Being a trekker, I love every incarnation of Trek. So unlike the favorite score thread this one is about picking the best.
My vote is for Deep Space Nine. In the grand scheme it’s like Shakespeare on steroids. It was an epic storyline with incredible space battles. Every character was interesting and each had their own arc.
DS9 - best written, acted and directed Trek. They ciould have stopped right there, and i would have been happy.
The next generation, It has my favorite three characters, picard, data and Q, in it, some of the best plotlines and its the only trek I can watch and think “Well, this is very geeky, but no matter what, Ill never be as geeky as Wesley Crusher,”
I like the 'cast of next generation the best. Also all the all the movies with the cast where the best.
I liked all but Enterprise. Just never really got into it.
DS9, with TNG a close second.
I had to pick Enterprise. Being the old woman that I am, I grew up watching TOS in re-runs and then watching the remaining series as they came out. Heck - I can remember standing in line on opening weekend to see Star Wars Episode 4! But I digress. 
The reason I felt compelled to pick Enterprise is that I just had 0 expectations for the show. In fact, it was my hubby that kept track of when it began and started watching it. As we sat down to watch the first episode and the theme music came on, I thought “What kind of junk is this?”. After a couple of episodes, the “muzak” grew on me and I started looking forward to the new episodes. For some unknown reason, I grew to love Enterprise. Of course, I loved Scott Bakkula from his Quantum Leap days - that probably helped!
Ok - let the floggings begin… 
oh wow! I’ve always had the feeling I was born way too late…
Of course, I loved Scott Bakkula from his Quantum Leap days - that probably helped!
No, I can totally respect that. I bought the Quantum Leap first season DVD last week and I hadn’t seen a complete episode before, just bits and pieces, and I loved it, it was hilarious, the clothes that Dean Stockwell wears - awesome! I wish I could rob his closet!
And of course, Bakula carries Enterprise on his shoulders, the show would have ended much earlier, I guess, if it hadn’t been for him. (Personally, though, I liked the Reed character best).
I love the arc in DS9 but for me TNG is the winner. Enterprise started getting good when it got cancelled
I picked TNG. Sure it stumbled in the beginning, but it was given an impossible task: create a new Trek franchise. Over time it developed into a beautifully crafted show (albeit with a few clunkers…such is life).
I watched a little DS9 but never got close to it. Voyager I would watch occasionally but I never found it that compelling. I am and will always be a big Enterprise fan. I don’t understand why it continues to get a bum rap. Sure it had the eye-candy Vulcan, but they simply adopted the formula from Voyager. I certainly never complained when she was on screen. The rest of the cast was excellent, and Trip is in my top five characters in the entire canon.
DS 9. It was more real and less shiny. I like the characters and the shades of gray everyone was, even Sisko. I loved the doctor who was kitting on Dax and when he is told what she is is all, “I know, that makes her more interesting.”
TNG for me. BUT I got turned off to Voyager and DS9 early. From the GWC chatter, I guess I really should have stuck around. I will definitely pick up the box sets at some point.
Voyager, I was really offended by how the initial splash was about how the producers wanted to distance themselves from Roddenberry’s legacy, and leave behind even the TNG baggage. But as soon as they found themselves tapped for ideas, they trotted out the Borg.
Speaking of the Borg, the TNG cliffhanger after Picard getting borgnapped and Riker giving the command to fire, that was one of the great TV moments of all time. At the time, I was kid, and didn’t follow the behind-the-scenes stuff at all. I didn’t even know it was the season ender. So I was all breathless for a week. And when the next week was a re-run, and I learned I had to wait months, it was a total “NO!” moment. Like, “KHAAAAN!”
And speaking of cliffhangers, I thought Enterprise just… well, I won’t bash it. But I have no props for it. The season where it ended with Archer transporting back to an alternate timeline where Earth was devastated was, for me, emblematic of how weak the show was. Like, as if there was ANY chance the Earth was going to remain obliterated, you know? The whole series was like; We already know how the story ends, so what can you really do with it?
oh yeah, same thing over here, I was a kid too back then, real suspense moment, the tension was unbearable in those two episodes. I mean, I really was not sure if Picard was ever coming back.
We already know how the story ends, so what can you really do with it?
that’s the prime argument against any kind of prequel. and I support it.
I liked Reed too - more so when he was “sparring” with Trip. But I must admit, for some reason, Hoshi is also one of my favorites. The thing that surprised me most, being a Spock lover, is my total lack of excitement over T’Pol. For some reason, the character just didn’t excite me at all!
When it comes to prequals I don’t mind them, they can really flesh out the backstory and so long as they don’t include many characters from (chronologically) later series then the risk and danger is still there which can still make it worth watching
For future reference, what’s the point to star with Voyager and DSP? Which seasons do they start getting good?
Also, on Voyager, I always had trouble getting past the general idea, “The more alien they are, the bigger the growths on their head is.”
That is the funniest new word I have seen in a long time. Bravo to you sir!
I voted Original Star Trek, and I’m finding it difficult to express why. More of feeling than anything I can rationalize. I think it’s because I grew up with it. I was 23 years old when TNG first aired, so for me the Kirk, Spock, NCC-1701 Star Trek had already settled into my psyche. (Yes, yes do the math …I’m older than most of you GWCers.)
Watching TOS now, it’s hard to not raise my eyebrows at the Shatner overacting, but when I was I kid that just seemed the normal way a starship caption would behave and talk. (Don’t get me wrong–Shatner is awesome, so I don’t mean to diss him.)
Mind you, I’ve watched every episode (I think) of every series (might of missed a couple DS9s).
All that said, I think TNG has most number of good and great episodes.
As for DS9, yeah it was well done and everything. But for me, a key part of Star Trek is the “trek”. In other words, I like to seeing a ship and a crew trekking through he stars.
I enjoyed Voyager, but, if it were up to me, I wish the series involved more desperate situations driven by being all alone so far from the Federation. If, by the end of that series, the crew and ship where totally changed by their ordeal I would have been happier.
Enterprise? I think the ideal of it. I liked the characters just fine. But I think they missed an opportunity to get into stuff leading up to before the Kirk days. The whole Xindi arc I could have done without. I would have liked more of the “arrive at an undiscovered planet” kind of story. Dealing with the consequences of pre “Prime Directive” thiinking would have been interesting.
Solai, thank ya kindly.
Amen to that. It’s like the ideas got totally pushed off the side in Enterprise, in favor of that time-travel horsesh*t. And I normally love me some time-travel.
DS9 isn’t really bad in it’s first two or three seasons, it’s just a bit lighter and the stories aren’t as grim and gritty as in later episodes. And it had some great moments early on (“Duet”)… I would start with season three or at least with season four. It’s worth it, in my humble opinion, DS9 is the best Scifi (not only Trek, but actually SciFi) series out there. But feel free to ask somebody else for a second opinion. If you’re really short on time, start with Season Five, that’s when it gets dark (and really good!).
For Voyager, though… I’ve never really taken to it. It had some really cool episodes, though, but the seasons as a whole weren’t anywhere near as strong as DS9’s.
My advice would be: go check out the Voyager episode guide at tv.com and check “best episodes” for episodes ranking 9.0 or higher and then start with the DVD set that has most of them in it. Or obtain the episodes in a different fashion …
Again, I have lower esteem for Voyager than for DS9 and TNG, so feel free to ask around what the others think.