Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 4, Episode 9. First broadcast on Monday 19 November 1990. Stardate: 44307.3. This week: an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation split roughly equally between saying goodbye to a beloved crew member and taking out the garbage — without saying anything very interesting about either. Apart from some memorable visuals, it’s mostly the kind of thing enjoyed by people who think that modern Star Trek seasons are too short.
Star Trek: Short Treks, Series 2, Episode 4. First broadcast on Thursday 12 December 2019. Stardate: Unknown (2266–2285). A vivid, propulsive and charming love letter to Star Trek: The Original Series this week, of a kind that would have been completely unimaginable during the long 90s. Star Trek tries its hand at animation for the first time since the 70s, and the result is an incredible success, paving the way for even more brilliant and visually stunning Star Trek to come.
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Series 2, Episode 7. First broadcast on Thursday 23 September 2021. Stardate: 58109.3. Even as the sun with purple-colour’d face Had ta’en his last leave of the weeping morn Prince Andy Billups knew his proper place Starfleet he loved, but love he laugh’d to scorn: His doting mother makes amain unto him, And sends her prettiest guards at once to woo him.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 6, Episode 14. First broadcast on Saturday 14 February 1998. Stardate: 51474.2. And all I ask is one little ship and a star to steer her by. Five years ago, a high-concept space accident shrank the crew of a shuttlecraft, who were immediately forced to thwart the takeover of their starship by a group of alien intruders. And so it’s about time exactly the same thing happened again. But we’ve learnt a lot in the interim, apparently, which means that this time the script is sharper, the effects are slicker, and the tag scene is considerably more amusing.
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 6, Episode 2. First broadcast on Wednesday 29 September 1999. Stardate: 53049.2. This week, the crew of the USS Voyager take a week off being menaced by intransigent alien antagonists to visit a weird and extensive space station and devote some time to the woke nonsense of seeking out new life and new civilisations. But among its visitors are three people from Seven’s past, all afflicted with a strange Borg-related space problem to which only Seven has the key. In the same vein, Joe manages to explore, exorcise and ultimately ruin a small cherished moment from his ow
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 1, Episode 6. First broadcast on Thursday 13 October 1966. Stardate: 1329.8. It’s 1966 on board Enterprise this week, with all the horrific male chauvinism that implies. So when three glamorous women beam aboard wearing fashionably asymmetrical sequinned dresses, it’s soon apparent that they have been promised rich husbands by the charmingly ridiculous Harcourt Fenton Mudd, a pantomime pirate with a gap-toothed smile, a beautifully waxed moustache and some alarmingly luxuriant chest hair. It’s kind of fun, but is the chauvinism too high a price to pay?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Series 3, Episode 5. First broadcast on Thursday 7 August 2025. Stardate: 2184.4. This week, so entranced is Nathan by the beauty of the Enterprise crew, the size and glossy finish of its sets, and the technological wonder of the effects wall that he completely fails to notice that basically nothing happens for about half an hour. Fortunately, Joe is here to help out.
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 2, Episode 6. First broadcast on Monday 2 October 1995. Stardate: Unknown (2371). This week, I refuse to put more thought into this blurb than the writers put into this episode of Voyager.
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 2, Episode 4. First broadcast on Wednesday 9 October 2002. Stardate: Unknown (2152). An unusual episode of Enterprise this week, with some satisfying serialisation, an inventive and inviting premise, and enough time to hang with the crew while they go exploring — all of which makes for a charming and entertaining 25 minutes. Sadly, the episode lasts 45 minutes.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 1, Episodes 1–2. First broadcast on Sunday 3 January 1993. Stardate: 46379.1. – Every time I throw this ball, a hundred different things can happen in a game. He might swing and miss, he might hit it. The point is, you never know. You try to anticipate, set a strategy for all the possibilities as best you can, but in the end it comes down to throwing one pitch after another and seeing what happens. With each new consequence, the game begins to take shape. – And you have no idea what that shape is until it is completed. – That’s right. In fact, the game wouldn
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 5, Episode 19. First broadcast on Monday 30 March 1992. Stardate: 45703.9. This week, Wesley faces a difficult choice. Option A: to help build another fortress of impunity to defend his privileged friends from the demands of justice and kindness. Option B: to tell the truth and expose them all to the consequences of their actions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he chooses the least fashionable option.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 5, Episode 6. First broadcast on Monday 4 November 1996. Stardate: Unknown (2373) and 4523.7. This week, the crew of the USS Defiant deploy some exciting new digital video technology to travel back to 1967 and inveigle themselves into a beloved episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It’s a perfect thirtieth birthday present for the franchise, reminding us that Trek isn’t about nerds watching the Romulans and the Federation shoot at each other — it’s about being cool and stylish and funny. In space. With great hair.
