J.J. Abrams' 2009 feature film was billed as"not your father's Star Trek," but your father will probably love it anyway. And what's not to love? It has enough action, emotional impact, humor, and sheer fun for any moviegoer, and Trekkers will enjoy plenty of insider references and a cast that seems ideally suited to portray the characters we know they'll become later. Both a prequel and a reboot, Star Trek introduces us to James T. Kirk (Chris Pine of The Princess Diaries 2 ), a sharp but aimless young man who's prodded by a Starfleet captain, Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), to enlist and make a difference. At the Academy, Kirk runs afoul of a Vulcan commander named Spock (Zachary Quinto of Heroes ), but their conflict has to take a back seat when Starfleet, including its new ship, the Enterprise, has to answer an emergency call from Vulcan. What follows is a stirring tale of genocide and revenge launched by a Romulan (Eric Bana) with a particular interest in Spock, and we get to see the familiar crew come together, including McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Chekhov (Anton Yelchin), and Scottie (Simon Pegg).<br/> The action and visuals make for a spectacular big-screen movie, though the plot by Abrams and his writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who worked together on Transformers and with Abrams on Alias and Mission Impossible III ), and his producers (fellow Losties Damon Lindeloff and Bryan Burk) can be a bit of a mind-bender (no surprise there for Lost fans ). Hardcore fans with a bone to pick may find faults, but resistance is futile when you can watch Kirk take on the Kobayashi Maru scenario or hear McCoy bark,"Damnit, man, I'm a doctor, not a physicist!" An appearance by Leonard Nimoy and hearing the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry as the voice of the computer simply sweeten the pot. Now comes the hard part: waiting for some sequels to this terrific prequel. --David Horiuchi

The most famous episode in franchise history,"The Trouble with Tribbles," is one of the highlights of the second season of Star Trek: The Original Series . A deserved classic, the humourous story centers on an ever-expanding mass of furry creatures that memorably rain themselves down on top of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and into the middle of a Federation-Klingon showdown. It inspired one of the most memorable episodes in the spin-off series Deep Space Nine ,"Trial and Tribble-ations." Also in the second season, the Vulcan culture of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is fleshed out in"Amok Time" (in which Spock is faced with the possibility of killing his captain and friend) and"Journey to Babel" (introducing Spock's father, played by Mark Sarek, in what would turn out to be a long-recurring role). A new character, navigator Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), was introduced; his Monkees haircut was intended to appeal to the younger audience, but he was also a Russian, which at the height of the cold war reflected Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision of a more enlightened future. Other social-commentary opportunities presented themselves in"The Omega Glory,""The Doomsday Machine," and"Assignment: Earth," the last also one of those periodic opportunities to scrimp on the budget by time-traveling to an earlier version of Earth. Another example was"A Piece of the Action," a comic episode set in the Roaring Twenties and memorable for, among other things, Kirk's teaching a made-up card game called Fizzbin. In other significant episodes,"I, Mudd" saw the return of the bounder from season 1,"The Changeling" was the original inspiration for the first Trek feature film a decade later,"Wolf in the Fold" (penned by the author of Psycho) provides an example of the series' great writing, and"Mirror, Mirror" introduced the concept of the parallel universe inhabited by vicious, amoral counterparts of the regular crew, another theme later borrowed (more than once, and to good emotional effect) by DS9. -- David Horiuchi

