I want to get into the Star Trek universe but dont know where to start. I have previously seen first three seasons of Disocvery and first season of picard. Picard was cool but disocvery didnt quite track, a little boring and not adventure focused enough. However loving lower decks now (just started season 4) and want to get into the more canon stuff.
I have access to TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise and SNW. TOS i could probanly get access to if i want, but gotta admit that is not very enticing.
So where to start? TNG?
If it helps (and i dont get shunned for this), i am a stargate guy and love especially sg-1 and the adventure of the week format and the character ensemble
Some advice for TNG. Don’t skip seasons 1 and 2. It’s popular but misguided advice. I finished TNG this year and generally enjoyed these seasons despite their flaws.
To that effect, here’s an optimized episode watch guide for each. Six episodes removed per season to save you 9 hours in total. Return to the skipped episodes later if you’re interested.
<S1 - click to expand>
Watch Encounter at Farpoint 1x01/02 The Naked Now 1x03 Code of Honor 1x04 The Last Outpost 1x05 Where No One Has Gone Before 1x06 The Battle 1x09 Hide And Q 1x10 Haven 1x11 The Big Goodbye 1x12 Datalore 1x13 11001001 1x15 Home Soil 1x18 Coming of Age 1x19 Heart of Glory 1x20 The Arsenal of Freedom 1x21 Symbiosis 1x22 Skin Of Evil 1x23 We’ll Always Have Paris 1x24 Conspiracy 1x25 The Neutral Zone 1x26
Skip/defer Code of Honor 1x04 Lonely Among Us 1x07 Justice 1x08 Angel One 1x14 Too Short A Season 1x16 When The Bough Breaks 1x17
<S2- click to expand>
Watch Where Silence Has Lease 2x02 Elementary, Dear Data 2x03 Loud As A Whisper 2x05 The Schizoid Man 2x06 Unnatural Selection 2x07 A Matter Of Honor 2x08 The Measure Of A Man 2x09 The Dauphin 2x10 Contagion 2x11 Time Squared 2x13 The Icarus Factor 2x14 Pen Pals 2x15 Q Who 2x16 Samaritan Snare 2x17 Manhunt 2x19 The Emissary 2x20 Peak Performance 2x21
Skip/defer The Child 2x01 The Outrageous Okona 2x04 The Dauphin 2x10 The Royale 2x12 Up The Long Ladder 2x18 Shades of Gray 2x22
TNG season 1 is a good start its rough around the edges and if it starts to look like the movie “Coming to America” go ahead and skip that episode. Just watch knowing it’s going to get better like Park and Rec but it sets up a lot of storylines that will pay off later and some classic episodes that people forget are season 1 like “Datalore”.
Measure of a Man is season 2!
You know what you are correct i should have done a search before posting thanks for the correction
If us Star Trek nerds can’t get our facts straight, what hope for humanity?
It’s okay to be wrong! He corrected himself and thanked you — that good sir is what a Trekkie should do. The first duty is to the truth.
🖖
TNG season 3. The first two sessions are pretty rough. Start with 3. If you ever do a rewatch then try starting with season 1. Then try DS9.
TOS is good if you can handle the very low budget look.
FYI not to discourage others from commenting (because everyone has their own opinion) but there is a pretty comprehensive guide in the /c/StarTrek sidebar: https://wiki.startrek.website/books/cstartrek/page/the-cstartrek-where-should-i-start-guide
ah very nice, the sidebar is not visible by default on jerboa and i forgot to check this. great resource!
My main advice is: Don’t be afraid to skip an episode if you watch it and you don’t like it. Especially the early seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager have some episodes which can easily be skipped. You won’t lose any context.
Yea need to rewire my mindset there, but this is a recurring rec so i think it is one i definitely must heed!
There are several guides on what episode can / should / mustn’t be skipped.
Let’s watch Star Trek has it for every classic show: https://www.letswatchstartrek.com/tng-episode-guide/
But there are of course other guides and as they’re subjective ratings you might want to give episodes a chance even if others didn’t like them.
Since you’re into Lower Decks, I dare you to just follow the episode annotations and canon connection published here and use those as your guide to Star Trek. Every episode of LDS is so full of references to older episodes across different series, that might be a fun way to experience the canon 🙂
Thats a fun idea! If i knew about this before it would have been cool to do it in parallel from the start. I think i at the very least will definitely aim to go through LD again after having seen through 90s stuff if i ever get that far to pick up on the references!
Even if you’ve watched some or all of the old shows in order, I think it could be fun to do a casual rewatch by LDS references. It gives you reason to watch some deep cuts out of context, and probably not the ones you’d be inclined to pick on your own 🙂
I started with Picard then Strange New Worlds then Discovery.
I’ll take my downvotes and death threats now.
No downvotes or death threats from me! Start however you want or it happens to start! I started by watching TNG on air with my Dad as a kid, which is probably why I like the 90s shows so much. I’m really not sure how younger people find an entry point into the older shows because they just don’t have the same feel as the newer shows, IMHO, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy them.
I watched Picard and enjoyed it. I probably will never rewatch it like TNG, but it was a fun distraction. I’m glad others are enjoying it.
On Reddit way back when, I joined a trek sub as I’ve wanted to get into Star Trek but found the 90s shows too dry (early 2000s video games however, 👌). Posted about how I was really enjoying Picard and got RIPPED to shreds in the comments. No actual death threats but a bunch of people called me intellectually challenged and one combed through my post history to point out why exactly I was so cognitively bankrupt haha
