Recommend Star Trek for Non Trekkies.

Zardnaar · Feb 10, 2019

We have been watching and enjoying Star Trek Discovery. My wife she is not a trekkie at all, myself I vaguely remember some of the original series as a kid along with some of the 80's and 90's movies.

TNG did screen here but a few years after its debut in the States and I vaguely remember some of the characters and I think I watched season 1 or 2 a long time ago. I liked some of the movies as well like First Contact. Deep Space 9 I liked Worf, Data, Cisco, Ordo and things like the Cardassians I can remember. Once again I never followed the whole series, in the 90's I was moving around a bit, being a teenager, playing AD&D 2E, and the whole teenager thing happened along with discovering females.

Never watched Voyager or Enterprise. Quite a few Trek actors turned up in other shows though such as Boston Legal, Stargate Atlantis, Hell on Wheels etc. Over here Netflix has most/all of the Trek series. We watched the pilot or DS9 but failed to follow up rewatching Babylon 5 again.

Anyway what series could you recommend to watch the main criteria is it has to stand alone and not be to reliant on the other series and it would also have to appeal to non Trekkies thatgenerally like sci fi shows such as a few mentioned in this thread along with shows like early Doctor Who (Smith/Tenant), BSG, The Orville, Orphan Black, Continuum, Sanctuary etc. We can handle dated special effects as well, that is not a problem.

MarkB · Feb 10, 2019

The original series.

ccs · Feb 11, 2019

The original series.
At least some of it, if not all of it. You should appreciate what all the rest of it builds upon. Recommended episodes are (in order):
The Cage
Mudds Women
The Menagerie
Arena
Space Seed*
Mirror Mirror*
I, Mudd
The Trouble with Tribbles
Assignment: Earth - for some of the movies & later series you need to appreciate that time travel is a thing & that there's factions trying to alter the past in Trek. So you might as well watch one of the originals that sets the premise.
The Tholian Web

All of these save the Tribbles link to stuff I recommend below. Some as concepts, some as plot points, some as cool cameos/easter eggs.
The two with * are really important.

Movies:
The Wrath of Khan - after you've watched the original series/or at least the episode titled Space Seed
Search for Spock (not the best Trek movie, but follows Wrath & sets up Voyage)
Voyage Home. - The one with the whales. Even non-Trek fans like this one.
Maybe First Contact. - the best of the Next Gens movies. Time travel, Borg, world building.

Series (other than the OS):
Enterprise - all of it. Though season 3 is definitely the low point.
Voyager - Really only recommend about season 3/3.5+ I love the Dr. in this series.
Discovery - all of it. Season 1 is one story.

Zardnaar · Feb 11, 2019

ccs said:
The original series.
At least some of it, if not all of it. You should appreciate what all the rest of it builds upon. Recommended episodes are (in order):
The Cage
Mudds Women
The Menagerie
Arena
Space Seed*
Mirror Mirror*
I, Mudd
The Trouble with Tribbles
Assignment: Earth - for some of the movies & later series you need to appreciate that time travel is a thing & that there's factions trying to alter the past in Trek. So you might as well watch one of the originals that sets the premise.
The Tholian Web

All of these save the Tribbles link to stuff I recommend below. Some as concepts, some as plot points, some as cool cameos/easter eggs.
The two with * are really important.

Movies:
The Wrath of Khan - after you've watched the original series/or at least the episode titled Space Seed
Search for Spock (not the best Trek movie, but follows Wrath & sets up Voyage)
Voyage Home. - The one with the whales. Even non-Trek fans like this one.
Maybe First Contact. - the best of the Next Gens movies. Time travel, Borg, world building.

Series (other than the OS):
Enterprise - all of it. Though season 3 is definitely the low point.
Voyager - Really only recommend about season 3/3.5+ I love the Dr. in this series.
Discovery - all of it. Season 1 is one story.

I have seen the ST I to VI movies. I liked IV the best, 2 I didn't think was that great (I was young) but it was better than III and V and VI were trash. I I saw on TV in the early 90's thought it was OK.

Its been years though and I do recall parts of DS9 and TNG but it must have been early seasons I watched. Can't recall much about plots etc just the characters. After VI the next one I remember (and liked) was First Contact.

doctorbadwolf · Feb 11, 2019

IMO, seasons 1, 2, and the last half of season 4 of Enterprise is great Trek.

Zardnaar · Feb 11, 2019

doctorbadwolf said:
IMO, seasons 1, 2, and the last half of season 4 of Enterprise is great Trek.

Would that be for non Trekkies though?

I like Trek my wife is kinda impartial. I'm enjoying Discovery a bit more than her I think and I'm after something we can both enjoy. I think she was playing her switch but she put it don for Babylon 5 to pay more attention to the story.

Hence I'm mostly interested in DS9 first and see if she likes that. I'm kind of leaning towards DS9, TNG or Voyager.

doctorbadwolf · Feb 11, 2019

Zardnaar said:
Would that be for non Trekkies though?

I like Trek my wife is kinda impartial. I'm enjoying Discovery a bit more than her I think and I'm after something we can both enjoy. I think she was playing her switch but she put it don for Babylon 5 to pay more attention to the story.

Hence I'm mostly interested in DS9 first and see if she likes that. I'm kind of leaning towards DS9, TNG or Voyager.

Yes. Season 1 especially requires absolutely no knowledge of Trek whatsoever to be enjoyable.

Eltab · Feb 12, 2019

The Tholian Web (TOS) has Spock and McCoy go through some character development.

The two episodes with Kirk's best-known pseudo-moralistic speeches, I do not remember the titles.
1) Two planets are in a computerized war. Kirk breaks the computer. His climactic line "Yes, it's in my heritage, a million bloody generations, but I can decide: I will not kill … today!"
2) The "alternate Earth" with three tribes of survivors: obviously Russian, Chinese, and Yanks. Kirk says "This is for all the people, not just the rich or the powerful or the nobles, but for everybody! Do you understand?"
These three seem to best exhibit my contention that the heart of Trek is the question "What if the better angels of mens' natures were in the ascendant?"

Jester David · Feb 12, 2019

Zardnaar said:
We have been watching and enjoying Star Trek Discovery. My wife she is not a trekkie at all, myself I vaguely remember some of the original series as a kid along with some of the 80's and 90's movies
...
Anyway what series could you recommend to watch the main criteria is it has to stand alone and not be to reliant on the other series and it would also have to appeal to non Trekkies thatgenerally like sci fi shows such as a few mentioned in this thread along with shows like early Doctor Who (Smith/Tenant), BSG, The Orville, Orphan Black, Continuum, Sanctuary etc. We can handle dated special effects as well, that is not a problem.

I did a blog recommending episodes for purposes of Star Trek Adventures
https://continuingmissionsta.com/2018/01/17/introduction-to-star-trek-part-4/

There’s also a good list of the best TNG here:
https://medium.com/maxistentialism-blog/star-trek-the-next-generation-in-40-hours-c4a6762cbd3

And the best DS9 here:
https://medium.com/maxistentialism-blog/star-trek-deep-space-nine-in-82-5-hours-10acde591fd2

Zardnaar said:
I have seen the ST I to VI movies. I liked IV the best, 2 I didn't think was that great (I was young) but it was better than III and V and VI were trash. I I saw on TV in the early 90's thought it was OK.

Star Trek VI is excellent. Watch it again.
Only remember it was released in 1990/1989 and is all about USA and Russian relationships. It is super topical.