(Forgive me if this thread has been discussed before, for I have not read everything on this website.)
I'm talking about roughly these years: 1989-1999
For someone who was born literally while the pilot of TNG was being filmed in early summer 1987, it's difficult to not be biased in this opinion. But after about two decades of being a Trekkie and growing up with TNG shooting up in the vein, I must declare my preference for the 90's Star Trek, which I've tentatively called "The Golden Age" of Star Trek.
It's an old and boring question, which Star Trek do you like best? But my question is with the specific era of Star Trek. I'm only talking about the TV shows (don't much care about the films). But the 90's brought on the best (and possibly also the worst) of what Star Trek has to offer. TNG started to become great in season 2 and by season 3 had established itself as the new ultimate Trek.
DS9 I never really got into when I was younger. It was either TNG or Voyager for me, it wasn't until later in life that I really started watching DS9 and was quite taken with it. It stands as the best Star Trek along with TNG and further perpetuated the 90's as a thriving era for Star Trek. TNG and Voyager are simply far more "kid-friendly" and therefore DS9 probably suffered with younger audiences.
Voyager, now more than ever is clearly the "safest" of all the Star Trek shows. Despite its somewhat wild and fresh premise, it plays it so excessively safe that almost all the fun is smothered out of the show. But not completely, as it is an average show in my opinion. 50% of the episodes were pretty bad, the rest varied from alright to a few really great ones.
The 90's was a playground of plenty when it came to Star Trek, by far the most episodes were released during this time. Starting with roughly season 2 of TNG and ending with the finale of DS9, Star Trek was never better before or since. I believe DS9 deserves some credit for "saving" Star Trek from damnation in a certain way. Season 7 of TNG was quite possibly the weakest season of TNG, the weakest since season 1 at least and if DS9 had not started when it did, the Star Trek saga could have gone a very different route.
I also credit the death of Roddenberry (cruel as it may sound) as a pivotal point. As much as Gene deserves all the credit he can get, he did block many potentially great ideas and avoided to include any conflict in the show. I guess everyone here knows this, but Star Trek really opened up (in a good way) after his death. But I wont give Rick Berman too much credit for that, the guy seriously messed up most of the TNG movies. Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr were the reason Star Trek worked.
I guess the ultimate question is, does anyone else agree with my assessment or is this mostly nostalgic nonsense?
I'm talking about roughly these years: 1989-1999
For someone who was born literally while the pilot of TNG was being filmed in early summer 1987, it's difficult to not be biased in this opinion. But after about two decades of being a Trekkie and growing up with TNG shooting up in the vein, I must declare my preference for the 90's Star Trek, which I've tentatively called "The Golden Age" of Star Trek.
It's an old and boring question, which Star Trek do you like best? But my question is with the specific era of Star Trek. I'm only talking about the TV shows (don't much care about the films). But the 90's brought on the best (and possibly also the worst) of what Star Trek has to offer. TNG started to become great in season 2 and by season 3 had established itself as the new ultimate Trek.
DS9 I never really got into when I was younger. It was either TNG or Voyager for me, it wasn't until later in life that I really started watching DS9 and was quite taken with it. It stands as the best Star Trek along with TNG and further perpetuated the 90's as a thriving era for Star Trek. TNG and Voyager are simply far more "kid-friendly" and therefore DS9 probably suffered with younger audiences.
Voyager, now more than ever is clearly the "safest" of all the Star Trek shows. Despite its somewhat wild and fresh premise, it plays it so excessively safe that almost all the fun is smothered out of the show. But not completely, as it is an average show in my opinion. 50% of the episodes were pretty bad, the rest varied from alright to a few really great ones.
The 90's was a playground of plenty when it came to Star Trek, by far the most episodes were released during this time. Starting with roughly season 2 of TNG and ending with the finale of DS9, Star Trek was never better before or since. I believe DS9 deserves some credit for "saving" Star Trek from damnation in a certain way. Season 7 of TNG was quite possibly the weakest season of TNG, the weakest since season 1 at least and if DS9 had not started when it did, the Star Trek saga could have gone a very different route.
I also credit the death of Roddenberry (cruel as it may sound) as a pivotal point. As much as Gene deserves all the credit he can get, he did block many potentially great ideas and avoided to include any conflict in the show. I guess everyone here knows this, but Star Trek really opened up (in a good way) after his death. But I wont give Rick Berman too much credit for that, the guy seriously messed up most of the TNG movies. Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr were the reason Star Trek worked.
I guess the ultimate question is, does anyone else agree with my assessment or is this mostly nostalgic nonsense?
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