Star Trek Journey

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Star Fleet

It took me a bit more than four and a half years, but I have finished part of my journey to watch completed Star Trek TV series (basically the shows of Kirk, Picard, Sisko and Janeway) – though, I made a small detour from my original plan.

Along the way, I stopped writing about each episode that I watched. That took away from the fun of watching the shows. I also skipped the Animated Series. I still have to rewatch the movies (all of which I have previously watched, the movies were my gateway into the Star Trek universe). Oh, and I did not watch the shows in the order that I thought I would. Instead, I watched it in this order:

My favorite of the four series is Deep Space Nine. While serialized television is a normal thing nowadays, it was not back then. It was quite a treat to see the serialized nature of the story told in DS9.

Deep Space Nine

Deep Space Nine

I did not do a full write up of Deep Space Nine like I did with Enterprise and Voyager. But, I did take some notes about it during and after I finished watching the series.

DS9 has one of my favorite characters of Star Trek: Elim Garak, portrayed by the awesome Andrew Robinson. Sisko was a tough, yet compassionate leader. While Pike from Discovery is still my favorite captain, Sisko is not far behind. Of all the vessels in Star Trek, the Defiant is the one I love the most. It is unlike any ship seen in Star Trek. The addition of Worf to the cast late in the series was a brilliant move, on par with the addition of Seven of Nine to Voyager.

DS9’s sixth episode of the fifth season, titled Trials and Tribble-ations was a fantastic piece of fan service! I enjoyed this episode so much with sets that were spot on and the integration of old and new perfectly done. This episode was so much giddy fun.

Other notes I have from DS9:

  • I really loved Nog’s storyline and his character arc through the show.
  • The same can be said for Rom’s character arc. The father and son making their way up the ranks and becoming more than what they could have been was touching and inspiring.
  • Martok was awesome.
  • Nerys was always so self-righteous, which detracted from the show.
  • There were too many Mirror Universe episodes.
  • Damar had a really great arc, going from feeble, to drunk to rebel hero.
  • Section 31 is both fun and annoying.
  • The Bashir character being changed from normal human to genetically enhance human was weird and unnecessary.
  • There are a lot of Battlestar precursors in DS9 like Weyon’s race being clones from clone facilities and also the religious stuff.
  • The Miles and Bashir bromance.
  • The Kira and Odo romance was pure ick.
  • While I liked the Ezri Dax character, it felt unnecessary. They should have left Jadzia’s death alone and not backfilled the character.
  • I loved how Kai Wynn kept getting her due. It was satisfying every time she lost.
  • The ending for the series was a proper ending that was full of emotion and reflection on the series. It gave a proper close to the character arcs. I really enjoyed this show as a whole and it stands as my favorite show of the Star Trek series.

I rated the whole run of Deep Space Nine nine out of ten.

My ratings for each season of Deep Space Nine:

  • Season One: 7
  • Season Two: 7
  • Season Three: 8
  • Season Four: 9
  • Season Five: 7
  • Season Six: 9
  • Season Seven: 10

The Next Generation

Enterprise D

I unfortunately took less notes about The Next Generation, which I finished last night. But, I do have thoughts about the series.

The Next Generation, being the first new Star Trek series to come out after TOS had a rather rough start. The first two seasons were the roughest with the first season being horrible. The first season had a very Star Trek: TOS look, feel, camp and cheesiness to it all. It was as if Roddenberry wanted to remake TOS but with a different crew. I was not a fan of the first season. The second season had a similar look and feel to the first. But, by the time the third season rolled around the show started to find its own voice, tone and look – that eventually set the template going forward as a more sophisticated show than TOS.

I blame the episodic nature of this series for its uneveness. TNG definitely had some high points, but there were quite a lot of low points also. I never felt that TNG reached the heights of DS9. Nor was TNG able to sustain a good run of episodes for long. Overall, TNG was very inconsistent with the quality of its episodes.

The ending to The Next Generation was a fit ending that had just the right emotional wallop that it deserved. It was a touching ending.

Random notes about The Next Generation:

  • I was never a fan of Q and after watching TNG, I’m even less of a fan of Q. He’s just annoying.
  • I am a fan of Diana Muldaur’s Dr. Pulaski. She was a straight shooter and reminded me a lot of Dr. McCoy from TOS.
  • The late romance between Worf and Troi was conveniently forgotten by DS9 and the subsequent movies.
  • Captain Picard is an awesome captain, a true diplomat. And Patrick Stewart was perfect as Picard (even though he was a Englishman portraying a Frenchman).
  • Geordi La Forge was a highly underutilized character – and a lot of times horribly used, especially when it came to women. I like the La Forge character, I just did not like what the writers did to the character. The 13th episode of the sixth season (“Aquiel”) had the La Forge character naively getting a crush based on a Holodeck rendering of a woman. When the real woman arrives on the ship, he proceeds to act unprofessionally to her to the point where he was sexually harassing her. It was embarassing.
  • Holodecks are highly unreliable and liable to get people killed. There were so many episodes with people getting stuck in Holodecks, or Holodeck safties being accidentally disabled, or characters being put into peril because of a Holodeck failure. I am surprised that this thing was allowed be used because of all these safety issues.
  • Data’s poetry is awesome (S06E05 “Schisms”).
  • “Your head is not an artifact!” (S05E26 “Time’s Arrow Part I”)
  • There was that episode with Troi flying and Guinan’s awesome gun. (S04E17 “Night Terrors”).
  • There was Star Trek: Die Hard Edition (S06E18 “Starship Mine”).
  • Immediately followed by Star Trek: Da Vinci Code Edition (S06E19 “The Chase”).
  • Which then led into Star Trek: The Twilight Zone Edition (S06E20 “Frame of Mind”).
  • Wesley Crusher was not as annoying as the internet makes him out to be.

I rated the whole run of The Next Generation seven out of ten.

My ratings for each season of The Next Generation:

  • Season One: 4
  • Season Two: 6
  • Season Three: 7
  • Season Four: 7
  • Season Five: 7
  • Season Six: 7
  • Season Seven: 7

New Star Trek

Discovery

I have been watching Discovery, which like TNG had a rough first season. But, the second season was great and the third was great too. Discovery features my favorite captain of all the Star Trek captains: Captain Pike, portrayed by Anson Mount. Pike was part cowboy like Kirk (now I know where Kirk got his cowboy attitude from) and bigger part leader. I look forward to the new series featuring Anson Mount’s Captain Pike.

I have watched the first season of Lower Decks and of all the Star Trek series, this one has the strongest first season. The writers show their deep knowledge and true love for all things Star Trek in Lower Decks. I need to start watching the second season.

I just started watching Picard and I really enjoyed the first episode.

Can there be too much Star Trek? Nope. I am glad that CBS/Paramount continues to building the Star Trek universe and keeps putting out exciting stories the go where no one has gone before.