Which era of "Star Trek" is your favorite?

[Admiral Archer]

And to add insult to injury, after the film bombed Rick Berman made a statement to the effect of, "I guess the fans didn't want a movie about Romulans." Which ultimately showed just how out-of-touch he was with reality. TATV didn't help either.

Something just occurred to me when reading this post in the "Star Trek: Nemesis at 20 - Has Your Opinion Changed Over the Years?" thread over in the movies forum:

Berman-era Trek is my least favorite era.

Just my very controversial opinion, but DS9, Voyager, and (yes, I'll admit) Enterprise were sooo bland and boring, and DS9 is SUPER overrated. The characters in all three shows, with a very few exceptions, were all extremely unlikeable or unrelatable, and the settings were uninspiring. Everything was super by the numbers and safe, which led to a stale feeling. We all know the TNG movies were a huge missed opportunity, again with exceptions (-cough- First Contact -cough-) and when they did appear, the TNG characters felt out of character and did things we never could imagine them doing. By contrast, every other era of Star Trek felt fresh and new at the time, like we were boldly going in a bright new direction, whereas Berman-era felt stagnant. If I were gonna rate the various eras of Star Trek by the people running them, I would rank them this way:

-Gene Roddenberry (1966-1979, 1987-1991)
-Alex Kurtzman (2017-Now)
-Harve Bennett (1982-1989)
-JJ Abrams (2009-2016)
-Rick Berman (1992-2005)

How would you rate the various eras of "Star Trek"?

 

[Lord Garth]

1. Roddenberry Trek - He was an Idea Man and that's what's key. It's the reason why we're still talking about Star Trek today.

2. Bennett Trek - I wore out the VHS Tapes of the TOS Movies when I was a kid. I still think those films hold up.

3. Kurtzman Trek - "Huh?! What?! YOU of all people are ranking Kurtzman Trek third? You?!!" Yes, me. I'm a huge uber-fan of Discovery. I never said I was a huge uber-fan of All Things Kurtzman Trek. While I don't dislike any of the new shows, there are some I'm more interested in than others.

4. Berman Trek - A lot of it is bland and stagnant, but there are also a lot of good episodes in there too. It's not as clear-cut as people make it out to be sometimes.

5. Abrams Trek - Nothing that I totally outright dislike, but nothing I care to revisit either.

 

[Oddish]

1. Berman Trek. Don't think much of Berman himself, but the franchise he ran put out 25 seasons* of Trek in 18 years, a lot of it good.

2. Kurtzman Trek. While my opinions are mixed, I could take or leave Picard and mostly left Disco, but LD, SNW, and Prodigy are good stuff.

3. Bennett Trek. These movies got me into Trek in the first place, especially TWOK's space battles. And STIV is just awesome.

4. Roddenberry Trek. A bit cheesy for my tastes, but some good stuff.

5. Abrams Trek. Just haven't gotten into it that much.

 

[Nombrecomun]

Berman Trek. That's basically it for me with a side of Rodenberry of course.

TNG 'rebooted' Star Trek.....for better and for worse. But there is Trek because of TNG. I appreciated the episodes that had some scientific aspect as the main plot(Parallels for example).

and DS9 is SUPER overrated.

Hmmm.....I'm not sure what to think about that. I think it's good. Not great(perhaps that's how I should interpret your statement) but I understand why people love it. It's relatively serialized which was new for Trek. We'll leave the conversation about ripping off B5 for another day. I think it could have been a story told better if they toned down the soap opera elements.

It also shows a more realistic sense of humanity; that we're not going to be so altruistic and lofty as how humans were portrayed in TNG. There's also the incorporation of religion and faith. That's pretty new for Trek. I'm not sure it was handled well but they are major themes in the show.

 

[Lord Garth]

DS9 was underrated in the '90s but now, at least here, I think it's overrated. "DS9 is the best EVAR!!!!" is a common underlying sentiment on TrekBBS. Probably the most common. If you're new to these parts, that might be a surprise.

