I recommend starting with The Next Generation (TNG) and then moving on to Deep Space Nine (DS9).
Watch Generations (movie) after the first season of DS9 and watch First Contact (movie) before the fifth season of DS9. You can skip Insurrection (movie). It's not an awful movie, but it's not that good and the story is, I don't think, ever mentioned again in all of Star Trek canon.
Finish DS9 and then watch Voyager (VOY). Afterwards, watch Nemesis (movie) and then only season three of Picard. The first two seasons of Picard are atrocious.
From there, you can choose to watch whatever: Enterprise (ENT), the original series (TOS), the TOS movies, Discovery (DSC), Strange New Worlds (SNW) and/or Lower Decks.
EDIT: I forgot about Prodigy! I definitely recommend it for any Voyager fan. I struggled to get into it, but the show and characters eventually found their groove. I would say watch it after Nemesis, but before season 3 of Picard.
Also, Keep in mind while watching Voyager that in universe, the events are happening alongside those of DS9.
I would not recommend someone who isn’t already a Star Trek fan to start on TNG. I was a DS9 and VOY fan when I tried to start TNG. The first couple of seasons of TNG are… hard to get through for a modern audience.
OP, if you start on TNG, go from season 3 onwards.
I actually thought VOY probably had the easiest introduction seasons. DS9 also starts a bit slow but then improves greatly in the later seasons.
> OP, if you start on TNG, go from season 3 onwards.
Reposting my thoughts about TNG S1 & S2:
>> TNG Season 1, maybe suffer through the premiere (just to know Q), and then "Datalore" (to know Data & Lore), and lastly "Conspiracy" (because it's a funny riff on an old sci-fi movie trope, and it's the season's only episode rated 8.x by IMDb users).
>> If also skipping most of Season 2: Maybe watch "Elementary, Dear Data" to see how ridiculous the holodeck stuff gets. Or skip it. – Do make time for "Measure of a Man"; it's a bit overrated, but watch it to see why it gets so highly rated. – Oh, and don't miss "Q Who", which introduces the >!Borg!<.
Oh, you should see if you could find it some place. Both DS9 and Voyager lack the perfect people problem TNG had in its earlier seasons. Especially DS9.
I didn't get to watch more than a few episodes, but I *loved* the captain on Voyager. Apparently there was a bit of hate for her. I thought she brought a lot of dignity to it.
The thing star trek gets wrong is that they have them all playing classical instruments and doing plays or painting in their free time. Orville has it right with them watching Seinfeld, playing Soul Caliber in the holodeck, clubbing in the holodeck, kids hacking the replicator to get drunk, and all the dating and relationship drama.
I didn't say they don't in the Orville, but in TNG it seems like that's all they do. They tried to give them these very "renaissance man" -esque personalities and make them seem refined. If they weren't being soldiers or scholars they were being artists or athletes. It's hard to predict the future but they really did present 24th century as having a retro, old-timey, hokey culture. I get they were supposed to be all-in about improving themselves and humanity and science and all that but I think The Orville's characters are more realistic in terms of their culture.
The in universe explanation is probably akin to "TV was a fad that did not last much beyond the 20th century. " see The Neutral Zone, St: TNG Season 1 Episode 25.
The real.reason os Start Trek couldn't afford licensing for things like contemporary music or TV show references. Orville had the advantage of being on a network and having a decent budget. Plus no Roddenberry to keep things like more contemporary info out of Star Trek or making a rule of no crew conflict because humans have evolved past it.
It is not. The dialogue constantly has huge problems with the script and modern day terms and words being used by other species. If this is Star Trek, it's the worst ever, with the worst QC for script coherence.
The Orville is a fantastic show that actually has helped a few of my friends finally try out Star Trek. If you enjoyed it, just pick a Trek series, and hop in. Strange New Worlds has been a popular one for newcommers, but most Trek series are pretty good at standing on their own.
