Any series
Inner Light is a good choice. It demonstrates the “vibe” of TNG without relying heavily on any pre existing characters.
I introduced a friend with the first episode of Strange New Worlds. Then they binged TNG & VOY. More to come soon. ^^
My only complaints about Ep1 are that pike and sock discuss the classified DIS stuff in the hallway in front of the turbolift, and then Una and Pike talk about it in plain text in front of the bridge crew during the rescue completely unnecessarily.
Both minor!
I happen to remember a similar conversation - I’ll link it for more ideas: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/49435208
I’m not casting any judgement for posting a similar question! Because a) how would you know about that other thread, and b) this is a topic people can, and will enjoy, discussing endlessly
On Reddit we actually had a rule that it was OK to ask “where do I start” or “how do I get my friend into Star trek” questions because someone would inevitably complain about “this again”. As if:
- Trekkies don’t love answering this question
- The existing Star Trek discussion boards on the internet weren’t gatekeepey enough…
I would suggest these three Voyager episodes:
- Message in a Bottle
- Shattered
- Timeless
- Someone to Watch Over Me
The last three would be more impactful if you’ve seen the whole series and are attached to the characters, but I think they’re great.
Shattered is my favorite VOY episode. Great suggestion.
Strange New Worlds pilot episode
Depends on what you are looking for. Trek does a lot of different things and can appeal to people in different ways.
I like measure of a man and yesterday’s enterprise for TNG. Both work as examples of a lot of the best aspects of star trek, and come early enough to jump into the series while skipping the crap in season 1, at least until they know they like the show.
At the same time, Yesterday’s Enterprise needs some context. It doesn’t work quite as well in a vacuum.
Like why it was such a big deal that Tasha Yar finding out she didn’t exist in another timeline, why the Klingon war is such a horrible development, and why the Enterprise was willing to put itself on the line to send them back to change history.
Plus it’s also unusually gory for TNG. A couple of people die in quite violent and horrible ways, and they could easily be misread as being the standard tone for the show, rather than the exception.
The context is important, but all that needs to be said is that she is a main character that died in the first season. It’s actually the firsted episode with Tasha that I saw when Istarted TNG and how I’ve introduced others to the show. There’s no details needed, no history, just the knowledge that she is dead.
Beyond Tasha, I’d say there’s a lot of nuance in Yesterday’s Enterprise that calls for more context. You can’t know how wrong the wartime setting feels if you have basically no exposure to the uncorrupted timeline. A new viewer can certainly get by, but it’s a much better episode if you have some experience with the show already.
There’s a lot of episodes that only have impact of you are invested in the characters. Some are or self contained so could be worth a watch but it depends on the audience.
If anyone that likes sci-fi asks me I always say DS9. It has plot arcs and characters that grow, also a few silly and not so good bits but it stands up.
If they like that or like something similar like Stargate, seaquest, farscape or Sliders then we can find something for them, if they haven’t really tried sci-fi then you could do worse than strange new worlds within Trek or commit and try The Expanse for some modern sci-fi that kicks ass.
the trouble with tribbles, of course.
Followed by Trials and Tribble- ations
Throw in The Trouble With Edward and you’ve got a trilogy spanning the three very roughly defined eras of the franchise.
This question comes up a lot, and I always respond with Carbon Creek. Is it the best Trek? Hell no. But what it is is a story that requires no knowledge of Trek. Anything relevant to a new viewer is brought up by Tucker or Archer at the dinner table. And it does introduce a new viewer to some key lore about the history of humanity relative to this wider universe, as well as what a wide reach the Vulkan’s had in developing the alpha and beta quadrants.
If the person isnt interested in scifi, its unlikely they will watch it, if they are, i would suggest DS9, VOYAGER, enterprise, and tng. i dont reccomend nutrek, because its under kurtzman its so bad.
strange new worlds has some legitimately good trek. i wish they’d experiment less given there are so few episodes per year but overall it’s excellent. you still get your adventure of the week while having a few loose continuing threads (and the major thread of Pike’s inevitable end. spoiler alert?)
snw would be better with different actors and probably taking notes from the old trek.
