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The so-called Mirror Universe from the "Star Trek" franchise was first glimpsed in the original series' 1967 episode "Mirror, Mirror." That episode saw Kirk (William Shatner) and a few of his Enterprise crewmates accidentally beamed into a parallel dimension thanks to an ion storm. This parallel universe was similar to Kirk's home, only everyone was evil. The U.S.S. Enterprise was now an imperial ship of conquest, and it was common for underlings to assassinate their superiors in order to advance their careers. Starfleet officers were also all equipped with widgets called Agonizers, which their bosses used to inflict painful punishments.

The Mirror Universe wouldn't be seen again until the 1994 "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Crossover." There, it was revealed that the Imperial Fleet had been overrun by Klingons and Romulans in that alternate reality, leaving humans enslaved by a new Empire.

Gene Roddenberry was working as a Los Angeles cop in the mid-1950s when he began his writing career. He flew planes in the army during WWII, and famously survived three plane crashes. He was a commercial airline pilot for a spell before joining the LAPD. This is a wild backstory for a TV writer who would become best known for utopian science fiction. By the time he was a cop, "Star Trek" was still about a decade away.

Roddenberry's first writing gigs were, perhaps predictably, for crime shows like "Highway Patrol" and "Mr. District Attorney." For the bulk of the '50s and '60s, he contributed to the hit Westerns of the day, writing 24 episodes of "Have Gun -- Will Travel," and one-offs of "Wrangler," "Whiplash," and "Boots and Saddles." He was a Tinseltown journeyman.

Along the way, Roddenberry wrote several pilots for TV shows that were never picked up.

Some Star Trek series were fortunate enough to cast experienced actors in major roles, but few generated the excitement and buzz around Star Trek: Enterprise when the show’s producers announced that Scott Bakula would take the captain’s chair for the series. Bakula, who’d experienced success with NBC’s Quantum Leap, agreed to take the role when producers explained the show’s premise and setting, which takes place 100 years before Captain Kirk and his crew begin their 5-year mission. Star Trek: Enterprise enjoyed a 4-season run on the Upn network, and some fans return to the series on streaming simply to enjoy Bakula’s presence and his portrayal of Captain Jonathan Archer, as the veteran actor has a loyal fanbase that’s built steadily since his early days on the stage and screen.

Scott Bakula’s early career

Scott Bakula was born in St. Louis, Missouri on October 9th,...

Data, the android played by Brent Spiner, was beloved by the writers of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Apart from Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), Data had the most number of episodes devoted to him. Data was emotionless but aspired to be human, giving him a unique perspective on the human condition. He would ask fundamental queries like "What is humor?" or "Describe feeling angry," allowing the Trekkies watching to formulate answers in their minds. Data's questions allowed viewers to become more articulate about the human experience, which is good, just in case we meet an android in person. 

Spiner was also such a versatile actor that he was frequently asked to play other characters. Data became possessed by an evil alien criminal in the episode "Power Play", for instance. In the episode "A Fistful of Datas", an Old West holodeck program began reproducing duplicates of Data, all played by Spiner.

Star Trek fans know and appreciate the acting talents of those chosen few fortunate enough to take the role of captain across several series ever since the original television show aired in September of 1966. While each actor brought something special to the series he or she starred in, they all have other surprising talents that lie outside the acting world.

1. William Shatner: A part-time scribe

While Wiliam Shatner is an Emmy-winning actor and known to millions as Captain James T. Kirk, he is also an accomplished novelist. In addition to several Star Trek-related books, he created the 9-book series Tekwar (with assistance from ghostwriter Ron Goulart.)This series takes place in 2044, in Los Angeles, where ex-police officer Jake Cardigan tries to clear his name by working as a private investigator after being framed and cryo-imprisoned for nearly 5 years. While reviews for the series were mixed, it spawned a...

When life throws you off the horse, you either lie in the dirt or get back in the saddle. For Taylor Sheridan, that fall? It didn’t just fuel the fire—it forged it. Today, his name is practically stitched into the fabric of modern TV, with shows like Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, 1883, and 1923 flying high under his brand.

But long before he was calling the shots, Sheridan was just another face in the Hollywood herd—hoofing it from audition to audition, chasing roles, and battling the ruthless, cutthroat world of Hollywood. That world didn’t go easy on him. In fact, it humiliated him when he asked for a fair salary on Sons of Anarchy, a show that seemed to promise the world but only delivered with a harsh dose of reality.

Taylor Sheridan: From actor to screenwriter extraordinaire Taylor Sheridan’s Sons Of Anarchy | Credit: FX

We seriously...

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Deckshas come and gone, but the series is still garnering some attention. Per Trek Movie, two Star Trek: Lower Decks’ fifth season episodes, the penultimate episode, titled “Fissure Quest” and the series finale, “The New Next Generation,” were each nominated for Hugo Awards.