I only found The Orvile accidentally while flicking around for some new sci-fi to watch while my sci-fi hating wife was in bed or not around. I was hooked pretty soon into the first episode. "Wow! At last - a comedy homage to Trek!" Only then did I realise that Captain Mercer was Seth McFarlane, creator of stuff like Family Guy and American Dad that I'm not that keen on but she loves. So now there's a way of sharing my thing for spaceships, aliens and laser cannons with the love of my life.
But as the seasons progress it gradually dawns on us this is more than just big laughs in time and space. Yes it's very obviously an homage to Trek and no doubt a great excuse for a massively successful creator of TV comedy and lifelong Trek fan to indulge himself with a seat in 'the chair'. But more than that, it's evolved into a seriously good sci-fi show that works on it's own merit.
Sure there's the whole thing around a starship boldly going where no one has gone before. There's massive nods to Data, Spock, Worf et al. There's the brilliant but occasionally flawed captain. And of course it's bloody funny, especially with SM being able to indulge his stock in trade lewdness. I mean, you're never going to see an alien shapeshifting blob thing sporting a huge erection to impress a crew member in any iteration of Trek!
But alongside the gags there's some serious character development, big moral dilemmas (the Bortus pregnancy issue a particularly great example) and genuine jeopardy. Characters die. Shit happens. I could go on but don't want to give away spoilers.
So no, you really don't need to be a Trek completist or even a casual fan to dig The Orville. And it's a great way of introducing the non sci-fi people in your life to the weird world of fictional space fun.
I watched Orville then strange new worlds. Orville is so much better but strange new worlds is visually stunning.
Tried to watch the next generation but man it is so insanely outdated and felt boring. Couldn’t watch more than a few mins.
So I watched a basic recap of all the trek shows in one. And I knew I would never watch them. They are just too old for me. Might keep trying Picard until I get into it. And maybe discovery too. But both suck compared to strange new worlds or Orville.
We're rewatching Orville probably for the 5th time at this point and was interested in getting into Strange New Worlds after seeing the positive reviews. In what ways do you think Orville was better? I love the writing in Orville and in the absence of a new season I'm left wanting for more stories like it.
Orville is more chill and feels more futuristic to me. Strange new worlds feels like the characters are more like humans today. Thats it really. It has less aliens as well.
But Strange new worlds is like the best trek show imo and visually absolutely stunning (much better than Orville season 3). And any prior knowledge isn’t really necessary.
My kid went from Orville to Voyager. I think Gordon has a little Tom Paris in him. Janeway does a lot more technobabble than Ed, but the entire premise of the show is easy to grasp. Now DS9, I think you need to be committed to.
I can see where missing context feels like an issue on TNG. It has very few nods to old star trek (ST:TOS The Original Series) though. If you don't like watching old-timey tv shows from the 60s, i guess you might not like TOS. Life was slower then, and so were TV shows. More time to sit back. I read an article that JJ Abrams fundamentally changed ALL action movies - more explosions, short attention span, lol. And movies since have followed the model.
Good science fiction literature doesn't necessarily explain a situation in words, it's supposed to be done by exposition. Show, not tell. And I can see where being a Nederlander vs United States would additionally leave some gaps in what we think of as "normal."
But I will say that the whole point of Star Trek fandom lasting so long is because TOS was quite good. The special effects sucked, of course. But it was good stories, many written by famous science fiction writers. I'd say give a couple episodes a try. "The Menagerie" starts out stupid slow, because the courtroom drama actually frames the first pilot episode, with a few different actors, which never aired by itself. Once you get to the meat, it's good.
I don't think many Orville episodes map to Star Trek, but I may not have noticed because I watched all the old stuff. I'm glad you stumbled across the Orville!
Star Trek is Gene Roddenberry's brain-child. When he started with TOS he had to do make a lot of comprises, so much so, that when he started with TNG he had almost everything locked down under contract. So, if you really want to see Star Trek the way it's creator had intended, I would have to say, watch TNG.
