Best/Worst Star Trek Series

[shadow55]

Hi guys, first post here - just looking for some other opinions on things. From looking around the place people seem to have different opinions to me.

I started watching the all of the series last summer, and finished around Christmas. Started with TNG, then TOS, DS9, VOY, ENT.

From looking around the internet, people seem favour TNG and TOS strongly, and then the others drag behind that a bit.

For me, I actually preferred Voyager to the rest. Enterprise was definitely last as the characters were just stupid, and the others depend what mood I'm in really.


Voyager:
I liked how it had the on-going plot through the entire thing, and I thought that actually added a lot to it rather than just being a mish-mash of episodes. People seem to say they wasted far too much time doing trivial things, which I do kind of agree with, but I think it kept the plot base throughout which certainly made me want to watch more.

TNG:
Some episodes were really good, so I did like it overall. However, a lot of the episodes were entirely character based so it really depended how much I liked that week's choice of character...which wasn't often. Data and Picard were great, Geordi was pretty good too, but very few episodes seemed to revolve around him. Troi was whiney and made it painful to watch episodes based around her. Riker's episodes were always about him finding some girl that he ended up having a relationship with within 2 minutes of meeting her. Beverly wasn't bad, but the episodes around her just weren't great, and I don't really think I need to say anything about Wesley... Worf's episodes were just about honour and being a warrior, and they just got a bit boring after a while.

TOS:
Good overall. Characters were great, and the plots were actually plots, not just following a character round for 45 minutes. The outdated CGI and everything else did make a little harder to watch however, so it really depends what mood I'm in as to whether I liked it or not.

DS9:
First 3 seasons were boring, but it did get really good after that. Other than Kira, I really liked the characters. Each had a back story about them that could be developed. The whole thing with religion did annoy me a lot, as did most of the Bajor stuff, but ignoring those episodes it was good.

Enterprise:
Eugh. Characters were bad, good plots got ruined by stupid characters, and the writers made so many errors with continuity it just ruined most of the other things that I would have otherwise enjoyed. It just felt that the writers intentionally made the characters miss the obvious in an attempt to create some plot which was never that good in the first place, and in the end just meant we were left with stupid characters that were impossible to like.


Anyway, I'm interested to hear others' thoughts. Obviously I've generalised massively, and there were episodes in every series that I did enjoy. I felt that Voyager was the only one that consistently made me want to watch more which is surely the main objective in any show. Other's did have many good episodes, but watching them I always felt like if it did come up with a plot around a character I didn't like, I'd have to painfully sit through it.

 

[Finn]

Another "favorite show" thread. *sigh*

Really, welcome

I really stopped thinking about what my favorite show is, etc, and I suspect many of those who have been posting as long as me or much longer

 

[shadow55]

Another "favorite show" thread. *sigh*

Really, welcome

I really stopped thinking about what my favorite show is, etc, and I suspect many of those who have been posting as long as me or much longer

Lol, I can imagine there's probably a few.
I think it's more of me trying to find a way to look at the series that I don't particularly like with a different mentality.

Just feel I seem to be one of the few Trek fans that didn't enjoy TNG that much.

 

[maneth]

Hi and welcome aboard.

I'm in the middle of my second TNG rewatch, and I've enjoyed most episodes a lot this time around. Some are a bit embarrassing (The Outrageous Okona anyone?), but mostly I enjoy them. I'm probably one of the few fans who actually likes Wesley... Alexander, however, is another matter. That said, TNG took quite a while to get going, even if the largely disliked first two seasons contain a few gems, notably the story with the Bynars (and Minuet). Even Riker's promiscuousness is more a myth than a fact, it's not as if he's bedding a different woman in every episode.

TOS is a bit hit and miss for me. Some stories are really great (my favorite is The City on the Edge of Forever) and some are just horrid. The entire premise of Turnabout Intruder is enough to turn my stomach, even if Dr Lester was crazy. But if your main gripe with TOS is the outdated FX, you should try the remastered edition.

DS9 was my favorite Trek show for a long time. It's much less utopian than TNG, and I tend to prefer long story arcs over episodic shows. I also enjoyed the changed dynamic of the crew staying put and the adventures mainly coming to them. But then, one of my all-time favorite sci-fi shows is Babylon 5...

