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.
I’m changing my vote to Voyager.
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
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.
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.
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.
I watched this episode and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation.
