Consensus fan favorite series

[M'Sharak]

If a given fan sees any Trek series as the "golden age," that's more than likely going to be the series which was current when they first got on board - the one they "grew up" with. There are certainly a lot for whom TNG might be that one, many others for DS9, lots for Voyager, and a non-trivial number who joined up when Enterprise was on its run.

We might conduct any number of "favorite" series polls and come up with any number of results, depending upon how the polls are configured. But a consensus fan favorite? Uh-uh - there's no such thing and there never will be.

Just call it all Trek and watch whatever you like.

 

[Nerys Myk]

TOS
DS9
TNG
ENT
VOY

 

[Greg Cox]

I've told this story before, but . . ..

I remember being shocked, many years ago, to discover that my much younger brother thought that Roger Moore was James Bond. Needless to say, I was horrified. Everybody knew that Connery was the one true 007.

But then I realized that Connery hadn't been Bond since before my brother was born and that Moore was the Bond he had grown up with. It only made sense that he would think that Moore was James Bond.

Same with Star Trek, I suspect.

 

[Isolinear]

Yeah if you held a gun to my head and said, "Who wins a worldwide poll tomorrow!"

TNG
TOS
VOY
DS9
ENT

This would be my guess as well. My own opinion:

1. TNG Season 3-7 (Grew up on it, what can I say)
2. DS9 Season 1-5 (Perfect mix of SF and story arcs)
3. VOY Season 4-7 (TNG-lite. That's why I like it. Seven + stories improved in S4.)
4. TOS (Classic. Watched the reruns when TNG aired. Much better than TNG S1-2.
5. ENT Season 3-4 (Loved S3. S4 finally felt like a prequel)
6. VOY Season 1-3 ( Kazon/Kes+Neelix = too much soap opera )
7. DS9 Season 6-7 (Dominion War overdose. Quality slipped into soap opera territory sometimes. Ferengi episodes got real bad.)
8. TNG Season 1-2 (TOS-lite. Many bad episodes, especially S1)
9. ENT Season 1-2 (Too many boring episodes. Didn't feel pre-TOS enough)

 

[Greg Cox]

Heh. Notice how quickly this thread evolved from "consensus" to listing personal preferences. Which just sorta proves the point that there is no consensus. Ask a dozen different fans, of varying generations, and you'll get a dozen different answers . . ..

 

[Isolinear]

Well, there's never consensus (unless you're a Borg), but we're talking about averages.

As others have said, TNG and TOS are the best known series depending on age. And Enterprise aired when Trek popularity was dwindling, so it's bound to be at the bottom.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, there's never consensus (unless you're a Borg), but we're talking about averages.

True, but, as this thread demonstrates, it's doubtful that even a majority of fans would ever readily agree that one version of Trek was, without question, head and shoulders above the rest.

There are too many generational divides, not to mention differences in taste. Some people like shiny and "utopian," others prefer their Trek grittier and more "realistic," etc.

 

[Smellmet]

I've told this story before, but . . ..

I remember being shocked, many years ago, to discover that my much younger brother thought that Roger Moore was James Bond. Needless to say, I was horrified. Everybody knew that Connery was the one true 007.

But then I realized that Connery hadn't been Bond since before my brother was born and that Moore was the Bond he had grown up with. It only made sense that he would think that Moore was James Bond.

Same with Star Trek, I suspect.

I'm a Roger Moore fan, the Spy Who loved Me had the best car, the best theme tune and the best villain in Jaws.

It's almost like admitting I've got a drug problem or something...

 

[MacLeod]

Wasn't Stromberg the villian in "The Spy Who Loved Me" with Jaws as a henchman.

Joking aside yes when you grew up does play a part, to me Connery is Bond, yet he finished his run before I was born. But then again on this side of the pond come Bank Holiday's there was a strong chance that a Bond film would be on TV. So perhaps in my early years TV wise there was only Connery Bond films to air.

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm a Roger Moore fan, the Spy Who loved Me had the best car, the best theme tune and the best villain in Jaws.

It's almost like admitting I've got a drug problem or something...

Hey, I like "Never Say Never Again" better than "Thunderball," which is not always a popular opinion . . .

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I'd rank the series:
1. DS9 - My favourite series of all, great writing and acting, with a more realistic feel to the whole show
2. TNG - Probably the most successful, again with good writing
3. VOY - A good start, interesting premise, but poorly executed and became predictable
4. ENT - Yes S3 and 4 were better, but it was too little too late for a generally limp series

I've omitted TOS as it has been years since I last saw it, not since I was a bairn, so it holds a special place for me--one which could be tarnished if I went back and watched it now as an adult.

As for the films, the TOS crew had some good adventures (as well as a pretty awful one), the TNG crew were saved by First Contact, and NuTrek is all style with little real substance.

Just my thoughts.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Based on my experience I think DS9 would easily take third in a worldwide popularity poll.

Besides the fact that it got better ratings during its initial run, DS9 gets much better reactions from people newly discovering it today than Voyager.

Between TNG and TOS I think a few years ago TNG would have won. Now I think NuTrek has turned it more toward TOS.

I know I've mentioned this more than once on this board, but this thread makes it worth mentioning again that my 59 year old mother watched DS9 for the first time last year and loved it, and when I mentioned Voyager she said "I saw it a few times back when it was on, I didn't like it very much." DS9 TROUNCES Voyager for third place.

 

[Greg Cox]

I know I've mentioned this more than once on this board, but this thread makes it worth mentioning again that my 59 year old mother watched DS9 for the first time last year and loved it, and when I mentioned Voyager she said "I saw it a few times back when it was on, I didn't like it very much." DS9 TROUNCES Voyager for third place.