 

[Admiral Archer]

Aww, snap! I forgot to add Abrams Trek on my era rankings! Let me go edit that. LOL

 

[Oddish]

I'm actually pleased that DS9 has come into its own the way it has. It wasn't my favorite Trek (though it was up there), but it gave us some good stuff.

 

[somebuddyX]

I enjoyed Trek the most from say 1990 to around 1997. That's when I found TOS films, TNG and DS9. I especially have fond memories of TNG Season 7 and DS9 Season 2 because that was last time I watched Trek without some idea of where it was going. I generally like the ideas of the shows and films up to Beyond but not really execution.

 

[FederationHistorian]

1. Berman Trek – there’s a lot of filler, but there’s a lot of good here too. He was just in the chair for too long when ENT rolled around and should have stepped down then.

2. Bennett Trek – created classics

3. Roddenberry Trek – the standard

4. Abrams Trek – Abrams Trek is not bad. But they make better Star Wars films than Star Trek films.

5. Kurtzman Trek - so many new and interesting ideas that are going unexplored. The only defense for this is that Kurtzman isn’t the only guilty one, as I see it in other non-Trek tv shows of this era too.

 

[fireproof78]

1. Roddenberry Trek: the one that felt the most out there, the most fun, and exploration focused.
2. Abrams Trek: fun, exciting and adventure based. A good combination of TOS/Bennett Era with contemporary sensibilities.
3. Bennett era: TOS films were among my favorite as a child, aside from TMP. So, it has to go here.
4. Kurtzman era: a mixed bag. It has some serious high points, especially with characters, but it languishes at times that make me less than enthused.
5. Berman era: again, another mixed bag. It has some amazing high points, and some nasty low points. Berman was there too long and created very much a "Star Trek Box" that grates at me to this day, that limits Trek's creativity energy reflected in TOS.

 

[1001001]

TNG/DS9/VOY will always be “the glory years” for me.

So a bit of Roddenberry, mostly Berman.

 

[Vger23]

1. Roddenberry era. Things were mainly about adventure, exploration and great character chemistry. Cowboys on the frontier doing adventure and science stuff. Pure Trek.
2. Bennett Era. I am an unashamed fan of the TOS films. I love and cherish them all. This was also the first era of “semi-serialzation” and the beginning of truly expanding the world and lore.
3. Berman Era. Yes, it overstayed its welcome and a lot of it could be a slog, but I’ve found that I really like the “comfort food” of VOY and ENT more these days. When TNG was at its best, it couldn’t be topped, and DS9 is really great overall
4. Kurtzman Era. Love it for the risks and departures from the base formula, but with that inherently (and understandably) comes inconsistency. DSC is amazing and grating all at once. PIC always has 3 or 4 grand slams and 3 or 4 piles of dog shit each season. SNW has great potential, but also had some questionable episodes and character decisions. PRO is 90% awesome. LD is 10% awesome.
5. Abrams Era. Loved these movies, but now that over a decade has past since the first one came out, I must admit that they are largely forgettable…like if they disappeared I’d never really notice or care. So they are fun and entertaining but 100% disposable.

 

[Qonundrum]

-Gene Roddenberry (1966-1979, 1987-1991) - The best emphasis on adventure/action is with this era, in all its years. It's definitive. That said, Berman had increasingly more to do in the 87-91 era, fortunately, as early-TNG has TOS elements used as a crutch, combined with an altered flavor that doesn't always exactly work... but season2 onward definitely feel like they're making their own feel. Even when some episodes were redoing old TOS ideas, most of them did it better and made the ideas their own and not referencing the TOS escapade (e.g. most stories that weren't "The Naked Now", which is a classic example of how to ABSOLUTELY NOT reuse an old concept, despite one or two good scenes!) I'd almost separate this into GR87-91 as a separate category...

