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?"
Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
As someone who introduced my ex to Trek a few years back, and who's still in largely into it despite not being together anymore, I took the simple approach of "show the good, skip the crap".
More specifically, this is what I did:
- Saw Star Trek 2009. Explained beforehand, very briefly, that it was a "darker and edgier reboot" of the original series that for canon purposes took place in an alternate universe. Answer any questions she has ("Why is Spock bleeding green? What is a Romulan? What is Warp?")
- Showed her DS9 and TNG, especially First Contact, since that's one of my favourites, along with Generations.
- Watched some Voyager, some Enterprise, etc. A bit of everything.
And that was it. Again... show the good stuff, skip the crap stuff ("Threshold"? What is that? I am not aware of any episode with that title). It's a show with a huge body of content; there are some gems in there, but there are some poo nuggets too.
Re:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Watch the original series episode that introduces Khan back to back with the movie.
Re:What not to! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What not to! (Score:5, Interesting)
I think DS9 was the best. It was the most emotionally complex Trek series, and showed a future that wasn't so clean and utopian, with people who weren't so predictable. The introspective and rather cynical view it took of the Federation was by itself enough to elevate it above other series.
Re:What not to! (Score:5, Interesting)
>>>Please not Deep Space 9!
Probably not a fan of Babylon 5 either. (Or novels.) I know it sucks when shows make you have to remember plot details over the course of an entire season, but hey, that doesn't mean the show is bad. ;-)
B5 and DS9 still rank up there as my favorite SF shows. Add-in Hercules and Xena and the X-Files and seaQuest (year one) and earth2 and Buffy and Twilight Zone and Outer Limits..... and the 90s was an awesome decade for fantasy/science fiction television. Most of it was produced off-network as individually-funded shows (syndicated). It's a shame the syndication market died out. CW/MyNetworkTV is a poor substitute..... the independent channels died out.
Re:What not to! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Indeed - skip the first Star Trek movie and go directly to Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan! My favorite Star Trek movie by far, so much so that the Khan bellow is my ringtone on my phone.
As for series - start off with TOS, then I'd do ST:Enterprise, then ST:TNG, then Voyager and DS9.
The first film is great, not action oriented but really epic. It's a true science fiction film.
And because of this it's the perfect film for someone that is not a trekkie.
For the other films I'd go ST II, ST IV and ST VI for classic star trek.
Next generation : First contact only, the rest are best forgotten.
Tv series : no questions asked DS9
Re:The Inner Light (Score:4, Interesting)
Series guide (Score:4, Interesting)
My guide to the six Star Trek series is below. If you've ever wanted to watch a few episodes of a series and stop there, pick some from the relevant "best of show" list. They're all independent episodes that require essentially no back story (though caring about the characters always helps), unless otherwise noted. The NxM numbers indicate season and episode.
The Original Series (TOS): quality varied wildly. Season 2 was the best; season 3 was largely weird.
* Best of show: 1x28 The City on the Edge of Forever [memory-alpha.org]; 2x05 Amok Time [memory-alpha.org]; 2x10 Mirror Mirror [memory-alpha.org]; 1x08 Balance of Terror [memory-alpha.org].
* Worst of show: 3x06 Spock's Brain [memory-alpha.org].
The Animated Series (TAS): terrible for adults; decent for kids (or maybe nostalgia if you saw it as a kid). One real season.
* Best of show: 1x02 Yesteryear [memory-alpha.org].
* Worst of show: 1x05 More Tribbles, More Troubles [memory-alpha.org].
* Most surreal moment in all of Star Trek: Midway through 1x04 The Lorelei Signal [memory-alpha.org], Scotty sings Welsh ballads while the Enterprise slowly orbits. The scene drags on for 37 seconds.
The Next Generation (TNG): season 1 is terrible. 2 and 3 are hit-and-miss. 4-7 are quite good, with 6 and 7 being almost universally good.
