I tried starting from the beginning a few years back but the production value is a little too rough for me to ignore its flaws since I have no investment in or dedication to the show yet.
I’m wondering if I can watch lower decks or whatever the new live action show is and get into Star Trek that way.
Think of TOS (The Original Series) as Greek Morality plays on a stage.
TNG (The Next Generation) is the same, but with a budget and special effects - what Roddenberry imagined for TOS.
For someone new, I’d say start with TNG, it captures the essence of the original but is more watchable for someone who didn’t grow up with the original Trek. Plus everything else really builds from it, sort of. Well, at least Voyager and Deep Space Nine are set in the same timeframe and kind of follow TNG canon.
Edit: the special effects on TNG were pretty much the best you could do for TV at the time. Remember, a large TV then would’ve been 20" or so.
okay, interesting. thanks for the context.
I have kind of a background knowledge, but did exactly that and have almost finished Lower Decks. It is the first ST thing i’ve watched for years, and yeah there are some references but overall I think you’d really enjoy it without knowing about the full history.
About to start of Strange New Worlds :)
Cool, thanks. I like animation in general, so lower deck seems like a good entry point.
It’s definitely a lot more enjoyable if you’re familiar enough with Star Trek to get all the references, because there are a lot. But it’s still enjoyable with no context.
Generally you can watch any of the shows without having watched the previous ones. There will be some episodes with references that will go over your head and there will be some occasions where you might want to look something up (for example episodes that assume you already know about certain alien species). But you’ll be able to follow the plot just fine. Maybe Lower Decks would not be the show I’d necessarily start with, as a lot of the humor relies on references to older shows. Strange New Worlds should be a perfectly fine starting point though.
If you do want to give an older show a go though, TNG is much more palatable for modern viewers than TOS in my opinion, although it doesn’t start out the best.
okay I trust your judgment because you admitted:
“it doesn’t start out the best”
I’m finding it difficult to get past that first interaction between Shakespeare elitist alien and Picard.
when you say start out, do you mean like the first episode, or the first season?
cuz I’ll just skip the first episode and go back after I kind of care about the story and characters and find out what they talked about.
Honestly most of season 1 and about half of season 2 are pretty weak (with some decent episodes in between). Quite a lot of season 1 you can downright skip. There are quite a few guides out there on which episodes to watch and skip, for example here or even this one that skips season 1 and 2 almost entirely. In my opinion, from season 3 onwards, the general quality gets so good that you might as well watch every episode from that point.
i see, thanks so much for the guides, i appreciate it.
i’ll look at both of those and probably jump into three and see how it goes.
great, thanks. as long as I’ll be able to follow what’s going on, I’ll probably start with lower decks since that appeals to me, and then branch out from there.
I feel like I need to live in the modern ST world a bit first before stepping into the past
You’ll miss a lot of the humor in lower decks without knowing more trek
no you can just start watching DS9/TNG whenever you want
Other people have already given some good recommendations, so I won’t reiterate that!
What I would say is that each show to a greater or lesser degree has its own tone and style, some of it intentional and some due to the era it was made. So if you don’t end up liking one of the shows, there’s probably a few more out there that you will!
And if you do start with Lower Decks, be sure to come back to it after you’ve seen some of the other shows! It’s completely packed with sometimes obscure references to the other shows.
Whichever direction you go, I hope you enjoy it! I know I have over the years. 🖖🖖
thanks, I’m really excited to finally get started and I’ll definitely go your route.
if there are too many references. I feel like you’re flying over my head I’ll move on to something earlier and go with what feels right.
I dare say that the incredible volume of ST names on Lemmy have maybe prepared me for some of that?
I started my wife with some TOS, a little TNG, and most of Voyager to give her some foundation before we moved to the first season of SNW, and then lower decks.