I'm afraid VOY is last on my list of Trek shows, mainly because they used the big red reboot button far too often (Voyager would be all but shot to pieces at the end of one episode and she looked fresh out of spacedock in the next, with no explanation given), and the writing for Janeway was inconsistent, not to mention the number of the crew... The conflict between the Federation and the Maquis was IMO solved far too quickly, and I didn't like the way the show became all about Seven and the Doctor in the later seasons. And I'll never forgive Voyager for ruining the most awesome villains in any sci-fi show ever, Seven humanized the Borg too much. I also didn't like Kes leaving.

ENT is a bit uneven I'll agree, but on the whole I enjoyed it. I particularly liked Archer's development from a somewhat naive explorer to a seasoned warrior. The two final seasons were IMO very enjoyable and In A Mirror, Darkly is by far my favorite MU episode. On the whole, ENT actually ranks as my favorite Trek. I'm usually a stickler for continuity, but in this case I forgave the show for playing merry hell with the Borg first contact etc.

 

[Lucky]

I'd rank the shows:

1. TOS - I felt it had the best characters and most innovative episodes
2. DS9 - It had the best story and wonderful character arcs for main and recurring
3. TNG - Took a bit to find its legs but eventually started churning out classics like clockwork
4. ENT - First two seasons were uneven, but the show improved massively in the third and finally reached its potential in the fourth season
5. VOY - Had some fun episodes and characters, but never quite lived up to the potential inherit in the premise

 

[shadow55]

Hmm, I do agree about the reset button being overused a little too much. I think the writers probably ran out of ideas a little with Voyager. I know it had a fair few too many holodeck episodes. I suppose reset buttons do at least add the ability to push the limits of things a little more - similar to the Mirror Universe episodes (although I did seriously hate all of those in every series). It was just so ridiculous that they'd have the same ship designs, exactly the same crews/characters, all in exactly the same place, yet performing entirely different roles for the opposite team (Kira in DS9 ones most notably).

I did still feel that TNG used the reset button a little too much too though. It's the difference between standalone episodes and actually having a story. The only difference was TNG could use the excuse of just stopping off at a star base for repairs/maintenance, whilst Voyager didn't really have an excuse for that.

As for Enterprise, I suppose I was in an incredibly bad mind-set whilst watching it lol. People had told me it was terrible before I started, and then when I started getting bored of them, I looked online for other people's opinions and came across this website:
http://www.firsttvdrama.com/enterprise/index.php3

Pretty much all the reviews there seem to pick up on things I probably wouldn't have noticed, and once I did see it, it's hard to imagine that I ever didn't if that makes sense. Also amazes me that the writers/actors were so oblivious to half the things.

Cheers for the replies so far anyway!

 

[BillJ]

TOS Seasons 1-3
TNG Seasons 1-2
Enterprise Season 4
TOS Films
Abramsverse Films

The rest I can take or leave...

 

[RAMA]

I guess I'll chime in.

If you had told me in the mid-80s I'd like any show better than TOS I'd have thought you were crazy, but..

by 1990 I was sure STNG was my favorite series, cemented by the sheer number of good episodes. In episode ratings I think I had 40+ 5-star(out of 5) episodes for STNG and maybe 15 for TOS. The STNG-R blurays are a wonder to behold and I still watch it frequently.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USmgN6cYttE[/yt]

Following STNG, TOS still ranks pretty highly, maybe some is nostalgia. I see more flaws in it now than I ever have though TOS-R made it watchable again a few years ago, simply because there was some newness. These days I watch maybe 2-3 episodes of it in a year.

DS9: Seasons 4-6 are the best, but the shows is probably unfairly ignored outside of ST circles. I rarely watch this one these days.

Enterprise: I think the main cast is actually the strongest from top to bottom, though DS9 has a small group at a higher level. I've found rewatching this series makes me like it even more. It's also an attractive series because it's the first one that had to have enough detail in the sets to withstand HD. I just recently rewatched all 3 episodes of the Babel saga. Somehow, the new HD bluray makes it look even better:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLspL9_6liA[/yt]

Voyager: The weakest cast by far. This show hits a number of home runs as good as ANY ST show but also is too often contradictory and gives us some of ST's worst episodes, along with TOS's 3rd season. Only episode I watched of this recently was Think Tank, because I wanted to see Jason Alexander on a ST show.

