I don’t think that StarTrek is good watching TV for today’s tastes.
Does anyone have a link to maybe a list of important episodes for those series? Or recommendations for certain arcs that they find interesting?
I see this question all the time with Babylon 5, and there’s a set of community agreed upon episodes that are skipable. But this isn’t something that makes sense in the world of the original StarTreks. There isn’t any one really important episode, nor are there really any arcs, especially in TOS and TNG.
ST started to play with those ideas in DS9 and STV (VOY, is that what we’re going with now?) but they didn’t really do it like their contemporary B5 did.
Honestly if you sat me down and forced me to watch a random set of episodes of TNG or TOS and asked me which season each episode was from I doubt I’d be able to tell you. I doubt anyone except hard core trekkies could. Unless it involves Tasha Yar, she’s a dead(HAH) giveaway that it’s, probably, S1.
TNG really was meant to be something that you watched an episode of once a week in pretty much any order.
A fundamental problem with a lot of 90s-00s television is that it is not crafted as tightly as modern television. It’s slower. The edits are less punchy. They’re written around commercial breaks (complete with music swells leading to the fade-to-black).
Look at 70s comedies as a perfect example of this. The density of gag-per-minute is shockingly low.
The Simpsons seasons 2-6 (roughly) were far ahead of their time. The sheer density of gags was unheard of. It ruined a LOT of previous television comedy for a LOT of people.
So watching Star Trek: TNG, I enjoy it mostly because I’ve already seen it. I’m re-watching it. But at the same time, I’m profoundly aware of how ploddingly it’s paced. You could cut some of those episodes down to 15 minutes and they’d be materially better. You could probably edit all of TNG together into one 10-hour experience total.
Touche. I may have missed a window entirely. I dearly love Buffy, but it’s because I have already seen it. That show is admittedly dogshit, but I don’t care haha.
Man, a 10-hour supercut of ST would be fantastic. It’s like the edit of the prequel trilogy of Star Wars that has been edited into one 2 1/2 hour movie: more efficient and more enjoyable all around!
Chiming in because this made a lot of sense to me. I’ve watched a smattering of TNG with my wife and enjoyed it. But I honestly can’t say I’d just sit down and watch the show to watch it. The enjoyment comes from having these well established characters get thrown curveballs and chit-chatting to talk about what happens and how you think they’ll respond. The slow pace of the show gives a lot of dead air to fill with errant conversation.
To bring it back to the original question, the only episode I would call “required watching” is The Measure of a Man (S2E9). It’s an archetypal episode in what Star Trek is “about”. But honestly, if you don’t enjoy the show then you don’t enjoy the show. It had a profound impact on television and sci-fi and you get to experience that by consuming the media that built upon it.
I definitely am not a Trek fan. I have no beef with it, and if someone is watching it, I’ll happily sit through it. But I have never thought in probably 20 years to choose to watch any. And none of the new Star Trek I’ve seen gives me a nanogram of interest. I’ll listen to RLM critique/shit-on new Star Trek for hours before I actually go watch the actual show.
But definitely a Sci-Fi fan, just a picky one. So if anyone is giving anyone shit for not liking Star Trek, they don’t represent all valid viewpoints only one specific, increasingly outdated, and ironically kindof of shitty one.
This ran concurrently with TNG and had a good budget, they did plenty of away mission episodes, but it could have been a season budget saver as suggest, however setting the extradition scene in Quarks(the bar) underlines the frontier setting of DS9, this is the far-flung edge of federation policy and ability.
Check out Short Treks and Lower Decks (animated). If you like any of those episodes then check out the Star Trek Discovery series. Then maybe check out Picard series. For movies watch First Contact.
I’m glad there’s some brain-canon. For me it was a minor “no, this isn’t good enough” moment.
Which, to be clear, is a very high bar for me, so no slight on Star Trek. The last multi-season completed show I watched all the way through, without skipping an episode, was probably Breaking Bad. Very few shows both approach that level of quality, and are a genre/topic I’m interested in.
yeah I watched TNG & DS9 intermittently through childhood, I have been enjoying Short Treks & Discovery (although the latter is Star Trek Brand thin, plot development wise). I have little interest in revisiting. Stargate (SG1, Atlantis, Universe) though, I’d probably enjoy more on rewatch.
Youtube started recommending Stargate clips to me recently. Out of nowhere.
I caught myself actually watching them, which led to watching the first couple episodes of the show again…
Stargate was under-rated and under-appreciated in its time. It let itself have a lot more fun than much of Star Trek while still having a serious plot.
