What makes Star Trek: The Original Series such a personal favorite

Star Trek: The Original Series is a great introduction for any new Trek fan.

When I cast out my mind and really try to think of which Star Trek series is my all-time favorite, it is much like deciding between pizza, tacos, or cheeseburgers, all of which I am quite fond of(possibly even a little too fond of)

I was a late comer to the world of Star Trek, not discovering it until I was 23 years old. Of course, there is not a person on this planet or any other that didn’t know what Trek was and I certainly did, but had never watched a single episode, until only a couple months before I was to turn 24 years old.

My father, who is in no way a science fiction buff, but grew up in the heydays of TOS re-runs, told me I needed to watch Star Trek, so one weekend I decided to take his advice.

By this point, I had not lived with my parents for a few years and had my own roommate and apartment, but in June my parents had asked me to house sit for them while they went out of town. I found myself with nothing to do while alone in my parents’ house, so decided to give Star Trek a try, and I have not stopped watching it since.

From the very first episode known as “The Cage” which was deemed “too cerebral” by the brass at Paramount, I was absolutely transfixed and loved “The Cage” by the way, but of course the second episode on Netflix “The Man Trap” was aptly named, for once it was over, Star Trek had me completely ensnared.

From that point on I watched at least one episode a night if not more and was entirely captivated by this television show that had come out when both of my parents were only five years old. The chemistry of the main cast was one I had never seen on the small screen, and would not see again until I started TNG roughly a year later. My imagination which has always been fascinated with worlds only the likes of which could be found in science fiction and fantasy novels, could not get enough of the new stories, new aliens, new monsters, new characters and new challenges for the Enterprise and its crew to overcome every episode.

I found myself enthralled by every single larger than life character, the confident swagger of Captain Kirk (who my father once described to me as “the James Bond of outer space”) the caring devotion and emotion of Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, and the cold level-headed logic of Spock, his always logical character ever so slightly peppered with those few beautiful moments when the emotions of his human side broke through his coldly rational and logical demeanor.

Not only that, but as a completely blind man, I will always have a soft spot in my heart of all the many sound effects of the Enterprise and other gadgets such as phasers and tri-quarters, outdated as they might now be, for a man who’s entire world is sound, you simply couldn’t have Trek without them.

After devouring all 3 seasons of TOS in just a few months, I started on TNG.

It would have been easy for me to pick TNG as my favorite series, not only for Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by the amazing Sir Patrick Stewart, or possibly even better cast chemistry than TOS, but TNG appealed to me especially, for the blind LT Commander Geordi La Forge as Chiefs engineer.

I could directly relate to the franchise’s first blind character in such a high role and absolutely loved the character.

I could have easily picked DS9, for I watched the bulk of it with my two-year old son, who found Quark absolutely hysterical, but it has to be TOS as my favorite of the Star Trek series.

When I first discovered TOS, it was during a very fun and very exciting time in my life.

I was living on my own and dating an amazing woman who would become my wife and the mother of my two beautiful children.

I was living with a good friend of mine in an apartment and almost every night he would come over from his room to mine, pizza in hand, ready to watch the next episode or two of the original series (and sometimes my future wife would be in attendance as well)

It is because of TOS that I am now making my way through the entire franchise.

It is because of TOS that I wake up at 5:00 AM every morning, an hour before I have to leave for work, and go down to my cave (sometimes dubbed “The Horta Cave”) cup of coffee in hand, and watch an episode of whichever series I am currently working on.

It is because of TOS that the text tones and notification sounds on my phone are all those beloved sound effects from TOS (my text tone is a communicator), and it is because of TOS that one of my best friends gifted me with a silver and gold Star Fleet pin for my birthday, and I sometimes pin it to my polo before leaving for work.

So, I have made the agonizing decision, and the answer was what I thought it would be the entire time.

Despite my love for each and every series and the franchise as a whole, my favorite series will always be Star Trek The Original Series.

What about my fellow Trekkies? What is your favorite series?