Federation — gives way to an even bigger crisis when the Enterprise is overrun by adorable fuzzy creatures known as tribbles.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

The general rule of thumb for the six Original Series movies is that the odd-numbered ones are bad while the even-numbered ones are good. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (in which the crew travels back in time to the 1980s to save a couple of whales) is the most purely enjoyable film, while Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is a fitting sendoff for the original crew.

But The Wrath Of Khan remains the cinematic jewel in Star Trek ’s crown. Returning to a thread from a TOS episode called “Space Seed,“ Kirk reencounters a group of super soldiers from his past. Fans of Star Trek Into Darkness will discover plenty of familiar building blocks assembled in an even more engaging manner.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The basics: Ran for seven seasons (178 episodes) from 1987 to 1994

Nickname: TNG or “ Next Gen ”

The set up: A continuing mission of space exploration in the 24th century

To open up new storytelling possibilities, the first Star Trek spinoff series takes place a century after Kirk’s original five-year mission. Onboard an updated version of the USS Enterprise , Captain Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) commands a brand new crew on an ongoing mission of exploration. With a more intellectual captain at its helm, The Next Generation added even more philosophical depth and cerebral storytelling to the original Star Trek model. Together, The Original Series and TNG stand as the two pillars of Star Trek and the series Trek fans are most likely to be familiar with.

Best for: Fans of smart sci-fi with a healthy dose of allegory; those who want to see the most iconic aspects of Star Trek

Recommended viewing order: The first season is virtually unwatchable, while the second is fairly uneven as well. To get the best of what TNG has to offer, watch the odd but intriguing pilot “Encounter at Farpoint,” the great second season episodes “The Measure of a Man” and “Q Who,” and then start with the show’s third season. There’s very little serialization, so it’s easy to jump around to whatever episodes intrigue you.

(Note: Star Trek: First Contact is the TNG feature film most worth seeking out. Generations and Insurrection are uneven but have their moments. And Nemesis is best left unseen.)

“The Measure of a Man” (season two, episode nine)

Building on the outsider archetype established by Spock, Data ( Brent Spiner ) is an android who lives and works among the Enterprise crew. But when a cyberneticist expert requests permission to deconstruct and study his positronic brain, Data’s right to exist is put on trial. “ The Measure of A Man” is a tense courtroom drama that raises questions about the very nature of humanity. Plus, it’s an early example of the Shakespearean gravitas Patrick Stewart regularly brought to TNG.

“The Hunted” (season three, episode 11)

This isn’t necessarily an iconic episode , but it’s a solid example of a TNG allegorical outing. Charged with investigating a planet requesting entry to the Federation, Picard and his crew cross paths with a highly trained escaped prisoner. The episode functions as a broad commentary on PTSD and veteran care while highlighting the thoughtful way in which the crew deals with the political problems of other cultures.

“Clues” (season four, episode 14)

Proof that not every episode of Star Trek strives for philosophical depth, “Clues” is a purely enjoyable sci-fi mystery episode that utilizes the entire TNG ensemble. While investigating a mysterious isolated planet, the crew is knocked unconscious for only a few seconds. But as they start to notice oddities around them, they begin to wonder if something more insidious is at work.

“Darmok” (season five, episode two)

One of the most celebrated episodes of TNG explores the role language and culture play in diplomacy. While struggling to make first contact with a new alien species, Picard is transported to a deserted planet alongside the alien captain. To survive, the two must work together despite barely being able to communicate. “Darmok” is a powerful example of TNG ’s ability to use sci-fi trappings to tell humanistic stories.

“Parallels” (season seven, episode 11)

After returning from a trip, Klingon chief of security Worf ( Michael Dorn ) begins to notice strange inconsistencies around him. It soon becomes clear that he’s leaping through alternate versions of his life, and to return things to normal, he must enlist the help of his crewmates — despite the fact that his relationship with them keeps shifting. Like “Clues,” this is an enjoyable mystery, but it also showcases TNG ’s ability to blend conceptual sci-fi storytelling with thoughtful character drama.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

The basics: Ran for seven seasons (176 episodes) from 1993 to 1999

Nickname: DS9

The set up: A space station on the edge of civilization in the 24th century

Rather than take place on a traveling ship, the next Star Trek spinoff series is set on a space station called Deep Space Nine, a stationary hub located on the edge of Federation space. Pragmatic Commander Benjamin Sisko ( Avery Brooks ) — the first black lead of a Star Trek series — quickly learns to bend Starfleet code in order to keep his ragtag station running, all while raising his son Jake ( Cirroc Lofton ).

With its racially diverse cast, strong female characters, and serialized storytelling, Deep Space Nine pushed Star Trek to greater heights than ever before. For viewers who prefer the feel and pace of contemporary genre TV, it’s by far the best Star Trek series to start with.

Best for: Fans of darker sci-fi, complicated politics, and serialized storytelling; anyone hesitant about getting into Star Trek

Recommended viewing order: Deep Space Nine is the most consistent Star Trek series, and it benefits greatly from being watched in its entirety. While the first two seasons are somewhat uneven, they help establish the show’s characters and conflicts. The show starts to find its feet in the third season, and kicks into high gear with the start of the Dominion War arc at the end of season five, at which point DS9 becomes more heavily serialized.

“Emissary” (season one, episode one)

Star Trek isn’t known for strong pilots, but “Emissary” introduces the world of DS9 with remarkable finesse. As the only Trek series set in a static location, DS9 could tell ongoing stories about war, politics, and religion without feeling the need to wrap things up at the end of each episode. “Emissary” establishes many threads the show would follow for years to come, including the political struggles of the newly liberated planet Bajor, the emergence of an intergalactic wormhole housing godlike aliens, and Sisko’s complicated relationship to Starfleet.

“Duet” (season one, episode 19)

This all-time great DS9 episode centers on Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), one of the series’ strongest characters. A former Bajoran freedom fighter, Kira spent her life fighting against brutal Cardassian occupiers. This episode explores the horrors of that occupation via a small-scale character drama that puts Kira face to face with a man who may have been responsible for murdering thousands of her people.

“Civil Defense” (season three, episode seven)

“Civil Defense” is an entertaining disaster-movie romp that shows off the entire DS9 ensemble, including its talented supporting cast . When an old Cardassian security program is accidentally activated, Deep Space Nine goes on lockdown. What starts as a minor inconvenience quickly turns into a major threat, as the crew must scramble to stop the station from killing them.

“The Way of the Warrior”

While the cast of Deep Space Nine never made a feature film, this extra-long season four premiere basically functions as one. Thanks to a growing threat from the Dominion — an intergalactic military superpower controlled by a group of shape shifters — a massive war seems imminent. With the Klingon Empire (a 24th-century ally of the Federation) growing paranoid about Dominion spies, Sisko enlists the help of TNG ’s Klingon security chief, Worf, to calm the tension.

While the full nuances of this episode’s politics will likely be lost on new viewers, it’s nevertheless a great example of the political complexities and military conflicts that would come to dominate DS9 ’s later seasons.

“Take Me Out to the Holosuite” (season seven, episode four)

Deep Space Nine is by far the darkest Star Trek series, featuring the kind of interpersonal conflicts its predecessors shied away from . Some Trek fans accused the show of losing the spirit of Roddenberry’s vision, but DS9 is still recognizably Trek . Take, for instance, this joyously cheesy riff on The Bad News Bears. When an old Vulcan rival challenges Sisko to a baseball game — a defunct 21st-century sport that just happens to be his favorite — Sisko must transform his motley crew into a functioning baseball team in only two weeks.

Star Trek: Voyager

The basics: Ran for seven seasons (172 episodes) from 1995 to 2001

Nickname: VOY

The set up: A lone 24th-century ship stranded 70,000 light-years from Earth

The final two Star Trek series are remembered mostly for the ways they failed to live up to their potential, and both have been blamed for “killing” the franchise . Yet if Voyager and Enterprise never quite reach the heights of their predecessors, there are still pleasures to be had in both.

Voyager kicked off with a “lost in space” concept that seemed to promise more of the complex serialized storytelling that had come to define Deep Space Nine. Instead, the show pulled from the episodic Next Generation model: A mostly amiable group of explorers spend their time meeting new alien cultures and dealing with space phenomena.

Many Trek fans dislike that the show “hits the reset button” at the end of each episode, so that the ship is never too badly damaged nor too low on supplies. But Voyager has its strengths, too, including a lighter tone and an emphasis on conceptual sci-fi storytelling. And with Kate Mulgrew ’s Captain Kathryn Janeway at the helm, Voyager is by far the most explicitly woman-centric Trek series of all time (another possible reason why it’s so reviled by certain Trek fans).

Best for: Parents introducing their kids to Star Trek for the first time; those who enjoy cheesy but cerebral genre shows (think the lighter episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer ); fans of woman-centric storytelling

Recommended viewing order: Voyager has little serialization in terms of plot, but some strong character arcs and relationships develop across its run. It’s never unwatchable, but for a streamlined viewing experience, watch a handful of episodes from the first three seasons for flavor, then pick up with the third season finale “Scorpion, Part 1.”

“Eye of the Needle” (season one, episode seven)

On its very first mission, Voyager winds up tossed 70,000 light-years from Earth into the uncharted Delta Quadrant — a distance that requires a 75-year journey home. Forced to team up with a similarly stranded group of Federation freedom fighters called the Maquis, Voyager’s newly mixed crew sets out on their long journey home.

