I’ve been wanting to get into Star Trek, but I’m not sure the best place to start. I’m sure there’s a wide range of opinions.
Some shows ‘get good after season 1’. I’m a little worried that I’ll end up picking a star trek show with a weak start and then dropping it before the parts people actually like. I vaguely remember reading these sort of comments about TNG.
It’s probably not something the community will agree, but I think “Strange New Worlds” is the best place to start. It has the soul and the essense of star trek, great episodes and acting and it’s modern, so you wont get bored from a 90’s series astettics. Afterwards you might want to go the usual path of TNG, VOY, DS9 and Enterprise, these are the essentials.
Lower Decks is fun series with Huge amounts of references, you might want to have a look.
Discovery and Picard are good serieses on their own, and they are integral part of the canon, they just don’t have the same storytelling style as the star trek. Last season of Picard I cryed my guts, but that’s just because I saw TNG, VOY etc… before.
Sorry for skippimg the original series, it’s just really hard to watch with 60’s astettics.
I don’t think SNW is the worst place to start, especially for someone who, as I said below, might have less of a tolerance for what earlier decades thought the future would be like. The only problem might be not getting some of the references.
Yes, that’s right. But the shows works even without the references. Unlike Picard season 3, for example, which is not just filled with references but knowing and watching all the previus shows is essential to fully enjoy it. I couldn’t imagine seeing the villain (No spoilers) for the first time without feeling the horror that was built in TNG
DS9 would also be needed for Picard Season 3.
Why do you spell aesthetics like that?
The short answer is because the autocorrect didn’t correct it. I’m not a native English speaker
The Next Generation season 3 is the classic start position.
I have long held that Season 5, Episode 2 of The Next Generation is the best episode to “test” if you’ll like Star Trek or not. It is a generally well-liked and well-reviewed episode, but more than that, I feel that from both a story and a character standpoint it is representative of what your average Star Trek episode is generally about.
Darmok is an excellent choice.
I watched this episode and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation.
I’m glad you liked it! From here on out I would just say watch The Next Generation. If you find that you’re struggling in seasons one and two, I recommend you skip around using the IMDB ratings. The good episodes in these seasons are few and far between, but are easy to spot by their score.
Once you get to season 3 the show has found it’s voice: the the average episode is pretty good and the terrible episodes are mostly behind you. Mostly.
Based on what I remember of the “classic” Star Trek series:
- TOS: can be watched in any order; very episodic; IMO has generally aged poorly and is not a good place to start
- STNG: has a few plots lines through the series, but these only appear in some episodes; mostly episodic. If you’re worried about getting bored I think you can just watch the first two episodes, then skip to season 3 or 4. Once you feel like you’re enjoying the series go back and watch the episodes you skipped.
- DS9: has a number of plot lines through the series, somewhat episodic, but best watched in order. The first season is ROUGH. My favorite of the classic series, but oh wow does it take a while to get good. Watch after STNG to understand properly.
- VOY: pretty episodic after the first few episodes, with the exception of seasons 3-4 which have a fairly substantial continuing plot. The series makes a little more sense if you’ve seen season one of DS9.
- ENT: has a decent amount of continuing plot lines, but still generally episodic. A prequel so it can be understood without watching any other series, but it has a lot of callbacks to previous shows that make it best watched last IMO. Also it’s probably the worst of the classic shows (excluding TOS which gets a pass for cultural relevance reasons), so I definitely wouldn’t start with it. I don’t think any one season is especially better/worse, and it’s fairly short so there’s not much point in jumping around.
In conclusion, I’d recommend either starting with one of the newer series, or watch the first two episodes of STNG, skip to S3 or S4, then once you’re enjoying it go back and watch STNG in order starting from S1E3.
The series makes a little more sense if you’ve seen season one of DS9.
Make it season 2 of DS9. The Maquis episodes are essential to setup Voyager.
STNG in order starting from S1E3.
You’re going to skip The Naked Now and start with Code of Honor?
