How To Get Into Star Trek: An Exhaustive List by a Bored Nerd
Okay, so, Star Trek.
Start with The Next Generation. It's still the platonic ideal of Star Trek which is a double-edged sword: it has great, high concept sci-fi writing and a solid ensemble, but has no idea what to do with its female characters when they're off-duty: the show's romantic plotlines feel like they were written by a prepubescent rock. Also be warned: The first season is so, so bad. Luckily, it's also almost entirely skippable. There are a couple of gems but do not watch the pilot until you're hooked. I love it but it's so slow. It really gets going in season 3 and is pretty much universally excellent, or at least highly watchable, until season 6. Season 7 has some lows, but also some of the best episodes in the series.
Deep Space Nine is the best show, objectively, but start with Next Gen. DS9 is like the Empire Strikes Back/Last Jedi of Trek--it confronts and questions a lot of the things the franchise takes for granted: like how do the Federation and Starfleet actually work and is its post-scarcity optimism just a front for a totalitarian society? Also, how does a utopia fight a war--especially when its allies are blood-crazed warriors (Klingons) and duplicitous spymasters (Romulans)? Like TNG, the first seasons are a little rough (though it has a great pilot) but once the Dominion shows up the show gets good and stays that way. (Just like TNG, the show gets really good once one of the main characters grows a beard...) Probably one of the best examples of tonal balance I've ever seen in a show, in a way you just don't see anymore since each season is over 22 episodes long there's A LOT of variety: from episodes about the horrors of war to a slapstick episode where the principal from the first season of Buffy causes the Roswell Incident in the 1940s. DS9 was also serialized in a way TNG only flirted with, though not as seriously as, say, Game of Thrones. Some episodes are totally disconnected from the overall story, while others are basically 2-5 episode story arcs.
DS9 also has the most diverse cast, anchored by a black captain who is also a widower and single father, and some of its best episodes are as much about black fatherhood as they are about a teleporting spaceman flying a laser-shooting spaceship.
My favourite thing about Voyager is the ship so no cast shot for this one
Voyager was an attempt to recapture the adventure of TNG but it's just...worse in every way. Some great episodes in there, though, especially the finale. They also really dig into the Borg, for better and for worse, and some of their "What does it mean to be human?" episodes with The Doctor and Seven are better than the Data episodes they're based on.
Fun fact: writer Ronald D Moore, who is the MVP of 90's Trek, pitched Voyager as "Battlestar Galactica but Star Trek" and tried to introduce real stakes and consequences into the show, which had worked really well in DS9, but the producers got cold feet so he quit Voyager to make... Battlestar Galactica.
Ditto Enterprise
Enterprise also tried to recapture the vibe of old Trek, this time with the 'cowboys in space' vibe of the original series, but is even worse than Voyager. Again, some good individual episodes, and the last season is pretty good and actually fulfills the promise of the whole show in setting up The Original Series, but I'd only watch it if you've watched everything else and are desperate for more Trek.
I avoided The Original Series for years because... it's a TV show from the 60s. But it's actually really good if you can get past the casual racism and sexism. (And to be fair, they did their best to address both of these in their own way, most directly in the episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and in the very existence of Uhura, who is not only a woman of colour, but an officer.) I only included a few episodes because I'm not that familiar with it.
Here are my "Get Into Star Trek" episodes in a rough order:
Colin, and you, at The Internet
First Steps
The Next Generation
Darmok <- This is the greatest Star Trek episode of all time. I hesitated putting this here because it's pretty weird, but it's just so good.
First Contact
Cause and Effect
Measure of a Man
Starship Mine <- Die Hard in space
The Game <- A fun one featuring a pre-fame Ashley Judd
Conundrum <- watch this one after the others, it works best once you know the characters
Deep Space Nine
Emissary (Pilot) <-- Don't watch this until you've seen Best of Both Worlds 1 & 2.
Vortex
Duet <- This is a heavy-ass episode but really sets up the kind of storytelling DS9 would strive for
Past Tense
Necessary Evil
Whispers
Far Beyond The Stars <- this is late in the series so you might be a bit lost at first, but is Trek's best attempt at tackling racism head-on
Sacrifice of Angels <- Oh what the heck: DS9 has the best space battles of the entire franchise (movies included) so I might as well throw this one in there too, though you will have absolutely no idea what’s going on and it’ll spoil a pretty major plot point. If you’re sold on DS9, skip this one for now, but if you think Star Trek is boring, check this ep out
Voyager
Caretaker (Pilot)
Year of Hell
Timeless
Counterpoint
Enterprise
Broken Bow (Pilot)
The Andorian Incident
Original Series
Where No Man Has Gone Before <- After the first pilot failed, Rodenberry made this one a few years later
Balance of Terror <- Basically The Hunt For Red October in space and features the first appearance of the Romulans
We have engaged the Trek
Essentials
Hooked? Here are the best eps for every series
TNG
The Inner Light <- Meet someone who thinks science fiction can’t be good drama? Show them this episode.