Though the show didn’t always take advantage of its premise, “Eye of the Needle” shines a spotlight on the crew’s difficult situation when they discover a wormhole that may lead back to their Alpha Quadrant home. Meanwhile, the ship’s Emergency Medical Hologram ( Robert Picardo ) begins to grapple with his role on Voyager , establishing him as the show’s resident “outsider” character.

“Deadlock” (season two, episode 21)

There’s a line in “Deadlock” that perfectly sums up Voyager ’s ethos. “We’re Starfleet officers,” Janeway explains. “Weird is part of the job.” More than any other Star Trek series, Voyager enjoyed playing around with bizarre sci-fi concepts. After traveling through a dense nebula, Voyager discovers it’s been “quantum duplicated” into two ships. The two crews — and, most importantly, the two Janeways — must figure out a way to re-merge their vessels, or at least ensure that one survives.

“Someone to Watch Over Me” (season five, episode 22)

Voyager improves dramatically from its fourth season on with the introduction of Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ), a Borg drone turned human who reluctantly joins the crew after her connection to the Borg hive mind is severed. Though clearly styled for her sex appeal, Seven quickly developed into one of the most interesting characters in Star Trek history. Alongside the holographic Doctor, she fulfilled the show’s “outsider” role, and in “Someone to Watch Over Me,” the Doctor gives Seven a crash course in dating, providing a lovely showcase for two of Voyager ’s strongest performers.

“Blink of an Eye” (season six, episode 12)

Captain Janeway is first and foremost a scientist, and a palpable enthusiasm for science runs through Voyager. That’s especially true in “Blink of an Eye,” which unfolds like a short story celebrating human ingenuity. Voyager finds itself trapped above a planet on which time works differently; while minutes pass for the crew, years pass on the surface. As Voyager struggles to break free, the planet’s inhabitants develop a scientific culture inspired by the “sky ship” that has long hovered above them.

“The Void” (season seven, episode 15)

With its lighter tone, chipper banter, and action-adventure focus, the Trek series Voyager most calls to mind is The Original Series . And “The Void” is perhaps Star Trek ’s greatest tribute to Roddenberry’s Federation ideals. After being sucked into an empty “void” in space, Voyager discovers a dog-eat-dog ecosystem in which trapped ships raid one another to survive. When Voyager’s own supplies are stolen, Janeway must decide whether to compromise her principles to keep her crew alive.

Star Trek: Enterprise

The basics: Ran for four seasons (98 episodes) from 2001 to 2005

Nickname: ENT

The set up: A prequel set in the 22nd century

Enterprise is the second Star Trek series to squander its interesting premise. Set roughly 100 years before Kirk’s original five-year mission, this prequel takes place on the original Enterprise, Earth’s first Warp 5–capable ship. Rugged Captain Jonathan Archer ( Scott Bakula ) leads humanity’s first major exploration outside the solar system.

Unfortunately, Enterprise struggled to establish much of a personality for itself, and was hampered by bland characters (not to mention an embarrassing lack of diversity). Yet the show earned praise for its willingness to embrace serialized storytelling and long-term consequences. Like Voyager, it’s best enjoyed with lowered expectations (particularly for its horrifically cheesy soft-rock opening theme song).

Best for: Those who enjoy action-centric sci-fi; Star Trek completists; Scott Bakula fans

Recommended viewing order: Enterprise is never unwatchable, but it starts to find its feet in the third season (which tells one season-long story) and the fourth (which is broken into two- to four-episode “mini arcs”). For those who don’t want to tackle the whole thing, watch a handful of episodes from seasons one and two for flavor, and then jump ahead to the second season finale, “The Expanse.”

“Dear Doctor” (season one, episode 13)

While hardcore Trek fans have some problems with the ethics of its ending, “Dear Doctor” succeeds as an hour of drama and a great showcase for Dr. Phlox ( John Billingsley ), one of Enterprise ’s strongest and most underused players. This episode explores Phlox’s unique position as one of the only aliens serving aboard the ship. It also highlights the difficult diplomatic decisions the Enterprise crew must make long before Starfleet had the Federation to guide it.

“Detained” (season one, episode 21)

Though designed as a Star Trek origin story, Enterprise frequently became distracted by attempts to comment on the war on terror in the way The Original Series commented on Vietnam and the Cold War. That was especially true of the show’s third season, where a 9/11-esque attack on Earth kicked off a season-long arc about retaliation.

“Detained” is an early example of Enterprise ’s interest in political allegory: When Archer finds himself in an internment camp for an alien race called the Suliban, he learns that the violent “Suliban Cabal ” he had previously encountered don’t represent the views of the entire species.

“The Catwalk” (season two, episode 12)

One of the most intriguing things about Enterprise is that the crew doesn’t have access to all the technological advances that are commonplace on the other Star Trek series. Though the show didn’t always take advantage of its prequel status, “The Catwalk” is a fun look at the rough-and-tumble early days of Starfleet. Unable to travel fast enough to outrun a deadly neutronic wavefront, the crew must seal themselves in the heavily shielded catwalks in order to survive.

“Cogenitor” (season two, episode 22)

On the whole, Enterprise favored bland, action-heavy sequences over the kind of thoughtful sci-fi storytelling that had initially defined Star Trek. But Enterprise could be introspective when it wanted to be. In “Cogenitor,” the crew befriends a sociable alien race with a similar mission of exploration. But the way in which they treat their “cogenitors” — a third gender crucial to their reproduction — raises questions about intervening in other cultures.

“Similitude” (season three, episode 10)

Enterprise ’s third and fourth seasons are by far its strongest, but because of their serialized nature, those episodes don’t always work out of context. “Similitude,” however, is a mostly standalone story that illustrates Enterprise ’s growing competency. When chief engineer Charles “Trip” Tucker III ( Connor Trinneer ) falls into a life-threatening coma, Archer okays a controversial plan to create a fast-growing clone and harvest its organs to save Trip.

While the episode can be read as a commentary on stem cell research, cloning, and “savior siblings,” it’s mostly a moving rumination of life, death, and what it means to be human.

Remember: It’s okay to just dabble in Star Trek

There’s no “right” way to get into Star Trek . Fans have fallen in love with the franchise through all sorts of different channels, and where to jump in mostly comes down to personal preference. (The one exception is Enterprise. Although it’s chronologically the “first” Star Trek series, it’s actually best enjoyed by viewers who have a working knowledge of the franchise.)

All five of the TV shows and several of the movies are currently streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and CBS All Access. And more so than most contemporary genre TV shows, Star Trek is designed to be watched out of order in syndication. So don’t feel the need to be a Star Trek completest — even plenty of hardcore Trekkies aren’t.

But do be sure to venture beyond just the movies. The best of what Star Trek has to offer has always existed on TV.

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Words We Know Because Of Star Trek

Star Trek is one of the most beloved science fiction television franchises to ever air. Debuting in 1966 with Star Trek: The Original Series , this long-running franchise is about the crew of a starship (spaceship), the USS Enterprise , as it explores the deepest depths of outer space. Along the way, the crew meet new life forms, get into all kinds of hijinks , and battle for their lives. The show is particularly known for the way it implicitly and explicitly addresses issues of race; in fact, the original series featured one of the first multiracial casts on American television.

Over time, the Star Trek franchise—which now includes movies, books, comics, and even an animated series—has had an enormous influence on popular culture. Terms and expressions from the show, like live long and prosper , have become part of the general lexicon, even for people who couldn’t pick Captain Kirk out of a lineup (hint: it’s the guy who looks like William Shatner).

There are dozens of terms that Star Trek has contributed to the English language. We’ve picked out just a handful of expressions the show created or popularized to highlight their meanings and origin stories. Read on if you dare.

To boldly go where no man has gone before

It sounds like something JFK would say, but it was actually popularized by Star Trek . “Where No Man Has Gone Before” is the name of the second Star Trek pilot, which eventually became the third episode of the first season of the original series—got that straight? It was written by Samuel A. Peeples, a prolific television writer best known for his Westerns.

The expression itself made its way into the voiceover by Captain James Tiberius Kirk (played by William Shatner) that opened every episode of the original run of show:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.

In the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), the language was changed to no one has gone before to be more gender neutral.

The expression itself has gone far from its origins and become a reference point for memes and snowclones in its own right. For instance, the phrase “to boldly go where no woman has gone before” is used variously to discuss women in STEM research, running large companies, or winning a presidential election in the United States.

To boldly go where no [x] has gone before has caught some flack as an expression because it uses a split infinitive . In other words, the infinitive verb to go is “split” or separated, by the adverb boldly . But frankly, to go boldly where no [x] has gone before just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Resistance is futile

Resistance is futile is the nihilistic catch phrase used by the perennial baddies on the show, the Borg. The Borg are a collective of cyborg aliens that our protagonists frequently skirmish with; they are utopians who ruthlessly pursue perfection at all costs.

The specific phrase resistance is futile was first uttered by a Borg in the film Star Trek: First Contact (1996). However the exact phrase was used once in a ’70s TV series Space: 1999. A different version of the phrase, “resistance is useless,” was used by Douglas Adams in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and in Doctor Who , as early as the ’60s or ’70s.

