When the USS Enterprise first brought audiences aboard in 1966, few imagined thatStar Trek: The Original Series(TOS) would spawn a media empire half a century later — including both live-action and animated Star Trek series, as well as more than a dozen Star Trek movies.

As the Star Trek universe expands, so does its fictional timeline, and for fans who want to know exactly what happened and when, it’s getting a little difficult to navigate. That’s why we put together a guide to enjoying all of Star Trek’s canonical films and series inchronological order.

If you’re new to Star Trek, be warned: We’ll do our best to avoid spoilers, but for the sake of clarity, here and there, a tribble-sized reveal will have to make its way through the cracks.

Star Trek: Enterprise

WhileStar Trek: Enterpriseproved to be the last of the Trek revival series (it ended in 2015 after four seasons) untilStar Trek: Discovery‘s premiere 12 years later, ironically, it’s your first stop on any franchise-wide binge. Beginning in 2151 — a little over a century before the events ofTOS—Enterprisehas no United Federation of Planets, no Prime Directive, and no shields.

Considering how often time travel comes up in Star Trek, it shouldn’t be a surprise that while most of the events ofEnterprisetake place long before any other shows or films, there are a few exceptions. Some leftover Borg from 1996’sStar Trek: First Contactshow up in season 2, a season 3 two-parter connects withTOS‘The Tholian Webepisode, and the series finale surprisingly crosses over with theStar Trek: The Next Generation(TNG) season 7 episodeThe Pegasus.

Star Trek: Discovery, seasons 1 and 2

Star Trek: Discovery‘s premiere takes place a little over a century after theEnterprisefinale and roughly a decade beforeTOS. The United Federation of Planets has been formed, andDiscoveryopens with its first destructive war with the Klingon Empire.

If you’re doing a franchise-wide binge, make sure to scheduleTOS‘s pilot episodeThe Cagebefore season 2 ofDiscovery. It’s Captain Christopher Pike in the Enterprise’s captain’s chair in the pilot, played by the late Jeffrey Hunter. Anson Mount plays Pike in season 2 ofDiscovery, and the events ofThe Cageare critical to the plot.

At the end of season 2,Discoveryjumps ahead over 900 years into the future, so you should probably wait a bit before getting back to it.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Finally, the series that started it all with its iconic trio: The always pensive and logical Spock (Leonard Nimoy), the always complaining Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and between them, the adventurous James T. Kirk (William Shatner).

It can be a little jarring to watchThe Original SeriesafterDiscovery. Not only is it weird to see a spaceship run on dials, buttons, and paper printouts after witnessing a ship likeDiscovery— where every panel looks like it was designed personally by Tony Stark —  but particularly in season 1, it’s clearTOShadn’t yet worked out everything about the Federation and Starfleet. For example, in one early episode, McCoy makes a joke implying that rather than being Earth’s allies, the Vulcans were conquered by humans.

Star Trek: The Animated Series

While the original crew’s live-action adventures went on hold afterTOS‘ final season, in 1973, almost the entire regular cast — save for Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov inTOS— returned to voice their characters inStar Trek: The Animated Series(TAS). They were joined by a couple of new alien crew members who would’ve been nearly impossible to make work in a live-action series of the time.

Even though it originally aired as a Saturday morning cartoon,TASis impressively faithful to the canon. We see the return of recurring characters like Harry Mudd and Spock’s father, Sarek, and even minor details fromTOS— such as a brief mention of Spock’s childhood pet — are faithfully reproduced inTAS.

The original six Star Trek movies

If you get this deep into the Trek-wide binge and are getting tired of TV episodes, this will be a nice break. Kirk, now an Admiral, muscles his way back into the Captain’s chair in 1979’sStar Trek: The Motion Pictureand the timeline continues throughStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and ending with 1991’sStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, seasons 1 to 5

TNG‘s first five seasons enjoy the single longest chronology of all the franchise’s shows to go uninterrupted by other series or films. While there were plenty of naysayers who never thought the series would last or live up to the original,TNGoutlivesTOSby four seasons, and its success would help make even more spin-offs viable.