I find that I’m enjoying Star Trek Discovery more and more as the seasons progress. The first season was OK, very dark and not very Star Trek-y, but visually it was stunning and I liked what they were trying to do.
The second season was an improvement on all fronts and I was surprised at how much I liked the inclusion of Captain Pike and Spock. So far, I’ve really enjoyed the third season.
I was initially hesitant when I read that they were moving away from the serialized season-long plot to a more episode of the week format, but so far, it’s been great and they’ve been doing a good job of resolving the weekly A Plot while also advancing the season-long B Plot.
Michelle Yoh continues to steal any scene she’s in, the actress who plays Tilly is great, and I’m glad that the show is finally starting to explore some of the more ancillary cast members. I absolutely love any scene with the Chief Engineer and Tig Notaro’s character. The way they play off each other is great.
Short Treks is great and I can’t wait for more of that.
I’ve also really enjoyed Star Trek Lower Decks, which I didn’t expect at all. I was worried it was going to be Family Guy In Space, but while funny and a bit over the top, it really stays true to what makes Star Trek Star Trek.
New expanse season!!! I just watched the first episode.
Whoever is doing the music composition is doing a great job. I really enjoyed the variation on the show’s theme integrated with the melody of Blue Skies in the ending scenes.
I got my wife the complete boxed set of Poirot on DVD and we just started watching them last night and its really great to re-watch it all sequentially.
I think the last time I seriously watched it was a few episodes on netflix a few years back and then growing up on PBS. Its been great to revisit it as an adult and enjoy a lot of the jokes/witticism between the characters even more fully.
Started to rewatch Weeds since I saw that Netflix had it and I remember liking the show when it was on the air and…whew, boy. It did NOT age well. I feel like, given how any non-white, non-wealthy character acts/speaks in the show, I can immediately picture the writer’s room. Gave me flashbacks to Orange Is The New Black tbh. The Ivy League privilege just really drips off the dialogue.
Finished Legend of Korra and was thoroughly entertained. Season 2 was probably my least favorite, but 1 and 4 are fantastic.
Finished The Repair Shop. Highly recommended. It’s fascinating to watch people with specialties in arguably dying professions (hand double-caning? really?) restore broken heirlooms, or be able to speak to the history of certain types of furniture. One of the ladies that specializes in upholstery has an on-camera conversation with an owner who wants an old chair that her grandfather had from the 1920s restored and she had to specify whether she wanted it completely restored or restored to her memory? She explained that instead of being a brown and tan color, due to sun damage, nicotine damage, and wear, the original fabric would have been wildly different (I think like a purple and yellow color?). Very calming.
Great British Bake Off. Because I need my fill of the mahogany tiger and Noel Fielding haha.
Saw that Netflix has the X-Men anime and the Wolverine anime in rotation so I guess I’m checking that out next haha.
Started BNA on Netflix. It’s mildly entertaining, kinda horny, but not as horny as Beastars, at least three episodes in.
Finishing out Sailor Moon Crystal. I’m not a huge fan of the original franchise (it just missed me as a kid), but my wife is. It’s apparently a little closer to the manga series. Both of us are enjoying it. Season 3 is pretty great, and Sailor Uranus is probably my favorite. The series itself seems like Sailor Moon Kai but redone? Idk if that’s the CLOSEST way to describe it, but it’s the example that immediately springs to mind. I’m interested to see how the two part movie coming out this year will cover an entire season, but apparently not a lot happens in that arc? From what I’ve heard of the last bit of the original stories, I kind of want a full on 13-episode season after these movies, but who knows how long that will take to do/happen or if it will happen at all.
Wow a lot of that is in my queue to watch lol. Especially His Dark Materials; I’m probably one of the only people that actually liked that movie that came out a while back haha. The marketing for it looks really good!
Have you started the Expanse yet? How closely to the books does it skew? I’ve also had the show recommended to me by BSG fans, so I may be applying a level of similarity that doesn’t actually exist, but that’s kind of my immediate impression of it!
The Expanse is good, it roughly follows the books. There’s a few new characters, and a few characters get their roles expanded.
The longer it goes on the further it diverges from the books, however. You will, at some point say to yourself “none of this happened in the books”. It’s not bad, the stories are well fleshed out. The action is pretty cool.
I have more specific thoughts but those are a bit spoilery for both the books and the tv show.
Gotcha! I’m not a fan of the books, to be honest. I’ve read the first one, but something about it doesn’t quite work for me, but I know that there are a lot of fans! I might check out the show, just given the divergence that you mentioned, though!