I first got into trek with the 09 movie. It was a lot better than I expected and a good friend of mine is huge into Trek.
I decided to give the tv series a try. After being a little unsure what to watch I started with ENT. I figured it’s my first time watching trek and it’s their first time exploring and I liked that parallel. I’ve recently rewatched this series and liked it a whole lot more. This series is much better after having seen at least TNG, DS9 or VOY.
My watch order, not including new Trek was,
ENT > TNG > VOY > DS9 > TOS > TAS > PRO > TOS movies.
I watched all the other new trek stuff as it came out and watched the TNG movies a few months back.
By far, the TOS movies were the hardest to enjoy. The 2, 3, and 4 movies were decent, but 5 was really bad.
TOS series was also a little hard to get through. I could only watch a few episodes at a time. Unlike PRO which I watched in a day.
It’s hard to pick a beat or favorite series, but if you were going to watch one I think I’d easily recommend TNG. It’s such a great show and has such a great cast.
I’m loving all the new trek stuff as well. I’m really surprised at how good PRO was. And SNW has been a masterpiece.
I’m rewatching DS9 now and I’m at the start of season 3. Wow, this show has so many good episodes just one after another.
I generally find watching in release order tends to work better than chronological order at least the first time thru. The episodes are written assuming you aware of future events depicted in previous shows, if you aren't they tend to lose a lot of their impact.
Congrats for getting thru TAS, I have tried and I just can't.
While I agree about starting with TNG, I'd honestly love to rewatch most TOS episodes. Every trek has had at least one main character I just could not bring myself to like, except for TOS. The show is completely different, but the character interaction is amazing. Worth noting, I also love all the TOS movies, while the first and last TNG movies I just didn't care for.
I recently completed all the official releases myself. I'm now working on the fan made movies/shows(give Star Trek Continues a shot. It's like TOS, and in some ways better). In general, I don't like any of the movies. They're ok, but I'd prefer they took the budgets, and made 10(or more!) tv episodes instead. I like more thought, and less action/effects. TAS was ok. The kitschy cartoon style is cool. I'm from the era, so it's nostalgic for me :^D
I’m a bit younger than you, but I still watched plenty of cartoons with those styles. I mean I didn’t have internet as a kid, so I just watched what was on.
I couldn't get through ENT.
It was way too serious and "sexy" to be Star Trek imo.
The characters also weren't quite diverse or amusing as all the other series.
I get that it was set before many new species were discovered, but I would at least have added like a snarky companion robot, or the last of a dying species or something.
And all the sitting in the airlock in underwear wasn't really necessary either.
With the rest of your ranking I do agree.
TNG was the best series by far, just because of the great cast and excellent writing (with some caveats)
It being too sexy wasn’t really an issue for me, but Archer was wildly cheesy at times. I really had trouble with him as the captain at times. But it seems he grew into that character in the second or late first season.