My favorites are the original series and TNG.
TOS is a lot of fun, and you get to see why Star Trek became so popular and developed the first "fandom". TNG is when they really got to dig into the world-building of Roddenberry's vision of the future, and there's sooo much of it (178 episodes!). A lot of people nowadays start there.
Have fun!
I'd recommend you start with whatever you're most excited for! Every series is someone's favorite, and it often has to do with which Trek was their first.
The Original Series (TOS) is definitely quality television, and worth watching, but it can be jarring for modern audiences. If you haven't seen much scifi from the 60s, it can feel very silly.
As for which series is specifically best, the debate is usually between Deep Space 9 (DS9), and the Next Generation (TNG). I personally consider Lower Decks (LD) of this same quality, but, being an animated comedy, it's controversial in the fandom.
DS9 is widely accepted to actually be the best Star Trek. It takes itself very seriously most of the time, and has some fantastic characters. It's probably the show that gives you the best picture of what it's actually like to live in the Federation.
TNG is what most people think of when you say Star Trek, despite not being the original. It was the second live action series, which came out in the 80s, and the first of 3 shows set in roughly the same time period (TNG, DS9, and Voyager (VOY)). It was the most popular of all the Treks, and so gets a lot of special attention in pop culture, but suffers from some of the camp leftover from TOS, especially early on while they're still adapting old stories.
Voyager is a bit of a dark horse. It's MY favorite, but it has some rough episodes. It takes place outside the Federation, on the other side of the galaxy, where the Voyager and her crew have been stranded by a strange alien known as the Caretaker. The show follows their journey as they attempt to fly back to Earth, the long way, a 70 year journey.
Lower Decks takes place like 10 or so years after Voyager. It's a workplace comedy following the crew of the Cerritos, a Starfleet support ship. They're not super elite like the Enterprise, but that doesn't mean the dangers they face are any less...dangerous. It's smart, fast, and written with a clear love for the setting. They also get tons of Trek actors to reprise their roles in animation. It's definitely best to watch once you've seen a bunch of Trek, but imo, it holds up on its own. I have friends for whom it was their first Trek, and they still loved it.
You could also stick with New Trek and check out Academy or Discorey next. Be aware, you will be entering a landscape of conflict. This is where Trek has always lived, but it feels different when it's your show. A lot of people HATED Discovery, and Academy got a lot of flack from reactionaries because it was Star Trek. Personally, I liked them both, but I thought Discovery took a while to find its feet. Academy, I found fantastic, and recommended strongly. Academy is set in the far future, and includes some stuff from Discovery, but I can't tell you why, because of the Temporal Prime Directive.
There are three other series, Prodigy, Enterprise (ENT), and the Animated Series (TAS). They're all kind of special cases. TAS came out between TOS and TNG, but I've never actually seen it myself. From what I've heard, it's pretty goofy. Prodigy is targeted at kids, but it's a solid show regardless. It only got two seasons before it was cancelled, like Academy. Finally, Enterprise is a prequel, like SNW, but set even earlier. I like it, but it's tone is often darker than Trek usually is. It feels like an early 2000s scifi show imo. It's worth watching for Commander Shran alone though.
That's the real show: which one of these characters is Jeffrey Combs?
The next generation, of course, and deep space nine
Then also, give "the Orville" a try! Basically TNG updated for the 2020s
definitely not nutrek, starting from jj-abrams - Kurtsman trek.
i would say TNG, DS9, VOY, and maybe enterprise, eventhough it shouldve been better than it was it still pays homage to older series.
but they all bad and filler episodes in the earlier seasons.
for nutrek if you must, i would watch lower decks and prodigy both are cancelled.
i just cant get into SNW, something about thier wooden acting just doesnt fit right with me, and too much like the other 2.
The best three are TNG, DS9 and VOY.
TOS is very much a show from the 60s. If you love SNW, though, it's definitely worth checking out. If you can't get into it, the movies are still worth a watch. Wrath of Kahn is obligatory watching.
Be sure to watch First Contact. The other TNG movies aren't as good.
ENT has its moments. If you get bored with the Xindi or temporal cold war storylines feel free to skip a bunch of episodes. IMO it gets good in season 4 and great right before it was cancelled at the end of that season.
Lower Decks is a funny cartoon that you should watch after you've seen a lot of other Star Trek shows, so that you'll get the references.
Discovery and Picard are not as good as the earlier shows. At least, not in a way that appeals to fans of earlier Trek.
Starfleet Academy doesn't deserve as much hate as it got, but it's not great.
TAS (The Animated Series) is a curiosity that might be worth taking a look at for fans of TOS.
DS9 is my favorite, but TNG is super important for setting the theme.
Honestly, as a sci-fi nerd who has watched The Original Series (and many others) and loved it, it is rough. It's very much a product of it's time and you can see and feel that in everything. Costumes, scripts, acting, sets, everything. For example, the below image is an actual alien from the original series, as it appeared in the show.
Now, if you can enjoy the camp and enjoy the show for what it is, then sure, give it a shot, but just know going in what you're getting into.
