This past week, PCMag ran a poll asking all the Trekkies out there to weigh in on their absolute favorite things about their favorite sci-fi franchise, Star Trek. Whatever the permutation, from Original Show to Next Generation to the movies, we wanted input on the best that Trek has to offer.

As the Klingon's say, majQa'! You show remarkably good taste.

1. We began with the age-old question that has dogged Star Trek ever since its first reboot way back in 1987 with the debut of The Next Generation (TNG): What's your absolute favorite flavor of Star Trek? We kept it open to every single live-action TV show and movie. It turns out, our audience is definitely a big fan of one version in particular.



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

(We're going with the color coding here from The Original Show (TOS) and new movies because, well, we all know how the guys wearing red shirts are meant to fair.)

Notice that not only is TNG the favorite among PCMag readers, it has more than double the fans of the next best, Deep Space Nine (DS9). In third place, TOS is also far ahead of all the rest, including the movies with the TOS crew in an alternate-reality timeline.

A distant fourth place showing goes to the Star Trek movie reboot, which even managed to outdistance the original movies... but that's what happens when you have 10 films and only four of them are actually good. Not a bad showing for Voyager, either.

2. Next we asked you who is the very best captain? We hoped your answer to the previous question wouldn't sway your answer and it didn't. Apparently, even people who loved DS9 or TOS could clearly see that Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D is the superior captain by a huge margin.



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

The number of respondents who chose Picard even eclipsed that of those who chose TNG as their favorite TV show in the franchise! Actor Patrick Stewart's abilities may never be equaled. It's hard to picture a future captain in the Star Trek universe managing a 60 percent.

Who's the next best captain? Swaggering ol' Jim Kirk of course, but specifically the William Shatner version. I'm happy to see Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks on DS9, edging into the number three slot, even if it is with a measly seven percent of the vote. Chris Pine, who plays Captain Kirk in the films, barely stayed ahead of the least favorite, Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula.

Trek for Humanity

3. Star Trek has always featured at least one non-human character. We asked you which non-human regular character was the best representation of humanity and the winner, not surprisingly, was the character who most wanted to be human.



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

The Vulcan called Mr. Spockeven the combined Spocks, played by Leonard Nimoy on TOS and Zachary Quinto in the new filmscould not hold a candle to Lt. Cmdr. Data, the android played by Brent Spiner on TNG. Data's desire to be a real boy earned him the nickname Pinocchio early on. Data's ultimate sacrifice for his crew in his final appearance in Star Trek: Nemesis just solidifies the fact that he was the best of all.

It's nice to see that there are some dog people out there who gave Porthos, the beagle that traveled on Enterprise, at least a little love; he tied with shipmate T'Pol (also a Vulcan like Spock), but Dr. Phlox beat them both. Sorry we forgot to include Tuvok, the Vulcan security officer on Voyager, in our list but it's doubtful he would have beat our third-place character. Seven of Nine played by Jeri Ryan on Voyager joined the cast last but quickly became a fan favorite as she tried to overcome her Borg programming in the tightest suit in the Delta Quadrant.

4. We got philosophical with our next question because Star Trek is all about making you think, really. Knowing that Gene Roddenberry had a utopic vision when he created the show, we asked: Which of the following do you think is most likely to come to pass between now and the late 23rd century?



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

About half of our readers think NASA cutbacks won't stop us from building bases on the moon, or Mars, or both. Fewer people think our next best bets are flying cars (which are already in testing, albeit crashing) and deep space travel.

Tied for third place are things people hope for (legalization of all drugs; contact with aliens) and fear (annihilation of planet Earth).

Trek Tech We Want

5. Now, the greed questions. Star Trek is filled with cool stuff and we asked: Which item do you most want to own?



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

The big surprise here is that most of you want a shuttlecraft. Seriously? Those things crash all the time, as much as current flying cars! Are you nuts?

The runner-up, the tricorder, is not surprising; anyone who's into PCs and smartphones is going to be interested in their ultimate future mash-up, a device capable of scanning just about anything, taking 3D video at all times, and providing instant feedback. If your smartphone could smell and had a projector and an accurate voice-activated Wikipedia link, it might come close to the Star Trek tricorder.

