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.

  • fireweed@lemmy.world
    4·
    9 months ago

    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.

    • Bonehead@kbin.social
      4·
      9 months ago

      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.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      STNG in order starting from S1E3.

      You’re going to skip The Naked Now and start with Code of Honor?

      • fireweed@lemmy.world
        2·
        9 months ago

        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.