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Top 50 Greatest Things: #5

 These are my top 50 greatest things.


Number 5: Star Trek


Star Trek is a science fiction franchise that contains several television series, movies, comics, novels, board games, basically a whole lot of media. Every fan has different things they like and it's largely dependent on their entry point into the world. It's kind of fascinating to me because someone can be a huge fan of this franchise without even seeing a second of anything released in the 20th century. For me, I've only seen Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and the 10 movies involving the original and TNG casts. Right now I've been rewatching Deep Space 9 coinciding with Voyager depending on the air date, which the latter is a first time watch for me outside a handful of episodes. 

The first Trek I watched was a long time ago at a hotel with my dad. I was flipping through channels until I landed on something that piqued my interest. I wasn't sure what I was watching until my dad said "I didn't know you liked Star Trek, bud.". That first episode I caught the end of just so happened to be Chain of Command Part 1 from TNG which got me interested and fortunately that channel aired Part 2 right after which sold me on the whole thing. I took my new obsession with me when I went back to my mother's and it's something that ebbs and flows within me ever since. 

Dorothy Fontana and Gene Coon are my favorite Trek writers and this entry is dedicated to them just as much as it is for the franchise. The most surface level things I can say about their styles are that Fontana brought a huge emotional depth to characters and beautifully sets up conflict that not only is a danger to the crew but combats with our character's convictions and Coon brought a big adventure feel with snappy dialogue akin to classic screwball comedy. 

I can go on and on and on and on about all of this but I won't. I will say two more things. First, rewatching DS9 has been a revelation that it's the second best Trek show for me behind the original series. TNG is like a third baseman who's capable of advancing runners, occasionally hits a solo home run, but struggles to get control of grounded balls coming their way. DS9 is a center fielder who's always on top of the ball in the outfield, has the arm of a cannon to throw to home for the out in tricky spots, and not only will get on base but will steal them all day. Secondly, the optimism the show has about the future of mankind is something that should be embraced and never forgotten.

How about two favorites episodes from each series (that I've seen)? TOS: The Doomsday Machine and Journey to Babel, the Animated series: Yesteryear and Bem, TNG: Chain of Command Part 2 and The Survivors, DS9: Far Beyond the Stars and The Visitor, Voyager: ... haven't even finished season 2 and I'm not exactly loving it so far but I've seen Blink of an Eye so I'll go with that. My favorite of the movies is Star Trek: The Motion Picture!





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