The Hugo Awards have been given out by the World Science Fiction Society since 1953. The two nominations Lower Decks received were both in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. “Fissure Quest,” written by Lauren McGuire and directed by Brandon Williams. The action-packed, guest-star-filled episode saw the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos enter the multiverse as gateways or fissures kept popping up in the galaxy.

The Two Hugo-Nominated Episodes

The episode saw the return of several beloved Star Trek actors from the vast, who lent their voices to the episode, including Star Trek: Deep...

Fans of the Star Trek franchise have always met new series with a mix of excitement and trepidation, but few are more divisive than Star Trek: Enterprise. From questionable production values to slow-moving plot arcs, some fans feel the series doesn’t fit in with other Trek shows (and don’t even get some people started on the theme song.) However, Star Trek: Enterprise did give the franchise some memorable characters, with one of the most notable being Andorian Thy’lek Shran (Jeffery Combs). From helping other characters in the universe grow to adding an element of grumpy humor reminiscent of Dr. McCoy, Shran’s character improves the lives of those around him, whether he intends to or not.

Shran is an excellent foil for Captain Archer

Andorians are not known for having a friendly or open manner, and like others of his kind, Shran is, at first, rather xenophobic.

3. Hoshi Sato

Ensign Hoshi Sato hails from the Nx-01 Enterprise seen on Star Trek: Enterprise. She serves as the ship’s communications officer. Sato is given solid character development throughout the series as she grows from a timid young ensign to a strong female presence.

Despite her solid arc, Sato is often left in the dust by her fellow officers. She rarely gets the opportunity to go on away missions and is notably never promoted throughout the series. She deserved more depth as a character than what she was ultimately given.

2. Nyota Uhura

Nichelle Nichols was a groundbreaking force as a black woman on television in the 1960s due to her portrayal of Nyota Uhura. Unfortunately, Uhura was largely limited to lines about her role as the communications officer on Star Trek: The Original Series but she assumed a larger role throughout the Star Trek films.

Uhura was also never...

The original theme music for Gene Roddenberry's 1966 sci-fi series "Star Trek" was composed by Alexander Courage, a long-time orchestrator who had worked on the scores for the film versions of "Show Boat," "Gigi," and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." He also contributed incidental music to TV shows like "Daniel Boone," "Eight is Enough," "Lost in Space," and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." "Star Trek" is the only main theme that he composed.

In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Courage once noted that his main inspiration for "Star Trek" was a 1930 train-based pop song called "Beyond the Blue Horizon," as written by Richard Whiting and W. Frank Harling. Notably, however, his theme is more 1960s pop opera than croony jazz. The soprano that sang the "Star Trek" melody was named Loulie Jean Norman.

The first four notes of Courage's theme -- E, G, B, C...

Starting in the seventh season of the ultra-successful "Stargate Sg-1" TV series, noted actor Robert Picardo played a character named Richard Woolsey, a stuffed-shirt overseer who kept a close eye on the members of the Stargate project. Woolsey is not a villain in his own mind -- he seeks only order and oversight -- but his bureaucratic shenanigans caused more harm than help. From 2004 to 2007, Woolsey appeared in seven episodes of "Stargate." His episodes of "Stargate" also overlapped with recurring appearances in the third and fourth seasons of the spin-off "Stargate: Atlantis." In that show's fifth and final season (which ran from 2008 to 2009), Woolsey became a series regular, with Picardo appearing in 20 episodes. 

Picardo might be best known for his role as the holographic Doctor on "Star Trek: Voyager," appearing in 172 episodes over that show's seven seasons. Picardo, however, has been embarrassingly prolific, never having a fallow period since his...

From Kirk to Burnham, every era of Trek lives on Paramount+.

Growing up, there was only one show my parents would let me stay up to watch with them from the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. timeslot. That show was “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” And so began my love affair with “Star Trek.” Captain Picard, Data, Worf — all of them felt like regulars in our living room. The show didn’t just have cool ships and alien planets; it tackled big ideas and never dumbed anything down. And Patrick Stewart? He made every speech feel like it actually mattered. Even now, the show holds up. If you’re a “Star Trek” fan and want to “boldly go where no one has gone before,” there’s really only one streamer you need – Paramount+. Here’s why it’s the best streamer for Star Trek fans.

Everything you need to know...

Nacelle’s second wave of Star Trek action figures has been announced, and it’s exciting! After a rather controversial first wave being announced toward the end of 2024, Nacelle revealed their second wave’s slate of characters at WonderCon 2025, and it feels much more balanced.

