Jump to content


Photo

What was the best Star Trek TV series


  • Please log in to reply
12 replies to this topic

Poll: Best Star Trek Series? (18 member(s) have cast votes)

What was your favourite Star Trek TV series?

  1. Star Trek (The Original Series) (4 votes [22.22%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 22.22%

  2. Star Trek: The Animated Series (1 votes [5.56%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 5.56%

  3. Star Trek: The Next Generation (6 votes [33.33%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 33.33%

  4. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (5 votes [27.78%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 27.78%

  5. Star Trek: Voyager (1 votes [5.56%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 5.56%

  6. Star Trek: Enterprise (1 votes [5.56%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 5.56%

Vote Guests cannot vote

#1 1701D

1701D

    Dances with Toys

  • Members
  • 1,310 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, United Kingdom

Posted 21 September 2016 - 12:36 PM

I'm wondering if the main stream media, the suits at CBS and Paramount have really got it right. Are Kirk and Spock really the most popular Star Trek characters? Is The Original Series the pinnacle of Star Trek excellence or is Star Trek so popular now because of another Star Trek show?

#2 WORF22

WORF22

    It's not a disease it's a hobby.

  • Members
  • 1,894 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:N.J.

Posted 21 September 2016 - 02:02 PM

we all know it was DS9 so why ask. lol



#3 1701D

1701D

    Dances with Toys

  • Members
  • 1,310 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, United Kingdom

Posted 21 September 2016 - 04:28 PM

I love DS9 and I see it as a great sequel to TNG. If TNG introduced us to the 24th Century then DS9 really explored the tiny minutiae of it.

#4 Daysleeper

Daysleeper

    I know FHC by name.

  • Members
  • 537 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Germany
  • Interests:Music, acting, theatre, film, arts in General

    Check out my band: www.facebook.com/eastportslackers

Posted 22 September 2016 - 05:14 AM

Well I will have to vote for TOS. But consider that one's favourite characters aren't necessarily from one's favourite show. I know a lot of people who like Spock best but think TNG was the best show.

#5 1701D

1701D

    Dances with Toys

  • Members
  • 1,310 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, United Kingdom

Posted 22 September 2016 - 02:35 PM

My aim with this poll is to vaguely find out if all this marketing of TOS and reviving the original characters for the movies and now discovery going back to that era is actually what people want to see from Star Trek.

I must admit, while any new Star Trek is going to be met with excitement and enthusiasm. Are people all that bowled over that Trek seems stuck in its own past?

And furthermore... I've got to admit to being slightly confused to see so much in the way of TOS merchandise out there when arguably it's TNG that is likely the more popular Star Trek incarnation?

In this very small corner of the Internet, it seems as though TNG is ahead so far!

#6 MisterPL

MisterPL

    Yes the Troi figures hair worries me.

  • Members
  • 940 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 28 September 2016 - 01:01 PM

Back when Star Trek was on life support following the cancellation of ENT and the terrible box office performance of NEM, it was pretty clear to me that the only characters who could save the franchise were the ones most people were familiar with. Let's face it; if you asked the general public who was the captain on Star Trek, the most likely response was Captain Kirk.
 
Unfortunately, using that crew would require a new cast. While a Battlestar Galactica-style reboot would have been fine with me personally, Abrams went one step better and saved the Prime universe instead of writing over it. And by bringing back those most familiar characters, the franchise got the jumpstart it desperately needed thanks to – poetically – Captain Kirk and his legendary crew.
 
With a question like "What is your favourite Star Trek TV series?" I have to define what I believe qualifies. Generally, I stick to the classic mission statement:
 
Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
 
By that strict definition, only four series qualify; TOS, TAS, TNG, and ENT.

 

In my opinion, the first season of VOY really should have been the eighth season of TNG. I saw no reason to force the TNG crew onto the big screen at the expense of the television franchise. There was no ten-year, pent-up demand for that crew as there was with the original crew. If certain cast members were getting to expensive, write them off and replace them. Goodbye, Patrick Stewart. Hello, Kate Mulgrew.

 

The spinoff DS9 was positively anti-Trek in concept; no captain, no starship, less than half a Starfleet crew aboard an alien space station, boldly waiting where no one had waited before. It is by far my favorite Trek series for somewhat personal reasons even though I can't really qualify it as such. 

 

(I suppose that's why I'm so optimistic about DSC; it's a story that takes place within the Trek universe – phasers, transporters, the Federation! – even though it's not about "the voyages of the starship Enterprise.")

