When did Star Trek on television hit its high water mark?

[Push The Button]

April 6, 1967.

+1

 

[HIjol]

April 6, 1967.

+1

+1 for one of the best? Hell, yes! But, IMHO, there were other high water marks in Star Trekdom!

 

[ichab]

I'd say any time between the mid to late 90s for me, but to really narrow it down I'd say maybe 1997, after the success of First Contact DS9 & VOY really had some great runs. Notably the ends and beginnings of seasons in that year.
DS9 with the s5 finale Call To Arms and s6 opening with that great 6-parter, and Voyager with the awesome Scorpion 2-parter over s3 & 4, and the whole general reinvigoration the show had with Season 4 with the addition of Seven of Nine.
And I know special effects doesn't always equal good necessarily, but there were things in episodes around that time you started seeing that you'd never seen in TV Trek before. Whether it be all the DS9 battle scenes, Species 8472, great shots of Voyager landing on the planet in Demon, the crash in Timeless, etc etc



Of course I only started watching Trek in 1994, so I can't really comment on the years prior watching episodes "live." So I couldn't say on general popularity before that, but it felt to me around between and around Generations & First Contact in the mid 90s there were a lot of things going on- the big movie of Kirk meeting Picard, DS9 really picking up with the introduction of the Dominion and the Defiant, the launch of Voyager, Worf joining DS9 and the whole "the Klingons are bad again" got a lot of press attention, the 30th anniversary, First Contact getting great reviews and even non-Trek fans loving it, etc etc

That really was a great time to be a Trek fan

Agree and I would also add all the Trek games that were being produced during this time: Starfleet Command, Armada, Elite Force, Birth of the Federation etc. I know my interest in Star Trek was never higher than during this period.

 

[HarryM]

Season 3 of TNG for me. So many great episodes.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

Seeing Tash Yar in Playboy and any picture of Jeri Ryan naked.

That's when thingsw really perked up for me.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

December 9, 1998 (Trek wouldn't get there again until May 16, 2013).

 

[Ethros]

Agree and I would also add all the Trek games that were being produced during this time: Starfleet Command, Armada, Elite Force, Birth of the Federation etc. I know my interest in Star Trek was never higher than during this period.

I never played Starfleet Command, but I had Starfleet Academy and absolutely loved that; played it death. I also remember over the summer holidays in 1999 playing Birth of the Federation non stop (obviously I was a cool kid )
That was really a time when it felt like you could totally immerse yourself in all the Star Trek going on around you.

 

[drt]

April 6, 1967.

+1

+1 for one of the best? Hell, yes!

This would be my vote as well.

But, IMHO, there were other high water marks in Star Trekdom!

Honorable mention goes to Seasons 3-5 of TNG - I suppose Best of Both Worlds was the highpoint of that era.

 

[Trek Survivor]

I think 1990 - 1993, the TNG run of season 3 - 6, plus the onset of DS9.

 

[2takesfrakes]

The High Water Mark for STAR TREK on television was, undoubtedly, the premier of The Next Generation. It was like the Proof of Concept that there could be STAR TREK without William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and that lot. The other spin-offs weren't going to engender those feelings, not even DS9. It wasn't until the reboot movies that STAR TREK could be shown as reinvisioning itself successfully, again. When the TOS cast was still alive, it would've probably seemed unfair, actually, to have young actors taking their place. The fan outcry might've been such that it really would've hurt the show's chances. And who knows what the Second Bananas of TOS would've had to say about that, when all they had to get paid from was conventions, at that point. ... It had to be TNG.

 

[thumbtack]

1973-1974.

 

[newpball]

TOS seasons one and two.

^ this!



181

 

[publiusr]

1973-1974.

Same here.

Watching the show as a child in syndication. The Enterprise was the biggest starship ever on screen--on top of the world.

Your AMT model in your hand as you watch--parents still in good health, but in another room so as to make the little space in front of the tube all yours--no embarrassment.

The gentle sound of the air conditioning being on in summer...no school.

You watch a favorite episode right after getting home from the Huntsville Space and rocket museum, the Estes Model rocket being a new present.

Star Trek was special then--you liked that not many others liked it, yet wanted to share the stories.

The future seemed right around the corner.

And then, once you drift off to sleep--without knowing the laws of physics doesn't allow for 90% of what you just watched--you dreamed.