I started watching Strange New Worlds the other week, I've really enjoyed the writing! The only other Trek media I've seen were the Abrams movies, which were okay I guess. I understand Strange New Worlds is a prequel to the original series, is it worth it to watch the original series after I finish it? Are there any series to avoid?

DS9 is my favorite, but TNG is super important for setting the theme.

I would avoid Discovery entirely. Personally, Voyager and the first two seasons of Enterprise are my favourites, but I do recommend watching The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine first. Regarding the Original Series, I'd go for a list of best rated episodes and then watch the movies (you can skip the first one, though). There is a lot of criticism about newer Trek in general, but I absolutely recommend watching Prodigy after Voyager and save Lower Decks for when you watched most of the other shows. Otherwise you will miss out on many fun references.

Are there any series to avoid?

That's something to decide after watching them all. Yes, even TAS.

So TNG first up, got it!

For me it's TNG, DS9, and Voyager in that order. I'm sure many people will include TOS...while I respect it, I personally couldn't get into it.

So TNG -> DS9 -> Voyager -> Enterprise -> Prodigy would be a good order?

Definitely TNG is where to start.

Yes I'm planning on watching most if not all of them! I just didn't want to miss self-references and want to understand the good bits to laugh at the bits that aren't so good (happens with any long-running show)

sure?

If you want to speed up the process, the best of TNG is seasons 3-5, it skips the weird early stuff and the later season "we're running out of ideas" stuff.

Agree. DS9 is my favorIte Trek for being in conversation with TNG. And, to be totally real here, Battlestar Galactica was created by a Trek show runner and is also deeply in conversation with Trek. No reason to be docrinaire. Also on that note, The Orville is pretty much TNG in so many ways.

The ones I've seen, in order from favorite to least favorite:

1. TNG
2. Lower Decks
3. SNW
4. The Orville*
5. DS9
6. TOS
7. Voyager
8. Discovery

Discovery's the only one I really didn't like. I knew in 2 episodes I didn't like it. There's really nothing you need to avoid preemptively.

You can watch them in any order, but watching at least one episode of TOS might give you some good context for SNW. And likewise watching some TNG/DS9 would give good context for what Lower Decks is building from. Lower Decks is mostly a parody of the TNG/DS9/Voyager set.

TNG probably the most popular one for people to reference, so is a good pick if you want to fit in with Trekkie culture. (DS9 too.)

Voyager , fuck haters.

Honestly, as a sci-fi nerd who has watched The Original Series (and many others) and loved it, it is rough. It's very much a product of it's time and you can see and feel that in everything. Costumes, scripts, acting, sets, everything. For example, the below image is an actual alien from the original series, as it appeared in the show.

Now, if you can enjoy the camp and enjoy the show for what it is, then sure, give it a shot, but just know going in what you're getting into.

Voyager and DS9 are my pref

But it’s fun to have seen TNG before hand

Just remember that some of the episodes are genuinely bad, but at least there's a ton of 'em, and they're mostly good. So don't be surprised if you feel like skipping some!

Thanks for the heads up! I saw it was from the 60s and figured it would feel super dated, but I'm a lover of camp so it might be up my alley. I just heard that Roddenberry was a raging antisemite which definitely doesn't fit with the show's writing from what I've seen, and was worried it would be present in TOS more. I can deal with a dog in a costume though hahaha

Got it!

I would recommend you make up your own mind about Discovery. It gets a lot of hate for being very different than other Star Trek, but if you take it on its own it can be enjoyable, and it’s visually gorgeous to watch. It also feeds into Academy, which has similar criticisms, but again you should watch them and see if you like them, don’t let strangers’ hate keep you from something you might end up loving. I’m a traditional Trekkie, but I find a lot to like in the new shows.

But otherwise, yeah, that order is good. Save Lower Decks for last to catch all the jokes and fan service.

I feel like you need to watch TOS, just to understand Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, and Scotty. Also, how so many tropes came into being, like red shirts, and transporters, and time travel, etc. Why some of the props and control panels look the way they do, why there's a handle in the turbo lift. There are references and call-backs dating back 60 years to the original series, and you'll miss them if you don't watch it.

But, not only in the ST universe, so many other Sci-Fi media reference TOS and the rest.

Don't miss The Orville, either.

I can only speak for myself, but I doubt there's anything wrong with that order. You can easily skip the first half of TNG season one to avoid some very bad episodes, but apart from that TNG is very solid.

Contrary to many other opinions, I did enjoy the TNG movies with the exception of Nemesis.

I haven't looked into it super deep but my impression is some of the antisemitism was more anti religion in general and that targeted the Jews because they are very central to American religion.

But whatever the truth about him, no, I don't think it really showed up in the show. It feels very inclusive and truly utopian dreaming in many ways. There's the classic sci-fi trope episodes about looking beyond physical characteristics or dogma and judging a person based on who they are.

If you like camp then for sure give it a shot, just don't feel bad about stopping part way through if you change your mind either.

On the plus side literal Nazis get punched in one episode

I'll give it a whirl at some point!

It's good it doesn't show up on the show. He seemed like a reddit atheist stuck in the 1960s. Always down for punching Nazis though hell yeah

Yes!

I think at some point TOS is a needed watch, even after getting into TNG some. There's a lot of good stories and background there. But TNG is fine for a start, as it began assuming little to no knowledge of TOS from viewers then, trying to reboot the series. Like any series, the first season has some so-so episodes as they try to figure out the show and characters, but most aren't so bad as to say skip entirely, as usually there's some development that will be used later. TNG is a well rounded show, with DS9 and VOY being more nuanced plots that drive their story.

