The Star Trek 726-athon

I'm going to attempt to watch all 726 episodes of Star Trek in order. As I go, I will post my thoughts here.

Unlike my year-long Mystery Science Theater 3000 project, this marathon will be much more relaxed. I won't have a self-imposed time limit. I'll write as much or as little as I feel like about each episode. I don't think I'll bother with numerical ratings. There won't be any fancy pages collecting title screenshots. Instead, each post with simply have the "star trek" label attached at the bottom.

Why do this? It sounds like fun. I can't think of any other moving-picture universe with this much content (well, other than Doctor Who) and every single episode has been released on easy-to-watch DVD. I'm also curious. It'll be interesting to see the concept mutate over four decades. Will Roddenberry's death effect the show immediately, not at all, or diffusely throughout the years? How many time travel episodes will I have to wade through? Will anything be more ridiculous than "Spock's Brain"?

Starting out, my opinion on each of the series:

TOS, I like. It's colorful, silly and serious, progressive and backward, and there's some damned good stories in it.

Of TAS, I have only vague memories. Watching it as a child, I found it oddly reserved compared to my regular, hyperactive 1980s animation.

I was tuned-in for the premiere of TNG and immediately got into it. It modernized the morality established in TOS, put together a great set of characters and told some more damned good stories. It's recently been rerun on two different channels and I keep finding myself watching it when I flip by.

I've probably seen less than five episodes of DS9. The idea of Trek trapped on a space station never appealed to me. Many say this is the best of all the series and I'm interested in finding out if this is true.

VOY was horrible. Judging from the episodes I've seen, this is apparently where Trek jumped the space-shark. I've got a rant or two built-up already for some episodes. Hopefully, it's not as bad as I remember.

ENT was originally broadcast when Farscape was still on the air. In comparison, I found ENT to be stilted, tired and timid. The idea of moving into Trek's past, instead of pushing further into a hopeful future, rubbed me the wrong way. I never made it past the first season.

All of this adds up to 694 live-action shows, 22 cartoons and 10 movies. This should work out to between 500 and 600 hours of red-shirt-dyin', phasers-on-stunnin', anomaly-encounterin', transporter-accidentin' entertainment. If I make it.