3. Start Trek: TNG - God Is Watching You, And Waiting For You To Screw Up
He's out there, and his name is Q. Well, its name is Q; or Q Continuum. I was never totally sure about that part. The point is that an all knowing, all seeing, outside-of-time deity exists. That deity is watching your every move, waiting to sit in judgement on the day that you drop the ball and accidentally melt the universe with your stupid human brain. While the majority of Star Trek: TNG episodes were mostly about the Borg chasing us or how many breasts you can fit on a hooker on the holodeck, the main story episodes were some of the most intensely meaningful "tele-literature" ever aired. The series follows Jean-Luc Picard, the absolute apex of human evolution. He is intelligent, well read, kind hearted, stern when necessary, strong, creative, respected, funny, etc. He represents all of the qualities that make a man "good". That's not me just fawning over Patrick Stewart either, it's actually necessary for the story as Picard is chosen by a deity to represent humanity in an ongoing test. The test? Does humanity have what it takes to last in the galaxy, or should the all powerful deities erase humanity from existence. So, you know, no pressure. At its core, TNG is about exploring new worlds and seeing new things. It's the ultimate scientific society, in which discovery and diplomacy are valued above all else. The story episodes, however, focus on the problems associated with that kind of society, and through them, the problems with scientific progress in the real world. You see, the further we explore, the thinner our knowledge gets of what we're exploring. Right now, researchers are experimenting with ways to negate gravity. There are research projects with the goal of building self replicating robots. Last year, a team created a microscopic black hole that lasted for almost a second. Building black holes? How could that turn out bad? The point being, Star Trek: TNG is both an advocacy of technology and a warning about it. The great and powerful Q watches over the humans as they stumble about the universe, happy to see a new species that is so interested in self betterment. But, he's clearly nervous that, like a child in a nuclear reactor control room, we're going to flip the wrong switch and unexist existence. I really enjoy the final episodes, so I'm not going to spoil this one with details. Watch them yourself.