To celebrate Star Trek’s 51st Birthday Netflix released some of the statistics of their subscribers’ Trek viewing habits. Some tidbits:
TOS and TNG have bigger audiences but Voy and DS9 have more loyal rewatchers.
Barring the first two episodes of any series, the most rewatched episode of any Trek is Voyager’s finale. That surprised me when I first saw it but then I realized many fans who didn’t like Voyager would still probably want to see if they made it home or not.
Then again most of the top ten rewatched episodes are from Voy and my experience at a Trek convention last year suggested to me it might be the most popular series with younger fans.
The viewing habits might have something to do with reruns.
TOS was rerun for decades, and I think I’ve seen every episode of TNG at least three times. I’ve hardly ever seen DS9 and VOY in reruns. We lived overseas for much of DS9’s run, and finally saw season 5 and 6 this year thanks to Amazon Prime. Now we’re re-watching VOY, and there are some episodes I don’t remember at all even though I’m pretty sure I saw them before. I’ve never watched all of TOS, but honestly I’m too used to modern TV styles to accept the cheese factor in the production of TOS. Yes, yes, I know the story telling in TOS was exemplary, but the sets, costumes, visible strings holding the spaceships, and the awful “dramatic” music just turns me off. Blasphemy from a Trekker, I know.
If you’re interested in TOS but can’t handle the cheezy effects, the recent blu ray releases have updated CGI effects and might be worth checking out.
You could be right about DS9 and Voy being rerun less. And also about it being less seen. I’m a huge trek fan and I had given up on Voyager and Enterprise during their runs at points and I am pretty sure there are episodes I have never seen or maybe only once.
I probably fall into that “younger fan” category (born mid-80s) and Voyager and Enterprise were the only ones I watched while they were on (family never got into DS9). Been rewatching Voyager recently, about halfway through - just got to where Seven of Nine was introduced. It’s actually been pretty decent for the most part, though some of that may just be that the show is familiar enough to be nostalgic so I just enjoy spending time with the characters even during some of the lamer episodes.
You don’t have to buy the Blu rays to see the updated CGI effects–those are the versions that are available on Netflix as well.
Of course, the acting styles, sets, and dramatic music are still the same, so if that’s what turns you off, it’s still there. I grew up with TOS reruns, so to me it’s all just part of the milieu.
I think that Voyager and Enterprise might be more appealing to younger fans than to old codgers like me precisely because younger folks don’t have the weight of all of Trek history to compare them to, all that legacy to live up to. They’re more like “just TV shows” rather than “the latest blasphemy from that damn Rick Berman that’s going to kill my beloved franchise!” Which is how I remember a lot of long-time fans reacting to them when they were new.
DS9 and Voy have been rerun plenty, from the same channels that used to run TNG and DS9 in original syndication right after they ended to various stations today such as BBCA and H&I which airs every Star Trek from TOS to Enterprise, including the cartoon on weekends.