 

ENT could have easily been that BSG-style do-over, with Scott Bakula as Kirk, Jolene Blalock as a gender-bent Spock, John Billingsly as an alien-instead-of-xenophobic McCoy, etc. Instead it was an uneven prequel that ended up having more potential than it was allowed to demonstrate.

 

So by my own standards, I should vote for TNG. It carried a torch farther and more successfully than any other Trek series. It easily boasts the second most popular cast and crew thanks to its seven-year run on television, four features films, and an impressive amount of merchandise.

 

But when it comes to my favourite, I gotta pick DS9 which, despite its built-in handicaps, still managed to entertain for seven satisfying seasons and probably deserves a followup more than any of the others.



#7 BadBunnyMike

BadBunnyMike

    Wishes He had Spots

  • Members
  • 2,233 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Stockton, California

Posted 01 October 2016 - 01:12 AM

Each series had its positive notes and were all very unique. I can say if I am introducing someone to Star Trek then I use Voyager. Voyager really grabs you the cast as a whole was awesome.

But at the same time I grew up with TNG. I remember watching All Good Things on TV. Hell I think i still might have the VHS tape that I originally recorded it on. I fell in love with Riker's Triple Nacelled Enterprise. So that holds a place for me.

And DS9 had some AMAZING Characters. Quark, Odo, amd Dax (love me some Dax). It gave us a Darker side to Star Trek, and the first series to show the aliens side of the story as well.

Enterprise...had potential. It got good at the end but overall not very strong. Still enjoyable but the last series I go to when i get tired of seeing the same episodes a million times on Netflix.

#8 1701D

1701D

    Dances with Toys

  • Members
  • 1,310 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, United Kingdom

Posted 01 October 2016 - 05:28 AM

I think the last great, purely Star Trek series was TNG.

I'm rewatching it now and the stuff they came up with in terms of tech, was truly pioneering and ground breaking and you look at it now thinking my god, they got the future so right. That's what made that show believable and that's what makes that show hold up today.

I think DS9 and Voyager were great sequels to TNG purely based on characters and their interactions with each other but they don't nearly have the same impact on me, and rightly so, don't have the same impact on society. They aren't pioneering shows, they simply expand upon the universe created by TNG focusing more on the relationships between the characters.

Enterprise was again a Star Trek show that Didn't go far enough in trying to be something new and ended up being a retread of what we'd seen on TNG. The uniforms were different, the ship was different, the tech was confused between our real world advances and TOS and it felt flat and uninspiring. Star Trek lost its identity I think. weirdly enough I think Star Trek Beyond showed us a great modern day Star Trek story. The problem with Beyond is the problem with the Kelvin Timeline in general - if feels detached and distant from what we all know to be Star Trek simply because it starts again with Kirk and Spock.

Had Abrams set his Star Trek 80 years beyond Nemesis with everything as it is in his Kelvin timeline minus the characters, rather than setup a new timeline, then I think we would all be clamouring for more Star Trek like Beyond with that cast... new characters, prime timeline, same tech as we've seen in Abrams and Lin's movies and it would be totally believable as the future on from Nemesis.

Discovery has a lot to do to convince me that it's a Star Trek for today's world whilst fitting into the established canon and timeline on top of being as pioneering a show as TNG was for my generation. It's a feat I just don't think it's capable of achieving. Will it be good? I hope so but I don't think it's going to work in terms of fitting into the already established canon set by The Cage and TOS 10 years from Discovery.

#9 Alteran195

Alteran195

    Their ACTION FIGURES, not dolls!!

  • Members
  • 3,461 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Minnesota

Posted 01 October 2016 - 10:03 AM

So Star Trek is only Star Trek if the tech is progressive? Pretty sure that isn't what makes Star Trek Star Trek for most people. The tech is cool, sure, but it isn't the most important thing. 

 

Its always been more, at least to me, about the political and social commentary that the stories tell. As long as Discovery does that well with good, interesting stories, then it'll be good Star Trek. 



#10 1701D

1701D

    Dances with Toys

  • Members
  • 1,310 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, United Kingdom

Posted 01 October 2016 - 04:14 PM

So Star Trek is only Star Trek if the tech is progressive? Pretty sure that isn't what makes Star Trek Star Trek for most people. The tech is cool, sure, but it isn't the most important thing. 
 
Its always been more, at least to me, about the political and social commentary that the stories tell. As long as Discovery does that well with good, interesting stories, then it'll be good Star Trek. 


I'm not saying the tech is the most important part, but it is the part that allows the series to look and feel progressive.

The stories Star Trek has told have always been progressive but you could essentially set them in a city, or an office or in an apartment in today's world.

