I am a fan of all Star Trek series, but primarily the Classic series, commonly referred to as The Original Series (TOS) and it's respective movies.
I consider this to be the best series for many reasons. For starters, it was the first one, and I believe best represents Gene Roddenberry's personal vision of the future. The main complaint I find most people have about TOS is the effects, or lack there of; I don't deny that the effects are bad, but at the time they were probably some of the best effects available, and they also required the actors to do a much better job of actual acting. There was much evidence of stage acting visible in TOS, and it was this acting that propelled the show to success in syndication. So yes the effects were bad, but the were backed by top notch, acting, directing, and writing.
The next series, in my order of liking, is Deep Space Nine (DS9). In each of the three series since 1987, the production teams have spent usually the first two years finding themselves. In DS9 there were some good stories as early as Season 1, but their first string of good stories, came in the last leg of the Season 2. I like this series, because it's got good writing, acting, directing and effects. The characters have a lot of continuity to them and they're extremely well developed, yet with an air of mystery. The writers are able to for intance, suddenly make you see an entirely different side to a character, but when you look back, you can almost see how that side could be there.
Next in my order of liking is The Next Generation (TNG) and, of course, it's respective movies. This series really spent the full first two years finding itself...then again it was adapting to a new century, with new species, 80 years later from where TOS left off at the end of their fourth movie 1986. This series did of course have the writing, the acting, etc. and was a perfect next step after TOS. TNG seemed to concentrate largely on exploring human nature as opposed to space, and also had the best ship in the fleet, as was evident with the bright lights and wall to wall carpting everywhere. It was kind of like rolling out the red carpet to usher Trekkers into the 24th Century. And it pales in comparison to the gritty nature of DS9 as they delve more into the human psyche as well as the odd planet in an unexplored section of the galaxy.
And lastly of course, there is Voyager (VOY). In my opinion the show never really got good until the final leg of it's third season. It seemed to take over 2 1/2 years to find itself, with the odd good story creeping up here and there. Actually some of it's best episodes were found at the beginning of the series, and then the writers seemed to fall into a black hole of story ideas, but got back on top for the last 6 episodes of the third season. In a way, I suppose they tried to be too much like their predacessors, instead of finding their own way. In the series you can see a lot of elements of Classic Trek, yet not refined, and rather sloppily placed into the stories. With the last episodes of the third season done well, it will be interesting to see what they turn up in the fourth season.
Have your vote!!!
Give me your vote out of ten (10) on any Star Trek episode or film.
I have an easy "mailto" vote form following each episode, you can use.
If your browser has trouble with "mailto" forms, I have a form which
uses "cgi" (Common Gateway Interface) here.
If your absolutely stuck, and your browser refuses to handle forms,
just send me an e-mail with
the word VOTE in the *SUBJECT* bar and in the *BODY*, include 1) The episode
title; 2) The series; and 3) Your vote out of 10 to: webmaster@deepspace93.com
All votes received should be reflected in the "Visitor ratings" on the site within 24 hours after sending your vote.
As far as Star Trek links are concerned, there's way too many out there for me to list. But what I will do is give you a link to the Official Star Trek Website. Useful to get the latest news and learn about the current week's DS9 and VOY episodes.
From time to time, I will add LINKS that are Trek related, you can find them on my LINKS page.
I am also an active contributer in the Star
Trek NCF Newsgroup SIG.
If you are interested in contributing to other newsgroups check out
my NCF neighbour, Anthony's page on Star
Trek Newsgroups.
If you want the latest Trek news, here's Transwarp,
a weekly newsletter from the united forces previously behind the "StarDate"
and "TrekScoop" newsletters.
Due to space limitations, I have opted to discontinue reposting Transwarp,
here.To see this week's as well as previous Transwarps, visit the Official
Transwarp Archive.