Start with Christopher Eccleston, then go back to Attack of the Clones, and entirely skip the one about the Crystal Skull.
But then you miss the one where they go to the crappy town where Jayne’s a hero.
Janeway is an amazingly good captain, and she makes watching Voyager very worthwhile.
Piccard is awesome too of course.
I’ve seen every single episode of TNG and Voyager, and only a couple here and there of DS9 and TOS, so I can’t make recommendations over those.
I don’t think Voyager was nearly as bad as people think, and TNG certainly had a metric shit-ton of crappy episodes. If anything, Voyager was more consistent than TNG was, but when TNG hit its high notes, they were much, much higher than Voyager. Voyager also ended really badly, IMO. I hated the ending. TNG’s final episode was one of the best.
Overall, start with TNG, but don’t expect it to be consistently good.
I think I’m the only person alive who liked the ending of Voyager.
TOS is a victim of the Seinfeld is Unfunny effect and how our jaded modern eyes can be unimpressed by something from another era even though it was very progressive for its time. Long story short it stands as a stark indicator of just how far our society has come in 50 years; yes they had miniskirts and women as mere adjuncts to the male leads and Kirk putting the moves on every space babe he ran across, but to even put an African-American woman on the bridge of a ship, along with an Asian at the helm, was simply unprecedented at the time. About a third of the episodes are some of the best of the decade, if not all time in terms of sci/fi TV at least (“City on the Edge of Forever”); another third are serviceable and enjoyable for what they are(“Arena”, the one with the Gorn fighting Kirk); the final third are indeed often campy and dated (“The Way to Eden”). Fortunately most of the latter can be found in the 3rd season.
For me, I found most of the series actually pretty similar aside from the original. All the subsequent series seemed to take their cues from The Next generation. DS9 was ok, but my problem with it, was that they rarely went anywhere, just stuck on the space station. For me, Star Trek should always be about… treking? somewhere? In terms of the movies, the best were the ones directed by Nicholas Meyer? I think they were 2, 4 and 6. Wrath of Khan is by far my favorite. TNG movies were so, so. The new Chris Pine movie is good, and probably appeals more to people who are not overly fanatical about the TV series.
2 and 6 were directed by Meyer. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was directed by Leonard Nimoy. Meyer contributed to the story.
Yeah, no. She screws them over at nearly every opportunity, randomly choosing to change her views so that she winds up doing the wrong thing. Hell, she’s the reason they were trapped in the Delta Quadrant in the first place.
I mean, I liked the show, but the idea that Janeway was a good captain? No. We were constantly told she was good, but she wasn’t, at all. She didn’t really come into her own until she was a mother figure for Seven of Nine.
Anyways, the problem I have with the orders given is that the show just peters out if you end with Enterprise or Voyager. The best finale, by far, is the end of TNG. Here’s how I’d do it: Watch TOS, then the Animated Series. Then watch TNG until the first episode of Season 4 (which resolves a two parter.) Then jump to the TNG episodes that setup DS9, watch The Pegasus from season 7, then go with DS9. Once you get into the feel of it, you can start alternating in episodes of Voyager and Enterprise. By the time you get to Season 7, you should be on the last season of Voyager and the last season of Enterprise, which are both fairly good and will make up for the lackluster last season of DS9. Then, finally, go back and finish up TNG.
Yeah, it’s complicated, but I think it’s best that you feel a real ending. If you want, you can save “The Pegasus” for the last part of TNG–it’s only the setup for a single Enterprise episode, and that episode may be better if you don’t yet know about the original.
EDIT: Some tweaks may be necessary to make sure you get the backstory (or should it be “frontstory”) in certain Enterprise episodes, mostly in Season 4. I also accidentally left out the movies–I’ll cover them in a separate post.
The first movie should probably be watched before the Animated series, I’d think. The second, third, fourth afterwards–and they must be watched back to back. The fifth can honestly be thrown in any time you want something stupid. The Sixth needs to be watched before you get into TNG.
The Seventh movie can’t be watched until after the third episode of Season 4, which, in hindsight, should be watched before breaking off to DS9, along with the one before it. That way you can get a movie in before DS9. The eighth movie can be watched any time after that, when you’re feeling an action movie. The ninth movie can really be watched any time after DS9 starts, but watch it when you are feeling nostalgia for TNG episodes. The tenth one is a conundrum–it does irreversibly change certain things about the TNG universe, but the season finale of TNG is a much better finale for the series as a whole. I’d probably slot the movie just before that season finale–but that may be too much impact for you. I’ll have to think about this one.
No matter how you do it, you need to go back and watch the ending again of the last episode of Enterprise, so you feel the end of the franchise. Then you can go ahead and watch the newest movie, feeling like you’ve gotten a new start.
This is a fair point, actually. One response is just to save “All Good Things” for last. Or, since there are so few good episodes of Voyager, you could scatter those in while watching DS9 (the dates aren’t really relevant from Voyager’s side) and finish with the “final chapter” episodes of DS9.
As for the rest of what BigT says–he’s assuming you need/want to watch everything at some point. I think the show is better if you entirely skip all the weakest episodes and movies (the best I can do is try to forget them). Completism is a negative goal.
DS9 did its fair share of trekking in the Gamma Quadrant. Not to mention it had, by far, the biggest action setpieces in all of Trek history.
That being said, you’re right that a majority of episodes are centered on the station. But for those of us who love DS9, I think that was actually a major point in the show’s favor - I’d rather explore the rich relationships between the many characters and spaces we’ve established on the station than go to another anonymous new planet and watch Picard or Janeway solve their problems for them.
Well, that’s because I’m of the opinion that you can’t say something is bad unless you’ve watched it at least once yourself–other people telling you it’s bad doesn’t count.
But, if you don’t agree, I think my advice still works, you just skip the bad episodes as they come.
I’d watch TNG and DS9 in that order. You’ll need a guide for the episodes that overlap and for when to watch the movies. I’d toss the first episode of Voyager in there and maybe Through the Looking Glass too, as it deals with things that are happening in the alpha quadrant. Maybe watch the finale before watching Nemesis.
After that, you can watch Voyager or Enterprise. I made it through 2 seasons of Voyager before just skipping around to the good episodes. Since I marathoned 16 seasons of Star Trek in one year, I haven’t gone back to watch Enterprise, as I burnt myself out. I’m sure I’ll go back though.