A friend of mine was out of town in a store that has a lot of entire series on BD or DVD (as well as movies of course), and he knew I was constantly referencing Star Trek, and he asked where he should start.
I didn’t have much time to think since he was already in the store and had limited time. All things considered, I went with TNG as the perfect spot to start.
He’s someone I used to work with a few years ago, and we play games together a lot. Knowing him (and just younger people in general), TOS would be so hard to watch with how dated it is. If not just the sexist and racist parts, then even for me it’s hard to look at given how LCARS showed up and instantly made all the technology look immediately centuries behind.
But ever since then, it’s looked mostly the same. At least until SNW and Disco. So I told him as much as I felt I could without boring him about where it’s set in relation to the original show. 6 movies and 3 and a half series in, if I counted correctly.
But if he ends up being interested, I’ll have him go through the other 2 golden era shows before going back for TOS.
Except I will have him watch the Tribble episode before he watches the DS9 episode about it.
He already had a small knowledge of it, the basic identity of who Kirk and Spock were, and the idea that it is a multi-show and many movie kinda franchise (I guess like a STU, which is MCU but for ST)
The racism and sexism in TOS has been an issue for us watching it. It is much more mild than other shows of its time, but it is still there. I also watched TOS as a small child and most of that stuff went over my head, but now watching it again in my 40s it really is cringeworthy. That said, I know there are a number of key episodes that should be watched, and I know some of these elements go away (or lessen) as the show progresses.
There were protests and threats aimed at TOS for being too progressive, particularly on racial issues. TOS didn't make the command structure clear but as bridge officers and department heads Uhura and Sulu can't be any lower than 6th in command and TOS had the first interracial kiss on television. Yeah it's pretty bad looking back at it now but keeping in mind that the first season aired less than 2 years after the end of segregation helps temper the shock.