To start with, this wave includes two lead captains (and two of my favorites) in the form of Captain Kirk, as he appeared in Star Trek: Generations, and Captain Janeway, from the Voyager episode “Year of Hell.” Those figures alone would have me sold, but the entire wave is filled with all-stars:

Captain Kirk (Star Trek: Generations)Captain JanewayWorf (Sailor Uniform; Star Trek: Generations)T’PolGeordi La Forge (Sailor Uniform; Star Trek: Generations)Valeris (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)Romulan CommanderCarol Marcus (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)NogBem (Star Trek: The Animated Series) View this post on...

Jonathan Frakes may have joined the Star Trek franchise as an actor, playing William Riker. But he will forever be attached to the franchise due to his contributions as a director too. Along with his The Next Generation co-star LeVar Burton, Frakes directed multiple episodes of the franchise, with his work being as recent as Strange New Worlds.

Frakes also reprised his role as Riker in several other shows, including the ill-fated series finale of Enterprise. The prequel series’ premature cancellation led to a hiatus in the franchise that lasted more than a decade, and the ending was quite controversial. Frakes agreed and mentioned that his appearance was unnecessary.

Star Trek: Enterprise wanted to please fans and brought in Jonathan Frakes in the finale A still from Star Trek: Enterprise | Credits: Paramount

When the going gets tough, a good cameo can fix anything (just look at the MCU). After the...

When is a television show more than a great distraction from the rigors of the workday or a way to escape boredom in a day filled with doldrums? When does it become more than a title in your streaming queue and a genuine part of your life? For myself, and likely for many others, it’s when that show begins to teach life lessons, such as Star Trek has over the years. From facing challenging life changes to staying true to oneself, these 4 lessons still resonate with us today.

1. Change is essential

In the original series when the crew of Enterprise encounters two beings of the same race who despise each other because their very culture has made them enemies, Kirk warns them that they must change their views before hatred destroys them. When Commissioner Bele insists that his enemy, Lokai, is unable and unwilling to change, Spock replies, “Change...

The Nacelle Company, which just announced its first wave of deep-cut Star Trekfigures in early March, just dropped a tease of what will come in Wave 2. Per Gizmodo, Nacelle teased its second wave of figures at WonderCon in Anaheim, California recently that will have collectors scrambling to find room on their shelves.

The first figure teased from Wave 2 is a Star Trek: Generations-era James T. Kirk, complete with a horse, and a jar of dill weed. The 1/12 scale figure will also include said eggs, an ax, firewood, and a stump, throwing it back to the scene in which Jean-Luc Picard and Kirk meet up in the Nexus in 1994’s Star Trek: Generations.

Nacelle’s Wave 2 launch will also include two more figures from Generations with Geordi La Forge and Worf in the sailor costumes they wore on the holodeck during the scene in which Worf is promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

When Star Trek premiered on television in 1966, its popularity spawned a variety of toys, fan-made magazines, and by 1967, the paperback tie-in. Sci-fi author James Blish (1921-1975) penned the first paperback, based on a few of the series’ scripts. Blish would create 12 of these books, paving the way for future Star Trek authors who wanted to expand the series’ universe. To date, every series in the franchise has novel tie-ins, and as an avid reader, here are a few of my recommendations from each that may help you begin your journey into the world of Star Trek fiction.

The Three-Minute Universe, by Barbara Paul (Star Trek Tos)

This 1988 novel features a race of beings known to the Federation as the Sackers. They are repugnant to most other beings because they offend most of the senses with their awful smell, ear-splitting language, a disgusting appearance, and touch that causes burns on human skin.

When people think about Lost, they think of its mysteries, whether they were explained or left open for viewers to ponder. However, that wasn't what gripped audiences as episodes unfolded. Rather, what would grip the viewers' attention was the simple mystery of "what happens next" in a given episode.

As big conflicts unfolded or characters behaved in intense, frustrating ways, those who tuned in cared more about who lived or who died than what the whispers were or any of the other island questions. The episodes listed below are some of the most stressful moments for Lost viewers because of what it could mean for their favorite characters.

Just as Audiences Loved Hurley, His Death Seemed Imminent Season 1, Episode 17, The Numbers

The episode that first introduced Lost's iconic numbers doesn't seem all that stressful, but it was. Both on the island and in the flashbacks,fan-favorite character Hurley seemed headed for death.

Star Trek, while has done pretty revolutionary stuff with its writing, it has also taken some decisions that might be extremely backward. It has been common knowledge that the producers cast Jeri Ryan to play Seven of Nine in Voyager to attract a demographic of viewers to the show. And it worked, leading them to make a similar decision for Enterprise.

However, the model they cast for the role of the Vulcan T’Pol was fortunately a sci-fi fan and a huge fan of the franchise. Actress and model Jolene Blalock revealed that she was a huge fan of Tos and Tng as she was growing up and loved playing the character. However, she was reportedly not a huge fan of her previous modeling career.

