I am 30 a year old nerd yet I've never seen Star Trek (TV series or the movies). What's the best way to watch it?

Watch the original series and/or the Next Generation. Don’t bother with the movies until/unless you become a fan, as they’re not relevant to anything in the TV series, but you do need the series to understand the movies.

Skip season 2 of TNG. Nothing remotely interesting happens, and it’s one of the worst seasons of the 43 years of Trek history.

Move on to DS9 if you enjoyed TNG.

Move on to Voyager and Enterprise if and only if you became such an incredible fan that you just HAVE to see everything with the words “Star Trek” in it. They are otherwise completely skippable.

As a kid, Voyager was the first one I watched weekly with new episodes.

But yeah, TNG/DS9 was the shit.

There is no #1 best way to watch it. Here’s my thoughts.

I did not watch the original series with Shatner, I have a hard time watching old crappy TV so I’ll go back and watch it later on in life sometime.

I have not yet watched The Next Generation in sequential order. There’s just so many episodes, and I’ve watched a mixture of them on regular broadcast TV such that I would have to watch it all in order to ensure I had seen them all. TNG is my favorite of them by far, even though I haven’t seen them all.

Deep Space Nine needs to be watched in order. I personally loved this series even though many others did not. I enjoyed the similarities to our society and the developing plot over the seasons. In my opinion DS9 is most like Babylon 5, so if you enjoyed B5, perhaps you’ll enjoy DS9.

Voyager…. well again IMO it’s the worst written series of them all. But I still enjoyed watching it, even if I spent half the episode criticizing Janeway’s choice of action.

Enterprise is the last series produced but the first one chronologically. I absolutely loved this series. To me, it’s everything that Star Trek represents. The only problem in watching it first is that it has the best special effects, thus watching anything else (save the movies) will look pretty corny.

The movies are to me icing on the cake. And half of them are god awful, on par with Voyager’s writing.

Thus my recommendation to you is to start with The Next Generation and work your way out from there. I do NOT recommend watching DS9 without having watched TNG because of the reoccuring characters (you’ll feel more of a connection with them after watching them in TNG). Similarly, Voyager should be left till the end. You could also start with Enterprise then go on to TNG if you want some immediate gratification (such as if you only got into Star Trek via the new movie).

Good luck, have fun! It’s a great world.

Shatner is fail.

Ten bucks says someone fights me on this.

With the volume turned down and your eyes closed.

I disagree with @MrItty I think you can watch the movies without having watched the original show. There’s some history you’ll be missing, but nothing that will prevent you from enjoying the movies.
I’ve watched all of the shows and own all of the movies. Personally, I did not like the first Star Trek movie all that much and the one with Spock’s brother was kind of stinky.
Conversely, you can watch the new movie without any history, enjoy it and wait for the next installment.

@Dorkgirl You are not alone in your opinion. 1 and 5 are widely regarded as the worst ST movies, by far.

I think the problem with watching the movies without having the foundation of the episodes is that the movies presume you already know all these characters. They spend basically no time whatsoever establishing personalities or relationships. You are expected to know about Spock’s half-human nature and what it means for him, about Data’s struggle understanding emotions, about McCoy & Spock’s love-hate relationship, etc. I don’t think you get any of that from the movies.

on a holodeck of course…duh

While the original series was some seriously cheesy crap, if you consider the historical context, it was amazing for it’s time. The message of tolerance during the cold war, the first interracial kiss ever televised…I have to give kudos for what Rodenberry was trying to do.

I may be the only one who only likes the original TV show and original cast in the movies.

@MrItty Yes—watching from the beginning helps to understand the history and relationships, but I don’t think it’s required. Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Trek, but if you want to jump in, I say go for it no matter your starting point.
@GAMBIT—I’m a lover of the original and the original cast in the movies, too!

@Dorkgirl – Cool

@syz – yes, and cell phones, desktop computers and stun guns.

@asmonet – his oh-so-classy acting style was what made it funny. Plus, I respect his ability to laugh at himself now (ie. “Denny Crane”)

You can’t call yourself a nerd if you haven’t seen Star Trek.

You patently not a nerd. Nerdiness is based around such things. You must be an impostor nerd.

@zephyr826 You should see a movie that he was in called “Free Enterprise”. It was a spoof where he plays himself as a total putz.

On the original Star Trek, you kinda had to be there to get it. Looking back now, you can’t just shed all the knowledge and experience we have gained since those “good old days”. As a young woman, I thought William Shatner was good looking and fun to watch. I never have been the critical type when it comes to acting, so I didn’t even know he was a bad actor, until I saw so many other people talking about it.

I was one of the original Trekkie’s and never got over it.

The original series actually spoke to deeper issues as @syz mentioned. But from what I’ve heard, this may be the best Star Trek movie ever, so as per the big screen, you haven’t missed much.

Shatner was hands down the worst bad actor ever. He took that over emoting straight to the bank. Check out his take on Elton John’s Rocket Man-funniest shit ever.
It’s hard to believe he was actually serious here

My mother used to comment about Shatner’s acting: “He has two expressions – front and back”.

He is entertaining in Boston Legal.

I disagree with @MrItty

I love Enterprise and Voyager. Many do.
Depends on your taste I suppose.
I actually didn’t start watching the Original until a couple years ago and started with Enterprise. That worked for me.

@syz GA

GO WATCH THE MOVIE.

I LIKE KIRK NOW.

WTF.

With your eyes. How else could you watch it?

@asmonet – I know I know and I’m afraid too. I watched the movie yesterday and came out thinking, “you know maybe it’s time to watch TOS…” and that scared me.

TOS: Better than the rest.

VOY: Makes me wonder why…

@dynamicduo: Have you seen it yet?!

I watched Enterprise first and loved it, followed by DS9 and then voyager! Loved them all! To be quite honest, i wont watch the original in its entirety just because i dont find it as interesting and really the special effects and acting by some of the cast is horrid! I will watch TNG next, I’m excited! If i were you, I’d watch the movies first. Get warmed up! Maybe it will entice you to either rent or buy the other shows. Because we all know those suckers aren’t cheap!

If you are that big a nerd, why not buy a Star Trek clothing outfit and watch the show in your living room whilst wearing it? You could keep a box of tissues beside you for when you get really excited.