Across 60 years of existence, there has been so much Star Trek on the airwaves that the 13 series in the franchise have delivered a whopping 52 seasons of TV in total. That's almost a season for every year that Trek has been around. Obviously, in a universe as long-lasting and as expansive as Trek, not all of those seasons have been the best of the best — each new show is its own beast with its own growing pains, after all. However, many of these seasons sit comfortably alongside the best and most influential sci-fi TV ever made.
Narrowing down the greatest Star Trek seasons ever is such a challenge that various worthy contenders couldn't quite make it into the top 10, including Season 2 of the deeply underrated animated series Prodigy and the excellent fourth and final season of Enterprise. As judged on the consistent quality of their episodes, the success of their storylines and character arcs, and how well they showcase the strengths of Star Trek as a whole, these are the seasons that were really firing their photon torpedoes on all cylinders.
Lower Decks truly surpassed all expectations the Star Trek fandom had for the franchise's first animated comedy series. Far from being the Rick & Morty knock-off that fans feared it was going to be, Lower Decks proved to be not a spoof of Star Trek but a loving homage to its rich, and frequently ridiculous, history. While every season of its far-too-short five-year run has its merits, Lower Decks Season 4 showcases the series at its creative peak.
There's the bonkers "Tuvix" sequel "Twovix," a much-needed look at Tendi's Orion piratical past in "Something Borrowed, Something Green," and the introduction of the merchandise-friendly Moopsy in "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee." Not to mention the promotion of breakout Vulcan character T'Lyn to the regular cast.
The highlight of the season remains its explosive two-part season finale, which resurrects a long-forgotten TNG character as a major antagonist and somehow finds a way to fold in Ferengi and a Wrath of Khan callback. It could only happen in Lower Decks.
The later seasons of Strange New Worlds have courted criticism for their reliance on so-called "gimmick episodes," but — regardless of how you feel about the show's quality these days — let's not forget how universally acclaimed its first season was. After Discovery had taken the franchise in a darker, more serialized direction, the return to good old-fashioned episodic Trek felt almost revolutionary. Anson Mount also immediately marked himself out as a superb Starfleet captain.
Season 1 is perhaps nimbler than some of its successors in its command of tone. There's the broad comedy of "Spock Amok" and the Aliens-alike space horror of "All Those Who Wander," and everything in between, and yet the batch of 10 episodes holds together thanks to the show's commitment to the integrity of its characters. The best of the bunch has to be the finale, "A Quality of Mercy," which offers an alternate-reality retelling of the iconic TOS episode "Balance of Terror" that introduces Paul Wesley as the future Captain Kirk.
Picard often receives a lot of flak for the muddled quality of its first two seasons, which is rather unfair when you consider that Patrick Stewart's previous Star Trek show, The Next Generation, was infamously a rough ride across its own first two years as well. And, just like TNG, Picard finally clicked into place with its third season, which delivered all the fan-service audiences could've asked for and then some.
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