What do you think of my 'viewing plan'? No spoilers please :]

[lurok]

I'm a fan of The Royale.

Me too I'd like to think good acid-test for post-TOS trek fans. Are you restricted by expectations of current TV formats, or willing to free mind?

 

[KirkPicard]

Perhaps in the year leading up to Star Trek XII, I may undertake this viewing voyage. However, here is how I would proceed.

ENT up to "Terra Prime" episode
TOS
TAS
STAR TREK
Movies 1-7 (first 15 min of Generations)
TNG: Seasons 1-5
TNG Season 6/DS9 Season 1 concurrently
TNG Season 7 ("These Are the Voyages" final ENT episode immediately following "The Pegasus" episode)/DS9 Season 2/Generations (beginning with 78 years later) concurrently
DS9 Season 3/Voyager Season 1 concurrently
DS9 Season 4/Voyager Season 2/First Contact concurrently
DS9 Season 5/Voyager Season 3 concurrently
DS9 Season 6/Voyager Season 4/Insurrection concurrently
DS9 Season 7/Voyager Season 5 concurrently
Voyager Season 6-7
Nemesis

 

[JRoss]

I wouldn't watch DS9 at all until after TNG season 5. There are massive TNG spoilers in the first few minutes of DS9's premiere.

 

[RandyS]

For a first time viewer, I'd recommend watching everything in production order. That way, once you've seen all of it, you'd be in a better position to put your second viewing in any order you'd like.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

^ Ouch Do we really need these cynical attacks on Trek for newcomers like Rocks? Why not let him discover wonders/glories (and faults) of movies and series for himself?

Because he asked for our advice, and that's the whole reason this thread exists?

If I hadn't taken B5 fans' advice and skipped the lousy first season, I would have bailed on that series altogether. Fan lists of what X-File episodes to watch (and which to skip) motivated me to see the whole thing. It's good to be honest about these things. Telling someone "oh it's all great" and then having them find out differently might put them off the whole thing.

 

[Okona]

Yo,

I started watching all of Star Trek half a year ago, it's kinda like watching a movie that lasts over 500 hours. Personally I watch it in the order it was produced, if you want to do that, simply follow the graph from the wikipedia star trek page:

More precisely, for TNG, DS9 and VOY that would mean:

TNG up to season 6, episode 11
DS9 up to season 1, episode 5
Back and forth for the rest of TNG season 6 and the rest of DS9 season 1
Back and forth between TNG season 7 and DS9 season 2
Generations after DS9 308 - meridian
VOY starts after DS9 312 - past tense part 2
back and forth season 3 ds9 and season 1 voyager
back and forth season 4 ds9 and season 2 voyager
movie first contact after ds9 508 - things past
back and forth season 5 ds9 and season 3 voyager
back and forth season 6 ds9 and season 4 voyager
movie insurection after ds9 709 - covenant
back and forth season 7 ds9 and season 5 voyager
season 6 and 7 voyager
movie nemesis after all voyager episodes

 

[lurok]

Because he asked for our advice, and that's the whole reason this thread exists?

If I hadn't taken B5 fans' advice and skipped the lousy first season, I would have bailed on that series altogether. Fan lists of what X-File episodes to watch (and which to skip) motivated me to see the whole thing. It's good to be honest about these things. Telling someone "oh it's all great" and then having them find out differently might put them off the whole thing.

I was under misguided impression he only asked for advice on viewing order, not our critical opinions But hey, when has that ever stopped anyone here. Like your B5 example, I was given critical opinions by others on DS9 when watched for first time - i.e., avoid first two seasons. Which I did. But when I watched them afterwards found there were a couple of episodes I liked. Like I said earlier, maybe we should just let Rocks make his own mind up...

 

[Okona]

I agree, first two seasons of DS9 are horrible - for the most part. So are individual episodes all over the shows. There were a few times when I thought about giving up on the show, but I'm glad I haven't. Any episode with Lwaxana Troi annoys the hell out of me. What were the writers thinking? Let's create a totally annoying character and bring him back again and again, across seasons and across shows. What I do with bad episodes is watch them twice as fast on VLC.

 

[AntonyF]

I concur with watching DS9 in season 6 of TNG. Watch it how it originally unfolded. While the crossovers/references may not be vast, they are there. And it's just nice to watch the Trek history as it should be.

 

[VonFrank]

If you really want to be chronologically accurate, do what KirkPicard said.

However, for simplicity, I'm doing this currently while watching through the entire franchise:

ENT
Movie 11
TOS
Movies 1-6
TNG
Movie 7
DS9
VOY
Movies 8-10

It's mostly chronologically accurate but doesn't involve having to switch back and forth between series at the same time.

 

[RandyS]

only drug addicts and people with severe brain damage enjoy TNG's first season.

Or people who can apreciate classic television from a simpler (and better) time.

And ironically, I say that as a disabled man whose disability was caused by mild brain damage, AND being treated for it by drugs.

 

[ColeMercury]

RocksW -- your viewing plan isn't so good. For one thing, although Star Trek mostly consists of standalone stories by nature it does feature a lot of callbacks to previous shows. For another thing, if you quit when the Borg are first introduced then you'll be missing the best bits of TNG -- all the most brilliant parts of TNG come after the Borg's introduction.

Since you've already started with TNG season 1, I've got an idea about how you can proceed. When you finish watching season 1, go and watch Star Trek II, III and IV (the "loose trilogy" other people have talked about). I know other people have told you to watch "Space Seed" first but you really don't need to: the backstory is explained in the movie. I would recommend you watch it at some point anyway, though, it's pretty cool.

Anyway, then you proceed to season 2 of TNG. Then after that, watch at the very least Star Trek VI. If you wish, you can watch The Motion Picture and Star Trek V as well, but then I advise you to save VI til last so you can end on a high note. And you should probably watch the Directors Cut of The Motion Picture -- the theatrical version makes me want to stick a fork in my brain.

So after that, watch seasons 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of TNG. These are the better seasons, so I won't prescribe any mandatory breaks into other, better Trek (not that I'm forbidding it either, I'm just saying it's not necessary).

Then, next, watch DS9. Watch all of it. Watch it in order, from the first season to the last. This series has much more interconnected episodes than all the others and a lot more character development and ongoing stories and such, so you get the most out of it if you stick with it.

After that, I don't really care about viewing order. Except to say that, within a particular Trek thing (e.g. TNG movies, VOY, ENT), watching in order of airdate/release is probably the best approach. Oh, and the third and fourth seasons of ENT are sort of serialised DS9-style so it's best to watch all of those in order too.