you fuckers are all over my active feed and I’m laughing at shit I don’t understand. I refuse to believe the show is this funny, but if, say, a friend wanted to prove me wrong, what incarnation of star trek would they tell me to start from? especially if they knew I hadn’t seen a single episode.
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Depends how well you tolerate the pacing and quality of older media.
TOS (The Original Series) is wild and fantastical in its own special way. It’s not up to modern standards in many ways so I personally wouldn’t recommend starting here.
TNG (The Next Generation) holds up much better. Full of space exploration and philosophical dilemmas. This is a good starting point if you want to watch by release order, but be warned that it takes a few seasons to really get good.
DS9 (Deep Space 9) picks up after the events of TNG but is mainly focused on a space station orbiting a contested planet. Less exploration, more politics and the consequences of war. Personal favorite but probably not the best starting point.
Voyager follows the crew of a ship that gets sent to the other side of the galaxy and has to find their way home. More adventurous with the writing because everything here is new, and it mostly works well. Less connected to the other series so starting here works just fine.
Enterprise is a prequel series and it’s pretty divisive. Some great characters and history building, but they go hard on the “American space pioneers” theme. Just watch the intro theme. Please don’t start here.
Discovery is the first series made for modern audiences and it shows. Fast paced, high action, gorgeous visuals, and woke af. It’s Trek for short attention spans. It’s actually really good for the first few seasons, then it goes off the rails. Start here if you want it fast and loud.
Picard is a follow up of the captian from TNG but now he’s old and retired. Packed full of fan service moments. Don’t watch this until you’ve seen TNG.
Lower Decks is currently airing. It’s animated, silly, and has a lot of fun with the franchise. Great stuff here that you will appreciate more if you get the references, but if you want fun, short episodes then go for it.
Strange New Worlds is also currently airing and is quickly becoming my new favorite. It’s a prequel to TOS and has found a wonderful balance between old and new Trek styles. I think this is the best place to start if you’re used to modern production quality and have never seen anything else in the franchise.
There are a ton of movies you could start with as well but I’ll leave it at that for now.
This guy summarizes
Holy cow yes. When Star Trek (2009) came out I calculated that there was, at that time, 28 plus days of Star Trek video content to watch. This guy covers all of that, plus the newer stuff, very adroitly.
Holy shit - what a great response, thank you
My pleasure! It was fun thinking about how each series stands out. Enjoy your assimilation.
Good post, though our tastes differ for the ‘New Trek’ stuff (I disliked Discovery, hated Picard - the rest I’d mostly agree on).
You missed The Animated Series and maybe The Orville ^^
@OP: I’d recommend skipping the movies after the TOS ones (from ‘Generations’ onwards), unless you are a completionist/masochist ^^
Fellowship of the Ring
First in best dressed. Can’t wait to see what shenanigans the gang gets up to in space, right guys?
I was going to go with “Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith”
A Q is never late, Captain Picard. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.
Lower decks is the shit! It makes a bunch of references to all the other shows and movies and stuff but stands on its own. Its kinda like rick and morty but a bit more wholesome. If you wanted to dig in to the live action stuff hmm I’m not sure where you should start … if you don’t mind cheesy old scifi then anywhere would be good, if you like more modern stuff try Strange new worlds its excellent and might hook you enough for the old series
Lower Decks is like if Rick and Morty didn’t make me sick.
This is going to be how I start pitching it now lol
LD is also way less gross than Rick and Morty
Its SFW rick and morty
I wouldn’t go that far…
The show isn’t a comedy. It’s memes about the characters and situations that are funny.
In general it isn’t a comedy. There are definitely episodes here and there that are 100% comedy
Trouble with Tribbles way back in 67 for sure.
The occasional comedy episode is a Star Trek tradition.
True, especially the first one was kind of campy. But I mean that overall it is a drama. You could say a soft drama or even a sci-fi sitcom.
Strange New Worlds.
Unironically, it embodies all of the best qualities of Star Trek, on top of being funny, incredibly well-made, and generally fun to watch.
I say start with either the original series (if you find old stuff charming, it’s great), or The Next Generation (the 2nd series).
To add to the serious answer, I think Strange New Worlds could actually be a good starting point as well
I really wish I could get into TOS, it’s charming. George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were amazing in it. But yeah I’m gonna start with TNG when I get to it. Old tv was so episodic it was rough
TNG is a great place to start too! It’s more matured and gets into the philosophy of trek more thoroughly. Although, fair warning: it’s pretty episodic as well. Like TOS, there will be a handful of characters that show up every so often or events that change things, but most episodes’ stories wrap up within the 50min runtime.
In both cases, it was largely so that people could watch stuff out of order back then and not feel lost.
You people dislike episodic shows?