Star Trek’s Jolene Blalock had a tough time in her modeling days Jolene Blalock in Star Trek: Enterprise | Credits: Paramount

Set before the events...

Today, Taylor Sheridan is known as the man at the center of a vast TV empire that stretches from "Yellowstone" and its many spin-offs to multiple other premium dramas which include "Lawmen: Bass Reeves," "Lioness," and "Tulsa King." Taylor Sheridan TV shows are almost too numerous to count at this point. But the man wasn't always the prolific writer and producer he's known as today. In fact, he started out on a very different career path in Hollywood.

Specifically, Sheridan started as an actor in the mid-90s, appearing in several small film and TV roles before landing the recurring role of Deputy Chief David Hale on "Sons of Anarchy." Prior to that he could be seen appearing in episodes of "Walker, Texas Ranger," "Veronica Mars," and "Star Trek: Enterprise," His acting background is part of the reason Sheridan cast himself as Travis Wheatley on "Yellowstone," though he also happened...

Star Trek actors Jonathan Frakes, Armin Shimerman, Kitty Swink, and John Billingsley, along with Juan Carlos Coto, brother of Manny Coto, the late Star Trek: Enterprise writer, showrunner, and executive producer, will once again join forces in support of PurpleStride Los Angeles. The annual walk, to be held on April 26, is part of a larger national effort called PanCAN PurpleStride, which aims to end pancreatic cancer and raise awareness of the disease. PanCAN stands for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Pancreatic cancer has hit home for several of the Star Trek figures mentioned above. Swink is something of a miracle story, as she is a 21-year survivor of the frequently deadly disease. She guest starred in two Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes, playing Rozahn in “Sanctuary” and Luaran in “Tacking Into the Wind.” Fans also know her as a frequent convention attendee, with her table always next to that of DS9’s Quark,...

While it is often accepted that Star Trek is best suited for the TV medium, it took Star Trek: Nemesis to officially put the idea of movies to bed until the 2009 reboot. Starring the Tng cast including Sir Patrick Stewart and a young Tom Hardy, the film received negative responses, but Stewart believed it did one thing better than its predecessor.

Jonathan Frakes, best known for playing William Riker in Tng, stepped into directing with the film Star Trek: First Contact, which was a surprising hit. Frakes hoped to continue his streak with Insurrection but seemed to fumble along the way. Despite Nemesis’ failure, Stewart credited it with improving on one thing.

Sir Patrick Stewart praised Star Trek: Nemesis for improving on Insurrection Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Nemesis | Credits: Paramount

One of the primary issues Sir Patrick Stewart had with the first film with the Tng cast i.e.

Star Trek's cultural dominance spans decades, peaking in the 1980s and 1990s when series like The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager made waves on syndicated television. The franchise petered out for a while after the failings of Star Trek: Enterprise, laying dormant for a while until the advent of streaming services brought Star Trek television back into the fold.

Arguably the best new series to come from the modern wave of Trek streaming shows, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has successfully captured the spirit of what made the franchise so popular to begin with. The series understands, better than any other, that mixing genres and tones is what makes the franchise so indelible, as best exhibited in one of Strange New World's best episodes.

Strange New Worlds Brought Classic Star Trek Back

Many of the Star Trek series that have run on CBS All Access and...

Your favorite small-screen monster mash is one step closer to being back in your eyeballs.

Filming on Season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters wrapped on Tuesday, Apple TV+ announced by sharing a BTS photo of cast members Takehiro Hira, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Anna Sawai on-set with the “Titan bait” capsule that played a key role in the Season 1 finale.

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Here’s a trivia question for everyone: What’s the connection between Star Trek: The Original Series and the movies The Goonies, Throw Momma from the Train, and Scrooged? The answer is… Logan Ramsey, the late, great character actor whose career spanned from 1948 to 1999 and who would have turned 104 on March 21, 2025.

Star Trek fans will recall that Ramsey low-key chewed the scenery as Proconsul Claudius Marcus in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Bread and Circuses.” He’s the character who gave his slave, Drusilla (Lois Jewell), to Captain Kirk (William Shatner), so that Kirk could enjoy “some last hours as a man” before his execution. Sadly, Ramsey died of a heart attack at the age of 79 in 2000.

In addition to Star Trek, he counted among his many theater, movie, and television credits The Devil’s Disciple and The Great Indoors, both on stage; the films Head, Walking Tall, Any Which Way You Can,...

Coming off its March 9 world premiere at SXSW, “The Surrender” has found a distributor and streaming home. Shudder, AMC’s horror-centric streaming service, announced its acquisition of the film Wednesday, and said it would release it on May 23.

