So, there's a girl (27) who has never watched any Star Trek or Star Wars. I want to get her hooked (preferably on both franchises) but I'm not sure on the best way to do that. I've more or less decided to start with SW for various reasons, but should I go with A New Hope or The Phantom Menace first? Watching the prequels first is how it's "supposed" to be viewed and the saga ends up on a high, feel-good note. But this way spoils a few of the interesting twists in the original trilogy (Yoda, I'M YOUR FATHER, etc.) and while I liked the prequels well enough, the originals ARE better and more adventure-y. And she likes Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford. On the other hand, I'm fairly sure she'll like Jar-Jar or at least get a few good chuckles out of his antics, so this potential con for the prequels is actually more of a pro.
Or maybe I should start with some Trek first? The problem here is that the best movies to get someone interested are probably the new Trek or The Voyage Home and the latter is probably best appreciated if the previous movies have been watched too. But that means starting with The Motion Picture and that's probably not so good an idea... Also Trek is more technobabble and her German (in which we're gonna be watching them) is still shaky so it'd be hard to separate the technobabble from the "understandable" stuff.
So, what would you guys (and even better, gals) suggest?
Last edited by dj_ivocha; 14th Jun 2012 at 15:06. Reason: I'm a big Jar Jar fan so I know there isn't a dash in his name. So who put one in the title?!
Give up.
If giving up is not an option (it is always one), as you said the old trilogy has Harrison Ford. Period. Also, unlike the new trilogy, even if she doesn't really like them, the old Star Wars films might not disgust her completely from the series, science fiction in general, and you by extension.
If she's geeky enough for Star Trek, she's probably already seen'em. So, no.
First we need to know what kind of relationship you have with this young dame. And -THIS IS IMPORTANT- what kind of relationship you want to have.
Star Wars first, original trilogy, then stop unless she's really excited about seeing the prequels. Jar-Jar may be fun to her, but are endless talks about trade disputes and whiny kids/teenagers also fun? And as you said it ruins all of the surprises of the original, superior trilogy.
With Star Trek, I'd consider the movie First Contact as, well, her first contact with Star Trek. Because it has a character (played by Alfre Woodard) who, like her, is also "WTF is up with this space shit, I don't understand any of this, explain this stuff to me" so in a way that character gives a voice to your girl's feelings and lets the main characters helpfully explain stuff about the Star Trek universe. Also, the movie is high on action, the stakes are high and relatable (the fate of the earth), and the plot is easily understood even when knowing nothing about Star Trek.
Last edited by Harvester; 13th Jun 2012 at 20:23.
You could just watch all of them in chronological order like everybody else did. That's usually my plan of action for anything classic I hadn't seen before.
I suggest, if her English is up to it, to watch the originals in English in the order in which they appeared in the cinema, with subtitles in German that you can both laugh about and discuss later.Originally Posted by dj_ivocha
So that would be
- Star Wars, released on May 25, 1977
- the 1979 Star Trek feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21, 1980
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982
- Return of the Jedi, released on May 25, 1983
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, 1984
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, 1989
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991
- Star Trek: Generations, 1994
- Star Trek: First Contact, 1996
- Star Trek: Insurrection, 1998
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1999
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, 2002
- Star Trek Nemesis, 2002
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, 2005
- Star Trek, 2009
- Untitled Star Trek sequel, 2013 (oops)
Have you considered the fact that both Star Wars and Star Trek are pretty horrible and a total waste of time?
go play planescape koki
are you saying planescape is better than star wars
I'm not sure I should be a party to getting some poor unsuspecting female addicted to anything. However, if you must, I'd suggest Star Wars 1 2 and 3 and then quit while you're ahead.
I suppose I should admit I haven't actually seen a Star Trek film.
He's saying "go away".
Bet you wanna get her hooked on a little bit of dj_ivocha as well EH EH?I gotta second Briareos, go with the original Star Wars trilogy. I mean who has ever heard of anyone not liking the original Star Wars trilogy? (besides Koki) Star Trek on the other hand, even I have a hard time enjoying, and I like sci-fi.
If she's a damnfool realist, she might not like Star Wars. Then again, if she's a damnfool realist, run! Run like the wind!
I've found that Firefly is a sci-fi series that by and large even those people enjoy who don't like sci-fi. Unless they're dethtoll. Might be worth giving that one a try - and the ladies tend to like Mal Reynolds.
I agree with the Firefly approach. A self contained, compact series with lots of genuinely engaging characters.
Next stop, Galactica.
The Star Trek movies presume a lot of trekian foreknowledge on the part of the audience. It's a bit of a morass to chuck an SF virgin into.
If this relationship has any kind of romantic inclination I want to advise you just to dump her now before you realise later in life what a person liking Jar Jar Binks means.
Despite what George says sometimes you really aren't supposed to watch the prequels first. That's why they're prequels.
The central journey of Luke is discovering his destiny etc, which doesn't work at all if you already know who dad is from the start.
What if it's just sexual?
*shudders at the thought of what liking Jar Jar Binks might mean for a sexual relationship - although, then again, there is that tongue thing...*
Start with A New Hope. If she digs that, follow through with Empire and RotJ. Then quit while you're ahead. As Nicker says, the Trek movies are hard to get into if you haven't watched some of the TV series.
Is this like those people who also want their lover to have AIDS? As in, romanticising a common affliction.
shit didn't notice the giant Freddie right above this. Sorry Freddie.
Besides, everyone knows hot chicks only dig BSG.
best order to watch the Star Wars films in:
A new Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
Return of the Jedi
Phantom menace adds nothing to the whole series and none of its characters play out at all in the current form. Watching in this order gives you the story of Luke on his collision course with Vader and then drops into a flashback of Anakin being corrupted before tying it all neatly up with the ewok forest party.
Fuck that noise. It's got (arguably) the best lightsaber battle of all six movies. It's worth the pain.
CAVEAT: the saber duel in ROTJ has some good emotional beats but is still nowhere near as awesome and ANH has the silly rotoscoped battle that looks like shit no matter how much I love Alec Guiness.
Also if you're going to say "girl (27)" at least tell us if she's hot!
Been there, done that. Original Trilogy, no prequels (the woman in question had heard they're shit already). No idea about Trek, but I like that First Contact proposal.
While she hasn't really watched much Sci-Fi, we've already watched Minority Report and I, Robot. She found them a bit sad, but liked them well enough anyway. Also she's a pretty big fan of all MIB movies and liked The Avengers, Avatar, Captain America and The League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen. We usually watch one movie almost every day, so at worst we'll waste one evening watching something she doesn't like that much (which won't do anything to derail my chances so that's not what I'm worried about).
Well, up until a few days ago I'd have said friends with me being rather interested in more. Now, I'm pretty sure the "more" is already a fact.
It's not, so while that's actually not a half bad idea, it's not applicable here. I suppose we could watch them in Russian with German subtitles or vice versa, but my Russian is really rusty so a discussion about translation sillyness would be rather hard. And she wants to improve her German, and I've found that a good way to do that is to watch stuff in German with German subtitles.
What is this... I never... you dirty, dirty boy! (though I won't take that bet, no sireeBet you wanna get her hooked on a little bit of dj_ivocha as well EH EH?)
That's actually a pretty great idea, hopefully it was released on DVD in Germany.
But, but... I like Jar Jar...
Totally! By definition, Russian girls = hot. Except she's hotter.
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