After Star Wars and the successful big-screen Star Trek adventures, it's perhaps not so surprising that Gene Roddenberry managed to convince purse string-wielding studio heads in the 1980s that a Next Generation would be both possible and profitable. But the political climate had changed considerably since the 1960s, the Cold War had wound down, and we were now living in the Age of Greed. To be successful a second time, Star Trek had to change too. <br /><br />A writer's guide was composed with which to sell and define where the Trek universe was in the 24th Century. The United Federation of Planets was a more appealing ideology to an America keen to see where the Reagan/Gorbachev faceoff was taking them. Starfleet's meritocratic philosophy had always embraced all races and species. Now Earth's utopian history, featuring the abolishment of poverty, was brandished prominently and proudly. <br /><br />The new Enterprise, NCC 1701-D, was no longer a ship of war but an exploration vessel carrying families. The ethical and ethnical flagship also carried a former enemy (the Klingon Worf, played by Michael Dorn), and its Chief Engineer (Geordi LaForge) was blind and black. From every politically correct viewpoint, Paramount executives thought the future looked just swell!<br /><br />Roddenberry's feminism now contrasted a pilot episode featuring ship's Counsellor Troi (Marina Sirtis) in a mini-skirt with her ongoing inner strengths and also those of Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and the short-lived Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). The arrival of Whoopi Goldberg in season 2 as mystic barkeep Guinan is a great example of the good the original Trek did for racial groups--Goldberg has stated that she was inspired to become an actress in large part through seeing Nichelle Nichols' Uhura. Her credibility as an actress helped enormously alongside the strong central performances of Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (First Officer Will Riker), and Brent Spiner (Data) in defining another wholly believable environment once again populated with well-defined characters. Star Trek, it turned out, did not depend for its success on any single group of actors.<br /><br />Like its predecessor in the 1960s, TNG pioneered visual effects on TV, making it an increasingly jaw-dropping show to look at. And thanks also to the enduring success of the original show, phasers, tricorders, communicators and even phase inverters were already familiar to most viewers. But while technology was a useful tool in most crises, it now frequently seemed to be the cause of them too, as the show's writers continually warned about the dangers of over-reliance on technology (the Borg were the ultimate expression of this maxim). The word"technobabble" came to describe a weakness in many TNG scripts, which sacrificed the social and political allegories of the original and relied instead upon invented technological faults and their equally fictitious resolutions to provide drama within the Enterprise's self-contained society. (The holodeck's safety protocol override seemed to be next to the light switch given the number of times crew members were trapped within.) This emphasis on scientific jargon appealed strongly to an audience who were growing up for the first time in the late 1980s with the home computer--and gave rise to the clichéd image of the nerdy Trek fan.<br /><br />Like in the original Trek, it was in the stories themselves that much of the show's success is to be found. That pesky Prime Directive kept moral dilemmas afloat ("Justice"/"Who Watches the Watchers?"/"First Contact"). More"what if" scenarios came out of time-travel episodes ("Cause and Effect"/"Time's Arrow"/"Yesterday's Enterprise"). And there were some episodes that touched on the political world, such as"The Arsenal of Freedom" questioning the supply of arms,"Chain of ommand" decrying the torture of political prisoners and"The Defector", which was called"The Cuban Missile Crisis of The Neutral Zone" by its writer. The show ran for more than twice as many episodes as its progenitor and therefore had more time to explore wider ranging issues. <br /><br />But the choice of issues illustrates the change in the social climate that had occurred with the passing of a couple of decades."Angel One" covered sexism;"The Outcast" was about homosexuality;"Symbiosis"--drug addiction;"The High Ground"--terrorism;"Ethics"--euthanasia;"Darmok"--language barriers; and"Journey's End"--displacement of Indians from their homeland. It would have been unthinkable for the original series to have tackled most of these.<br /><br />TNG could so easily have been a failure, but it wasn't. It survived a writer's strike in its second year, the tragic death of Roddenberry just after Trek's 25th anniversary in 1991, and plenty of competition from would-be rival franchises. Yes, its maintenance of an optimistic future was appealing, but the strong stories and readily identifiable characters ensured the viewers' continuing loyalty.--Paul Tonks

