The parade of Weyouns ALWAYS provided something interesting. Jeffrey Combs has some immense screen presence no matter what he is playing. I remember he once played Brunt and Weyoun on the same episode. I barely caught it the first time through, but I laughed the second time.
Nothing topped seeing TOS during the first run. It is called the O for a reason…
A lot of people really like DS9, but it never really did it for me.
The best of the best are from TOS. I think TNG had a better percentage of really interesting stuff, although the episode where they all turn into animals was a series low. “Captain I believe that you are turning into some kind of pygmy marmoset.”
Omigodturnthatcheesyshitoff?
Had to go with TOS because I watched it as a kid. We used to run home just before it came on and watch it in rapt silence. Yeah, it was back in the days when kids played outside. Then the next day, we’d act out the previous episode. The best thing was when they started marketing those disk flinging “tracer” guns. The green disks were stun, the yellow were kill and the pink/red were disintegrate.
::sigh::
BTW, I’d pay a lot for one of those guns and a crapload of ammo.
I’d mostly agree with that, although Season 5 of B5 is easily as bad as Star Trek at its worst. I watched Seasons 2-4 in about two weeks’ time, and I have yet to make it halfway through Season 5. Deadly awful stuff.
I voted TNG, because I’m too young to think TOS is anything but ridiculous (although I like most of the movies, and Captain Kirk is still the best captain), Voyager and Enterprise sucked, and I’ve never seen DS9. TNG was really cheesy and preachy at times, but it also had some amazing episodes mixed in there. Inner Light and Darmok are some of the finest TV sci-fi ever penned, IMO.
I grew up in the era of Mego toys for TOS. A buddy of mine had the bridge set. The transporter rocked socks.
The thing about DS9 is that although in some respects it was the darkest ST series, it was also the most humourous. The Doctor was amusing, Quark’s brother was good fun, that alien that was always in the bar had some good moments and so on.
The other series typically relied on the kind of humour that they used to take the piss out of at the end of Police Squad! - someone says something witty or Data misunderstands human nature and we all laugh along with the rest of the crew; aaaaand roll credits.
And, of course, DS9 had the episode in which some of the crew go back in time to the Enterprise during Kirk’s era - easily one of my favourite episodes of any program, ever, and a far more witty and on the nose parody of Star Trek - both old and new - than virtually any skit on any comedy.
It’s worth watching just for the moment where the fight kicks off in the bar and the DS9 crew realises that the swarthy looking men trading punches with the TOS Enterprise crew are Klingons; they look questioningly at Worf and he simply says ‘it was a long time ago; we don’t like to talk about it’. Fantastic stuff.
Babylon 5 season 1 is underrated. Not great, but much better than the terrible season 5.
Obviously The Inner Light is the best ST episode ever. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or possibly soulless. Dude, he remembers how to play that song! Bah-da-ba-da-ba-ba… I’m tearing up right now. That’s right up there with the episode of Futurama with the dog for me.
There plenty of other pretty interesting ones. The two different episodes where Riker gets caught in false realities, the episode with the fake Picard, the one where Geordi builds an elaborate reconstruction of a crime scene with the holodeck, the one where Q offers Picard the chance to reshape his life, all the Borg ones… It’s like maybe 30% worth watching which is pretty impressive for a syndicated science fiction show that went off the air 12 years ago. And also, now I feel old again.
Anyway, DS9 had more than it’s share of terrible, terrible episodes. Anything set on Bajor or involving mostly Bajoran problems was unwatchable, especially the religious shit.
Sorry, but thumbs-down on any episode where Geordi spends more than five minutes talking to a computer (this includes the holodeck… and Data).
My favorite part of DS9 was Renee Auberjonois. I think he’s a fantastic actor.
An interesting ST connection to one of my current favorite shows: Auberjonois and Shatner, both ST alums, on Boston Legal.
You left off the animated series. There was some pretty good sci-fi writing for that show.
Check Auberjonois out in his finest videogame role, Janos Audron in the Legacy of Kain series.
Even the bad episodes of TNG don’t really bother me that much. When they were on originally, I remember liking the show because none of the episodes ever really bored me. Even if the plot wasn’t very good, I liked the characters and that was pretty much enough for me. It’s harder to watch the bad stuff now, but I think my view of the show is irrevocably tinted by nostalgia. Sort of like TOS with people who grew up watching that, I guess.
I’ve been saying for years that someone should re-animate that series.
They had original writers and actors making it. Now they just need effects to match.
Somebody call Herbert West: Re-Animator!
Just to keep this dumb comment on-topic: Jeffrey Combs did act in numerous episodes of Trek, most notably as Weyoun in DS9 (which appears to have fallen behind in the polling–get out and vote, Sisko lovers!).
Andrew you know, that would be a great idea.
they are some of the best written ST epsiodes, but they are so damn painful to watch.
TNG FTW. pound for pound , there are more good/great TNG episodes than DS9 or TOS. Going for the quanity vote. I enjoyed Ds9 the first two times through, I just cant watch it anymore. i just never liked any of them very much. And even wehn it got good, I still wanted to throw Odo in an airlock and press the button.
Did you watch it first run??? Hindsight after 40 years of improved Special Effects and huge budgets is 20-20. It was a true TV original in what was still TV’s infancy,shoot, it was even in color!!!:)
There is one guy at work that says that Voyager was his favorite series. Coupled with the one vote here, that makes 2 people. If whoever voted for Voyager wants to speak up, I’ll pass the contact info on, and you can start the fan club.
coughEncounter at Farpointcoughcough*
I didn’t feel the need to vote since I didn’t think any sane person would vote for aything but DS9.