Resistance is futile and its variations, like it is futile to resist , has become a stock phrase of movie villains in general since the Star Trek usage.  Doctor Who  even switched over to this phrasing when reoccurring baddie The Master in the popular Doctor Who series says resistance is futile in season 14, episode 9, “The Deadly Assassin.” It also has more broadly permeated popular culture. For instance, conservative television personality Ann Coulter published a book entitled Resistance Is Futile!: How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind in 2018.

Live long and prosper ( the Vulcan salute 🖖)

One of the main characters on Star Trek is Mr. Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy), who is a member of the Vulcan race, an alien people who are known for their pointy ears and aversion to emotion. Members of the Vulcan race greet each other with the hand salute (raising their hand with a separation between the middle and ring fingers).

Nimoy first used the gesture in the 1967 TV episode “Amok Time,” in which Spock comes into contact with other members of his Vulcan race.

Nimoy wanted the Vulcans to have a way of greeting one another similar to human hand gestures. In an interview with the  New York Times , Nimoy said that his  Vulcan salute  was inspired by a gesture that he witnessed during a Jewish religious service when he was a boy. Jewish priests perform the actual religious gesture with both hands to form the Hebrew letter  shin , ש.

The greeting  Live long and prosper!  has also accompanied the Vulcan salute ever since its debut. Deuteronomy 5:33 is most cited as the inspiration for the phrase.

Star Trek fans and nerds alike are prone to use the salute, the expression, or both as a sign of their geek pride.

Prime Directive

In the world of Star Trek , our protagonists work for Starfleet, an intergalactic space force dedicated to exploration and diplomacy (think UN Peacekeepers, but in space). Starfleet crew are expected to follow the Prime Directive . Prime means “first” and directive refers to an official order or mandate. The Prime Directive is never explicitly stated on the show, but based on references throughout the franchise, fans have determined it means that:

• The crew cannot interfere with the development of another society; and,
• every species has the right to live as it wishes without interference by another.

These principles were developed by the show’s creators as a statement against American intervention in Vietnam.

Despite how official it sounds, there are a lot of examples of the Prime Directive being violated by characters on the show. Nevertheless, references to the Prime Directive percolated into the popular culture … and even academic study. It’s particularly used in reference to the ethics of interventionism —whether in concrete applications like foreign policy, or further afield (such as discussing possible contact with sentient extraterrestrial life forms).

Beam me up, Scotty

Beam me up, Scotty  is a  catchphrase  from the television show and film series  Star Trek . It can stand on its own as an  allusion  to the show; it can be used to comment on something retrofuturistic; or it can serve as a humorous request to escape a certain situation.

In  Star Trek , characters “ beam ” up and down from their ship to various planets by means of a teleporter. Requests for the chief engineer, Montgomery Scott, nicknamed “Scotty,” to  beam up  or  beam down  are common throughout the series. The phrase  Beam me up, Scotty  is especially associated with Captain Kirk, the captain of the Starship Enterprise.

Beam me up, Scotty  is one way of saying “get me out of this place” or expressing rhetorical frustration with the world around you. Evidence for these senses, sometimes extended to “Beam me up, Scotty, there’s no intelligent life down here ,”  date back to the 1980s, especially used in difficult legal or business contexts.

Oddly enough, despite the popularity of the phrase, this exact catchphrase never actually appeared on any episode of the show. (For example, the original film series used “Scotty, beam me up” in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. )

Imagine this: you’re a young actor, and you’ve just been cast on an episode of Star Trek. You’re thrilled! Maybe this will become a regular gig. You get to the set and the wardrobe manager hands you … a red shirt. Your heart sinks. Why?

In the original series of Star Trek , of which there were three seasons, background characters wore red uniforms in contrast to the main cast’s blue or gold uniforms. And these background characters frequently bit the dust. According to an analysis by fan Matt Bailey, 73 percent of the crew members who died in the original series were wearing red shirts. (A different analysis determined that proportional to the rest of the crew, red shirts were not more likely to die than gold or blue shirts, so take it for what you will.)

This trope became known as a redshirt or, in other words, characters who are included just so they can be killed off later. While the name might come from Star Trek , it was hardly the only TV show or movie to engage in this practice. A classic example of a redshirt is the character that appears at the beginning of a murder mystery who is killed off to get the ball rolling.

If you’re traveling in a spacecraft at a (very hypothetical) speed faster than light, you’re moving at  warp speed .   Warp speed  draws on earlier references to  warps —metaphorical twists—in time and space during interstellar travel in science fiction. Dating back to science fiction in the 1950s, a  time warp , for instance, would allow movement back and forth in time or suspend the passage of time. (Again, extremely hypothetical stuff.)

In the world of Star Trek , ships are outfitted with warp drives that allow them to move at superluminal speeds, or warp speed . Since  Star Trek ,  warp speed has spread as a term for “extremely fast” more generally. Buckle up.

Check out this article we did with the Langley Research Center at NASA to take your vocab on a trip through outer space, too.

trekkie | trekker

The word trekkie , or the less-common trekker , is a word used to describe die-hard Star Trek fans. According to popular lore, the word trekkie was coined by show creator Arthur W. Saha in 1967 though not attested until later. Trekkie is actually predated by the word trekker , which was used by a fan in a letter to the editor printed in the March 4, 1967 edition of TV Guide .

Either way, trekkies or trekkers are known for cosplaying as their favorite characters, discussing the show endlessly with one another, and generally enjoying the Star Trek fictional world. Trekkies are stereotyped frequently in popular culture as dweeby nerds, but the truth is that there are a lot of different kinds of Star Trek fans. This has caused some to adopt the word trekker to refer to Star Trek fans who might not fit the classic stereotype.

One of the many alien races in the Star Trek universe are the Klingons. These are, frankly, pretty monstrous-looking beings and their language (which is also called Klingon) sounds pretty scary. But, it is a language . In fact, American linguist Marc Okrand created an entire Klingon language, of which there were about a dozen fluent speakers as of 1996 (the last time a study was done).

Reference to the Klingon language, also known as Klingonese, is found throughout popular culture. Generally, when a character knows Klingon in television or movies, it’s shorthand for “nerd.” Additionally, Klingon has gone far beyond the Star Trek universe. There are books, theater performances, and even at one point a Wikipedia in Klingon. Not bad for a totally fictional language! J.R.R. Tolkien would be jealous.

Want to know about more fictional languages? Read about them here. 

(Vulcan) mind meld

If you’ve ever felt you’ve read someone’s mind, you might have experienced a Vulcan mind meld . It’s unknown where the word meld comes from, but it’s believed to be a combination of the words melt and weld , which gives you a pretty good sense of what happens during a Vulcan mind meld .

On the show, Mr. Spock and other members of the Vulcan race are able to read someone’s thoughts, see their memories, and even at times feel their emotions. It’s essentially a power that allows people to communicate with their mind—in other words, telepathy .

In the popular lexicon, a Vulcan mind meld , or simply a mind meld is used to describe a similar phenomenon: when two people are so in sync that it is as if they are of one mind. No Vulcan powers required.

If you’re curious about other words that originated from the sci-fi universe, check out these words.

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The Meaning of Star Trek: An Excursion into the Myth and Marvel of the Star Trek Universe Paperback – July 20, 1999

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• Print length 208 pages
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• Publisher Crown
• Publication date July 20, 1999
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown (July 20, 1999)
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• #1,595 in Mystery Writing Reference
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Star Trek Timeline Explained, Including Two Kirks, Two Different Prequels, and the Return of Picard

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It began so simply: A man named Gene Roddenberry wanted to make a TV show set in the future, featuring characters who would represent the best of humanity, boldly going where no one has gone before. Now, Star Trek has become one of pop culture's most enduring touchstones, constantly evolving with the times.

It is not an easy thing to put together a coherent timeline for a franchise that consists of over 50 years of films and TV (nine series and 13 films, to be exact). Yet Star Trek , when you break it down, does hold together pretty well for a narrative that has been crafted by literally dozens of writers and directors over the decades. This is especially impressive given the amount of time travel that's been built into the story, as well as some conflicting dates (for example, the Eugenics War makes things complicated ).

Choosing the most important dates of Trek history to focus on was at times difficult, but an effort was made to pinpoint moments where the franchise’s relationship with time was most complicated — after all, the ultimate goal of this article is to take over 50 years of sci-fi adventure and make it relatively comprehensible. With that in mind, The timeline below is restricted to the film and TV entries in the Trek universe, in part because the books, comics, and other media are fascinating enhancements to the narrative (especially when they push forward into the future) but are not widely considered to be officially canon.

Given that many of these events take place on different planets — with, thus, different year cycles — some dates are approximated, especially when their placement in the timeline is based on statements like "a thousand years ago." (If Trek 's stardate dating system was easier to compute, then it would have been incorporated here. Alas.) But even when some dates don't quite line up, the franchise's central principles are rarely lost.

[Editor's note: This article was updated on September 14, 2021 to incorporate "Star Trek: Lower Decks" Season 1.]

