I thought Trekkies was kinda sad, actually.
A friend of mine pointed out that Trekkies shows fans as they are, while Free Enterprise shows fans the way they wish they were.
I’ll just throw in my two cents here, since I’m currently on a Star Trek kick after starting to buy and view the DS9 DVD’s. I’m by no means a Trek fanatic, but I enjoy much of it and certainly recognize it as an important contribution to the medium of television (less so with the movies).
All the series have their strong and weak points, so if you’re serious about checking them out, you can’t just watch a few eps and make your judgment from there. Sounds like you’re willing to give that a shot though, so here are my assessments.
The original series: Yes, it’s certainly cheesy-looking. It was the 1960s, after all. And they did tend to recycle a bunch of the plots. (Oh look, another planet where the civilization is exactly like a particular period of Earth history. And is that another god-like energy being I see over on that other planet?) But overall, it’s a pretty good show. The characters are great (though they sometimes seem cliche’ now since they’ve become such archetypes over the years), a lot of the writing was fantastic, and the whole thing has a cool swashbuckling adventure vibe to it. The third season was somewhat weaker than the first two, but it’s still recommended viewing.
The Next Generation: Loved it at the time, and still like it in most ways, though I don’t think it has aged well in all respects. The first season and a half or so, it looks like everyone was still trying to get their feet on the ground–some pretty good episodes here and there, and worth making a point of watching because it was still the most inventive thing on TV, but not really classic. (Gene Roddenberry’s influence was still pretty strong in those days, and I think his futurist idealism was holding it back in some ways too.) After that, everything seemed to click with the cast, the writers, and the producers, and you’ve just got great story after great story adding up to some wonderful arcs (particularly the Borg). Lost its way a bit in the final year when it seemed like everyone was ready to move on, but overall, at least as good as the first series.
Picard is still the ultimate Trek captain, Data quickly transcended his role as a Vulcan-without-pointy-ears, and Worf was just a damned good character who enabled the series to really expand its mythology (the Klingons in ToS had just been cardboard bad guys). Riker and Troi were always pretty lame, more character types than actual people, and Wesley Crusher inspires fan hatred all out of proportion with his usually minimal role in the series, but the cast overall was pretty solid, and good enough to carry the show even when the material sometimes went bad.
DS9: Best. Trek. Ever. Hit the ground running with a solid premise, great writing, fantastic cast and characters, and a serious desire to expand the Trek universe while not screwing with it in fundamental ways. This is the most character- and idea-driven Trek series, and it’s amazing how well it just works, particularly in the aggregate. With ToS and TNG, they’d tell a story, then just move on to another planet and tell another story. While there’s some of that in DS9, they also intentionally built a number of ongoing stories that evolved as the series progressed, from the politics on Baijor and Cardassia, to the wormhole Prophets, to the evolving conflict with the Dominion that spectactulary marked the second half of the series. Really, really good stuff, that allowed the characters and the stories to evolve not just exist.
It took me a while to get used to Avery Brooks’ acting and character as Cmdr. Sisko, as he’s quite different from what you’d expect out of a Star Trek captain. There was never any question that Kirk and Picard were In Command; with Sisko, he’s a guy in the middle of a situation where he often cannot simply command. At the beginning of the series, you would expect Odo, the shape-shifting security guy, to be just a gimmick, but his search for his identity turns into one of the central features of the show. Dax is a frequently fascinating symbiont (plus Terry Farrell is completely hot), Kira is endlessly interesting as a resistance fighter whose war has come to an end, etc., etc., and that’s not even considering the minor characters who recur throughout the show to great effect. I don’t know how the creators put it all together, but they did a damn good job of it.
Voyager: So-so. Unfotunately, after the great characters and big, multi-season stories of DS9, the producers consciously chose to go back to episodic sci-fi adventure. I liked Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Janeway, and the holographic Doctor was consistently interesting and funny. But most of the other characters and actors were just boring people that random sci-fi stuff happened to. The blending of Starfleet and Macquis crew members was ripe with possibilities for dramatic tension, but they never even attempted to develop that in other than superficial ways–the Macquis just slipped right in as Starfleet guys, and that was about it. Plus, the resident alien crew member, Neelix, was just as lame and annoying as could be.
The premise–a Starfleet ship knocked all the way across the galaxy, decades away from home–wasn’t bad, but they didn’t ever seem to do anything with it. Voyager gets the crap beaten out of it one week and loses giant sections of hull, then the next week everything’s back to normal, space truckin’ across the universe, like ToS but without the cast chemistry and cool new ideas.
The one really bright spot in the series, the recovering Borg Seven of Nine (in addition to being way hot in that spandex outfit) didn’t even show up until halfway through the series, then quickly became such a favorite with the producers and writers (who must have sensed that she was the only really interesting thing on the show) that she ended up getting way overused.
Enterprise: Maybe I should give this one a chance in light of my current Trek kick, but Voyager really soured me on the people in charge of the franchise. Plus, I figured any show where the producers thought that wretched opening song was a good idea cannot possibly be worth watching. So I haven’t.
Incidentally, after I started watching the DS9 DVD’s a couple months ago, I came across a site called Star Trek: Hypertext that has one guy’s smart, literate reviews of the various series (except TNG). It’s quite good, with capsule and detailed reviews of each episode and overall analyses of each season. I would quibble with him on some details (for instance, he tends to hate the Ferengi on DS9, whereas I think they’re generally a really good part of that series)but I recommend it highly.
Pft. He proves nothing.