* Best of show: 5x25 The Inner Light [memory-alpha.org]; 2x16 Q Who? [memory-alpha.org]; 3x26 The Best of Both Worlds [memory-alpha.org]; 6x15 Tapestry [memory-alpha.org]; 3x15 Yesterday's Enterprise [memory-alpha.org]. The series finale, 7x25 All Good Things... [memory-alpha.org], is also quite good and has no "spoilers".
* Worst of show: 2x22 Shades of Grey [memory-alpha.org] (clip show); 2x12 The Royale [memory-alpha.org]; Wesley's part in 1x03 The Naked Now [memory-alpha.org] (also Wesley's most annoying part period).
Deep Space 9 (DS9): season 1 is terrible with the notable exception of Duet. 2 is a marked improvement (for instance, Siddig learns to act). 3 and 4 are sometimes hit-and-miss. Seasons 5-7 are excellent if you like space opera.
* Best of show: 1x19 Duet [memory-alpha.org]; 5x06 Trials and Tribble-ations [memory-alpha.org] (excellent if you've seen the TOS episode!); 4x03 The Visitor [memory-alpha.org]; 4x08 Little Green Men [memory-alpha.org]--these are each essentially independent episodes. 6x19 In The Pale Moonlight [memory-alpha.org], 6x06 Sacrifice of Angels [memory-alpha.org], and the series finale 7x25 What You Leave Behind [memory-alpha.org] are all excellent as well, but they're part of the Dominion War story arc and should really be watched starting from, say, 4x26 Broken Link [memory-alpha.org].
* Worst of show: 5x07 Let He Who Is Without Sin... [memory-alpha.org].
Voyager (VOY): seasons 1 and 2 are terrible. Again it slowly amps up until 6 and 7 are pretty universally good. Lots of good 2-parters. Fun fact: Captain
Re:What not to! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Odd question. (Score:5, Interesting)
Over the past 18 months or so, I've been watching TNG with my (now) almost-14 year old daughter. To start things off we shot through the first 6 films, then switched to TNG. Having recently finished TNG we've flipped back to the films (from Generations onwards) and are about to watch Insurrection. Due to time constraints (she's also chewing her way through Buffy* plus normal evening TV) we only did 'highlights' of TNG - about 10-12 episodes per season picked by me. I tried to ensure that all the key episodes were watched and that each character had enough screen time to develop over the seven seasons (interestingly, Seasons 6 and 7 are on reflection, almost all about Data).
Her stand-out TNG moment so far are the Four Lights scenes in Chain of Command. Her favourite character is unsurprisingly Data**.
Not sure where to go next to be honest, thinking of doing ENT - mainly because I've only seen it through once, so a revisit would be nice for me too.
As far as Star Trek (2009) stands - I really didn't gel with it. Can't put my finger on what was wrong, but it definitely isn't proper Trek for me. :(
* Thankfully she hates Twilight :D :/
** SPOILER ALERT: The end of Nemesis is really going to hit her HARD.
Oh while, I'm at it - on topic for the OP: Almost 13 years ago I went to a house party. On the shelf there was a limited edition numbered box set of the first 5 Trek films on VHS so I asked whose it was. I'm now rapidly approaching my 10 year wedding anniversary with the owner of those tapes, and she is my soulmate, my inner trill, and a woman who loves Sci-Fi even more than I do. :D
Re:Brain and brain! What is brain? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd start with TNG, don't cherry pick episodes because if you do that then they maybe disappointed with the rest. Start at the beginning. I'd say start with the 66 series as well, but for some that can be too big of a leap. With TNG there are recognizable actors, special effects by the end of the series are relatively good even by today's standards.
If they enjoy it, go back and watch the 66 series and continue with DSN/Voyager/Enterprise
Re:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Three possibilities spring to mind:
1) Nostalgia filter - TNG episodes don't look nearly as good as you remember since you're point of reference has changed.
2) While the special effects were much more dated, the writing/plot of TOS was superior, so that the dated components were responsible for less to the total experience.
3) TOS is so dated it crosses the "B-movie threshold" and you simply accept the special effects as stand-ins for what was intended, and/or find them entertaining in their own right (so bad it's good). I know the latter certainly applies to some of my cherished original-series Doctor Who episodes.