I poked around a while and couldn’t find anything, I see memes from y’all all the time and the progressive nature of Star Trek has got me. I wanna watch it.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah but then Kelly gets kidnapped by the superstitious aliens who believe in starsigns, and Seth’s immediate reaction is to fly down to the planet and call them stupid for believing in religion. Because that’s totally how you solve diplomatic problems while displaying respect for diverse cultures.
Do what you want, except don’t watch the very last episode of Enterprise. And make sure you end with “Lower Decks”, so you can enjoy all the juicy easter eggs with your fresh Trek knowledge.
There is a much better novel adaptation/interpretation of the last episode of Enterprise named “The Good That Men Do”. I can only recommend reading that instead of watching the episode.
TLDR; It time jumps forward, proceeds to establish some very controversial and unnecessary changes among the crew, and frames it all as being part of a holodeck program Riker is running for guidance on making a decision. While it is NOT the actual implication of the episode, I feel the holodeck aspect falls a little “extra” flat by ending the series with “it was all a dream/simulation” vibes, IMHO anyway.
If you’re new to Trek, start with season 3 of TNG to get your proper Trek indoctrination. Then proceed on to DS9 and Voyager and onward to the current generation of shows. If you love it after watching that then go back to the campy TOS stuff and move forward from there until you circle back on TNG season 3.
I know it sounds weird to start on season 3 of a show but if you follow this order you’ll understand why. Trek didn’t become what most fans love until Roddenberry stopped being directly involved. He was a great dude for starting the universe but he’s also responsible for some of the worst decisions and episodes of the franchise. Before people get mad about me saying this please think about all the awful skippable episodes of season 2 and 3 of TOS and the low quality TOS scripts that were recycled in seasons 1 and 2 of TNG.
Also a pro tip for someone new, ignore anyone that says Trek ended after Voyager. Thats the neckbeard/anti-woke section of the fan base that is small but loud.
I’d argue you shouldn’t watch those till you’re done with the franchise for them to be at their maximum entertainment potential. A lot of the reason Trek fans love those 2 properties is because we have years of familiarity with what’s being parodying and being paid homage.
It depends entirely on your tolerance for and/or exposure to the different style of older TV shows. If you’re accustomed to a slightly slower pace and a markedly lower production value, I’d recommend starting with The Next Generation or Deep Space 9 and just start binging. If the kitsch of 60s TV appeals to you, The Original Series is great, just very different in style.
Once you’ve got a dozen episodes under your belt, you’ll know whether a given series is your bag or not. But you might not like TOS and adore DS9, and so on.
Be prepared for some real stinkers at the beginning, and scattered throughout but just know that’s part of having 20+ episodes per season.
If you’d rather just catch up with the most current series, I’d say start with season 1 of Strange New Worlds. You really can’t go wrong starting there.
I am very new to star trek. Started with TNG. Fell in love sometime around season 2 or 3. After finishing that, I am now enjoying Voyager. I have watched a few episodes of DS9, in the meantime, will get back to it after Voyager. Also loving Lower Decks and SNW. Fun fact, I actually watched couple of seasons of Discovery before watching TNG and found it so so. After falling in love with TNG, couldn’t stand it.
Sorry for butting in but my pet peeve is when people misuse “campy”. “Camp” refers to a style that is intentionally melodramatic and “cheesy”, TOS is just old-fashioned in a way many find amusing, but it’s not camp.
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.
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.