And the only time I consciously refer to myself as a Trekker is when I am talking to a non-fan and wanting to feed the stereotype that we’re all anal-retentive about the distinction between Trekkie and Trekker. They’re interchangeable to me.
What the Klingon has said is unimportant, and we do not hear his words.
I’ll Pit you yet, you little Rommie/Klingon half breed!
Oh, yeah? Beat you to it!
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=197904
I would add “Duet” and “The Visitor” for DS9 and “Cogenitor” for Ent.
I’m a big TOS fan. If you understand the meager resources they had for the show, it’s truly amazing what they did. Even so, it looks pretty cheesy by today’s standards, which IMO is part of it’s charm, and why it’s such a cult classic. Like any show, they had some lame episodes, but when it’s on, it’s great. It obviously doesn’t rely on special effects, but the interaction between the characters is the main draw, I guess.
Kirk: Highly-principled, strong commanding personality; doesn’t always play by the rules; doesn’t take crap from anyone.
Spock: Eminently logical and practical; highly intelligent.
McCoy: Very emotional and often irrational, but dedicated to his work as a doctor.
I don’t know if it was intended, but I always viewed Spock and McCoy as representing the 2 sides of Kirk’s personality. And actually, in one episode Kirk is literally split into those 2 halves by a transporter accident, creating a purely rational Kirk and his alter-ego, a completely emotional Kirk. It’s great fun, with William Shatner’s over-acting, and the ham-handed lighting effects to make the emotional Kirk look “evil”. If you’re not into “campiness”, the show’s definitely not for you.
see my list above for The Enemy Within
Shatner’s stage experience actually played well in this ep.
I said…give me the brandy!!!
Phew, thanks for all the replies so far. The sites I’ve been to so far have been great (a diagram of Trek uniforms throughout the ages really shouldn’t be as interesting as it is, and I finally know what a Romulan is, among other things)
After reading the replies here, I’m dying to see DS9 now. I’ll definitely check out some of TOS on Sci-Fi sometime.
Annoyingly, the local Blockbuster doesn’t carry any DVD seasons of DS9 or TNG, and individually they cost upwards of $100 each. Which, you know, yikes.
Yeah, I’d like to watch some of TOS if only for a better understanding of that one Futurama episode devoted entirely to it.
Thanks, NoClueBoy for that episode list. Is TAA the Trek cartoon?
I’ve been looking into some Trek novels, too, if only because I notice Peter David has written some, and I’m a big fan of his.
Yeah, they’re definitely not cheap. Your local broadcast channels may carry them in syndication, however. Check this page to see whether you get to watch them for free.
viva here, shamelessly answering on NCB’s behalf:
Yes, that’s The Animated Adventures.
Peter David’s stuff is good. I also like Diane Duane, though I haven’t read any of the Trek novels in quite some time (couldn’t keep up!)
Ah… shameless… reminds of those nights on Risa with you. 
:smack:
I can’t believe I forgot Cogenitor!
One of the better Treks ever, easily an outstanding ENT ep.
The novels are rather hit or miss. If you want, I can give you a list of novels I would suggest. (I own about three hundred of them and have read most of them.)
That would be great. I need some more summer reading at the moment.
This might be a bit long and it’s been years since I’ve actually read some of these books so it might be a bit fragmented too. Anyone else (like viva) can feel free to add to my list.
TOS:
Strangers From the Sky
Spock’s World
Prime Directive
Shadows on the Sun
Sarek
The Eugenics War Parts I and II
Black Fire
Yesterday’s Son
The Romulan Way
Time for Yesterday
Home is the Hunter
Ice Trap
Windows on a Lost World
TNG:
Metamorphosis
Imzadi
Dark Mirror
Q Squared
I, Q
Strike Zone
Survivors
Masks
A Rock and a Hard Place
Here There Be Dragons
The Death of Princes
DS9:
The Siege
The Big Game
Fallen Heroes
Millenium, Books I, II, and III
A Stitch in Time
Avatar, Books I and II
Mission Gamma, Books I, II, III, and IV
Rising Son
Unity
Voyager:
Pathways
The Escape
Ragnarok
The Murdered Sun
New Frontier
Every single one of them.
Hello, shy guy. Welcome to Trek. Please allow me to introduce you to Netflix. Netflix is your friend. Netflix has TNG and DS9 DVDs.
I come to serve.
My girlfriend bid on (and won) Season 1 of DS9 on eBay. Sadly, the woman selling it “lost the discs in a move” after my gf got them for $17.25. I had resigned myself to waiting for TNN to show them and watching them at my grandmother’s house, since I don’t have cable… Then I saw your post, and I got out of bed at 1:30 in the morning to retrieve my credit card and sign up. $20 a month for all of Star Trek, plus whatever other movies we’d like to watch, is most definitely worth it, considering I spend at least that much on Blockbuster’s DVD rentals plus late fees (I’m bad about that.)
So thank you!!!
Anyone else out there just not “get” the whole DS9 thing. I was a fairly hardcore fan of TOS and TNG when in my teenage years. And then DS9 came out… and nothing. It doesn’t do anything for me. I’ve probably seen 20-30 episodes (some partials) and can’t remember any lasting impressions. I think it stems mostly from having a captain (commander, whatever) that lacked the charisma of the first two shows. Kirk and Picard just had IT, whatever IT is.
I’d add a few to this list (which is already quite good, IMO):
*
The Eyes of the Beholders
Vendetta
*
Peter David simply rules.