To commemorate Star Trek Day, I thought we could share our entry points to the franchise. I expect we’ll find the full range of experiences.
I actually don’t have a satisfactory answer to my own question.
Star Trek was a prominent part of the popular culture when I was a kid, so it was easy to have a basic knowledge of TOS without actually seeing it.
I think I probably saw Star Trek IV first, and the first episode I can clearly remember watching is “Unification II”, though I’m pretty certain I saw something before then.
My first introduction came from an episode of Reading Rainbow in which LeVar Burton takes the viewer on a behind-the-scenes look at how some of the props and special effects work on this other show he’s on called Star Trek: The Next Generation. I watched whatever the next episode was after that airing. According to IMDB, that episode aired August 15th, 1988, so it likely was a rerun from the 1987 season.
My mom’s home taped betamaxes of TOS
My divorced mom was a big fan of TOS, so much so that I was almost named Kirk.
Being divorced w/ 3 kids the TV was a pretty good babysitter. Something to keep us distracted while she did cooked and cleaned.
I’ve seen every episode of TOS at least 20 times, over the years, so remembering the first one is impossible. However as a kid my favorite one was the one with Gorn!
TNG was being first aired throughout my childhood and I would catch the odd episode here and there when I got to stay up and watch it with my parents to guide me, as suggested. But I didn’t get into Trek properly until I worked in construction as a labouror, my first job. When there’s no work, there’s daytime TV re-runs. The Space Network, the Canadian version of The Sci-Fi Channel, would run 2 TNGs back to back from 12-2. I got way into it then. I then watched all the series’. Now, every year or two, I’ll just throw on the first episode of TOS and go right until the end of the whole franchise in mostly air date order. I even have a playlist that has all of the overlapling seasons from the 90s to play as one big series, playing each episode by air date/chronological order based on a chronology I found online. Keeps it spicy.
It’s interesting to play by air date. I never considered that, but it would be cool to have to have it rotate between series the way a fan in the 90s would have watched it.
So you use jellyfin to make this playlist?
I use Plex. Jellyfin looks great, I try it every so often to see how it’s progressed, but it’s just not quite polished enough for me to make the switch yet.
I used this as my guide: https://thestartrekchronologyproject.blogspot.com/2009/09/and-now-conclusion.html
Except of course the Enterprise finale, I watch that at the end of enterprise, not in the middle of TNG.
