Hiya, i wanted to know if there’s a particular order i should watch the star trek series in? I’ve seen the movies and Discovery but i want to get into the original canon. Thanks!
This is a great question, and there’s no one answer to it. If you’ve watched and liked the movies (do you mean the AOS movies, or some combination of the AOS, TOS, and/or TNG movies?), then it seems like you’d probably enjoy going straight into TOS, and then watching them in order of creation (TOS+movies, TNG+movies, DS9, VOY). If you already like the TOS characters, or the AOS versions of them, you’ll probably enjoy TOS. You have to take it with a grain of salt and a $0.25 budget.
If what draws you to AOS and Disco are the effects and technology, you might want to skip over TOS for the time being. I love it, but for me it’s all about the character interaction and the hopeful social messaging in the script. I’ve never really been overly interested in effects or realistic technobabble. You might find going straight from Disco to TOS to be jarring, tech-wise, so TNG might be a better starting point. It was the starting point for a lot of people of my generation (the, uh, next generation?), and it’s also a favourite of mine. I started on TNG, loved it, then watched TOS to catch up on the references and loved it too.
Bear in mind that the TNG pilot isn’t great; after watching it, I was reluctant to watch the rest of the series. Luckily (or unluckily, considering how much time I’ve spent creating Trek content), I persevered. You could start with an episode from season 2, like “Measure of a Man,” to hook you. I wouldn’t start just by watching S2, though, because it’s the one season where they replaced my favourite, Dr. Beverly Crusher, with another character (because the actress had been too outspoken of a feminist at work. Yeah, you also have to take the Trek writers and producers’ rooms with a massive grain of salt sometimes).
There are some guest TOS appearances on TNG, starting in the pilot, that I did not get the full emotional impact from because I watched TNG first. On one hand, I kind of resent that. On the other hand, I feel like each one would have emotionally wrecked me if I’d seen TOS first and already had my love for those characters, so, again, it’s up to you.
DS9 is great for stories featuring a more complicated morality. You could start there, but I feel like it’s better to watch one of the more optimistic series (TOS, TNG), before getting into the nuances of what the Federation really means to the universe. I think it’s a more effective series if you’ve previously only seen the Federation through a largely positive light. (I’m not saying the other series don’t have nuance, but this one is a little darker in general.)
VOY is mostly a self-contained series, but you do lose a bunch of easter eggs if you haven’t seen TOS and TNG. Personally, I found it the least interesting overall of the series, though Captain Janeway is awesome.
Technically ENT comes before TOS in canon, but to be honest, I’ve never seen it due to many of my closest friends telling me that it’s not very good. I’m going to have to watch it eventually because I’m a completionist.
So, my advice would be either to do it in order of series airing, or to start with TNG and go back to TOS. However, I’m only one voice, and I’m speaking through my own experiences! If you’re watching one series, and you’re not enjoying it, skip to another one, and maybe go back later! There are no real rules, and there’s no gatekeeping here!
Whatever you watch, I hope you have a great time catching up with this great set of shows and this community! If you have any more questions, please ask!
