Star Trek has boasted 12 TV series since Star Trek: The Original Series premiered in 1966, but the way 5 of those shows were canceled left fans hanging and feeling robbed. Star Trek has aired on NBC, in syndication, on UPN, and the current shows are all streaming on Paramount+ and Netflix.

The gold standard for Star Trek TV show endings belongs to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Airing in 1994, “All Good Things…” closed out 7 wildly successful seasons of TNG and is also considered one of TV’s greatest series finales. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine also ended strongly in 1999 with the emotional wrap-up, “What You Leave Behind.”

Star Trek on Paramount+ began ending its shows in 2023 when Star Trek: Prodigy was abruptly canceled, although a dedicated fan campaign gave Prodigy a brief reprieve on Netflix. In 2024, Star Trek: Discovery ended with season 5, but its expanded series finale, “Life Itself,” contained a 12-minute coda that closed out Captain Michael Burnham’s (Sonequa Martin-Green) saga.

In 2027, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will end with a shortened 6-episode season 5, bringing its full 5-season episode total to just 46. Depending on how Strange New Worlds ends, fans may also end up feeling robbed about the voyages of Captain Christopher Pike’s (Anson Mount) USS Enterprise.

Here are the 5 Star Trek series that either ended too soon, left fans feeling frustrated and angry because the shows’ best days were still ahead of them, or both.

Star Trek: The Original Series

3 Seasons From 1966-1969

Star Trek: The Original Series is the inaugural Star Trek show that ended too soon for fans, who were left feeling robbed. The 1960s Star Trek built the foundation for an eternal 60-year-old franchise, but after season 1 wasn’t a significant ratings success on NBC, the ax was ready to fall on Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the USS Enterprise.

Led by John and Bjo Trimble, fans wrote thousands of letters urging NBC to save Star Trek. Ultimately, Star Trek ran for 3 seasons and 79 episodes, but nothing could prevent the Starship Enterprise from being mothballed at the end of season 3. Star Trek creator and executive producer Gene Roddenberry was even removed from power in the series’ third and final season.

Star Trek was yanked off first-run network television before the Starship Enterprise’s five-year mission was up, but its legend was cemented in syndication, where Star Trek only grew in popularity over the next decade. Star Trek: The Animated Series‘ two seasons on NBC Saturday mornings also served as an ersatz season 4.

The sting of Star Trek: The Original Series ending was mitigated by Star Trek warping into movie screens. 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture brought back the Starship Enterprise and turned Star Trek into a bona fide movie franchise, which has now delivered 13 theatrical and 1 streaming film, with hopefully, more to come.

Star Trek: Voyager

7 Seasons From 1995-2001

Star Trek: Voyager was the third series executive produced by Rick Berman, and, like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Captain Kathryn Janeway’s (Kate Mulgrew) show enjoyed 7 seasons consisting of 172 episodes on UPN.

Yet Star Trek: Voyager fans still felt robbed by its series finale, “Endgame.” After Admiral Janway from an alternate future helped Captain Janeway poison and defeat the Borg, the USS Voyager completed its 7-year, 70,000 light-year journey from the Delta Quadrant back to Earth.

However, “Endgame” concluded with Captain Janeway’s starship arriving Earthside with nothing following it, leaving fans feeling unfulfilled because they didn’t know what happened next. After 7 years, audiences never got the reward or satisfaction of seeing Captain Janeway and Voyager’s heroes welcomed home.

Except for a brief Admiral Janeway cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis, it took 20 years for Star Trek: Picard to reveal what happened to Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), and for Star Trek: Prodigy to update fans on Admiral Janeway, Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran), and The Doctor (Robert Picardo).

Star Trek: Enterprise

4 Seasons From 2001-2005

Star Trek: Enterprise fans felt robbed twice by its series finale on UPN, “These Are The Voyages…” Intended by executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga as “a love letter” to the entire Star Trek franchise, Enterprise’s ending remains the most hated Star Trek series finale of all.

