Your favourite Trek?

[Ryujin]

I get the feeling that TOS is thought well off mainly because people have fond memories of it back in the 60s or 70s. Nostalgia.

I wonder if a group of people who had never seen any Star Trek before, were shown episodes from all 5 TV series, if they would feel the same way, and how they would rate each iteration?

I can't speak for others, but for me the memories of the '60s are rather far from fond. Not much money. Constant fear of nuclear war. The US losing the war in Vietnam. Open racism. The Watts Riots. Star Trek gave hope that things could be better.

 

[ccs]

I get the feeling that TOS is thought well off mainly because people have fond memories of it back in the 60s or 70s. Nostalgia.

I wonder if a group of people who had never seen any Star Trek before, were shown episodes from all 5 TV series, if they would feel the same way, and how they would rate each iteration?

Ok, let's assume/pretend I am blinded by nostalgia for the 60s/70s.
I'm not. I only claim 9 days of '69 as my own & I'm sure I don't have any memory of them.... And I saw more of TOS AFTER Wrath of Khan came out. In fact most of my TOS viewing was concurrent with the early seasons of TNG. (The local station played TNG & then followed it with a random episode of TOS).
But let's pretend anyways....
●That won't change the fact that I completely disliked the cast, characters, & plot of Voyager. If this was my 1st/only exposure to Trek I'd probably not check out any other version. Fortunately I'd already seen that Trek can be better (and by that I mean more entertaining).
●It won't make me any less apathetic about TNG.
●The JJ Abrams movies won't magically improve.
●Nor will it alter that I just liked the cast of Enterprise.

And it's not nostalgia at all as fat as wich ship I prefer. It's just the physical design. I think they got it exactly right with the re-fit/A from the TOS movies. I like the shape of its nacelles. I like how the sensor dish is integrated rather than looking like it's a bit the model maker just glued on.

 

[Orius]

Funnily enough, I binge watched STNG and a good chunk of DS9 recently. And I realised something. STNG is boring. The first three or four seasons are just snooze fests of people sitting in lounge chairs talking. It's brutally boring. I remember watchign these episodes religiously as a kid, but, good grief, without the nostalgia glasses? They really, really don't hold up.

I think the whole zeitgeist of the early 90s where Trek's popularity peaked is gone, and TNG's feel just doesn't work any more. And television has changed; season long story arcs are more common these days, partially because of what Babylon 5 did back then, and TNG was just never built around that. There are still a few good episodes through the series run, but a lot of the filler episodes are just dull.

DS9 OTOH, holds up very well. The themes are very relevant today - the raprochement between the Cardassians and the Bajorans with the Federation playing UN Peacekeeper in the middle just rings so true in today's political landscape. Never minding how often they dealt with the fact that both sides of the conflict had lots of blood on their hands and how do you come to some sort of lasting peace between these factions that really just want to keep hitting each other? Fantastic stuff. Even the kids stuff with Nog and Jake rings so true - different cultures trying to come together to find common ground.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

One of the best things I liked about Jake and Nog was how Nog became the Starfleet officer, while Jake pursued a writing career. It was refreshing to see them not turn Jake into another Wesley Crusher.

I get the feeling that TOS is thought well off mainly because people have fond memories of it back in the 60s or 70s. Nostalgia.

I wonder if a group of people who had never seen any Star Trek before, were shown episodes from all 5 TV series, if they would feel the same way, and how they would rate each iteration?

TOS was my first Trek, before any of the other even aired back in the early 80s'. But it's not just nostalgia. The best episodes are still pretty strong even today because Roddenberry's morality play format has a certain timeless element to it. Sure TOS has its share of crap or just poor episodes, but the good stuff is remembered because it deserves to be remembered.

 

[Mallus]

I get the feeling that TOS is thought well off mainly because people have fond memories of it back in the 60s or 70s. Nostalgia.

Two things:

Yes, nostalgia plays a part in some people's affection for TOS (and I'm one of them).

But nostalgia isn't necessarily bad or false. It's simply remembering something you enjoyed at a place & time in the past. Most people are nostalgic for things they thought were good (even if they're later tempted, for whatever reason, to claim they're not).

And a question:

Don't you like any television (or film, literature, artwork, whatever) from the past? If so, is it all nostalgia?

 

[Chimpy]

That's a rather sweeping way to dismiss the stated preference of a bunch of people in this thread.

I'm not dismissing people's preferences - I respect people's opinion regardless. I'm putting it out there that maybe people's preferences could be skewed by nostalgia or a feeling that things were better in the past, and are more subjective than objective. Of course it could be argued that all preferences are subjective. But I think there is value in judging something on its own merits in an open minded way, rather than critically comparing it to something that's gone before.

I do it myself with modern music. I like music from the 80s because that's what I grew up with. I have to force myself to listen to up-to-date music and try to see (or hear) it in a different light, then actually I sometimes find it's just as good - but just in different ways.

 

[Chimpy]

And a question:

Don't you like any television (or film, literature, artwork, whatever) from the past? If so, is it all nostalgia?

I like some things from the past. But I like things from the more recent past, or the current, as well.

For example, I enjoy some "vintage" comedy TV from the 70s and 80s. The style of comedy was different then. But modern comedy is good too. One doesn't negate the other.

On a related note, I think sometimes TV, film, or novels don't age well. For example, when I read some classic fantasy novels written in the 60s or 70s, I find the writing styles have changed and older books can feel quite cumbersome. Similarly, if I watch some classic cartoons from the 80s (I'm thinking things like Thundercats, or Transformers), I wonder why on earth I thought they were amazing- they are dire! I think people's tastes change over time, and what was considered good in the past, doesn't necessarily correlate with that people enjoy now.

 

[MarkB]

On a related note, I think sometimes TV, film, or novels don't age well. For example, when I read some classic fantasy novels written in the 60s or 70s, I find the writing styles have changed and older books can feel quite cumbersome. Similarly, if I watch some classic cartoons from the 80s (I'm thinking things like Thundercats, or Transformers), I wonder why on earth I thought they were amazing- they are dire! I think people's tastes change over time, and what was considered good in the past, doesn't necessarily correlate with that people enjoy now.

That's certainly true, and it's certainly true of Star Trek to varying degrees. But I think it's Star Trek TNG that's fared the worst in that regard, while TOS has held up relatively well.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It certainly seems as if TOS is still ultimately a fan favorite, even after so many years. (Of course saying "a" is a bit.. vague, there haven't been that many shos).

IIRC, Star Trek Timelines also brings back the TOS era (and all others) and even makes the orignal Enterprise one of the most powerful.
And for the 50 year anniversary, Star Trek Online has now announced a new expansion that involves temporal shenengians and a lot of TOS themed content (including a ship pack full of TOS style ships...)

 

[Hussar]

For those who might be interested, Tor.com has a pretty good "rewatch" series Star Trek TOS Rewatch that does an episode by episode breakdown of the series. It's pretty good.