Summary
- Star Trek's diverse cast and uplifing themes make it deserving of the prestigious Peabody Award for promoting empathy and understanding.
- Iconic Star Trek episodes such as "The Inner Light" and "The Visitor" showcase timeless storytelling and emotional depth that resonate with fans.
- The series continues to reflect on important social issues through episodes like "Far Beyond the Stars" and "The Measure of a Man," exploring themes of humanity.
Over the course of its near-60-year history, Star Trek has produced some truly phenomenal stories that prove the franchise deserves its recent Peabody Award win. According to the official website for the Peabody Awards, the purpose of the awards is to "elevate stories that defend the public interest, encourage empathy with others, and teach us to expand our understanding of the world around us." As part of the 84th Peabody Awards, the entire Star Trek franchise won the 2024 Institutional Award, which celebrates programs that have an enduring legacy and impact.
Since Star Trek: The Original Series began in 1966, the franchise has always celebrated the best of humanity, with its diverse cast of profoundly empathetic characters. The primary mission of the Starship Enterprise and her crew has always been exploration, and the United Federation of Planets is a peaceful coalition of peoples from all over the galaxy. Star Trek won the Peabody Award "for its enduring dedication to storytelling that projects the best of humanity into the distant future," and few franchises embody the spirit of the awards so well, as evidenced by these 10 Star Trek episodes and movie.
This is not the first Peabody Award that the Star Trek franchise has won. In 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, episode 12, "The Big Goodbye" won a Peabody, in part for setting "a new standard of quality for first-run syndication."
Star Trek Actors & Executive Producers React To Peabody Award
Star Trek was honored with the Peabody Institutional Award, and Star Trek creatives and actors, including William Shatner, react on social media.
10 "Face The Strange"
Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 4
Star Trek: Discovery
- Cast
- Sonequa Martin-Green , Doug Jones , Anthony Rapp , Wilson Cruz , Mary Wiseman , Blu del Barrio , Callum Keith Rennie , Eve Harlow , Oded Fehr
- Release Date
- September 24, 2017
- Seasons
- 5
- Streaming Service(s)
- Paramount+
- Showrunner
- Alex Kurtzman
With a classic science fiction premise, Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange" sends Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her new First Officer, Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), jumping through time. The USS Discovery has been trapped in a time loop thanks to a Krenim time bug, and Burnham and Rayner must work with Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) to find a way out of their predicament.
Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange" celebrates the series' past, present, and possible future.
In Star Trek: Discovery's past, Captain Burnham encounters herself from Discovery season 1. Specialist Burnham, Starfleet's first mutineer, trusts no one, and she immediately lashes out at her future self whom the younger Michael thinks is a Changeling. After a brief fistfight, future Burnham renders her past self unconscious with a Vulcan nerve pinch. Burnham then uses her knowledge of the USS Discovery's crew members to convince them she's from the future. "Face the Strange" is an incredibly fun episode of television that shows just how much Michael Burnham has changed throughout Star Trek: Discovery's five seasons.
9 "The Last Generation"
Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10
Star Trek: Picard
- Cast
- Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Jeri Ryan , Michelle Hurd , Ed Speleers , Gates McFadden , Todd Stashwick , Michael Dorn , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton , Marina Sirtis , Amanda Plummer , Isa Briones , Alison Pill , Santiago Cabrera , Evan Evagora , Orla Brady , John de Lancie , Whoopi Goldberg
- Release Date
- January 23, 2020
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Paramount+
- Showrunner
- Michael Chabon , Akiva Goldsman , Terry Matalas
Star Trek: The Next Generation already had a great finale in "All Good Things...," but the final adventure for the TNG crew in Star Trek: Nemesis was lackluster. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his USS Enterprise-D crew reunited in Star Trek: Picard season 3 to face off against a threat from the Borg and the Changelings. After they saved the galaxy one final time, Picard and his friends sat down for their traditional game of poker.
Star Trek Picard Season 3 Ending Explained (In Detail)
Star Trek: Picard season 3's finale concludes the story of TNG in grand style and sets up the next generation's legacy, along with a big surprise.
With the introduction of Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) as the son of Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Star Trek: Picard season 3 told a story of legacy and acted as a passing of the torch to the new generation. With the return of several beloved characters and the introduction of some great new faces, Star Trek: Picard season 3 was a nostalgic tour-de-force that ended on the perfect note with its series finale, "The Last Generation."
Despite the perfect setup for a spin-off featuring the newly rechristened USS Enterprise-G, Picard's long-rumored Star Trek: Legacy seems like a long shot at this point.