I wanted to watch BSG with my lad but I think it will be appreciated more in a couple of years. So Star Trek. I saw TOS as a boy, enjoyed TNG as a teenager, DS9 didn’t really do it for me, really loved Voyager in the 2000s, never seen Enterprise. The films were a bit hit and miss and watched the pilot of the latest. Do I go for nostalgia, woman in charge and cool spaceships or the unknown, that bloke from Quantum Leap and “retro” styling?

that bloke from Quantum Leap

Yes. This one.

Discovery wasn’t too bad.

Both pretty good. I think Enterprise gets the Trekkie vote, but Discovery has its moments.

Tingles. Thanks Drac.

TNG and DS9 really haven’t aged well at all. I liked Discovery, not perfect mind you.

What age lad? Iirc Discovery might be a bit scary, certainly if you feel BSG is too old the Disco might be too.

So to answer the title q, I’d say Voyager.

Early TNG looks very dated but at least it is proper Star Trek (as is most of Voyager so I’d go with that). Everything else, including the recent films, is just blowing aliens up with lasers and is therefore shite.

Need to be TNG.

It sets the context for all the others.

First Contact is the only decent movie.

Enterprise all the way. I could basically watch episode after episode for days on end. But that might have been down to T’Pol.

Discovery is also brilliant. Truly addictive nerdery.

I have never rented a car from Voyager so cannot comment

DS9 didn’t really do it for me

The thing you need to understand with DS9 is,

The first season was dogshit. The second mediocre. But once it hit its stride with the whole Dominion War arc it’s some of the best Trek ever made. It’s just such a very high barrier to entry.

In the interim,

Babylon 5,

Firefly,

Farscape.

All better than Star Trek. Fight me.

Babylon 5 was rendered on an Amiga. Still looked like someone had taken pictures of a laptop screen in an otherwise dark room with an angle poise lamp shining at in.

TNG and DS9 really haven’t aged well at all

Some of the dialogue, design and social conventions in TNG are a bit dated but the storylines remain relevant. They’re really rich in some very important ideas like race, gender, culture clash, personal identity, ethics and the nature of consciousness to name but a few. I’ve already recommended my philosophy class to check them out. Voyager has that too but not quite as well done IMO.

Never got on with Enterprise at all, DS9 I never really bonded with, but I would think you have to start with TNG – I’ve enjoyed rewatching them on Netflix recently.

But, Discovery, even on rewatching, I reckon is my favourite.

All better than Star Trek. Fight me.

the first 2 aren’t even sci-fi, so you can’t really compare them. You could’ve said, the West Wing & Deadwood are better than ST. Irrelevant 😀. Never watched Farscape, although I do remember the muppets, so maybe I’ll have to give it a go one day!

DS9 was THE best Star Trek series,

Took a while to build up but once it got going!

Enterprise was OK, but the the e tube sucked! Had some good memoents

Voyager could’ve been great but Paramount wouldn’t let Ronald D Moore give it the gritty realism it needed, every week the damage from the last adventure magically repaired , so he left & remade it’s as the new BSG

+1 firefly & serenity

Is he too young for the Expanse

Absolutely agree with Cougar. DS9 from the very end of season 2 onwards is the best of all of the Trek shows. I also think B5 is better than all of them.

In order of watchability:

DS9,
Enterprise,
TNG,
Voyager (but only really the two part episodes)
TOS,
Discovery.

I really didn’t get on with Discovery.

the first 2 aren’t even sci-fi, so you can’t really compare them

Eh? How can you say Babylon 5 isn’t sci-fi? It’s got some of the best space combat scenes ever made for starters!

As for Star Trek, although not a Trekkie, I’ve enjoyed all the series (after the original anyway, never got into that). Sure there’s some duff episodes but all the series have some great episodes & arcs.

I’d probably watch in order of release rather than order they are set in (otherwise you go from a 1980’s looking set in TNG to a wizzy state-of-the-art set in Enterprise).

Kimbers’ comment is very apt… The Expanse on Prime is a really, really good series. The book is good and they seem to have made a decent effort at translating it across to the screen. INHO definitely worth a watch.

Eh? How can you say Babylon 5 isn’t sci-fi? It’s got some of the best space combat scenes ever made for starters!

it’s a political drama that happens to be set on a space station. The spaceships going pew pew are a red herring 😀 If it were made in 2000 years time it would be considered a period piece 😂 Sci-fi is something quite different, an exploration of a specific scientific conceit, e.g. Frankenstein (which had a contemporary setting and did not IIRC involve spaceships). I know most people will not appreciate this distinction 😂 (although it’s important IMO cos some earlier Star Trek did it very well)

B5

Voyager

DS9

TNG – maybe skip to the one where Q introduces the Borg so First Contact makes sense

TOS – needs to see Space Seed as that leads to Wrath of Khan Movie

Discovery is a bit flash/bang not quite ST but still enjoyable.

grrr… I was going to bin off my prime membership.