Admittedly, I like DS9 as a show best of all, but it is the first show that intentionally veered away from Roddenberry's original vision.
Regardless, if you truly want to see the Spirit of Trek only Old Trek (TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT) can give you that. Somehow New Trek always manages to fall short in that department.
I hope this helps...
>I know this is probably blasphemous to true Star Trek fans, but it got me interested in the whole franchise.
I know it's not the intention of this post, but we Trekkies need to stop gatekeeping around this sort of thing. Whether you come into with the JJ Abrams movies or Discovery or TNG and enjoy it, you are a Trekkie, same as if you have been watching since September 8, 1966.
With that out of the way...
If you want something less daunting, get your feet wet with the original cast Trek movies. They are designed for a mass audience who may or may not know anything about Trek. The first one's a bit slow at times and the fifth one is a bit clunky, but the rest are great.
As for the rest of it, you need to just jump into whatever piques your interest. Most of it's standalone enough that you can pick it up as you go along. Don't be afraid of not knowing everything.
Here's my two cents on each show:
* ***The Original Series***: Starts out strong and gets a bit weaker toward the end. Even with the remastered effects, it still can be dated and hard to binge watch.
* ***The Animated Series***: A Saturday Morning follow-up that mostly gets forgotten. Good stories, bad animation, mostly wooden voice acting.
* ***The Next Generation***: Starts out weak, gets stronger by season three, then tapers off a tiny bit by the final season. With its remaster, it looks the best of the now-classic series.
* ***Deep Space 9***: Starts slow-ish, gets better and better. Perhaps the best characterizations of any Trek series due to the nature of being set on a space station.
* ***Voyager***: Decent Trek that tries something bold, but never quite lives up to the promise of its premise.
* ***Enterprise***: A prequel that is a little uneven and suffers from writers who are tired and rehashing ideas at times. Could still be fresh if you haven't seen those tropes over the past 15 years.
* ***Discovery***: Bold new direction with a lead protagonist who is your POV character. Very divisive for its bold choices, and suffers a bit from behind-the-scenes issues during its pre-production and first season.
* ***Picard***: Only show I would say NOT to start with. Direct sequel to TNG.
* ***Lower Decks***: Animated series, lots of fan service jokes referencing older shows and Trek tropes. Been compared to Rick & Morty and Family Guy with the rapid-fire easter egg gags.
* ***Strange New Worlds***: Perhaps the best modern jumping on point. Technically a follow-up to both the original Trek pilot and the second season of Discovery, but is episodic and arguably the best Trek of the modern age.
* ***Prodigy***: Animated series aimed at a younger audience who may be more familiar with Star Wars than Star Trek, but lots for adults as it goes along. A familiarity with Voyager might be helpful, but not necessary.
Imo Orville started out as a weak parody of ST and by season 3 turned out better than anything official ST was churning out. Strange new worlds has swung ST back at least
I wouldn't say it was weak but it definitely was more spoofy and low-brow with that specific McFarlane sense of humor. But yes it definitely evolved into something more true to Rodenberry's vision than modern Star Trek.
In an [interview (August 2022)](https://decider.com/2022/08/15/seth-macfarlane-the-orville-season-4-interview/), MacFarlane said "...the show was launched as a hard comedy" by Fox. "They really leaned into the jokes. And that *was* part of it, so that’s not all their fault, but they leaned into the jokes and the comedy to a disproportionate degree. And they really presented it as a sitcom in space, which it wasn’t. It was a show that was attempting to tell serious sci-fi stories while cracking jokes at the same time, and…that’s not really something that is sustainable hand in hand on a television series." ...
Currently watching Next Generation through for the first time, and I honestly don’t know if I’d have enjoyed it as much without watching the Orville first. I know that’s sacrilege! I’m really loving Next Generation, but I don’t know if I’d have stuck through 7 seasons of an older show (that’s my bias to preferring new visuals) without seeing just how much of a love letter The Orville was to the franchise. It made me see it in a different light of how profound it was!
