The 943 Club
The 943 Club
There are 943 Star Trek episodes and movies if you include Short Treks and the Kelvin timeline.
As of today, having finished the second season of Prodigy (and if you do not watch it, you are missing out on so much!) I have seen all 943.
So, this is the thread for members of the 943 club and those who hope to get there.
As far as what has officially been announced for what's coming up, there will soon be a 965 club (10 episodes each of LD and SNW plus the Section 31 movie).
So let's talk about it, club members: Where did you start and where did you finish? What was your journey? I started watching TOS reruns as a toddler with my brother. I was born in 1977, so I remember watching the premiere of TNG and being so excited. I remember Nickelodeon broadcasting TAS reruns. I remember going to my first Star Trek convention the day after Star Trek V premiered and the hype was still enough for people to just be excited about a new Star Trek movie. I remember the premiere of DS9 and people unfavorably comparing it to Babylon 5. I remember the premiere of Voyager and the anger by some people online about a female captain and a black Vulcan. I remember First Contact exceeding everyone's expectations and Insurrection being a huge disappointment. I remember Enterprise being lackluster enough for me to give up, but being glad I came back so I could see season four. I remember the JJ movies and I was not pleased with any of them even though I saw them all. I remember not liking season 1 of Discovery but giving it a chance and sticking with it and then being excited about SNW because of Pike. I remember thinking that an animated Rick and Morty Star Trek was a terrible idea until I saw Lower Decks. And I remember saying animated Star Trek for kids just wasn't for me and now I rank a lot of Prodigy episodes amongst the best of Star Trek (the Kobiyashu Maru episode was incredible).
And now my journey through Star Trek television and film is at a pause until more comes out. I hope the journey will not come to an end any time soon and there will be a 1000+ club eventually.
Welcome club members and club hopefuls!
I am a season of DSC, the new season of Prodigy, and some short treks behind you.
I started with broadcast TNG, and then DS9. Once I had it available on streaming I watched TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, TOS, TAS and the movies.
Never was part of the fandom community until the last few years. I can't imagine people being mad about a black Vulcan or female captain! Star Trek always felt to me (as a straight white dude) as a place where everyone was welcome.
5I can’t imagine people being mad about a black Vulcan or female captain!
It was a loud minority. People who didn't understand that Star Trek has always been about diversity. The "Vulcans aren't black!" people were especially silly. I kept saying to them, "how many Vulcans out of the billions of Vulcans out there have we actually seen?" And TNG already had women who were admirals, so the complaints about Janeway were silly too.
It's the usual conservative contingent of Star Trek fans who ignore everything that makes Star Trek what it is in favor of pew pew space battles.
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Old timer here. It’s easy to be a completionist when you do it over decades.
Just watched them all as they came out for the most part, after starting somewhere mid season one of TOS. With the reruns, I was soon caught up.
But I always argue strongly that whatever show grabs someone most is the best place to start for them. There’s no ‘best’ way and some of the shows reach different demographics better or worse.
Our teenage kids have never made it through every episode of TOS or Enterprise, and balk at DS9. Each has watched every episode of at least one of the newer shows, but not the same ones. But they find different ones more interesting as they mature.
3But I always argue strongly that whatever show grabs someone most is the best place to start for them. There’s no ‘best’ way and some of the shows reach different demographics better or worse.
I don't disagree at all. In fact, I think TOS is probably pretty hard to sit through for a lot of people, not just your teenagers, but plenty of adults who grew up after TNG and more modern-looking shows existed. TNG suffers from 80sness here and there, but the look is unusual enough to not feel ridiculously dated, but TOS, as much as I love it, does not have that going for it. Special effects on a TV budget just wouldn't have been enough in the 60s.
And I'm sure that a lot of people would be fine these days starting with something like SNW, but like I said, you could probably start pretty much anywhere. The only exceptions I would make are Picard and LD, both of which do rely on a lot of lore knowledge to really enjoy.
Also, Prodigy is such an incredibly good introduction to virtually all major Star Trek concepts that it's a great place for anyone to start.
2Have to disagree on Lower Decks.
Longtime fans keep putting forward the inference, based on their knowledge of the franchise, that Lower Decks won’t work for those who don’t get the references.
But the data keeps squashing that hypothesis.
There is a significant group of younger millennials and Zs that got into the franchise via Lower Decks. They’re the target market of viewers of ‘adult animated comedy’ and the format/media rather than the Easter eggs are the hook for them.
On other platforms, you hear a lot from them, as well as from Trek fans who say they got their housemates, BF/GF or siblings into the franchise by watching Lower Decks with them.
If the show weren’t limited to a platform that’s otherwise offering little for their niche, it would have had more success. But Paramount+ just doesn’t have enough in that niche to make it worth subscribing to for them.
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