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So I have young boys, and I'd love to introduce them to the joys of Star Trek.  But unlike Tyr's thread, I think this is a much more difficult question when applied to Star Trek.

The Original Series is coming up on its 50th anniversary - that's positively ancient in pop culture.  A lot of TOS episodes really don't hold up very well either - hokey acting, hokey premises, and why does the future look so much like the 1960s?  But some of the best episodes... :wub:

Next Generation was pretty good too though.  I mean - the first season or two is a bit rough (been trying to watch on Netflix recently - they don't stand up well).  But once the characters found themselves, it might be a better entry into the world of Star Trek.

I didn't even put DS9 as an option, though I think it's the better series.  It's be hard to get into with no prior exposure to Star Trek.

Finally, I put the modern re-boot for the 'kids these days just can't understand classic sci-fi' vote.

The Next Generation.  Even that will look sort of hokey to the kids of today, TOS is only for somebody who loves classic TV or is a Trek fan.  The reboot is fun but it is not really Star Trek in my book, it is more of an action series without all the philosophy and stuff that makes Star Trek Star Trek.

Reboot movies first.  Then , if their interest is piqued, the TOS movies, skipping the first one.  If they want more, pick out some select TOS shows.  Maybe the Goatees of Evil episode.

They're like, a little past toddlers and shit, right?  At that age, TOS should suit them just fine.  They haven't reached the age of Ideologue-esque pretentiousness over film.

Wasn't there a Star Trek Cartoon from the 1970's?

Quote from: Razgovory on July 07, 2013, 11:36:17 PM
Wasn't there a Star Trek Cartoon from the 1970's?

There was.  It's so obscure *I've* never seen it though.  And I'd like to see it.

Quote from: Barrister on July 07, 2013, 11:39:08 PM

Quote from: Razgovory on July 07, 2013, 11:36:17 PM
Wasn't there a Star Trek Cartoon from the 1970's?

There was.  It's so obscure *I've* never seen it though.  And I'd like to see it.

Same here, I've heard it's actually pretty good.

Quote from: Barrister on July 07, 2013, 11:39:08 PM

Quote from: Razgovory on July 07, 2013, 11:36:17 PM
Wasn't there a Star Trek Cartoon from the 1970's?

There was.  It's so obscure *I've* never seen it though.  And I'd like to see it.

Netflix USA has it streaming, two seasons worth.

Yeah, the animated series had some decent episode story lines.  Fans would dig it.

The original series + the first two movies are all that they need.

From what I've seen on SF Debris it seems to have a few interesting episodes, yes. Wasn't one even elevated to canon by Roddenberry?

TOS was considered a kids' show in Germany (which explains the somewhat ironic dubbing in places, and also why "Amok Time" was re-edited for Germany to exclude sex references, and why "Patterns of Force" was not shown at all until the mid-90s), so I'd suggest starting with it, and perhaps some of the lighter/more cartoonish stories.

TNG is probably better when they're around 9-12, and DS9 (if they can make it through the first few not so exciting seasons) in their teens.

Quote from: Barrister on July 07, 2013, 11:13:27 PM
So I have young boys, and I'd love to introduce them to the joys of Star Trek.  But unlike Tyr's thread, I think this is a much more difficult question when applied to Star Trek.

The Original Series is coming up on its 50th anniversary - that's positively ancient in pop culture.  A lot of TOS episodes really don't hold up very well either - hokey acting, hokey premises, and why does the future look so much like the 1960s?  But some of the best episodes... :wub:

Next Generation was pretty good too though.  I mean - the first season or two is a bit rough (been trying to watch on Netflix recently - they don't stand up well).  But once the characters found themselves, it might be a better entry into the world of Star Trek.

I didn't even put DS9 as an option, though I think it's the better series.  It's be hard to get into with no prior exposure to Star Trek.

Finally, I put the modern re-boot for the 'kids these days just can't understand classic sci-fi' vote.

TNG, but the Blu Ray releases, preferably.  They've been cleaned and had their special effects redone, so it looks better.