The Films and TV Shows (Combined)

The Age of Shatner and Nimoy

• Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 (1966-1967)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2 (1967-1968)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3 (1968-1969)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1 (1973-1974)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 2 (1974)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

The Next Generation Begins

• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 (1987-1988)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 (1988-1989)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 (1989-1990)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 (1990-1991)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (1991-1992)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 (1992-1993)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 (1993)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 (1993-1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 (1993-1994)
• Star Trek Generations (1994)

The Next Next Generation

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 (1994-1995)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 (1994-1995)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 (1995-1996)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 (1995-1996)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 (1996-1997)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (1996-1997)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 (1997-1998)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (1997-1998)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 (1998-1999)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (1998-1999)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 6 (1999-2000)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 7 (2000-2001)

The Enterprise Era

• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 (2001-2002)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2 (2002-2003)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3 (2003-2004)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4 (2004-2005)

The Kelvin-verse

• Star Trek (2009)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)

The CBS All Access Age

• Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 (2017-2018)
• Star Trek : Short Treks Season 1 (2018)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 (2019)
• Star Trek : Short Treks Season 2 (2019-2020)
• Star Trek: Picard Season 1 (2020)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Season (2020)

Note: Spoilers follow for all of the above, including the season premiere of Picard .

The Days Before Space

4.6 Billion BCE (or maybe even more):

• The birth/arrival/creation of the Guardian of Forever on its ancient planet (ST:TOS S1E28, "The Guardian on the Edge of Forever").

4 Billion BCE:

• An unknown humanoid species, to quote Geordi LaForge, "scattered this genetic material into the primordial soup of at least 19 different planets across the galaxy," explaining why most sentient species look the same (ST:TNG S6E20, "The Chase").

3.5 Billion BCE:

• The beginnings of life in the Alpha Quadrant are threatened by Q's anomaly ( ST:TNG S7E25-26 , "All Good Things") .

400 CE (approximately):

• Approximate time when the Changelings founded what would become the Dominion, with the Jem'Hadar

900 CE (approximately):

• Kahless the Unforgettable slays the Qo'noS tyrant Molor and becomes the first Emperor of the Klingon Empire.
• First known sign of the Borg in the Delta Quadrant.

1600 CE (approximately):

• The beginnings of Bajoran space exploration leads to first contact between the Cardassians and Bajorans. (It does not go well for them.)

1800 CE (approximately):

• Establishment of the Cardassian Union.
• Picard, La Forge, Troi, Riker, and Crusher arrive in San Francisco after the discovery of Data's severed head in their century. Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain) gets caught up in their efforts to save him (ST:TNG S5E26-S6E1, "Time's Arrow").
• Kirk and Spock chase a drugged and disoriented McCoy through the time portal known as the Guardian of Forever to New York City. While there, Kirk falls in love with Edith Keeler, a social worker whose life McCoy saved, but Kirk must ultimately let die, in order to preserve the timeline and prevent Germany from winning World War II (ST:TOS S1E28, "The City on the Edge of Forever").
• The Briori abduct several hundred humans from Earth and bring them to the Delta Quadrant, including Amelia Earhart (ST:VOY S2E1, "The 37's") .

1944 (alternate universe):

• Jonathan Archer and the Enterprise NX-01 crew find themselves in an altered version of World War II, where the Nazis have invaded America (ST:ENT S4E1-E2, "Storm Front").
• Quark, Rom and Nog crash their ship in Roswell, New Mexico and have to escape from the U.S. Military (ST:DS9 S4E8, "Little Green Men") .
• The Enterprise travels back to this year to prevent an agent from interfering with events, because Starfleet had a record of them doing so. Time travel is fun that way (ST:TOS S2E26, "Assignment: Earth"). The Enterprise also went on a similar mission in 1969 (ST:TOS S1E19, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday") .
• Kirk and friends, in search of humpback whales to save the future, arrive in San Francisco, where they meet marine biologist Gillian Taylor, invent transparent aluminum, and teach Spock how to swear (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) .
• The Eugenics Wars rage on (at least, according to almost all sources ). When the Enterprise first discovers genetically enhanced Khan Noonien Singh (ST:TOS S1E24, "Space Seed") , Spock says that during these years, Khan had conquered most of the Earth, before fleeing the Earth with 84 of his followers to drift through space in the S.S. Botany Bay.
• In this version of 1996 (perhaps because they've just ended?), there's no sign of the Eugenics Wars in action when the Voyager is pulled to sunny Southern California by a 29th century time ship. Despite being featured on local news broadcasts, the Voyager and its crew manage not to damage the timeline before returning to the 24th century (ST:VOY S3E8-9, "Future's End") .

December 27, 1999:

• One of Captain Janeway's ancestors gets caught up in the controversy surrounding the construction of the Millennium Gate tower, a self-sufficient structure built in Indiana that would become the model for the colonization of Mars (ST:VOY S5E23, "11:59") .
• Archer and T'Pol arrive in Detroit to stop the Xindi from annihilating the human race with a bioweapon — they succeed (ST:ENT S3E11, "Carpenter Street) .

Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2024:

• Thanks to a transporter accident, Sisko, Dax and Bashir arrive in a very different San Francisco from the modern world, and get caught up in the Bell Riots, a historical event which eventually led to massive reform of America's social issues (ST:DS9 S3E11-E12, "Past Tense") .

2026 – 2053:

• World War III ravages Earth, killing six hundred million humans.

The Dawn of the Warp Era

April 4, 2063:

• The Enterprise-E arrives at Earth after chasing a Borg sphere from the 24th century, just as the Borg plan to disrupt the launch of Zefram Cochrane's extremely important prototype warp drive flight (Star Trek: First Contact) .

April 5, 2063:

• Thanks to the Enterprise-E, Cochrane successfully completes his flight and, later that day, a Vulcan ship arrives on Earth, initiating first contact and beginning humanity's journey to its future as an architect of the Federation (Star Trek: First Contact).
• Colonies on Mars are established.
• An elderly Zefram Cochrane vanishes, after heading out on one last space voyage (ST:TOS S2E9, "Metamorphosis") .
• The Enterprise NX-01, the first starship capable of traveling at Warp 5, begins its mission to explore the galaxy. A major part of its adventures have to do with the Temporal Cold War, in which the crew found itself caught up in time travel conflicts.

March 2153:

• The Xindi attack Earth, firing a blast that causes destruction from Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million people. The NX-01 refocuses its mission on trying to stop the Xindi from causing further destruction.
• For the first time, Starfleet officers travel to the Mirror Universe, encountering a far darker version of their world (ST:ENT S4E18-E19, "In a Mirror, Darkly") .
• Discussion of uniting various planets for some sort of... federation, perhaps, begins (ST:ENT S4E22, "These Are the Voyages...") .

2156–2160:

• A four-year war with the Romulans leads to the creation of the Romulan Neutral Zone.
• Captain Archer speaks to the Coalition of Planets about the need to create...
• The United Federation of Planets, which is officially born that year (ST:ENT S4E22, "These Are the Voyages...") .
• Starfleet Academy is also founded.
• In an alternate timeline, the crew of the Defiant was sent back in time to this year, crashing on a planet called Gaia. While Kira died, the survivors eventually built a society of eight thousand people. This society, however, was wiped out of existence when the Odo living on Gaia prevented the Defiant from replicating that journey into the past, to save Kira's life (ST:DS9 S5E22, "Children of Time") .

March 22nd, 2233:

• In the Kelvin Timeline, Kirk is born aboard a USS Kelvin shuttlecraft as time-traveling Romulan Nero attacks the ship now being captained by James' soon-to-be-deceased father George (Star Trek 2009) .
• In the Prime Timeline, Kirk is born (exact location unknown, but could have still been aboard the USS Kelvin, albeit under more peaceful circumstances), and eventually raised in Iowa by George and Winona Kirk.
• Michael Burnham's family was killed at Doctari Alpha, following which Sarek brought her into his home and made her Spock's adoptive sister (ST:DIS S2E1, "Brothers") .
• The USS Enterprise, captained by Christopher Pike, launches its second five-year mission to explore the universe.
• Captain Pike, Lieutenant Spock and the Enterprise visit the planet of Talos IV (ST:TOS S1E15-E16, "The Menagerie") .
• The USS Shenzhou is called to investigate damage done to an interstellar array on the edge of Federation space, which leads to the ship being overwhelmed by an onslaught of Klingon ships. In the conflict, Captain Georgiou is killed, and Lieutenant Michael Burnham not just committing mutiny, but triggering a war between the Federation and the Klingons (ST:DIS S1E1-E2, "The Vulcan Hello"-"Battle at the Binary Stars") .

November 2256:

• Michael Burnham is, via a roundabout set of circumstances, transferred from prison to the USS Discovery under the command of Captain Gabriel Lorca (ST:DIS S1E3, "Context Is For Kings") .
• The Discovery arrives in the Mirror Universe thanks to Lorca, who had secretly snuck into the Prime Universe. The ship eventually returns home, but with the devious Mirror Universe version of Georgiou on board (ST:DIS S1E13, "What's Past Is Prologue").
• By making a pact with L'Rell and stopping an attack on the Klingon homeworld, Burnham is able to end the Federation-Klingon War (ST:DIS S1E13, "What's Past Is Prologue") .
• As the Enterprise needs repairs and the Discovery needs a (temporary?) captain, Captain Pike fills in the gap, introducing the mission to discover what's going on with the "Red Angel" who keeps appearing in multiple spots across the Alpha Quadrant (ST:DIS S2E1, "Brothers") .
• Burnham learns that the Red Angel is herself, from the future, and ultimately chases that predestination paradox (ST:DIS Season 2) .
• The Discovery, with a limited crew, travels to the year 3186. Those who stay behind, including Pike, Spock and Number One, adhere to the pact that speaking of the Discovery or its crew ever again is a treasonable offense (ST:DIS S2E14, "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2") .

