I actually don’t have a satisfactory answer to my own question.

Star Trek was a prominent part of the popular culture when I was a kid, so it was easy to have a basic knowledge of TOS without actually seeing it.

I think I probably saw Star Trek IV first, and the first episode I can clearly remember watching is “Unification II”, though I’m pretty certain I saw something before then.

My first introduction came from an episode of Reading Rainbow in which LeVar Burton takes the viewer on a behind-the-scenes look at how some of the props and special effects work on this other show he’s on called Star Trek: The Next Generation. I watched whatever the next episode was after that airing. According to IMDB, that episode aired August 15th, 1988, so it likely was a rerun from the 1987 season.

My mom’s home taped betamaxes of TOS

My divorced mom was a big fan of TOS, so much so that I was almost named Kirk.

Being divorced w/ 3 kids the TV was a pretty good babysitter. Something to keep us distracted while she did cooked and cleaned.

I’ve seen every episode of TOS at least 20 times, over the years, so remembering the first one is impossible. However as a kid my favorite one was the one with Gorn!

TNG was being first aired throughout my childhood and I would catch the odd episode here and there when I got to stay up and watch it with my parents to guide me, as suggested. But I didn’t get into Trek properly until I worked in construction as a labouror, my first job. When there’s no work, there’s daytime TV re-runs. The Space Network, the Canadian version of The Sci-Fi Channel, would run 2 TNGs back to back from 12-2. I got way into it then. I then watched all the series’. Now, every year or two, I’ll just throw on the first episode of TOS and go right until the end of the whole franchise in mostly air date order. I even have a playlist that has all of the overlapling seasons from the 90s to play as one big series, playing each episode by air date/chronological order based on a chronology I found online. Keeps it spicy.

My parents showed me the episodes of TNG that didn’t have any content they objected to and taught a moral lesson. Most episodes have a moral lesson so I got to watch most of TNG before I was an adult. I have since then watched most of the available Star Trek content out there outside of anything TOS. I may find it in me to watch TOS but I’ve been hesitant to go back before TNG because that show is special to me.

Dad liked Star Trek so I watched with him since I was 3 or 4 years old. I became a much bigger fan when I had a job with odd hours and watched DS9 reruns at night in the mid 90s.

TNG aired during my childhood, and I did watch it, but the occasional TOS marathon is really what got me into it.

Trying to get out of doing homework, me and my siblings would join my mom to watch her Star Trek - she didn’t object. Most times, it was TNG, with the occasional bit of DS9 or VOY.

She had actually gotten into TNG as a teenager - she’d read a few novels from her local library and kind of liked it. She then found Wil Wheaton hot enough to actually watch the show. (She may have watched a bit before that, but that’s my recollection, at least).

First contact was on the here-named eta-carinae system, we did a holiday tour there long ago and heared about earth from a scientist that rescued a human instead of just studying and thus could not leave him there with his memories about him. the human was talking about star trek, its similarities and real differences all the time. he already spoke fluently in standard Sjesh/sound w/o any interfaces so we listened directly to his true mind. he even had a very worn out tng tshirt in his personal memory items box. i mean he really had used his memory items before! that made us curious and the rest is history. However he is now back here, as we managed to arrange his behavioral training to hide his experiences well, he passed all the tests and got his transport back, but with his biologic cells clock reset to his 20th to compensate the decades he lost out there a little bit. it is possible he could become an ambassador for earth one day, but it looks unlikely that he would want that given the circumstances here, a task he always compares with the mytholigical boulder of Sisyphus (that really never existed physically) whenever he is asked about his opportunity.

just kidding, first contact with TNG was in school, other kids talked about the first episode. i could not watch it at home and also had other problems to fix at that time so i missed a lot of the start of it :-/

however i am trying to train myself for writing in general as i have ideas for a longer story (but not within the trek universe) and as the above text came to my mind i just wrote it and hope you don’t find it too misplaced here or badly written… however any feedback is welcome.

Original series shortly after it went into syndication. The episode I first remember is “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” and it has shaped my view of society greatly.

