Star Trek

What do you like better, TOS or the first 6 movies?

Impossible for me to say. 

I loved TOS because, well, it's TOS. The movies, even though some were flawed, were bold because they moved the characters along in life, gave them game-changing challenges, and really flipped the original formula on it's head quite frequently. 

I find the First Four films quite good and easily as enjoyable as the series itself.

However, Star Trek V and Star Trek VI are mediocre, at best, and simply cannot compare to the brilliance of the series.  (Plus, the stink of TNG-influence is all over them!)

If someone came over to my house and asked to watch some original Trek?  I'd probably instinctually head for one of those bright yellow, blue, and red DVD cases...

TOS. The movies introduced me to Trek, and I still enjoy some of them (I, IV, and V), but TOS is really where it's at. The movies never came close to the sheer awesomeness of "City on the Edge of Forever" or "Devil in the Dark". And you can't beat that Sixties music and style.

I like them both just fine, but if you insist on making me choose I'll go with the series.

For being consistently good, I'd have to go with the series. There are many episodes that are amazingly good and only a few that are bad (and those that are bad are AMAZINGLY bad). I like all the movies, but I only LOVE 3 of them (2, 4, and 6).

like them both

Even numbered TOS movies versus sooo many good TOS episodes like "City on the Edge of Forever", "Balance of Terror" and "The Trouble with Tribbles" and this list could go on all day.  TOS series, hands down.

the original series

The series.

Well, I liked the acting of kirk better in the movies, and II and IV were really good. But there are so good moments in the series, and compared to The Final Frontier and TMP, the series was better. and Spock is more awsome in the series. Hmmm...

The idea that "even-numbered Trek movies = good / odd-numbered Trek movies = bad" has got to stop.  Seriously.

TMP is absolutely brilliant.  And TSFS is an integral, exciting, and tragic chapter in the Genesis trilogy.  Plus, TSFS is responsible for introducing three new ship designs, Earth's space dock, and additional info on Klingon culture.

TUC, however, is simply mediocre.  It's not bad.  But it's just not all that good; TUC includes a childish murder mystery, a cast that refuses to act their age, paper printouts/presentations and books(!!!), zero new ship designs, a deus ex machina photon torpedo, slack security measures, an annoying Vulcan, brightly lit sets that take their cue from TNG, and a plot that really ties more into TNG than TOS.

IMHO, the First Four are excellent.  V and VI are ... there.  VII is fairly terrible.  VIII is actually quite good.  IX and X are steaming piles of ****.  And if you're willing to accept the changes to TOS and the Star Trek franchise?  '09 is pretty great.

Anyway, my two bits...

It was a good two bits

Well, that's your opinion, TheDriver. I think TMP sucks a big one. It's 90% shots of the ship flying over this other more massive ship that you don't even get a good look at til the end of the movie, there's hardly any dialoque, a bald headed woman, a living space probe, and then Decker somehow "joins" with this machine and turns into......nothing.  Not to mention you've got the original crew acting as if no time has passed and they're the same age as they were on the series. It's almost like a cheap rip-off of the series we know and love. But again, that's my opinion. Not to mention, the story is literally a rip-off of the episode The Changeling from the series. I don't consider that brilliant.

Thanks, AtoZ2!

And JK1701, I'd argue TMP is more of a mix of "The Changeling" and "The Corbomite Maneuver."  But its script, while pretty damn good, is not what makes it brilliant.

The imagery, music, and special effects combine to create some truly iconic sequences - the D-7s in formation, Kirk's firsthand examination of the Enterprise refit, the V'ger fly-bys, etc.  Plus, Robert Wise's direction of what amounts to a fairly solid (but admittedly derivative) Star Trek script is the real winner here.

Wise took a series well-known and well-regarded for its somewhat cheesy 60s look and, employing current NASA research and technology, transformed the franchise into something more closely resembling what we have today in the form of various spinoffs and prequels.  He and the producers could easily have gone the Star Wars route, but instead opted to focus on a more "realistic" cerebral adventure.

But hey, the stakes were indeed HUGE.  And Kirk's cunning and Spock's deductions still managed to save the day.  We even got the banter between the three leads in the end.

While I can understand why some folks refer to it as boring, I also reserve the right to believe those very same folks simply do not have the patience nor the capacity to truly appreciate the beauty, spectacle, and brilliance of TMP.