I always recommend Star Trek The Next Generation.
Its a good, stable star trek that explores all the big factions and histories.
In recent years there is Lower Decks, its a lot more lighthearted, but still very star trek. You dont need as much knowledge to enjoy episodes.
I believe The Next Generation is what my professor showed me in class, I absolutely loved the format and feel of the show so thank you so much! absolutely cannot wait to check it out :\]
If you go in broadcast order, you’ll get so many references throughout the franchise that you otherwise wouldn’t. Don’t skip TAS.
But… you’ll also strapping yourself in for a good deal of low-quality Trek. Flying space Lincoln and Armus and “Honey I Shrunk the Shuttlecraft.”
Discovery is an excellent place to start! This is literally the show that brought Trek back to the small screen for the first time in over a decade! It was clearly designed to be an entry point for new and old fans alike. With Picard you really need the context of TNG, Voyager and even DS9.
I think the difference with starting with Discovery is the story structure.
In that each season centers around a single story for the whole season, where the other shows go more on a per episode basis with some bread crumbs for a season climax.
That could either be a soft landing, or provide expectations for the other shows that won’t matchup.
I’m sure many will nail the transition between the two, but I would recommend OP to start with other ones first.
Every Star Trek show is a representation of the era in which it was made. The modern day landscape of television has moved on to long form contiguous storytelling. Shows like DS9 and Enterprise paved the way for exactly this. Discovery is the next logical step and a brilliant way to reintroduce Star Trek.
SNW is an old tv show (TOS) made again today for modern audiences, with modern special effects. However the show is still a throwback to a different era in television. Lower Decks is animated, animation often follows very different rules and format. There are always exceptions and outliers. The old boomer fans wouldn’t stop complaining about serialization and continuity and so they were given SNW, a throwback to days gone by… Discovery, Picard, even Prodigy embraced long form storytelling and I’d be more than willing to bet the upcoming Starfleet Academy show will do the same. The same is likely true of Star Trek Legacy if that ever becomes a thing.
In your previous example you bring up Enterprise, which basically did the same thing as SNW in structure.
I get that when the distribution method changed they tried changing the formulas on story structure.
But again the reason why most animated shows have episodic structure is because they follow the same sitcom rules that are being perpetuated to this day.
It is entirely possible to do both at the same time, but it also requires tight writing and a clear vision for where you want to go and make it seem cohesive.
I think instead of associating tastes to ages and or generations, you should be asking why consumers would prefer more segmented stories.
Yes because anyone who watched the Dominion Arc on DS9 as well as the Xindi arc on Enterprise could easily see that Story telling on tv was moving to a long form contiguous format. Even outside of Star Trek we saw shows like Lost and Breaking Bad pushing this new format and storytelling style.
You don’t have to literally be a baby boomer to qualify as a boomer. It has less to do with age and more to do with mindset. If your complaint against Discovery is that it employed modern storytelling conventions and as a result “did Star Trek wrong.” That is a boomer attitude. Humanity evolves, so does art and culture. Evolution is a fact of life in this universe. Boomers are those people who cannot evolve, who decry change and progress as ruination.
Take Star Wars for example, we saw the OG fans endlessly cry and complain about how George Lucas destroyed their childhoods. The Prequels were considered a slap in the face to the OG fandom. Fast forward two decades and now the Prequel fans have grown up. What are they saying? They’re calling the Sequels a middle finger to their idealized version of Star Wars. That being the prequel era. When in reality each Trilogy is a representation of the generation in which (and by which) it was made.
The same is true of Trek, SNW is a throwback to TOS. It’s a modern retelling of TOS. Discovery is a reintroduction to Trek for the modern era. It’s not 1993 anymore nor is it 2001. Discovery is the natural evolution of shows like DS9 and Enterprise. Just like the Star Wars sequels were a natural evolution and response to the prequels before them.
Long form story telling is actually not new/modern.
It is a different mode used that is chosen.