 

[Jedi_Master]

My favorites in order

1) DS9
2) TNG
3) VOY
4) TOS
5) ENT

 

[Ro_Laren]

1) TNG
2) Voy - DS9 (I always go back and forth)
3) Ent
5) TOS

 

[Melakon]

I don't rate the series in any order except that TOS is my favored, due to it being what I started with during its first run. VOY feels more in tune with the out there alone business.

 

[Bashir Trikona]

Best DS 9

Worst ENT

 

[Bad Thoughts]

My favorite is always the series I am currently watching, unless I am watching Voyager, in which case the one I plan to watch next is my favorite.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Best: DS9
The premise was solid, setting the crew up to deal with the consequences of their actions and the politics of the region, in which they would play a major role. The characters were all well thought out when created, then over time grew and changed with what had happened to them, each with their own aims and rich back stories. The feel of the show was just more realistic, as it wasn't so clean cut as TNG, whilst the look of the sets and that were just far more diverse and interesting. It was a damn good TV show, not just a Trek show.

Worst: ENT
Poorly conceived, poorly written, poorly cast, poorly acted. The last couple of seasons were better, but after the crap of the first two it could only improve--just too little, too late.

 

[Keith1701]

I'd rank the shows:

1. TOS - I felt it had the best characters and most innovative episodes
2. DS9 - It had the best story and wonderful character arcs for main and recurring
3. TNG - Took a bit to find its legs but eventually started churning out classics like clockwork
4. ENT - First two seasons were uneven, but the show improved massively in the third and finally reached its potential in the fourth season
5. VOY - Had some fun episodes and characters, but never quite lived up to the potential inherit in the premise

My ranking would be the following:
1. TNG ~ great episodes, great acting, great special effects. TNG always had the best ratings overall over the other TREK series.
2. TOS ~ the best of the best of course. TOS got the entire series off to excellent head start.
3. DS9 ~ A differant type of TREK, it was darker in many ways.
4. Voyager ~ It took me awhile to get into having a woman in charge of a starship.
5. Enterprise ~ The first two seasons needed lots help, but Season 3 and 4 were much better. Great Special effects, Great battles, and good episodes.

 

[tomalak301]

I like Ranking the series so I'll do that:

DS9/TNG - I really can't rank these two. TNG is a nostalgic favorite with an amazing cast, and DS9 is probably the best written of the Star Trek series.

VOY - The more I watch Voyager the more I liked it, and I liked it quite a bit the first time. Kate Mulgrew was great as Janeway, and yeah the series had it's flaws, but there were many many great episodes.

Star Trek - I respect it for what it was, and I liked the characters, but it's a series I don't rush back to revisit. Granted, a lot of that is I'm a 90s kid, and I will go back to revisit Star Trek in time. Maybe this summer I will. I do refuse to call it the other way though because it wasn't called Star Trek: The Original Series, it was called Star Trek. Kind of like Plain Simple Garek, it was just plain, simple Star Trek

Enterprise - There was a lot to like about this series, but its' my least favorite. Season 3 was the best season because of what it did for the characters, and Season 4 was your ultimate fan wank. The only episodes I really liked in Season 4 was the Vulcan Trilogy, and Demons/Terra Prime. Demons/Terra Prime really is the two episodes this whole series should have been based on. Maybe the Xindi storyline should have started in Season 2 and the show wouldn't have been cancelled when it was.

Right now I'm reading the DS9 relaunch, and as a 90s Trek fan and 24th century trekkie, I'm loving the fact that there is new Star Trek to love. I'm up to Demons of Air and Darkness and really do enjoy it so far. The best two books I've read though was the Avatar duology.

 

[MacLeod]

Hmm, I do agree about the reset button being overused a little too much. I think the writers probably ran out of ideas a little with Voyager. I know it had a fair few too many holodeck episodes. I suppose reset buttons do at least add the ability to push the limits of things a little more - similar to the Mirror Universe episodes (although I did seriously hate all of those in every series). It was just so ridiculous that they'd have the same ship designs, exactly the same crews/characters, all in exactly the same place, yet performing entirely different roles for the opposite team (Kira in DS9 ones most notably).

How does a reset button push the limits of being able to push things?