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 5, Episode 6. First broadcast on Wednesday 18 November 1998. Stardate: 52143.6 (2375) and 2390. This week, Joe and Nathan stare in wonder at an episode of Voyager that gets everything right — a compelling hook, a couple of memorable and significant visuals, a clear and straightforward time loop premise, and a human story of guilt, atonement and forgiveness. One of the best episodes in Star Trek history.
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 3, Episode 22. First broadcast on Friday 7 March 1969. Stardate: 5906.4. This week, a feculent alien rock-monster decides to make a TV episode to determine which philosophy is stronger — good or evil. To that end, he gets his friends to dress up as Abraham Lincoln and various racist stereotypes, so they can toss sticks and jabolite rocks at each other until it’s time for The Name of the Game to come on. We’ve seen it all before, but rarely with such an impressive lack of conviction.
Star Trek: Prodigy, Series 2, Episodes 19–20. First broadcast on Monday 1 July 2024. Stardate: 62314.8 and 5 April 2385. Oh, Dal, I wasn’t talking about now. The reason the universe needs you all together, that hasn’t happened yet. Things yet to come, wondrous and terrible things. But you’ll have to wait and see. It’s nearly time to say goodbye to the crew of the USS Prodigy as they fly off in search of new adventures. But before they go, they get to save Earth, Solum and the entire universe, while proving that it was their own bravery and ingenuity that won them the Protostar in the first pla
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 2, Episode 1. First broadcast on Sunday 26 September 1993. Stardate: Unknown (2370). It’s Series 2, Episode 1 of Deep Space Nine, and so it’s time for the show to set off in a bold new direction, exploring its premise instead of simply being The Next Generation but in a shopping mall. First item on the agenda: rescue a very dull Bajoran war hero from Soledad Canyon. Second: give him Kira’s job.
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 5, Episode 4. First broadcast on Thursday 18 April 2024. Stardate: Unknown (3191); also 2256, 2257, 2258, 3189 and 3218. This week Michael and her new first officer Commander Rayner are caught in a time loop carefully designed by the Krenim to give Michael the chance to prove that her approach to leadership is the correct one, as usual. Meanwhile, Joe gets a surprising present.
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 4, Episode 13. First broadcast on Monday 4 February 1991. Stardate: 44474.5. Many years ago, Joe and Nathan were offered a contract by a shadowy devilish figure, who promised them 180 episodes of peace and prosperity until her return, when she would demand their eternal servitude, mostly consisting of admiring her smile and the fabulosity of her hair. Honestly, they can both see the upside.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Series 1, Episode 1. First broadcast on Thursday 15 January 2026. Stardate: 853724.6 and Unknown (3190s). This week, the children of Earth face a difficult and precarious future — one that they didn’t create but that they must nevertheless endure. And now there’s a new Star Trek series where that’s basically happening too. But in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, these kids have hope: some weird and kindly people are here, with patience and empathy, determined to help them find a way through.
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 6, Episode 23. First broadcast on Wednesday 3 May 2000. Stardate: Unknown (2376 and 2371). This week, Joe and Nathan struggle to find exactly the right word to express their feelings about this episode.
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 2, Episode 10. First broadcast on Wednesday 27 November 2002. Stardate: Unknown (2152). Another astonishingly dull and unambitious week aboard Enterprise, as Hoshi Sato is accidentally transported into a high-concept plot that we’ve seen done better half a dozen times in the last fifteen years. Things liven up slightly ten minutes from the end, when we are treated to the dumbest line of dialogue in the history of the franchise.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 4, Episodes 1–2. First broadcast on Monday 2 October 1995. Stardate: 49011.4. This week, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine starts again — with a second pilot episode two and a half years after the first one. It’s The Best of Both Worlds, but much faster, funnier and more confident. And this is only the beginning. Again.
Star Trek Movie #5. Release date: 1989.Stardate: 8454.1. The quintessential odd-numbered Star Trek film, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier roared onto our screens in 1989, delighting and enthralling basically no one at all. Still, despite the glacial pace, the lack of incident and the horrendous special effects, it has something to say — something about the love and friendship between weird and grumpy old men who have known and annoyed one another for decades. And if you’ve got that, who needs Sha Ka Ree?
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 6, Episode 14. First broadcast on Wednesday 2 February 2000. Stardate: Unknown (2376). Tom, Harry, Neelix and Chakotay somehow return from a space mission with PTSD — and with memories of an armed conflict which might not even be theirs. All this goes just about as well as you’d expect, with inexplicable flashbacks, studio sets pretending to be outdoor locations, some odd gurning by Ethan, and some characteristically unpleasant shouting from the Worst Robert. But in spite of it all, there’s a point to be made, and some last-act location work lifts the whole thing con
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 3, Episode 26 / Series 4, Episode 1. First broadcast on Monday 18 June 1990 and Monday 24 September 1990. Stardate: 43989.1. This week, a seminal moment in the history of television appears to be taking place at 0.5× speed.