After proving its long-term potential in season 2, Star Trek: Voyager served up some of the best episodes in its entire seven-year history. The second-season cliffhanger was intelligently resolved in"Basics, Pt. II," and the fan-favorite"Flashback" placed Tuvok (Tim Russ) aboard the U.S.S. Excelsior from Star Trek VI , under the command of Capt. Sulu ( Star Trek alumnus George Takei). It was a brilliant example of interseries plotting, just as"False Profits" was a Ferengi-based sequel to the NextGen episode"The Price." The two-part time-travel scenario of"Future's End" is a Voyager highlight, with clear echoes (including dialogue lifted verbatim!) of Star Trek's classic"The City on the Edge of Forever," featuring delightful guest performances by actress-comedienne Sarah Silverman and Ed Begley Jr. Character-wise, the season belonged to Kes (Jennifer Lien, whose tenure on the series was now near its end), Neelix (Ethan Phillips), and the Doctor (Robert Picardo), who shined (respectively) in"Warlord,""Fair Trade," and the surprisingly touching"Real Life" (the latter directed by"Potsie" himself, Happy Days veteran Anson Williams). By infecting B'Elanna (Roxanne Dawson) with a fellow officer's"Blood Fever," Voyager delved into the turbulent Vulcan ritual of Pon Farr, while the cliffhanger"Scorpion" introduced the relentless, Borg-destroying villains of Species 8472, which would pose a continuing threat in subsequent episodes.

Season 3 had a few clunkers (the guilty pleasure"Macrocosm" puts Janeway in stripped-down"Ripley" mode against invading macro-viruses, and Ensign Kim is an awkward"Favorite Son" to a bevy of babes), but for every misstep there's a strong science-fiction concept, like the highly-evolved Hadrosaurs in"Distant Origin," which doubles as a compelling indictment of institutionalized repression. Overall, this is rock-solid Trek, and the DVD features are equally engaging, albeit growing more perfunctory (especially the season 3 summary) with each full-season release. Don't forget the Easter eggs hidden on the special-features menus, however; they contain some of the set's happiest surprises. -- Jeff Shannon

For many fans, Voyager hit its peak in the fourth season, due in no small part to a certain former Borg drone named Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 0-1, but you can call her Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Following the season 3 cliffhanger"Scorpion," the crew enters an unlikely alliance with the Borg against Species 8472, led by Seven of Nine, who ends up restoring (mostly) her human roots and trying to assimilate herself among Voyager's crew all the time feeling the pull of the Collective and resisting the mother-hen attempts of Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). While Seven's curvaceous figure and skin-tight uniform certainly won over many fans, she was helped by a commanding presence, good writing ("So you wish to copulate?" was a classic line), and a stage that was cleared for her by the coinciding departure of one of the most prominent characters of the series.

Other significant developments of the season included the actors' getting to stretch themselves out"Mirror, Mirror"-like as evil counterparts in"Living Witness" (also Tim Russ's directing debut), the time- and mind-bending two-parter"Year of Hell," a battle with 1940s Nazis in the two-part"The Killing Game," the Doctor's comedic sparring with a new rival in"Message in a Bottle," the Alien-like"Prey," and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan MacNeill) taking a personal step and switching bodies with an alien in"Vis a Vis."-- David Horiuchi

After seven long years trying to return home, it's no surprise that the seventh season of Voyager was emotional. It begins with the resolution to season 6's"Unimatrix Zero," in which Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson), and Tuvok (Tim Russ) must find a way off the Borg Cube and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) faces the loss of the precious bit of humanity she has just discovered."Human Error" focuses on Seven's further attempts to explore her human side (a romance comes from out of the blue). And if Seven isn't the cast's most fascinating character, it's the other crew member struggling to find his not-quite-human identity, the Doctor (Robert Picardo). In"Body and Soul," the Doctor gets to experience physical life in the body of--who else?--Seven. He writes a novel in"Author, Author," and in the first of a pair of excellent two-parters,"Flesh and Blood," he explores what it means to be a hologram in the midst of a deadly situation involving the Hirogen. In the second two-parter,"Workforce," the crew is kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming ordinary laborers on a planet with a worker shortage, but Janeway is forced to question whether she wouldn't prefer this version of a normal, stable life.

