Have you ever given up on a Trek series? If so, what was the last straw for you?

[F. King Daniel]

I haven't yet, although the last 2 seasons of Discovery were a struggle after 3 enjoyable ones. I definitely wasn't always watching on release day, the last season. Always the release week, though

I remember when ENT was on, the first 2 seasons, I was watching out of some kind of loyalty more than anything. Glad I held on because I loved season 3.

Voyager we always watched but towards the end it was more on in the background that first run.

 

[The Wormhole]

I definitely wasn't always watching on release day, the last season. Always the release week, though

This feels like an awesome standard to adopt. "I'm not into this show enough to catch on release day, but it's still worth checking out on release week."

Hey, I get it. It's similar to my current attitude towards MCU shows.

 

[V'Lias]

I've given up on two, Picard and Discovery. There wasn't any particular episode that made me quit, they just both committed the unpardonable sin of being boring to me.

On Discovery I made it to season 2. I really liked Saru, and thought Stamets was interesting, but under-utilized. In season one I thought Lorca's character was interesting, and was curious to learn more about him until the mirror universe twist. Then in season 2 I liked the Enterprise crew as well, but I was bored with the serialization in both seasons.

On Picard I only made it to the end of season 1. I liked a few of the characters, Soji and Rios primarily, but ran into the same issues with the serialization as I did with Discovery.

 

[DonIago]

I don't do streaming, so I have some sense of what to expect from the more current series before I'm faced with the question of whether to expose myself to them. LD was great, and I'm happy with what I've seen of SNW though I haven't gotten around to watching all of S2 yet. PIC S3, though...I eventually bought it I think mostly for the sake of completion and maybe morbid curiosity, and by and large it lived down to my expectations. :| PRO was canceled before its time, but I'm glad it got to tell a reasonably complete story. I watched all of DISCO, though I got increasingly dispiritied with its tendency to be, "The Michael Burnham Show"...I think I may have hesitated to pick up S5 because I had a sense that it wasn't going to be that great, but I enjoyed S3 and especially the larger themes of S4 (though I think they had too little main story for the number of episodes).

There's still at least one episode of VOY and more than one of ENT I haven't seen. I'm discinlined to buy VOY on DVD just to address that, and while I have ENT I've heard the episodes I missed aren't worth making a point of watching anyway (e.g. "Precious Cargo", "Carpenter Street").

 

[Cyfa]

and while I have ENT I've heard the episodes I missed aren't worth making a point of watching anyway (e.g. "Precious Cargo", "Carpenter Street").

~ Don't worry, I'll watch these two for you ("Precious Cargo" is one of my favourite/most watched ENT eps - I love "Carpenter Street" too!)

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

This is a funny story: Back when I was going to the Kubert School (If you don't know what it is, it's an art school for comic books & cartooning), we had an assignment to draw a two-page comics adaptation of a television show.

Joe taught me third year. It was an assignment for his class, IIRC.

Two of Joe's kids also attended the school. I'm not sure who their specific teachers were.

 

[drt]

I stopped watching both DS9 and VOY due to more external circumstances rather than choice.

Similar for me. I had thought it was during DS9s last season and VOY’s fifth, but when I rewatched DS9 season 7 for the first time since it originally aired maybe six years ago, it turned out I had actually seen all of the episodes, just didn’t remember them well. So it really was only VOY where I fell off the bandwagon sometime in Season 6. I managed to catch most of those episodes in syndication in the early 2000s (although I’m not 100% sure if I’ve seen them all).

I was fully back on board for ENT and saw all of the first two seasons, but when they moved it to Fridays for Season 3 I was more interested in going out on the town and never saw the last two seasons until a rewatch during the pandemic.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I mentally switched off when my favourite character, Airiam, was killed off .

I find this interesting because, as best I can remember, Airiam didn't receive any character development until the episode where she was killed off. Before that, I'd consider her a glorified extra. So it kind of blows my mind that she was someone's favorite.