Surely the opposite is true, if you use up your supply of photon torpedeo's, because you don't have them to fall back on in abattle then you have to come up with something else, integrate alien tech into the ship etc.. By not resetting at the end of episodes you can actually increase possibilities.

These might seem minor things and to some viewers they are but

A seemingly endless supply of shuttlecrafts

Not keeping track of how many crew members you have left

Endless supply of photon torpedeos

The ship looking like it had just left Utopia (almost every week)

Surely there should have been more than two children (one concieved) on the ship after 7 years.

Detract from the belivability of the shows premise. But then again different people will have different preconceptions of things.

 

[F. King Daniel]

TNG is worst for me. I loved it as a kid, but a recent attempt at a rewatch showed me that aside from a few gems, it's mostly awful. TOS is the best (even the worst episodes are saved by the characters), I mostly enjoyed Voyager and loved the second half of Enterprise. I need to rewatch DS9, but recall finding much of it drab and dull.

 

[Isolinear]

Hi guys, first post here - just looking for some other opinions on things. From looking around the place people seem to have different opinions to me.

For me, I actually preferred Voyager to the rest. Enterprise was definitely last as the characters were just stupid, and the others depend what mood I'm in really.

Welcome! It also depends on my mood which show I like best, but generally I like the sci-fi anomaly/time-travel/crew-acting-weird episodes best. (Although I do appreciate well-acted character shows)
As a result most of my favorite episodes are from TNG/VOY.

The best cast/crew: DS9, VOY and TOS's 'big three'.

Voyager:
I liked how it had the on-going plot through the entire thing, and I thought that actually added a lot to it rather than just being a mish-mash of episodes.

Interesting you should say this. Most people seem to agree Voyager IS a mish-mash of stand-alone episodes with the going-home thing only as an afterthought. They could have done so much more with it.
The episodes themselves are among my favorites though.

TNG:
Some episodes were really good, so I did like it overall. However, a lot of the episodes were entirely character based so it really depended how much I liked that week's choice of character...which wasn't often. Data and Picard were great, Geordi was pretty good too, but very few episodes seemed to revolve around him.

My favorite show. It was the first one I watched, so that may have something to do with it. I do agree that Troi, Riker and the Crushers weren't particularly interesting characters.

TOS:
Good overall. Characters were great, and the plots were actually plots, not just following a character round for 45 minutes. The outdated CGI and everything else did make a little harder to watch however, so it really depends what mood I'm in as to whether I liked it or not.

TOS didn't have CGI. Only 'optical effects'.
This show is very hit and miss for me as well. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I can't stand the outdated pace. Depends on the episode, my mood, the weather....

Masterpieces ('This Side of Paradise' / 'City on the Edge of Forever') vs. Crappy 60's camp ('Gamesters of Triskelion' / 'The Way to Eden')

DS9:
First 3 seasons were boring, but it did get really good after that. Other than Kira, I really liked the characters. Each had a back story about them that could be developed. The whole thing with religion did annoy me a lot, as did most of the Bajor stuff, but ignoring those episodes it was good.

I actually like the TNG-ish first two seasons, although I agree the Bajor-religion stuff was annoying sometimes. I loved the Dominion story in Season 3-5, but in my opinion it outstayed its welcome when it took over the show completely in Season 6-7. Too many depressing war-episodes. I dunno.

Enterprise:
Eugh. Characters were bad, good plots got ruined by stupid characters, and the writers made so many errors with continuity it just ruined most of the other things that I would have otherwise enjoyed. It just felt that the writers intentionally made the characters miss the obvious in an attempt to create some plot which was never that good in the first place, and in the end just meant we were left with stupid characters that were impossible to like.

The characters weren't bad. Just very, very boring. Just like most of the episodes in the first two seasons.
Although S3 was better, I didn't like the finale and I hated the way they killed off the Temporal Cold War.
I know many people didn't like the TCW, but I thought it was one of the better ideas in the pilot. Oh well, Voyager did the same thing I guess, when they forgot all about the female Caretaker they were looking for.

Anyway, I'm interested to hear others' thoughts. Obviously I've generalised massively, and there were episodes in every series that I did enjoy. I felt that Voyager was the only one that consistently made me want to watch more which is surely the main objective in any show.

I like TNG best, but I think you're right. Voyager was the most consistent.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

1. TOS
2. VOY
3. TNG
4. ENT
5. DS9