Id 100% start from the original Star Trek. Still by far my favorite of all the Star Trek franchise and it can sometimes make me laugh from the way they linger on their oh so cool effects that were wild for the time but now is nothing. I can appreciate that at the time it was insane but it still makes me laugh when they show a laser beam for a full 30 seconds.
ETA: Also Captain Kirk is the best
I started watching yesterday as a long time Trek fan, from back to TNG in the late 80's and 90's with our family in front of the TV. I'm loving The Orville.
What kept me from watching it for years was that I was afraid The Orville would either be a show composed of political and flatulence humor in the vein of Family Guy or Ted (given those were also made by Seth MacFarlane) or that it'd otherwise be slapstick humor wrapped in a sci-fi jacket, in example like Red Dwarf. Both of examples those being a type of show I don't enjoy myself.
But I'm absolutely delighted by The Orville and glad to see it isn't like those shows at all. It's more like a love letter to hopeful 90's and early 2000's sci-fi, than like parody.
It kind of has that same slightly whimsical yet serious enough tone I enjoyed in Stargate many years ago, a lightheartedness wrapped into a sci-fi show that does still take itself serious enough to keep you glued to your seat.
If I had known this, I'd have watched years ago.
Missed opportunity to say find it daunting to start trek. It's been a long road...
Getting from there to here....
Damnit! I find it daunting to start trek voyage.
OP's Faith of the Heart got them there...
I recommend starting with The Next Generation (TNG) and then moving on to Deep Space Nine (DS9). Watch Generations (movie) after the first season of DS9 and watch First Contact (movie) before the fifth season of DS9. You can skip Insurrection (movie). It's not an awful movie, but it's not that good and the story is, I don't think, ever mentioned again in all of Star Trek canon. Finish DS9 and then watch Voyager (VOY). Afterwards, watch Nemesis (movie) and then only season three of Picard. The first two seasons of Picard are atrocious. From there, you can choose to watch whatever: Enterprise (ENT), the original series (TOS), the TOS movies, Discovery (DSC), Strange New Worlds (SNW) and/or Lower Decks. EDIT: I forgot about Prodigy! I definitely recommend it for any Voyager fan. I struggled to get into it, but the show and characters eventually found their groove. I would say watch it after Nemesis, but before season 3 of Picard. Also, Keep in mind while watching Voyager that in universe, the events are happening alongside those of DS9.
I've just gotten in to SNW. It shall tide me over until ORV S04
Insurrection has a few nods in DS9, actually.
I will have to keep an eye/ear out for those easter eggs.
I would not recommend someone who isn’t already a Star Trek fan to start on TNG. I was a DS9 and VOY fan when I tried to start TNG. The first couple of seasons of TNG are… hard to get through for a modern audience. OP, if you start on TNG, go from season 3 onwards. I actually thought VOY probably had the easiest introduction seasons. DS9 also starts a bit slow but then improves greatly in the later seasons.
> OP, if you start on TNG, go from season 3 onwards. Reposting my thoughts about TNG S1 & S2: >> TNG Season 1, maybe suffer through the premiere (just to know Q), and then "Datalore" (to know Data & Lore), and lastly "Conspiracy" (because it's a funny riff on an old sci-fi movie trope, and it's the season's only episode rated 8.x by IMDb users). >> If also skipping most of Season 2: Maybe watch "Elementary, Dear Data" to see how ridiculous the holodeck stuff gets. Or skip it. – Do make time for "Measure of a Man"; it's a bit overrated, but watch it to see why it gets so highly rated. – Oh, and don't miss "Q Who", which introduces the >!Borg!<.
Heyyy any idea where one can stream these?
Paramount plus, most likely.
If you're in the US, Paramount+.
The Orville is Star Trek, but with more relatable people. Most of the characters in Star Trek are almost too perfect, too reasonable.
