To commemorate Star Trek Day, I thought we could share our entry points to the franchise. I expect we’ll find the full range of experiences.
Used to watch and record episodes of TOS off TV55 onto VHS to rewatch later. Lots of fun kids will never experience today.
TOS in the early 90s.
Boy, was I disappointed, when I discovered how old it already was 😅.
My parents bought a TOS DVD set. They watched it originally when it was airing.
TOS ‘The Devil in the Dark’ in first run.
I was barely in school, but my slightly older neighbour who’d hooked me on Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, convinced me that Star Trek must be seen.
I quickly caught up during the hiatus reruns, and have seen absolutely all of it in first run since.
Germany, 1992: During a lesson, my music teacher played the theme from “Raumschiff Enterprise” - that’s what TOS is called here - to test his new sound system. 🎼
I wanted to have this track, searched in music and video stores, and the only thing I found was a VHS tape of Star Trek 6. And guess what: this particular music theme was not used in the movie, but the plot and effects captivated me. 🖖
Around the same time, the second season of TNG had its first run in Germany 📺. This series had a similar piece of music 🎶, so I stayed tuned - and lucky me, a few months later there was a rerun of seasons 1 and 2 almost every weekday, followed by the remaining seasons every weekday from summer 1993 until summer 1994. And during that time I also found the Soundtrack with the TOS theme. ✌️
TNG 4x17 - Night Terrors
Still a fave.
I have never really been into Star Trek but that’s mostly because I have never properly introduced myself to it.
My first contact was the 2009 film Star Trek, which upon looking at the rest of the franchise feels so grandiose in the action genre but also had a few great character moments. I enjoyed that one and then the Black Mirror parody episode U.S.S Callister was really good too
Besides that I have seen a few odd scenes and memes but really want to get into the series someday.
Started watching TOS in reruns in the late 70s and 80s.
I was a very lonely teenager in a blue collar, uneducated family when TNG premiered. I watched every episode of the first season alone in the dark on an old B&W tv as they were watching other stuff on the good TV.TNG opened my eyes to a world of possibility, the diversity and wonder of life, leadership, and aspiring to something bigger than my small world.
There was plenty of criticism about the Wesley Crusher character in those early years, but as smart nerdy boy, I was grateful to see his character and how he was treated by the Geordi, Data and others. Gave me hope
Decades later, introducing my kids to TNG has been one of my greatest pleasures in life. They know and love the characters as I do.
My dad watched TOS with me when it first aired, but I was too young to remember it. My first recollection is watching it in syndication. I went on to read my dad’s many books, especially the Star Trek Concordance and the James Blish adaptations.
I was raised a Trekkie, can’t rightly say what my first contact was. My earliest memory of it was me expressing a preference for “the one with Spock” over TNG, the only other option at the time.
TNG was being first aired throughout my childhood and I would catch the odd episode here and there when I got to stay up and watch it with my parents to guide me, as suggested. But I didn’t get into Trek properly until I worked in construction as a labouror, my first job. When there’s no work, there’s daytime TV re-runs. The Space Network, the Canadian version of The Sci-Fi Channel, would run 2 TNGs back to back from 12-2. I got way into it then. I then watched all the series’. Now, every year or two, I’ll just throw on the first episode of TOS and go right until the end of the whole franchise in mostly air date order. I even have a playlist that has all of the overlapling seasons from the 90s to play as one big series, playing each episode by air date/chronological order based on a chronology I found online. Keeps it spicy.
It’s interesting to play by air date. I never considered that, but it would be cool to have to have it rotate between series the way a fan in the 90s would have watched it.
So you use jellyfin to make this playlist?
I use Plex. Jellyfin looks great, I try it every so often to see how it’s progressed, but it’s just not quite polished enough for me to make the switch yet.
I used this as my guide: https://thestartrekchronologyproject.blogspot.com/2009/09/and-now-conclusion.html
Except of course the Enterprise finale, I watch that at the end of enterprise, not in the middle of TNG.
Original series shortly after it went into syndication. The episode I first remember is “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” and it has shaped my view of society greatly.