-Harve Bennett (1982-1989) - he saved the franchise, which in turn got the 1987 era commissioned. That alone deserves due praise given the sheer numbers he was able to bring in and keep, but there's more to his era than meets the eye. More in a moment: Gene was an Exec Producer, but every time he said something he wasn't listened to. Which, based on what we know, was mostly for the best, though in hindsight V and especially VI's issues he disliked seem a lot clearer. (I still like V and VI, but the issues still stand out nonetheless.) V is a clunky yet generally enjoyable break (IMHO) from the continuing saga that II started, continued in III, turned into a throwaway sitcom in IV despite a couple ideas that deserved fleshing out far more than the sitcom romp (noting hypocrisy was on clear display with lines like "you pompous ***!" and the many facets of diplomacy (and lack thereof)), and capped very nimbly with some thought-provoking twists in VI. Bennett's era is largely a series of political thrillers, often not realizing it or its potential - yet what was made and focused on are still good. As much as I poke at IV, I still like some scenes. But it could have been a lot more than what it became on screen. At least they kept the hooks with the "***!" line for future follow-up.

-Rick Berman (1992-2005) - DS9 is a huge saving grace, which has also held up great. More than great. Many say it's "the best Trek" and I'm inclined to agree for the most part, but there are some rough moments too... Sadly, his era also contains others that drag it down too much: TNG 5-7 may have gotten the most viewers during this time, but little of the format change has aged well and I've retried a lot of it and there's more than incidental farting muzak that's driving it down. VOY and especially ENT show increased franchise burnout/rot, though I'd rewatch more VOY S2-7 than I would TNG5-7 and even more VOY than TOS 2-3, so for a show nearing the end of an era, it's not that bad. (ENT1-3 did nothing for me. But ENT4's favorite stories also involve a bit much fanwank. The mirror episode is okay, but not as great compared to original viewing. IMHO, YMMV. Then again, Manny Coto brought in a new style that clearly had potential, had there been better marketing and viewers opting to give it a try. How Coto could have grown as an era, we will never know - but ENT4 had a springboard to improve from, had the show continued. But it couldn't have continued being fanwank.)

-Alex Kurtzman (2017-Now) - a lot of good stories and shows, a lot of ones I didn't care for either, but his era uses previous eras as a crutch a little too often (save for 32nd century DSC). I lover Lower Decks, which is exploring new ideas, but it's impossible to deny it's using a crutch. But a crutch done right is far better than using a crutch and still tripping. S2 of Picard is also a comparable highlight; for all the ups and downs, Q still got excellent treatment and they took an old idea and did it better - that counts for a lot as well... What I saw of PRO, especially for target audience in mind, is rather good as well. Tilly had a good start, and most of early-DSC were due to the merry-go-round of producers having more turnovers than a pastry factory. What little I saw of SNW

-JJ Abrams (2009-2016) -- "Beyond" is excellent. The other films cheaply wax nostalgia on the veneer of traits (flanderization), though I did rather appreciate Khan's greater use of physical strength and viciousness (and he's still cunning), and adjusted background - even if Khan had less personality than a piece of paper and some OTT acting. That said, he seemed more effective as his pseudonym until he revealed his name, in a scene so OTT it was hard not to burst out laughing in the theater. I recall little more of 2009 except for the hollow attempt to be EPIC, a beer commercial, an overproduced bridge set design and lens flares that distract when they don't complement a scene, and the flanderizatrion of characters. Good acting, regardless. No desire to rewatch, which is on par with a lot of TNG 5-7 at this point. All that said, it brought in enough people to keep the franchise going again and the alternate universe/parallel timeline idea was trendsetting.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The JJ Abrams era, 2009-2016. Particularly the 2008-9 hype for the first movie and the build to the second in 2013. What a time to be a fan!

 

[Lord Garth]

If we're talking about our Glory Days of Trekdom and not our favorite production eras, then that changes everything: it's the Kurtzman Era hands-down for me. I was too young for the Roddenberry Era and it's not even a fucking contest between the Berman Era and the Kurtzman Era. Some like "comfort food", but I prefer to "ride or die!"

EDITED TO ADD: But of course, I'm also listening to Rage Against The Machine right now, so that might have something to do with it too.

 

[Farscape One]

Interesting question. There's a lot to factor in when deciding a rank for each era... how good were the stories, how was the franchise run, nostalgia, other things. I'm going to go from worst to best.



