I'm in my 30s, but I was around your age when I really started to appreciate Star Trek. The original series is from 1966-69, so it's campy like most shows back then, but it's good.

Gene Roddenberry's idea was to make a show that wasn't reflective of society, but was representative of what we could become. Humans had put aside their differences, achieved post-scarcity, and decided to explore space together. Men and women in Starfleet serve as equals. The crew of the ship are all different races/nationalities but act like it's no big deal (which it definitely was in the 60s). This is what started it all, and then Star Trek: The Next Generation really matured the series in the 1980s. The show is at its best when it gets philosophical, but it also has a lot of goofy moments.

If you like sci-fi, I'd say give it a chance. Also, based on your username, I think you'll pick up on a lot more references in Futurama. Futurama is like 30% Star Trek references, lol. (I think the scene in this meme might be from the episode where Spock is feeling weird because he needs to go back to his planet to perform his Pon Farr - so, basically that episode where the same thing happened to Zoidberg.)

Melodrama is low, goofy sci-fi hijinks are high, camp is off the charts. There's a lot of morality tales and vague (and not so vague) inferences about politics and social stigmas. Up until DS9 (and even for a large portion of that) the series are very episodic, rather than serial, so long-term stakes are generally pretty low. They're good shows to throw on occasionally if you want something relatively low stakes to watch but enjoy being forced to think about things.

I think if you liked The Martian then there's a good chance you may like Star Trek - it's filled with a similar spirit of optimism and science and progress.

My suggestion would be to start with Star Trek: The Next Generation (by far the most mainstream successful Star Trek show) and pick a few episodes to test it out. Don't watch in chronological order to begin with, as to be honest the first season (and to some extent the second) is very hit-and-miss.

Perhaps try these episodes first, and if you like it then you can go back to the beginning and watch a few more (or otherwise just carry on into season 4 and circle back to the earlier episodes later):

• s1 ep25 'The Neutral Zone' - note this is not a top-tier episode but it involves some 20th century characters being introduced to the 24th century so might do some helpful introduction to the universe.

• s2 ep9 'The Measure of a Man'

• s2 ep16 'Q Who'

• s3 ep4 'Who Watches the Watchers'

• s3 ep15 'Yesterday's Enterprise'

• s3 ep26 + s4 ep1 'The Best of Both Worlds (part 1 and 2)'

I think generally TNG peaks around season 4-6 so this would give you some highlights from the earlier seasons to test whether you like it, and then a run of stronger seasons to carry straight on to if you do want to keep going.

Another option could be to try Strange New Worlds (the newest show) which I suspect ought to appeal fairly well to new fans but is unfortunately only available on the Paramount+ streaming service.

IMO 90s Star Trek is peak Trek. I can’t stand the original series but I did suffer through it for context for the rest of the franchise. It’s progressive for the 1960s, but the distance we’ve come since then makes it seem absolutely awful. I find the sound effects grating as well.

Authorized novels written in the last 25 years make Kirk much less of a smug, womanizing, drinking on the job prick than the show and movies do.

Picard, Sisko and Janeway all make up for what Kirk lacks.

Been quite a while since I’ve seen this one, but I think this is the episode where Kirk and Spock fight each other. They fall prey to some alien influence and it makes them turn violent. Which kinda makes this meme even funnier tbh, since that’s a relatively rare trope in trek universe (although each series has done something similar at least once).

Start with TNG. But the first two seasons are pretty bad. Watch the first episode where everyone gets introduced, then skip to s2. Tasha will be gone and Worf will have taken her place. Riker will have a beard. The whole show will be much better. You can look up which episode Riker grows the beard. The entire show becomes way better from that point forward, so much so that "Riker's Beard" has become an expression which means the opposite of Jumped the Shark. You can go back and watch the first two seasons when you're done if you want to. There are 3 really bad episodes during season 7, but the finale is amazing.

When you're finished, watch the first episode of DS9. You'll be super bored. Then skip to the one where Miles becomes a prisoner. Then skip to middle of season 2. It doesn't really pick up until the beginning of s3, but there's some important developments during s2 that you'll want to catch. You can loop back around at the end if you want and watch the first 2.5 seasons.

From there you can go back and watch the ToS if you want, but it's pretty campy by today's standards. There's a few exceptional episodes, but even those are just okay compared to the 90's stuff. There are a few TNG movies too which are okay. Once you're done with TNG and DS9, you're on your own. I don't really consider anything except the first three series to be valid Trek.