Does the TOS movies worth watching without watching TOS?
- Thread starter Hadrian
- Start date
They won't get those hours back either way. Unless they have a time machine!
You get it back when Daylight Saving/Summer Time ends. Relax.
And TMP shows how addled in the head Gene Roddenberry was ( the novelization does at least.)
In a sense they mislaid him. But maybe they place everybody's body into a torpedo casing.
That was Insurrection. An unnecessarily wasted 1 hour and 43 minutes.Some people may feel that in some cases it's 2 hours they'll never get back.
You're right in a sense,but currently,it takes effort to get 2 consecutive hours of free time. I will surely watch TFF later (likely in the summer,sooner if there is a HD version of it.)
I think it works better if you watch Space Seed after TWOKJust watch TOS "Space Seed" before you watch Star Trek 2:Wrath Of Khan.
If you have seen a handful of episodes from TOS than you already have all the info you need for the movies. Really the only carry over is the characters and their roles and relationships. Heck even the movie that is a direct sequel to a TOS episode, Wrath of Khan, has absolutely no need of having seen the episode itself.
And yes you do want to watch the TOS movies. ST II, III, IV and VI are arguably the best ST has ever been on the big screen.
And yes you do want to watch the TOS movies. ST II, III, IV and VI are arguably the best ST has ever been on the big screen.
Seriously guys? 'Skip TMP'??
To the OP: Watch TMP, to me, this one is the best TOS movie hands down! It hás the epic feel that the other movies just don't have at all. And it is a true science fiction movie at its best. People say harsh things about it all the time, they say it's tooo slow or has a weak plot or the costumes colors are too blend...seriously, if you want to see a great TOS movie, start from the beginning and watch TMP! If it wasn't that good, se would not have 5 more motion pictures after that!
To the OP: Watch TMP, to me, this one is the best TOS movie hands down! It hás the epic feel that the other movies just don't have at all. And it is a true science fiction movie at its best. People say harsh things about it all the time, they say it's tooo slow or has a weak plot or the costumes colors are too blend...seriously, if you want to see a great TOS movie, start from the beginning and watch TMP! If it wasn't that good, se would not have 5 more motion pictures after that!
I wouldn't say skip it. But I would not really suggest that the OP start with TMP. If he is more familiar with the TNG era and nuTrek stuff than the "trillogy" of WoK, TSFS and TVH is probably the better stating point. Then do TMP, FF and finish on a high note with Undiscovered Country.
Really the absolute best stuff in TMP is quite literally fan service to fans of TOS. The new ship, getting the band back together, the new look to the Klingons, etc. it way more heavily leverages TOS than the later movies. Without the prior knowledge it will likely lose a lot. And isn't the best jumping on point.
I wouldn't show TMP to someone if I was hoping to make them a fan of the franchise, unless they were already a pronounced fan of more deliberate science-fiction.
I can and have shown it to people who'd already seen all of TOS, and even they, after finding the movie interesting at first, summed it up as pretty boring overall. Whether or not you consider that a fair assessment is somewhat beside the point.
I wouldn't feel right about showing TWOK to anyone without showing them "Space Seed" first either, as I feel you lose a lot of the flavoring of the movie if you haven't seen Kirk and Khan's original face-off. But then, I've never tried it the other way.
I can and have shown it to people who'd already seen all of TOS, and even they, after finding the movie interesting at first, summed it up as pretty boring overall. Whether or not you consider that a fair assessment is somewhat beside the point.
I wouldn't feel right about showing TWOK to anyone without showing them "Space Seed" first either, as I feel you lose a lot of the flavoring of the movie if you haven't seen Kirk and Khan's original face-off. But then, I've never tried it the other way.
TMP is literally just fan service for the first 30 minutes.
"Oh, hey, it's Kirk! And he's an Admiral now! Awesome!"
"The Enterprise has never felt SO HUGE! I could watch this over and over and over again and never get tired!"
"Spock is back! Everyone's back! I'M CRYING!"
it's a fine intro film for people who've already seen TOS and are fans of the show, but for newcomers, skip it for now and come back to it later.
As others have already said, you really don't need to have seen any of TOS before watching the films. It'd be nice to have a passing understanding of the big three and their relationship with one another, but really, it's not necessary.
Start with The Wrath of Khan (consider watching the episode, Space Seed, beforehand, as the lead villain of the film originated from that episode), then watch The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home. After that, it doesn't really matter what order, as each film is mostly self-contained. The three I recommended starting with are considered a "loose trilogy", so that's why you should probably watch them in order, but it doesn't really matter with the rest.
