What's your favorite Star Trek series and movie.

[TheVat]

I always saw McCoy as an old-style Southern gentleman racist, who dislikes Spock because he's a "breed", a product of "miscegenation".

I only ever watched the original TV series, as a kid in the 1960s. My favourite episodes were The Doomsday Machine, which was seriously terrifying, and Spock's Brain, which we played for laughs. We used to go round reciting, in a mock-McCoy voice, "Jim. He's gart no BRAIN!!!" or, "His BRAIN's gahn." (Useful to describe a gormless fellow schoolboy, to much merriment.) The word "BRAIN" had to be delivered in a sepulchral half-whisper, dropping the pitch of the voice as low as possible, with a short pause before uttering the word to give it dramatic impact.

Haha. Yes, that episode got played for laughs everywhere that nerds gathered. I recall a friend who liked to say "You are not Morg, or Eymorg. What ARE you?"

Also the two Harry Mudd episodes. Though they were more intentionally comic.

 

[Sarkus]

Always orbiting apparently sideways around some planet. Just a small complaint of mine!

Mine was that when they meet other ships in space, they're all orientated to the same way. There seems to be a universal "up". I can't actually recall a sci-fi show that has ever not done that, so it's not ST specific.

As for orbiting, they're also never in geostationary orbit, so presumably would only be in communicator and beaming range periodically? Fortunately they time their emergency beam-outs for just such a time. The transporter would have the range to set you down anywhere on the planet, but, well, it can't transport through quite that much rock.

 

[Pinball1970]

My favourite scene.

 

[Pinball1970]

The first one was great too. V ger.

 

[Sarkus]

The first one was great too. V ger.

Yeah, I have a soft-spot for that one. A nostalgic feeling, perhaps, from when I first saw it, but also I think the only one I ever saw on the big cinema screen - the others being on tv. I think it's my favourite. I know Wrath of Khan is oft touted as the best, but TMP would likely get my vote of the OS crew films.
Of the rest, I liked Generations. I think it was the difference between the TNG series and seeing the same crew on the big screen. Probably the same feeling for those who first saw the OS crew on the big screen.
First Contact is also good, but they're all reasonable, imo.

As for series, Enterprise is probably my least favourite. It just felt wrong. And they mucked around with distances too much. Voyager I thought was a tad dull, DS9 was okay and got better with the Dominion war arc, and TNG was pretty poor for series 1 and 2, got steadily better 3 thru 5, outstanding for series 6, and then sat on its laurels a tad for series 7.
I haven't really seen any of the more recent iterations: Discovery, Strange New Worlds etc.

I would almost put The Orville as a Star Trek show, as it seemed to do the same thing but better, albeit with a more deliberately humourous slant.

 

[parmalee]

2nd that. The only recent series I watched a season of was "Picard," which was okay. I'd have to wiki it now to remember much of the storyline. I vaguely recall some bit that riffed on the death/rebirth of Spock in the motion picture series.

I actually quite enjoyed Picard--also, a lot of hot ladies slightly older than myself I found interesting. And the Borg queen was a badass and peaceful Worf was amusing. Otherwise, I'd have to say ST:TNG, Wesley Crusher excepted.

The movies are largely nothing special.

 

[parmalee]

Mine was that when they meet other ships in space, they're all orientated to the same way. There seems to be a universal "up". I can't actually recall a sci-fi show that has ever not done that, so it's not ST specific.

I think it's just common courtesy: the lesser ship orients itself to the greater ship.

 

[C C]

I liked TOS a lot because, for one thing, the interplay between the four major characters. This seemed to be missing elsewhere.

The original series was genuine "Woke" -- voluntary and going against the grain of the establishment of that era. And to a lesser extent that was still the case with the franchise in the 1990s. Today, though, that social justice ripple is totally institutionalized and shows are just adhering to the conventions of an entertainment industry that is systematically concerned with appearing morally noble. Of course, the establishment was just as much virtuously posturing with mandates and censorship back in the 1960s, too -- but catering to a different or earlier set of trad values and oppressive customs.

The uniqueness back then was that Star Trek was rebellion; and now the franchise's offerings are just banal conformity ("Fill the quotas and do what the preacher says."). The secular equivalent of Davey and Goliath on a Sunday morning. Nothing wrong with that, but it's dull for hipster radicals searching for new idols to profane and piddle on, rather than listening to dusty, old sermons directed at the choir.
_

 

[TheVat]

I actually quite enjoyed Picard--also, a lot of hot ladies slightly older than myself I found interesting. And the Borg queen was a badass and peaceful Worf was amusing. Otherwise, I'd have to say ST:TNG, Wesley Crusher excepted.

The movies are largely nothing special.

I'd forgotten much of Picard, which I realize is from only seeing the first season on its release six years ago. I recall a planet defended by giant orchids and Jean Luc ends up being moved to a golem body. And there's a string of reunions with NG vets. The Borg Queen must appear in a subsequent season, and your mention of her makes me want to go ahead and see the rest, or at least S.2.

The movies were all, as Sarkus notes, reasonably solid, though (3rd?) the Spock/katra one was so stuffed with "rubber science" and general preposterousness that I would see it as a slight dip. As an actor friend of mine used to put it, it felt "too written." Though I like the big wink of having Spock temp stored in the brain of the prickly Dr McCoy.

Like Pinball1970 I found The Voyage Home a favorite of the original franchise, with its unconventional story and humor. Also a bit of resonance with the OS episode where they time travel back to "now," also a favorite (Teri Garr, Gary 7, Isis the cat/woman... what's not to love?)

 

[Sarkus]

The movies were all, as Sarkus notes, reasonably solid, though (3rd?) the Spock/katra one was so stuffed with "rubber science" and general preposterousness that I would see it as a slight dip.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was by far the worst, in most people's books... including mine. Spock's brother, trying to meet God, breaking through a barrier, etc. Might have worked for an episode in the original series, but not as a film.

 

[TheVat]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was by far the worst, in most people's books... including mine. Spock's brother, trying to meet God, breaking through a barrier, etc. Might have worked for an episode in the original series, but not as a film.

Ha, I knew there was one I missed due to around that time we were moving to the West Coast, starting new jobs, having a second child, etc. Saw a scorching review a couple/three years later, so we didn't bother renting it. Oh well, looks like we ducked a cinematic bullet. The next one was pretty good, though, playing off the end of the cold war.

 

[exchemist]

One of the curiosities of the TV Star Trek I watched in my early teens was the women. They all seemed made of plastic, like something off a toothpaste advert, and to have vaseline smeared over the camera lens whenever they appeared. It was very weird. Not like real women at all.

 

[Sarkus]

One of the curiosities of the TV Star Trek I watched in my early teens was the women. They all seemed made of plastic, like something off a toothpaste advert, and to have vaseline smeared over the camera lens whenever they appeared. It was very weird. Not like real women at all.

It was "the future"! Women weren't like they were in "the past"! And it was a future sponsored by Vaseline!

 

[TheVat]

They all seemed made of plastic, like something off a toothpaste advert, and to have vaseline smeared over the camera lens whenever they appeared. It was very weird. Not like real women at all.

Though I thought the Orion slave girl was, except for being green, delightfully real.