“‘The Surrender’s’ fusion of body horror and the supernatural crafts an atmospheric descent into the abyss of loss and consequence, brought to life with brilliant performances from Colby Minifie and Kate Burton,” said Emily Gotto, SVP of Shudder Acquisitions and Production. “This is bold, audacious storytelling — one that lingers long after the credits fade — and announces the arrival of Julia Max as a striking new voice in the genre.”

Written and directed by Julia Max, “The Surrender” follows a mother and daughter whose already fraught relationship is put to the test when their family patriarch dies and the mother hires a stranger to bring her dead husband back to life. The...

Back in the early 2000s, it looked like "Star Trek" was pretty much done for. After 9/11, as wars began, audiences weren't really in the mood for a sci-fi franchise about gentleness, peace, and diplomacy. The national mood was reflected in the failure of Stuart Baird's "Star Trek: Nemesis" in 2002, often called one of the worst in the franchise. Then "Star Trek: Enterprise" was canceled in 2005. It wouldn't be until 2009 that "Star Trek" would be revived, in the form of J.J. Abrams' rebooted feature film. 

This time, however, "Star Trek" was faster, simpler, and more violent. Abrams' film was not about peace and diplomacy but trauma and revenge. The reboot set the tone for "Star Trek" for the next decade, ensuring that newer "Trek" projects were all about high-octane action and a little more rough-hewn. 

Such an approach certainly seemed to be an influence on the 2010 video game "Star Trek Online,...

When I first discovered Star Trek, the only shows that existed were the original series (1966-1969) and Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was in its second season. When I decided to start a collection to showcase my new obsession, I had a few options: antique fairs, collectible shows that my local mall hosted a few times a year, and mail order/catalog items. However, today's collectors have thousands of items at their fingertips through a multitude of digital shops and sellers. All these choices can overwhelm new collectors, so if you want to avoid the kind of buyer's remorse that Cyrano Jones inspired, check out these 5 tips before you begin shopping.

1. Choose your niche

When I first began collecting Star Trek, I wandered local antique malls and hit thrift shops to snatch up anything I could: old editions of Starlog magazine, coffee mugs, VHS tapes, posters, and toys. As a modern-day collector,...

Since its conclusion in December of 2024, I have found myself thinking about Star Trek: Lower Decks and then remembering, Oh, wait…It’s over now. I still can’t quite believe it. After all, despite being an animated sitcom, it was consistently truer to the look and feel of the Tng/DS9/Voyager era of Star Trek than any of the live-action productions of the past 8 years.

Unfortunately, Lower Decks is over. While that means we may never get more of our Lower Deckers in the same form again, it also means we can now look back upon the series as a whole. With that—and a few months’ distance from the series finale—I’m finally ready to try ranking the seasons of Lower Decks, starting from the worst (or at least the one I consider the weakest).

"Second Contact" – The premiere episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season...

The "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Borderland" was significant within "Star Trek" lore. It was the first part of a three-episode arc that finally offered a canonical reason as to why Klingons looked like humans in the original "Star Trek" series, but had large, outsize foreheads in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It seems that a mad geneticist named Arik Soong (Brent Spiner) had been tinkering with genetic enhancements, creating "ideal" versions of humanity called Augments. In the lore of "Star Trek," such genetic enhancements are strictly verboten, as previous such attempts led to a vicious Eugenics War on Earth. Soong's ostracized Augments fell in with Klingon society, and began having children. The kids of Augments and Klingons looked like 1966-era Klingons. The DNA, Soon argues, will be bred out within a few generations. Hence, why Klingons looked different on "Next Generation." 

"Borderland" was just the opening act of the story,...

To do a little fun sci-fi time-crunching, Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien" takes place in the year 2122, which was, by the "Star Trek" timeline, about 30 years before the events of "Star Trek: Enterprise." James Cameron's "Aliens" skips ahead to 2179, about 25 years after "Enterprise," but still about 75 years before anything from the original "Star Trek" series. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Alien: Resurrection" skips ahead again, this time to the year 2379, which was the same year "Star Trek: Nemesis" took place. 

Of course, the "Alien" movies and the "Star Trek" shows definitely take place in separate universes. The "Alien" movies are marked by their cynicism, usually depicting shifty, profit-driven company men who aim to retrieve alien xenomorphs for nefarious purposes, no matter the human cost the retrieval requires. "Star Trek," meanwhile, is marked by its optimism, depicting a future wherein a galactic Federation ensures peace, study, and diplomacy throughout the cosmos. One...

Star Trekexperts looking to expand their figure collection to include some of the more obscure and unique characters across the franchise, like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Weyoun, and Star Trek: Voyager’s controversial Tuvix will soon be able to do so. The Nacelle Company’s Nacelle Toys and Star Trek announced that as of March 4, eight new 1/12 scale Star Trek figures are up for pre-sale.

