Hey everyone, I've been searching for a good Star Trek forum for a few days now, basically meaning to get into fan fiction a little, as both a reader and maybe a writer. The latter, however, remains to be seen.
I've always been interested in space exploration and science fiction, but with almost no interest in fantasy, which is sci-fi's weird cousin. I remember catching a few episodes of TNG on tv in the early 2000s, but all I remember was seeing Worf and thinking that it was some weird fantasy world with monsters in it, which suppressed my interest. Fast forward many years to 2008 (had to re-edit this year, since I remembered that it was earlier than what I thought initially) and I got hooked on one of the Holodeck episodes. I was already 21/22 at the time, much older than most people are when they get into Star Trek, or at least that's my perception, but I've been a huge fan ever since then. I don't think the show is perfect, but it's the best there is. I also don't think that it's realistic, but elements of it are. Anyhow, after getting hooked on TNG and watching through a few seasons, I decided to follow a more systematic approach and started watching The Enterprise.
I didn't know at the time that it wasn't considered to be as good as other series, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the first two seasons, which is also inconsistent with a lot of the fans, it seems. The reason why I enjoyed the first two seasons more, is because what I love the most about Star Trek is the exploration aspect and encountering unusual situations. The episode "Dear Doctor" where a planet is encountered with two humanoid species at different evolutionary stages, is probably one of my all time favorite episodes of any Star Trek series. I enjoy these kind of exploration and discovery episodes more than traditional conflicts, involving diplomacy, with Klingons and Romulans, mainly because I find the latter to be less realistic. Not to say that I don't enjoy those at all either. The whole Xindi conflict failed to fully grasp my attention, but I still loved the show, and it was sad that it ended prematurely. The Klingon encounters were least favorable, as they were overly primitive in their behavior, significantly more so than in other series.
Then I watched The Original Series, which I thought were fantastic. Initially I thought I'd just give a few episodes a try, a sort of homage to the origins of the Star Trek Universe, but the writing is so good, that I genuinely enjoyed almost every single episode, as much, if not more than The Enterprise. In some ways I thought that TOS were more modern/progressive than the later series and touched upon more important questions.
It was disappointing to find out that TOS had only 3 seasons, I still don't understand how that was possible, it must have been the most revolutionary series to ever appear on television at the time. Following TOS I moved on to The Next Generation, and it was a lot of fun! The Holodeck episodes, I think, are some of the best, while the TNG characters are the best of any ST series. I found Captain Picard to be a very intriguing but also relatable character. Commander Riker, on the other hand, I always thought wasn't good of an actor and didn't add anything to the show.
Tried to get into Deep Space Nine a few times, but just couldn't do it, it doesn't feel like Star Trek at all to me and the characters are weak and unrelatable. No offense meant to any DS9 fans... Maybe one day I'll learn to appreciate it.
The Voyager was a pleasant surprise, the idea was spectacular, it had some of my all-time favorite episodes. Tuvok was a great character.
My top favorite characters
Jean Luc Picard
Data
Spock
Tuvok
Phlox
The Doctor
All in all, if I could live in the Star Trek universe, I would choose Picard's ship, Kirk's worlds and Archer's missions.
