Subject: Star Trek favorites
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Posted on: 2013-01-25 04:04:00 UTC

What is Star Trek?

The franchise consists of five television shows, eleven (twelve in May) movies, and a plethora of non-canon books, comics, and games. Most fans - even very devoted Trekkies - have only seen a fraction of these. The first TV show was simply called Star Trek (now called Star Trek: The Original Series, abbreviated TOS) and when it came out in the '60s it was revolutionary. It was a sci-fi show that depicted an optimistic view of the future, with a United Earth as a member of an interstellar Federation, focused on peace and exploration. TOS focuses on the flagship of Starfleet, the U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, with the iconic Mr. Spock as first officer. The show ran for only three seasons, but gained enough of a following to spawn six movies and the rest of the spinoffs: Star Trek: The Next Generation (abbreviated TNG), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (abbreviated DS9), Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. TNG had a similar premise to the original, but had a whole new crew under the command of intellectual Captain Jean-Luc Picard (leading to the debate among Trekkies "Kirk or Picard?"). DS9 was the only series to focus on a space station and the only series to have a black captain, Benjamin Sisko. Voyager focuses on the adventures of a ship of the same name, under command of the only female captain of a Star Trek series, Kathryn Janeway, when it is thrown 70,000 light-years from known space. Enterprise is a prequel to all the others, showing one of the first Starfleet ships under the command of Captain Jonathon Archer. Fans of the 2009 movie are encouraged to at least watch the Original Series, considering that that's what the movie is a reboot for.

(I've probably rambled on way too long. In my defense, it's a huge franchise.)

My favorites:

My favorite series is TNG, but Voyager is such a close second that at times it surpasses it. TOS is good, but it didn't develop as many interesting characters as TNG and Voyager. Not that it it didn't develop interesting characters, it's just that only Kirk, Spock and McCoy were truly developed, while TNG and Voyager had large casts and recurring characters who were all given development. I haven't seen much of DS9 and none of Enterprise, and I can already tell DS9 is going to do the same.

On TOS my favorite character is Spock. Logical Vulcan, but with a human mother, so when he serves aboard a starship full of humans, he is torn between his Vulcan upbringing and his human side. This makes for a very interesting character. And, of course, being attractive is a nice bonus.

On TNG I like Data best. Another logical type like Spock, he is an android. He is therefore inherently logical, but his creator programmed him to be fascinated by humans, so throughout the series he is trying to become more human. This journey defines his character, and arguably makes him the most human character in all of Star Trek. And also makes him rather adorable.

In the Kirk v.s. Picard debate, I am firmly on the Picard side. Just listen to their voices.

On Voyager, Seven of Nine is my favorite. Yes, she's well known for being the sex appeal of the show, but she managed that while still being a really well-developed character. She used to be member of the Borg Collective, a mindless drone who killed thousands. Once she's separated from the Collective, she struggles to fit into human (well, non-Borg) society. Her journey is to discover her humanity, and come to terms with her Borg past. She was esssentially raised by the Borg, so she has to learn to let those ideals go or reconcile them with humanity. Very interesting character.

And then there's Q, a recurring character on both TNG and Voyager. My Little Pony fans will recognize him as Discord. A nigh-omnipotent being and "next of kin to chaos", as Picard puts it, the story's sure to get interesting if Q's around.

That's what I like best about Star Trek: the characters. It's a sci-fi show, but its real strength is using that sci-fi setting to create thought-provoking storylines and quirky characters.

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