Q Who <- this episode features Q, who is in the pilot. He's basically Space Puck or Loki.
Best of Both Worlds 1 & 2 <- Greatest season finale cliffhanger ever
Family
I, Borg <- These four episodes (Q, Who to I, Borg) are all connected and fucking amazing, but watch some eps between "Q Who" and "Best of Both Worlds" -- it's scarier that way.
Skin of Evil <- Not a great episode on its own, but sets up a major event that gets a lot of play later on
Conspiracy
The Drumhead
Tapestry <- A personal favourite
Yesterday's Enterprise <-Watch Skin of Evil first
Sins of the Father <- this begins Ronald D Moore's attempt to really solidify Klingon culture and society, which he continues in DS9
Chain of Command <- this episode has been meme’d to death but is still excellent
Encounter at Farpoint <- You're probably invested enough at this point to make it through the pilot, which is surprisingly relevant to the finale. If you enjoyed the…thoughtful pace of Star Trek: The Motion Picture you’ll probably dig this. It’s fun to go back to season 1 and remember what a fucking asshole Picard was to everybody.
All Good Things... <- In the conversation for best series finale ever
DS9
These are in order so, once you’re hooked on DS9’s specific flavour of Trek, watch them like this:
The Maquis
The Jem'Hadar
And then pretty much all of Season 3 & 4 but absolutely watch (and in this order):
The Search
The Defiant
Past Tense
Improbable Cause
The Die is Cast
The Adversary
The Way of the Warrior
Starship Down
Homefront & Paradise Lost
Return to Grace
Rules of Engagement
To The Death
Broken Link
If you've made it this far just watch all of 5 & 6. Even the ones that don't directly connect to the overall story fill in interesting gaps. Season 7 loses a bit of steam midway through, but the last ten episodes are all one long story and are fucking amazing. Oh man DS9 RULES!
Voyager
Deadlock
Scorpion
Blink of an Eye
Eye of the Needle
Mortal Coil
Dreadnaught
The Equinox
Latent Image
Endgame <- another great series finale
Enterprise
Regeneration <- this is a cute epilogue to the Next Gen movie "First Contact" so maybe watch that first. This episode is sort of a Star Trek riff on The Thing.
Season 4 is all pretty good and full of little 2 or 3 episode arcs, but especially “Borderland”, which features Data actor Brent Spiner, and “In the Mirror, Darkly”
To buck the trend, Enterprise has probably the worst series finale of the franchise. I’d skip it.
Original Series
Mirror, Mirror
The Trouble with Tribbles
Space Seed
City on the Edge of Forever
These Movies (but not the other ones):
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
2 The Wrath of Khan
4 The Voyage Home <-this one starts weird because of what happens in 3, but 3 isn't that great although it does have Christopher Lloyd playing a Klingon
6 The Undiscovered Country
If you’ve made it this far, you might as well watch the Robin Hood episode. OMG Georgie’s outfit…
Some other totally great but non-essential eps
TNG
Offspring <-Bring tissue
Masks <- These two are solid Data episodes
Disaster
The Chase <- this is both a fun episode and explains why all the aliens in Star Trek look like humans in makeup
Tin Man
Data's Day
Thine Own Self
Relics <- Featuring James Doohan as Scotty but instead of being a lame episode built around a cameo manages to tell a great story about getting old and becoming irrelevant
Descent <- this is a 2-parter which ties up two major storylines but the best part is watching Crusher take the con
Mind's Eye <- The best Geordie episode
Pegasus
The First Duty
Captain's Holiday
Gambit Part 1 & 2
Qpid <- Q turns the crew into Robin Hood and the Merry Men. It is exactly as stupid and fun as it sounds.
Ensign Ro <- Michelle Forbes rocks and her episodes introduce the Bajorans who are my fave ST species
The Next Phase <- Another solid Ro & Geordie episode
I'll also add the movies Generations and First Contact, which are fun but not amazing
DS9
The Visitor
Crossover
Little Green Men <- the episode I mentioned earlier where Quark, Rom , and Nog become the basis for the Roswell aliens, which also makes this episode the basis for The X-Files if you don't think about it too much
Oh man there's so much more--I don't have any holodeck episodes in the TNG lists!
Watched all of Trek and want to fully commit yourself to 90s TV sci-fi? Welllllll…..
Pssst… this show is better than all of them combined