TNG, seasons 6 to 7 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, seasons 1 to 2

For its final two seasons,TNGshares time with the first two seasons ofStar Trek: Deep Space Nine(DS9). Still traumatized by the death of his wife at the hands of the Borg, Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) takes command of a space station overlooking the newly liberated Bajor.

Make sure to not startDS9until at least after watchingTNG‘sRascalsepisode — chronologically, it’s Chief Miles O’Brien’s (Colm Meaney) final episode ofTNGas a member of the ship’s crew, after which he jumps ship to become the Chief of Operations onDS9.

DS9, season 3; Star Trek: Voyager, season 1, and Star Trek: Generations

Deep Space 9enjoys precious little time at the end of its second season and the beginning of its third as the onlyStar Trekgame in town. Early in its third season, it’s joined by the beginning ofStar Trek: Voyager,and in fact, part ofVoyager‘s premiere episode takes place on theDS9space station guarding the Bajoran wormhole.

Originally tasked with capturing the rebellious Maquis,Voyager‘s Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) soon finds herself and her crew thrown across the galaxy, and both Starfleet and Maquis have to work together to begin the long journey home.

About midway throughDS9‘s third season comes the first film to feature theTNGcrew — 1994’sStar Trek: Generations, which features the first and only meeting between Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) andTOS‘s Captain Kirk.

DS9, seasons 4 to 5; Voyager, seasons 2 to 3; and Star Trek: First Contact

Season 4 ofDS9opens with the fan-favorite episodeThe Way of the Warrior, with Michael Dorn joining the show’s regular cast as Worf — but don’t worry, they keep sneaking him onto the Enterprise for the movies anyway. Seasons 4 and 5 ofDS9run fairly concurrently with seasons 2 and 3 ofVoyager. Early in season 5 ofDS9,the Starfleet uniforms change to gray, and that change is reflected on the Enterprise inTNG‘s first motion picture, 1996’sStar Trek: FirstContact, pitting theTNGcrew against fan-favorite villains the Borg, set toward the end ofDS9‘s fifth season andVoyager‘s third.

DS9, seasons 6 to 7; Voyager, seasons 4 to 5; and Star Trek: Insurrection

WithVoyager‘s fourth season comes the game-changing addition of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, while back in the Alpha Quadrant onDS9, open war rages between the Federation and the tyrannical Dominion. The Dominion War lasts until the very end of the series, which unfolds around the same time as the end ofVoyager‘s fifth season. In the meantime, the eighth Trek film, 1998’sStar Trek:Insurrection, takes place fairly early inDS9‘s final season.

Voyager, seasons 6 to 7, and Star Trek: Nemesis

For its final two seasons,Voyagergets to fly all on its own. The lost ship’s journey culminates in the two-partEndgame, with the heroes confronting the Borg while making a desperate attempt to get back home.

And in the final Trek film before J.J. Abrams steps in to create the so-called Kelvin Timeline stories, 2002’sStar Trek: Nemesistakes place about a year after theVoyagerfinale, and the film doesn’t forget about the show. One ofVoyager‘s lead characters makes a cameo, and since the show ended, they’ve gotten enough pips on their collar to give Captain Picard orders.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

In 2020,Trekfans were introduced to one of the most unique series in the franchise — the animatedStar Trek: Lower Decks. Partly inspired by theTNGfinal season episodeLower Decks, focusing on the usually anonymous crew members we see milling in the background aboard Starfleet ships and space stations, the series feels like Star Trek with a couple of dashes ofRick & Morty. In spite of its goofiness,Lower Decksis canonical, and its first season begins in 2380 — one year after the events ofStar Trek: Nemesis.

The Kelvin Timeline — Star Trek (2009) to Star Trek Beyond (2016)

The films of what’s come to be known as the Kelvin Timeline have an interesting, if confusing, place in Trek chronology.

