sci-fi

Best Star Trek TV series

I know there is a discussion about the best star trek film-- naturally this has to follow-- what is your favorite star trek TV series?

Best -- Voyager

Worst -- Deep Space Nine

Honorable Mention --- Next Generation

Runner up to the suckage of Deep Space Nine --- The Original Series

Re:Best Star Trek TV series

I've been slowly, slowly making my way through the Star Trek series and movies.

So far I have finished the original series and the animated series.  And have watched movies 1 - 4.

I have memories of watching TNG, DS9, and Voyager in reruns and such, when I actually used to have televions.  I don't think I've ever seen an episode of Enterprise.

I just noticed that Enterprise actually has two entries in spout:

http://www.spout.com/films/202413/default.aspx

http://www.spout.com/films/201482/default.aspx3

Someone should probably fix that.

Anyways, The Original Series is just plain fun.  Really dated and kind of corny.  There are only a few different scenarios that are repeated from episode to episode, and they always try to force some romance into every single episode even when it doesn't fit.  (Maybe all of this actually happens in subsequent series and my memory fails me, but I'll soon find out)  But the interactions between Spock and Bones is probably the quintessence of Star Trek, and I doubt it will ever be duplicated.

The Animated Series isn't too bad either.  They could actually do more with this than they could on the original show becuase you can draw anything you want where as the original show obviously had a very limited budget and computer graphics were a long way off.  The reason the animated series suffers is that each episode is only half of the running time of the original series, so everything must be accelerated.  This means cutting out lots of slow moments of character development and dialogue that really brings flavor to an episode normally.

Now coincidentally this week I just watched the pilot episode of The Next Generation.  WOW THIS SUCKED!  I heard the first season or two fo The Next Generation is pretty bad though and it gets better.  This must be true because I remember it being much better when I saw it in reruns.  I must have been watching some of the latter episodes if the rest of the first season is as sucky as the pilot.

Besides that I remember loving boy Voyager and Deep Space Nine.  And I think Deep Space Nine was always my favorite in my mind.

Why do you think Deep Space Nine is the worst???  I love the fact that it takes place on a much larger space station so it feels more like a big community.  A lot more can happen it seems.

Re:Best Star Trek TV series

I donno, I always felt as though the spirit of Star Trek was lost in a space station. Sure, more could happen because the actual space was bigger on a station but I feel that once the trekies lost their mobility the show just lost so much. I think that's why I like Voyager so much.

Re:Best Star Trek TV series

magrebi:

I donno, I always felt as though the spirit of Star Trek was lost in a space station. Sure, more could happen because the actual space was bigger on a station but I feel that once the trekies lost their mobility the show just lost so much. I think that's why I like Voyager so much.

I think I like the idea of a bigger community.  From what I remember you have a lot more going on.  You have stores and bars.  And all kinds of people visiting.  And wormholes nearby.  You get more of a solid community to hold on to.  With the other series the ship is potentially so isolated.

Re:Best Star Trek TV series

I've never watched the original series (with Kirk, Spock, etc.), only seen the movies, so I'd have to say TNG was my favorite, followed by Voyager.  I loved the premise of Voyager, but sadly have only seen the first half of the series so far.  DS9 and Enterprise were series I could never really get into.  I need to start from the very beginning sometime.  I only have the last 2 movies left to watch first though. :)

Re:Best Star Trek TV series

Actually, I'd have to firmly state that DS9 is my favorite Star Trek series. Of course, you can't knock the original, but it was basically a great sci-fi concept muddled by some seriously horrible presentation. I mean to say that the ideas and the stories were awesome, but they often were hidden behind pretty cheesy dialogue, bad acting, and really laughable effects. A lot of that is what makes it so awesome, though.

Then you get TNG, which was, for the first few seasons, generally some pretty generic Sci-Fi with pretty excellent presentation. There were some standouts, but it took awhile for the story quality to match the effects quality.

I disliked Voyager when it first aired, and I stopped watching after the first season(apart from the odd episode here and there). However, when I got 'sorta' into it at the last season, I really liked where it was going. I think my problem with the series was that it was too obviously an attempt at a politically correct Trek. I have nothing against political correctness, but it seemed that they basically had the idea of a multi-culti crew(the woman! The black vulcan! The native american! The Asian!) and then built a series around it. Once the series became less about Neelix(sp?) learning a very special lesson each episode(didn't they learn, back with those horrid 'what will Wesley learn today? episodes on TNG), then I enjoyed it.

And Enterprise, I really wanted to like because Scott Bakula is THE man, but it was pretty.... lackluster.

So yeah, DS9, my favorite of the Treks. I sorta understand the argument that the series doesn't have the exploratory aspect of the other shows, but for sheer story it beats them all. 7 seasons and at the end you get a cohesive story, an epic tale unlike anything else in the Star Trek universe. I side with Risellada on this one, that the sense of community was a welcome addition. It was definitely the most literary of the bunch.

Plus, it had the Trials and Tribulations episode, with it's awesome line about why the klingons in the original series look nothing like the Klingon's today.

A clearly embarrassed Warf: "We don't like to talk about it."

Re:Best Star Trek TV series

I think this says it all. Is it bad that I know almost every scene they use in this?

Re:Best Star Trek TV series

I haven't seen all the original series episodes cause I. Can't. Stand. Capt. Kirk.

but I've completed TNG and DS9, seen quite a few Voyager episodes.

My best series is TNG, but DS9 certainly left an impact.  Much different from the philosophy of TNG. I was sceptical at first, but I must give DS9 a full star rating.

I'm starting next on Enterprise and lastly Voyager.  Then for sure I'll be able rate them all.. yeah!