Favorite Trek Series

[Alexander Corrino]

TNG for me. No other Trek series even comes close (although I am aware of the issues TNG has). I do also have a soft spot for ENT, however. I've been re-watching it a bit over the past few years and it's far more enjoyable to me now than it was when it originally aired. Never could get into DS9 or VOY even though it wasn't for a lack of trying on my part. TOS is... well... meh to me. Not bad, just "don't really need it, but I don't mind that it's there". Same goes for DSC. Never seen TAS.

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

i was actually looking for another thread like this...
DS9... the best thing to ever hit TV, i simply love it.
then Voyager, Enterprise and TNG.

 

[Kilana2]

TOS - DS9 - Voyager

 

[Lord Garth]

I feel like from here on out, it makes more sense -- at least for me -- to rank Star Trek series within the production era and just leave it at that. TOS stands in a class all by itself. Then all the series that came out from 1987 to 2005. And now, finally, Discovery, Picard, everything else that'll be coming out in this new era.

When I think of TNG, DS9, and VOY, I think of them in their own '90s bubble. When I'm comparing Picard to anything else, it's going to be to Discovery. I'll be comparing it to its sister series. Not something from 20 or 30 years ago.

 

[BillJ]

Outside of Discovery (which I hope eventually finds itself), I find my second favorite series is whichever one I'm watching at the time. They all have their entertaining elements.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

I feel like from here on out, it makes more sense -- at least for me -- to rank Star Trek series within the production era and just leave it at that. TOS stands in a class all by itself. Then all the series that came out from 1987 to 2005. And now, finally, Discovery, Picard, everything else that'll be coming out in this new era.

When I think of TNG, DS9, and VOY, I think of them in their own '90s bubble. When I'm comparing Picard to anything else, it's going to be to Discovery. I'll be comparing it to its sister series. Not something from 20 or 30 years ago.

You know this makes a good deal of sense to me. I think I will adopt this idea. Thank you for posting it.

 

[Miss Lemon]

My favourites are TOS, DS9 and ENT, but I haven't seen Discovery yet. I have high hopes voor Picard.

 

[Paterson]

DS9, TOS, TNG

What order usually depends on which I've seen last.

 

[ichab]

I feel like from here on out, it makes more sense -- at least for me -- to rank Star Trek series within the production era and just leave it at that. TOS stands in a class all by itself. Then all the series that came out from 1987 to 2005. And now, finally, Discovery, Picard, everything else that'll be coming out in this new era.

Where does ENT sit in that? It came out in the same decade that VOY ended.

When I think of TNG, DS9, and VOY, I think of them in their own '90s bubble. When I'm comparing Picard to anything else, it's going to be to Discovery. I'll be comparing it to its sister series. Not something from 20 or 30 years ago.

That's an interesting way of looking at it. But for me, I still think that a show which came out 50 years ago , that is even still watchable,not to mention still great, is amazing in and of itself. There are some shows from the sixties I love(TOS,Twilight Zone) while shows I actually grew up liking(Dukes of Hazzard, Greatest American Hero, Buck Rogers) are painful to sit thru now. In fact, I'd say a lot of shows from the 60s have held up much better IMO than ones that came afterward, and they all came out before I was even born. But I digress.

I have no problem comparing them across generations because if they still hold up, if I still get enjoyment out of watching an episode that I have seen many times and know what comes next, then I'd say that's a winner.

 

[Lord Garth]

Where does ENT sit in that? It came out in the same decade that VOY ended.

I used "90s" as a shorthand. Elsewhere in the post, earlier, I said 1987-2005. I'm not a fan of ENT, stopped watching six episodes in, eventually binged the whole thing in 2010, and haven't revisited it since. I don't hate the series, it's just that it's the one Star Trek series I can't get into to save my life. So, it's kind of "Oh, and that other series." But, if you want to know where I'd put it, it would be with TNG, DS9, and VOY. But it comes so much later, it's like the Cousin Oliver to Marcia (TNG), Jan (DS9), and Cindy (VOY).

For me, personally, what I think of as the '00s didn't begin until Fall 2001. Not just because of 9/11, but it was when I transferred from community college to university and met several of the friends I still know today. To this day we're still a tight-knit group. And of course, Trek shifted its series and setting. And Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter came out. It felt like the beginning of a new era, all the way around. Overall, it feels more like when the calendar rolled over to January 1, 2000, it was only the '00s as a technicality. Technically it was the '00s, but it still felt to me like the late-'90s. Clinton was still President, nothing had really changed, and my life was still the same as it was toward the end of the '90s. Fall 2001 is when it felt to me like it actually really was the '00s, totally and completely. Longer answer than I intended but I wanted to give context for how I see things personally.