Discovery I wouldn't say avoid, but I never got pulled into it from various clips I've seen to care too much about it. Maybe because of the time travel stuff and how much they changed of "canon" things for me. Same issue I have with the Abrams movies, the casting was spot-on, terrible job and acting, but the stories... meh. And they touched the real canon that I live for with Star Trek, the ship. Way too much wrong with it. But the first scene from the 2009 movie, and the hook that gets Kirk to join Starfleet, yeah, that was pretty good writing, even if it broke earlier lore.

Star Trek TOS novel Kirk though... he's a legend. The good writers knew how to build depth to their characters, and none of the visual media, even Shatner, can touch book Kirk.

Don’t forget it was on a tight budget. I think it was the Official Encyclopaedia that had an article/interview with the costume lady, who told the actors often were scantily clad due to limited money for shopping on the market, not necessarily because hot.

I've felt that with SNW a little bit, the time travel stuff felt a little... disjoint? As someone who doesn't have context for the entire show, I understood they were playing with past story hooks (like that episode when Pike would start a war with the Romulans in the future ergo he needs to let Kirk become captain eventually). I don't know if that is changing canon or explaining it though.
Definitely giving TOS a go given the feedback here, probably a little later on in my journey though.

Haha it's like the coconut horses in Monty Python!

I actually didn't mind that particular episode, since it feeds into the whole idea of Kirk and who he is as a captain, and the logical idea of a more peaceful captain like Pike making things worse. And Pike thanks to Discovery is built all on him knowing his future and pushing things because of it, so kind of hard for it to avoid time stuff. Overall and not just in Trek, it's hard to do time travel plots well, and too often is used as an easy route to fix things.

Time travel done well - TOS - The City on the Edge of Forever - but don't watch it until you've watched a few other episodes to understand the Kirk - Spock - McCoy relationship, because in the end it's about that, and not time travel itself.

I love the fact that everyone is leaving out Starfleet Academy and Picard like they don't exist.

Consider starting with the TOS movies. They're a great introduction to the original cast, using a higher budget and better writing than the show. They're set after TOS, but don't require you to know anything about it to watch them. The quality of the movies follows the playground rhyme "first the worst, second the best".

My personal favourite series, by a country mile, is Lower Decks. You are in for an absolute treat whenever you decide to start on them. Unlike the others, though, Lower Decks massively rewards familiarity with other Star Trek series. The more of them you watch before picking it up, the more you will get out of it.

Leaving out what now? For real, they seem like some of the newer series. Did you enjoy them?

OP writing this post...

Oh I don't mean to attack the show or anything, it's very understandable why it is what it is and it certainly led to a lot of great shows and stories that we all love. Like I said I watched and loved it. I just wanted them to know that if they're going in expecting more Strange New Worlds just older that they might be disappointed.

Natürlich - plot devices are typically to advance our understanding of characters and their places within the setting. I've found the strength of what I've seen so far to be the writing of the characters, excellent acting, and killer set design that sells the story. So it makes sense that the time travel episodes you like would be centered on relational dynamics.

Watch them all, in chronological order, then decide for yourself

I didn't know! Honeslty though everyone's been super helpful although there's differences in opinion, which is to be expected

Personally, I liked TNG and Lower Decks, then Lower Decks kind inspired me to watch Voyager.

It really is!

Picard and Discovery were both pretty awful.

I enjoyed the first season of Academy. It is a bit teen drama for some though, and it picks up in the far future Discovery timeline which means its basically a different continuity from the other series.

SNW is good in spurts, not nearly as bad as Discovery/Picard, but it does have some pretty clunky episodes as well as ones that are pretty great.

As others have said though, Lower Decks is easily the best new(ish) Trek show but it's a love letter to 90s Trek so I wouldn't watch it until you're ready to get the myriad references.

Wow, SNW over DS9? Hot take.

This is bait

We're all allowed our opinions, strange though they may be!

also ignore anyone who says skip season one. don't. there are a few things there that you need to know for later seasons and honestly, it's not that bad.

Just don't go ask the same thing on reddit, lol

I'm a huge original series fan. Yes, it's of its time, but good storytelling is good storytelling. Unless you get particularly twitchy about the sexism that comes with the period (I can't blame you if you do), it's more than worth a watch.

If you want my opinion of the overall best series, I'd say that's Deep Space Nine. But it is ideally enjoyed after viewing at least some of Next Gen, since it's somewhat a response to the optimism of that series. So I do generally recommend going in chronological order.

As to the dregs, Enterprise is the only series I never managed to get through. Picard set up some brilliant ideas in its first couple of episodes, but followed those with absolutely dreadful execution. It's a real shame.

Everything else falls somewhere in the middle. Discovery seems to have the loudest haters, but I'm a big fan, and have frankly never understood the hate. It falters a little in the second season, but undergoes a bit of a transformation in season 3 and 4, which I very much enjoyed.

Regarding the films: all the original 6 are great, with the caution that The Motion Picture very much takes its time (just try to think of how appreciated all the beauty shots of the Enterprise would have been upon release, when you'd have been used to '60s TV production values), and The Final Frontier is very cheesy (more like TOS itself than any of the others).

After First Contact, the Next Gen films take a bit of a dive, ending on a very sour note with Nemesis.

And the less said about Section 31 the better.

genuinely isn't

Don't use that hellsite anymore anyways hahaha