5. Abrams era - While I will credit his first movie with reigniting interest in the franchise, there's not much else I can say about it. And the second movie was just plain terrible. BEYOND, which was not even his movie, was FAR superior to both his movies... combined. So one good movie out of three, which comprised his entire era? No surprise why I rank this as the worst.


4. Kurtzman era - This was actually tricky for me... I was unsure if I would rate this 3rd or 4th place. The positive thing about the Kurtzman era is that there is truly something for nearly every type of fan. You want humor? Tune in to LOWER DECKS. You want to see legacy characters have one last shining moment under the sun? PICARD is ready for you. You want something your kids can enjoy? (And let's be real, the adults too... much to my surprise.) PRODIGY warps into your tv screen. You want a really serialized show, year after year? DISCO and PICARD. You want a return to an era of one and done episodes? STRANGE NEW WORLDS are ready to be explored by you. The spirit of STAR TREK is definitely in all these shows, with the exception of PICARD... but that's a conscious decision in tone. The negative about this era? The heavily serialized shows really struggle to stick the landing... so much so, that only the most recent DISCO 4th season ending did it, and PICARD season 2 mostly did. The middle parts of all their seasons are so... dragged out. It brings it all down. Only SNW and the animated shows are firing on all cylinders with mimimal issues. And since that is barely half the amount of episodes, I am forced to put this era in 4th place. Plus, the era is still ongoing, so I can't look at it backward quite yet.


3. Bennett era - Harve Bennett gets credit for breathing life back into the franchise, and it's well deserved. TWOK is still the gold standard of the movies, which has still yet to be matched 4 decades later. And while some of the stories or plots on some films are questionable at best, the one thing all movies have in common is great character beats and interactions. And characters are ultimately why we watch anything.


2. Roddenberry era - It's the era that started it all, so it was going to end up in either of the two top spots. We have TOS, which has a lot of good episodes and many classics. And we have early TNG, which despite some misfires, brought a lot to the table. And ultimately, my nostalgia kicked in because TNG is the reason I became a science fiction fan, particularly due to Data. There are some wonderful clsssics here, too, with "Where No One Has Gone Before", "Home Soil", "The Arsenal of Freedom", "Where Silence Has Lease", "The Measure Of A Man", "Q Who", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "The Offspring", and "The Best of Both Worlds". Season 2 of TNG really made space feel dangerous again, a feeling we rarely got later on.


1. Berman era - While many will call this era 'comfort food', and that may be true, there were a LOT of great episodes here: "Darmok", "Ensign Ro", "Ethics", "The Outcast", "The First Duty", "I Borg", "The Inner Light", "Relics", "Schisms", "Chain Of Command", "Frame of Mind", "Parallels", "The Pegasus", "Lower Decks", "All Good Things...', "DUET", "NECESSARY EVIL", "BLOOD OATH", "THE WIRE", "CIVIL DEFENSE", "IMPROBABLE CAUSE"/"THE DIE IS CAST", "EXPLORERS", "THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR", "THE VISITOR", "SONS OF MOGH", "HARD TIME", "THE SHIP", "TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS", "FOR THE UNIFORM", "IN PURGATORY'S SHADOW"/"BY INFERNO'S LIGHT", "IN THE CARDS", "CALL TO ARMS", the 6 part Occupation arc, "THE MAGNIFICENT FERENGI", "FAR BEYOND THE STARS", "IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT", "TREACHERY, FAITH AND THE GREAT RIVER", "ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH", "THE SIEGE OF AR-558", "COVENANT", "IT'S ONLY A PAPER MOON", "TACKING INTO THE WIND", "WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND", "EYE OF THE NEEDLE", "HEROES AND DEMONS", "JETREL", "PROJECTIONS", "MANEUVERS", "DEATH WISH", "MELD", "DEADLOCK", "THE THAW", "TUVIX", "DISTANT ORIGIN", "WORST CASE SCENARIO", "SCORPION", "NEMESIS", "YEAR OF HELL", "MORTAL COIL", "MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE", "PREY", "LIVING WITNESS", "NOTHING HUMAN", "TIMELESS", "COURSE: OBLIVION", "THINK TANK", "SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME", "SURVIVAL INSTINCT", "TINKER TENOR DOCTOR SPY", "ONE SMALL STEP", "BLINK OF AN EYE", "MEMORIAL", "IMPERFECTION", "DEAR DOCTOR", "VOX SOLA", "MINEFIELD", "DEAD STOP", "COGENITOR", "TWILIGHT", "SIMILITUDE", "PROVING GROUND", "AZATI PRIME", "DAMAGE", "THE FORGOTTEN", the Augments trilogy, the Vulcan trilogy, "OBSERVER EFFECT", "UNITED", "IN A MIRROR, DARKLY". You have the pilots of DS9, VGR, and ENT all being great ones. And while Rick Berman may have stayed at the helm for a bit too long, he DID keep STAR TREK on the air for 18 straight years. No other genre franchise can say that. (And it's extremely rare outside the genre, too. I think NCIS might be the only exception.)

