Favorite Star Trek Series?

[Duke]

Our local cable provider has recently added a new (to this area, at least) channel called "Heroes and Idols." Every night they consecutively run episodes of all five "Star Trek" live action TV series:

Star Trek (TOS)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Star Trek : Voyager (TSV)
Star Trek: Enterprise (TSE)

There is one night (Sunday?) they even show a couple of the seldom remembered half hour, Saturday morning animated series that featured the voices of the cast of the original series.

I'm curious as to forum members' favorite and least liked "Star Trek" series, and why?

 

[Tia]

Sorry I'm not a Trek fan , I've only ever saw the first original movie not my cup of tea

 

[Debi]

Our local cable provider has recently added a new (to this area, at least) channel called "Heroes and Idols." Every night they consecutively run episodes of all five "Star Trek" live action TV series:

Star Trek (TOS)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Star Trek : Voyager (TSV)
Star Trek: Enterprise (TSE)

There is one night (Sunday?) they even show a couple of the seldom remembered half hour, Saturday morning animated series that featured the voices of the cast of the original series.

I'm curious as to forum members' favorite and least liked "Star Trek" series, and why?

Favorite? TNG. Better scripted and characters were much more developed than on any other of the series. There was a great sense of humor involved in the show as well. The characters got to "play" a bit which added depth. And the storyline of Data looking for his humanity/soul? OMG....the lessons in that one were fabulous.

OK, who of you out there know the one thing that Gene Roddenbery had in the contract that was actually forbidden to be part of a script?

 

[damon]

Our local cable provider has recently added a new (to this area, at least) channel called "Heroes and Idols." Every night they consecutively run episodes of all five "Star Trek" live action TV series:

Star Trek (TOS)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Star Trek : Voyager (TSV)
Star Trek: Enterprise (TSE)

There is one night (Sunday?) they even show a couple of the seldom remembered half hour, Saturday morning animated series that featured the voices of the cast of the original series.

I'm curious as to forum members' favorite and least liked "Star Trek" series, and why?

I enjoy watching each of the star trek series.I get the Heroes and Idols OTA where i live.

 

[Seahunter]

I'm one that is stubborn and doesn't appreciate changing a classic. I have never seen any of the other four series, only the original. I did watch the first movie, but none of the other ones. In my mind they can never better the original thought or idea for the first one, in other words, there is only one first Star Trek for example.

 

[WitchAndShaman]

Though I cut my young teeth on TOS (I was a member of S.T.A.R. San Diego in the 70s), my favorite series was TNG.

I thought TNG struggled in the first year or two but by year three was well organized. Debi’s right that the characters were better developed on TNG as compared certainly to the TOS series. I also like the serial stories and arcs which they introduced into TNG.

I think the writers and producers tried too hard on the later series to install continuity and backstories for the characters in an attempt to capture the magic of TNG but it was never matched. Most but not all of those backstories ended up feeling too forced or contrived.

 

[Duke]

Excluding DS9 which I never watched, TNG was my least favorite of all the TS series. I agree it had the best character development of the various shows, but that's primarily because it ran longer than the other series, giving the characters time to grow into who they became. My problem with TNG was it started taking itself too seriously, got to preachy. To my mind, it was a lot like MASH in that regard.

I know I'm in the minority, but my favorite series was Enterprise, which was a prequel to TOS. I thought they did a good job "back filling" the history of TOS, especially with regard to the evolution of technology. I also really liked how the series dealt with the early, not always cordial relationship between Earth and the Vulcans. I do agree with Wands that some of what Enterprise did was, at times, contrived or forced. The best example of that were the frequent discussions, especially early in the series, on interfering with other cultures. They were not exactly subtle with the evolution of what became known as the "Prime Directive" in TOS.

 

[Paintman]

H & I is great. It's antenna TV in Chicago.

 

[Debi]

I did watch DS9, which actually got preachier than TNG.

As to what Gene would not allow in his scripts? Talk of God. He allowed it as Ancient Aliens and how we screwed things up by violating the Prime Directive and being seen as gods, but otherwise he had it in his contract that no God references would be allowed.

 

[Bob]

Favorite? TNG. Better scripted and characters were much more developed than on any other of the series. There was a great sense of humor involved in the show as well. The characters got to "play" a bit which added depth. And the storyline of Data looking for his humanity/soul? OMG....the lessons in that one were fabulous.

OK, who of you out there know the one thing that Gene Roddenbery had in the contract that was actually forbidden to be part of a script?

Agreed.
Though I still love the original.