2258 (Kelvin-verse):

• The Prime Universe version of Spock arrives from the future — which is just what Nero has been waiting for, for 25 years (Star Trek 2009) .
• James Kirk is just about to finish his time at Starfleet Academy when the planet of Vulcan is destroyed by Nero. Kirk and his new crew ultimately take down Nero, and end up taking over the Enterprise for a mission of exploration (Star Trek 2009) .

2259 (Kelvin-verse):

• Khan Noonien Singh arises to try to tear down the Federation. Kirk dies, but does not stay dead (Star Trek Into Darkness) .

2260 (Kelvin-verse):

• The Enterprise sets out on its five-year mission (Star Trek Beyond) .

2263 (Kelvin-verse):

• Three years into said mission, the Enterprise crew saves the space station Yorktown from destruction — destroying their ship in the process, but the Enterprise-A immediately gets commissioned (Star Trek Beyond) .
• The Prime Universe Spock, having lived in the Kelvin timeline for seven years, passes away at the age of 162 (Star Trek Beyond) .
• James T. Kirk takes command of the USS Enterprise for another five-year mission, encountering Klingons, con men and more.
• McCoy, after an unfortunate injection, rushes to the surface of an alien planet and escapes to the year 1930 thanks to the Guardian of Forever (ST:TOS S1E28, "The Guardian on the Edge of Forever") .
• The Enterprise experiences plenty of wacky experiences, but few as memorable as a trip to Deep Space Station K-7 to handle an agricultural situation aggravated by a tribble infestation (ST:TOS S2E13, "The Trouble With Tribbles") .
• After a time traveler tries to interfere with the events of DSS K-7, Captain Sisko and his crew arrive to make sure Kirk keeps the Klingons from sabotaging things (ST:DS9 S5E6, "Trials and Tribble-ations") .
• The Enterprise discovers Zefram Cochrane marooned on a remote planetoid, but ultimately leaves him behind with an alien consciousness with which he is in love (ST:TOS S2E9, "Metamorphosis") .
• At the end of the five-year mission, Kirk is promoted to the rank of Admiral, while Will Decker becomes captain of the USS Enterprise.
• When an alien-retrofitted version of Voyager returns to Earth, Kirk resumes control over the Enterprise to save Earth (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) .
• The Prime Universe Khan gets his chance at conquering the galaxy. Spock dies in the successful effort to thwart him (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) .
• Kirk steals the Enterprise, but Spock is successfully resurrected thanks to the planet Genesis's extraordinary properties. They return Spock to Vulcan so he can recuperate (Star Trek III: The Search For Spock) .
• An alien probe broadcasting humpback whale song doesn't get any response, and starts trying to destroy the planet Earth as a result. To prevent this, Kirk and his friends travel back in time (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) .
• Kirk is demoted to the rank of Captain, and thus he can return to being the Captain of the Enterprise (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) .
• The Enterprise crew goes on another adventure, which might be boiled down to this memorable incident: Captain Kirk asks the question "What does God need with a starship?" (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) .
• Hikaru Sulu becomes captain of the USS Excelsior.
• Kirk is framed for the assassination of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon, and he and McCoy even go to prison for that presumed crime, but their friends rescue them in time to prevent another assassination. Kirk saves the peace talks and is told to bring the Enterprise back to Earth. He might end up taking his time getting there (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) .
• Tuvok serves under Captain Sulu aboard the Excelsior (ST:VOY S3E2, "Flashback") .
• Later that year, Kirk and other crew members are visiting the newly commissioned Enterprise-B. After an encounter with the Nexus that destroys a good part of the ship, Kirk is considered dead (Star Trek Generations) .
• Captain Rachel Garrett and the Enterprise-C are lost while defending a Klingon settlement, an event which proved pivotal to creating peace between the Klingons and the Federation — so pivotal that when it didn't happen in an alternate universe, it led to a far worse future (ST:TNG S3E15, "Yesterday's Enterprise") .
• War between the Federation and Cardassian Union begins, with conflicts tapering off in the 2350s.
• The USS Pegasus is considered missing after experimenting with phasing technology ( ST:TNG S7E12, "The Pegasus") .