Probably good to clarify: as per Wikipedia, The Naked Now is S1E3, and Code of Honor is S1E4. Encounter at Farpoint is actually two episodes. So to clarify: get through the Q Trial, then skip ahead to S3/4, then backtrack to The Naked Now.
For what it’s worth, I always thought The Naked Now would have been a much better episode if it had aired later in the series, or even later in season 1. It’s the type of goofy episode that works best after viewers have gotten to know the characters, much funnier that way. I assume they wanted to do a TOS callback early on as an homage, or a welcome to old fans or something, but it felt like an clunky, wasted opportunity.
It’s hard to know from so little to go on.
Part of it will have to do with your tolerance for what the 60s or the 80s or the 90s or even the 00s thought the future would be. Because if you don’t have tolerance for any of that, it’s best to start with one of the new shows like Discovery or Strange New Worlds.
If that isn’t an issue, I’d suggest going to this website and seeing which show’s summary appeals to you most and then dive in. It’s true that Star Trek shows (generally) start weak in their first season, but there are first season episodes we could also all recommend.
https://www.optus.com.au/connected/entertainment/star-trek-beginners-guide
I grew up with TOS, so I will always go with TOS before the others, but I also recognize it can be pretty hard to get into a 1960s idea of the far future.
Thanks for the link, I’ll have to take a look.
I wanted to put more into the post, but I wasn’t sure what would help. I don’t watch a lot of TV, so it was hard to think of anything. I think the closest thing I’ve watched would probably be Stargate, which I enjoyed.
Stargate was definitely inspired by both TOS and TNG, so I might start with one of those, although Voyager has more of the ‘we have no idea what’s out there’ element because they’re in totally uncharted space.
But it’s so hard to tell you where to start. In terms of understanding most Star Trek references in other shows, probably TNG. Because while other shows do reference TOS, TNG seems to me to have been much more influential in future Star Trek development.
It’s been a long road…
I’m at the exact point as you too and have decided to see it all!
I’m currently half way through the original series and although much of it has not aged well, it’s still fascinating. A few episodes are almost impossible to watch but many of them are classics. I do look forward to the next generation but I will have to watch the animated series first.
From what i understand, star trek is very mixed when it comes to episode quality.
A few episodes are almost impossible to watch
Wait until you get to the final episode.
I can’t decide which final episode is worse, TOS’ Turnabout Intruder or Enterprise’s These Are the Voyages… because the latter shits on Star Trek but the former shits on women.
I’m changing my vote to Voyager.
The first ones are the best imo.
If you like classics, I say start all the way back with the original! It’s fun, very 1960s, and largely episodic (because it was uncommon for people to watch it in order back then). It was meant to draw in a wide audience and introduce them to Trek ideas, so it’s entertaining to see where it all started.
It’s difficult to recommend without knowing your preferences. If you want to see everything and aren’t picky, I’d watch the shows in release order. Be aware that the original series hasn’t aged perfectly, in my opinion.
If you’d like a show that has a bit of everything in decent quality, (action, drama, comedy, science, philosophy, etc.) I’d recommend The Next Generation. In my opinion, the first season is awful, but the show gets exponentially better starting in the second season.
If you are more interested in characters and drama, then you might like to start with Deep Space Nine. This is one of the only Trek shows that has a strong first season. My only warning would be that it’s a bit of a long show that might drag for some people by the end, though it has a solid conclusion.
Huh, I absolutely hated season one of DS9. I nearly cried when I found out there were six more seasons to go after trudging through S1 (I was on a mission to watch all of Star Trek, having watched a patchwork of episodes–mostly STNG-as a kid). Then somewhere around S3? it started getting much better, and by the end of the series it was my favorite of the “classic” Star Trek series. But season one… I thought the plot, dialogue, and acting were all pretty bad. Maybe I need to go back and give it a rewatch and see if my opinion has changed at all.
Episode 1?
TNG Season 1 if you plan on giving it a solid season and a half.
Season 2 or 3 if you don’t.