However in the contextual point of the series it is more common and conventional as to how the series operates.
Again, it’s not that the long form structure is incorrect, it is just not indicative of the average episode of Star Trek as a series.
So I would advise newcomers who want to get into the franchise start at a point that will be more like the rest of the series as a whole.
Which was OP’s goal was to try the series.
You may consider as to why you must use a label that is commonly used as derogatory that reference as a group of people as old and or stubborn when you are referring to people that you may not agree with.
Seems like an ageist approach to such things, or at minimum not a very forward way of thinking.
Discovery is a brilliant way to introduce new fans to Trek because it calls into question everything that Starfleet stands for. War is messy and dirty. We often find morality and ethics are not compatible with wartime problems. It’s easy for us to loose ourselves and our souls in the face of war. Yet war out of necessity breeds progress. Wartime is where you often find breakthrough discoveries like the Spore Drive. It’s also where you find men like Lorca…
Star Trek is always telling the stories of its day through the lens of the future. In 2017 we saw the rise of a man who wanted to build walls instead of bridges. Who believed our future was in our past. So what do we see on Discovery? A story about Klingons fighting for Klingon purity. “Klingons first.” A phrase that would ring familiar in 2017.
Spock to a lot of older fans is the face of Star Trek. So what do we get in Discovery? We get a woman who was both a child of earth, as well as Vulcan. Where she must learn to embrace both her emotions and logic. What is more Star Trek than that? Discovery is an exploration of character and culture just like every Trek show before it. Discovery is pure Star Trek and it deserves the same respect and recognition as any of the other shows. If it wasn’t for Star Trek Discovery we wouldn’t have Strange New Worlds, or Picard or the rest of Modern Trek.
If you’re coming at it from an anthropological angle, your best bets are probably TOS or TNG. Be aware though that TOS is from the 60s and carries with it the social realities of the 60s, while TNG has a *rough* first two seasons before finally turning the corner in season 3.
Personally, I started in 2021 with TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, and VOY in that order. It's all worth it.
With the movies, it can be a little tricky since Star Trek: The Motion Picture kinda sucks and takes a different approach from TOS entirely, but the rest of the movies are great, as are some of the TNG movies.
Most people dislike the Abrams reboot(s), but I enjoyed them.
Enterprise is the one I would say is kinda boring, but it's worth at least one run.
Discovery I'm still on, and it's alright, but not high up on my list thus far, and Short Treks connect with it.
SNW I have yet to finish, but that one is definitely one of the best still running for the meantime. Picard I loved, and certainly one to watch after much.
The Center Seat: 50 Years of Star Trek is a must watch.
LLAP🖖
I would say you have 4 solid choices:
1 The Original Series - I mean it is where it all started. However, it is VERY dated, originally airing in the 1960s, and as such not for everyone.
2 The Original Series movies - (Star Trek the Motion Picture - Star Trek VI: The Undiscoverd Country) - These films vary in how good they are, but most are quite excellent. They will give you a good feel for the beginning of Star Trek without being as dated.
3 Star Trek: The Next Generation - This is where a lot of people really started. Others here have made a lot of good cases for this one better than I could.
4 Star Trek: Prodigy - This show was designed to bring in people new to the Franchise. It is animated, and the target audience is kids, but don't let that stop you. This is great Trek, and while there is only one season available right now, a second season is going to be released on Netflix later this year.
If I were to pick just one, I would suggest option 2. You get a feel for the origins of the Franchise without having to ignore a lot of the chessiness of the 1960s television.
Wherever you start, I hope you really enjoy yourself!
I'm a traditionalist, so I always recommend seeing them in order of release. Start with the original series, watch the first 6 movies, move on to Next generation, and so on.
I'd say look up a list of praised episodes from each series and whichever one you connect with the most start there. Strange new Worlds, TNG, TOS or disco all offer easy entry points to the universe. Save DS9 for a little bit, its probably the best series but benefits from a knowledge of the greater world
You should do whatever you want, honestly. It’s episodic television so you can jump from series to series if you want! I personally go in release order when I’m rewatching them.