EDIT: So it perplexes me when people who don't like DSC can't move on and will go out of their way to hate-watch the show. I don't get it at all. When I realized I didn't like ENT, I moved on. So it's like I could do something that they can't.

I told ENT Bashers the same thing way back when, too. I told them they should move on. So there's no love lost between me and them. I tried to put as much distance between myself and them as possible.

 

[ichab]

I used "90s" as a shorthand. Elsewhere in the post, earlier, I said 1987-2005. I'm not a fan of ENT, stopped watching six episodes in, eventually binged the whole thing in 2010, and haven't revisited it since. I don't hate the series, it's just that it's the one Star Trek series I can't get into to save my life. So, it's kind of "Oh, and that other series." But, if you want to know where I'd put it, it would be with TNG, DS9, and VOY. But it comes so much later, it's like the Cousin Oliver to Marcia (TNG), Jan (DS9), and Cindy (VOY).

For me, personally, what I think of as the '00s didn't begin until Fall 2001. Not just because of 9/11, but it was when I transferred from community college to university and met several of the friends I still know today. To this day we're still a tight-knit group. And of course, Trek shifted its series and setting. And Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter came out. It felt like the beginning of a new era, all the way around. Overall, it feels more like when the calendar rolled over to January 1, 2000, it was only the '00s as a technicality. Technically it was the '00s, but it still felt to me like the late-'90s. Clinton was still President, nothing had really changed, and my life was still the same as it was toward the end of the '90s. Fall 2001 is when it felt to me like it actually really was the '00s, totally and completely. Longer answer than I intended but I wanted to give context for how I see things personally.

EDIT: So it perplexes me when people who don't like DSC can't move on and will go out of their way to hate-watch the show. I don't get it at all. When I realized I didn't like ENT, I moved on. So it's like I could do something that they can't.

I told ENT Bashers the same thing way back when, too. I told them they should move on. So there's no love lost between me and them. I tried to put as much distance between myself and them as possible.

I see this on gaming forums(WOW in particular) as well as movies and TV shows. I've NEVER understood the reason for watching or playing something that you hate. If a show doesn't interest me, no big deal. Not every show is for everyone. I like four Star Trek shows out of six. If Picard show doesn't interest me, I'll stop watching and return to TNG for my Picard fix. But I guarantee you that there will be someone posting on a weekly basis how horrible it is while continuing to pay for the monthly service. There are so many options today as compared to the pre cable era when three channels is all you had . Find something else that floats your boat.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

EDIT: So it perplexes me when people who don't like DSC can't move on and will go out of their way to hate-watch the show. I don't get it at all. When I realized I didn't like ENT, I moved on. So it's like I could do something that they can't.

I told ENT Bashers the same thing way back when, too. I told them they should move on. So there's no love lost between me and them. I tried to put as much distance between myself and them as possible.

I so very much agree with this. I really disliked ENT back in the day, so much that I stopped watching the show at some point and decided to not ever watch it again unless I really wanted to see if my opinion had changed. One of my best friends at the time was a HUGE fan of the show and I felt so sorry for her because wherever she went on message boards, the first thing she read was exceedingly detailed essays on why the latest episode was horrible and bad and why the actors were bad and the characters dull, yadda yadda yadda. It was always written by the same people who took some kind of weird pleasure in bashing the show from left to right. (Basically, it was the unpaid early stage of today's Youtube culture of "we make hate videos for clicks and profit".) It really made her feel sad and awful for liking the show, and eventually she decided to step back from the Trek fandom, and I couldn't blame her. It was vicious back then, and now it's even more vicious with DSC because there's a LOT more ways than message boards that allow people to be vicious towards another just for liking (or, the less common thing, NOT liking) a show.

And I changed my mind on ENT after all - I decided to buy the DVDs when they were reasonably priced a few years back and I re-watched the show and I honestly LIKED what I saw and was rather baffled at my initial dislike for it. Maybe I myself had been influenced by reading all the hate - because this time I was watching it just for myself, without reading anyone's opinions on it. I name ENT as my second-favorite Trek series these days, and while some of the criticism directed at it was legit and understandable (I still don't like some of its creative decisions), it went WAY overboard sometimes, IMO.

And I so very much don't understand the concept of hate-watching. If I don't like something, I stop watching. And I very much would NOT also PAY to do more hate-watching. Why waste money on this? I don't get it.

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

And I so very much don't understand the concept of hate-watching..

... people watch stuff they dont like just to post bad things about a show?
i've never heard of it, sounds awful... didnt know it was a thing. i must try it some time...

i really tried to like Discovery, but i didn't, so i stoped watching,
same with all the Cult-movies everyone MUST see...
A clockwork orange i could never get through, it's like a ridiculous slapstick comedie to me,
and that space film...

