New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

DS9 only really gets its legs starting in the third season with the introduction of The Dominion. The Dominion War has some of the best Trek episodes ever (In the Pale Moonlight), and some of the worst (The baseball episode), but overall the story arc is awesome.

Hopefully this would be based after the end the war with the Dominion at the end of Deep Space Nine. Enterprise and the new movies have made me tired of Star Trek, not interested in prequels and origin stories any longer.

The Original Series (TOS) has a level of camp that people either love or hate. The original films (1-6) don't rely too much on the series, though I do recommend watching the TOS episode "Space Seed" before The Wrath of Khan. If I recommend a single episode out of all of TOS, it would probably be "The City on the Edge of Forever".

The Next Generation (TNG) took a few seasons to really hit its stride, some will recommend starting at season 3 - though I personally recommend suffering through the first two seasons at least once. Like TOS, TNG is highly episodic is mostly devoid of major story arcs. My favorite series, but probably more for nostalgia than anything else. "Best of Both Worlds" is a fan favorite episode, though I will recommend "The Inner Light" for anyone - even someone who has never even heard of Star Trek.

Deep Space Nine was a bit controversial when it came out, as it moved away from Roddenberry's idealistic "Wagon Train to The Stars" model of a show and more into conflict and gritty geopolitics set in the same era as TNG. There's a story arc and the characters experience far more development throughout the show than the cast of TNG ever did. I've come to enjoy it more as an adult than when I first watched it on the air as a kid.

As for Voyager or Enterprise, I haven't really watched either of them.

The original series is probably worth watching all of, just because there aren't that many episodes, and a few of them are real gems; it also sets the stage for some other things that are worth watching.

Read a summary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (actually if you can, read a summary of a summary, the pacing of the movie is so ponderous). The even numbered movies are the best, but it's probably worth watching the 3rd one as well for continuity. The majority of the fandom pretends that the fifth movie never happened, and is well worth skipping.

The Next Generation (TNG) and Deep Space Nine (DS9) are the two that seem to have the strongest following with Voyager being a bit divisive among the fandom (depending on who you ask it either sucks or is good).

You will have to suffer through the first season of TNG and just trust that it will get better.

DS9 can stand on its own fairly well, but if you want continuity you can watch any time after season 5 of TNG. DS9 enters a fairly significant tone shift around season 4, and season 1, like TNG, is not necessarily representative of the entire series.

[edit] Here's a super-short summary of the above:

TOS

Movies: 2,3,4,6

TNG: at least first 3 seasons, if you don't like after season 3, drop. If you're impatient, you can watch just the pilot than skip to season 3 and not miss too much.

DS9: Seasons 4 and 5 of TNG develop some of the races that are prominent in DS9, so it's best if you wait until at least season 5 of TNG to watch, if you really didn't like season 3 of TNG, then this will stand on its own though.

Voyager: It was not my cup of tea; some fans liked it though.

> Sci Fi shows are expensive to make period

So never saw the Dr. Who series int he 1970s and 1980s :)

Personally I loved the campy Dr Whos a lot.

BBC - "Your almost Out of Budget and you have 3 part series to finish"

Producer - "No problem we will put a trash can over that guy and tape up a few trash bags, throw some kids paint on it and there is our new monster." "We will also call the gravel pit see if we can use it as a location during there lunch breaks."