The Undiscovered Country is my personal favourite and the last adventure of the original cast, so I'd consider going with that after The Voyage Home, and then going back and watching The Motion Picture and The Final Frontier, which are generally considered the weakest films in the original film series, although some have The Motion Picture as their favourite, it all just depends on what you're looking for in a Star Trek film. You could even just watch II-VI straight in order, including V, you get some good with the bad. It'd probably suck for TFF to be your last film with the original cast, it's... not very loved among Trekkies, to say the least.
"Oh, hey, it's Kirk! And he's an Admiral now! Awesome!"
"The Enterprise has never felt SO HUGE! I could watch this over and over and over again and never get tired!"
"Spock is back! Everyone's back! I'M CRYING!"
it's a fine intro film for people who've already seen TOS and are fans of the show, but for newcomers, skip it for now and come back to it later.
As others have already said, you really don't need to have seen any of TOS before watching the films. It'd be nice to have a passing understanding of the big three and their relationship with one another, but really, it's not necessary.
Start with The Wrath of Khan (consider watching the episode, Space Seed, beforehand, as the lead villain of the film originated from that episode), then watch The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home. After that, it doesn't really matter what order, as each film is mostly self-contained. The three I recommended starting with are considered a "loose trilogy", so that's why you should probably watch them in order, but it doesn't really matter with the rest.
The Undiscovered Country is my personal favourite and the last adventure of the original cast, so I'd consider going with that after The Voyage Home, and then going back and watching The Motion Picture and The Final Frontier, which are generally considered the weakest films in the original film series, although some have The Motion Picture as their favourite, it all just depends on what you're looking for in a Star Trek film. You could even just watch II-VI straight in order, including V, you get some good with the bad. It'd probably suck for TFF to be your last film with the original cast, it's... not very loved among Trekkies, to say the least.
Last edited:
Oh yeah, because those valuable two hours could've been spent scratching your ass or watching porn.Some people may feel that in some cases it's 2 hours they'll never get back.
Seriously, it's not like most people on here are doing much anyway every hour of every day. I'd gladly recommend skipping a film to avoid bad first impressions, but I'd never recommend avoiding it completely or never going back to it unless it was truly horrific stuff. Even I find The Final Frontier to be somewhat watchable, at least just to hear Spock say "marshmelons". It's the original cast, it's Kirk, Spock and Bones, and I'll watch anything with those characters regardless of quality.
Yes, I would recommend being open-minded and watch TOS without expecting it to be like current entertainment. Think of more like a stage play. If you go to a play, you don't expect things to look like a 2016 blockbuster, right?
Kor
the first time I saw Space Seed must've been maybe 10 years after having seen TWOK as a kid in 82 (and several times again before seeing SS). and aside the youthful cast it felt to me very much like if someone had made it AFTER TWOK as a prequel it was so perfect a set up like "TWOK Begins" (if that makes sense) the foreshadowing of what's to come is immense especially the final scene when they start talking Ceti Alpha etc. Its like those words, phrases belong in the movies and to hear them talking about it in TOS is quite strange (to someone who was more familiar with ST movies & TWOK) I know its easy to get that feeling since they made the movie sequel but even so its such a powerful set up, the only other one I can think that had a similar set up (aside 2 parters) was TNGs Conspiracy
(shrug) For a long time, TFF was the only one of the films I didn't have on DVD, and I only have it on Blu ray because I bought the set. The same could be said about TMP, though in that case I did have the collector's edition on DVD. But would I have bought it otherwise? Quite possibly not.
I love "Star Trek", but I don't love all aspects of it equally, and I probably would rather watch two hours of good porn than watch TMP or TFF again if it came down to that. Since you begged the question.
I wouldn't bother trying to make someone a fan of anything. I'd simply tell them my opinion in terms of pro and con and then let them judge for themselves.
I like TMP even while acknowledging its missteps. Yes, it could have been better, but at least I understand how it became what it is.
I like TMP even while acknowledging its missteps. Yes, it could have been better, but at least I understand how it became what it is.
I don't like TMP as a film but there are aspects of it that I can appreciate.
I don't really know why I'd show someone something without intending to make them a fan of it, unless it was something they were already a fan of.
If we're just talking about a discussion of something rather than watching it, that's obviously a different story.
I don't really know why I'd show someone something without intending to make them a fan of it, unless it was something they were already a fan of.
If we're just talking about a discussion of something rather than watching it, that's obviously a different story.
In answer to the question, I would say "yes" - I enjoy the original series movies a lot more than the original series; I haven't seen any original series since the 1990s, but watch the movies more frequently.
Oh, and I wouldn't skip any of them, especially "The Final Frontier". I enjoyed that one!
Oh, and I wouldn't skip any of them, especially "The Final Frontier". I enjoyed that one!
Similar threads
