I know it’s an overused question in a lot of places, but it hasn’t been asked here in quite a while. I’m curious to see what the preferred Star Trek shows are in the group here. Whether you want to just list your favorite show, do a complete ranking of all the shows, or something in between, I’m interested to know!
This is my current top five show list:
- Deep Space Nine
- Star Trek
- Strange New Worlds
- The Next Generation
- Lower Decks
It gets difficult for me to rank past that point, so I usually stop there.
My favorite is TNG, and it’s not even close. But that’s not to say I don’t also love the others, because I do. Except for Picard, which I didn’t like much at all except for season 3.
TNG is"my" star trek, I watched it religiously when it first came out and even now the music has a curious feeling of comfort and safety about it.
I watched series 1 of Picard, it was okay. Started on 2 and stopped as soon as Q arrived, never liked those episodes of TNG either.
Just started on series 3, enjoying it so far
I’m with you there on Picard. Season one was… okay, but it had some very interesting worldbuilding that was just thrown away at the end. Season two had all kinds of problems: the story was writier’s-strike-levels of half-baked, and the forced time-travel plot just stunk of budget slashing. Season three was fun, but it was wall-to-wall fanservice and that’s why we like it; this too also ignored a lot of plot points from seasons one and two.
I would have loved to see a more genuine attempt to establish a Next(er) Generation with the support of so much established star power. IMO, there should have been an entire new crew at the end of season three that has us clamoring for season four. Instead, we got that out of Prodigy of all things.
I’m definitely similar in that I usually enjoy most Trek! I also wasn’t a fan of Picard, although I only watched season 1. I just didn’t feel the urge to even try any of the later seasons after that. Discovery is not my favorite either, but that’s primarily due to the heavily serialized storytelling and the focus on one character instead of a larger cast like many of the other shows.
TNG, Voyager and DS9 get a tie for first. Haven’t really seen any of the nu-Trek except for some Discovery and Lower Decks. Something about them just didn’t jive for me. Picard was Picard getting bullied. TOS can be fun, but not enough for me to sit and intentionally watch it. I should watch TAS though. It looks bad in a good way.
Edit: I take that back, Orville gets #1, TNG, Voyager and DS9 tie for #2.
I need to watch some Orville sometime, I’ve heard it’s pretty good. The 90’s era Treks are always a solid choice. Did you try any of Strange New Worlds? It’s got a completely different vibe than the other new shows, and I like the crew.
I haven’t, I’ve heard good things, I just haven’t gotten around to watching it yet!
Edit: also, when it comes to the Orville, keep in mind that it starts out as a parody and gets more serious overtime. However, the Orville has 100% more female country music star cameos than star trek. That makes it better.
I know that feeling well!
I did hear that it transitioned to more of a drama part way through, so I’ll keep that it mind when I get to watching it. Yes, hearing that Dolly was on a science fiction show was not on the list of things I expected to happen! I was raised around country but as I got older I began to prefer jazz, so I have to balance 90’s Trek’s love of jazz against that now.
If you asked me a couple years ago I would’ve said DS9, but now I think it might unironically be Lower Decks. TNG, VOY, ENT, The Orville, Galaxy Quest, and even-numbered movies excluding JJ Abrams shit would follow closely behind.
I have to admit, I’m a negligent Trekkie: I still haven’t gotten around to watching most of nu-Trek yet. I also have had a hard time getting through TOS and TAS because I find them to be an, uh, “challenging” watch, in that way lots of really old shows are for people who grew up with more modern TV.
Lower Decks has a surprising amount of heart for being a comedy show! I’ve gotten to really enjoy it, although some of the humor doesn’t always work for me. DS9 will probably always be my favorite though, at least for the foreseeable future! Sisko is my favorite captain, and I really enjoy the rest of the cast as well.
I can understand the older shows being a little difficult for modern audiences! I grew up with more modern series as well, and some of the older episodes are a little harder to watch. I still enjoy a lot of the stories though.
There’s definitely nothing wrong with skipping some of the shows, there’s a wide variety of styles in the new ones. I would recommend Strange New Worlds as a potential starting point if you wanted to try any of them though. It feels closest to the TOS era, but with more modern stories and production values.
It’s hard and change all the time, but it would be DS9, TNG, LD, SNW, TOS.
I’m a TOS/TNG kinda guy.