Nacelle Toys is behind figures from franchises like Biker Mice from Mars, RoboForce, and The Expanse. The Star Trek collection had been highly-anticipated since it was announced. All eight wave one figures are currently up for pre-sale individually or as a bundle. Individually, the figures are $28.99, and the eight-pack bundle is available for $225.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Nacelle Toys (@toysnacelle)

RelatedStar Trek: Voyager Actor Weighs in on Controversial Tuvix Debate

Star Trek: Voyager's Tuvix actor Tom Wright shares his...

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At the end of Stuart Baird's 2002 flop "Star Trek: Nemesis," the brave android Data (Brent Spiner) sacrifices his life to blow up the Scimitar, a weaponized Romulan ship that was on the brink of destroying the U.S.S. Enterprise. Data always aspired to be more human, and his sacrifice was the ultimate expression of his humanity. It also fulfilled Spiner's desire for Data to be killed off, something he had been asking for since "Star Trek: Insurrection."

Spiner, however, got to have his cake and eat it too. The actor also played B-4, an android prototype built before Data. B-4 was discovered early in "Nemesis," and Data reassembled his long-lost android brother, finding that his brain was a rudimentary version of his own. B-4 was childlike and nonperceptive but showed potential. The film ended with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart...

Many Trekkies have watched every episode of every "Star Trek" show to have aired since the franchise's inception in 1966. That's 900-some episode in total, so it takes a lot of commitment to stay abreast of the whole property. Deep-cut Trekkies, however, have not only seen all 900-some episodes, but have also studied sourcebooks, comics, and oral histories, trying to know as much about the show as possible. The next time you're with a Trekkie friend, ask to see their copy of Larry Nemecek's "The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion" or Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda's "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual." I assure you, they have those books. They are required reading on the "Star Trek" syllabus.

Deep-cut Trekkies may also be familiar with the hundreds and hundreds of sanctioned -- but non-canonical -- "Star Trek" novels that have been published over the years. "Star Trek" tie-in novels,...

In the world of Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek," the bulk of the galaxy is overseen by an off-screen mega-bureaucracy called the United Federation of Planets, or just the Federation for short. The Federation is sort of like a supra-un that binds hundreds of civilized, technologically advanced planets in a widespread and benevolent pact of mutual aid. "Star Trek" is meant to take place in a post-scarcity society, and that's largely because so many planets are finally able to properly reallocate their resources. Starfleet is the regimented space navy that the Federation employs to engage in missions of exploration, study, and delivery. 

The concepts of "the Federation" and "Starfleet," however, took a while to fully form on "Star Trek." In the episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday", Captain Kirk (William Shatner) refers to his organization as the United Earth Space Probe Agency. It wouldn't be until "A Taste of Armageddon" that the...

Writer/director Osgood Perkins‘ feature film adaptation of the Stephen King short story The Monkey reached theatres last week – and now, a mockbuster from The Asylum called The Jolly Monkey has joined it on the big screen! You can watch the trailer for The Jolly Monkey in the embed above.

The feature directorial debut of Ryan Ebert, who has previously written the likes of Heretics, Shark Warning, Megalodon: The Frenzy, Shark Side of the Moon, Tales of a Fifth Grade Robin Hood, Apocalypse of Ice, and San Andreas Mega Quake, the film has the following synopsis: Upon their mother’s death, siblings Jenny and Marshall return to renovate her crumbling motel, The Jolly Monkey. But as they work, a deadly force tied to their family’s dark past emerges, forcing them to face terrifying truths if they want to survive.

Dominic Keating (Star Trek: Enterprise), Jane Hajduk (Year by the...

Forget NCIS – turns out, the Yellowstone mastermind Taylor Sheridan had some undercover gigs that almost no one remembers. Before crafting ranch drama gold, Sheridan dabbled in crime-solving on CSI, and not just once but twice.

Taylor Sheridan in Yellowstone as Travis | Credits: Paramount Network

Sheridan’s double act proves that before he was writing ranch wars, he was busy solving Vegas mysteries – one dead body at a time.

Before the cowboy hat, Taylor Sheridan was solving crimes on CSI Taylor Sheridan in CSI | Credits: CBS Television Studios

Before Taylor Sheridan became the king of cowboy dramas with Yellowstone and Tulsa King, he was busy solving crimes – on screen, at least.

In CSI: NY, he played Joel Banks in the episode Supply & Demand, while over on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, he appeared as Evan Peters in Secrets and Flies (via Slash Film). Two separate characters, with the same brooding intensity.

Starting in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery, fans were ushered into the 'Nu Trek' era of Star Trek. It's an era that started with the aforementioned Discovery series and has gone through Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The era is far from done, but those are the key series that have made up this new era.

