Star Trek

What are some essential list you would create?  They needen't be as long as something like the Dominion War but could be as simple as Q and the Enterprise or the Mirror Universe, both of which I believe recieved a DVD set.

Including "The Neutral Zone" and "Peak Performance" in the Borg arc seems a little oblique. Descent seems like it's more about Lore than the Borg, too. To me there are really only three parts to the TNG Borg arc, "Q, Who?", "The Best of Both Worlds" arc (the two parter plus "Home") and First Contact. It might be cool to watch "Regeneration" before the TNG episodes.

Your Spock arc seems pretty solid. I'd say there's pretty much no reason to watch Spock's Brain under any circumstances......

I might try to make a Klingon list later.

I'd love to see a Klingon arc.  That could have some really neat bits to it with all the ups and downs over the franchise.

As far as Spock's Brain goes... it's pretty bad and as far as I can tell had absolutely no impact on the character outside of the episode.  So, masochism I suppose?  lol  Really though, it's a Spock centered episode and sometimes seeing how bad something can be helps build appreciation for how good it can be.

As far as the Borg arc goes, the Lore subplot is absolutely a subplot and can be removed without losing anything from the main focus of the Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant.  I included the Neutral Zone because it has a significant foreshadowing and works as a prelude if you remove Lore.  Peak Performance is Starfleet's reaction to the events of Q Who? and I feel helps build the tension (sort of the same way The Neutral Zone does, though admittedly much better) before the hurrah of The Best of Both Worlds. 

Regeneration seems to me more like an afterthought or sequel to First Contact.  Putting it first as a bit of foreshadowing before moving to Q Who? and then into the true arc might work quite well, especially if Lore were removed from the equation.  Constantly the viewer would be wondering when the Borg hit Earth.  That could be a really neat way to do it.

Yeap. Still, shorter than the 130 hrs total of seasons 3 - 7.

Please report back on how you like it.

Here is one I made for the Q fans in the house.

Q the Adversary
TNG 1.01-1.02 Encounter at Farpoint
TNG 1.10 Hide and Q
Q the Foil
TNG 2.16 Q Who?
TNG 3.13 Déjà Q
Q and Vash
TNG 3.19 Captain’s Holiday
TNG 4.20 Qpid
DS9 1.07 Q-Less
Q the Antihero
TNG 6.06 True Q
TNG 6.15 Tapestry
TNG 7.25-7.26 All Good Things...
Q Civil War
VOY 2.18 Death Wish
VOY 3.11 The Q and the Grey
VOY 7.19 Q2
Additional Viewing
TOS 1.18 The Squire of Gothos
MOV V The Final Frontier

Q goes through a lot of changes over his time in the franchise. He starts out as an adversary but by the end is a generally good character so his arc is a lot of fun. Sometimes he is played for comedy and it is during those times that I feel he is weakest.

This list has a lot that can be removed for more focused viewing. Removing the entire Vash storyline looses nothing and the episodes are overall pretty weak, plus Captain's Holiday doesn't even include Q, it is an introduction to Vash. True Q can be skipped as well since, I feel, it doesn't do much to advance the character. I haven't seen any of the Voyager episodes so i can't speak to their quality. The other episodes form a nice arc beginning and ending with the first and last episodes of TNG quite nicely.

The additional viewing do not include Q but they are a couple of examples of similar beings in the franchise and the shenanigans they get up to.

Okay, here's an attempt at a Klingon arc-

Enterprise-

1.Broken Bow

2.Marauders

3.Judgement

4.Affliction/Divergence arc

I excluded The Expanse because the Klingons are only secondary villains

TOS-

5.Errand of Mercy

6.The Trouble With Tribbles

7.A Private Little War

8.Day of the Dove

I excluded some of the episodes where the Klingons are really just rogues causing problems instead of political foes. The Trouble With Tribbles and A Private Little War are especially important because they show the status quo for Klingon-Federation relations in the 23rd Century.