I’ve a lot of fond memories of DS9 and Voyager. In fact, I watch two Voyager episodes every morning in sy fy.

The problem with the later shows was that they went backwards instead of taking place after ds9. Enterprise bored the baps of me. Discovery is completely ridiculous and as far as I’m concerned, it is not star trek. It’s a sci fi with all sorts of modern social messages, focused purely on one character with a star trek sticker put on it.

There are a lot of episodes to get through with any of the 2nd generation Trek (TNG / DSP / Voy)

The way to deal with them is to find an episode guide like this one
TNG Episode guide

Across the course of six or seven seasons there will be a lot of filler episodes you can skip straight past. This is especially true of TNG that was more episodic in nature than DS9 or Voy.

I’d say revisit DS9, it is really ropey at the beginning, as is TNG to be fair, but by the time Worf arrives and Sisko shaves his head it starts to get really good.

Its worth remembering that DS9 was one of the first TV series of any genre to move from an episodic structure to a big story arc, seasons 4-7 are essentially one big story.

I used this guy episode guide when I re-watched it a few years ago:

DS9 episode guide

Overall I put TNG and DS9 on equal footing. DS9 has the better overall story but TNG has the two best characters in Trek: Picard and Data.

If I was to rank the others. I’d probably put Enterprise slightly ahead of Voyager – its aged better and the Xindi war / Temppral War arc at the end is pretty good.

Discovery isn’t proper Trek, its JJ Abrams Trek, its okay Season 2 is better than Season 1 but overall its a bit of a mess, its like each writer had a plot idea and they just used all of them at the same time and almost none of the characters behave like they are in Star Trek. Entertaining enough if you just want the occasional space battle.

Non trek: The Expanse is excellent – takes a few episodes to get going, but Season 2 is some of the best recent Sci Fi I’ve seen. Its also “Hard Sci-Fi” so the is very little in it that’s not based on reasonable science – no warp drive, no shields, no phasers, no / very little gravity which makes it very different to the Trek universe.

BSG is the best there is but it’s a bit more adult in nature.

TL:DR

Watch DS9 but skip most of Season 1 and 2 😉

The first season of Enterprise isn’t the best. but season 2 onward is great.

How old is your lad? Is he old enough to appreciate 7 of 9 ? If not then wait a few years or it would be a waste.

Overall I put TNG and DS9 on equal footing. DS9 has the better overall story but TNG has the two best characters in Trek: Picard and Data.

It also has the worst, Wesley Crusher… aaarrgghhhhh!

Ah, but Beverly Crusher….

Voyager was great once they bumped into the Borg.
DS9 great once Sisko got a beard.

I couldn’t watch the new one, sorry to be offensive but I don’t watch to watch social commentary AKA gay storylines, I want Sci-Fi.

You are joking? Star Trek has ALWAYS been full of social commentary… and normally in a very transparent way. Famous for it. You are from this planet, yes?

it’s a political drama that happens to be set on a space station. The spaceships going pew pew are a red herring 😀 If it were made in 2000 years time it would be considered a period piece 😂

Your last statement is exactly what makes it Much closer to Sci-fi that almost anything except Star Trek. It’s set in a period which explores imagined scientific, societal or cultural advances/progression and seeks to explain those concepts through story telling.

Babylon 5 explains in reasonable detail how we got from WW2, to WW3, to Jump Technology through the Centauri along with several types of technology and why it works, fusion drives, PPGs, artificial gravity, etc. Battlestar is closer to not-being-sci-fi than B5 is.

The original Star Wars Trilogy was most definitely Fantasy as it didn’t need or try to explain anything scientific in it series. Firefly is similar in this regard.

Star trek has had social commentary (female captin, minorities on the bridge etc) but Discovery has gone balls to the wall with it. You’d think it was made by disney.

By the way I’m not anti PC, but the old star trek shows had a formula that worked and embraced it’s flaws. Discovery shows that the best days of star trek are behind it.

I couldn’t watch the new one, sorry to be offensive but I don’t watch to watch social commentary AKA gay storylines, I want Sci-Fi.

sci-fi is social commentary

especially star trek

Im sure many people bitterly opposed the first inter-racial kiss on network TV too

https://www.history.com/news/8-ways-the-original-star-trek-made-history

fwiw I like discovery but it annoys me as (like the new movies) it blows up the original canon

Picard- im balls deep in that already & its not even come out yet!

No love for The Orville then?

The Orville has better story lines than Discovery, when a parody show does better job than a supposedly Star Trek you know there’s something wrong with Discovery.

Only just started delving into Star Trek in the last year but I watched DS9 a while ago and enjoyed it. Watched TNG and Discovery this year and enjoyed them both!

I think I’m easily pleased though as I’ve liked the newer films too! That Picard trailer looks really good… I’ll have to renew my Prime for that.

No love for The Orville then?

Love for The Orville here. It’s great.

Far, far better than the 3 recent Trek films. Which are, as mentioned above, things going boom with a star trek sticker on the front.