Star Trek

Star Trek is a franchise that is one of the most important in the history of television, particularly in how it was able to essentially create a subgenre of TV that took many of the rhythms of police procedurals and mapped them onto a utopian science fiction setting. What resulted was a series that appealed to multiple generations of fans, who were able to hop into any single episode of the series without needing much prior context and enjoy Star Trek as an episodic drama.

Star Trek: The Next Generation followed in the footsteps of The Original Series, improving upon the template that was set by the 1960s sci-fi classic to deliver a timeless series in its own right. The best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation were often ones like "Darmok," which captured the essence of the original show and then built on it by delivering a smart and engaging story that stands as an allegory for real-world issues.