Oh happy day!

[C57D]

So my question is this.

Regardless of which version/s of ST it applies too, when and why were you the most happy with ST?

For me it is early 80's because we had:-
TOS, TAS, TMP & TWOK.
The original Spaceflight Chronology.
John M Ford's The Final Reflection
The FASA RPG
The James Blish episode adaptation collections.
And a myriad of novels - some great but most at least okay.

And certainly most of them seemed to be singing from the same songsheet (or at least FASA, SFC & TFR were) without disrupting what we had seen on screen (maybe a little bending to make it fit, but heh)

I have watched some ST since (TNG, a little VOY, first two seasons of ENT, the movies up to NEM and precious little else) but nothing has ever been the same since those halcyon days.

What's your favourite ST time - 60's, 80's, now?? And why?

 

[Trek Survivor]

Early-to-mid 1990s. Star Trek has never had more popular mainstream appeal, nor (in my opinion) has it been as great creatively!

Some more specifics -

TNG started on BBC2 here in the UK in September 1990; many happy memories of Wednesdays at 18.00 watching those episodes, reading the books and comics, flicking through sci-fi magazines to glean information on upcoming episodes (blew my mind when I learned how far behind the US we were!). I was ten years old - and though I was of course aware of Star Trek beforehand (had seen a few of the movies) - I was introduced into an amazing world of stories, characters and excitement where the sky really did seem the limit.

I remember going to WH Smith and them having literally 8-9 shelves chock full of Trek books. Nowadays, they don't even have 8-9 BOOKS. CIC were releasing two-episode tapes of TNG (and later DS9/Voyager) and they were almost always in the top 10 sellers for the week they were released, and again, merchandise was everywhere.

Probably the zenith of all this - 1994/1995: In the space of a year we had the TNG finale, Voyager starting up, the new Star Trek: The Magazine beginning (March '95, and still being published now!), Star Trek: Generations at the cinema, and rumours that Worf was joining DS9!

Just a fun, fun time to be a Trek fan, and a period I look back at fondly.

 

[Shawnster]

Birth to and including DS9. I never felt an overall decline in the entire franchise until VOY. Sure, there were clunker episodes here and there. Kirk said it best when he said "You can't wake up some morning and say 'today I will be brilliant.'"

VOY seemed to me the start of the decline. The creativity started getting old and stale, they had gone back to the well too many times, they promised a radically different concept with VOY and failed to deliver on the potential.

 

[flottanna]

I feel like the 90's were probably the best time for trek, You had two series DS9 and Voyager running. All while next gen had movies coming out. Just a great amount of Trek. Voyager is probably my least favorite trek show though (will see where Discovery lands).

I hope that right now with CBS all access we might be at the beginning of a new golden era. No reason that CBS couldn't be doing countless trek Shows on that streaming platform. From multiple new series, to anthology series, to bringing back older series and cast's. Hell Netflix, HBO, and Amazon all do originally movies. I don't see any reason why they could not do medium budget Trek films. If CBS was smart they would be milking Trek fans like me for everything they are worth who will watch any show or movies, and read any book.

 

[Saul]

Mid 90s, things really at their high with Trek. I could watch it on TV almost every day, when I walked into a book shops there was a section dedicated to Trek books. A lot of Trek merchandise was out there. The movies were flying. Las Vegas had the Star Trek experience.
On a slight downside though, being a Star Trek fan was still frowned upon and anyone who had a mild interest in it only talked to me about Star Trek out of the earshot of others.

 

[Kor]

So my question is this.

Regardless of which version/s of ST it applies too, when and why were you the most happy with ST?

For me it is early 80's because we had:-
TOS, TAS, TMP & TWOK.
The original Spaceflight Chronology.
John M Ford's The Final Reflection
The FASA RPG
The James Blish episode adaptation collections.
And a myriad of novels - some great but most at least okay.

And certainly most of them seemed to be singing from the same songsheet (or at least FASA, SFC & TFR were) without disrupting what we had seen on screen (maybe a little bending to make it fit, but heh)

I have watched some ST since (TNG, a little VOY, first two seasons of ENT, the movies up to NEM and precious little else) but nothing has ever been the same since those halcyon days.

What's your favourite ST time - 60's, 80's, now?? And why?

To me, the real setting of Star Trek is the 23rd century. Anything else is just a spinoff. So of course the 1960s were the golden age of Trek. That was adequately expanded upon throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s with the animated series, the novelizations and early novels, the first two movies, and other background materials you mention.

If the whole franchise had gone out with a bang with TWOK, then all the Trek material we had gotten from 1966 to 1982 would have made for an excellent self-contained canon. But when considering that canon of early Trek, I would still gravitate toward TOS itself as a matter of personal taste and preference.

In recent years, we have gotten 23rd-century Trek again, and it's a fun and enjoyable diversion. But to me, it still isn't true Star Trek.

Kor

 

[Mojochi]

Probably '91. We were in the heyday. The last TOS movie was released, which did well & I enjoyed. TNG was into its really awesome seasons, & with Worf showing up in St: 6 & Spock on TNG. It seemed everything was truly coming together, getting us excited for TNG movies. The convention scene was getting cool but not overly commercialized.