The Rise of Picard, Sisko, and Janeway

• Seven years later, Picard re-experiences this first mission, because it is revealed that the trial which Q began during the trip to Farpoint had never actually ended ( ST:TNG S7E25-26 , "All Good Things").
• Lieutenant Natasha Yar is killed in action (ST:TNG S1E23, "Skin of Evil") .
• The Enterprise encounters the Borg for the first time, after being flung into the Delta Quadrant by Q (ST:TNG S2E16, "Q Who") .
• The Enterprise-C arrives in a very changed version of the universe, 22 years after it disappeared into a temporal rift. Captain Garrett and her crew eventually return to the point of their disappearance to preserve the original timeline, with Tasha Yar (who did not die in this new timeline) returning with them (ST:TNG S3E15, "Yesterday's Enterprise") .
• Jean-Luc Picard gets abducted by the Borg, and a battle he spearheads as Locutus of Borg, known as Wolf 359, is a brutal moment for the Federation. Benjamin Sisko's wife Jennifer is one of the many, many casualties (ST:TNG S3E26-S4E1, "The Best of Both Worlds"; ST:DS9 S1E1, "Emissary") .
• With the ascension of Gowron as Emperor, the Klingon Civil War begins.
• The Klingon Civil War ends, with Gowron maintaining his control over the Empire (ST:TNG S5E1, "Redemption II") .
• Ambassador Spock travels to Romulus to try to reunite the Vulcans and Romulan people — unsuccessfully. (ST:TNG S5E7-8, "Redemption I-II") .
• Commander Benjamin Sisko arrives at the station Deep Space Nine, where he encounters the "wormhole aliens," AKA "the Prophets," and devotes himself to bringing local planet Bajor into the Federation as Bajor rebuilds after Cardassian occupation (ST:DS9 S1E1, "Emissary") .
• The Enterprise-D recovers long-lost Montgomery Scott from a transporter buffer, and Scotty sets out to go exploring the galaxy (ST:TNG S6E4, "Relics").
• Commander Riker, struggling to decide what to do when his old commanding officer Admiral Pressman asks for his help, uses the holodeck to look back at Captain Archer's big speech to the Coalition of Planets (ST:ENT S4E22, "These Are the Voyages..."; ST:TNG S7E12, "The Pegasus") .
• The Federation-Cardassian Treaty is signed, officially ending hostilities and creating a demilitarized zone that left several planets previously colonized by Federation citizens under Cardassian control. This leads to the creation of the Maquis, former Federation members who rebel against the Cardassians (ST:DS9 S2E20-21, "The Maquis") .
• Picard begins to shift in time, from his past to his future, which lead to him discovering that Q has spent the last seven years evaluating the human race, based on the adventures of Picard and his crew. Ultimately, Picard convinces Q of humanity's value ( ST:TNG S7E25-26 , "All Good Things").
• Picard learns that his brother and nephew have ben killed in a fire at his family vineyard (Star Trek Generations) .
• The Enterprise-D gets caught up in Dr. Soran's attempt to reach the Nexus, a realm outside of space and time that can feel like paradise. Picard, inside the Nexus, meets Kirk, who he convinces to leave the Nexus with him to stop Soran. They succeed, but Kirk is killed and the Enterprise is destroyed (Star Trek Generations) .
• The USS Voyager departs Deep Space Nine to track down a missing Maquis ship, but both ships end up getting dragged 75,000 light years away from Earth. The Starfleet and Maquis crews end up working together to try to get back to the Alpha Quadrant (ST:VOY S1E1-2, "Caretaker") .
• The USS Defiant, a new ship to be captained by Benjamin Sisko, arrives at Deep Space Nine (ST:DS9 S3E1, "The Search, Part I") .
• Odo learns that his people, the Changelings, are the Founders of the Dominion, which controls the Gamma Quadrant, and now aims to take over the Alpha Quadrant (ST:DS9 S3E1-2, "The Search, Parts I/II") .
• The Enterprise-E is launched.
• Thanks to Changeling infiltration at the highest levels of government, war erupts between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Worf joins the crew of Deep Space Nine (ST:DS9 S4E1-2, "The Way of the Warrior") .
• After the Battle of Sector 001, in which the Borg gets close to attacking the Earth, the Enterprise-E launches into action, following a Borg Sphere back into the past (Star Trek: First Contact) .
• When the Changeling impersonating General Martok is revealed, war between the Federation and the Klingons ends (ST:DS9 S5E1, "Apocalypse Rising") .
• The Federation first learns about the existence of the non-corporeal Pah-wraiths, enemies of the Bajoran Prophets, when one of them takes over the body of Keiko O'Brien (ST:DS9 S5E5, "The Assignment") .
• Bashir, without anyone's knowledge, is replaced by a Changeling, which is not uncovered for a month (ST:DS9 S5E14-15, "In Purgatory's Shadow"/"By Inferno's Light") .
• The Dominion, as part of the deal, helps Cardassia completely eliminate the Maquis.
• To avoid war with the Dominion, the Bajorans sign a non-aggression treaty (ST:DS9 S5E26, "Call to Arms") .
• The Dominion takes over the Bajor sector as the Federation departs, beginning the Dominion War (ST:DS9 S5E26, "Call to Arms") .
• Voyager assists the Borg in fighting off Species 8472, and a drone known as Seven of Nine gets marooned on their ship (ST:VOY S4E1, "Scorpion, Part II") .
• Meanwhile, crew member Kes leaves the ship to explore her psychic abilities (ST:VOY S4E2, "The Gift") .
• The Dominion War is fought on multiple fronts, with Kira leading a resistance effort on Deep Space Nine while Sisko and the Defiant battle to eventually retake the station (ST:DS9 S6E6, "Sacrifice of Angels") .
• Gul Dukat's daughter Ziyal is killed by Damar during the battle over DS9 (ST:DS9 S6E6, "Sacrifice of Angels") .
• Worf and Jadzia Dax get married (ST:DS9 S6E7, "You Are Cordially Invited...") .
• First major appearance of Section 31 (in the Prime timeline), as an agent attempts to recruit Bashir (ST:DS9 S6E18, "Inquisition") .
• Thanks to Sisko working with the ruthless Garak, the Romulans join the war against the Dominion (ST:DS9 S6E19, "In the Pale Moonlight") .
• Dukat, having snuck onto DS9, kills Jadzia Dax and releases a Pah-wraith which closes the Bajoran wormhole permanently (ST:DS9 S6E26, "Tears of the Prophets") .
• The Dax symbiont is joined with a Trill named Ezri (ST:DS9 S7E1, "Image in the Sand") .
• After having left DS9 for a short time, Sisko recovers the Orb of the Emissary, and returns to reopen the wormhole (ST:DS9 S7E2, "Shadows and Symbols") .
• Dukat now leads a cult devoted to the worship of the Pah-wraiths (ST:DS9 S7E9, "Covenant") .
• The Enterprise-E crew, including Worf, work together to reconcile the Son'a and Ba'ku people after a century of distrust (Star Trek: Insurrection) .
• Sisko makes plans for life after the Dominion War, and also marries long-time girlfriend Kasidy Yates (ST:DS9 S7E18, "'Til Death Do Us Part") .
• Kira, Odo and Garak go to Cardassia to help Damar, now in open rebellion against the Dominion, lead a resistance movement. Odo learns that he has been infected by the virus killing the Changelings, which was created by Section 31 (ST:DS9 S7E21, "When It Rains...") .
• The Defiant is destroyed by the Breen, and a new ship is renamed in its honor (ST:DS9 S7E24, "The Dogs of War") .
• Odo, having been cured of Section 31's disease, returns to his people to spread the cure to them (ST:DS9 S7E26, "What You Leave Behind").
• Dukat, having surgically altered himself to resemble a Bajoran, becomes a confidante of Kai Winn and manipulates her into helping him unlock the power of the Pah-wraiths in the Fire Caves on Bajor. Sisko arrives in time to stop him, but all three of them are considered dead (ST:DS9 S7E26, "What You Leave Behind") .
• The Dominion War ends (ST:DS9 S7E26, "What You Leave Behind") .
• The USS Voyager continues its journey home.
• Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres get married (ST:VOY S7E3, "Drive") .
• Neelix leaves Voyager to join a Talaxian community (ST:VOY S7E23, "Homestead").
• With the help of a time-travelling Admiral Janeway, Voyager successfully uses the Borg transwarp network to get back to Earth (ST:VOY S7E25, "Endgame") .
• Miral Paris is born (ST:VOY S7E25, "Endgame") .
• William Riker and Deanna Troi get married (Star Trek: Nemesis) .
• The Enterprise-E discovers that Data's creator, Dr. Soong, had created an early prototype of Data known as B-4, which is more primitive than Data. Data tries to help by transferring his memories into B-4.
• Picard comes to Romulus after a military coup puts Shinzon, a clone of Picard created by Romulans who ended up becoming the leader of the Remans. In the ensuing fight, Picard kills Shinzon, but Data is killed saving his crew (Star Trek: Nemesis) .
• Ensign Tendi joins Rutherford, Mariner, and Boimler to serve on board the U.S.S. Cerritos, a ship dedicated to "second contact" encounters with new civilizations (Star Trek: Lower Decks S1E1, "Second Contact") .
• Boimler jumps at the chance of promotion to serve on board the U.S.S. Titan under the command of Captain William Riker, leaving behind his friends on the Cerritos (Star Trek: Lower Decks S1E10, "No Small Parts") .
• Thaddeus "Thad" Troi-Riker is born (ST:PIC S1E7, "Nepenthe").

The Future Is a Dark Place

• Jean-Luc Picard puts the Data's Daughter painting into storage at the Starfleet Archive Museum (ST:PIC S1E1, "Remembrance") .
• Seven of Nne, working as a Fenris Ranger near the Romulan Neutral Zone, loses adopted son Icheb (a former Borg like herself) after Icheb is attacked by raiders looking for black market Borg implants (ST:PIC S1E5, "Stardust City Rag") .
• When a star near Romulus goes supernova, the entire planet is destroyed, despite Spock's attempt to stop the explosion by injecting the star with Red Matter and creating a black hole. The black hole instead brings both his ship and the nearby Romulan mining vessel containing Nero into the past (Star Trek 2009) .

2388-89 (approximate):

• In the wake of the destruction of Romulus, the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards of Mars are destroyed by rebellious synthetic workers on First Contact Day (April 5), killing thousands and leaving Mars ablaze for years to follow (ST:ST "Children of Mars," ST:PIC S1E1, "Remembrance") .
• The Troi-Riker family moves to the outlying planet of Nepenthe (ST:PIC S1E7, "Nepenthe") .
• The original year that the Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant, prior to Janeway's temporal interference (ST:VOY S7E25, "Endgame") .
• While the future that Picard saw during his final confrontation with Q was eventually rewritten, this would have been the year in which Picard reunited his old crew to work together to stop the anomaly ( ST:TNG S7E25-26 , "All Good Things").
• Thad Troi-Riker dies of mendaxic neurosclerosis at the age of 15 (ST:PIC S1E7, "Nepenthe") .
• Jean-Luc Picard, having left Starfleet years ago after the destruction of Romulus, meets Dahj, a frightened young woman with a mysterious connection to Data. She inspires him to leave retirement and investigate further ( ST:PIC S1E1, "Remembrance").
• Picard's search to understand Dahj's origins leads him to assemble a ramshackle crew and discover Dahj's synth twin Soji, but in the race to save her and her fellow synths, Picard's terminal brain condition catches up with him and he dies in the climactic battle. Fortunately, his consciousness is saved and transplanted into a synthetic body, meaning that Picard has potentially years worth of adventure ahead of him (ST:PIC S1E10, "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2") .
• Admiral Janeway, having spent years figuring out a plan, leaves her original timeline to travel to the year 2378 and change the past (ST:VOY S7E25, "Endgame") .
• The USS Discovery arrives in an uncharted future. What happens next is totally unknown (ST:DIS S2E14, "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2," ST:DIS Season 3) .

3200s (or potentially more):

1000 years into the future of the Discovery, the abandoned ship (run by a now-sentient computer) rescues an escape pod and forms a bond with its occupant (ST:ST "Calypso") .

• Entertainment

How Do Star Trek Stardates Work?

On Star Trek , we hear a lot of "stardates," meant to mark some futuristic date. An example is stardate 47457.1, which is Captain Picard's birthday . The weird thing is that stardate 47457.1 is either the equivalent June 16th, November 4th, January 8th, or January 10th, depending on how you count. Let's go deep-nerd on this.

The Original Series

In the original Trek TV series, stardates were, in a word, bogus. In the series bible, the Star Trek Guide , writers were basically told to wing it. Here's a snippet (emphasis added):

Pick any combination of four numbers plus a percentage point [ed. note: tenths digit], use it as your story's stardate. For example, 1313.5 is twelve o'clock noon of one day and 1314.5 would be noon of the next day. Each percentage point is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of one day. The progression of stardates in your script should remain constant but don't worry about whether or not there is a progression from other scripts. Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode.

This obviously wasn't thought through very well, as it boils down to "Pick a number and stay near it." Show creator Gene Roddenberry later said:

When we began making episodes, we would use a stardate such as 2317 one week, and then a week later when we made the next episode we would move the star date up to 2942, and so on. Unfortunately, however, the episodes are not aired in the same order in which we filmed them. So we began to get complaints from the viewers, asking, "How come one week the star date is 2891, the next week it's 2337, and then the week after it's 3414?"

He then went on to explain that the whole "location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors" thing was a hedge to cover up the fact that the dates simply weren't consistent to begin with, even if the episodes had aired in order.

The Next Generation

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , things got a bit more consistent. In the original TNG Writer's/Director's Guide , the show-runners devised a sensible formula with a reasonable level of continuity. Here it is:

A stardate is a five-digit number followed by a decimal point and one more digit. Example: "41254.7." The first two digits of the stardate are always "41." The 4 stands for 24th century, the 1 indicates first season. The additional three leading digits will progress unevenly during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The digit following the decimal point is generally regarded as a day counter.