The seventh season also saw the first Trek wedding since Dax-Worff, the return of the old Federation-Maquis conflict, the continuing efforts of Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) to bring Voyager home, Kim (Garrett Wang) taking command twice (once with the help of the Emergency Command Hologram), the return of Q, and Neelix's discovery of a group of fellow Talaxians. The final episode,"Endgame," is less concerned with misty-eyed goodbyes than with a bending of conventional views of the space-time continuum that leads to an exciting showdown with the Borg queen (Alice Krige, repeating her role from Star Trek: First Contact but making her first appearance on Voyager ). -- David Horiuchi

To the delight of Star Trek fans everywhere, the stellar second season of The Next Generation (1988-89) belonged to Lieutenant Commander Data. As the Enterprise-D's resident android, Data (in the Emmy-worthy hands of Brent Spiner) would gain legal sentience in the season highlight"The Measure of a Man," and his increasingly"human" personality would refine itself in such diverse episodes as"Elementary, Dear Data" (Data as Sherlock Holmes),"The Outrageous Okona" (a misfire, but worthy from the Data perspective), and"Pen Pals." While Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) took a sabbatical of then-unknown duration (gracefully replaced by original Trek guest star Diana Muldaur as Dr. Pulaski), the remaining bridge crew would match Data's vitality: Riker grew a handsome beard and proved his command potential; Worf became richly nuanced in"The Icarus Factor," and met his match (and mate) in guest Suzie Plakson's fiercely Klingon sexpot K'Ehleyr; Wesley matured admirably, despite continuing fan disapproval; Betazed culture emerged as Troi locked horns with her eccentric mother, Lwaxana (Majel Barrett, in a recurring role); and La Forge made good on his promotion to chief engineer while Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney) flawlessly rode on Geordi's coattails.

In a crucial series development, Guinan (special guest Whoopi Goldberg) revealed a connection to Q in her helpful capacity as Ten-Forward's enigmatic host, while Q himself (John DeLancie) precipitated the Enterprise's first, fateful encounter with the Borg (in the suspenseful"Q Who?"). Through it all, Patrick Stewart brilliantly intensified all of Picard's renaissance qualities (especially in the dazzling"Time Squared"), exploring the captain's facets with equal measures of curiosity, fascination, amusement, courage, and philosophical insight. Despite its lame finale with the money-saving clip-show"Shades of Gray," season 2 charted a warp-nine course to the even better season 3. -- Jeff Shannon

Under intense scrutiny, the debut season of Enterprise earned a passing grade from critics and Star Trek fans alike. Voyager ended its seven-season run just four months earlier, and fans were skeptical when Enterprise premiered with a theme song ("Where My Heart Will Take Me," composed by Diane Warren and performed by Russell Watson) that defied Trek's revered theme-music tradition. This and other early reservations were dispelled when"Broken Bow" got the series off to a satisfying start, beginning in the year 2151 and establishing a pre-Federation focus on humanity's delicate relationship with the Vulcans, the controversial launch of the NX-01 Enterprise on an exploratory mission, and the potentially devastating consequences of the mysterious Temporal Cold War involving a time-traveling splinter group of the Suliban, a nomadic alien race. While establishing a testy relationship between Enterprise Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his smart-and-sexy Vulcan Sub-Commander, T'Pol (Jolene Blalock, in a short-banged wig and form-fitting"catsuit" that were later redesigned), the series introduced engineer"Trip" Tucker (Connor Trineer), whose surprise development in"Unexpected" made him a fan favorite; communications officer Hoshi Sato (Linda Park); helmsman Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery); weapons expert Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), and chief surgeon Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), a well-mannered Denobulan recruit from Earth's Interspecies Medical Exchange.