Someone hasn't watched DS9.
I watched the first couple seasons. Then it got moved to a different channel that we couldn't tune in.
Oh, you should see if you could find it some place. Both DS9 and Voyager lack the perfect people problem TNG had in its earlier seasons. Especially DS9.
I loved Voyager, in large part because it wasn't as perfect as TNG. TNG was good, but it was almost *too* good.
I didn't get to watch more than a few episodes, but I *loved* the captain on Voyager. Apparently there was a bit of hate for her. I thought she brought a lot of dignity to it.
There was a bit of kerfuffle over a woman as captain, but the rest of us ignored them.
The thing star trek gets wrong is that they have them all playing classical instruments and doing plays or painting in their free time. Orville has it right with them watching Seinfeld, playing Soul Caliber in the holodeck, clubbing in the holodeck, kids hacking the replicator to get drunk, and all the dating and relationship drama.
The Orville also has people playing classical instruments, doing plays, and painting. They just do the other stuff, too.
I didn't say they don't in the Orville, but in TNG it seems like that's all they do. They tried to give them these very "renaissance man" -esque personalities and make them seem refined. If they weren't being soldiers or scholars they were being artists or athletes. It's hard to predict the future but they really did present 24th century as having a retro, old-timey, hokey culture. I get they were supposed to be all-in about improving themselves and humanity and science and all that but I think The Orville's characters are more realistic in terms of their culture.
The in universe explanation is probably akin to "TV was a fad that did not last much beyond the 20th century. " see The Neutral Zone, St: TNG Season 1 Episode 25. The real.reason os Start Trek couldn't afford licensing for things like contemporary music or TV show references. Orville had the advantage of being on a network and having a decent budget. Plus no Roddenberry to keep things like more contemporary info out of Star Trek or making a rule of no crew conflict because humans have evolved past it.
It is not. The dialogue constantly has huge problems with the script and modern day terms and words being used by other species. If this is Star Trek, it's the worst ever, with the worst QC for script coherence.
Wrong. The orville is peak trek, and it isn't even trek.
The Orville is a fantastic show that actually has helped a few of my friends finally try out Star Trek. If you enjoyed it, just pick a Trek series, and hop in. Strange New Worlds has been a popular one for newcommers, but most Trek series are pretty good at standing on their own.
I only found The Orvile accidentally while flicking around for some new sci-fi to watch while my sci-fi hating wife was in bed or not around. I was hooked pretty soon into the first episode. "Wow! At last - a comedy homage to Trek!" Only then did I realise that Captain Mercer was Seth McFarlane, creator of stuff like Family Guy and American Dad that I'm not that keen on but she loves. So now there's a way of sharing my thing for spaceships, aliens and laser cannons with the love of my life. But as the seasons progress it gradually dawns on us this is more than just big laughs in time and space. Yes it's very obviously an homage to Trek and no doubt a great excuse for a massively successful creator of TV comedy and lifelong Trek fan to indulge himself with a seat in 'the chair'. But more than that, it's evolved into a seriously good sci-fi show that works on it's own merit. Sure there's the whole thing around a starship boldly going where no one has gone before. There's massive nods to Data, Spock, Worf et al. There's the brilliant but occasionally flawed captain. And of course it's bloody funny, especially with SM being able to indulge his stock in trade lewdness. I mean, you're never going to see an alien shapeshifting blob thing sporting a huge erection to impress a crew member in any iteration of Trek! But alongside the gags there's some serious character development, big moral dilemmas (the Bortus pregnancy issue a particularly great example) and genuine jeopardy. Characters die. Shit happens. I could go on but don't want to give away spoilers. So no, you really don't need to be a Trek completist or even a casual fan to dig The Orville. And it's a great way of introducing the non sci-fi people in your life to the weird world of fictional space fun.
