Star Trek
I’m a nerd. That much is apparent about me most, if not all, of the time. And while I wouldn’t number myself among the fanatically dedicated Trekkies, I do tend to watch it whenever I get the chance. My wife couldn’t help but roll her eyes when I got excited about our new cable setup, which included access to G4TV, and thus episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation every weeknight.
There really isn’t anything not to like about Star Trek: The Next Generation. To me, it stands as the archetype of the genre, even moreso than the original. Picard is the man, Riker is a player, and Data is downright cool. The series has a nice balance of drama and comedy. Best of all, even the longest plotlines span only two episodes. Unlike other sci-fi series, it comes in short, one-hour bytes that can easily be watched on their own without needing the context of every other. For a nerd like me, it’s a great way to unwind after a long day at work.
My personal favorite of all Star Treks, however, was Star Trek: Voyager. I realize that this leaves me in the minority, but I have much more respect for Captain Janeway. There’s something about one ship against the entire quadrant that has a lot of appeal to me. Captain Picard got to sit at the helm of Star Fleet’s flagship inside (or at least close to) Federation territory. Captain Janeway, on the other hand, was on a small ship far from any backup. There’s an undeniable element of danger that wasn’t present on Next Generation. Until the series ended, I never missed an episode.
I honestly never had a great deal of interest in the other Star Trek series. Deep Space 9 looked cool, but it had such a grandiose plot that I never had a chance to get into it. I would watch one episode, miss three, and then have no idea what was going on. The original Star Trek series was a joke of bad writing. I refused to watch after they saw Abraham Lincoln on the main viewer, floating in space. As for Enterprise, I just never found the characters very appealing. Maybe there’s something about the name Star Trek that just has to be there to connect it to its predecessors.