Throughout its nearly 60-year history, Star Trek has delivered some great season finales. With eleven different television series, each with multiple seasons, Star Trek has had plenty of season finales. While some just feel like regular episodes, many served the dual purpose of wrapping up the season’s stories while also hinting at what was to come. In the modern television landscape, season finales often deliver shocking twists that pay off season-long story arcs, but this wasn’t always the case.
When Star Trek: The Original Series began in 1966, dramatic TV season finales were not really a thing. All three seasons of TOS ended with rather lackluster episodes that don’t feel like true finales at all. Although Star Trek: The Next Generation continued this tradition for its first two seasons (with the average “The Neutral Zone” and the infamously bad “Shades of Gray”), TNG would later begin Star Trek’s season-ending cliffhangers tradition. From that point on, Star Trek delivered some truly great season finales, and here are dozen of the best.
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12 “Hegemony” – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2
“Sometimes, a monster is just a monster.”
The Gorn reasserted themselves as the greatest threat to Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the USS Enterprise in Strange New Worlds season 2’s finale. This grim nail-biter sees the Gorn devastate the colony world of Parnassus Beta, kidnapping multiple characters, including key members of Pike’s Enterprise crew, while Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) is infected with Gorn eggs. Meanwhile, Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) and Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) battle a Gorn in the derelict saucer of the destroyed USS Cayuga. The surprise appearance of Lt. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (Martin Quinn) offers a smidgeon of hope the Enterprise can beat the Gorn, but Captain Pike and the Enteprise are left in a dire no-win cliffhanger scenario.
11 “Tears of the Prophets” – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6
“I have to make things right again, Jadzia. I have to.”
As the Federation decides to go on the offensive during the Dominion War, Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) struggles to reconcile his Starfleet duties with his role as Emissary of the Bajoran Prophets. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Dominion War was the first drawn-out conflict to be depicted in Star Trek, and “Tears of the Prophets” raises the stakes even higher before heading into the final season of DS9. Early in the episode, Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) and Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) discuss having children, and Jadzia is elated when she learns they will be able to conceive. This makes it all the more heartbreaking when Jadzia is tragically killed by a Pah-wraith-possessed Dukat (Marc Alaimo) before the episode’s end.
10 “Scorpion, Part 1” – Star Trek: Voyager Season 3
“Species 8472 must be stopped. Our survival is your survival.”
After their introduction in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Borg quickly became one of Star Trek’s best villains. Although they may have become somewhat less frightening over the course of their many appearances, the Borg remained a significant threat throughout Star Trek: Voyager. So when the USS Voyager encounters an enemy that even the Borg fear, Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is faced with an impossible decision. The aliens the Borg feared, known as Species 8472, never quite reached their full potential, but their initial introduction remains riveting. Now with a shared enemy, Janeway agrees to a surprising alliance with the Borg.
9 “Old Friends, New Planets” – Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4
“He’s an idiot and his plan is stupid.”
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 was the animated comedy’s best season yet, and the finale revealed even more connections to Star Trek: The Next Generation. After the reveal that disgraced Starfleet cadet Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) was behind the recent attacks, “Old Friends, New Planets” flashes back to Locarno’s time at Starfleet Academy. Wil Wheaton and Shannon Fill reprise their roles as Wesley Crusher and Sito Jaxa in a flashback scene set just before TNG’s “The First Duty.” “Old Friends, New Planets” resolves all of the season’s plot threads, including the emotional journey of Lt. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), who finally begins to embrace her role in Starfleet.
8 “The Expanse” – Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2
“Straight and steady, Mr. Mayweather. Let’s see what’s in there.”
Star Trek: Enterprise season 2’s finale opens with a devastating attack on Earth, which certainly grabs the viewer’s attention. In the opening scene of “The Expanse,” an alien probe cuts a giant swath from Florida to Venezuela that results in millions of deaths. On the way back to Earth, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the crew of the Enterprise NX-01 learn about the Temporal Cold War and the Xindi. The Xindi are responsible for the attack on Earth, as they attempt to prevent their destruction in the future. “The Expanse” ends as the Enterprise enters a dangerous area of space known as the Delphic Expanse, beginning a story arc that will last the entirety of Enterprise’s third season.
7 “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2” – Star Trek: Discovery Season 2
“All officers remaining with knowledge of these events must be ordered never to speak of Discovery, its spore drive, or her crew again.”
