The Final Frontier: All Things Star Trek

My first memories of Star Trek are watching it in the 1970's while it was in syndication. My father loved the show, and I would sit and watch it with him. I have no memory of this, but my mom and dad would always try to get me to look away from the credits at the end of the show. Why? Because when they showed Balok at the end, I would start crying.

I will start by ranking my favorite of the series and see what others think:
1) Voyager
2) ST:TNG
3) ST:TOS
4) ST: DS9
5) Enterprise

I loved Voyager because of the characters, and how unlike the previous two incarnations (TNG/DS9), it didn't take them a couple of seasons to get it going. It came out of the barrel hot and didn't need major changes to make it interesting.

And I had a thing for Kate Mulgrew.

That said, the Original Series has a special place in my heart. Even though it originally aired before I was born, its cultural significance cannot be overstated. It had an optimism about the future that so many shows didn't have. And that is a good thing.

 

1) DS9

2) TNG

3) Ent

4) Voy

5) TOS, bring it. Now, if I consider the movies in with these, it moves up to 3).


DS9, from a writing and narrative perspective, is the tightest and most complete series due to the consistent main story arc. Also, hot Daxes.


That being said, to me they are all awesome.

 

voyager #1? whhaaawaaaaaa?

1) ST TNG
2) ST DS9 (probably should be #1)
3) ST TOS








4) Voyager
5) Enterprise

And I had a thing for Kate Mulgrew.

Ummm you like men then? That's fine. I'm an open minded person. She's unquestionably the worst star trek actor and character in history (yes even worse than troi or Wesley crusher). I hate her.

 

as a whole the original series is a problem because at least 50% of it is garbage. but there are enough great episodes to make it worthwhile. And given that voyager and enterprise is closer to 100% garbage, I can't see how you justify putting it in front.

 

The Next Generation was a college staple.

 

Agreed on your first point. It is obviously the beginning of all of star trek so it is important, but damn there were some crapper episodes too.


Now, I thought Voyager sucked mightily at the time it was airing. Having rewatched it, it is actually pretty good but just radically different from TOS, TNG, or DS9 in that it is almost entirely character driven. It really comes down to this: if you don't like Janeway's character, you won't like the show. If you are already bored with the "finding humanity" schtick from Data, then you won't like the Doctor/Seven. But it is actually pretty solid. I would say only 33 % crap episodes. They ruined the Borg, which sucks.

Again, I thought Enterprise sucked at the time it was airing. The first season is actually boring, and the second isn't great. But the third season is the best single season of Star Trek ever done, and the fourth is on par with the best seasons of DS9 and TNG. The highs are as high as any of the series. The acting was generally bad, and some of the episodes were just too much of retreads from previous series to bother with. But like I said, seasons 3 and 4 are about as good as trek gets. With the exception of the series finale, which I just pretend was a garbage TNG season 7 episodes that got lost.

 

What did you have against Voyager?

 

College staple? I was raised on TNG. Molded by it.

 

As for the Original Series, the Third Season was complete garbage save for an episode here and there. Roddenberry had pretty much given up on it because NBC kept putting it in crappier and crappier time slots. And season that starts off with Spock's Brain is bound to be full of garbage.

 

I started rewatching voyager recently on Netflix and just couldn't get into it. the acting is just terrible. the story lines are boring and janeway is just horrifically bad. I also can't stand the storylines with the cook. And the last episode was just ridiculous.

I gave up on enterprise after the first two seasons.

 

There were some serious plot problems, for one. For two, Kess was a terrible character, as was Neelix and Harry Kim. Three, they beat the Borg to death, ruining their mystique. Four, they took technobabble future magick to a level never seen before or since in any IP that dares to call itself "science fiction."

But it did produce what to me is the scariest episode of trek ever (as an adult-- the black tar alien from TNG gets scariest as a kid), the one where Kim is trapped in an alien computer simulation with a sadistic clown.

 

see above

 

Never watched one episode. Not a Sci-fi guy.

 

Whew, we don't agree on rankings really. You could almost turn yours upside down and have mine.

1. DS9
2. TNG
3. TOS
4. Enterprise
5. Voyager

The distance between 2-3 is not that great. Neither is 4-5. I do not dislike any of the shows, but for one reason or the other these are my rankings.

I liked DS9 for it's subject matter. The longer story arcs (continued in Voyager and Enterprise) put it above the two predecessors.

Voyager was just okay for me. The characters were somewhat interesting but failed to blow me away at any time.

 

Watched TNG daily as a kid, and often catch an episode of BBC these days if I surf over it. I could never get into TOS, and never put much effort into making time for DS9 or Voyager, though I ought to.

Call me crazy, but I actually enjoyed watching through Enterprise on Netflix.

 

agreed, but there are some truly great episodes. I've had this argument with friends who are into music. should an album be considered great by it's whole or does 3 or 4 great songs lift it above something that was just consistently good throughout.

 

Watched it a few times, never really got hooked. Now Duck Dodgers and the 31 1/2 century! That's entertainment!

 

Oh, Voyager had some real stinkers, I agree. And Kess was always a problematic character given her life span.

Don't get me started on when they had to "break through" the event horizon of a black hole.

But overall, I enjoyed it very much. I didn't watch DS9 until a year or so ago when I found it on Netflix. It really didn't live up to the hype that my boss and brother gave it.

 

at least 50% of the crew I can't stand. 7 of 9 is just stupid. Neelix (couldn't remember his name) is useless. Kim is boring as hell. chicote is the only redeeming character, but even then we are to believe that the guy is having visions and crap?

 

It is like with people. Would you rather have a team of say 12 pretty smart and capable people working for you, or a team of 12 that is mostly filled with average to stupid people, with 3 absolute geniuses? I'll take the 3 geniuses, but that is just me.