Star Trek Social Club

FYI not to discourage others from commenting (because everyone has their own opinion) but there is a pretty comprehensive guide in the /c/StarTrek sidebar: https://wiki.startrek.website/books/cstartrek/page/the-cstartrek-where-should-i-start-guide

My main advice is: Don't be afraid to skip an episode if you watch it and you don't like it. Especially the early seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager have some episodes which can easily be skipped. You won't lose any context.

Start with the best episodic episodes of TNG and DS9. Most of us were introduced to Star Trek out of order, it isnt like modern TV. 90s TV and prior was focused on syndication.

My recommendations would be, TNG: Darmok, Tapestry, The Wounded, Inner Light, Cause and Effect, Lower Decks (The episode that inspired the show). For DS9: In The Pale Moonlight, Duet, Trials and Tribbleations, The Visitor (Rest in peace Tony Todd)

I was late to the party, so my initial watch order was all kinds of messed up. I went DIS -> LD -> VOY -> DS9 -> TNG -> VOY (again) -> ENT -> SNW. Sadly, have only seen bits and pieces of TOS (and only GIFs of TAS).

Definitely recommend watching the TNG era in order: TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT and then doubling back to watch Lower Decks again (because why not lol). I also recommend watching Prodigy after VOY since it's basically VOY season 8/9. SNW is a spinoff from DIS, so I'd watch at least seasons 1-2 of DIS before SNW.

Prodigy is a kid's show, but please don't let that turn you away. It's pretty great.

Since you've already watched the relevant parts of Discovery, I'd recommend SNW. It spins off directly from Disco season 2, but it's more episodic and has a wider tonal range. Some episodes are dark and serious, some are plain goofy. Overall you'll find it much more light hearted and adventurous than Disco.

Otherwise, I'm a big supporter of starting at the beginning. Give a few episodes of TOS a try. Yes, it's a product of it's time, but it still holds up as great TV. It's also one of the few Trek shows that really hits the ground running quality wise - the '90s series tend to take a few seasons to rev up.

Since you're into Lower Decks, I dare you to just follow the episode annotations and canon connection published here and use those as your guide to Star Trek. Every episode of LDS is so full of references to older episodes across different series, that might be a fun way to experience the canon 🙂

I'd start with Strange New Worlds. It's very classic Trek in terms of its themes and stories, but as it's still being made it has contemporary audiences in mind. If you like it, I would then go to TNG.

TOS is very dated and can be hard to watch at times. You definitely have to be appreciative of the camp and low production.

TNG holds up a bit better. It's not an adventure show though, and the first season has some real stinkers. I'd say it's a good starting point to watch the first 3 or 4 episodes then go to season 2 weeks give that a shot. If you like how it's going then go back and finish S1 and keep going.

DS9 is like tng but also has a bit more edge and does some good deconstruction of the pure optimism of tng. It is still optimistic but also has some cynicism I love it. I don't think I'd like it as much without a good tng backbone though.

Overall 90s trek isn't going to really give you a lot of adventure focus, unless you watch the movies. It's strengths lie in the morality play and the collaborative problem solving, and the idea of a bright future. Picard kind of shits all over that idea of a brighter future but to each their own, I can see why some people would like it.

I would start with TNG, then DS9, then it doesn't really matter after that. All of the other shows pale in comparison IMO. Be aware that quality and entertainment value is significantly better after the first couple of seasons for both shows. It took me around 5 times to finally get into DS9, and I eventually just skipped season 1 and half of season 2.

Edit: TOS movies are pretty good. The evenly numbered ones are great, the odd numbered ones aren't. But they're almost all worth watching. The first one is a bit iffy. The second, 4th, and 6th movies are classic Trek and really fun.

You dare defile Lower Decks by calling other stuff “More cannon”! Experience bij, petaQ! 😉

In all seriousness, though, I would say DS9. The first season is much better than TNG season 1 in my opinion - not perfect, but livable. It mostly gets better from there, though like VOY, be prepared for sudden urges for Rick Berman to “accidentally fall out an airlock”, if you know what I mean.

This might be tinted by DS9 being my favorite Trek series, although Lower Decks is putting up fierce competition for DS9’s top spot in my heart.

TNG season 1 is a good start its rough around the edges and if it starts to look like the movie "Coming to America" go ahead and skip that episode. Just watch knowing it's going to get better like Park and Rec but it sets up a lot of storylines that will pay off later and some classic episodes that people forget are season 1 like "Datalore".

I recommend starting with the original series or Star Trek the next generation. Picard and Discovery are probably the worst places to start.

Echoing move to SNW. It has a higher budget than older Trek and follows the current trend of "mini-series" storytelling. Older Trek follows older TV rules (wanted 26 eps to a season so a lot of filler to make it so). DS9 would be my other rec with a heavy caveat that if you're not feeling an ep skip it and look it up on memory alpha later, particularly for the first season. As it goes on it gets more into the long form storytelling you'd expect with today's shows, but first few seasons can be a bit rough and there can be a long time between plots being revisited (but when they are they make it count). TNG, Voyager and TOS are mainly monster/problem of the week (Voyager kind of weakly straddles longform and episodic leaning heavily towards episodic). Out of them I'd recommend TNG outside of the first two seasons (first season is TOS scifi tales encore, second season I actually like a lot and has some good eps, but general like is a minority opinion and cast gets retooled in third season anyway).

If you don't mind kids shows also recommend Prodigy (kinda like a Trek ATLA imo).

TNG season 3. The first two sessions are pretty rough. Start with 3. If you ever do a rewatch then try starting with season 1. Then try DS9.

TOS is good if you can handle the very low budget look.

Voyager's got that family feel with the cast that you just enjoy being around.

TNG is best to start after season 1. Not saying season one is bad, but it might be harder to get into for a new comer.

Enterprise is good is you like your uniforms tight.

The original series is great to get a lot of the origin information. I guess it's hard for new comers, but I grew up with it, so has a special accepting place in my heart.

Deep Space 9 is my personal favorite for political sci-fi. However, there is the occasional whatever episode. This is best to watch is order all the way through.

I still think that lower decks and strange new worlds can not be fully enjoyed without some other older trek shown under your belt, but it's only a few episodes so you can finish them both quickly.

I abandoned Discovery after season 2 or 3 (I forget) I hear it got ok later on, but idk.

Picard, just watch season 3. I watched the others and then season 3 came out. I forgot about the others.

I got into Star Trek by watching random Voyager episodes whenever they happened to be on TV. It's from the same era as SG-1 and is overall pretty close to what an "average" Star Trek show would be IMO. You can give it a try if TNG doesn't click with you for some reason. Or go with SNW if you want something that's currently airing with new episodes being made - every other "current" Star Trek show has either finished production or not aired yet.

Some advice for TNG. Don't skip seasons 1 and 2. It's popular but misguided advice. I finished TNG this year and generally enjoyed these seasons despite their flaws.

To that effect, here's an optimized episode watch guide for each. Six episodes removed per season to save you 9 hours in total. Return to the skipped episodes later if you're interested.

I started with Picard then Strange New Worlds then Discovery.

I’ll take my downvotes and death threats now.

TNG from the start, but Iimit yourself to the 4 or 5 best rated episodes from Season 1 and 2. Then crack on with most of 3 and 4. 5 onwards starts to have a few more clunkers but by then you should have a good idea if you like it enough to take a chance.