The one thing that gives the Berman era the top spot is DEEP SPACE NINE. I feel a deeper connection with this show than any of the others because it was a place where even the outcasts of a society were welcome. You had excellent characters with a stellar cast. You had wonderful writers who never insulted your intelligence. DS9 has aged the best out of any show. But the reason why DS9 is the hightlight? It's the show that is truest to the spirit of the franchise. You have two completely different philosophies running the station. (Starfleet and Bajoran) You have a civilian population that also has different values. (Quark) You have science and religion, with good points and bad for both... and never once was the audience told one way was better than the other. You have half the cast being outcasts of their own culture (at one time or another: Worf, Odo, Quark, Garak) being welcome there and working together. What better message is there than, 'You may not belong or be welcome by your own people, but you are welcome here'? THAT is the best message you can give, and DS9 best exemplifies that message. Hell, I can give you an exact scene that says it more clearly than I could... the last few minutes of "BODY PARTS", when everyone on the station comes to help get Quark back on his feet after the FCA takes away all he has.



I honestly did not expect this post to be as long as it was (this may very well be the longest post I have ever written), but I thought I should be fairly clear on why I ranked the eras the way I did.

 

[Anduinel]

From most liked to least:
Berman era - By sheer volume of favorite moments and characters.
Kurtzman era - Uneven as fuck, but finding its feet. Plus I've found a surprising number characters and ideas to love here, even among the shows I consider outright bad, and we're just a few years in.
Roddenberry - Foundational and fun as hell. You can pry oiled-up, sword-swinging Sulu from my dead hands.
Bennett era - Much love for WOK, Voyage Home, and UC, and I can have a good time with almost all of the others.
JJ Abrams - Worst hit-to-miss ratio for my time and money: Only one really good effort out of three, and even that one had some unearned emotional moments that only really made sense with the Prime characters in mind.

 

[Turtletrekker]

No option for the Fred Freiberger era?

 

[donners22]

It's all a bit artificial, but roughly:

1) Kurtzman era - The most consistently enjoyable of any era, albeit without perhaps reaching the individual high points of some others.

2) Abrams era - I'd rate each of the three films in the top half of Trek films, and there were some brilliant moments in them.

3) Berman era - It frustrates the hell out of me, because so much potential was squandered. There's a lot of bland mediocrity and outright awfulness, but there are enough highs to allow for much enjoyment with selective viewing.

4) Roddenberry era - More terrible (TOS S3, TMP, TNG S1-2) than great (TOS S1-2).

5) Bennett era - I don't get the love for TWoK, TSFS is forgettable, TVH is fine but generic and TFF is pretty awful.

 

[Legate Duhmar]

Tough call tbh Berman Trek including DS9 is a big misnomer as he was not really involved with it, Id be more inclined to include a separate category of 'Moore' to inlcude the latter seasons of TNG and DS9 as Ronald D Moore had a huge influence on the tone, writing etc of both shows. 'Berman Trek' is really VOY, ENT and the TNG films which he had a lot more influence over. Here's my list with my new category.

1. Moore Trek
2. Gene Trek
3. Bennet Trek
4. Berman Trek
5. Abrams Trek.