 

[Mage]

Dean Stockwell was still acting in 2002, wasn't he?

He was in an episode of Enterprise and had screentime with Bakula.

 

[Takeru]

I gave up on Enterprise halfway through the first season, it just wasn't good. Archer was an unlikable lead and most scripts felt like mediocre TNG or Voyager episode ideas.

I returned to the show later but it took a lot of time for me to give it a second chance.

 

[Yoda]

Never started Prodigy.

Didn't finish Lower Decks. No particular reason, just fell off, and I'm not sure which episode I'm on. I do intend to finish at some point.

Didn't finish Disco. Got fairly late into the first time jump season and fell off. Was less that season's fault than the first couple. Though I suppose seeing Stacey Abrams on the show for no reason probably didn't help. Not sure if I'll finish. Was kind of hoping for RedLetterMedia to take a stab at the last couple of seasons, but alas no such luck and thus little impetus to limp over the finish line with probably the worst overall Trek show (though maybe that's Picard, I wish I never watched that one, but at least there were RLM episodes)

Seeing this clip from the VOY episode "Flashback" again on the BBS today reminded me that it played a big part in me giving up on watching VOY regularly:

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Seems like a good scene to me if only for:

 

[Cyfa]

I find this interesting because, as best I can remember, Airiam didn't receive any character development until the episode where she was killed off. Before that, I'd consider her a glorified extra. So it kind of blows my mind that she was someone's favorite.

~ Airiam was my favourite partly because she was mysterious - or rather, because she was unexplained (at least until her final episode, as you mentioned), so I always had a sense of wonder about her.
I think it also helped that her lack of characterisation meant that she wasn't lumbered with an edgy/sterotypical/archetypal character as I found some of the main characters to have (to their detriment, imo, which is why there are so few whom I liked and engaged with). In her few minutes of focus prior to "Project Daedalus", Airiam often appeared efficient, calm, kind, and well liked - plus, she held the rank of lt.cmdr and commanded the ship on occasion, so she must have had something about her to attain such a position.
Oh, and I loved the little electronic noises that she made when she moved - even for just a tilt of her head

(There's very little between them, but I preferred Sara Mitich's original portrayal of Airiam to Hannah Cheesman's.)

 

[somebuddyX]

I give up on shows all the time because I'm always checking if I'm enjoying myself or if it feels like a chore. I started losing interest DS9 Season 7 and Voyager Season 5 and stopped watching at the beginning of the next season. I came back and watched some episodes of Season 1 of Enterprise and then dipped out again and then later watched Season 3 on DVD and bits of Season 4. I watched 2 and a half episodes of Discovery and just turned it off. At the end of the day I could always come back if I ever got hooked back in with genuine interest, like now I'm finally on Season 4 of Enterprise proper. I just refuse to hate watch anything.

 

[Victoria]

Apart from TOS, TAS, DS9 and Prodigy, I've given up on everything else at least once!

TNG: Gave up after "Skin of Evil" which killed off my favourite character and pretty much my only reason for watching. Came back after DS9 and enjoyed it much more. Now a favourite series.

VOY: Managed to miss the first couple of episodes, was totally confused by it and gave up. Came back about 7 years ago, liked it more.

ENT: I found the use of Scott Bakula a problem as he was so strongly associated with QL so watched only a couple of episodes. Tried it again during the covid years. Got about halfway through season 3 and realised it was just dull. Will probably finish at some point.

DIS: Desperately wanted to like this. Started every series in high hopes which were dashed by halfway through. Gave up at end of series 3 when I realised that I didn't care about any of the characters and hadn't enjoyed any of it.

LDS: Watched and liked this but fell away during one of the gaps between series and obviously didn't like it enough to seek it out. Feel I am likely to buy this on disc at some point.

PIC: Watched 2 series. What I wanted was the adventures of the gang that we saw at the end of PIC1. Didn't get that. Expect I'll watch PIC3 at some point.

