I’ve been wanting to get into Star Trek, but I’m not sure the best place to start. I’m sure there’s a wide range of opinions.
Some shows ‘get good after season 1’. I’m a little worried that I’ll end up picking a star trek show with a weak start and then dropping it before the parts people actually like. I vaguely remember reading these sort of comments about TNG.
It’s difficult to recommend without knowing your preferences. If you want to see everything and aren’t picky, I’d watch the shows in release order. Be aware that the original series hasn’t aged perfectly, in my opinion.
If you’d like a show that has a bit of everything in decent quality, (action, drama, comedy, science, philosophy, etc.) I’d recommend The Next Generation. In my opinion, the first season is awful, but the show gets exponentially better starting in the second season.
If you are more interested in characters and drama, then you might like to start with Deep Space Nine. This is one of the only Trek shows that has a strong first season. My only warning would be that it’s a bit of a long show that might drag for some people by the end, though it has a solid conclusion.
Huh, I absolutely hated season one of DS9. I nearly cried when I found out there were six more seasons to go after trudging through S1 (I was on a mission to watch all of Star Trek, having watched a patchwork of episodes–mostly STNG-as a kid). Then somewhere around S3? it started getting much better, and by the end of the series it was my favorite of the “classic” Star Trek series. But season one… I thought the plot, dialogue, and acting were all pretty bad. Maybe I need to go back and give it a rewatch and see if my opinion has changed at all.