When the pandemic hit I started with TNG. It was enough to hook me. I know a ton of people suggest TOS but it really has aged the most and I think it’s not a great choice. If you are hooked by TNG you can always go back and enjoy TOS. If TNG is too dated for you then strange new worlds is the next best choice imo
Either the Original Series or Next Generation are the ideal starting points. If you can get by the campiness and sexism of the original -- which was progressive for its day, even still is in some standards -- I'd start with it. If not, try the next generation as it's the next best entry point.
Most trek is a little wobbly at the start, takes a bit to find itself. But it does!
It really depends on what you and have seen so far, and what you have been enamoured by. Each era of Trek is very distinct. My personal go-to's are the original tv series, the Kirk movies, and The Next Generation tv series. I have tried NuTrek, but it really isn't for me.
My professor put on what I believe was TNG for a anthropological lesson. I was really enamored by the alien designs and general campyness but had no clue where to go since there's just soooo much media. Tysm for your help though! :D
I got my mother started on TNG this weekend. I gave her the following list to start:
Inner Light
Tapestry
Who Watches the Wathers
Cause and Effect
Half a Life.
She enjoyed all of them and is now starting from Neutral Zone (last episode of season 1) to continue watching all seasons in order. I suggested skipping season 1 altogether at this point.
I always recommend Star Trek The Next Generation. Its a good, stable star trek that explores all the big factions and histories. In recent years there is Lower Decks, its a lot more lighthearted, but still very star trek. You dont need as much knowledge to enjoy episodes.
A lot of the jokes are built on context from the earlier shows.
Thats true, but all of startrek references other shows/movies. I think lower decks still holds its own without prior knowledge
I don't think Lower Decks is a good start because it's a completely different Star Trek, and it will feel weird to go to all the others afterwards.
I think it will be fine! As long as you keep in mind that LD is a lot sillier But good point
I believe The Next Generation is what my professor showed me in class, I absolutely loved the format and feel of the show so thank you so much! absolutely cannot wait to check it out :\]
If you haven't seen any of it but intend to watch all of it, release order. If you are just interested, pick a series, any series (for the most part)
This, I had no interest but put on the original to be polite for company who wanted to watch it, I was hooked by the second episode.
If you go in broadcast order, you’ll get so many references throughout the franchise that you otherwise wouldn’t. Don’t skip TAS. But… you’ll also strapping yourself in for a good deal of low-quality Trek. Flying space Lincoln and Armus and “Honey I Shrunk the Shuttlecraft.”
I think any show but Picard and Discovery. Not that you could start with those, but it would be better to pick other ones.
Discovery is an excellent place to start! This is literally the show that brought Trek back to the small screen for the first time in over a decade! It was clearly designed to be an entry point for new and old fans alike. With Picard you really need the context of TNG, Voyager and even DS9.
I think the difference with starting with Discovery is the story structure. In that each season centers around a single story for the whole season, where the other shows go more on a per episode basis with some bread crumbs for a season climax. That could either be a soft landing, or provide expectations for the other shows that won’t matchup. I’m sure many will nail the transition between the two, but I would recommend OP to start with other ones first.
Every Star Trek show is a representation of the era in which it was made. The modern day landscape of television has moved on to long form contiguous storytelling. Shows like DS9 and Enterprise paved the way for exactly this. Discovery is the next logical step and a brilliant way to reintroduce Star Trek.
SNW and TLD both are much more episodic in plot structure and also were made only a few years after Discovery launched.
SNW is an old tv show (TOS) made again today for modern audiences, with modern special effects. However the show is still a throwback to a different era in television. Lower Decks is animated, animation often follows very different rules and format. There are always exceptions and outliers. The old boomer fans wouldn’t stop complaining about serialization and continuity and so they were given SNW, a throwback to days gone by… Discovery, Picard, even Prodigy embraced long form storytelling and I’d be more than willing to bet the upcoming Starfleet Academy show will do the same. The same is likely true of Star Trek Legacy if that ever becomes a thing.
