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  • If you find old shows charming, start with the original series and just roll with it. The original series is iconic, and it's fun to see where it all came from.

    If you want a little more substance, start with Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's peak Trek in many ways (in terms of the whole Trek philosophy and world building).

    • This is what I usually recommend, too. Also I ususally say don't feel bad about skipping most of TNG Seasons 1&2 if it's not hooking you right away. Algernon_Asimov had a good guide at Daystrom ranking which episodes could be more or less skippable.

  • Blasphemy warning…

    I’d probably start with Strange New Worlds. Then go back for TNG, DS9, and Voyager.

    • Not blasphemy at all.

      ToS isn't good. It was decent for the time, but it's not good.
      TAS, see above but for kids. Think the Scooby-doo show from the 60's.
      I liked Enterprise when I watched it on tv, but not a lot of people liked it.

      Other than SNW the new Trek shows aren't really "core trek" either. They each have their own style which appeals to different people.
      I wanted to like Discovery, but it seems to want to be a CW show about 3/4 of the time. We made it through the first two seasons and stopped.
      Picard: I also wanted to like it. He's my husband's favourite captain after all. I burst out laughing when Dahj is jumping around like a superhero in the first episode That's as far as I got.
      Lower Decks: Not a fan of the adult-comedy-cartoon genre.
      Prodigy: I am not in the right age demographic.

      • So I don't want to "well ackchually" you but I was curious about your claim about TOS so I looked it up and you were wrong, it's actually really good.

    • For a new watcher, especially a young one, Strange New Worlds is probably the best start. It has a lot of the classic "Trek" philosophy going on, but paired with modern production and special effects, and also paired with more modern treatment of female characters.

      I love The Next Generation, that's "my Trek", but certain things haven't aged well.

      I've been watching Babylon 5 for the first time (didn't see it when it was actively airing), and while it's not Trek, it was produced in the same era as TNG, Voyager, etc. and I find myself jarred by certain ways they portray characters, esp. female ones, and that same sort of stuff is present in older Trek too. Like, Crusher and Troi got absolutely cheated when it came to great arcs and such. Strange New Worlds handles its female characters much, much, MUCH better.

      • The Orville feels like a very good update of TNG at times. They deal with a lot of cultural drama with analogs to our current society. And upping the humor a bit helps.

  • Start anywhere you want. Not every show or movie clicks with everyone. The shows do inform the movies so maybe try and watch a TV series first? But anyways a little breakdown follows.

    OG Star Trek, Star Trek: TNG, DS9 and Voyager are the beating heart of Star Trek as far as shows. They are all worth watching but OG Star Trek certainly wears the colors of its time. Just keep that in mind.

    After that is Enterprise, Picard, Strange New World's and Discovery for live action and Lower Decks and Prodigy for animated. I only have opinions on Enterprise and Prodigy. Enterprise completly skippable. Prodigy seems good but haven't gotten through much of it yet.

    For movies there are six movies that take place in the OG Star Trek era (I like all the originals personally but some are unliked by fans).

    Then there are four movies in the Star Trek: TNG era but Insurrection and Nemesis, the last two, are generally not well liked, but views could have changed with time. (I enjoyed all these as well)

    (All ten of the above Star Trek movies were my childhood and therefore I have a lot of nostalgia for them. So my views are skewed.)

    After that you have the reboot movies which are completely skippable (my recommendation). I watched the first one and was so nonplussed I never bothered with the others. Also, J.J. Abrams is involved in them so if you like what he does you may like the movies. Personally he's on my shit list with M. Night and avoid any projects involving them.

    Edit: Because I clearly hadn't said enough so I said more.

  • I would recommend The Next Generation or Deep Space 9 first.

    The Original Series is pretty campy and low-budget. I don't think Star Trek really became Star Trek (as we know it) until Roddenberry had a second crack at it, which was The Next Generation. Be warned, both of these series start out pretty rough.

    The first 2 seasons of TNG is a little corny, although they have some very good episodes, like one planet they visit which is a matriarchal society, and they show the male-female gender roles reversed. In my opinion, their 1940s nostalgia episodes (played out in the holodeck) really did not age well, fortunately they stopped doing that in season 2. Dr. Polanski gets a lot of hate, but I thought she was a fine character. I think season 3 of TNG was by far the best, with some of their boldest political statements. One episode, Picard is accidentally seen as a God by a pre-industrial society, in another, Commander Data is judged by Starfleet to be a person of a race of a single individual, and is granted personhood. In yet another episode, Mr. Data creates a child for himself which Starfleet deems to be their property, and results in one of my favorite Picard quotes of all time: "Hold your ground Mr. Data. (To the admiral) Order a man to turn his child over to the state? Not while I'm captain." By season 6 and 7 they clearly start running out of ideas though.

    In my opinion, Deep Space 9 was the hardest to start, but probably the best series of all I have seen. The first 17 episodes were so boring I could barely get through it. But starting with Season 1 episode 18 (titled "Duet") and every single episode after it was consistently very good. They also, I think, make many more, and much bolder, political statements than The Next Generation ever did.

