Don't underestimate the innovation of something like the original Star Trek or The Twilight Zone. There wasn't a lot on TV like either one, when they premiered.
Screen Rant article ranking every Trek series
- Thread starter Arpy
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Don't underestimate the innovation of something like the original Star Trek or The Twilight Zone. There wasn't a lot on TV like either one, when they premiered.
I would never do that, those are seminal, but we are talking almost 60 years here.
There's a grounding in the basic story of those shows in some very fundamental scifi that allow them to be rewatched, but even for myself, someone who was literally bowled over by TOS at a young age they begin to lose some steam over time. It's inevitable. I'd rather watch SNW or Discovery a third or forth time than a TOS episode for the 30th at this point.
It's also not lost on me that younger people or women I see can often have great difficulty watching these older shows. Social growth is a thing, so is technical merit. I can forgive all sorts of things in context, but I don't expect others to.
Good God.
This reminds me of a Roger Ebert radio appearance on a Tom Snyder radio call-in show. Both are long-dead yet still relevant. I'll always remember the following excerpt.
CALLER: It's too hard to watch in black-and-white.
EBERT: You poor baby.
Digression ended.
TOS is a classic, but it's not a timeless classic. Parts of it are timeless, but the entire package isn't. So, even though I haven't gravitated towards either of them, I can see why they've done updated versions of TOS with the Kelvin Films and SNW. I can also understand why elements of TOS had to be reintroduced and reinterpreted from TNG onward. Arguably from the TOS Movies onward.
Over the last 20 years, I've watched a few or a handful of TOS episodes per year. Usually different ones. I'd say I've probably done, I don't know, maybe a 75% re-watch of the entire series since George W. Bush was President. So, TOS isn't as worn out or overplayed for me as it is most other people here.
Similar to TNG. I re-watched very little of it from the late-'90s until 2019. If Picard hadn't come into existence, it would've stayed that way. I wouldn't have gone back to it. But I went through the whole thing in 2019 and am in the middle of another re-watch right now, with YouTube Reactors.
I'll never NOT re-watch the TNG Movies from here on out without going straight to Picard Season 3 afterwards. As far as I'm concerned, it's effectively the second half of the TNG Movies.
I'm not doing the Tier-List for all the series. I'm also not going rank them all. I'll group them instead. DSC and PIC are my current favorites. I don't know how that'll play out over time, but that's where they are right now. ENT is the one Star Trek series that just doesn't click with me. Everything else is somewhere in-between those. I regard TNG, DS9, and VOY equally. It's more meaningful to me to rank the seasons and episodes of TNG/DS9/VOY than all three of the actual series in their entirety.
Over the last 20 years, I've watched a few or a handful of TOS episodes per year. Usually different ones. I'd say I've probably done, I don't know, maybe a 75% re-watch of the entire series since George W. Bush was President. So, TOS isn't as worn out or overplayed for me as it is most other people here.
Similar to TNG. I re-watched very little of it from the late-'90s until 2019. If Picard hadn't come into existence, it would've stayed that way. I wouldn't have gone back to it. But I went through the whole thing in 2019 and am in the middle of another re-watch right now, with YouTube Reactors.
I'll never NOT re-watch the TNG Movies from here on out without going straight to Picard Season 3 afterwards. As far as I'm concerned, it's effectively the second half of the TNG Movies.
I'm not doing the Tier-List for all the series. I'm also not going rank them all. I'll group them instead. DSC and PIC are my current favorites. I don't know how that'll play out over time, but that's where they are right now. ENT is the one Star Trek series that just doesn't click with me. Everything else is somewhere in-between those. I regard TNG, DS9, and VOY equally. It's more meaningful to me to rank the seasons and episodes of TNG/DS9/VOY than all three of the actual series in their entirety.
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I'm reminded of my last in-person graduate class, a course in Shakespeare and it's adaptations to film.
When we got to Romeo and Juliet, there were about 4 girls in their mid-20's who said they didn't want to read it because it was so misogynistic.
We are in a real danger here of wiping away seminal classics because they don't jive with our modern sensibilities. When we look at the women in miniskirts now, we think "how sexist". But the women wearing them didn't feel that way. And I heard that straight from Grace Lee Whitney.
It's a shame, it really is, that our younger generations are so inflexible that they're incapable of viewing anything outside of their current world view.
A very strange (if not incomprehensible) ranking they do there. But it figures: if you want to do such articles these days, what's the point of repeating consensus, so they were probably going out of their way to be different.
Even so, putting DS9 and TNG very high is pretty much repeating consensus. (Putting TOS that low isn't).
Didn't even click the Screen Rant article, lol.
I like DS9, TOS and ENT the best because they're the most vital and alive. The characters actually pop. TNG has some great episodes but let's be honest, outside of Picard and Data the cast are very bland. They were actually mostly better in PIC season 3. Speaking of PIC season 3, by itself it would probably be in A tier, but the first two seasons really drag the whole show down.
I haven't seen Prodigy so I can't comment.
I like DS9, TOS and ENT the best because they're the most vital and alive. The characters actually pop. TNG has some great episodes but let's be honest, outside of Picard and Data the cast are very bland. They were actually mostly better in PIC season 3. Speaking of PIC season 3, by itself it would probably be in A tier, but the first two seasons really drag the whole show down.
I haven't seen Prodigy so I can't comment.
Even a lot of dyed in the wool Trek fans don’t like TOS.
Myself, I love it, but you don’t have to go far on this very board to find those who don’t like it. It’s really not that shocking.
Myself, I love it, but you don’t have to go far on this very board to find those who don’t like it. It’s really not that shocking.
But how many of them are fanatics for the (yeesh) ''Nu'' version? The last three theatrical films?
I dunno?
I really don’t have an answer.
Just seeing people react to the person ranking TOS low as if it’s unbelievable seems strange to me.
No, not really. Most I see is them loving TNG or DS9, but TOS is far lower down.
I would disagree but I don't find it strange.
My list is far different now than when these came out. I’ll do a couple.
S TOS
A ENT, SNW, TNG
B DS9, Prodigy
It’s really early for me rank SNW, but its first two seasons are way better than the first two for TNG. DS9 is good, but it has way too much filler. It would have been better as 13 episode seasons. ENT holds up better by modern standards. But like DS9 its seasons are way too long. TOS has some really good episodes that hold up over time, so it’s not surprising we got the movies. Prodigy is like Clone Wars for Star Wars. It’s really well done.
S TOS
A ENT, SNW, TNG
B DS9, Prodigy
It’s really early for me rank SNW, but its first two seasons are way better than the first two for TNG. DS9 is good, but it has way too much filler. It would have been better as 13 episode seasons. ENT holds up better by modern standards. But like DS9 its seasons are way too long. TOS has some really good episodes that hold up over time, so it’s not surprising we got the movies. Prodigy is like Clone Wars for Star Wars. It’s really well done.
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Still have to get into PRO. Like, I really really have to fucking do that. I watched the first one, I thought it was fine, but I never went back to it for some reason.
It’s a lot like the Clone Wars. I enjoy it through that lens. And it’s nice that it’s on Netflix. I wish more Star Trek was on it, where it’s likely to get more new fans.
I’m renewing my Netflix in a few days for various shows so that might be a great time to get on it.
I got to the fourth or fifth one and felt no motivation to continue. Hopefully I'll try again soon, as life allows.
Too many shows.
Normally I’d leave a show for dust if it didn’t grab me, but I keep hearing great things.
I just don't have the time. I barely watch Star Wars, and hopefully will get to Discovery.
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