Ask Slashdot: How To Introduce Someone To Star Trek?

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?"

Comments

Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!

[greg_barton]

KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

Re:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!

[cpu6502]

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:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!

[Internetuser1248]

Agree with this, I only recently started watching star trek having run out of other tv shows to watch. I started watching it in chronological order and I just finished tng and am half way through ds9. Out of the three I like tos best as the premise of each episode was a very simple 'what if' thought experiment with a very simple philosophical question. I guess I enjoyed the simplicity. The other two cover more complex issues like family and politics and economics which I think detract from the sci-fi aspect of them and push them more towards the realm of standard drama series and soap opera respectively. It depends what kind of people you are showing it to though. I was surprised how easily I got over the datedness of tos but that might not be so easy for everyone. Don't take it too seriously.

Re:Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!

[hairyfeet]

Actually if they had never seen it "Space Seed" which introduced the character would be a better place to start, to see his fall from power and the lovely wife that Ceti Alpha V would take from Khan would give better context to the movie.

If it were my list I'd probably start with a greatest hits from each series,City on the edge of forever, balance of power, space seed, the conscience of the king, corbomite maneuver,A Taste of Armageddon,Mirror mirror,trouble with tribbles,ultimate computer,day of the dove,Requiem for Methuselah,The Savage Curtain and probably doomsday machine from TOS.

With TNG it gets a little harder as some of these are probably more personal favs than on anybody's top ten but the measure of a man, elementary dear data and ship in a bottle (I always liked Moriarty), best of both worlds I&II, Darmok, Q Who, yesterday's enterprise,inner light,chain of command, all good things.

For DS9, again subjective, Duet,our man bashir, trials and tribbleations,blood oath, Crossover (always liked the mirrorverse),civil defense,through the looking glass (mirrorverse), the adversary,little green men (silly but cute and a good character piece IMHO),return to grace (good Dukat piece), call to arms through sacrifice of angels (6 episode Dominion war arc),Waltz, in the pale moonlight, treachery, faith and the great river (cute and light hearted Ferengi piece),once more into the breach (good Klingon character episode), Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (good dark episode that shows the federation isn't always the good guys), some like what you leave behind but I thought they should have killed Dukat at Waltz and went too far to keep him as a character so that should be enough there.

Sadly Voyager and Enterprise didn't get as many good episodes, i loved the characters of Voyager but the writers were pussies and kept hitting the reset button and thus killing any character development but there were a few, more than Enterprise which seemed to be an excuse for bad speeches and lesbo yay more than anything. From Voyager..heroes and demons,jetrel,prototype, dreadnought (I liked it), death wish (great Q piece), the thaw (truly good, and a great villain),future's end I&II (again I liked it and had some cute bits),year of hell I&II (damned shame they didn't have the balls to stick with the story instead of the reset button),scorpion I&II (good Borg episodes), message in a bottle, living witness (good doc episode), timeless, nothing human (good character piece),counterpoint,bride of chaotica (just a cute episode) , course oblivion (VERY dark but good) warhead, equinox I&II (another dark but good), tinker tenor doctor spy (silly but cute and a good doc ep), life line (another good doc),author author (another good doc), latent image (noticing a pattern with doc getting the good ones?) dark Frontier I&II (Janeway and the Borg Queen which fits in nicely with the final ep) and Endgame.

As for Enterprise...sigh, only the two Mirrorverse are IMHO worth watching, as in every other episode it feels like the writers are passing the idiot ball and most episodes have the captain especially cringe worthy. The movies? Easy, 2-4 although 3 isn't as good as 2 and 4 they fit nicely together and First Contact is decent.

That should give you more than enough decent episodes that if they like it they can always ask to see others. BTW if you hate them make them set through Okana from TNG and Threshhold from Voyager, both so horribly bad they make for good MST3K style fodder.

Redshirts

[CrimsonAvenger]

Just a plug for Scalzi's new book, "Redshirts" - it's only indirectly about Star Trek, but well worth the read if you want to get into Trek....

The Inner Light

[KingSkippus]

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:My advice

[cpu6502]

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:My advice

[DudemanX]

There are a few gems in the second season like Elementary, Dear Data and Measure of a Man.