Forget about TOS, even the blu ray.  It holds value only for those who saw the original series.

Voyager.
Seriously. I loved voyager when I was a kid, its what got me into ST having first attempted TOS (terrible and dissapointing at the time, still meh) and TNG (terribly dull to me as a kid), I then steadily got into DS9 as that was shown when voyager was having an off-series.

Quote from: Syt on July 07, 2013, 11:50:50 PM
TOS was considered a kids' show in Germany (which explains the somewhat ironic dubbing in places, and also why "Amok Time" was re-edited for Germany to exclude sex references, and why "Patterns of Force" was not shown at all until the mid-90s), so I'd suggest starting with it, and perhaps some of the lighter/more cartoonish stories.

TNG is probably better when they're around 9-12, and DS9 (if they can make it through the first few not so exciting seasons) in their teens.

The whole second season of TOS is banned to people under 16 thanks to that.  :D
The German dub had some value as well, not only technical (dubbed in the '90s) ;)

Quote from: Barrister on July 07, 2013, 11:39:08 PM

Quote from: Razgovory on July 07, 2013, 11:36:17 PM
Wasn't there a Star Trek Cartoon from the 1970's?

There was.  It's so obscure *I've* never seen it though.  And I'd like to see it.

I saw it as a kid and loved it.

I would start there - if you can find it.

Quote from: crazy canuck on July 08, 2013, 10:56:33 AM

Quote from: Barrister on July 07, 2013, 11:39:08 PM

Quote from: Razgovory on July 07, 2013, 11:36:17 PM
Wasn't there a Star Trek Cartoon from the 1970's?

There was.  It's so obscure *I've* never seen it though.  And I'd like to see it.

I saw it as a kid and loved it.

I would start there - if you can find it.

I would definately recommend it to intoduce little kids to Trek.  For the most part it's not dumbed down as far as subject matter (though the science can be even dodgier, and some of the plots are clinkers--but he latter is true of any version of Trek).  You might want to not let them watch the tribble episode until after they see the tribble episode of TOS, though.  It might not make much sense unless they've seen the tribbles before.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 07, 2013, 11:25:26 PM
They're like, a little past toddlers and shit, right?  At that age, TOS should suit them just fine.  They haven't reached the age of Ideologue-esque pretentiousness over film.

Fuck you.  You need no critical faculties to enjoy Star Trek, just to enjoy it as much as I do. :)

It's a bright, colorful program with usually clear-cut and largely correct moral teachings.  I highly recommend youngsters be exposed to it.

The greatest hits of TOS is probably the best place to start, since kids will probably lack the context, if not the attention span, for the films.  Also, while TWoK teaches admirable collectivist values, III and IV, despite being fantastic films, better than TWoK even, they are anti-state and hence should be kept away from more impressionable youth. :angry:

Quote from: Ideologue on July 08, 2013, 11:09:22 PM
Also, while TWoK teaches admirable collectivist values, III and IV, despite being fantastic films, better than TWoK even :angry:

Woah! Lets not go crazy here!

My favorite is Star Trek III.  It has the most affecting scene in the canon.

It's arguable whether I really do like IV more than II.  IV's extremely enjoyable as both its own weird thing and a significant piece of the ongoing narrative.  VI also stands with them, concluding that story.

The other two are the outliers, though I'm extremely fond of TMP.  Though it deserves much of its criticism as the Motionless Picture, it does so almost singularly for that bit with the Enterprise in spacedock, which is interminable and horrible--the rest may be slow but it's visually stunning.  You've just got to be in the mood for silence and pretty images.  I also enjoy its uniqueness, because love it or hate it, there's not another piece of the Star Trek universe quite like it.  I'd say it's close to as good as any of the Kirk Vs. Being Old quadrilogy.

(And V's still good, though it has its well-documented problems.)

P.S. As I've said before, every TNG movie is garbage.  Generations is fun garbage, but still garbage.  The rest are unfun garbage.