During the Nu Trek Era, one of the things that have become commonplace is the reliance (or overreliance) on past characters and actors from previous shows. Every show has either over-relied on previous characters or previous talents to bolster their show. It started with Spock and later Christopher Pike and Una Chin-Riley in Discovery (among others). Lately, we've seen the likes of Chakotay and Harry Kim pop up in Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Lower Decks' respectively.

In fact, we've seen a large...

The fate of The Orville remains undecided. After three seasons, it could all be over in a blink of an eye. Still, if all we got were three seasons, then what a wonderful three seasons it was. The series won over fans by embracing the core concepts of Star Trek. Granted, it was with a humorous twist most times, but the idea of pushing for a brighter future while also pushing important cultural conversations was straight out of the Star Trek playbook.

The fact that The Orville so lovingly modeled itself after the prime years of Star Trek (1987-2005), and the shows that came with it isn't some random act. Many of the men and women who worked on those iconic shows 20 to 30-odd years ago were brought in by Seth MacFarlane to help launch and mold The Orville into a spiritual successor to all of those wonderful Star Trek shows of the 80s,...

There are a lot of characters in Star Trek. While plenty are dearly beloved, many others are loathed, despised, or simply forgotten. Sometimes, those sentiments are deserved. Sometimes, but not always. Here, we’ll explore some characters that deserve more attention or credit than they get.

Of course, it’s hard to determine what makes a character underrated. In some cases, it can be that the fans don’t rate or praise a character as highly as they deserve. Other times, it’s that the stories themselves underserve the characters in some way. Making these judgments is obviously subjective, but I will try to explain my rationale all the same.

Also, for this list, characters who were introduced in the current era of Star Trek (basically Discovery till now) will not be included. There are certainly underrated characters in these shows, but their newness means that the fandom’s estimation...

Before he was writing half the shows on Paramount+, Taylor Sheridan was an actor. The man behind shows like "Yellowstone" and "Tulsa King" and the scripts for films including "Sicario" and "Hell or High Water" cut his teeth with screen work, a pastime he occasionally returns to when he needs someone to play, say, a cool cowboy who's dating Bella Hadid.

Years before he became known as a Hollywood cowboy, I knew Sheridan as a mysterious man named Danny Boyd in the plucky teen detective show "Veronica Mars," and as the hate-worthy cop Deputy David Hale on FX's "Sons of Anarchy." Those may have been two of Sheridan's most high-profile TV roles, but they're far from his only acting credits. He's had bit parts going all the way back to "Walker, Texas Ranger" in 1995, and can be seen in one-off roles in shows like "CSI," "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,...

Arguably, three of the most popular franchises in recent (or past or future) memory are Back to the Future, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek, and the stars of all three recently appeared at a Vancouver convention. Christopher Lloyd, John Rhys-Davies, and William Shatner all appeared at the recent Fan Expo Vancouver and posed for an iconic photo together.

Lloyd, who played Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, posted an epic photo to the social media site X that featured himself, Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk (Shatner), and The Lord of the Rings trilogy’s Gimli (Davies). Lloyd captioned the picture: “The final frontier, the future, or middle-earth…your choice.”

The final frontier, the future, or middle-earth…your choice pic.twitter.com/hRpwhSOEj3— Christopher Lloyd (@DocBrownLloyd) February 23, 2025

RelatedJohn Rhys-Davies Was the Perfect Gimli, But He Nearly Played a Very Different Character...

Among its other assets, Star Trek: Lower Decks serves as a kind of impromptu franchise archaeologist. It diligently sifts through the six-odd decades of previous Star Trek efforts in search of new material. In many cases, that means mocking some of the goofier moments and concepts that the franchise has quietly tried to forget about, but it also means spinning new details out of previously forgotten bits of minutiae. In the process, it has enriched the canon considerably while still providing plenty of laughs. That includes a subtle Easter egg pulled from a very obscure corner of the 1996 theatrical feature Star Trek: First Contact.

The film depicts humanity's first faster-than-light ship, thanks to scientist Zephram Cochrane, who builds in the devastating wake of World War III. It develops the character considerably from his brief origins in Star Trek: The Original Series, as well as presenting his role in Star Trek history more thoroughly.

To paraphrase the famous comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, some people just get no respect. When it comes to Star Trek, there are a few shows and films at the bottom of the pile that deserve to be there. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and of course, Star Trek: Section 31.

Yet, anyone who claims Star Trek: Enterprise is bad is simply not telling you the truth. Enterprise is fantastic. It's a constantly engaging and consistent series that should've been the perfect swansong to the Brannon Braga era of Star Trek on the Upn (later CW) network. It was the prequel series of the franchise. The story that should've started it all. A series that was anchored by a sci-fi legend and, at the time, the biggest name Star Trek had ever pulled to lead a brand-new franchise.

After all,...