With the introduction of Anson Mount’s Captain Christopher Pike and Ethan Peck’s Lt. Spock, Star Trek: Discovery season 2 improved upon the show’s first season in several ways and took the show in a new direction. With a complex plot involving a time-traveling Red Angel, Star Trek: Discovery’s season 2 finale had a lot of story to wrap up, as Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) fought to save the galaxy. She succeeded, of course, but the USS Discovery was forced to travel 900 years into the future to save everyone. The decision to send Discovery into the distant, unexplored future was an inspired one that allowed the show and its characters to establish themselves outside of their connections to TOS.
6 “A Quality of Mercy” – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1
“Let’s just say I think the universe is telling me that some fates are inescapable.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brings its wonderful first season to a close with an episode that reimagines a classic Star Trek: The Original Series story. TOS season 1, episode 14, “Balance of Terror,” introduced the Romulans, the duplicitous aliens who would become one of the franchise’s most iconic villains. Strange New Worlds season 1’s finale, “A Quality of Mercy,” puts Captain Pike in Captain James T. Kirk’s (William Shatner) position, with decidedly less favorable results. In trying to prevent his tragic fate, Pike inadvertently alters the future for the worse, and Admiral Pike travels back from the future to set things right. “A Quality of Mercy” is a great episode for Pike as a character, and also a fascinating glimpse of what could have been.
5 “Call to Arms” – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5
“Then we make the Dominion sorry they ever set foot in the Alpha Quadrant.”
From its first episode, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine establishes itself as a different kind of Star Trek. Not only does the majority of the show take place on a space station rather than a starship, but DS9 also has a much darker tone than any previous Trek project. In its later seasons, DS9 would take a more serialized approach to storytelling, with a lengthy story arc following the Dominion War. When Captain Sisko and Starfleet abandon Deep Space Nine to the Dominion, it feels like the Federation is entering into a war it might lose. While this dread is somewhat tempered by the final shot of the Federation’s vast armada, there’s an undeniable sense of foreboding as the credits roll.
4 “Supernova, Part 2” – Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1
“You may think you need me to get there, but after seeing everything you’ve accomplished, I have full confidence you’ll find your way. Because together, your potential is infinite. Now, go boldly.”
With “Supernova, Part 2,” Star Trek: Prodigy solidified its status as genuine Star Trek as the ragtag crew of the USS Protostar learn the meaning of sacrifice when Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) sacrifices the starship and herself to save Starfleet. Back on Earth, Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) defends the Protostar’s young alien crew and argues for their admission to Starfleet Academy. Star Trek: Prodigy‘s season 1 finale is a heart-tugging and reassuring conclusion to the show’s thrilling first season, and it intriguingly sets up Janeway and the Protostar kids’ next mission in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2.
3 “The Last Generation” – Star Trek: Picard Season 3
“We’re grateful to have ridden the tide with you.”
Star Trek: Picard season 3 brought the crew members of the USS Enterprise-D back together to save the galaxy one more time, giving the TNG crew their second great finale. When the Borg and the Changelings begin their takeover of the Federation, the Enterprise-D swoops in to save the day, seemingly ending the Borg threat once and for all. Jean-Luc finally puts his past with the Borg behind him, embracing the chance to reconnect with his newfound son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers). “The Last Generation” not only provides a satisfying conclusion to the story of Jean-Luc Picard and his friends, but also looks ahead to the bright future of Star Trek.
2 “All Good Things…” – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7
“Five card stud, nothing wild, and the sky’s the limit.”
Throughout its seven seasons, Star Trek: The Next Generation produced some of the best science fiction television of all time, meaning the series finale had a lot to live up to. And “All Good Things…” more than delivers, with a story that brings Captain Picard full circle as he jumps through time. The god-like Q (John de Lancie) returns to bookend the show, giving Picard another test and sending him into both his past and his future. “All Good Things…” does everything a series finale should, reminiscing about everything that came before, but also looking to the future. In the end, Captain Picard finally sits down to join his friends for a game of poker, as the final credits roll.
1 “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1” – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3
“I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile.”
Even today, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s season 3 finale remains one of the best examples of a season-ending cliffhanger. The Borg are at their most frightening here, as they assimilate the usually unflappable Captain Picard and turn him into Locutus. The Borg strip everything away from Picard, making him their mouthpiece. As Commander Riker looks at what’s left of his friend and former captain, he gives the order to fire on the Borg ship just before the episode cuts to black.
Picard’s fate remained up in the air for most of the summer of 1990, as Patrick Stewart’s return to TNG was not set in stone at the time. Picard’s assimilation would have lasting consequences for the character that carries through Star Trek: Picard season 3. Star Trek has aired many finales since that first season-ending cliffhanger, but the first part of “The Best of Both Worlds” remains a gold standard of television finales.