It's interesting to note, then, that the duration of a TNG season is 1,000 days. Good thing they were on a continuing mission rather than a five-year one.

Both Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager continued using the TNG style of Stardates, and the movie Star Trek Nemesis followed suit.

As you might expect, early on in TNG , the writers sometimes goofed. A prime example is Tasha Yar's death, which occurred circa Stardate 41601.3, but she was alive in a previous episode with the (later) Stardate 41997.7. Oops. By 1992, the writers had revised their guidelines to be iron-clad:

A Stardate is a five-digit number followed by a decimal point and one more digit. Example: "46254.7". The first two digits of the Stardate are "46." The 4 stands for the 24th Century, the 6 indicates sixth season. The following three digits will progress consecutively during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The digit following the decimal point counts tenths of a day. Stardate 45254.4, therefore, represents the noon hour on the 254th "day" of the fifth season. Because Stardates in the 24th Century are based on a complex mathematical formula, a precise correlation to Earth-based dating systems is not possible.

Despite explicitly stating that correlation to Earth-based dates is not possible, that hasn't stopped people from trying .

Just when things were basically making sense, they changed again. From an exhaustive and brilliant article on Memory Alpha , here's an explanation of the reboot (J.J. Abrams-directed) movies' treatment of stardates (emphasis added):

The stardate format from the latest film series is credited to screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. According to Orci, they "used the system where, for example, 2233.45 or whatever means 23rd century, 33rd year of that century, and the .45 indicates the day of the year out of 365 days." During a Q&A session, Orci restated that a stardate is "the year, as in 2233, with the month and day expressed as a decimal point from .1 to .365 (as in the 365 days of the year)." He posted a similar reply on Twitter: "star date=standard year, with decimal representing day of year from 1-365." The new stardates are similar to the ordinal dates of ISO 8601, which express the first day of 2260 as 2260-001, and the last as 2260-366. Orci hasn't clarified whether leap days increase the count to .366, which would be expected if the years are Gregorian. When asked about 2230.06 and 2233.04 from the Star Trek screenplay, with only one leading zero instead of two or none, he replied that it could have been an error. IDW's Star Trek: Timelines show the latter number as 2233.4.

Long Story Short

There is no one answer to how stardates work, aside from saying that they don't. They're inconsistent series-to-series, and even within a given series, the writers often mixed things up. With Roddenberry trying to retcon the system's continuity even in TOS , perhaps it's appropriate that the system continues to be more than a little mixed up. Time-tracking throughout the galaxy is a hard problem; give 'em some slack.

If you're curious about examples of various Stardates (and even more discussion of this issue), check out Memory Alpha 's stardate page . Trust me, once you've read that, you'll never want to speak of this subject again. If you do, read this page for a deeply unofficial (but supremely logical) system of decimal time. Oh, and don't forget the time the French made a 10-hour day —another attempt to create decimal time that led to total confusion.

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Star Trek terminology: A beginner’s guide to acronyms

December 15, 2021 by Philip Bates Leave a Comment

One of the first things you need to know about Star Trek terminology is that there are a lot of acronyms. A lot. And they’re not all simple. Doctor Who is easy: “TARDIS” stands for “Time And Relative Dimension In Space.” No, Star Trek has complex engineering and story-specific abbreviations like “M/ARA”, which means “Matter/ Antimatter Reaction Assembly.”

It can all be a bit intimidating, especially if you’re new to the worlds of Trek and don’t know your TNG from your LLAP. Fortunately, you don’t need to know them all. In fact, your enjoyment shouldn’t be inhibited whatsoever. But if you’re invested in Trek , you deserve an easy way into this sometimes-scary encyclopaedia of terms.

So here’s a brief beginner’s guide to acronyms and abbreviations commonly used by the Star Trek fandom.

What does Star Trek: TOS mean?

Here’s the perfect place to begin.

The ingenuous thing about Trek is that it spans the generations – and in doing so, spans numerous incarnations too. That results in a vast number of ideas, but it can cause a problem because fans need to quickly refer to specific TV shows. Hence “ST: TOS.”

“ST” obviously means Star Trek , and “TOS” simply means “ The Original Series, ” i.e. the three-season show that ran from 1966 to 1969, and starred William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley, and more.

This was even referenced in Star Trek: Lower Decks . Commander Jack Ransom mentions the “TOS” era, and when questioned over its meaning, he slyly says the acronym stands for “Those Old Scientists.” Nicely done, Trek writers!

What does Star Trek: TNG mean?

“TNG” is one of the most famous pieces of Star Trek terminology – and stands for one of its best-loved shows too: The Next Generation , which featured Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard at the helm of the USS Enterprise between 1987 and 1994.

What does Star Trek: DS9 mean?

TNG proved so popular that another Trek series came about in 1993 and ran until 1999: Deep Space Nine , commonly referred to as “DS9” in Star Trek terminology.

Unlike previous iterations of Star Trek , this series was named after the space station that served as the main setting for the programme. From Deep Space Nine, Starfleet could explore the Gamma Quadrant via the Bajoran wormhole located nearby, thus giving viewers wider horizons than the premise might otherwise hint at.

What does Star Trek: VOY mean?

“VOY” means “ Voyager ,” the successful series that ran from 1995, following the cancellation of The Next Generation , and so proved an accompaniment to Deep Space Nine .

What does Star Trek: ENT mean?

You’ll probably have already worked out, based on the standard abbreviations formula within Star Trek terminology (and with some knowledge of Star Trek ‘s most famous ship) that “ENT” is short for “ Enterprise .”

ENT was a prequel to TOS and ran from 2001 (the year Voyager concluded) to 2005.

What is the acronym for Star Trek: Discovery?

In Star Trek terminology, the acronyms apply to all series and even movies, so yes, Star Trek: Discovery (2017 – present) has its own abbreviations. In fact, all the latest crop of Trek incarnations do: Lower Decks is “LD”; Picard is “PIC”; and Prodigy is “PROD”.

And Discovery is “DSC.” However, if you’re talking about it, it’s probably easiest to just call it “DISCO,” same as it is referring to Voyager by its name. These abbreviations are typically used in Star Trek terminology when discussing the wider universe of adventures. Let’s say you’re talking about how the Enterprise appears across different programmes: cite mentions as “(TOS),” “(ENT),” or “(DSC)” – and yes, you generally do so using brackets.

What does LLAP mean in Star Trek terminology?

But obviously, acronyms aren’t just useful when talking about TV series and movies. So “LLAP,” which you might’ve seen emblazoned on posters, clothing, stationery, and more Star Trek products doesn’t actually mention a particular show at all.

In Star Trek terminology, “LLAP” means “Live Long And Prosper,” Spock’s famous saying from TOS. It’s more often than not accompanied by the Vulcan salute; that is, a “V” shape formed using your fingers. You know the one.

It’s a phrase we love so much, we put it on an exclusively-designed knitted scarf – the full “Live Long And Prosper,” not the “LLAP” version, because we want to spread that inclusive message beyond even the massive Trek fandom.

What does IDIC mean in Star Trek terminology?

Here’s another piece of Star Trek terminology we thought was iconic enough to grace our Trek line of products , although you might not know it from the acronym “IDIC,” or even from the full, uncondensed version: “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”.

No, you’ll recognise it as the symbol that looks like a silver or grey pyramid pointing into a circle.

It’s known in the Vulcan language as Kol-Ut-Shan. Its philosophical meaning translates across all linguistic boundaries. In ‘Is There in Truth no Beauty?’ (TOS), Miranda and Spock say that “the glory of creation is in its infinite diversity,” and “the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.”

What does GNDN mean in Star Trek terminology?

There are loads of acronyms to learn – perhaps too many. This is only the start of a Trek voyage, and there’s always time to find out more. And so, for now, we’ve saved the best to last.

You might have spotted the “GNDN” label on pipes throughout the original USS Enterprise in TOS. Pipes running through the walls had set colour combinations and coding designations, which helped build up the intricate depth of details put into the ships. And while many did have actual meanings, “GNDN” is really an in-joke. In the TOS Season 2 DVD special feature, Designing the Final Frontier , set designer John Jefferies, finally revealed what this acronym means.

“GNDN” simply means “Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing.”

It’s a brilliant gag, and so unlikely for a show whose horizons stretch out, “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations – to boldly go where no man has gone before!”

What is your favourite piece of Star Trek terminology? Are there any fun in-jokes that always crack you up? Let us know in the comments section and on social media!

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What Do The Star Trek Uniform Colors Mean & Why Are They So Important?

"Star Trek" is definitely a technicolor wonderland of a show. That sense of eye-catching brilliance trickles down from the background scenery to the props used by each cast member, all the way to the uniforms the show's central crew wears as a part of their duties. 

It's easy to notice that the crew of the Starship Enterprise wear tunics in varying shades. Those colors are quite important — they denote which job class each crew member belongs to. Those classes were devised by series creator Gene Roddenberry and costume designer William Ware Theiss, and are intended to resemble the classifications used by the United States Military on noise-heavy aircraft carriers. 

