Your TOS viewing habits....

[Warped9]

Way back when I first discovered Star Trek it became close to an addiction. It was akin to wanting to listen to a favourite song over and over and over again. I couldn't get enough of Star Trek and watched every episode whenever I could. Repeat and repeat again.

That continued on into the late '70s where I began to taper off slightly as I got older and real life intervened. By the time TMP came around I wasn't able to watch Star Trek as often as I used to. And this routine continued on into the early '80s. I was still a diehard fan, but I had to balance things out with other things in my life and other interests.

But as my viewing fix tapered off I had begun getting into the second wave of original Star Trek novels from Pocket Books (the first wave being the original Star Trek books from Bantam Books in the '70s). The new novels served to feed my interest in new stories as an extension of the series' episodes. By the mid to late '80s I was probably reading the Trek novels more than watching the reruns on television. This also helped to get me through a decade where SF of the kind I liked was rather rare on television during the '80s.

The advent of TNG didn't help much. I wasn't impressed (for the most part) with TNG in the beginning and so it was something I only occasionally tuned into. I still much preferred watching TOS when I watched Star Trek. Oddly, though, I kind of enjoyed reading the early TNG novels as opposed to watching the show.

Watching SF on television and TOS in particular was being supplanted by reading books both Trek and non Trek SF. But during the early to mid '90s we began to get SF on television I did like (Babylon 5, Stargate, X-Files...) along with my occasional viewing of TOS reruns. When SPACE began broadcasting in Canada I began rewatching TOS a bit more often and catching up on some TNG episodes I hadn't seen before in daily syndication.

When TOS was remastered (the first time) I began watching the episodes more frequently again on SPACE and waited for the DVD season sets to be releases (the current clamshell sets I still have on my shelf). The DVD changed my watching TOS on television--I didn't bother anymore.

Presently when I watch TOS I usually run through the whole series from beginning to end in an entire series rewatch. Then I'll put it away for awhile and come back again several months to a year or so later.

And that's how it stands now. My next rewatch I plan on watching the series (with TAS mixed in) by order of Stardate. And now just for the hell of it I might include the STC episodes as well.


Anyone else?

 

[Albertese]

I'm a nineties kid. My local station aired TOS for a long time around 6:00 or so every weeknight. I watched them every day, no exceptions. By the middle nineties, they stopped the evening shows, but they kept it on the air weeknights at like 1:30 am. Since I was the only one who knew how to program the VCR, I gathered a pretty full collection of grainy, jittery, double-ghost-image episodes of Star Trek. These were my main source of viewing for several years until the same DVD set you have came out and I eventually bought all three. I used to watch through them fairly often as well, but the last, oh, seven or eight years (?) I just watch an episode if there's something I was thinking about and forgot the details.

But I feel the mood for a complete rewatch coming on, and, like you, I've been wanting to do so in Stardate order.

Though as I type, I'm actually watching Enterprise. I thought it was crap when it was on the air (And I still think it's pretty mediocre) but I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. Maybe it was the Xindii stuff I hated so much...I'm only nine episodes in at the moment...

--Alex

 

[johnnybear]

Enterprise is one show I didn't collect on DVd and I tend to ignore it as part of the Trekkory! Anything that contradicts TOS isn't worth a penny of my thoughts!
JB

 

[Warped9]

Not to get far off topic, but my Trek video collection isn't completist by some people's standards: TOS, TAS, TMP (DE) and TWOK (DE) and the first four seasons of TNG-R. That's it.

I don't forsee buying anything else unless one day they put the TMP DE on Blu-Ray.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Well, a (not so) short history: I grew up with the reruns on my local station, watching it weeknights and Saturdays (followed by Space:1999). After we got a rotor hooked to our antenna, we were able to turn the aerial and get in two Connecticut stations which also ran the series. The difference was, they ran them uncut. Finally, in the 80's, Trek was on daily again in NY and over cable, where I got them off WVIA-44, a PBS station that ran them on Saturday nights, from 11:30 to 2. (or 11 to 1:30). Three episodes per block, in production order, which was fun. What wasn;t fun was they they ran the Paramount pre-cut versions. A PBS station had no commercials to run, so that was truly annoying.

Finally, the VHS tapes came out and I started getting the individual episodes. Then they were released by Columbia House arranged in Stardate Order. I got a complete set of both. Then the 2 per disc DVD volumes in 1999...I got a complete set of THOSE. Then, the 3 season box set. Yup, I got those, also. After I realized the sound mix would never be true to the originals, I found a full set of Laserdiscs, which were the same prints as the VHS. Less sharp, but they sound pretty much the way they always did. Then I got the HD-DVD's sets of the Remastered Editions, followed by the current Blu-Rays....

How I watch them now: I pop in whatever episode I'm in the mood for. Often, I just go with the Laserdisc prints because the sound mix really bothers me on the BD's (except for the precious few where the mono broadcast mix is actually accurate). I never watch the series straight through, only what I have a hankering for. And, no, it never bothers me that the DVD and Blu-Ray season sets are in airdate order. Since it honestly doesn't matter in the long run and, again, I never go in any order anyway.