Time waits for no one, not even the powerhouse franchise that is Star Trek. The franchise continues to roll along, even after the failure of Star Trek: Section 31. The failed made-for-streaming film disappointed across the board, severely impacting future plans for other films of its type. Made-for-streaming films however may be the future of the franchise, whether fans want them or not.

That means that Star Trek needs to try again, and again if they have to. Having an avenue that can generate buzz and interest and continue stories that diehard Star Trek fans want to see is imperative for the further growth and development of the franchise. However, That only happens if we can do this on a relatively tight budget.

It seems unlikely that a Star Trek theatrical film is going to have a budget of less than $300 million. That's probably a bit low at this point,...

Stuart Baird's 2002 film "Star Trek: Nemesis" was one of the franchise's several death knells to come during the early 2000s. "Star Trek: Voyager" came to a close in mid-2001, ending a long-running period of Trek ascendancy. "Star Trek: Enterprise" debuted in late September 2001, and it served as a prequel to the original "Star Trek," set a century before the days of Captain Kirk. It looked different, had a different tone, and aimed to bring Trek to a new generation. Sadly, because of the 9/11 attacks, the world was no longer in the mood for a long-in-the-tooth sci-fi franchise that focused on diplomacy, making peace, and living in harmony. Audiences were now more intent on war, retribution, and violence, and "Star Trek" no longer had a place in the world. 

In 2002, "Star Trek: Nemesis" was released to unenthused audiences and low box office receipts. Made for a budget of $60 million, "Nemesis" only earned $67 million worldwide,...

The overwhelming financial success of "Star Trek" can only be ironic. "Star Trek," after all, takes place in a post-capitalist utopia wherein money has become a thing of the past, and want has been largely defeated. Reallocating resources is easy in the world of "Star Trek," as they have faster-than-light starships that can bring medical supplies to the sick, and matter replicators can instantaneously create food and clothing for the hungry and cold. Here on Earth in the year 2025, however, the makers of "Star Trek" are rolling in gold-pressed latinum. The ubiquity of the popular franchise across multiple streaming platforms has continued to generate huge amounts of revenue for Paramount, its holding company, for the last few years.

The Wrap has reported (via the Parrot Analytics streaming economics platform) that "Star Trek" has — from January 2020 to December 2024 — raked in $2.6 billion worldwide.

It's worth remembering that Paramount is earning revenue from,...

Star Trek: The Original Series was the lead show for the franchise, and though there were plenty of bumps and bruises along the way, it made it to three seasons, becoming popular in reruns. That, of course, led to the potential Star Trek: Phase II series which, in turn, became Star Trek: The Motion Picture. As the popularity of Star Trek grew, a new series with a new crew set aboard the Enterprise became a reality, but before that could take place, there were some issues that David Gerrold, the writer of The Trouble with Tribbles, pointed out. [via ForgottenTrek.com]

The first problem Gerrold mentioned was the captain always going away on dangerous missions. It wasn't wise to put the leader of the ship in peril every episode. The planning of Star Trek Phase II introduced a first officer who could beam down to the planets with an away team. This resolved...

We've already touched on how Kathryn Janeway, and by proxy her actress Kate Mulgrew, appeared in over 200 episodes across Star Trek. For 30 years, and across two series, Mulgrew has built up a huge resume in Star Trek alone. She surpasses all of her Voyager and Prodigy castmates in appearances, and only bows out to three people; Colm Meaney, Michael Dorn, and Majel Barrett.

When we look at her fellow Voyager castmates, she nearly doubles some of her colleagues, like Jeri Ryan. The actress, who played Seven of Nine across two series (Voyager and Picard), has appeared in 125 episodes. 100 of them just with Voyager. While that's an impressive number, more than anyone on Star Trek: Enterprise ever got, it's actually not that impressive against her Voyager colleagues.

Every core cast member of Voyager, save for Ryan and Jennifer Lien (Kes), has been credited for 168 episodes. Ryan was credited with 100 (101 via IMDb...

Since Star Trek: The Next Generation took off in 1987, there hasn't been a Star Trek series that hasn't had some type of connection to The Original Series, even if it was by a thin thread. Star Trek: The Next Generation was for the new crew aboard the Enterprise, which was the orginal starship. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was connected to The Next Generation through Chief O'Brien and the Battle of Wolf 359, which killed Commander Sisko's wife, Jennifer. Captain Jean-Luc Picard had been assimilated by the Borg at the time and was involved in the death of over eleven thousand people. The bond was strengthened when Lt. Commander Worf came to Deep Space Nine.

Star Trek: Voyager crew members visited Quark's Bar on Deep Space Nine before their voyage began, and Reginald Barclay, who had served aboard the Enterprise on The Next Generation, showed up in several episodes as did Counselor Deanna Troi.