Star Trek’s 5 Animated Series Ranked Worst To Best

Star Trek first explores the animated frontier in 1973 with Star Trek: The Animated Series and four other animated series now follow in its wake. Animation returned to Star Trek with “Ephraim and Dot” and “The Girl Who Made the Stars”, entries in the Star Trek: Short Treks anthology. Star Trek experienced a few other firsts through its animated series, with Mike McMahan’s Star Trek: Lower Decks as its first comedy series, and Star Trek: Prodigy, created by Kevin and Dan Hageman in a joint venture with Nickelodeon, as the first Star Trek targeted to younger audiences. The latest entry, Star Trek: very Short Treks, is a non-canonical sketch series intended to honor the legacy of Star Trek animation.

Each of these animated Star Trek shows has something to offer, with different takes on the Star Trek universe and unique approaches to storytelling aimed at varying target demographics. All of them take full advantage of being animated, by including characters or situations that would be difficult, expensive, or even impossible to pull off in live-action. Some recreate live-action characters as animated counterparts or brush up against familiar settings, but all of them contribute something new to Star Trek, from Star Trek: The Animated Series’ Caitians returning in Star Trek: Lower Decks, to the brave crew and novel technology of Star Trek: Prodigy‘s USS Protostar.

5 Star Trek: very Short Treks

(2023)

Star Trek honors the 50th anniversary of animated adventures with Star Trek: very Short Treks, a five-part web series. Each 3-5 minute episode recreates the classic animation style of Star Trek: The Animated Series with later iterations of Star Trek, including its infamous continuity gaffes. It’s a treat to see characters throughout the franchise like Quark (Armin Shimerman), Neelix (Ethan Phillips), and Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak) rendered as Filmation cartoons, and a delight to hear characters’ original actors reprise their roles, particularly Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ cast in the otherwise lukewarm “Holiday Party” and Connor Trinneer’s Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III in the redemptive “Holograms All the Way Down”.

Unfortunately, very Short Treks’ humor doesn’t mesh well with Star Trek‘s ethos, making jokes at the expense of inclusivity that Star Trek celebrates. In episode 1, “Skin a Cat”, Pete Holmes’ “USS Enterprise captain” (notably not James T. Kirk) laments that he can’t speak without offending someone; and episode 3 “Worst Contact”, Commander William “Bill” Riker (Jonathan Frakes) uncharacteristically prefers destroying a civilization’s warp capabilities to engaging with gross-to-humans customs. Happily, a delightfully gonzo musical episode 5 “Walk, Don’t Run” features multiple eras with Riker, D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), but it’s probably best that Star Trek: very Short Treks is “anything but canon”.

4 Star Trek: Short Treks

(2018 – 2020)

Star Trek: Short Treks is a limited anthology series that covers previously unseen, smaller moments in different eras of the Star Trek franchise. Its two animated installments are Star Trek‘s official return to animation after the end of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and serve as companion pieces to Star Trek: Discovery. Both are lushly illustrated self-contained tales that take full advantage of their animation styles, with glimpses into alternate perspectives of familiar Star Trek themes, but at a combined 17 minutes, there just isn’t enough to go on to rank them any higher. Nonetheless, they’re certainly worth checking out, especially as a fan of animation in general.

“The Girl Who Made the Stars”, directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, sees Star Trek: Discovery‘s Michael Burnham (Kyrie McAlpin) seek comfort from her father Mike Burnham (Kenric Green) as a child afraid of the dark. His bedtime story combines African tradition with Star Trek‘s optimistic gaze towards the stars, as the titular girl brings an alien’s gift of light to her people. “Ephraim and Dot” is a colorful cel-shaded romp evocative of animation’s golden age, with tardigrade Ephraim seeking shelter to lay eggs aboard the USS Enterprise before she’s thwarted by a DOT-7 robot. Directed by Michael Giacchino, the short is set against the backdrop of Star Trek: The Original Series with archival audio clips.