The difference with Star Trek though is that it is meant to be OUR future and our future will involve using new and unthinkable technologies beyond what we use today... Discovery can't really do that because it pre dates a show shot in the 60's. So it can't get away with introducing new tech or futuristic tech without breaking canon and the timeline and pissing a lot of fans off for nothing when they could of set the series further into the future.

#11 Jay K

Jay K

    It's not a disease it's a hobby.

  • Members
  • 1,914 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Liverpool, England
  • Interests:Music, Star Trek, and gaming.

Posted 02 October 2016 - 12:44 AM

Mine is DS9 - it used to be tied up until a few years ago with TNG, but after watching them both again recently, DS9 I find to be superior in every way. I love TNG, but I've had my eyes opened to some of its faults lately (not bad enough to put me off, basically all down to Braga and the guys he took with him to Voyager).

To borrow the angle of which series I'd choose to get someone into Star Trek though, I'd definitely choose TNG. As was said before, DS9 and Voyager are expansions on that universe, and you should absolutely watch TNG before watching those two. Picard is still one of the best characters ever acted and written for TV, and the rest are all lovable except for Wesley, set upon a gorgeous ship to boot.

TOS is too out of date to use as a starting point nowadays unless the person you're showing it to was alive around that time, although the films would probably work well. Amazing, lovable characters who never had as big of a chance to blossom as their later counterparts, but somehow still managed it with ease.

Voyager I'd discount for the reason above, but also because it just misses the mark far too often for me. Janeway is amazing - perfect casting (plus a touch of fate with Kate Mulgrew), and the ship is gorgeous (as is Janeway, have to be honest!), but the other characters feel really sub-par to me. I find myself not really caring for any of them, except the captain. I've got a long list of issues with Voyager that I won't get into too much, but I'll try to sum up briefly:

Would the Maquis really integrate into the Starfleet crew so quickly and easily? Massively wasted opportunity on this.

Far too much technobabble. I'm fine with TNG on this front because if you actually listen to what is being said, 99% of it makes sense. Voyager went over the top with it though, and did it far too frequently. It got to the point where it surpassed Galaxy Quest in some places! On this front, is say this for all the shows:

TOS: Comes across as very stiff, sometimes feeling a little forced in delivery.
TNG: Used perhaps a little bit too liberally, but felt natural and really made sense.
DS9: Big improvement, even more natural.
VGR: Overused to the point of cliché time and time again.
ENT: Really excellent, I have to say.

Back to Voyager - far too much use of cheese, and really fake cheese at that.
I love cheesiness in the shows/games/films I like - Rom, Brunt and Zek are three fine character-based examples from DS9, with the baseball episode being on the edge of cringe-worthiness for me - The Voyage Home is the best example of Trek cheese you can get!
As with the technobabble though, Voyager once again crosses the line for me several times, hitting absolute cringe with this vile version of Rock-a-bye Baby as sung by the Doctor:

"Rock-a-bye baby, in the spacedock,
When the core blows, the shuttle will rock,
When the hull breaks, the shuttle will fall,
And down will come baby, shuttle and all.
"

As for Enterprise, it's a show I can enjoy in some places, but I just don't see Star Trek whilst watching it. There's some amazing ship designs in the series though, the Romulan Bird of Prey being my favourite by far. I'd love John Eaves to make a 24th century R-BoP one day.

EDIT: Just saw how big this is - Alex, you're out of a job for now. :P ;)

Seriously though, just reading opinions and views in this thread alone, there's no other franchise that has so many different aspects that fans like/dislike. Truly, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Really is amazing.

#12 djc242

djc242

    I know FHC by name.

  • Members
  • 585 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Los Angeles, CA

Posted 29 October 2016 - 09:55 AM

Very much agree Jay K.

I would add that aside from Janeway I thought 7 of 9, the Doctor, and B'Elanna were interesting characters on VOY.

#13 Nigel

Nigel

    Rick & Pat know me by name.

  • Members
  • 363 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 31 January 2017 - 10:44 AM

I voted for TOS. I don't care if people think it's "out-of-date" or whatever. And I mean the original show and films 1-6, not the Abramsverse. DS9 is second for me and was probably my favourite for a few years but I always seem to go back to TOS. I re-watch the episodes a lot. I am not old enough to have seen TOS in the original run (I was born in '84) and really I grew up with TNG mostly and DS9/VOY to a lesser extent. It was starting in 2004 when I bought all of the DVDs that I really found what I liked most which is TOS and DS9. I like the fact that DST have done the Excelsior/1701-B, lots of versions of the 1701/1701-A and have now released the Romulan BoP and eventually the Reliant. I like TOS themed merchandise a lot. Spock (Nimoy) is and will always be my favourite character.






0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users