(Now there’s a headline primed for a flamewar if I ever saw one… Oh, and OS X is way better than Windows.)
For a long, long time I’ve been quite into the various Star Trek series. I grew up watching The Next Generation and that one will always be the one that I think of most when the words “Star Trek” come up. I mean no offense at all to the Original Series — it’s also very, very good and well ahead of its time — it’s just that TNG is what I grew up watching.
I also enjoyed Voyager, for the most part. It was a bit more on the inconsistent side of things but it had some very well-told stories. Seeing Janeway and Paris on the holodeck in some campy, black-and-white, 1950s space serial was a hoot! And the Doctor was quite simply one of the best. characters. ever.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen enough of Enterprise to be able to cast my judgement on that series. The final episode, however, was… umm… *really* badly done. Sorry to all of those who undoubtably worked so hard on the show. But fitting in an episode of Enterprise with an episode of TNG that really had no room for such a thing is, well, just odd. And the fact that the whole episode built up to this tremendous speech that Captain Archer was to give for the founding of the Federation, but then never actually hearing him give the speech was very disappointing.
But I’ve heard that the series itself was pretty good, especially in the last couple of years. So I’ll have to check it out one of these days.
But, if I look objectively at the entire franchise of television shows, there is one that I think stands out in terms of storytelling, character, and a plot truly worthy of the galactic stage.
That is Deep Space Nine. This past week I once again watched the final, 10 hours of the series. They are interconnected episodes that show the conclusion of the Dominion War and are stuffed full of great writing, acting, effects… well, everything that I can think of that a sci-fi series should have is in that final arc. The concluding episode wraps things up very nicely and has several character moments that could be actual tear-jerkers.
The rest of the series has many more brilliant episodes. The 7th season episode, “The Siege of AR-558” is outstanding and hard to watch all at the same time. “Trials and Tribble-ations” is an incredibly well-done crossover episode with the Original Series. Many episodes are full of laugh-out-loud moments. The acting (as is the case, actually, with all of the Star Trek series) is top-notch. The characters are well written and experiences from past episodes carry over into subsequent episodes. And there are so many secondary characters that you really get the sense that the space station is a full, vibrant, and diverse community.
And did I mention that the characters are so well written?
Even though it (like all television shows) has the odd clinker in the mix, DS9 is just an overall well-done series. Objectively, though I still have a soft place in my heart for TNG, DS9 is far and away the best of the series.
Ok… flame war commence!
(Betcha didn’t think that would come from a priest’s blog?)
Well, well, well, Saskapriest… you have begun a debate for the ages.
TOS was a great series… as a once a week thing. The characters are classic (and I love J.J. Abrams take on them in the new movie), but I got the second and third seasons on DVD, and realized that it is cool in a 1960’s Batman kind of way.
TNG is certainly my favorite. It is the only series I watched from start to finish, and I also remember watching it every day after school at 5pm. The characters were great, the acting great (particularly Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart), and I loved the stories told. The finale remains one of my favorite TV episodes ever.
DS9 & Voyager were both good, but I never had the same devotion to them as I did TNG. I watched them religiously in the beginning, but then got into my faith, and started missing episodes for youth group events. I missed the entire dominion war on DS9 and how 7 of 9 got on Voyager because by then I went to Bible School. It is hard to pass judgement on their work as a whole, but I would put up TNG over them based on what I have seen and the way it captured my imagination.
On the advice of another Star Trek nerd, Bob Rice, I picked up a couple seasons of Enterprise (knowing that the finale has no place with the rest of the series.) I am partway through season 2 and so far I am enjoying it almost as much as TNG. Scott Bakula makes a great captain in the style of Kirk, the doctor is an enjoyable character, and it is especially fun watching them start to figure out things we take for granted in other series (prime directive, the transporter, etc) and it seems extremely well written.
So in answer to your original question, my vote is for TNG, but that’s because it wouldn’t be fair to vote for anything else.