Rather than acting as a prequel, as some thought it would, 2009’sStar Trekintroduces a whole new timeline. In the prime timeline’s 24th century, the Romulan sun goes supernova. Romulus is destroyed, and both Spock and the Romulan mining ship Narada are sucked into a black hole and sent backward in time. Coming out the other side in the 23rd century, the Narada — captained by the vengeful Nero (Eric Bana) — destroys the Kelvin, creating a new timeline.

So, in one sense, the three Abrams-era films —Star Trek, 2013’sStar Trek Into Darkness, and 2016’sStar Trek Beyond— come between the events ofLower Decksand those ofStar Trek: Picard, because that’s when the Romulan sun goes boom. But in another sense, they run partly concurrent to the events ofDiscovery‘s first two seasons and between those seasons andTOS. We’re putting it here because, all things considered, it’s the less confusing option.

Star Trek: Picard

We can only imagine where (and when) the events of subsequent seasons will take Captain Picard and his new friends, but the first seasons ofStar Trek: Picardare set at the end of the 24th century, in 2399. Since we last saw him inStar Trek: Nemesis, Picard’s been promoted to admiral, led an ultimately abandoned evacuation of Romulus, and left Starfleet in protest. In spite of the time that’s passed, the series’ opening episode makes it clear Picard is still not over a tragic loss he suffers in the finalTNG-era film.

Star Trek: Discovery, season 3

WhileDiscoverybegins as a prequel series, in its third season, it becomes something different. At the end of season 2, the heroes jump forward over 900 years into the future, and the galaxy is a changed place.

A little over a century before the events ofDiscoveryseason 3, a cataclysmic event known as The Burn destroys almost all the dilithium in the galaxy, killing untold numbers of space-bound people and making warp technology almost useless. As a result, while the Federation still exists, it’s fractured, with its number of member planets shrinking from around 350 to 38.

Among the major historical events to have occurred between the 24th and 32nd centuries, we learn that at one point, Spock’s dream of reuniting the Vulcan and Romulan people has become a reality, with both races giving Vulcan the new name of Ni’Var. There was also a series of conflicts known as the Temporal Wars, whose events led to such destruction that all forms of time travel have been banned within the Federation.

What’s next for Trek?

Along with future seasons ofDiscovery,Picard, andLower Deckson their way — not to mention the possibility of future films — the timeline of Star Trek is always changing. While there’s no firm release date,Star Trek: Strange New Worldsis expected to release sometime in 2022. Anson Mount will reprise the role of Christopher Pike from season 2 ofDiscovery, and along with brand new characters, he will be joined by Ethan Peck as Spock and Rebecca Romijn as Number One. The series promises to take place between the events ofDiscovery‘s second season andTOS, as well as reportedly giving fans a more episodic format reminiscent of Trek’s earliest series.

Timeline-wise, as far as some of the upcoming Trek series are concerned, there are a couple of unknowns. First, there’s the animated kids’ series,Star Trek: Prodigy, in which a group of alien teens commandeers a derelict Starfleet ship. According toTrekMovie‘s April 2021 report,Prodigy‘s first season begins in 2383, placing it betweenLower DecksandPicard, assumingLower Decks— which begins in 2380 — doesn’t go past 2383. If it does, then eventually, the two timelines will intermingle.

Likewise, there’sStar Trek: Section 31, which is still in development. Michelle Yeoh will reportedly lead the series in her role as the Mirror Universe version of Philippa Georgiou, and Shazad Latif is also believed to be returning as Ash Tyler. Our best guess is thatSection 31‘s timeline will intermingle with that ofStrange New Worlds, but it’s too early to tell. While she initially joins theDiscoverycrew in the 32nd century, Georgiou is sent back to an undisclosed point in time in season 3’s episodeTerra Firma, Part 2.

We know the Star Trek timeline keeps getting more complex — not only because new properties keep getting added, but because the franchise’s heroes use time travel almost as often as they do phasers. But don’t worry. As Trek keeps trekkin’, we’ll keep updating our timeline guide.