We were going to fire the smart-ass who snuck "sonic screwdriver" into this poll, but he gets to keep his job only because so many of you want one. The Doctor would be proud, and we don't mean the Emergency Medical Holographic one.

The next bests were mostly write-ins. We didn't think you'd go ga-ga for replicators and the holodeck since they're almost real today but you made no bones about the fact that both technologies would be welcome in your home.

Kudos to the uber-fans who asked for a cup of Raktajino, self-sealing stem bolts and the Ferengi delicacy of Hupyrian beetle snuff. And let us give a shout-out to the perverts in our audience: four people want green Orion slave girls, one person wants Harry Mudd's women, and one other straight-up wants Seven of Nine.

6. There was a little overlap with our next question, which asked which fictional Star Trek tech would you most like to see become reality?



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

Again, the holodeck and transporters, both frequent write-ins on the last question, got their due in the number two and three spots. But way ahead of the rest is the desire for warp drive that allows faster-than-light-speed travel in the stars. It goes to show just how much we all want to be out there.

One space hippie hoped for "The Prime Directive, and elimination of the profit motive." I'm guessing that reader is not a fan of the Ferengi. The big ticket item in the write-in votes for this question was replicators. PCMag readers really hate making their own Earl Grey tea.

Trek in the Future

7. Finally, we are looking to the futurenot the 23rd century so much as the future of the Star Trek entertainment franchise itself. The movie reboot of 2009 gets its first sequel this week and we couldn't be happier, but should it be a trilogy? Should it go on without director JJ Abrams, who's going to be busy handling the future of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker?

We asked what do you wish to see most in the future of Star Trek? Here are your picks, and they aren't the kinds of things that the people at Paramount and CBS, which own the rights to Star Trek, necessarily want to hear right now.



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

If you love the Next Generation more than anything, it stands to reason you'd want to see more Star Trek in that same timeline (though probably a few years in the future, post-Voyager). Almost half of the respondents want exactly that, and in TV show format, not a movie. In fact, the second-biggest response was for a TV show in the rebooted timeline the latest movies created. Obviously, our readers think this franchise is at its best when it's available every week in their living rooms.

If it must be a movie, readers want to see the work of JJ Abrams continue with future films. That's preferred almost twice as much as a film by another director in the old or new timelines. Here's hoping JJ Abrams decides lightsabers are not as much fun as phasers.

8. Our final question was one of villainy. Assuming there's a third Star Trek film (and really, do we doubt that will happen even if we'd all prefer a TV show?), what old-school Star Trek villains should be the antagonists? We took "old-school" in this case to include any and all of the bad guy aliens from all the previous Star Treks. There are no surprises in these resultsyou guys like the classics.



Legend: Yellow=Command, Blue=Sciences, Red=Operations

That noble race of hyper violent warriors known as Klingonsan alien antagonist that dates back to the first season of TOS and has appeared in some form in almost every version of the franchiseare the number one pick. Probably because they were so conspicuously absent from the 2009 movie.

That said, they just barely edge out the Borg, which are definitely the scariest bad guys, unstoppable and unreasonable in their desire to assimilate all living beings into their collective. In fact, a mix of the two would not go unwelcome in Star Trek III.

Omnipotent aliens are also a staple of Trek-dom, and the favorite is Q. Of course he was personified perfectly by one actor, John de Lancie, during the run of TNG. If movies ever had to bring Q to life, the actor would have to be larger than life, hilarious and malevolently threatening at the same time. Good luck with that.

In the fourth spot sits the Mirror/Mirror universe. This was the alternate reality in which Star Trek's good guys are all badand Spock has a telltale devilish goatee. Retelling that classic episode in the movies would be pretty spectacular and wouldn't require hiring too many new cast members since everyone would have to perform double-duty.

So, there you have it, Trekkies. Thanks to all who participated, and we'll see you in the theaters at Star Trek Into Darkness!

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