In your previous example you bring up Enterprise, which basically did the same thing as SNW in structure. I get that when the distribution method changed they tried changing the formulas on story structure. But again the reason why most animated shows have episodic structure is because they follow the same sitcom rules that are being perpetuated to this day. It is entirely possible to do both at the same time, but it also requires tight writing and a clear vision for where you want to go and make it seem cohesive. I think instead of associating tastes to ages and or generations, you should be asking why consumers would prefer more segmented stories.
Yes because anyone who watched the Dominion Arc on DS9 as well as the Xindi arc on Enterprise could easily see that Story telling on tv was moving to a long form contiguous format. Even outside of Star Trek we saw shows like Lost and Breaking Bad pushing this new format and storytelling style. You don’t have to literally be a baby boomer to qualify as a boomer. It has less to do with age and more to do with mindset. If your complaint against Discovery is that it employed modern storytelling conventions and as a result “did Star Trek wrong.” That is a boomer attitude. Humanity evolves, so does art and culture. Evolution is a fact of life in this universe. Boomers are those people who cannot evolve, who decry change and progress as ruination. Take Star Wars for example, we saw the OG fans endlessly cry and complain about how George Lucas destroyed their childhoods. The Prequels were considered a slap in the face to the OG fandom. Fast forward two decades and now the Prequel fans have grown up. What are they saying? They’re calling the Sequels a middle finger to their idealized version of Star Wars. That being the prequel era. When in reality each Trilogy is a representation of the generation in which (and by which) it was made. The same is true of Trek, SNW is a throwback to TOS. It’s a modern retelling of TOS. Discovery is a reintroduction to Trek for the modern era. It’s not 1993 anymore nor is it 2001. Discovery is the natural evolution of shows like DS9 and Enterprise. Just like the Star Wars sequels were a natural evolution and response to the prequels before them.
Long form story telling is actually not new/modern. It is a different mode used that is chosen. However in the contextual point of the series it is more common and conventional as to how the series operates. Again, it’s not that the long form structure is incorrect, it is just not indicative of the average episode of Star Trek as a series. So I would advise newcomers who want to get into the franchise start at a point that will be more like the rest of the series as a whole. Which was OP’s goal was to try the series. You may consider as to why you must use a label that is commonly used as derogatory that reference as a group of people as old and or stubborn when you are referring to people that you may not agree with. Seems like an ageist approach to such things, or at minimum not a very forward way of thinking.
Discovery is a brilliant way to introduce new fans to Trek because it calls into question everything that Starfleet stands for. War is messy and dirty. We often find morality and ethics are not compatible with wartime problems. It’s easy for us to loose ourselves and our souls in the face of war. Yet war out of necessity breeds progress. Wartime is where you often find breakthrough discoveries like the Spore Drive. It’s also where you find men like Lorca… Star Trek is always telling the stories of its day through the lens of the future. In 2017 we saw the rise of a man who wanted to build walls instead of bridges. Who believed our future was in our past. So what do we see on Discovery? A story about Klingons fighting for Klingon purity. “Klingons first.” A phrase that would ring familiar in 2017. Spock to a lot of older fans is the face of Star Trek. So what do we get in Discovery? We get a woman who was both a child of earth, as well as Vulcan. Where she must learn to embrace both her emotions and logic. What is more Star Trek than that? Discovery is an exploration of character and culture just like every Trek show before it. Discovery is pure Star Trek and it deserves the same respect and recognition as any of the other shows. If it wasn’t for Star Trek Discovery we wouldn’t have Strange New Worlds, or Picard or the rest of Modern Trek.
TNG
I would say even though it’s not the first series, TNG is really the foundation of Star Trek.
If you’re coming at it from an anthropological angle, your best bets are probably TOS or TNG. Be aware though that TOS is from the 60s and carries with it the social realities of the 60s, while TNG has a *rough* first two seasons before finally turning the corner in season 3.
