If you like Star Trek which was your favourite series?

[whyameyehere]

Just started rewatching DS9 on netflix.

Did start to watch discovery but couldn't get into it

Bloody well love Star Trek. TNG is the best for me. Sir Patrick is just such an amazing actor! Love Brent Spiner's portrayal of Data too.

DS9 comes a fair second. Enterprise was the worst.

Voyager is my favourite. Then ds9, then discovery,then the original, then TNG, them enterprise

The original stands apart I.think. I loved it when I.was a child. Truly loved it , but William Shatner just spoils it for me now as I find h almost unbearably cheesy to watch now.
Itf the films, I love the reboots though the first one more than the other two

Voyager is the best IMO. Janeway was an excellent Captain, and the growth of the character of Seven was so warm. The Doctor and Seven had the best relationship and I loved watching them.

Voyager is the best but DH refuses to believe me. I am the sci-if geek in our relationship!

I do have to toss and turn over Data vs The Doctor. Data was the groundbreaker in terms of how we deal with the ethics of AI and non-human life, but The Doctor really brought a lot more nuance and fleshed it out very much more. He also seemed much closer to obtaining humanity than Data ever was. However on the other hand a lot of The Doctor's script was geared towards direct comic relief, which tended to overshadow the serious episodes that he did manage to get all to himself. On the other hand Data was mostly seen as a much more serious character with only occasional descents into farce, which lent him more gravitas across the seasons.

Odo vs Worf is a hard one too, both obsessed with their divorced culture, but I loved the banter between Odo and Quark, and the episodes referencing his work as a collaborator with the Cardassians.

Jadzia and Bashir beat Crusher and Troi hands down. Sorry. The gendered roles are just too glaringly obvious in 2018.

TNG really hinged on Patrick Stewart carrying a lot of the work on his shoulders, while in DS9 Sisko was supported by a much stronger ensemble cast. Voyager suffered from having a captain that was often insufferable, episode to episode, and it struggled to break new ground with the rest of the cast - a lot of the crew seemed very juvenile in their plot lines. Paris is angsty teen rebel and Kim is wallflower shy boy, rather than functioning 30-somethings. Tuvok and Be'Lanna are standard issue Vulcan/Klingon and Neelix, Kes and 7 were very easy to dislike. Voyager did, however, benefit from some truly excellent alien enemies. As much as I loved Marc Alaimo as Dukat the Dominion did get a little stale after a while. Voyager was very fresh in that regard.

I grew up watch TNG with my dad, never really got into DS9 until it was almost over, but Voyager was my fave.

Some of the eps were a bit naff but overall I loved it. DS9 has such a strong story arc with the dominion that lasted years and delved into the darker side of trek which was interesting to watch, they were the only ones that could do that really.

Never really saw the original series but loved the films, Enterprise had potential but never really got there.

I would agree with a lot of that Sethis. Voyager is the weakest of the three set post-TOS. It's like DS9 got all the good writers and Voyager had to make do with who was left over.

On DS9, all the characters had depth, and were fun to watch, including the characters that were least likeable on paper, like Quark and Gul Dukat. Miles O'Brien (and one particularly stupid Miles O'Brien centred episode) were the low points. That's a very high standard to set.

Voyager had.... Neelix. FFS!

Voyager writers also pushed the boat out on continuity errors. Has anyone not seen this? Someone recorded every time Voyager used one of the proton torpedos they had limited numbers of. It is hilarious, it really is.

But if TNG and DS9 hadn't been made, Voyager's biggest competition would be TOS, and it would come out very well. I rewatched part of TOS earlier in the year to teach the kids about it, and at one point I swear the writers just alternated plotlines.

I swear it was Kirk encounters Mysterious Godlike Aliens followed by Kirk encounters Ancient Robot with Corrupted Programming followed by Kirk encounters Mysterious Godlike Aliens followed by Kirk encounters Ancient Robot with Corrupted Programming and so on.

Now the kids and I are watching TNG instead.

TNG, it's the one I grew up with.

But the thing about the repeated plot lines in TOS, it was essentially a new genre and limited opportunities to watch on terrestrial TV.

Some of the earlier TNG episodes, before it hit its stride, used quite similar plot lines IIRC with less excuse.

TNG really struggled for the first couple of seasons as it tried to be TOS and something new for the 90s and I think looking back at the early episodes you can really see the struggle.

DS9 I never really gave a chance tbh I find the thought of it being stationary just boring (I know better now!).

Never got on with voyager really.

I also think TNG wouldn't have survived all the critic bashing and fan complaining if it wasn't for Patrick Stewart until it got into its stride around best of both worlds.

(X-post with errol ! )

Oh Patrick Stewart ❤

TNG starts hitting its stride in Season 3, I think. DS9 really gets going in Season 4. Voyager improved dramatically when they got rid of Zzzzzzzz, sorry sized off there, I meant Kes. I think Discovery had the strongest first season out of all the series. It seemed to really know where it was going from the start (until the WTF ending, was it just me?) But the switch to arc driven TV probably has a lot to do with that. Shows seem a bit more planned out nowadays, whereas in the 90s they sort of drifted along (pls see Babylon 5 for the exception and a massive game changer, and pls also gloss over season 5).

Yep season three was best of both worlds part two (I'm obsessed).

I couldn't get on with seven on voyager at all, but then I hated what they did to the Borg, which wouldn't help!

I'm a huge fan of Stewart's Picard (and I really want to know is when and on what medium will the new 'picard' series mentioned upthread be available) but blimey, he does on occasion lapse into Great Shakespearean Stage Actor over-emoting. I hope there's not too much of that in future.

Gonna drag us off Trek now if that's ok. I remember Babylon 5 being on around the same time as...DS9? While I could watch Star Trek with my mum after school, Babylon was a little bit over my head and I never really got in to it. I know it's gone down very well in sci-fi history, is it worth a re-watch?

I quite like meandering tv writing in its own way, though it's very out of fashion now. Sometimes the whole ARC mentality makes for too much deferred gratification and not enough storytelling. A whole (or several) season's arc can make the stakes a bit too high (the universe will end etc). It does make things more serious I suppose but I do like a mix. Maybe it's time for a meta tv show where loads of crazy stuff happens every week then it's all back to normal on Monday.

Oh wait that's the Simpsons isn't it.

Sometimes the whole ARC mentality makes for too much deferred gratification and not enough storytelling.

And there'll always be some viewers who don't care for a particular arc and who will drift away. I think TNG got it about right, with several ongoing storylines which they picked up from time to time - Q, the Borg, the Klingons, Data's search for humanity - and standalone episodes which focused on different characters or themes.

I could slap Troi and her talent for stating the bleedin' obvious in most episodes, but I love Lwaxana. I know she's annoying and disruptive, but she's supposed to be, and it's good to see Picard off balance occasionally.

Most annoying characters: Wesley Crusher (although I love him in Big Bang), Kes, Troi in the early episodes (Marina's acting in the later series was exceptional though).

P.S. I have seen Sir Patrick act on stage - he is as amazing as you would expect.

kismet Babylon 5 is fab. Definitely worth a watch! Though I'd advise you to stop at the end of season four. Season four was the natural end of the series, people (including me!) campaigned for a fifth season and honestly it didn't work.

As my username may suggest, I am a big fan of Babylon 5, however it takes a little while to get going, some of the effects are very dated looking (it was a trailblazer in its day), and apart from the last episode I would ignore Season 5 (The very last episode of season 5 was actually filmed as part of season 4, but when they were unexpectedly renewed for another season they held it back as it completes the story).