Want to get into Star Trek - which series to start with and avoid

Personally, I adore TOS, but recognize that it's not for everybody. I'd check out a few episodes ('A Taste of Armageddon', 'Trouble with Tribbles', and 'Spock's Brain' are good ones), and if you're not sold, then take a pass on them.

"Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." -- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll

@EvilTwin said:

@Silvergun said:

Personally, I adore TOS, but recognize that it's not for everybody. I'd check out a few episodes ('A Taste of Armageddon', 'Trouble with Tribbles', and 'Spock's Brain' are good ones), and if you're not sold, then take a pass on them.

I'm glad you agree that he should watch some Original Series episodes, and I'm not here to just shit on your opinions. But Spock's Brain is widely considered one of the worst episodes of TOS, and I think watching that may tend to turn him off of watching any more of it.

Haha oh man you're right. For some reason, I was thinking of the whole thing with Spock and McCoy in the third movie (which I thought was really good), not that episode. Good catch.

I'm going to go ahead and go against the flow and say that other than (most of) the movies, the only star trek worth watching is season 3 of Enterprise (starting with the season finale of season 2, though).

It was the only season of any of the shows (except DS9, which I have yet to watch. I hear it's good) where I consistently go "yeah, this is good stuff" even though it does have a few dud episodes. Other than DS9, it's the only season of star trek that is a continuous story (voyager maybe counts but not to the same degree, also it is Voyager), instead of being episodic (and after saying as much sci fi as I have, I just don't care for that stuff. I've seen it all, and it all feels like boring filler episodes).

My opinion is definitely the minority, but there it is.

@OldGuy: Wow thank you for that very lengthy post. After some consideration I think I might just start from TOS... if I am really hating it I will just skip it, or watch the movies from that era.

@EvilTwin said:

@Silvergun said:

Personally, I adore TOS, but recognize that it's not for everybody. I'd check out a few episodes ('A Taste of Armageddon', 'Trouble with Tribbles', and 'Spock's Brain' are good ones), and if you're not sold, then take a pass on them.

I'm glad you agree that he should watch some Original Series episodes, and I'm not here to just shit on your opinions. But Spock's Brain is widely considered one of the worst episodes of TOS, and I think watching that may tend to turn him off of watching any more of it.

I dunno, Spock's Brain is one of those episodes that's so bad, it's good.

"he's worse than dead! his brain is gone!". McCoy's acting makes this episode gold.

The Original and DS9 are the only two that are any good. Enterprise has more bad episodes than good ones, Voyager is just terrible, and I find almost every character on The Next Generation to be incredibly annoying.

For the movies the even numbered original generation movies are all really good. TNG movies are even worse than the series is. That new Star Trek movie was actually really good, too.

Just because nobody else seems to have pointed it out - the new movie isn't very good. It's mindless action shlock (not quite to the degree of the Bayformers movies). I won't rant about it like a complete Trek nerd, but some of the characters are handled very oddly and the plot makes zero sense. If you want pretty lasers and big explosions, it's good, but it's not Star Trek. I'd still probably recommend watching it, but only after you've seen the good stuff. Star Trek 2 and 6 are definitely the ones you should focus on, if you're looking for a really good movie.

Just because nobody else seems to have pointed it out - the new movie isn't very good. It's mindless action shlock (not quite to the degree of the Bayformers movies). I won't rant about it like a complete Trek nerd, but some of the characters are handled very oddly and the plot makes zero sense. If you want pretty lasers and big explosions, it's good, but it's not Star Trek. I'd still probably recommend watching it, but only after you've seen the good stuff. Star Trek 2 and 6 are definitely the ones you should focus on, if you're looking for a really good movie.

I really do not like TOS, frankly, except for some minor camp value. However, a lot of people swear by it and it is probably dependent on your personal tastes. My advice would be try a couple of episodes, and if you don't dig them skip on to some of the movies. I would recommend watching the Animated Series under no circumstances, whatsoever. Movies II, IV and VI are my personal favorites. I would then move into TNG, which was a great series after season 2 (and even including a few episodes in season 2). It might be necessary to watch a few season 1 and 2 episodes in order to understand all the characters and settings, though (or at least read a bunch of Wiki synopses). First Contact is also a very good movie, and although a lot of people slag it off, I like Generations, too. DS9 is a fantastic show. Like every TV series, it has its clunker episodes here and there (mostly the ones that deal with Kira's personal life, in my opinion), but i would certainly say that it is worth watching the whole series. Voyager is where things started to go downhill. To me, there are some really good episodes in there and a few of the multi-episode story arcs were great, but i don't think it would be worth watching every episode of all seven seasons. Enterprise... i don't like it, and that is a shame, because the idea is great. My biggest beef is with the characters. Unlike all the other series, not a single character in that show is in any way appealing or interesting (except for Bakula's adorable beagle). I like some of the overarching story lines, but individual episodes just weren't all that compelling to me.

anyway... enjoy!

@WinterSnowblind said:

Just because nobody else seems to have pointed it out - the new movie isn't very good. It's mindless action shlock (not quite to the degree of the Bayformers movies). I won't rant about it like a complete Trek nerd, but some of the characters are handled very oddly and the plot makes zero sense. If you want pretty lasers and big explosions, it's good, but it's not Star Trek. I'd still probably recommend watching it, but only after you've seen the good stuff. Star Trek 2 and 6 are definitely the ones you should focus on, if you're looking for a really good movie.

I agree with the above except for "if you want pretty lasers and big explosions" because the action in that movie is fucking awful. Aside from the first 15 minutes which has a decent action scene, there's fucking nothing. There's a stupid ass sword fight and the movies final action scene might as well be a video of someone shooting a fish in a barrel. The action is terrible and so is the rest of the movie. Fucking. Awful.

@WinterSnowblind said:

Just because nobody else seems to have pointed it out - the new movie isn't very good. It's mindless action shlock (not quite to the degree of the Bayformers movies). I won't rant about it like a complete Trek nerd, but some of the characters are handled very oddly and the plot makes zero sense. If you want pretty lasers and big explosions, it's good, but it's not Star Trek. I'd still probably recommend watching it, but only after you've seen the good stuff. Star Trek 2 and 6 are definitely the ones you should focus on, if you're looking for a really good movie.

I've always found that for some reason Star Trek has a history of working very well on television, yet somehow it has always failed at making compelling movies. In my opinion, apart from Star Trek IV and First Contact which were amazing, none of the traditional Star Trek movies were ever that interesting. It might have something to do with the fact that a bad episode of a Star Trek show just requires a 45 minute commitment to a silly concept, whereas a bad Star Trek movie requires sitting through two hours of utter mediocrity.

The Abrams Star Trek may be fluff, but at least it successfully entertains, and I'm actually eagerly anticipating the sequel.

@OldGuy said:

"Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." -- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll

I'm a big fan of TOS (but that could be because I'm ancient and grew up with that one first -- also, I'm not a big believer in the whole "well, the SFX don't look modern [or it's black and white, or it's silent, ewwwww!]" excuse for thinking something isn't worth watching)... Unfortunately Enterprise is not the best way to close out Star Trek though it was getting a better by the end of the run (I don't count JJ's movie is [like the Mission Impossible movies before it] as it's a wholly different animal using the same settings and character names but it is not the same Star Trek -- though, other than his highly annoying love of lens flare, it's enjoyable). I'd watch them in order of release and I would interleave them the same way they were when they were running (as a matter of fact, I'm jsut about done with my run thru The Twilight Zone [the 1958-1964 one, not any of the pretenders that followed] so I just might do that next). But I also have Vinny disease and have to tick off all the little boxes and remove all the markers from the game map before I feel I can put the thing down and move on... :-) So: Star Trek The Animated Series Star Trek: The Motion Picture Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Star Trek: The Next Generation (seasons 1 and 2) Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (sorry) Star Trek: The Next Generation (seasons 3, 4 and first few episodes of season 5 - I can look the exact number up if you want) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Star Trek: The Next Generation (the rest of season 5 and season 6 up to the intro to DS9) Star Trek: The Next Generation (the rest of season 6 and season 7) interleaved with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 1 and 2) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (the first few episodes of season 3) Star Trek: Generations Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (season 3 up to the intro to Voyager) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (the rest of season 3, season 4 and the first few episodes of season 5) interleaved with Star Trek: Voyager (seasons 1, 2 and the first few episodes of season 3) Star Trek: First Contact Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (the rest of season 5, season 6 and the first few episodes of season 7) interleaved with Star Trek: Voyager (the rest of season 3, season 4 and the first few episodes of season 5) Star Trek: Insurrection Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (the rest of season 7) interleaved with Star Trek: Voyager (the rest of season 5, seasons 6 and 7) Star Trek: Enterprise (seasons 1 and the first few episodes of season 2) Star Trek: Nemesis Star Trek: Enterprise (the rest of season 2, seasons 3 and 4) There. :-)

This is how it's done if you want to experience Star Trek. The good AND the bad. I'm still working my way through TOS season 2, but I plan to run this list in order for as long as it takes. It would be a lot easier if they came out with a complete franchise disk set rather than having to netflix or hunt the shows down.

Start with TNG. I love all of them. I honestly think voyager and enterprise are my favourites but i love them as if they were a 3 legged puppy

The movies are a must! 1 is very slow. I personally say start with 2- wrath of kahn, and watch all of them from there on. The original series has its extreme highs and extreme lows. TNG never hit as bad of lows, but it certainly didn't always stay high either. As far as series goes, this is it.

Personally? Skip the series' unless you really enjoy the movies. The movies are the MUST watches. Not just great sci-fi, but great films.

I fell in love with Star Trek with Voyager. I think that might be a good show to stat with. TNG is awesome but it can be a bit dry to start with. I think Deep Space Nine is the best but it doesn't really start going until a couple of seasons in, but that can be said for TNG and Voyager as well. Enterprise gets good at the end, but it's got the worst start and TOS is more like classic theatre than telivision so I think you should watch that after you've watched at least one or two of the other shows.

My own personal list best to worst 1. DS9 2. TNG 3.Voyager 4. TOS 5. Enterprise might be a bit controversial to put Voyager ahead of TOS, probably because it was my first love so to speak that I still like it so much.

I love all the shows, though Enterprise is a bit like loving a three-legged dog. It's obviously gimped, but still a puppy so you love it!

I got my girlfriend into Star Trek through Voyager - thinking the balanced and still fairly good-looking action and space scenes mixed with amazing characters like the 'emergency medical hologram' would help, and it certainly did. Now please, do not listen to the people who say "avoid show A and C and go for show B and D!" - they're all fantastic shows though they have a slightly different focus.

To bite myself in the ass, I never bothered with the animated series. I don't know if it's good or not, but the art style put me off to such a point that I couldn't bring myself to watch more episodes. I kinda want to though.. it can't be as bad as I remember, right?

If you watch DS9 before TOS, just make sure you watch episode 15 from season 2 of the original series before you watch episode 6 from season 5 of DS9.

I think you should watch TNG before anything then jump to either TOS or DS9 depending on how you feel. A lot of DS9's setting assumes you're already familiar with the Next Generation universe. Since a generation passes between TOS and TNG, the bonds aren't as strong.

You can skip ST: Enterprise and watch selected episodes of Voyager. Watch the first episode of Voyager then jump to season 4 when 7-of-9 shows up.

I actually just started doing this (mostly because I burned through all of the other incredibly long shows on Netflix; Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, some others) and figured "You know what, Star Trek." I opted to start with Next Gen since I'm a fan of Picard. I gotta say, sometimes those episodes seem really weird by todays standards. An episode in season 1 that if apart of probably any other show today would be broken up into at least two episodes if not three. And then the transition from season 1 to season 2 is pretty hard and fast. Ryker gets a beard, the doctor leaves, Wesley becomes an ensign, people start wearing a color other than red, and it all just happens, no questions asked or explained.

Judging by a lot of the responses in this thread, I must be a really weird Trek fan because I've never seen a full episode of TNG, but I love TOS, Voyager, DS9 and the JJ movie. Despite TNG being the biggest part of Star Trek's whole franchise, I've never got round to seeing it or been particularly interested in doing so. Might start checking it out when those fancy updated blu-ray versions start coming out.

As for advice, I'd say just dive in with a series and see what you think - I know you want some more specific advice, but I think the best thing about getting into something like Star Trek is just that you have so much choice, you can just dip in wherever and form your own opinions. I love the cheesiness of TOS in the same way I love the Adam West Batman stuff (and similarly, the JJ movie - it's just a fun romp more than anything), but there are some amazing episodes in there that really hold up. Like you, Voyager was my first 'real' introduction to Trek as a kid so it holds a strange, nostalgic place in my heart even though it can get wildly inconsistent in its highs and lows (I'd say post-Kes and with the introduction of Seven of Nine it gets considerably better, but there are still plenty of clunkers). DS9 all the way through for me, is a fantastic show. It twists the common conceptions and tropes of what Star Trek is about and isn't afraid of doing things its own way - there are some fantastic characters and actors on there, and some wonderful arcs - but I'd say if you're looking for a 'Star Trek' experience I'd personally say to watch another series and then watch DS9, just to see how different it can be.

Enterprise is pretty bad, Voyager is way underrated (other than the awful first season), DS9 is way overrated, TNG is awesome, and TOS has its place.

Star Trek movies 2, 3 and 4 are good Star Trek experiences. They all fit together like a trilogy so I think it's as good a place to start as any. Then watch Generations( I think that's 7) to see Kirk pass the torch to Picard and then you can dive into some TNG. A lot of people are saying to go right into season 3 but there are some episodes in the first 2 that are referenced in the later seasons and introduce some characters that appear throughout the series so it might be confusing if all of a sudden Lore, Q or Denise Crosby shows up referencing past events that you have no clue about.

@WinterSnowblind said:

Just because nobody else seems to have pointed it out - the new movie isn't very good. It's mindless action shlock (not quite to the degree of the Bayformers movies). I won't rant about it like a complete Trek nerd, but some of the characters are handled very oddly and the plot makes zero sense. If you want pretty lasers and big explosions, it's good, but it's not Star Trek. I'd still probably recommend watching it, but only after you've seen the good stuff. Star Trek 2 and 6 are definitely the ones you should focus on, if you're looking for a really good movie.

I agree. Star Trek 2009 was shit in my opinion. Even more dude bro than Voyager.

Take the Romulans. They are now monster Nosferatu running around in a gothic vampire ship. Nero throws spears, has super strength and has a angst mean look on his face with a gruff voice SHOUTIING every 2 minutes. Because he iz da bad guyz. It's so dumbed down and blunt. The ironic thing is on a much lower budget with just a 50 second scene, the female "founder" character from Deep Space 9 can come across immeasurably more melovant and intimidating with just a civil response than any of the monster angry super strength Nosferatu comes across in 2 hours.

If you get the DVD box sets, for the love of all that is sacred, skip the first disc of TNG Season 2 entirely. You'll miss the introduction of a new character (who is only in that season and then is never mentioned again anyway), but all the 4 episodes starting off that season are terrible beyond belief. Every time upon rewatching TNG and not skipping those I've regretted it, that's a terrible waste of 3 hours. There is one absolutely unmissable episode later in season 2, "Q Who?", which remains an all time favorite for me, so even if you do like some suggest and skip to season 3 from the get go, don't skip that one episode.

Just watch TNG, skip everything else. It's probably the only Trek I would say that occasional good writing on it. Best cast by far, too.

@FateOfNever said:

I actually just started doing this (mostly because I burned through all of the other incredibly long shows on Netflix; Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, some others) and figured "You know what, Star Trek." I opted to start with Next Gen since I'm a fan of Picard. I gotta say, sometimes those episodes seem really weird by todays standards. An episode in season 1 that if apart of probably any other show today would be broken up into at least two episodes if not three. And then the transition from season 1 to season 2 is pretty hard and fast. Ryker gets a beard, the doctor leaves, Wesley becomes an ensign, people start wearing a color other than red, and it all just happens, no questions asked or explained.

It's all explained though. They just don't make a big deal of it. I just watched all the early TNG episodes and Le Forge has a clear promotion scene and was doing technically impressive things in Season 1 enough to deserve the promotion to engineering chief, Worf got promoted because the last head of security died, and Wesley becoming an ensign is such a slow and drawn out process that missing it is unfortunately kinda impossible.

Riker's beard of course, remains a mystery. Doctor leaving was also explained that she took a better job. Why she returned was not so clear.

I love TNG so much that I refuse to watch the last episode. I actually did not even watch the last season for years because I just wanted more episodes to be left that I had not watched.

The original Star Trek and the Next Generation. Deep Space 9 is alright. I don't like Enterprise or Voyager. The only reason I watched Voyager is because Seven of Nine is so hot.

@RabidMickeyMouse said:

The original Star Trek and the Next Generation. Deep Space 9 is alright. I don't like Enterprise or Voyager. The only reason I watched Voyager is because Seven of Nine is so hot.

Enterprise got pretty good in the last season. Unlike most I liked the first season of Voyager the best, the scenario they set up there could've been great - limited resources, personnel and 70 years of maximum warp travel from home. The writers totally forgot about the resources and personnel part in the next few seasons though. There were more people and shuttles lost throughout that series than there were aboard the ship from the beginning.

But the Voyager theme/titles sequence is probably one of the most beautiful things in television history.

@fisk0 I thought Stargate Universe did what Voyager tried much better. I loved SGU but it got canceled after 2 seasons.

@fisk0 I thought Stargate Universe did what Voyager tried much better. I loved SGU but it got canceled after 2 seasons.

You might be a bit alienated by TOS or not depending on your taste. Though TNG is in my opinion TNG is the best series followed by DS9, which is a very different style of show.

I recommend you watch TNG first.

They added TNG to Netflix Canada in November and I've been working my way through it, I'm near the end of season 7 and I'll have to say, the show holds up amazingly well; nothing looks cheesy or bad (except the virtual reality video game episode, but that seems like it was supposed to look bad) like many older sci fi and when you consider the special effects in movies at the time it's pretty amazing.

If any of you missed the original run and only watched the show in syndication like I did, I recommend watching at least season 6 and 7, I don't know why but I had the plots to seasons 1-4 almost completely memorized but some of season 5 and almost all of 6 and 7 I have almost no memory of and I swear I've never seen them before, I'm thinking they weren't included in the original syndication of the show.

Great show, and damn there is a lot of it.

I'm going to change my recommendation for the show, watch it right from the start, the show is amazingly consistent, good right from the start, it does get stranger and more creative as it goes along, but the first season isn't bad and is worth watching.

Just watch SG1 instead. It's better than TNG and has aged much better too. Atlantis is also pretty good once you get into it.

I would argue that if you're "in to" Star Trek you watch everything, good or bad. Starting with Next Gen I would watch in the order series were released as that makes the most sense narratively.

I think TNG is the oldest version that can be easily watched now. TOS was groundbreaking but if you don't already have respect for it the show is almost not watchable today. If you want to see TOS crew then I'd watch Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, Voyage Home, and Undiscovered Country. Watch TNG, DS9, and dabble in Voyager and Enterprise.

Start with The next generation as its pretty much the foundation of everything you will see in the other shows, move to Voyager and then Deepspace Nine, then Enterprise and finally The Original series (my favourite but many people say its harder to watch unless you have viewed the others). Avoid the animated series, it is truely awful and not in a good way.

All of Star Trek is pretty shitty...people don't like to admit it... but Trek is pretty terrible TV.  With that said, just watch it all.  If you going to watch some of it you might as well watch it all.  There are proably about 20 episodes of total between TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY & ENTR that are 'great', so unless you skip everything else wtaching those twenty, you might as well watch it all.

I signed up for an account just to stick up for Star Trek: Enterprise. I found this series to be surprisingly great. Yes it is no TNG, but it is a great take on the series. I enjoyed this as much as the original series. The acting in the very beginning (half of the first season) is so so, however by the second season the actors really take on the rolls. This series literally had me staying up late just to watch that next episode.

So, I guess I'm a newbie to this. Long story short, I really wanted to star watching Star Trek for a while now. But I don't know, I think there was always something about knowing the amount of Star Trek there is that it was kind of intimidating to even approach watching it. But, I just decided to jump in a while ago after the whole Star Trek discussion on the Bombcast. Ryan pretty much sold me on it, so I finally started watching it and I'm still on TOS. Probably also had something to do with the '09 film.

Honestly, I'm shocked at how well TOS holds up. They've remastered it, so what would have been the most distracting parts of the special effects (for me, I KNOW that if I'd seen the Enterprise held up by strings it would have been too distracting) are taken care of with having some nice ship-in-space sequences. I can forgive the 60's era effects with the actors in them. I mean, some of that is so funny that I really find it charming. It's kind of magical to see so obvious stunt doubles that look nothing like the actor show up during a fight scene, that I do laugh. But, the themes and storytelling is strong enough most times for me that I can accept it for what it was.

I understand that TOS probably isn't for everybody, because of it's age. But, I am fascinated by how well the writing holds up. Characters, specifically with Kirk, Spock, and Bones...they have their strengths...and their flaws. And those flaws are what makes them work. Kirk is kinda overly cocky, and I can see his womanizing being a problem. Bones always seems like one sentence away from being a racist. Spock's stiffness is a flaw that bites him often.

I've loved the first two Abrams movies, which is what got me into Star Trek at all. I was always a Star Wars guy before the first Abrams movie. But, I'm sold on Star Trek now. I'm on the final few episodes of Season 2, just recently watched a pretty crazy episode in "Patterns of Force" having and entire planet's government structured on the Nazi's.

I'm planning on wrapping up TOS, and then just watching all TOS movies, before watching TNG.

@firecracker22: TOS is definitely the best entry-point into the franchise. There are many call-backs to the characters or events in TOS, which can be a real treat for viewers that have seen it. So, you're very fortunate. There's a lot of good television (and some decent-to-great movies) waiting for you. Enjoy the journey.

TOS feels very dated at times but, if you've seen other shows from that era, it was light-years miles ahead of its competition. It is a very forward-thinking and enjoyable show that has spawned one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time. That said, I do not appreciate the J. J. Abrams Lens Flare version of Star Trek. Quinto and Pegg are fine, though.

If you're starved for more Star Trek after having seen the series or read the books, Star Trek Online (F2P mmo) may be worth trying. There are some real fun missions (both official and player-generated) that harken back to classic Star Trek moments.

Tribbles.

Yeah, even though I very much love the first two Abrams movies...I can understand where people are coming from with the hate.

For what it's worth, though, the is a silver lining in the cultivation of a new fans for which the Abrams movies will simply be a gateway drug into the rest of Star Trek. I'm one. It can only be a good thing for them to build up on new fans who watch those films, and then absorb even half of the rest there is that is out there on Netflix and Amazon Prime...I do think whenever they launch a new series, it should be primed for great success if they play their cards right.

There are a couple duds I've seen so far, with TOS, for sure. I think it's easier for me to forgive it because of the era (knowing even a little about how quickly they needed to crank these things out is enough for me to forgive alot). Some stuff bothers me, though. I watched 'The Omega Glory', and just thought it broke the suspension of disbelief more than it could have been allowed.

EDIT: @noblenerf I've actually gotten a real itch to play something, anything at this point, Star Trek. I've almost bought the new game, even though I hear nothing but bad things about it. I've been playing FTL, with a Star Trek mod that is damn fun. But, I'm almost to the point where I might play the Mass Effect games again just to scratch it.

But, I will give Star Trek Online a look. I just checked, and my laptop should run it fine. I'm downloading it right now, so I'll see how that goes.

The first trek i ever watched was TOS, and i must say that i really came to love everything about it, including the rubber aliens, green women, styrofoam boulders, and planetary sets which all seemed to look the same. There were some cheesy aspects of TOS as afformentioned, but they didn't really bother me, it just gave me a good laugh. TOS definitely has a different vibe from many of the other series, so it might help to think of it as a different entity if you are coming from TNG. I went through TAS and found it quite entertaining at some points, but not much else. And I just started Enterprise about 3 weeks ago, and i am going to start season 4 shortly. And although there have been many mixed reviews about ENT, you must really start with an open mind and from the beginning. I grew more attached to the characters of ENT than i did for anything else, strangely enough. And i really enjoyed Phlox, Trip, and T'pol. But what really made ENT special to me is that it isn't really that far in the future, I could relate it to reality, And it made me yearn for interstellar travel and all the utopian ideals and technologies which seemed so far away in the series' which would take place later in the trek universe. ENT made me want more from life, it helped me realize how menial most things that mankind worry about are in perspective to the trek universe. It inspired me to dedicate my life toward the unification of mankind and the advancement of science and technology, propulsion technology to be more exact.

This is going to paint me as a hell of a pariah in the ST community but I'd say:

-Skip TOS

-Watch TOS movies

-Watch TNG (skip the movies)

-Watch DS9 (my personal favorite, makes TNG look like kid's play)

-Skip Voyager

-Watch Enterprise

The reason I wouldn't start with DS9 even though I think it's the best is that it'll kill you ability to get into the more traditional Trek shows since it's actually got a story arc that spans the whole series and dominates the later seasons. Also the quality of the character development compared to other series makes said series harder to watch.

Enterprise is kinda crappy but I like most of the cast (not the captain though), and it is cool to actually see things like Klingons and transporters as foreign, weird and potentially deadly instead of the series mainstays they are.

Major fan here... I've seen every episode and all the movies. Personally, I love TNG, but I find my friends who are new to the series find it a little dull. If you like camp, TOS is classic (not all good, but worth watching.) I might not start with it though. I actually recommend the new movies, although I think they were a little on the dumb side. They are good introductions to the cast and story.

I picked up TNG on DVD back in the day. I never quite gave it a shot before. I was young when it was on TV, and Star Trek was just too pansy-ass for my tastes. Season 1 is a bit rough, but over the course of the whole show, I connected with the cast of TNG, and Star Trek as universe as a whole - so yeah, pick up TNG on DVD or BluRay or something. If it is at all for you, it'll get you into it.

@mikkaq: Why do you suggest skipping TOS and Voyager? I don't understand what puts those two below the others in your view.

I was never able to get into watching Enterprise. I was exposed to their "Next Episode" commercials when it was airing on television originally, and it soured me on the show. The writers always found a reason to make T'pol undress. Also, one time I was watching it I noticed T'pol's platform boots, which took me out of the show. Shran (I think that's his name) seemed like an interesting character, though.

TOS cause the camp was just a little too heavy, and it feels off compared to the rest of the series (though I didn't grow up with it, so that could just be my perspective). Voyager because it has nothing to distinguish itself from TNG. The characters are less memorable and a lot of episodes just feel like generic Trek that could be plugged into any series. Basically... Voyager doesn't stand out, I'd say it's only worth watching if you're just desperate for anything Trek.

Also yeah T'Pol gets exploited in ways I don't like. It was dumb to make a Vulcan the sexy character because it feels like she's split between her duties as the emotionless science officer and being the ship's resident eye-candy. Especially when she and Tucker start doing their Vulcan pre-bedtime "relaxation". It's like the writers wanted them to bone but couldn't because she's a Vulcan so they came up with stupid excuses to get them half-naked together.

@mordukai: This threads first answer is the right answer. You can't miss DS9. Best Character progression of any star trek series in my mind.