It’s by far the thing I miss the most about the older shows. Way more episodes, that aren’t always pushing an overarching narrative and story arc. Just loosely connected, sometimes referencing each other later on, the occasional two parter.
I hate how streamlined modern shows are now. 10 episodes per season if you’re lucky, and they are all crammed to the brim with narrative and plot details. Everything tidied up nicely in the end, everything you see serves a purpose.
No time to just spend an episode watching a minor character do something unrelated to the overall plot, like barclay and his shenanigans.
Oh, I love them. It makes it easier to throw on a random episode without having to worry about remembering everything that has happened.
Someone should start a Star Trek random episode generator.
Load up every Star Trek TV episode ever made and just play it like a lottery machine and watch whatever it suggests.
I would watch the hell out of this for Star Trek or Futurama. The only way I can think to make it work would be building my own media server, and I just haven’t taken the leap yet.
This is the safe and boring answer.
For us it is, but it’s where I would want to start if I were new to the series!
After 13 years I finally got my partner to start watching TNG. It may take us another 13 years to finish, but it’s a start.
Hooked another one!
TOS is hard to watch from the beginning. Its soooo slow, and they are all doing that damn old timey stage actor accent
Update for everyone - based on these, I’m currently 1/3 through episode 1 of Voyager. I had to pause it to go run some errands but I’m loving it so far.
I watched some of it back in the day, but never finished it. Grabbing some beers and joining you!
I’m rewatching it now, just broke into S6. I watched it when it was coming out, too. Honestly, there’s WAY more ethical subtlety than I had absorbed when I was younger.
And to be fair, when the show was actually running on cable, as a young man on the cusp of puberty, I was understandably distracted by Jeri Ryan’s… unimatrices.
On the whole, definitely noticing a TON more acting subtlety in general this time around, but also particularly with Seven. Jeri is legitimately an outstanding actress, and played the shit out of her character.
This is the most wholesome update ever, don’t make me cry. You are a cinnamon roll starting a magic carpet ride.
I’ll be the crazy one and say Star Trek Voyager. Lots of insane moments and more creative freedom in the Delta Quadrant. You don’t have to learn decades of lore. Janeway is the craziest captain you will have with the exception of Marriner.
Voyager is the dark horse starting point for sure. Thrown out into the middle of fuckin nowhere, no previous lore to hold them down and they could just do all kinds of wacky shit…
Yeah but start with scorpion.
I like DS9 because O’Brien is possibly the most relatable person in all of Star Trek.
Considering the “O’Brien must suffer” trope, this almost reads like a cry for help.
Are you trying to tell me the world doesnt seem to shit on you every time you blink?
Or Jellico could make a bid for that, he got rid of Picard’s lionfish! Fuck that noise, that was worse than killing Tuvix. Picard season 4 should deal with that story arc. What Did Jellico Know and When Did He Know It? Where are the tapes, Mr. Jellico?
The memes are mostly observations and common headcanon stuff. The show itself has humor, but only Lower Decks is intended to be a comedy. There’s a lot of cheese and camp in the early shows (TOS, early seasons of TNG) but the later on down you go, the more refined they get.
TNG really hit its stride when they hit that sweet syndication budget increase- what was the minimum? 100 eps? More job security for everyone, more money for Q snaps.
If you’re looking for funny then Lower Decks is hot hot hot. If you’re looking for mostly serious but lots of jokes thrown in then Strange New Worlds is the way to go. If you want classic but not campy, the next Generation and skip the first season maybe and go back to it? Or don’t skip it idk. The Original Series is a 60s show through and through. It’s great but hard for some people to watch. But if you’ve watched old shows before and liked them then do it! Finally if you’re in the mood for something dark to with DS9.
I will add the caveat that many of the best jokes of Lower Decks will be completely lost on a Trek neophyte.
Thanks for this - I almost started there based on someone else’s comment but decided against it and I’m glad I did. I’m wary of starting somewhere that might warrant a rewatch, when there’s so much to cover.
Green?
Lower Decks IS funny.
Strange New Worlds is where you should start IMO.
Star Trek 4 is a comedy.
This infamous slapstick is from Star Trek 5, though: https://youtu.be/T9SSiHh0Y_8?si=C0S67wCVuOSiWKMW
A double feature. First, Casino with Robert De Niro – then DS9.
One is about gambling … the other is about … ? … gambling
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
I say this unironically. It’s the best Star Trek film ever made, and I am very serious about this.
I fully support this. Also the Hornblower movies.
I’ll say just go chronologically with the series. You can skip the Original Series if it’s too slow or old for your taste, but it’s also a really really great series, still my favorite of all of them. (I’m at the last few seasons of Voyager)
Original Series, New Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager etc…
also, you can watch the movies if you want.
and yeah, lots of funny moments in the series as well and I know it’s hard to believe 😅
Star Trek is a really nice ride to get on, so I can recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.
