[JDTurnbull272]

Alright, so I am INCREDIBLY new to Star Trek. In fact, I have only seen a few episodes from series I don't even remember what they were called...

But I feel like I'm at a great point in my life to finally immerse myself into the series.
I searched quite a bit for this, but couldn't find much on this online...

But assuming I have every single Movie and every Television episode, what order of Movies and episodes would I want to watch for the most optimal chronological story?

Like I said, I'm incredibly new to the whole series, and I want to get into it, but I'm kinda ocd and want to do it right...

[HippyDave]

Originally Posted by JDTurnbull272

But assuming I have every single Movie and every Television episode, what order of Movies and episodes would I want to watch for the most optimal chronological story?

Well, if you want to be strictly chronological, you'd need to watch it in this order:

Star Trek: Enterprise (Seasons 1-4)
Star Trek (Seasons 1-3)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Seasons 1-5)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 1)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 6)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 2)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3)
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 1)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 4)
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 2)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 5)
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 3)
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 6)
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 4)
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 7)
Star Trek: Voyager (Seasons 5-7)
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek (2009 movie)

As you can see, there's a fair bit of overlapping in the middle there...

This is me being especially pedantic, though - plus overlooking a whole bunch of time travel and flashbacks, etc. IMO, there's no substitute for watching each series one at a time, in this chronological order, inserting the films into the correct time period as you go (for some of the films, notably Insurrection, knowing what's going on elsewhere at the time adds a bit of useful background info - you don't need to know it to enjoy it, but it definitely makes some of the commentary more fun).

Oh, and PS: welcome aboard! You've got a lot of great TV coming your way!

[kevin]

Welcome,

Yeah I would agree with a lot of that but I'd probably re-order things a little for practicality.

I'd start with TOS then the TOS movies, then all TNG and the TNG films, then all DS9, all Voyager (just bearing in mind that here we start to have simultaneous storylines mentioned in the TNG films/Voyager/DS9) and then do Enterprise last.

The reason I put Enterprise last is because it carries explanations for things that were never explained in TOS, so watching it before you get the answers before you've seen the questions.

But, whichever way you decide to start, I hope you enjoy them and let us know how you find them.

[horatio]

It is indeed not necessary to watch it all chronologically, following the real world chronology would be more natural.

Trek consists of about 500h, 11 movies and ca. 700 episodes, so I'd just watch a few of the best episodes of each series (there are some episodes like City on the Edge of Forever or Best of Both Worlds nearly everyone considers superb) to decide what series suits your taste.
Or start with "The Cage".

[JDTurnbull272]

Wow, thanks for all the great suggestions!

Another thing...Everyone was telling me that the new movie was some sort of prequel or something. Would that change the placement of where I might want to start on or anything?
And should I go see that while it is in the theaters for a better experience, despite where it is placed in the series? Yeah, I know I'm probably all over the place here, but I really just want to enjoy myself and not need to look back and be like 'Oh crap, I watched 500 hours of Star Trek media, and it was all in the wrong order!! Now I need to watch it all over again!!!'

But thanks again guys!

[teamosil]

Actually, I think that might be interesting to watch them all chronologically... But yeah, since you're new to Star Trek, you'd probably be best off watching The Next Generation first. That one seems like the most likely one to catch people's interest initially, and once you get into it you'll enjoy the other serieses a lot more. If you just start off right out of the gates with Enterprise, you might think the franchise has less to offer than it actually does. Not that Enterprise is bad exactly, but probably not as engaging as some of the others.

[teamosil]

Originally Posted by JDTurnbull272

Another thing...Everyone was telling me that the new movie was some sort of prequel or something. Would that change the placement of where I might want to start on or anything?

Yeah, it sort of is a prequel, but it is in a different timeline, so it kind of doesn't fit precisely in the lineup HippyDave posted. But, the point where it breaks from the main timeline is after Enterprise and before the original series, so I would put it there instead of at the end.

[horatio]

JD, you really don't need to concern yourself too much with wrong or right order. I have watched Trek absolutely in absolutely no order (VOY, TNG, DS9, TOS, ENT). Just check out some stuff and if you like a series, watch it chronologically. But inter-series chronology is pretty much irrelevant.

[kevin]

You could also check out some of the themed box sets that each have episodes from all series - The Captains, Time Travel, The Borg, The Klingons etc that would allow you to dip your toes into each series and see how you find them.

If one series in particular appeals, start with that one.

[Tarciryan]

As I'm completely new to Star Trek myself, I too would like to thank those who posted in this thread (aswell as the OP), it was very helpful:-)

I do have one additional question. At the moment I have all the movies on my computer, but I don't yet have all the episodes of TOS. Would I loose anything by watching TMP now before finishing TOS? I've only seen five episodes so far.