I've loved Star Trek for a very long time. Actually, about half of my time as a living thing and I'm 23 years old. Trek has been a major influence in my life. It got me interested in science and was my only subjection to a dramatic television series as a teen.

I have an old friend's father to thank for introducing me. He was a faithful watcher of TNG and I managed to catch a few episodes when his wife while she was was taping it for him. I saw and experienced the commanding acting of Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean Luc Picard. He's still my favorite captain today. I didn't get to see much of this great series before it ended and was replaced with the next series, Voyager.

Deep Space Nine was already out when I started watching but I didn't get really interested in it until later. The first series I saw from the beginning was Voyager. This wasn't the best series, in hindsight (I feel DS9 was but some will naturally disagree), but it was a chance to escape the world and go on a grand adventure with the heroic Captain Janeway and her crew. Well, as we all know, life can throw a wrench in your plans. I didn't get to see Voyager from beginning to end but I caught most of it, and was there to say goodbye when the crew finally returned home.

It was around this time that I got to see almost every episode of DS9 through watching syndicated reruns. The dominion war storyline is full compelling episodes depicting the United Federation of Plants' struggle against the Dominion and Cardassian alliance. This was probably the most powerful series and once it hit season four was mostly episode-to-episode story arcs. I believe the Dominion was first discovered at the end of season 2 and the war began in season 4 and continued through the series. Those are the best episodes by far. It's also one of the times I got to see some cool sci-fi fleet to fleet starship combat. Truly stunning visuals. I don't know how they managed to pull off such kickass effects on a normal television show at the time but I applaud the effects crew of that show.

I must admit I was disappointed when I learned that the next series, Enterprise, was going to be before even the original series in the Star Trek timeline. I judged poorly the potential of this show and managed to watch every episode except one (my cable was out, grr). I wouldn't want to spoil a bit of the action in this series but was very happy with the storytelling, despite the comments I've read on forums criticizing Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Enterprise ended a little early (that is to say, was cancelled.

It's sad that for the first time in years we don't have a new season of a series to look forward to. Trek still has a devoted fanbase and I know some of them will want to partake in the wonderful new marvel that is the DVD. You can get an entire season of any trek series for a very reasonable price. Not only that, the DVDs are very compact and are unobtrusive. I remember the VHS tapes I once had of TNG that had two episodes each. Man those would take up a lot of space. I could fit every episode of every series in one of my dresser drawers now.