Where do Newbies Start?

[Tallguy]

I'm sure there has been a variation of this discussion before.

I have a co-worker who want to watch "Star Trek". She's in her thirties, didn't grow up in the United States, but enjoys lots of Western television. (She's a big Person of Interest fan.)

She doesn't know what Star Trek is. I mean, just telling her that there was more than one show with different characters in each kind of threw her. The names "Kirk" and "Spock" or "Picard" and "Data" don't mean anything to her.

I'm a TOS guy through and through. But I don't think throwing her a fifty year old show and just telling her how amazing it is would be a good idea.

The guidance I'm considering is:
a) Watch Encounter at Farpoint. Then jump to season 3.
b) Watch The Wrath of Khan.
c) Watch the Kelvin movies.

Help me out here, fans! Thanks!

 

[Kor]

If she is accustomed to older movies and TV shows, then I would say go ahead with TOS. Alas, many people only watch the newest popular stuff instead of seeking out the classics. So even the TOS movies and TNG may seem too archaic in this day and age.

The Kelvin movies may be the way to go. I knew somebody who had never seen any Star Trek in her entire life, and then happened to catch "Into Darkness" and absolutely loved it.

Kor

 

[MacLeod]

Perhaps it might be an idea to show her selected episodes which are considered to be the best that each show represents

 

[Mojochi]

Depends on your time table. If you got some time, maybe plan out a 3 or 4 night showcase. Start with The Wrath of Khan & The Search For Spock, which make for a good initial movie night.. If that works, for the 2nd night, show Undiscovered Country, & Generations, which kind of reigns in the whole TOS/TNG crossover dynamic. All 4 are fairly universally entertaining movies for non-fans

Maybe the 3rd night, have a 2 or 3 generic TNG episode showing. My choice might be Disaster, Darmok & maybe Yesterday's Enterprise. Then if you're a little tentative about how dated TOS looks, you can gauge whether or not to have a showing of it. For a good follow up to this showcase, I'd choose Space Seed, Balance of Terror, & maybe Journey To Babel. Otherwise, you could maybe finish out the TOS movies, with The Voyage Home & Final Frontier

Only after that would I'd introduce anything from the spinoff series or later TNG movies etc... However, some folks might be more inclined to sit back for the above showcase, if you warm them up to it 1st, with something modern like the JJTrek series. It depends on your friend, as to whether you'll need to do that or not

 

[JesterFace]

I think the best way to introduce Star Trek to people who have no experience with the franchise would be to start with season 3 of TNG.

 

[Vger23]

I have repeatedly and successfully indoctrinated new fans with TWOK.

I think nowadays, you could also start with the Kelvin films or TNG. My wife loved DS9 (like...LOVED), but didn't really start until sometime in S3.

I'd say if you want to get them into TOS, then Kelvin and TWOK is a good starting point. Whet the appetite for more of these characters and more of that universe, and the impact of the "old 60's series" will be somewhat smoothed over.

If you want to get them into TNG, I'd say create a small "best of" list. Start with Encounter at Farpoint, since that sets the series up, and then compile a small list of engaging favorites. Since TNG isn't serialized, you can do this to generate interest and not worry about continuity too much.

Once you've gotten them into TNG, the rest of the spin-offs can flow from there.

 

[ItIsGreen]

When I was a teenager, I had a friend who absolutely hated Star Trek, and by 'hated', I mean 'had never watched'. He'd just decided he wouldn't like it and didn't even try to see if that was true or not. One night I persuaded him to watch First Contact (the movie, not the episode), and he absolutely loved it. After that he was open to watching more Trek, some he enjoyed some he didn't, but he appreciated it a whole lot more.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Start with TNG Season 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 then 5 then 6 then 7, then move on to DS9 and repeat.

 

[Shawnster]

If you start with TWOK, I think it's best to start with "Space Seed" first. I really think if you want a bare-bones exposure to TOS, then Space Seed, then STII - IV, VI.

If you want to, maybe pick the top ten TOS episodes. Not the whole series, but the cream of the crop. Gives one a feel for TOS without devoting 79 hours.

 

[Smellmet]

If you start with TWOK, I think it's best to start with "Space Seed" first. I really think if you want a bare-bones exposure to TOS, then Space Seed, then STII - IV, VI.

If you want to, maybe pick the top ten TOS episodes. Not the whole series, but the cream of the crop. Gives one a feel for TOS without devoting 79 hours.

I think that's the way to go, definitely.

 

[Lord Garth]

I was converted with TVH. It helped that we had these people from The Future interacting with Present Day. Granted, the movie only came out a few years earlier when I first saw it, unlike now. So it wouldn't be Present Day anymore, but, if she likes '80s stuff, start with the TOS movies.

 

[Trevellian]

I have repeatedly and successfully indoctrinated new fans with TWOK.