As a"prequel' series that predates the original Star Trek by 150 years, Enterprise built upon established Trek lore with episodes involving Vulcans ("Breaking the Ice"), Klingons ("Sleeping Dogs"), the blue-skinned Andorians ("The Andorian Incident,""Shadows of P'Jem"), and the Ferengi ("Acquisition") while offering stand-alone episodes (notably"Dear Doctor,""Fortunate Son," and"Shuttlepod One") that further acquainted fans with the Enterprise regulars. Early Trek technology is also introduced (including"phase pistols" and the rarely used, still-risky transporter), and the series drew strength from what many felt would be its primary weakness: unwritten history and the initial indecisiveness of Archer's bold foray into the unknown. Ending with a dazzling"Shock Wave" cliffhanger that leaves Archer stranded in a decimated Temporal Cold War future, Enterprise set a strong foundation for the events of season 2. -- Jeff Shannon

In their sixth season trying to return to the Alpha Quadrant, the crew of Voyager continues to find signs that they may be close to home. They ran across another Federation starship in the season 5 cliffhanger,"Equinox," which is concluded in action-packed fashion. Then they benefit from a brief communications link to home thanks to the ongoing efforts of The Next Generation's Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), occasionally assisted by Counsellor Troi (Marina Sirtis)."One Small Step" sets Voyager on the trail of NASA's first manned mission to Mars (one of the bonus features details Robert Picardo's post-Trek work with NASA).

In other episodes, Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) tests the limits of Klingon honour ("Barge of the Dead"), Tuvok (Tim Russ) stretches his emotions ("Riddles), Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Kim (Garrett Wang) embark on a new holdeck program, wrestling superstar the Rock makes a gimmicky guest appearance ("Tsunakatse"), a former crew member returns ("Fury"), and the crew discovers a group of abandoned Borg children ("Collective"). The two most interesting characters continue to be the Doctor (Picardo) and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). The former stretches out numerous times ("Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy,""Virtuoso,""Life Line"), and we learn more about Seven's Borg past in"Survival Instinct" and the season closer, in which Seven discovers that during regeneration she can enter a dream world called Unimatrix Zero. There she meets a number of mutated Borg who can exist in this world in their pre-assimilation state and who also present an idea for destroying the collective from within. The Borg Queen, however, discovers the plan and ends the season in a nightmarish cliffhanger that recalls the great Next Gen episode"The Best of Both Worlds." -- David Horiuchi

If the first season of Star Trek: Voyager was a shakedown cruise, then season 2 represents a vital blossoming of the series' potential. As Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew maintained Starfleet integrity in the lawless expanse of the Delta quadrant, and became the ethical conscience of her still-uneasy Maquis/Starfleet crew, whose unanimous loyalty would be dramatically proven in"The '37's" (a first-season hold-over). Janeway's moral guidance would also assert itself in"Death Wish" (a"Q" episode featuring NextGen's Jonathan Frakes) and"Tuvix," in which life-or-death decisions landed squarely on her shoulders. Season 2 brought similar development to all the primary characters, deepening their relationships and defining their personalities, especially Robert Beltran as Chakotay (in"Initiations" and"Tattoo"), now firmly established as Janeway's best friend (and nearly more than that, in"Resolutions") and command-decision confidante.

Solid sci-fi concepts abound in season 2, although"Threshold" is considered an embarrassment (as confessed by co-executive producer Brannon Braga in a self-deprecating"Easter Egg" interview clip). It was a forgivable lapse in a consistently excellent season that intensified Janeway's struggle with the villainous Kazon, exacerbated by a Starfleet traitor in cahoots with the duplicitous Cardassian Seska (played by Martha Hackett, featured in a lively guest-star profile). The psychologically intense"Meld" (featuring a riveting guest performance by Brad Dourif) was a Tuvok-story highlight, and the aptly titled"Basics, Pt. 1" provided an ominous cliffhanger, including a second planetary landing (in a season full of impressive special effects) that left Voyager's fate in question. All in all, this was one of Voyager's finest seasons, leaving some enticing questions to be answered in season 3. -- Jeff Shannon</i.