I was too young for most of TNG but stuck with TNG sometime in season 6. I was a kid with single digit age when they destroyed the Enterprise D in the movie and it really messed with me. Then I grew up watching the entirety of DS9 and Voyager, and outgrew it by the end of VOY. Strange New Worlds pulled me back in as an adult.

Watching TOS reruns and the movies with my dad on Sunday afternoons when I was a child. Soon afterwards followed by TNG with my older brother. Then VOY was released when I was about 9 years old and that got me hooked for good. For some odd reason, I completely missed out on DS9 until much later in life - I started watching it in my early 20s. Once I watched that, I did a full rewatch of every show of the franchise, including TAS and I still don’t know what to think of it. :D Long story short, Star Trek made me a much better person and had a huge impact on me very early in life.

I’m pretty sure it must have been TNG, but essentially it’s so far into my childhood that I couldn’t tell, it just was always there.

I remember watching “Encounter at Farpoint” when it originally aired. I had only heard of Star Trek, maybe seen a photo of Spock or whatever — I must have been ten or so — but I was hooked on TNG from that episode on, and eventually caught up on the TOS episodes and films.

Germany, 1992: During a lesson, my music teacher played the theme from “Raumschiff Enterprise” - that’s what TOS is called here - to test his new sound system. 🎼

I wanted to have this track, searched in music and video stores, and the only thing I found was a VHS tape of Star Trek 6. And guess what: this particular music theme was not used in the movie, but the plot and effects captivated me. 🖖

Around the same time, the second season of TNG had its first run in Germany 📺. This series had a similar piece of music 🎶, so I stayed tuned - and lucky me, a few months later there was a rerun of seasons 1 and 2 almost every weekday, followed by the remaining seasons every weekday from summer 1993 until summer 1994. And during that time I also found the Soundtrack with the TOS theme. ✌️

I was raised a Trekkie, can’t rightly say what my first contact was. My earliest memory of it was me expressing a preference for “the one with Spock” over TNG, the only other option at the time.

Mother watched it while I was in the womb. I came out already addicted.

I don’t remember exactly what lead up to it, but I ended up watching reruns of Voyager with my dad every day back when Spike TV was still a thing. I think that really improved my relationship with him.

My dad watched TOS with me when it first aired, but I was too young to remember it. My first recollection is watching it in syndication. I went on to read my dad’s many books, especially the Star Trek Concordance and the James Blish adaptations.

Started watching TOS in reruns in the late 70s and 80s.
I was a very lonely teenager in a blue collar, uneducated family when TNG premiered. I watched every episode of the first season alone in the dark on an old B&W tv as they were watching other stuff on the good TV.

TNG opened my eyes to a world of possibility, the diversity and wonder of life, leadership, and aspiring to something bigger than my small world.

There was plenty of criticism about the Wesley Crusher character in those early years, but as smart nerdy boy, I was grateful to see his character and how he was treated by the Geordi, Data and others. Gave me hope

Decades later, introducing my kids to TNG has been one of my greatest pleasures in life. They know and love the characters as I do.

Used to watch and record episodes of TOS off TV55 onto VHS to rewatch later. Lots of fun kids will never experience today.

TNG 4x17 - Night Terrors

Still a fave.

TOS ‘The Devil in the Dark’ in first run.

I was barely in school, but my slightly older neighbour who’d hooked me on Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, convinced me that Star Trek must be seen.

I quickly caught up during the hiatus reruns, and have seen absolutely all of it in first run since.

TOS in the early 90s.

Boy, was I disappointed, when I discovered how old it already was 😅.

My parents bought a TOS DVD set. They watched it originally when it was airing.

I have never really been into Star Trek but that’s mostly because I have never properly introduced myself to it.

My first contact was the 2009 film Star Trek, which upon looking at the rest of the franchise feels so grandiose in the action genre but also had a few great character moments. I enjoyed that one and then the Black Mirror parody episode U.S.S Callister was really good too

Besides that I have seen a few odd scenes and memes but really want to get into the series someday.