One thing to be careful of with TWOK - my wife loves Star Trek, but she can’t stand the Ceti eels/‘ear worms’ in TWOK as the thought of something crawling into her ear totally freaks her out. If Wrath had been her first Star Trek experience, it may have put her off Star Trek completely.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

I started on TMP and I've been hooked ever since. No joke.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I would start with Q Who and jump to season 3, not worry about Farpoint until they're hooked.

 

[JesterFace]

I would start with Q Who and jump to season 3, not worry about Farpoint until they're hooked.

This sounds like a good plan, except I would add 'The Measure of a Man'.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Shades of Gray is the best place to start. That should cover most of the first two seasons right there.

 

[Boomstick]

Just recommend a handful of episodes from TOS and TNG.
I'd stay clear of Encounter at Farpoint though, it's really not a great episode. I know a few people who enjoyed ST09 and wanted to explore the series further, watched Encounter at Farpoint and it completely put them off continuing with TNG and by extension the rest of the franchise

 

[1001001]

Shades of Gray is the best place to start. That should cover most of the first two seasons right there.

 

[FormerLurker]

Twenty-eight years ago I took a co-worker to see ST:V (in theaters, I hadn't seen it yet) as his first exposure to Star Trek. I sat through the film biting my lip to keep from speaking ill of it as we watched. When we walked out, he said it was the best science fiction film he had ever seen. I was very diplomatic and said he would probably enjoy the others even more. He became a fan, and later understood my diplomacy.

 

[Forbin]

I can't imagine starting anyone on anything but the original. Select a "best of" selection of episodes. Point out that the show was partially designed to touch on social issues of the 1960s.
I can't imagine starting anyone on the JJ films at all.

 

[Timewalker]

Depends on your time table. If you got some time, maybe plan out a 3 or 4 night showcase. Start with The Wrath of Khan & The Search For Spock, which make for a good initial movie night.. If that works, for the 2nd night, show Undiscovered Country, & Generations, which kind of reigns in the whole TOS/TNG crossover dynamic. All 4 are fairly universally entertaining movies for non-fans

It's pointless to show TWOK without first showing "Space Seed". Otherwise, how do people really understand why Khan is so vengeance-minded toward Kirk, and why he's so dangerous in general, and who is this "her" Khan mentions? Long-time fans know he means Marla McGivers, but someone totally unfamiliar with the series wouldn't have a clue.

Maybe the 3rd night, have a 2 or 3 generic TNG episode showing. My choice might be Disaster, Darmok & maybe Yesterday's Enterprise. Then if you're a little tentative about how dated TOS looks, you can gauge whether or not to have a showing of it. For a good follow up to this showcase, I'd choose Space Seed, Balance of Terror, & maybe Journey To Babel. Otherwise, you could maybe finish out the TOS movies, with The Voyage Home & Final Frontier

Only after that would I'd introduce anything from the spinoff series or later TNG movies etc... However, some folks might be more inclined to sit back for the above showcase, if you warm them up to it 1st, with something modern like the JJTrek series. It depends on your friend, as to whether you'll need to do that or not

Gah. Does this person not understand the concept of franchises and spinoffs? TOS is the original series and everything else is a spinoff. It shouldn't be too hard to understand that concept and that the spinoffs have different casts but most of it is set in the same basic universe. At this point I'd avoid nuTrek, since it's hard enough to just get into the series without explaining alt-universe series.

The first episode I ever saw all the way through was "By Any Other Name." I'm not recommending that as a good starting place, but it was enough to grab my interest and make me want to see more. Two weeks later I had to admit I was hooked and have never gotten un-hooked. That was 42 years ago.

 

[Mojochi]

It's pointless to show TWOK without first showing "Space Seed". Otherwise, how do people really understand why Khan is so vengeance-minded toward Kirk, and why he's so dangerous in general, and who is this "her" Khan mentions? Long-time fans know he means Marla McGivers, but someone totally unfamiliar with the series wouldn't have a clue

Because he monologues the entire history of events in the very first 2 minutes he's on screen? Including his ship's name, his genetic engineering, his century of origin, the planetary desolation, etc... He actually does nothing but detail the depths of his reasons & desires for vengeance throughout the entire film lol. About the only thing he DIDN'T mention was her name, but by that point, does that even really matter? I don't think so.

They wouldn't have made that movie, were it not understandable for the general public, without knowing the canon. They expected, even then, that most of the cinema goers might not know who Khan was, or if they did have a vague memory from 2 decades earlier, they might not remember him all that well. Hell, I'd only ever seen Space Seed maybe once in reruns, by the time of the movie, & I was in grammar school. I didn't even remember him much. It didn't matter. Still a good movie, that, despite being the 2nd film, was actually designed to be an introduction, that wooed people into the franchise, because frankly... TMP didn't do anything to harken back to the old series