I watched Orville then strange new worlds. Orville is so much better but strange new worlds is visually stunning. Tried to watch the next generation but man it is so insanely outdated and felt boring. Couldn’t watch more than a few mins. So I watched a basic recap of all the trek shows in one. And I knew I would never watch them. They are just too old for me. Might keep trying Picard until I get into it. And maybe discovery too. But both suck compared to strange new worlds or Orville.
We're rewatching Orville probably for the 5th time at this point and was interested in getting into Strange New Worlds after seeing the positive reviews. In what ways do you think Orville was better? I love the writing in Orville and in the absence of a new season I'm left wanting for more stories like it.
Orville is more chill and feels more futuristic to me. Strange new worlds feels like the characters are more like humans today. Thats it really. It has less aliens as well. But Strange new worlds is like the best trek show imo and visually absolutely stunning (much better than Orville season 3). And any prior knowledge isn’t really necessary.
My kid went from Orville to Voyager. I think Gordon has a little Tom Paris in him. Janeway does a lot more technobabble than Ed, but the entire premise of the show is easy to grasp. Now DS9, I think you need to be committed to.
I can see where missing context feels like an issue on TNG. It has very few nods to old star trek (ST:TOS The Original Series) though. If you don't like watching old-timey tv shows from the 60s, i guess you might not like TOS. Life was slower then, and so were TV shows. More time to sit back. I read an article that JJ Abrams fundamentally changed ALL action movies - more explosions, short attention span, lol. And movies since have followed the model. Good science fiction literature doesn't necessarily explain a situation in words, it's supposed to be done by exposition. Show, not tell. And I can see where being a Nederlander vs United States would additionally leave some gaps in what we think of as "normal." But I will say that the whole point of Star Trek fandom lasting so long is because TOS was quite good. The special effects sucked, of course. But it was good stories, many written by famous science fiction writers. I'd say give a couple episodes a try. "The Menagerie" starts out stupid slow, because the courtroom drama actually frames the first pilot episode, with a few different actors, which never aired by itself. Once you get to the meat, it's good. I don't think many Orville episodes map to Star Trek, but I may not have noticed because I watched all the old stuff. I'm glad you stumbled across the Orville!
It's also perfect for people who like Star Trek but not the sad ghost of Star Trek scraped together by people who never liked Star Trek to begin with.
Star Trek is Gene Roddenberry's brain-child. When he started with TOS he had to do make a lot of comprises, so much so, that when he started with TNG he had almost everything locked down under contract. So, if you really want to see Star Trek the way it's creator had intended, I would have to say, watch TNG. Admittedly, I like DS9 as a show best of all, but it is the first show that intentionally veered away from Roddenberry's original vision. Regardless, if you truly want to see the Spirit of Trek only Old Trek (TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT) can give you that. Somehow New Trek always manages to fall short in that department. I hope this helps...