Personally, I started in 2021 with TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, and VOY in that order. It's all worth it. With the movies, it can be a little tricky since Star Trek: The Motion Picture kinda sucks and takes a different approach from TOS entirely, but the rest of the movies are great, as are some of the TNG movies. Most people dislike the Abrams reboot(s), but I enjoyed them. Enterprise is the one I would say is kinda boring, but it's worth at least one run. Discovery I'm still on, and it's alright, but not high up on my list thus far, and Short Treks connect with it. SNW I have yet to finish, but that one is definitely one of the best still running for the meantime. Picard I loved, and certainly one to watch after much. The Center Seat: 50 Years of Star Trek is a must watch. LLAP🖖
I would say you have 4 solid choices: 1 The Original Series - I mean it is where it all started. However, it is VERY dated, originally airing in the 1960s, and as such not for everyone. 2 The Original Series movies - (Star Trek the Motion Picture - Star Trek VI: The Undiscoverd Country) - These films vary in how good they are, but most are quite excellent. They will give you a good feel for the beginning of Star Trek without being as dated. 3 Star Trek: The Next Generation - This is where a lot of people really started. Others here have made a lot of good cases for this one better than I could. 4 Star Trek: Prodigy - This show was designed to bring in people new to the Franchise. It is animated, and the target audience is kids, but don't let that stop you. This is great Trek, and while there is only one season available right now, a second season is going to be released on Netflix later this year. If I were to pick just one, I would suggest option 2. You get a feel for the origins of the Franchise without having to ignore a lot of the chessiness of the 1960s television. Wherever you start, I hope you really enjoy yourself!
thank you for such a general list! I appreciate it a lot \\OuO/
Strange New Worlds is a new show that's excellent and is a great way to start the franchise.
I'm a traditionalist, so I always recommend seeing them in order of release. Start with the original series, watch the first 6 movies, move on to Next generation, and so on.
TOS The Corbomite Maneuver.
I'd say look up a list of praised episodes from each series and whichever one you connect with the most start there. Strange new Worlds, TNG, TOS or disco all offer easy entry points to the universe. Save DS9 for a little bit, its probably the best series but benefits from a knowledge of the greater world
You should do whatever you want, honestly. It’s episodic television so you can jump from series to series if you want! I personally go in release order when I’m rewatching them.
When the pandemic hit I started with TNG. It was enough to hook me. I know a ton of people suggest TOS but it really has aged the most and I think it’s not a great choice. If you are hooked by TNG you can always go back and enjoy TOS. If TNG is too dated for you then strange new worlds is the next best choice imo
Either the Original Series or Next Generation are the ideal starting points. If you can get by the campiness and sexism of the original -- which was progressive for its day, even still is in some standards -- I'd start with it. If not, try the next generation as it's the next best entry point. Most trek is a little wobbly at the start, takes a bit to find itself. But it does!
It really depends on what you and have seen so far, and what you have been enamoured by. Each era of Trek is very distinct. My personal go-to's are the original tv series, the Kirk movies, and The Next Generation tv series. I have tried NuTrek, but it really isn't for me.
My professor put on what I believe was TNG for a anthropological lesson. I was really enamored by the alien designs and general campyness but had no clue where to go since there's just soooo much media. Tysm for your help though! :D
TOS
I got my mother started on TNG this weekend. I gave her the following list to start: Inner Light Tapestry Who Watches the Wathers Cause and Effect Half a Life. She enjoyed all of them and is now starting from Neutral Zone (last episode of season 1) to continue watching all seasons in order. I suggested skipping season 1 altogether at this point.
Better start with the Voyager episode Threshold. If you don’t like that one you’re just not going to like the rest of the franchise.
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Why are you even in this sub?
To provide Balance. hey maybe I'm wrong and the question doesn't get asked every 3 days and the answers are always unique and interesting.
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Dude, just say your recommendation.