  • You can start anywhere you want! I often recommend starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation, since it's aged a little better than the original series. You might prefer to jump ahead to season 2 or 3 to get to the really good stuff, but even season 1 is worth watching.

    Up until Enterprise season 3 it's pretty much all episodic (or in DS9's case, mostly episodic with a subset of the episodes forming a series-long story arc), so you can pick a random episode or movie with a cool-sounding description and start there if you want. That's how I got into Trek, just picking random TNG and Voyager episodes.

  • Episodic television from the linear broadcast era means you can jump in damn near wherever and it'll be an okay time. Usually. Deep Space 9 has more ongoing storylines and every series has some episodes people just haaate. The Next Generation has half of its what-were-they-thinking episodes in the first season. Nonetheless I'd recommend TNG as the starting point, because it has the right mix of grandeur and restraint.

    The Original Series is technicolor sci-fi horror dressed as episodic space exploration. It's campy and melodramatic and by god does it know it. Some episodes were blatantly "what's available on the back-lot next month?" and are a coin toss between stupid and incredible.

    TOS had some movies (roman numerals) and they range from "what if an episode was three hours long" to "modern-day San Francisco zoo heist." At their best they're fun and at their worst they're even more fun.

    The Next Generation is high-concept ethical debate framed as the experiences of naval officers. The cast is seriously talented and the writing is usually excellent.

    TNG had some movies (bald guy on the poster) and they were written by people who didn't like the show for people who didn't watch the show. You have to turn your brain off, but they're well-directed.

    Deep Space 9 was a direct response to Babylon 5. it's heavy on other species criticizing the openly optimistic and quietly human-centric Federation. It never goes full "revisionist western," but it gets dark in places. It was also a deeply indulgent excuse to explore characters and cultures from prior Trek.

    Voyager did the opposite, by yeeting a ship to the ass end of the galaxy, where nobody's heard of the Federation. They're just trying to keep it together and beeline back toward home. It's the same formula as most TOS / TNG episodes, but with fresh character dynamics and new rubber-forehead aliens.

    Enterprise is an origin story starring the guy from Quantum Leap, and the tone is just... weird. It's not awful, but I'm not personally a fan. Apparently it had an ending even more disappointing than Quantum Leap, which is fucking saying something.

    JJ Abrams did some reboot movies replacing The Original Series, and they're everything you expect when reading "JJ Abrams did some reboot movies." Great casting, though.

    Discovery sounded like it got up its own ass a bit. There's a point in any long-running franchise where the people making it grew up as fans of it, and it takes strenuous effort not to create a feedback loop of shallow fanfiction stupidity. See: RTD-era Doctor Who, numbered Star Wars sequels.

    Picard sounds like season one was written exactly like the TNG movies, which is pretty far from a compliment. Season two is apparently more of a 1990s Trek reunion and I still can't care.

    Strange New Worlds sounds like it's doing everything right, as a revival of TOS-era "wagon train to the stars" problem-of-the-week storytelling. The universe is big and weird and terrifying and we're out there pencling in the map. Plus they pulled off a musical episode. That's always a good sign.

    Honorable mentions to Galaxy Quest, an aliens-abduct-actors comedy that is accidentally one of the better Star Trek movies, and The Orville, Seth MacFarlane's extremely Seth MacFarlane love letter that's honestly a pretty solid realization of the formula and absolutely knows it. Also neatly illustrating the difference between parody and satire.

  • Liking Trek means being good at coming up with and or accepting established fan cannon explanations/excuses for why stuff happens, as often it makes infuriatingly little sense otherwise.

    DS9 is the strongest of the older shows in my opinion and gives a really good grounding for the politics of the Federation and unfederated alien races involved (and for new trek shows like Disco and Lower Decks), while having enough plot and action to be interesting.

    It still has a lot of bad acting and poor writing (especially in the first few seasons, ugh) and it's practically a radio play for seasons at a time though, so be warned.

  • Watch Next Generation or a few episodes of OG Star Trek & then seeing Wrath of Khan movie.

    Starting with Next Generation isn't a bad option I think. The beginning is rough at parts but has some really good episodes in it. The series got much better after season 2. You could follow a skip list to skip over the episode that are deemed horrible on your first watch to make it all easier. It's worth going back later to watch them though.

    Deep space nine follows up an event that occured in Next Generation, so that show might be confusing till you watch NG.

    Voyager is pretty much self-contained since that's a big part of the story lol. Only thing that could be confusing would be a character that's sorta important later on that is from NG. It isn't much but just something to state if stuff like that bothers you.

    Enterprise is a pretty okay show I think. It's the earliest show in the timeline and mankind's first exploration. People don't like it for some reasons that are completely justified but it's never been anything to stop me from enjoying it. Might be best to watch this after others because it is different.

    OG Star Trek is a fun series to watch. Really episodic so you can find some of the best episodes and try just watching those. Watch 3/4 of the best (including the one was Khan) and then watch the movie "Star Trek 2 Wrath of Khan".

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