TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

I'd recommend you start with whatever you're most excited for! Every series is someone's favorite, and it often has to do with which Trek was their first.

The Original Series (TOS) is definitely quality television, and worth watching, but it can be jarring for modern audiences. If you haven't seen much scifi from the 60s, it can feel very silly.

As for which series is specifically best, the debate is usually between Deep Space 9 (DS9), and the Next Generation (TNG). I personally consider Lower Decks (LD) of this same quality, but, being an animated comedy, it's controversial in the fandom.

DS9 is widely accepted to actually be the best Star Trek. It takes itself very seriously most of the time, and has some fantastic characters. It's probably the show that gives you the best picture of what it's actually like to live in the Federation.

TNG is what most people think of when you say Star Trek, despite not being the original. It was the second live action series, which came out in the 80s, and the first of 3 shows set in roughly the same time period (TNG, DS9, and Voyager (VOY)). It was the most popular of all the Treks, and so gets a lot of special attention in pop culture, but suffers from some of the camp leftover from TOS, especially early on while they're still adapting old stories.

Voyager is a bit of a dark horse. It's MY favorite, but it has some rough episodes. It takes place outside the Federation, on the other side of the galaxy, where the Voyager and her crew have been stranded by a strange alien known as the Caretaker. The show follows their journey as they attempt to fly back to Earth, the long way, a 70 year journey.

Lower Decks takes place like 10 or so years after Voyager. It's a workplace comedy following the crew of the Cerritos, a Starfleet support ship. They're not super elite like the Enterprise, but that doesn't mean the dangers they face are any less...dangerous. It's smart, fast, and written with a clear love for the setting. They also get tons of Trek actors to reprise their roles in animation. It's definitely best to watch once you've seen a bunch of Trek, but imo, it holds up on its own. I have friends for whom it was their first Trek, and they still loved it.

You could also stick with New Trek and check out Academy or Discorey next. Be aware, you will be entering a landscape of conflict. This is where Trek has always lived, but it feels different when it's your show. A lot of people HATED Discovery, and Academy got a lot of flack from reactionaries because it was Star Trek. Personally, I liked them both, but I thought Discovery took a while to find its feet. Academy, I found fantastic, and recommended strongly. Academy is set in the far future, and includes some stuff from Discovery, but I can't tell you why, because of the Temporal Prime Directive.

There are three other series, Prodigy, Enterprise (ENT), and the Animated Series (TAS). They're all kind of special cases. TAS came out between TOS and TNG, but I've never actually seen it myself. From what I've heard, it's pretty goofy. Prodigy is targeted at kids, but it's a solid show regardless. It only got two seasons before it was cancelled, like Academy. Finally, Enterprise is a prequel, like SNW, but set even earlier. I like it, but it's tone is often darker than Trek usually is. It feels like an early 2000s scifi show imo. It's worth watching for Commander Shran alone though.

That's the real show: which one of these characters is Jeffrey Combs?