I'm a huge original series fan. Yes, it's of its time, but good storytelling is good storytelling. Unless you get particularly twitchy about the sexism that comes with the period (I can't blame you if you do), it's more than worth a watch.
If you want my opinion of the overall best series, I'd say that's Deep Space Nine. But it is ideally enjoyed after viewing at least some of Next Gen, since it's somewhat a response to the optimism of that series. So I do generally recommend going in chronological order.
As to the dregs, Enterprise is the only series I never managed to get through. Picard set up some brilliant ideas in its first couple of episodes, but followed those with absolutely dreadful execution. It's a real shame.
Everything else falls somewhere in the middle. Discovery seems to have the loudest haters, but I'm a big fan, and have frankly never understood the hate. It falters a little in the second season, but undergoes a bit of a transformation in season 3 and 4, which I very much enjoyed.
Regarding the films: all the original 6 are great, with the caution that The Motion Picture very much takes its time (just try to think of how appreciated all the beauty shots of the Enterprise would have been upon release, when you'd have been used to '60s TV production values), and The Final Frontier is very cheesy (more like TOS itself than any of the others).
After First Contact, the Next Gen films take a bit of a dive, ending on a very sour note with Nemesis.
And the less said about Section 31 the better.
Consider starting with the TOS movies. They're a great introduction to the original cast, using a higher budget and better writing than the show. They're set after TOS, but don't require you to know anything about it to watch them. The quality of the movies follows the playground rhyme "first the worst, second the best".
My personal favourite series, by a country mile, is Lower Decks. You are in for an absolute treat whenever you decide to start on them. Unlike the others, though, Lower Decks massively rewards familiarity with other Star Trek series. The more of them you watch before picking it up, the more you will get out of it.
Personally, I think the best Trek is the movies starring the original crew. Especially 2, 3 & 4.
Are there any series to avoid?
That's something to decide after watching them all. Yes, even TAS.
I would avoid Discovery entirely. Personally, Voyager and the first two seasons of Enterprise are my favourites, but I do recommend watching The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine first. Regarding the Original Series, I'd go for a list of best rated episodes and then watch the movies (you can skip the first one, though). There is a lot of criticism about newer Trek in general, but I absolutely recommend watching Prodigy after Voyager and save Lower Decks for when you watched most of the other shows. Otherwise you will miss out on many fun references.
OP writing this post...
I really feel like the quality of the property began to decline after the TNG crew started making movies. Everything (both on TV and the Big Screen) started to thoroughly suck starting with Insurrection. After that point, it's easier to name what I liked than it is to name what I disliked. I liked the first reboot movie. I liked the first couple seasons of SNW. That's about it.
Not to say the eras that I liked were free of dogs. I, V and Generations are all pretty terrible. TNG Seasons 1-2 were not great. The Way to Eden exists, lol.
My biggest gripe is so much crap got made in this modern era. They're able to do things much faster now. They really hurt a property that imo was already dragging by piling on so much dogshit.
My biggest hope is that Star Trek gets something made that manages to do for it what Andor did for Star Wars.
I think at some point TOS is a needed watch, even after getting into TNG some. There's a lot of good stories and background there. But TNG is fine for a start, as it began assuming little to no knowledge of TOS from viewers then, trying to reboot the series. Like any series, the first season has some so-so episodes as they try to figure out the show and characters, but most aren't so bad as to say skip entirely, as usually there's some development that will be used later. TNG is a well rounded show, with DS9 and VOY being more nuanced plots that drive their story.
Discovery I wouldn't say avoid, but I never got pulled into it from various clips I've seen to care too much about it. Maybe because of the time travel stuff and how much they changed of "canon" things for me. Same issue I have with the Abrams movies, the casting was spot-on, terrible job and acting, but the stories... meh. And they touched the real canon that I live for with Star Trek, the ship. Way too much wrong with it. But the first scene from the 2009 movie, and the hook that gets Kirk to join Starfleet, yeah, that was pretty good writing, even if it broke earlier lore.
Star Trek TOS novel Kirk though... he's a legend. The good writers knew how to build depth to their characters, and none of the visual media, even Shatner, can touch book Kirk.
The ones I've seen, in order from favorite to least favorite:
Discovery's the only one I really didn't like. I knew in 2 episodes I didn't like it. There's really nothing you need to avoid preemptively.
You can watch them in any order, but watching at least one episode of TOS might give you some good context for SNW. And likewise watching some TNG/DS9 would give good context for what Lower Decks is building from. Lower Decks is mostly a parody of the TNG/DS9/Voyager set.
TNG probably the most popular one for people to reference, so is a good pick if you want to fit in with Trekkie culture. (DS9 too.)
I feel like you need to watch TOS, just to understand Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, and Scotty. Also, how so many tropes came into being, like red shirts, and transporters, and time travel, etc. Why some of the props and control panels look the way they do, why there's a handle in the turbo lift. There are references and call-backs dating back 60 years to the original series, and you'll miss them if you don't watch it.
But, not only in the ST universe, so many other Sci-Fi media reference TOS and the rest.
Don't miss The Orville, either.
Voyager , fuck haters.
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