True enough! TNG is definitely a great series, and “All Good Things…” (series finale) was one of the best episodes of television ever, Star Trek or not. Unfortunately, I find that a big chunk of the first two seasons of TNG were just not that good. (To be fair, part of that was supposedly due to a major Hollywood writers’ strike in 1988.) But from season 3 onward it got really good – “The Best of Both Worlds” is a fantastic cliffhanger!
But overall, as a series, I still prefer DS9. Though if any other Star Trek series is on I certainly won’t object to watching it!
I do have the DVD sets of TNG, DS9, and Voyager so I’ve watched them all pretty extensively. I’ll definitely have to check out Enterprise one of these days…….
And apparently CBS has re-done a number of the TOS episodes with modern visual effects. I wonder if I’d find that cool to see or jarring since I expect to see the 1960s model shots. Hmm…
(+10 Cool nickname! Now it is my intention to sit down and play video games for several hours.)
I was re-watching the updated original series DVD’s. They aren’t bad… but the show itself is pretty cheesy at times. I think Kirk et al really hit their stride in Star Trek II, and “The Final Frontier” notwithstanding (Scotty’s “I know this ship like the back of my hand” was a great Trek moment), made a whole bunch of great movies.
Like I said, it is hard to pass judgement on DS9 and Voyager as a whole since I missed the latter half of both (I have never seen either finale) – I will hold to TNG as being the best of the bunch for recreating the Trek Universe the other two exist in. Introducing antagonistic characters like Q, the Borg, Lore, and Sela made for some great shows and cliffhangers in latter seasons… The Best of Both Worlds being one of them, and the time traveling one with Mark Twain being another one.
…perhaps once I an through Enterprise, we can loan one another some seasons so I can catch the end of the two series’ I never did. After all, we only work on the weekends, right? ;)
I only really watched TNG too, so it’s hard to vote. But I agree wholeheartedly: “+10 Cool nickname!”
I was so disappointed that my VCR messed up the recording of “All Good Things.” And I clearly remember watching part 2 of “The Best of Both Worlds” and shouting aloud in awe as the deflector dish fired its beam at the Borg. I probably worried my mother in the other room.
So, my vote is for TNG too, but I haven’t seen the others much, so it’s not much of a vote…
So… in other words, I need to bring in my season 7 of TNG when I come to the city next week so we can watch “All Good Things…”? Alrighty then! Can’t nobody say Strong Bad never did nothing for the peoples.
And we just might need to do some season/DVD swapping, Mikedor…
I veto you bringing that show into my house next week
Oh, what a good topic. I might even be able to out do Darryl in the geekiness factor on this one. And I will be inclined to agree with him.
TNG by far established the baseline which all future Trek series would be judged. I have to agree that “The Best of Both Worlds” and “All Good Things…” are among the best Trek episodes ever. Let us not forget “Chain of Command” and the dumbfounding scene where Jelico takes command of the Enterprise or Picard asserting at the end that, “There are FOUR lights.”
DS9 has the unique distinction of being the first series that did not involved Gene Roddenberry, for better or ill. I believe that Roddenberry established a firm enough foundation that would prevent the house from collapsing no matter who took the helm (although Enterprise came close, IMHO). So DS9 was able to go in new directions where Roddenberry didn’t care to go. DS9 is also much darker, and the humans of the 24th century are perhaps a little less, perfect than we would be led to believe in TNG. Religion also plays a prominent role in Trek series for the first time, with the Prophets and the Bajoran. There is also the war the Federation is involved in with the Dominion. Perhaps DS9 has appeal because it is closer to our lived experience than TNG. However, one thing that annoyed me about DS9 was that is tried to make Sisko out as one of the best Captains ever. It was funny how Worf was in awe of Picard when on a TNG show and Sisko when on DS9, and then the movies made it even more interesting. I have to give Picard my vote. Excluding the movies I would have to say DS9 overall surpassed TNG, but when you include the moves, nothing can touch TNG.
Don’t get me stated on Voyager and Enterprise.