3 Star Trek: The Animated Series

(1973 – 1975)

Star Trek: The Animated Series picks up where Star Trek: The Original Series left off, as a continuation of the Enterprise’s 5-year mission under Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Most of the original cast reprise their roles, thanks to Leonard Nimoy’s fight for inclusion, with only Walter Koenig’s Pavel Chekov cut. The cast is otherwise limited, with guest characters played by Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, or Majel Barrett. The animation is sparse and simple, typical of 1970s Saturday morning cartoons, and the storytelling skews closer to silly than poignant. It’s hard to take seriously for all but its best episodes, even with familiar voices and returning writers.

Nonetheless, Star Trek: The Animated Series is an integral part of Star Trek. Elements from TAS persist into Star Trek‘s modern era, particularly the glimpses at Vulcan culture and Spock’s past in its second episode, D.C. Fontana’s “Yesteryear”. New bridge officers include the three-armed Edosian Lt. Arex (James Doohan) and Caitian operations officer Lt. M’Ress (Majel Barrett), two species unlikely to appear in 1970s live action. Holograms first debut here as well, in the Recreation Room. The lasting legacy of The Animated Series remains its testament to the dedicated fan base’s power to un-cancel Star Trek for a third time and continue the franchise into the future.

2 Star Trek: Prodigy

(2021 – ongoing)

Star Trek: Prodigy‘s mission is to introduce younger audiences to Star Trek’s ethos, and it’s as sharp and thoughtful as any other Star Trek. Prodigy centers on six alien teenagers discovering Starfleet’s USS Protostar and using it as their ticket out of hardship, not knowing the Protostar carries technology valuable to both the Federation and their overseer, the Diviner (John Noble). Guided by Hologram Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Prodigy‘s young characters face problems relatable to its target audience while representing core tenets of Star Trek, like Dal R’El (Brett Gray) overcoming selfishness, Gwyndala (Ella Purnell) exploring her potential, Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) delighting in science, Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas)’s sacrifices, and Zero (Angus Imrie) redefining family.

Star Trek: Prodigy is the perfect introduction to Star Trek for people of any age, as it handily explains technology like replicators and transporters, simplifies the politics of the Federation and its adversaries, and focuses on its characters’ growth into more compassionate people over easily-digestible episodes. Prodigy‘s distinctive character designs and return of classic characters like Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock via archival dialog is achieved through its gorgeous 3D animation, heretofore unseen in Star Trek. Best of all, it’s the kind of Star Trek that creates new fans from an early age, imparting valuable ethical lessons inherent to Star Trek and sustaining the franchise into the future.

1 Star Trek: Lower Decks

(2020 – ongoing)

On its surface, Star Trek: Lower Decks looks like a run-of-the-mill adult animated comedy with a Star Trek skin, but it’s safer to say that the reverse is true. The “Warp Core Four” of Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), joined by Vulcan Lt. T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) in season 4, know the world they inhabit as well as the audience does, with quick references to the deepest cuts of Star Trek lore and tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of the goofiest episodes. Fortunately, prior knowledge of Star Trek becomes less necessary as Lower Decks learns to reference itself for its humor, like the recurring joke of the Great Koala, and the introduction of its own aliens like the terrifying Moopsy.

More importantly, Star Trek: Lower Decks is far more than mile-a-minute comedy. The deep references are purposeful celebrations of the overlooked and forgotten elements of Star Trek, the “lower decks” of the franchise, as it were. Its characters are drawn with big eyes but even bigger hearts, as real people with wide character arcs that lean into the truth of living in a world where Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) turning into a godlike floating head is just as likely as the next Romulan encounter. Star Trek: Lower Decks is a love letter to Star Trek that honors the shows that preceded it while forging its own identity, and it does so with brilliant wit and genuine care.

In the modern era, animated Star Trek has truly come into its own. As a brilliant family series, Star Trek: Prodigy will see its second season debut on Netflix in 2024. Star Trek: Lower Decks continues to deliver both laughs and heart in its four seasons and has been renewed for a fifth. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds dabbled in animation with its Lower Decks crossover. More Star Trek animated shorts might even be in the franchise’s future. No matter the tone or audience, one thing is for sure: animated Star Trek owes a debt to Star Trek: The Animated Series for breaking that barrier fifty years ago.