A 50th Anniversary Analysis:
I deeply love, with a nostalgia of childhood and a ritualistic familiarity with every episode and massive chunks of dialog[1], Star Trek, the Original Series. Sure, it has its multitudinous flaws, many of them a result of the general state of late 1960s TV (and network shenanigans), but the willingness to (sometimes) grapple with social issues, the sense of adventure, and the personal stories told amidst the less inspiring tales, all make it, like Thomas Jefferson, a flawed but admirable Founding Father.
Fast Forward way too many years, and Star Trek: The Next Generation came to pass. I watched it because, hey, Star Trek! I found the first few seasons cloyingly preachy, but after it loosened up there were some moments of brilliance (many of them centered around Data and how he was mistreated as an AI life form) alongside the moments of goofiness (too many of them also centered around Data) (the same can be said of Worf as well). I watched it, on and off, through its run; it's a show that Margie and I watched while we were dating. It never grabbed me as much as TOS, but it beat most TV.
A while after TNG debuted, we got a new series: Deep Space 9. And I have to say it's my favorite of the post-TOS Treks, for the variety of reasons spelled out by the article attached below. That is, it was gritty, it was shadowy, it was political compromises and religious discomfort and people with clouded moral attitudes and angry people and broken people and a world that as far less perfect than TOS or TNG, but still possessing that element of hope and ultimate optimism. I fell away from the series for a variety of reasons after the first couple of seasons, but it's the one Star Trek that I'd like to go back and binge watch. Some day …
I had high hopes for Voyager, as the idea of a divided crew stranded in the wilderness, having to band together out of a sheer need for survival, felt like a great way to progress the dramatic and human stakes of the Star Trek world. Alas, Voyager never really lived up to that expectation, instead feeling more like an adventure with no strings attached. Not surprisingly, my favorite episode was "Year from Hell," where actually saw the starship and its crew taking damage that wasn't magically healed by the next episode, and the stakes of survival were high and ongoing; when it all got retconned away after the second part, I was basically done.
I was similarly intrigued by Enterprise, as a chance to see a lower-tech Earth ship make the first tentative steps out into the universe. Unfortunately, lower-tech tended to mean lower-action in the early years of the series, which too soon started giving us First Encounters that made no sense with the canon. I dropped it after the first season, though I've watched a few stray episodes which were enjoyable, but not compelling.
I'm curious to see what Star Trek: Discover turns out to be like. Honestly, I don't plan on watching it in first run; not as something I need to pay for to get CBS's streaming service. I'm sure it will eventually make its way to some medium where I can enjoy it. I look forward to doing so.
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[1] I used to make audio cassette recordings of TOS episode reruns and listen to them constantly. Hey, I grew up in a pre-VCR universe.
What Deep Space Nine does that no other Star Trek series can
This show isn’t just a good story; it’s a beacon of hope for people living in dark times.
Loved TOS. Not a huge fan of TNG although I will admit episodes with Q were a guilty pleasure. DS9 was awesome, which is sort of funny because I gave it a try thinking I'd hate it because they abandoned the whole starship venturing through space angle. Like you, I had high hopes for Voyager and the stranded in unknown space premise but that didn't work. I stuck with Enterprise until they brought in the goofy time war element.
Looking forward to the new show. Hope it lives up to its heritage.
Time travel is a dangerous device to use. That entire Xindi malarkey did the thing in for me.
+Marty S. There are a lot of cool moments and episodes in TNG — and Q is in many of them.
Actually, most of my favorite Star Trek novelizations are TNG spin-offs, the vast majority written by Peter David (who can do Q like nobody's business).
TNG didn't really hell until Riker got his beard, the first season was uneven and not that good.
Same with DS9, it didn't really jell until Sisko' got his goatee.
Voyager…if it wasn't for Janeway, their wouldn't have been a reason to watch it since I didn't like most of the characters.
Enterprise would have been a good a good show if they hadn't put the damn Time War plot in it. I gave up at the end of season one with much yelling.