Ask Slashdot: How To Introduce Someone To Star Trek? 634
First time accepted submitter red$hirt writes "I have a few friends, plus my girlfriend, who I would like to introduce to Star Trek. They do have a general interest to watch it, but I'm not sure what's the best way to start. There are so many series and movies and I would like to pick an order that keeps them interested. My first idea is to start off with a few good TNG episodes, and then let them watch First Contact. What does Slashdot think? I'm sure some of you have introduced others to Star Trek before. How did you do it, and how successful were you? Which particular episodes would you recommend watching for someone who is completely new to all this?"
Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!
I don't know the best way (Score:4, Informative)
Voyager (Score:1, Informative)
Start with Voyager. Seriously. Apart from the odd Q or Barclay episode, it doesn't require nearly as much pre-existing knowledge as any of the other next-gen series apart from the first season of TNG. And the first season of TNG mostly sucked.
Alternatively, you could always start with J.J. Abrams.
Redshirts (Score:5, Informative)
The Inner Light (Score:5, Informative)
Get them to watch The Next Generation episode "The Inner Light." This was by far one of the best hours of television in history. Then maybe "City on the Edge of Forever" from the original series. If those don't hook them, don't bother trying any further, it's a hopeless cause.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Informative)
If she asks, "What is Warp?" Just say, "It lets the ship go faster than light."
That's way too technical; the correct answer is: "That's how the ship goes from one planet to another"
Re:Voyager (Score:4, Informative)
Holy fuckballs, do not start with Voyager. That is terrible advice.
The Voyager characters were bland as fuck, the stories were retarded (outside of a few exceptions, Year of Hell [wikipedia.org] comes to mind) and as a committed Star Trek junkie even I had a hard damn time pushing through many of them. I mean, I've read a lot of the novels and some of the comics and enjoyed most of them more than Voyager, and there is a lot of craptacular novels, believe me.
Re:My advice (Score:5, Informative)
Not everybody likes the same thing.
If you insist upon Star Trek, I'd start with TNG because Gene Roddenberry purposely made each episode a stand-alone story. According to his wife Majel he thought continuing stories alienated the viewers (because they would be lost).
I'd start with some of season 1's better episodes (because they establish character backgrounds), skip the writer's strike-damaged season 2, and then continue onward from there.
Or you could just start with season 3 which I thought was the best of all of them. Almost every episode is a winner.
Re:Voyager (Score:4, Informative)
I don't want to get caught up defending throw-away remarks, but I'd like to point out two things:
1. It was far better than most things on US TV in 1987. But compared to later seasons, it sucked like a gravitational anomaly.
2. The problem was almost entirely budgetary.
Re:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
TOS may be campy, but it's first season is one of Trek's best. Why? Because it was written by lots of science fiction authors, rather than the standard TV crap writer. (NOTE: Season 1 is also best-watched in production number order, not airdate order. The storyline will make more sense then.)
Re:My advice (Score:4, Informative)
A lot of people watch shows with continuing story lines now: Lost, True Blood, Breaking Bad, The Wire I think have proven this point. I recently started going through Deep Space 9 for again on Netflix, and it's incredible! I think it's now my favorite of the modern TV Treks. A broad story arc with several different conflicts, very interesting characters and extremely interesting villains -- someone could probably write a doctoral dissertation on Gul Dukat or Garak. It also features complicated political problems and intrigues, and occasionally Starfleet officers do evil things, without being possessed by a lizard alien. It's exactly the kind of show Roddenberry would never have allowed to be made.
There are also amazing gems like Little Green Men [memory-alpha.org] and Trials and Tribblations [memory-alpha.org].
My issue with starting someone on TNG is that season three is great, but it gets soap-opera'y by season 7, with evil twin brothers, love triangles, and all the actors are so chummy it feels like a community theater show. Also several of the later episodes fall into particle-of-the-week-ism and repeat premises from earlier in the series.
Re:Voyager (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My advice (Score:5, Informative)
There are a few gems in the second season like Elementary, Dear Data and Measure of a Man.
Re:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)