I'm impressed that your mom watches sf at all. I'm not convinced my mom knows the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars, despite me writing Trek for nearly twenty years now!

 

[Dale Sams]

I'm a Roger Moore fan, the Spy Who loved Me had the best car, the best theme tune and the best villain in Jaws.

It's almost like admitting I've got a drug problem or something...

Hey, I like "Never Say Never Again" better than "Thunderball," which is not always a popular opinion . . .

OHMSS, best Bond movie ever. Worst Bond. Great score also.

I also enjoyed Dalton's work.

 

[Ethros]

Whereas in regards to the franchise and not the show, TNG just is 'Star Trek' really.

Let me guess. You didn't grow up in the sixties or seventies, right?

Like I said, this is a generational thing. Nobody my age is likely to concede that "TNG" trumps everything else.

Don't get me wrong. I watched all the latter-day shows religiously, too, but TOS is Star Trek to me. Just like TNG is to you.

Yeah I guess you're right, hadn't really thought of it like that.
I got into Trek about 1993-94ish, aged 9-10.

I think I just said that as a provider for my love of Star Trek after that was collecting the Star Trek Fact Files, from early 1997 to late 2002. And because the one image they used on all the folders was a shot of the Enterprise-D. Not the 1701, not the A, not DS9, not Voyager, but the D.
And even now on the recent Star Trek: Stellar Cartography book, they could've picked any ship to represent the franchise, and they chose the Enterprise-D.

So that's kinda why I think that.



(Interesting that on Star Trek: Star Charts they used the NX-01, but as it was released in 2002 I think that was more a marketing decision as it was the "current" ship.)

 

[Random_Spock]

TNG -- the first Trek I grew up with . Got hooked on this after watching the first movies, the ones from TOS.
Voy -- mainly saw this one after it aired and I really liked it.
TOS -- only seen a few episodes from it, but I plan on watching more of it when I can.
Ent -- saw this one sporadically and I liked it alright enough.

Bonus

Films

TOS -- now and forever.
TNG
NuTrek -- liked the first one, can't stand the second. At all.

 

[BillJ]

I truly doubt there is any consensus among fans about which Star Trek is favored. All the various shows have their rabid supporters.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I know I've mentioned this more than once on this board, but this thread makes it worth mentioning again that my 59 year old mother watched DS9 for the first time last year and loved it, and when I mentioned Voyager she said "I saw it a few times back when it was on, I didn't like it very much." DS9 TROUNCES Voyager for third place.

I'm impressed that your mom watches sf at all. I'm not convinced my mom knows the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars, despite me writing Trek for nearly twenty years now!

Well, she watched TNG when it was new. I don't think she makes the distinction between scifi and other tv, she just wants to find more long running series she can fill her evenings with.

 

[Push The Button]

The order in which I think Trek fans in general rank the series:

1. The Next Generation
2. Deep Space Nine
3. The Original Series
4. Voyager
5. Enterprise

The order in which I rank them:

1. The Original Series
2. The Next Generation
3. Enterprise
4. Deep Space Nine
5. Voyager

 

[maneth]

It would be interesting to know which series is seen most often in syndication. That would be a pretty good indicator of expected general audiences.

The first Trek I ever watched was TOS in reruns in the mid-1980s, before TNG aired. At the time I was 12 or 13, and completely bowled over by that show. But I was an easily impressed kid, as I also thought Knight Rider was utterly awesome.

My favorites depend to some extent on which show I'm currently watching. At the moment I'm watching TNG (almost at the end of the second season), and even the first two seasons have averaged better than I remembered.

I tend to prefer long story arcs over episodic ones, and one of my favorite sci-fi shows ever is Babylon 5. So DS9 is pretty high on my list.

I also like ENT a lot, particularly seasons 3 and 4 (not counting the silly finale, whose only redeeming factor is the appearance of Riker). This has a lot to do with the fact that I like long story arcs.

TNG is very good, and definitely has the best actor of the lot cast as the captain. Even if Picard's supposed nationality is at odds with his very English demeanor and tastes (I get around this dilemma by imagining that he was sent to a British prep school at 8 and only saw his French parents rarely after that). I occasionally get irritated by the utopian nature of the Federation. Wesley's genius never bothered me either, rather the adult officers' inability to see his point until it was nearly too late.

TOS was the pioneer and started it all, but sadly its quality is probably the most uneven of the lot. For every "City on the Edge of Forever" there's a "Spock's Brain" and for every "The Menagerie there's an "And the Children shall Lead", "Turnabout Intruder" and "Space Seed"...

VOY to me is TNG lite. I'm saddened by the lost opportunities of this show, as there should IMO have been far more conflict between Starfleet and the Maquis when the latter first came aboard. Seven's story was interesting enough in the beginning, although I thought the show could easily have accommodated both Seven and Kes. To begin with, VOY was an ensemble show, much like DS9 and TNG, but in the latter seasons it centered far too much on Seven and the Doctor. And I can never forgive VOY for pulling the teeth of the most frightening enemy ever conceived in the Trek universe, or possibly in the entire sf genre.

But even an average Voyager episode is more enjoyable than most other stuff currently on TV...

When it comes to the movies, I think my tastes are unusual in that I'd far rather watch Nemesis than TWOK, even if the latter is more enjoyable without Space Seed. Khan is an arrogant bastard in both, but at least I don't have to watch a hapless female betraying her captain, her ship and everyone she served with...

First Contact is my favorite of the first ten movies. I must say I enjoyed the first NuTrek movie a lot. The second was okay. I don't hate it, but I have no real wish to see it again either, at least not yet.