[vsef]

I just finished a rewatch of Star Trek the original series and wow professionals working together to do their job is... So not what that show is. I don't like Discovery but TOS is absolutely people acting emotional and unprofessionally in basically every single episode. It is hilarious.

Watching TOS in full was very eye opening to how much current cultural memory of what that show was doesn't match what was actually in the show.

[tomrod]

I've learned that people get *really* tied up in cultural kitsch they experienced as children. Given syndication, this means we get kids absolutely adoring movies and television shows that are awful.

Personal example I believe is representative. I grew up with three movies we'd watch in this hacked-together Frankenstein of a travel van with a tiny TV: Dantes Peak, The Cowboy Way, and Mac and Me. I'm 100% sure these were picked up in the bargain bin sale.

I loved them all at the time, because at the time they represented all the excitement of a vacation -- none were great, and Mac and Me is objectively TERRIBLE!!!

I keep an ear out for these kinds of things. ST:TOS definitely hits this note, long and loud (there was a reason there were few seasons). So does ST:TNG, but its actually really good.

[vsef]

Absolutely, we form such weird attachments to things we saw as kids that we don't really remember well at all.

ST:TOS I highly recommend because it remains engaging/entertaining and is fascinating to see as a lens into the late 60s, but "good" it is not.

ST:TNG I love and I think is the better show but it shocked me too when I tried to rewatch in order after ST:TOS. The first seasons are not great! I really had erased a lot of it from my memory. I realize now that it's not until a couple seasons in that it became the show I remember, that show was lucky to hang in there long enough to hit its stride.