If TOS is your favorite series, has it always been?

[Gary7]

I've gone through phases where I don't watch TOS for a long while. At times it has been a year or more (certainly before the DVD's came out). And the Star Trek series on at the time captured my interest over watching TOS. There was a point where I liked TNG more than TOS. Even at one time with Voyager (during season 4... it all went downhill after that).

But over time... I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, but I pop on a DVD for a momentary free hour and watch an episode, and in the back of my mind I think about the quality of what I'm seeing... and I really like this series. Even when I go about watching one of my least favorite episodes... there's always something of value in them, usually moments between crew members or particular situations that are rather unique (not found in other episodes).

So, right now, I have to say that if I had one series to pick from the four (I don't really count TAS) Star Trek series, it would be TOS. Yeah, the special effects are often lame, but that's easily overlooked for the other production values. At least for me, anyway. And although Shatner has annoyed me in a number of episodes, he also did some great work. He's still my favorite captain (at one time I preferred Picard).

Anybody else feel similarly?

 

[Kelso]

If TOS is your favorite series, has it always been?

Yup.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

It's always been my favorite. Deep Space 9 is a very close second though.

Hey Kelso. You seem a little tense.

 

[QuasarVM]

Yes, grasshoppah...TOS is my favorite. Followed closely by DS9 -- which shocked the hell out of me because I thought the first two seasons of DS9 sucked. I almost gave up on it.

Thanks to the Dominion and the Jem Hadar, the series was saved.

 

[Kelso]

Hey Kelso. You seem a little tense.

Tense? Are you trying to segue into offering me a massage?


Is there such a thing as Mitchell/Kelso slash??

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Is there such a thing as Mitchell/Kelso slash??

I hope not.

Tense? Are you trying to segue into offering me a massage?

No, you were just "surrounded" by Mitchells up at the top of the thread.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yes

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

I've gone through phases where I don't watch TOS for a long while. At times it has been a year or more (certainly before the DVD's came out). And the Star Trek series on at the time captured my interest over watching TOS. There was a point where I liked TNG more than TOS. Even at one time with Voyager (during season 4... it all went downhill after that).

But over time... I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, but I pop on a DVD for a momentary free hour and watch an episode, and in the back of my mind I think about the quality of what I'm seeing... and I really like this series. Even when I go about watching one of my least favorite episodes... there's always something of value in them, usually moments between crew members or particular situations that are rather unique (not found in other episodes).

Anybody else feel similarly?

I first got into Star Trek during my college years in the 1970s. It was a terrific breath of fresh air from the formula shows. I thought nothing could ever come close, but that was before Deep Space Nine came within a whisker of Classic Trek.

As for getting older, if you know anyone who's not, let me know!

 

[Mysterion]

Yes, since I saw some of them first-run and that;s all the Trek there was until way later for me. Only one of the spin-off's that comes close is DSN.

 

[Neopeius]

Born with TOS. Stayed with TOS.

TOS is real Trek. TNG is a sometimes good show with nothing in common with Trek.

 

[Mallory]

It's the one I grew up on in the 60s, so yes it is.

 

[Kelso]

Tense? Are you trying to segue into offering me a massage?

No, you were just "surrounded" by Mitchells up at the top of the thread.[/quote]


Hehe. I noticed that.

"We're not joking, Lee!"

 

[Wingsley]

Actually, TAS displaced TOS for me there in the early 70's when I was in elementary school. Guess I just showed my age...

The rest of the time, it's been TOS all the way. I was really hoping TNG would make it, though, and I had high hopes. Bermanian TREK has consistently turned out to be a disappointment.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I've come to enjoy (some of) TOS alot more than I enjoy (most of) the other series. I've come to understand this has something to do with the character-focus of TOS that just seems to me a lot more theatrical and alot less like a cheap attempt to squeeze out forty more minutes worth of episode just because.

Or--and this is an alternate theory that is equally plausible in my mind--it might be because I hold the more modern series up to higher standards than TOS, and while the latter surpasses those standards in most cases, the modern treatments just seem so disappointing. It's sort of like how we forgive the extensive use of tired cliches in Shakespearean theatre because... well, they weren't cliches yet when Shakespear wrote them. So it's the difference between watching a movie version of Hamlet and then watching some other movie and thinking, "What the hell? This is just Hamlet with ninjas! What a gyp!"

I guess what I'm saying is, each successive Trek spinoff contributed something slightly different and original that had never been done before. There were alot of things TOS did right the first time around, and anything else is just kind of an immitation.

 

[WendellM]

To somewhat misquote a certain officer at a later point, TOS has been and always shall be my favorite.

 

[Gary7]

I guess what I'm saying is, each successive Trek spinoff contributed something slightly different and original that had never been done before. There were alot of things TOS did right the first time around, and anything else is just kind of an immitation.

Well said.

There were some coincidental ingredients, I think. Part of it was the era... Individual freedom, equal rights... these were hot topics of the day and Star Trek was on the bleeding edge of addressing them more so than any other TV series of its day. I have to believe that the actors felt they were part of something special. Maybe that gave it that unique quality. It wasn't just collecting a pay check, but being part of a higher purpose. I read Shatner's and Nimoy's memoirs a long time ago, never any others... I wonder if there are some interesting viewpoints that might reflect a similar philosophy.

One other overlooked ingredient--the music. I thought it was great back in the early days of syndication... and still do when I watch episodes today. None of the spinoffs that followed could touch it.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

TOS is far and away my favorite of the Trek series--always has been, though there was a two-year span around 1990-91 where I was very fond of TNG (I find it difficult now to see what I saw in it then). Of the spin-offs, the one I like most (or rather, dislike least) is DS9.

Now, if we're talking tv in general, TOS is among my favorite shows of all time but it stopped being number one a long time ago.

 

[T'Bonz]

It's always been my favorite. Deep Space 9 is a very close second though.

Exactly.

As good as some episodes of the other Star Trek series were, nothing has ever topped Kirk/Spock/McCoy. They *made* Star Trek.

 

[Red Ranger]

Always has been, always will be. It was first! And it paved the way for all the rest. I doubt the other characters -- Picard, Sisko, Janeway -- will ever be recast in a new movie or even series the way Kirk, Spock, and the others are in this new movie. They simply are more iconic than the others, no matter how good many of them are. -- RR

 

[Anthony]

It's always been my favorite. Deep Space 9 is a very close second though.

Exactly.

As good as some episodes of the other Star Trek series were, nothing has ever topped Kirk/Spock/McCoy. They *made* Star Trek.

Indeed. We definitely agree that Star Trek is/was and always will be the best, bar none.

Strange, though. Ironic, considering this site was built not upon Classic Trek, but the later incarnations.

Fascinating.