SNW: Didn't like Spock, No.1 etc in DIS and what I have read of SNW does not attract me either. Highly unlikely to try.

 

[Daedalus]

I've never really given up on any Trek shows, but sometimes I've been late starting due to other commitments.

Enterprise was a dvd catchup, and I really enjoyed it. I might've given up on it had I watched it when it aired, as I suspect it would've annoyed me being so close to the TNG era and being very 2000s. Who knows?

I've been skipping episodes of SNW S3 due to the plots sounding uninteresting and/or gimmicky, so I just wait for an overall consensus on each episode before sacrificing time to watch them.

I suspect I'm OK with skipping the next season unless a 60th Anniversary event occurs. Same goes for SFA, unless I hear some great reviews. Paramount+ isn't worth having beyond ST, so it would be good to save money.

*I did actually give up on PRO, before it moved to Netflix and I needed a bit of background noise to get through boring paperwork. I was hooked, from that point, so im glad I did that.*

 

[Qonundrum]

Seeing this clip from the VOY episode "Flashback" again on the BBS today reminded me that it played a big part in me giving up on watching VOY regularly:

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The scripting of the scene STILL bugs the hell out of me. The "Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today" line is SO condescending and smug, and a pretty disrespectful thing to put into an episode celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Trek.

^^this
I kept watching VOY, but that scene felt entirely wrong.

That, and me not liking the Sulu episode in general, made me realize that I wasn't really enjoying VOY very much and was mainly watching it because it had the words "Star Trek" in the title. I finally decided that two words being in the title was a pretty silly reason to watch a show I wasn't enjoying, so I stopped cold turkey.

Some of the Sulu scenes were pretty good, IMHO.

(Later on, I went back and saw a lot of the VOY episodes I missed when they were airing late nights on H&I, and the show massively improved after Seven of Nine came on. So while VOY has definitely grown on me, but it's still not one of my favorites.)

Expanding on the Borg, centralizing on re-humanification of a detached drone was inspired.

So I started thinking about the other times I've gotten a bit fed up with Trek in the past & stopped watching:

I gave up on ENT somewhere in S3 as I just didn't find the 9/1 metaphor Xindi arc very interesting, or at the very least, not what I was looking for on a Trek series. But I soon came back for the more TOS-prequel-y S4, as that was more what I wanted from the show. So it was more a five-minute retirement than anything.

Same here. Not an avid viewer of it to begin with (prequels rarely do anything needing a bunch of seasons to fill in gaps that rarely get filled in, and/or cause far bigger problems in the show's narrative timeline and after 500 or so, changing mindsets for parallel universe crews that sorta look and act like the originals yet don't and becomes lame and lazy), but after seeing Earth explode as big-scary-suspense-drama, I was done and I was already tuning out and in for the occasional sweeps week escapade that didn't inspire. Not my thing. Though I recall looking at the Defiant sweeps week episode and missed the bit on how the ship traveled backwards in time.

More recently, I decided to quit watching DSC at the end of S2. I found that both seasons 1 and 2 started out pretty strongly and had really disappointing endings, so the leap to the future of the 32nd Century seemed like a good jumping off point. Maybe I'll eventually come back to it.

The premiere and emphasizing whoosh bang effects (really, two people walking across a big-bleep continent to draw the Starfleet insignia with their feet in order to be seen from orbit?!) pretty much had me saying "I think I'm done with this", and the corny violin music and the rest of the teal/orange production needed a lot more good plotting and characters to rise above that syrup. Sorta liked Tilly and Lorca, though. Kept watching bits of it, but meh, it's another prequel. So I wasn't done done, just done enough and kept dipping the toe back in the pool once in a while to see if it got better. Just like ENT and VOY. At least VOY had.

(To clarify: I'm not looking for an encyclopedic litany of everything you've ever hated about any ST series here. That will become very dull to read very quickly. More some little thing that made you say, "...Yeah, I think I'm done here." I think that is much more interesting. And if you're discussing recent episodes of SNW, please remember to use SPOILER code! )