Quote from: Ideologue on July 09, 2013, 12:01:44 AM
P.S. As I've said before, every TNG movie is garbage.  Generations is fun garbage, but still garbage.  The rest are unfun garbage.

Ridiculous - First Contact is easily ten times as fun as Generations

There was a 37% drop in funtrino radiation between Generations and First Contact.  I credit this to their shitty twist on the Borg, who should have been abandoned after I, Borg, if not Best of Both Worlds.  The Borg were ultimately a one-shot existential threat (though there's a Trek novel or three that tries, really hard, to one-up BoBW, it doesn't really make it, partly because no working Trek novelist is an especially good novelist, and David Mack in particular is only okay, and partly because it was a bad idea).

I mean, you don't see dozens of superfluous stories told with increasingly diminishing returns with the Goddamned whale aliens*--though arguably they'd be more interesting than what they actually did with the Borg, which was shockingly dull.

*NERD CONFESSION: I liked Probe. :(

Come on, First Contact is without a doubt the best Trek film involving TNG crew. A contender for best overall.

Arguably the best Star Trek movie is Galaxy Quest.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 09, 2013, 02:07:17 AM
Arguably the best Star Trek movie is Galaxy Quest.

:lol:

That was a great movie, and a fantastic tribute to Leonard Nimoy's acting career.  :lol:

Who doesn't dream of being spoofed by Alan Rrrickman in a movie? -_-

(Well, CdM would have to be spoofed by Joe Pesci, though.)

Quote from: Syt on July 09, 2013, 07:45:31 AM
Who doesn't dream of being spoofed by Alan Rrrickman in a movie? -_-

(Well, CdM would have to be spoofed by Joe Pesci, though.)

too tall. Need a shorter actor.



:P

Well, a nyuk nyuk nyuk and a tee hee hee.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 09, 2013, 02:07:17 AM
Arguably the best Star Trek movie is Galaxy Quest.

Arguably also the best sci-fi comedy of all time.  :hmm:

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on July 09, 2013, 09:43:34 AM

Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 09, 2013, 02:07:17 AM
Arguably the best Star Trek movie is Galaxy Quest.

Arguably also the best sci-fi comedy of all time.  :hmm:

Some of the better LEXX episodes are up there.

If you see yourself as Kirk start with The "Original Series," if you see yourself as Picard "The Next Generation," if you don't see yourself as the captain then "Voyager."

Quote from: Savonarola on July 09, 2013, 01:59:52 PM
If you see yourself as Kirk start with The "Original Series," if you see yourself as Picard "The Next Generation," if you don't see yourself as the captain then "Voyager."

:lol:

Quote from: Savonarola on July 09, 2013, 01:59:52 PM
If you see yourself as Kirk start with The "Original Series," if you see yourself as Picard "The Next Generation," if you don't see yourself as the captain then "Voyager."

Pfft.

I liked Voyager. :Embarrass:

Quote from: Caliga on July 10, 2013, 06:39:39 PM
I liked Voyager. :Embarrass:

:(

Quote from: Savonarola on July 09, 2013, 01:59:52 PM
If you see yourself as Kirk start with The "Original Series," if you see yourself as Picard "The Next Generation," if you don't see yourself as the captain then "Voyager."

I'd be tempted to go on a French-speaking server and make a thread entitled "What Frenchmen sound like in the future" and link to a clip of Picard.  :lol:

Course, the hassle of running all the responses through a translator makes it not worth it.

Quote from: Caliga on July 10, 2013, 06:39:39 PM
I liked Voyager. :Embarrass:

Me too. :hug:

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F24.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lw7cupXTMs1qm8ph3o1_500.jpg&hash=8dcbac653251199cfaae648dbdcc858cba977f25)

Quote from: Syt on July 07, 2013, 11:48:40 PM
From what I've seen on SF Debris it seems to have a few interesting episodes, yes. Wasn't one even elevated to canon by Roddenberry?

Yes it was:

http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/a102.asp

Start with Enterprise, whatever you move on to next it will certainly be an improvement.