... oh wait, i just started hate-watch 2001 a space odyssey.....
omg i LOVE it....... 25 minutes in, the first word have been said, the dawn of man is over
and we are at Hilton-space-station..... and i am spellbound.
This is art!

 

[Lord Garth]

And I so very much don't understand the concept of hate-watching. If I don't like something, I stop watching. And I very much would NOT also PAY to do more hate-watching. Why waste money on this? I don't get it.

I'm increasingly of the mindset that just because they've seen something, it doesn't mean they've actually watched it. They might put it on, but they're not watching the show. They're looking for what's wrong, stretching if they have to, and missing out on what the program is actually about in the process.

Or they filter what they're seeing through their distorted idea of what they think it is or what they want it to be, and if they want it to be the worst thing ever, they're going to twist everything they see into the most negative possible thing. So, by definition, they're not looking at it straight.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I'm increasingly of the mindset that just because they've seen something, it doesn't mean they've actually watched it. They might put it on, but they're not watching the show. They're looking for what's wrong, stretching if they have to, and missing out on what the program is actually about in the process.

Yeah I can imagine them sitting there with whatever device they're using to write things down, fuming at the mouth like "AHA FOUND ANOTHER BAD THING TO MAKE AN ISSUE OUT OF IN MY NEW VIDEO, HURR HURR". I get not liking SOME aspects. I mean even I sit there sometimes with my beloved TNG like "oh Honey no". But watching a show purely to take it apart scene by scene? Ugh. No. I mean I know they do it, and I guess it's because it gives them some kind of weird pleasure - and Youtube money - but I can still think of many things I'd rather do with my time than wasting it on hating on a television series. Guess I'm doing this "TRUE FANS hate this and that oh and that over there as well" thing wrong.

 

[tomalak301]

TNG and DS9 for me. I'm very much looking forward to Picard.

 

[Vger23]

I think the poll format is rendered rather useless when "more than one vote" is allowed.

 

[ichab]

I so very much agree with this. I really disliked ENT back in the day, so much that I stopped watching the show at some point and decided to not ever watch it again unless I really wanted to see if my opinion had changed. One of my best friends at the time was a HUGE fan of the show and I felt so sorry for her because wherever she went on message boards, the first thing she read was exceedingly detailed essays on why the latest episode was horrible and bad and why the actors were bad and the characters dull, yadda yadda yadda. It was always written by the same people who took some kind of weird pleasure in bashing the show from left to right. (Basically, it was the unpaid early stage of today's Youtube culture of "we make hate videos for clicks and profit".) It really made her feel sad and awful for liking the show, and eventually she decided to step back from the Trek fandom, and I couldn't blame her. It was vicious back then, and now it's even more vicious with DSC because there's a LOT more ways than message boards that allow people to be vicious towards another just for liking (or, the less common thing, NOT liking) a show.

And I changed my mind on ENT after all - I decided to buy the DVDs when they were reasonably priced a few years back and I re-watched the show and I honestly LIKED what I saw and was rather baffled at my initial dislike for it. Maybe I myself had been influenced by reading all the hate - because this time I was watching it just for myself, without reading anyone's opinions on it. I name ENT as my second-favorite Trek series these days, and while some of the criticism directed at it was legit and understandable (I still don't like some of its creative decisions), it went WAY overboard sometimes, IMO.

And I so very much don't understand the concept of hate-watching. If I don't like something, I stop watching. And I very much would NOT also PAY to do more hate-watching. Why waste money on this? I don't get it.

I think a lot of the hate was franchise fatique. If you were a fan that watched TNG, then DS9, as well as Voyager, then you have been watching a Star Trek show every year for a consecutive 14 years. It's not hard to figure out why Enterprise wasn't even called Star Trek:Enterprise upon release or why they went with a rock theme instead of the usual classical score. My complaints was that despite the show being marketed as getting back to Star Trek's roots, it just felt like more of the same. More time travel, more Ferengi, more Borg,etc.etc. etc.It didn't feel anything like a show that took place before Kirk's time. The show didn't really get interesting until season 3, but by that point it was too late. Network television isn't as forgiving as syndication is. You don't get two or three years to "find yourself" as a show. If I binge watch it, it's the pilot episode then skip straight to the Season 2 finale and watch all the way to Terra Prime, which is my version of the series finale. A real shame because it had an excellent cast, but lousy writing for the first few years.

 

[Lord Garth]

I think the poll format is rendered rather useless when "more than one vote" is allowed.

It's new math. We have over 200% of the vote in.

 

[cosmic mouse]

But it comes so much later, it's like the Cousin Oliver to Marcia (TNG), Jan (DS9), and Cindy (VOY).