[MadMax]

I started watching Star Trek simply because of this...



Having that one in my pinball collection for one year and not watching any Star Trek series wouldn't have made much sense, so I started watching TNG (with "the bald guy", Jean-Luc Picard - am I the first to properly spell him?) and found it so enjoyable that I watched all seven seasons from start to finish - not on TV of course, and not in German (the German dub sucks).

I have to say that TNG remains probably the most "original" Star Trek series; DS9, Voyager and especially Enterprise stray away from the original formula and atmosphere too much. I don't like the original series, but I feel that even when I rewatch some TNG episodes right now, they have an atmosphere and a way of presenting their stories that feels "classic" and "right" for the Star Trek name. The TNG crew is probably the only one which follows the intended concept of Star Trek, with DS9 advancing into more political (and interesting) plots of war and racism, and the series follows an overall story arc much more than TNG, just like Voyager (which has brilliant execution in many episodes, it's the most thrilling series in my eyes) and Enterprise. The last series feels "new" and "current" with its visual style and its way of storytelling and acting, and doesn't retain much of the Star Trek formula except for names and tech stuff. Still a worthy series to watch if you want to learn more about the Trek universe, though.