The consensus among fans is that Star Trek: Enterprise’s fourth and final season was not only the show’s best, but it was what the prequel should have been all along. With showrunner Manny Coto at the helm, Enterprise season 4 delivered classics like a multi-episode Vulcan arc and a two-parter set in the Mirror Universe.

Enterprise ended before Star Trek‘s first prequel series could delve into two key events fans were dying to see: the Romulan War, only spoken of in Star Trek: The Original Series, and the formation of the United Federation of Planets, with Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) becoming Federation President.

Enterprise was blamed as “the show that killed Star Trek” since no new Star Trek series was produced for 12 years until Star Trek: Discovery. In recent years, streaming has allowed Enterprise to be reassessed and earn a new generation of appreciative fans, which means a whole new crop of viewers also feels robbed that Captain Archer only got 4 years on UPN.

Star Trek: Prodigy

2 Seasons From 2021-2024

For Star Trek: Prodigy fans, nothing stings quite like how poorly the beloved CGI animated series created by Kevin and Dan Hageman was treated by Paramount+ and Netflix. Star Trek: Prodigy fans are right to feel robbed after only 2 seasons consisting of 40 half-hour episodes.

Designed to introduce a new generation to the virtues of Star Trek. Star Trek: Prodigy is arguably the finest representation of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek vision in the modern era. Yet Paramount+ not only canceled Star Trek: Prodigy in 2023, but purged all episodes entirely from its streaming service.

Thanks to the fans, who even paid for an airplane to fly over Los Angeles, Star Trek: Prodigy was saved by Netflix, which hosted all 20 episodes of season 1 and premiered the next 20 episodes of season 2. Yet the boon wasn’t to last. Netflix did not order more episodes, killing hopes for season 3, and Star Trek: Prodigy‘s license expires at the end of 2025.

When Star Trek‘s 60th anniversary begins in 2026, it will happen without a streaming home for Star Trek: Prodigy and no known possibilities for more adventures of the idealistic young crew of the USS Protostar. It’s hard to think of another Star Trek property as unfairly and inexplicably mistreated as Star Trek: Prodigy.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

5 Seasons From 2020-2024

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a work of genius by creator Mike McMahan and his team, and the voyages of the USS Cerritos shouldn’t be over after only five seasons on Paramount+. Star Trek: Lower Decks was ended as part of Paramount’s cost-cutting in its successful sale to Skydance Media.

Defying naysayers that Star Trek could be laugh-out-loud funny, Star Trek: Lower Decks was the first half-hour Star Trek comedy, and it succeeded by being a loving homage to the joys and oddities of the final frontier while never punching down at Star Trek or its fans. Rather, the crew of the USS Cerritos were as big fans of Starfleet, just like the audience.

Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ secret sauce was also rich and deep character development that saw Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Bradward Boimler (Jack Quaid), and their lower decker friends face their inner torment, evolve, and rise above throughout the show’s five seasons.

While Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, which topped off the series at 50 episodes, was arguably its best, it was also clear that Lower Decks was not a show that was ready to end. As an animated series that’s relatively cheaper to produce than its live-action counterparts, Star Trek: Lower Decks could (and should) have run for many more years.

From Star Trek: The Original Series to Star Trek: Lower Decks, not every Star Trek show got to end on its own terms or closed out by fulfilling all of its potential. These Star Trek series and the audience deserved more than they got.

Release Date

1966 – 1969-00-00

Showrunner

Gene Roddenberry

Directors

Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent McEveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, Harvey Hart, Herbert Kenwith, James Komack, John Erman, John Newland, Joseph Sargent, Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O’Herlihy, Murray Golden

Writers

D.C. Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg, Steven W. Carabatsos, Theodore Sturgeon, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Art Wallace, Adrian Spies, Barry Trivers, Don Mankiewicz, Edward J. Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison