The original, the trend setter, the GOAT. Lots of people can't watch the original series because of how dated it looks and because of how campy the acting can be, but there is still so much charm here. Let's not forget this series was EXTREMELY progressive for its time, and also that they had a budget of like $53 each episode. CBS wasn’t even going to approve of a 3rd season until fans sent a bunch of angry letters telling the network to keep the show running. Despite the show's age, some of the themes in these episodes are still relevant today. It's still very silly. Peak 60s sci-fi right here. Spock is my favorite character. He's so sassy and I love him. Him and Kirk are so in love you CANNOT change my mind. If you're new to Star Trek I actually wouldn't start with the original series because it can be slow and with modern video quality you can realllyyyy see how cheap the sets look. But I would say come back to this one after watching Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
Everyone say thank you to 'Amok Time' and late 60s housewives for inventing modern fandom culture.
FAVORITE EPISODES: "Metamorphosis"-"Amok Time"-"The City On The Edge Of Forever"-"The Trouble With Tribbles"THE NEXT GENERATION
The series gets off to a ROUGH start, but by season three I think they finally found their footing. I have a lot of nostalgia for this series since it aired while I was growing up. My dad would jokingly say “Resistance is futile” when I refused to eat dinner or go to bed on time as a kid. Data is my favorite. Him and Geordi are QPPs and you cannot change my mind. My 2nd fav is definitely Q. He’s such a drama queen and you can tell John Delancy is having so much fun in the role. 'Deja Q' is one of my favortie episodes because the dichotomy of Data and Q’s viewpoints on humanity is really fun to watch. I want to buy the remastered Blu-ray set eventually but it's also over $100. This series is super rewatchable, and if you want to get into Star Trek, this is definitely the series you want to start with. I would watch “Encounter At Farpoint”and “Datalore” from season one to get a feel for the characters; then “Elementary, Dear Data”, “Measure Of A Man”, “Q Who”, and “The Emissary” from season two. Skip everything else early on and go right to season 3 after that.
FAVORITE EPISODES: "The Offspring"-"Q Who"-"The Inner Light"-"Clues"-"I,Borg"DEEP SPACE NINE
This is my favorite series. My friends who’ve also watched the show describe it as “Star Trek mixed with Mass Effect”. Fans will say it’s “darker” or “more serious” than Next Gen, and it KIND OF is because of the Dominion War and the themes of upholding your morals in the face of danger, but it still retains the optimism and ethical discussions of Star Trek. “It’s easy to be a saint in paradise” goes so hard. Garak and Bashir are my favs. Though honestly every character is super complex and there's a lot of growth and progression that happens in this series. Everything pays off. As my one big complaint I will say that I will NEVER forgive Rick Berman making everything Very Cis And Straight and making huge requirements like reducing Garak’s role and giving an out-of-the-blue female love interest so he and Bashir seemed ~less gay~. He required the same for Bashir, like you can REALLY tell Bashir was set up with Ezri way too quickly just so there could be a hetero romance. God. I think that's honestly my biggest complaint about DS9. All the main hetero relationships (especially toward the end of the series) feel so forced and unnatural. I never liked Odo/Kira and thought they worked best as friends who bonded over their “ousted from culture” similarities. Worf and Jadzia was a LITTLE more believable but ugh. Too much hetero. It could’ve been a perfect series if not for Rick & CBS’s meddling in the writer’s room.
FAVORITE EPISODES: "Take Me Out To The Holosuite" - "The Wire" - "It's Only A Paper Moon" - "Far Beyond The Stars" - "Past Tense" - "Explorers" - "The Visitor"VOYAGER
This is the series I’m watching now. Not as good as TNG or DS9, but still worthy of a watch with some really good episodes and settings. Tuvok, Chakotay, and Janeway are the definitions of #gaslightgatekeepgirlboss. Neelix is definitely annoying and weird early on, but his writing mellows out after season 3. My fav character by far is The Doctor, with Seven Of Nine being a very close second. I love when they have to team up for anything.
FAVORITE EPISODES (so far): 'Eye Of The Needle' - 'Death Wish' - 'Message In A Bottle' - ' Distiant Origin' - 'Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy' - 'Blink Of An Eye' ENTERPRISE
I have yet to get to this series tbh. ‘Faith of the Heart’ slaps tho.
THE J.J. ABRAMS MOVIES
I’m going to be honest I don’t like these very much. The first movie I would give a 6.5/10, only because I think most trekkies were desperate for new movies/shows since Enterprise wasn’t The Best and also got canceled. Also I’m sorry but I cannot get behind Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock. They’re just too, pretty-boy-ish? For me? If that makes sense?? The sequels suck sorry. There’s just way too much focus on action and big bombastic sets and the plot goes WAY too fast. Cumberbatch wishes he had the charisma of Ricardo Montalban. These movies feel way too much like they’re trying to pander to the widest audience possible instead of long standing fans of the series, or hard sci-fi fans in general tbh.
DISCOVERY
Oof.PICARD Just go watch the RedLetterMedia videos cause Jay and Rich perfectly encapsulate how I feel about this series.STRANGE NEW WORLDS
I have yet to watch this one but I’m going to be honest I’m kind of also not interested enough to start.PRODIGY
All I know about this one is that it's animated and Janeway is there, but idk if I'll ever watch this one considering Paramount is currently trying to nuke its existance offthe face of the earth.LOWER DECKS
This is the one current series that fellow trekkie friends have told me is actually good. The blatant Rick & Morty artstyle is definitely a turn off but that's more than likely the CBS execs telling the animators to recreate what's popular. I'll probably watch this series after I finish Voyager.
