Grading Star Trek - Where it was, what it is, where its going, opinions!

I started out watching TNG and remember as a kid being in awe at it all and not quite understanding everything as well as asking lots of questions. Then DS9 came along and it took a little while to get used to at first but I was enjoying it too and think it is still very relevant today. It was one of the first shows on TV too have a continues storyline too.

I started watching The Original Series in between that and love it.

I love all The Original Series movies and the TNG ones too. I think the JJ Movies were only made to get a quick buck and it was very short sighted of Paramount and I rate ''Into Darkness'' as the worst and most unoriginal Trek movie ever. Its a shame as it could have been brilliant. I do not mind Star Trek Beyond and think the movies were starting to go in the right direction with it but think it looks like its going to be some time now before we see more Star Trek on the silver screen.

When Voyager came along I enjoyed that too but there is no doubt some of the stories were not great and the acting was not up to the standard of DS9 but I still enjoyed being out in another part of the Galaxy with no idea of what kind of aliens the crew would encounter next. The ending was a bit of a letdown but not nearly as bad as poor Enterprise. I do think Enterprise has some great episodes but have said before that the acting could have been better instead of being so dull namely I never liked how Archer was portrayed. We get a version of the Archer we should have got in some season 4 episodes. I did think it was a mistake at the time do to go back in time instead of forward but I think it has aged well and prefer the look of the NX Enterprise to most of the ships in Discovery. I do think the Discovery could grow on me do if they stop making up silly new thinks like the pods they had in the season 2 first episode.


I did not like most of the first season of Discovery and find most of it unwatchable a second time except for the mirror universe episodes. I did not like the Taller of Voq storylines or characters at all. I did and do not like the Spore drive. I did like the design of Discovery either and thought a show on the Schnzou would have been much better. I did like it a bit better but not where the bridge was on it. Some of the ships looked ok and some I do not like. The fake Klingons done nothing for me and are hard to watch. There ships are terrible too nothing like any classic Klingon ships. I would give the whole of season one 4 maybe 5 stars out of 10.

The second season so far seems better. I was not really keen on the first episode but the second one was a lot better and I am hopeful it might yet turn into a good show maybe even a Star Trek show.

I think I'm unusual in that I got into Trek by watching it in chronological order, ie I watched TOS first, when I was a kid in the 90s.

Then TNG, then DS9, and Voyager (and the films as they came out).

I can't put my finger on what was similar about TOS and TNG but for two such different shows there is a certain, hard-to-define "feeling" or tone that permeates both series'. Perhaps it was the influence of Rodenberry, who knows, but for me that feeling is what makes a show "Star Trek".

DS9 was massively underrated in my opinion and while taking things in a very different direction, it still felt like Trek to me.

I regularly watch episodes from TOS/TNG/DS9 nowadays, still love them.

For me Voyager is when it started to go tits-up. I don't think I have ever rewatched a single one after the first viewing.

Enterprise was a disaster. I lasted two years I think before chucking it.

I've said this before but for me, personally, the JJ movies and Discovery don't really exist (similar to the Star Wars prequels). I tried them but whatever the indefinable thing that makes a show or a film "Star Trek" is just not there.

Personally, I think the best thing to come out for years has been Star Trek Continues.

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Which brings us on to Discovery - another prequel? already with the Enterprise and soon to be Spock? Mish-mash of a plot in Season 1? Magic mushroom drive? - well, that last one is at least innovative even if it is ridiculous
I do think they have been genuinely innovative with its production values, visual impact and multi-ep stories. I think time will tell if it is any good or not.

Can't even credit them with the Spore Drive by all accounts as the lawsuit against them claims (ripped it and a lot of the key characters from a indie game called Tardigrades). The multi-ep stories DS9 did before them so they can't even claim that as new.

But I digress/will come back to that later...

I can't actually remember if I watched TNG or TOS first (but it was around the same time) and agree completely that it's in S3 that TNG comes into it's own. TOS had some great episodes in all seasons (Mirror, Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Balance of Terror to name a few), but both were great shows.. hopeful, optimistic and generally a great hour of entertainment every week.

DS9 (after another ropey first season aside from the pilot and the 3-part Bajoran coup episodes) grabbed me with the introduction of the Dominion (when the Jem Hadar destroy the Odyssey it's like "we aren't screwing around here!") and Gul Dukat is probably the best Trek villain ever and the fact that pretty much all the secondary cast had fleshed-out characters was a great achievement IMO.

Voyager I didn't mind to be honest... again, it wasn't great but there were good early episodes (the 2-parter where they go back to 90s San Fran for example). The introduction of Seven and (some of) the Borg stories is where it started to come into its own (the 2-parter backstory on Seven's parents for example). I didn't mind the finalé except that they should have had the beginning at the end

Enterprise I mostly passed on. The Temporal Cold War held promise but I don't think they knew what to do with it so it limped along. We did get a decent Borg episode, and the Xindi arc in S3 had its moments, as did S4 but overall a very poor end to the run of regular Trek on TV (I won't even mention the abomination that was the finalé)

Alongside that we had the original TOS movies (It's a toss as to whether I prefer WoK or TSFS) but the TNG run wasn't great and just got worse (FC aside).

Then we got Wars Trek, AKA the JJ movies. Now to be fair, on repeat viewing the first wasn't actually too bad in some ways, but the other 2 were just awful.

Which brings us back to Discovery. Not having learned from ENT, we're back in prequel land again with a largely unlikable or anonymous cast (Lorca aside - don't rate Michelle Yeoh at all folks!), massive disconnect between what came before (production wise) and what Discovery introduced, and like the JJ movies, again too reliant on 'splosions and expensive CGI to carry each show.
S2 with Pike is off to a better start, but it remains to be seen if it'll be enough (several on YouTube seems to think that it's already been cancelled).

Then we have the Orville (because it's often compared to Trek after all) and yes, it's the spiritual successor to TNG/VOY in my opinion. As it's progressed they've toned down the stupid jokes and focused more on the story and it's been a significant improvement to what was already a much more engaging show (IMO) than Discovery. Put it this way... Friday is when I watch both and I always look forward to this more than "official" Trek.

I'm not at all interested in a comedy animated show, a Georgiou spin-off, and the Picard series worries me given the tone and approach to the more recent films/TV. I think if they screw that one up the backlash will be worse than anything so far. Picard is iconic (at least as much as Kirk IMO) and probably the Captain that most current fans grew up with. If they reboot him as they have with Kirk and co, and Spock v3 in Discovery, it could spell the end of Trek for another decade or so.