Sometimes there are differences allowed for dress uniforms; the command staff, for instance, will wear green uniforms during formal occasions. And these rules aren't hard and fast ones; across the whole universe of "Star Trek" series, films, and other ephemera, the colors various officers wear on the show and the meanings behind them change depending on when the scene takes place in the show's general timeline. But these are the color codes that most often denote each character's job on the ship, and the ones used during the original "Star Trek" series to explain who is who and what they do.

The term 'red shirt' gained a negative connotation

Even if you're not a "Star Trek" fan, you've probably heard jokes about how often red-shirted officers are introduced to the show, only for them to quickly die during away missions. For a period of time, the term "red shirt" became a dirty word in the "Star Trek" world; it's gone on to take on a larger cultural significance, indicating that a person is a disposable background element easy to get rid of. And yet many of the show's red-toting characters are the franchise's longest-lasting individuals. The class encompasses the engineering, security, and communication staff positions on the Enterprise. Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan) are among the most prominent crew members who wear scarlet hues. To wear red on the bridge is definitely a high honor.

Are 'red shirts' more doomed than their counterparts? Mathematician James Grime weighed in on the subject during a talk at New York's Museum of Mathematics in 2017. A simple statistical calculation revealed that 10% of the show's red-shirted denizens die during the original show's run — compared to 18 percent of golden-shirted characters. "There is some truth in the old 'Star Trek' myth if you look at security officers ... 20 percent of security officers died. So I think the moral of the story is, if you're on the starship Enterprise and you want to survive, be a scientist," he said.

Ironically, crimson red was eventually used to denote a position of authority on the ship; the uniforms that debuted in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" place the crew in scarlet togs, with no color divisions to mark them.

Blue denotes a scientific mind

If you're feeling blue during your time on the Enterprise, then you're probably logically-minded. Throughout much of the original "Star Trek" series, blue uniforms were given to the show's science and medical officers. That's why Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Nurse Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett), and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) can be seen sporting blue tunics throughout the series' run. The designation of blue uniforms hasn't changed much during the course of various "Star Trek" series; blue and purple shades are used to indicate ship medics in such continuations of the universe as "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Blue was also the chosen shade for the crew uniforms in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," with splashes of brown, oatmeal and white. This change didn't go over well with the cast. Their rebellion against the baggy uniforms went beyond their alleged unsightliness; costume designer Robert Fletcher sewed shoes into the bottom of each uniform, forcing the actors to ask their assistants for help in completing simple tasks such as going to the bathroom. A change was promptly made for the next film, and the red Navy-style uniforms stuck with the whole movie franchise until "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was launched.

Golden shirts denote power

Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), meanwhile, sports a gold-colored shirt. These are the outfits worn by those in command: largely, captains and other figures of authority. In other iterations of the show, gold tunics are worn by members of the ship's security staff. In any event, it's a uniform that denotes power.

But those shirts weren't actually intended to be golden at all; in reality, they were pale green tunics that were filmed as golden or orange-looking thanks to the sort of film the show used. According to an interview conducted with Bill Thiess in 1988 for Star Trek Prop Authority , it wasn't the show's intent to present Kirk and other captains as wearing gold at all. "It was one of those film stock things; it photographed one way – burnt orange or a gold. But in reality was another; the command shirts were definitely green." Unfortunately, thanks to that mistake the look has stuck, and Kirk's uniform is more often remembered as golden instead of green.

Whether they're sporting green or dodging danger in red, there's one thing officers on the Enterprise definitely know how to do – look stylish in a timelessly classical way.

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A Guide to the Different Uniform Colors the Characters Wear in ‘Star Trek’

Star Trek: The Original Series premiered in 1966. And in the year 2022, the franchise doesn’t seem to be slowing down soon. Currently, there are several ongoing television series with a new film and series recently announced.

I was a toddler when Star Trek: The Next Generation came out in 1987, making Picard’s Enterprise crew one of my earliest memories. I still love the series (as I sip out of my Chateau Picard wine tumbler). But the meaning of their uniform shirts eluded me for the longest time. Honestly, I thought you just picked your favorite color outfit when you joined a crew. After the “redshirt” trope (where a redshirt team member was more likely to die on a Star Trek away mission) became known, I thought there might be more to it. Apparently, there is a whole color-coded system in place. And the meaning of the colors changed slightly through the various shows.

The Original Series

For the original Star Trek series and the Enterprise prequel that came later, the uniform color breakdowns are:

Red – Engineering, Security, and Communications

Blue – Science and Medical Staff

Gold – Command Staff

Green – Command Staff Formal

The original series is where the redshirt trope comes from. It always seemed like if a random character in a red shirt went on an away mission, then they were not making it back to the ship. The largest group of people wore red uniform shirts, which would make it more likely that a person who died or got injured would have a red shirt on.

The Next Generation

When The Next Generation arrived, the series changed several things from the original, including the uniform colors:

Red – Command Staff

Gold – Operations and Security Staff

TNG , more so than the original series, set the template for most future shows. Even though the uniform styles changed, the color classifications stayed the same in Deep Space Nine , Voyager , Discovery , Picard , and the animated show Below Decks .

However, every season contained at least one character who wore their own take on the uniform that did not line up with the standard Starfleet look. Examples being: Deanna Troi from TNG (to relate to her patients better), Odo and Kira Nerys from Deep Space Nine (because of their connection to the Bajoran military), and Seven of Nine in Voyager (because of her cyborg physiology).

Now that we are clear on which uniform color means what, which color would you pick?

(feature image: Paramount)

Star Trek: What Does NCC Stand For?

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Since its creation in the late 1960s, Star Trek has been a staple of the science fiction genre. The shows have pioneered a specific formula of philosophical quandaries with some of the best, and most influential, technology seen on the small screen. Part of what makes the show’s and various movies feel so alive is their never-ending ability to flesh the world out. Every new movie and TV show adds more information about pre-existing races and cultures.

Despite this, however, there are some pretty fundamental things that have not yet been canonically explained. A prime example of this is the iconic NCC starship denotation. Where does this designation come from, and what does it actually mean?

RELATED: Star Trek: The Story Behind The Enterprise’s Name

The Origin Of Starship Codes

The letters NCC should be familiar to most, from avid Star Trek fans to casual viewers. They are painted across the majority of Federation starships, or at least are present within most of the franchise's main vessels. Most people pay attention to the actual name given to the ship, such as Voyager or, of course, Enterprise. For example, the iconic ship's name is the USS Enterprise, followed by NCC and a number indicating which iteration of the ship this is.

The fan favorite TOS Enterprise was simply named NCC-1701. The number chosen was fairly arbitrary at that point, and apparently was the house number for the show's founder and franchise cornerstone Gene Roddenberry. What started as a throwaway number, however, soon cemented itself into canon and every iteration of the ship had to follow, simply adding a letter onto the end. Picard captained the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, and Rachel Garret ( ender of the Klingon War ) captained the famous NCC-1701-C.

What Do The Letters Mean?

While the number and the name have their origins in the real world, the NCC part remains something of a canonical mystery. Many have their theories, the most common suggesting that it stands for “Naval Construction Code.” This would make sense for the fairly navy-like, military organization Starfleet . It’s a fairly simplistic, and odd acronym if true, considering it is fairly self-explanatory given the context. The origin for this theory stems from the strictly non-canon Star Trek novel Best Destiny by Diane Carey, which delivered an origin story for James Kirk and his legacy creating father Commander George Kirk , through a series of flashbacks. At multiple points, Carey wrote USS Enterprise Naval Construction Contract 1701.

While many fans believe this theory to be true due to Carey’s book, there are multiple conflicting, non-canonical sources that say differently. During a documentary about the making of Star Trek, as well as in a season two writers' guide, it is stated that NCC stands for Navy-Curtis Craft. Instead of clarifying anything, however, this seems to simply perpetuate the confusion, as not many people recognize the name Curtis Industries.

In the fictional future of the Star Trek franchise, Starfleet itself was just the organization that ran things. They were the ones who led missions into unknown areas of space and were in charge of the defense of Federation space. They were not, however, the ones to actually build the spaceships, as the industries of the future were still thriving. Starfleet instead hired Curtis Industries, an industrial shipwright in San Francisco, to oversee the construction of their ships. Curtis Industries would build the individual parts and Starfleet would assemble the ship, almost flat pack style, in space.

As a side note, NCC is not the only starship code used within the franchise. The most common other code is NX. This was the code given to experimental ships, or ones that were still in the prototype stage. This is why the very first Enterprise, as shown in the mixed-reviewed, terribly-ending Enterprise series, was called the USS Enterprise NX-01. Again, the actual meaning is never specifically stated. However, it is largely understood to mean ‘Naval Experiment.’

Of course, with every detailed explanation fans have come up with to explain the acronym, there will always be another to come in and say it means nothing, much like 1701. The letters were supposedly arbitrary. Matt Jefferies, the art director for TOS and key figure for how the original Enterprise got its iconic design , based the code on his own expertise in aviation. In the real world, ‘N’ is an aircraft registration code for a USA registered craft, the ‘C’ suggesting it is a civil aircraft. Jefferies simply added another arbitrary ‘C’ to the end, supposedly feeling that it looked better. Of course, at the end of the day, as nothing is specifically stated in official canon, each one of these answers can be right. It ends up being each fan's personal choice as to which one they believe fits best.

MORE: Star Trek: Who Was The Franchise's Most Hated Character?

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