I’m going to say any or none of the suggestions here may be right.

And some of them, like Inner Light, are awful choices simply because their impact is very dependent on having the context the rest of the series and characters.

The main thing is that Star Trek has a wide variety of tones. The way to success is to provide excellent examples of very Trekie episodes that are in the genre or tone that your brother already likes.

Don’t show them action if they like cerebral mystery. Don’t show them romance if they like action. Don’t show them intense drama if they’re into comedy. If they’re into animated comedies or anime, start with Lower Decks or Prodigy not TNG.

Examples from this perspective…

If they like psychological horror, then TNG’s ‘Schisms’ or Voyager’s ‘The Thaw’ might be best.

If they like action, Discovery’s two part pilot might be the one or even the movie Star Trek (2009).

New fans & returning fans are always welcome on c/risa.

Star Trek is up to 11 different shows not including shorts & movies. Each has a core ensemble of ~ 7 characters plus recurring ones.

These characters are from two different 90s era shows Deep Space 9 (Martok and Kira) and Enterprise (T’Pol and Archer).

This instance has an FAQ and wiki that includes ‘where to start.’

. . . and so we, step by tiny step, lure yet another one in.

Not everyone in 1965 had a nice new big television, let alone a colour one.

Here’s a top of the line RCA model from 1954…

More like 18 months.

It would have been a year had the third season gone into production May 2nd as originally scheduled. But with production on hold until the actors contract is settled, and a year for post after, we’ll be lucky to see it in late 2024.

Be ready for mid 20th attitudes, special effects and theatrics style production…and camp.

At nearly 60 years old, TOS is actually more bearable for me again than it was watching it in the 1990s - 30 years in it seemed cringey.

But what it does have is wild and trippy Star Trek energy, the kind of vibe SNW is recapturing for modern audiences. Lower Decks too.

TNG was going for a more professional cerebral vibe, and less fun. It was a nice contrast to TOS, but it’s nice to have something new with that vibe. Voyager really leaned into the weird in its journey across the Delta Quadrant, but played it straight more often than not.

Some thoughts after sleeping on it…

— I found the 4 x 01 Twovix the best season premiere yet.

All the premieres seem callback and Easter egg heavy. Making this one a museum (ship) mishap episode worked that into the story in a natural way and allowed some of the weirdest and trippyest things from Voyager to pike on. Bravo.

While some reviewers have expressed regrets that the original Voyager actors voices weren’t used, I’m glad that the focus stayed on the Cerritos crew, the artifacts and how Voyager remains dangerous wherever she is, even as a literal museum.

I am unhappy that the Klingon lower decker and his ship were sacrificed for the seasonal mystery big bad. It’s clear it’s really dangerous though. (Perhaps the mystery ship is collecting humanoids to take them to another era where they are extinct….?)

It’s also likely the case that I enjoyed the ride of the premiere more for knowing I had another new episode to watch immediately.

— The second episode was mostly a straightforward Lower Decks classic, but one that did its job to move the main 4 lower deckers into their new roles.

We’ll have to see how well it works on rewatch, but the moopsie scenes seem likely to be classics. After the Voyager celebration of weird in the season premiere, it was very smart for Lower Decks to underscore its ability to give us its own very original weirdness, and remind us that humanity are the most dangerous in the menagerie.

I’m glad that they make Rutherford a bit of an odd man out in the promotions. I still feel that he’s a bit of an incomplete person/character because his ambition and drive has been submerged by the implant. I really hope that the writers will keep dribbling out more about that.

It’s still in production.

As Waltke clarifies in the interview at the link:

Q …When the removal from Paramount+ was first announced, Prodigy was reported to be cancelled, but technically that isn’t right is it?

A. Yeah, as far as I know. There was a lot of confusion because it was kind of announced alongside a number of shows that were I believe, officially cancelled. But at the bottom of some of those articles, you saw the caveat of like, “Oh, we’re actually still producing our show and we’re shopping it around for the potential for more episodes and licensing.”

I’m relieved to hear that the group will be promoted. 3 years is a fairly long haul as ensigns, even on a second tier ship. The humour and credibility would begin to wear a bit thin if they at that rank throughout the show’s run. (… yes, I know about Ensign Kim and that was inexplicable - he should have been given an acting promotion to lieutenant at minimum.)

It’s interesting that TrekMovie has this article up before the news release has been posted. (I checked the Paramount+ press site and the most recent posting for Lower Decks is for the trailer release July 22nd, and these details aren’t in that one.)

That was likely added to quell reactions to a woman as a first officer. But the Network had notes even so on how negatively test audiences reacted to Majel Barrett’s Number One.

Roddenberry tried another tack with blonde, beehived, Whitney in a miniskirt as Yeoman Janice Rand. She was supposed to be a woman main character but even that was too much for the executives and she was written out by the end of the first season.

That is M’Ress, a Catian, and the back up Comms officer among other roles.

Animation allows for aliens that aren’t just bumpy forehead humanoids.

T’Ana, the Chief Medical Officer in Lower Decks and, a minor recurring character in the first season of Prodigy (shown in my avatar) are also Caitian.

Strongly recommend seeing TAS at least once. There’s a lot of great stuff in there from the original TOS writers and cast.

A shout out to Trek Core’s great database of screencaps. This one is from their TAS BlueRay screencap library.

This exactly. Using something closer to the xenomorphs of Alien, introduces a truly frightening species that is sufficiently different that their kind of intelligence and motivations are believably difficult for Federation humanoids to understand.

I know there are other older fans struggling with this, but I think it’s saving the Gorn and Arena from absurdity.

No matter how compelling the story, TOS Arena’s ridiculous rubber suit Gorn has become one of the most recognized images from the franchise in popular culture.

Even as a child watching the episode in its first run it seemed more like silly monster movie stuff. It didn’t have the quality of truly scary monsters of that era such as the Creature of the Black Lagoon. It wasn’t in any way reaching Roddenberry’s target high value sci-fi standard of Forbidden Planet or even The Cage.

More, with so many later stories of Kirk and other captains welcoming the strange and different, coming to terms with very alien species, we need to be shown why Kirk was so hostile to the Gorn by the time of TOS.

While they could have gone for some other kind of reptilian, I like SNW’s choice to go with a the biology of parasitic R-breeder. Roddenberry’s original concept for the Ferengi was closer to the parasitic bat people of Andromeda than what TNG and DS9 gave us. The updated Gorn can be viewed as incorporating that idea and making them as terrifying.