Which Star Trek to watch?

Let me just start off by clarifying a big thing that will explain my ineptitude in science fiction: I'm only 17 years old. So, pretty much every piece of science fiction of the past forty years that isn't Star Wars is basically unknown to me. Now, to the main point...

Last night, I finished watching the Firefly/Serenity saga. Needless to say, it makes me very sad that the series was canceled. I hope Fox feels really boneheaded about that. But, it kind of opened my eyes to how little I know about science fiction and how I am probably a really bad nerd because of that.

Many many years ago when I first saw the Star Wars films, I also started reading the EU novels. As far as I remember, they were really good and really exciting, although I also had no critical reading skills, and I haven't read a Star Wars book in I don't know how long. Oh, and I've also seen Star Trek (2009), the J.J. Abrams production. And that's basically all I know about science fiction. At this time, reading new or old sci fi isn't the kind of thing I'm looking for, but I'll be sure to ask again when I am looking for that.

Yesterday, I added Battlestar Galactica to my instant queue, so I'll start watching that once the semester's over. I am also interested in watching the Star Trek of old, but I'm a little confused about what's canonical and what not. There also seems to be a debate about if the original series has the better crew vs the TNG crew. I think I would like to watch the original since Kirk seems to be an interesting enough character.

Of course, going back to those old shows will be a little shocking, I guess. With extremely elementary special effects, I'm not too sure if I'll be able to get past that, especially considering that the special effects of Star Wars Episode IV are still great to watch.

So what say you, Polygon? Guide me on this because I'm too young to know what the best stuff is and isn't.