TOS movies

9.The Search For Spock

10.The Voyage Home (maybe, the little bit with the ambassodor at the beginning is pretty important for the next two movies)

11.The Final Frontier

12.The Undiscovered Country (this would be a pretty good arc just by itself)

The Next Generation

13.Heart of Glory (gives a nice intro to the era of awkward peace between the Klingons and Federation, and Worf's being the first Klingon in starfleet)

14. The Emissary (more of a character episode, but it introduces K'Ehleyr for her more important second appearance and further demonstrates the fragility of the Klingon-Federation alliance)

15. Reunion

16. Redemption Parts 1 and 2

That's it for TNG. There are lots of Worf character episodes that give lots of backstory on Klingon culture, but since I'm focusing on Federation-Klingon relations, those aren't particularly relevant here. I was close to including "The Gambit" but didn't since it's really more about the Romulans

TNG movies-

17. Generations

Deep Space Nine

18.Way of the Warrior Parts 1 and 2

19.Apocalypse Rising

I could show way more Ds9 episodes, but alot of them are either cultural exposition or more about the Cardassians/Dominion. The Cease fire at the end of Apocolyspse Rising is a great stopping point.

That looks pretty awesome to me.  I like the focus on Klingon/Federation politics, which keeps it a Klingon arc and not a Worf arc, which would also be pretty cool.  I didn't realize that the conflict during DS9 was only three episodes long.  Memory Alpha made it seem much longer.  When it comes to The Voyage Home that is a tough one to decide on including because it is important to know that the Empire is a little angry with Kirk for the death of Kruge and his status a fugitive, though the bulk of the movie isn't about that.

The way I see it is if the list gets me excited and want to watch it than I'd say it's a good list. 

As I recall, the Klingon-Federation War in Ds9 lasted all of season 4, but was only referenced most of the time. I'm not super familiar with Ds9 so I may be missing something, but it should still work fine just watching those 3 episodes.

I think as long as it hits the major points of the conflict and misses the episodes that do little more than reference or do nothing to move the plot along than they are better left out anyway.

Eater, have you considered just watching chronologically or how ever you'd like, then, when you come to one you don't like, just skipping over it? That's what I did when I started. Seems like that would give you a sense of the series you're interested in without costing you 750 hours or however many it is.

Or you could just watch them all. Compiling these lists seems like a pretty time-consuming task anyway.

Anyway, happy viewing.

I have watched all of TOS, TNG, and movies.  I probably will just end up watching DS9, Voyager, and Enetrprise in order.  These lists now are just for fun.  I'm thinking of it as kind of a watcher's guide for fans.  Say someone who is a fan and loved the Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant comes along, they find one of these lists and plops down to enjoy some Borg awesomeness.  The same goes for Klingon/Federation relations or Q now too.  Maybe someday we will have that much desired Deanna/Lwaxana list that fans have been clamoring for.  lol

Do you have any lists you want to make?

I think arcs like these do serve a purpose. Watching "Q Who", "The Best of Both Worlds" and First Contact consecutively seems like a natural thing for a Star Trek fan to do. I think my Klingon arc is a good way for Klingon fans to kill a couple free weekends.

I think watching all the Orion episodes over a couple days could be cool too, since I'm a big Orion fan and think they've been underutilized. That would pretty much just be Borderland and Bound from Enterprise, The Cage, Journey to Bablel, and Whom Gods Destroy from TOS, and The Ascent, Honor Among Thieves, and Prodigal Daughter from Ds9

I don't think I'm familiar at all with the Orion.  I'm sure I've seen the TOS episodes but they don't stand out in my memory.

Perhaps, to avoid confusion from the original post we should move these lists to a new thread.

I watched the Voyager Q episodes and would like to ammend my Q list.  The Q Civil War arc is quite interesting but really only encompases Death Wish and The Q and the Grey.  Q2 is a fun little episode but adds little to the overal list and is certainly skippable.