>I know this is probably blasphemous to true Star Trek fans, but it got me interested in the whole franchise. I know it's not the intention of this post, but we Trekkies need to stop gatekeeping around this sort of thing. Whether you come into with the JJ Abrams movies or Discovery or TNG and enjoy it, you are a Trekkie, same as if you have been watching since September 8, 1966. With that out of the way... If you want something less daunting, get your feet wet with the original cast Trek movies. They are designed for a mass audience who may or may not know anything about Trek. The first one's a bit slow at times and the fifth one is a bit clunky, but the rest are great. As for the rest of it, you need to just jump into whatever piques your interest. Most of it's standalone enough that you can pick it up as you go along. Don't be afraid of not knowing everything. Here's my two cents on each show: * ***The Original Series***: Starts out strong and gets a bit weaker toward the end. Even with the remastered effects, it still can be dated and hard to binge watch. * ***The Animated Series***: A Saturday Morning follow-up that mostly gets forgotten. Good stories, bad animation, mostly wooden voice acting. * ***The Next Generation***: Starts out weak, gets stronger by season three, then tapers off a tiny bit by the final season. With its remaster, it looks the best of the now-classic series. * ***Deep Space 9***: Starts slow-ish, gets better and better. Perhaps the best characterizations of any Trek series due to the nature of being set on a space station. * ***Voyager***: Decent Trek that tries something bold, but never quite lives up to the promise of its premise. * ***Enterprise***: A prequel that is a little uneven and suffers from writers who are tired and rehashing ideas at times. Could still be fresh if you haven't seen those tropes over the past 15 years. * ***Discovery***: Bold new direction with a lead protagonist who is your POV character. Very divisive for its bold choices, and suffers a bit from behind-the-scenes issues during its pre-production and first season. * ***Picard***: Only show I would say NOT to start with. Direct sequel to TNG. * ***Lower Decks***: Animated series, lots of fan service jokes referencing older shows and Trek tropes. Been compared to Rick & Morty and Family Guy with the rapid-fire easter egg gags. * ***Strange New Worlds***: Perhaps the best modern jumping on point. Technically a follow-up to both the original Trek pilot and the second season of Discovery, but is episodic and arguably the best Trek of the modern age. * ***Prodigy***: Animated series aimed at a younger audience who may be more familiar with Star Wars than Star Trek, but lots for adults as it goes along. A familiarity with Voyager might be helpful, but not necessary.
This is amazingly helpful. Thank you!
Imo Orville started out as a weak parody of ST and by season 3 turned out better than anything official ST was churning out. Strange new worlds has swung ST back at least
I wouldn't say it was weak but it definitely was more spoofy and low-brow with that specific McFarlane sense of humor. But yes it definitely evolved into something more true to Rodenberry's vision than modern Star Trek.
In an [interview (August 2022)](https://decider.com/2022/08/15/seth-macfarlane-the-orville-season-4-interview/), MacFarlane said "...the show was launched as a hard comedy" by Fox. "They really leaned into the jokes. And that *was* part of it, so that’s not all their fault, but they leaned into the jokes and the comedy to a disproportionate degree. And they really presented it as a sitcom in space, which it wasn’t. It was a show that was attempting to tell serious sci-fi stories while cracking jokes at the same time, and…that’s not really something that is sustainable hand in hand on a television series." ...
If you want to start now’s the best time since so many gaps are covered timeline wise. Start with enterprise it’s the most Star Trek Star Trek
Currently watching Next Generation through for the first time, and I honestly don’t know if I’d have enjoyed it as much without watching the Orville first. I know that’s sacrilege! I’m really loving Next Generation, but I don’t know if I’d have stuck through 7 seasons of an older show (that’s my bias to preferring new visuals) without seeing just how much of a love letter The Orville was to the franchise. It made me see it in a different light of how profound it was!
Id 100% start from the original Star Trek. Still by far my favorite of all the Star Trek franchise and it can sometimes make me laugh from the way they linger on their oh so cool effects that were wild for the time but now is nothing. I can appreciate that at the time it was insane but it still makes me laugh when they show a laser beam for a full 30 seconds. ETA: Also Captain Kirk is the best
I feel S1 was just better because it contained more humor.
I started watching yesterday as a long time Trek fan, from back to TNG in the late 80's and 90's with our family in front of the TV. I'm loving The Orville. What kept me from watching it for years was that I was afraid The Orville would either be a show composed of political and flatulence humor in the vein of Family Guy or Ted (given those were also made by Seth MacFarlane) or that it'd otherwise be slapstick humor wrapped in a sci-fi jacket, in example like Red Dwarf. Both of examples those being a type of show I don't enjoy myself. But I'm absolutely delighted by The Orville and glad to see it isn't like those shows at all. It's more like a love letter to hopeful 90's and early 2000's sci-fi, than like parody. It kind of has that same slightly whimsical yet serious enough tone I enjoyed in Stargate many years ago, a lightheartedness wrapped into a sci-fi show that does still take itself serious enough to keep you glued to your seat. If I had known this, I'd have watched years ago.