It was before the advent of public internet (which ruins everything) It was just a banner time for Star Trek fandom, where it was actually cool to like Star Trek. I never remember it being that good at any other time

 

[F. King Daniel]

2008-2013. The hype train for the first and second Star Trek reboot movies and the films themselves was awesome.

I was raised on TNG, but they were my Star Trek.

 

[sbk1234]

I think the run of TNG was during the happiest Trek time. There was new Trek being made with new characters, adding to the canon, but also new Trek movies coming out with Kirk and crew. Everything was on the ascension. ALL of the TOS main actors were alive and doing well. And folks my age are old enough to remember when even TMP was only a pipe dream and all we had was 79 TV episodes, some cartoons, and a handful of mediocre books. So Trek's rebirth in the 80s was a grand time.

 

[Paul Weaver]

1991 to 1996, 5 years covering TUC, TNG, DS9, Voyager, first contact, trials and tibbleations, 3 enterprises, the 25th anniversary game, the chronology, the encyclopaedia, tons of interesting books.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'll tell you the exact date, May 23 1994. The airing of All Good Things.

I caught up with TNG through syndication between seasons 6 and 7, TNG season 7 was the first Star Trek season I watched as it first aired, and it was all capped by easily one of the top episodes ever. After that through Voyager my enthusiasm was more at its base level, only time it's spiked since then was when I started watching through again on Netflix in the early 10s.

 

[BillJ]

Mid-to-late 1980's. The movies, run-up and premiere of TNG, some great comics.

Good times for me.

 

[Gary7]

Late 90's were probably the best. Star Trek Voyager and DS9 were still running. TNG and TOS re-runs were ample. There were Star Trek movies as well.

I do not consider Star Trek Voyager the "beginning of the decline". Sure the show had some disappointments, but there was also a ton of great stuff. I can't stand it when people deride the show. They just don't know what they're missing.

Star Trek Enterprise was the beginning of the end. That show started off too slow, too plodding... The "figure things out in the first two seasons" thing had to stop by then. People weren't going to have the patience. And they didn't... Because had the 1st two seasons of ENT been accomplished in the 1st season and the content of the 3rd season came in place of the 2nd season, I think things would've been different and the show would've enjoyed 5 or 7 seasons.

The 2000's were the start of a nasty void. ENT dies an early death. Star Trek Nemesis comes out and was a real bomb. Then nothing... until JJ Abrams comes out with his entertaining but unsympathetically story-thin reboot.

 

[Vger23]

Definitely late 80's to early 90's. Success in the TOS films, the release of TNG, and the premier of DS9, and finishing off with the hype of the release of GEN. That was the true height of the franchise, with mostly quality products all in play.

I can't consider any period after the final appearance of the TOS crew to be anything but second tier.

 

[Butters]

Very early nineties. I was young. TNG was on every week but I hadn't seen all of it. TOS was a mystery, as I'd seen so little of it, and I lapped up any clips like an antiquarian in a medieval church.

The star trek universe was big and the star ships were out there alone in the bigness of the galaxy before small universe syndrome set in. Anything was possible, it was magic.

 

[cultcross]

Early-to-mid 1990s. Star Trek has never had more popular mainstream appeal, nor (in my opinion) has it been as great creatively!

Some more specifics -

TNG started on BBC2 here in the UK in September 1990; many happy memories of Wednesdays at 18.00 watching those episodes, reading the books and comics, flicking through sci-fi magazines to glean information on upcoming episodes (blew my mind when I learned how far behind the US we were!). I was ten years old - and though I was of course aware of Star Trek beforehand (had seen a few of the movies) - I was introduced into an amazing world of stories, characters and excitement where the sky really did seem the limit.

I remember going to WH Smith and them having literally 8-9 shelves chock full of Trek books. Nowadays, they don't even have 8-9 BOOKS. CIC were releasing two-episode tapes of TNG (and later DS9/Voyager) and they were almost always in the top 10 sellers for the week they were released, and again, merchandise was everywhere.

Probably the zenith of all this - 1994/1995: In the space of a year we had the TNG finale, Voyager starting up, the new Star Trek: The Magazine beginning (March '95, and still being published now!), Star Trek: Generations at the cinema, and rumours that Worf was joining DS9!

Just a fun, fun time to be a Trek fan, and a period I look back at fondly.

Pretty much this. From the point where TNG started on BBC2, to the release of First Contact, was Trek's golden age in my lifetime. TNG and DS9 going from strength to strength, Voyager just starting out, all 4 series running on the BBC, the film franchise, the tie-in magazines, toy lines, Rubies costumes, 'Star Trek night' on the BBC for the anniversaries. I don't think the franchise has ever been that big since, and also I grew older and more cynical/discerning

 

[zar]

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[Ghel]

Late 80s to early 90s. TNG was going strong, movies were being made, and all was good with the world. That may be shortly folowed by *right after Christmas this year* as my son is getting a PS4 VR helmet. That means after he goes to bed, I will get to rewatch all of Trek on a simulated 256" movie screen!!! Yes, I'll be watching characters in playing in the holodect (a virtual environment) within an actual virtual environment. The future-present is cool!

 

[J.T.B.]

Late '70s to early '80s, when local channel rerun roulette would bring up a new OS episode I never knew existed.