Pick your favorite Series premiere

[Uhura's Song]

Now that Lower Decks has finished up, I thought I'd try to start a thread comparing the premieres and finales for each series. And asking the community to pick their favorite.

As I started thinking about, though, I realized it wasn't exactly a fair fight. Some series had double episode premieres (TNG, DS9, ENT, DSC, PRO) while the others did not. Some where 2 hour, some 1, some shorter (TAS, ST, LD). Some live actuon, some animated. Heck, some premieres weren't even the original choices (TOS, DSC).

"Corbomite Manuever" was gonna be the premier for TOS, but the effects were not laid in yet, so they had to choose another episode. For DISCO, I believe Vulcan Hello/Battle at the Binary was all gonna be flashbacks originally, and "Context is for Kings" the premiere, but then they changed it around. So I decided to create a "what if" division with the TOS pilots.

You get three votes. Divvy them up how you want. Pick your 3 faves. Ignore the "what if" ones. Divide into length buckets and pick a 2/1/half. Pick a live, an animated, and a "what if." Some combo.

Let us know your process and your fave in the comments.

For me, I stuck to the actual premieres. Corbomite & Context are two of my favorite episodes, and WNMHGB is also a goodie. I just couldn't go straight 3 faves and only have 1 actual premiere, or none.

DS9, VOY, and ENT would take the cake based on straight merit for me, with Emissay winning top. But they all had 2 hours.

SNW would be my favorite 1 hour premiere, narrowly over PRO 2 parter and "Remembrance." While "Beyond the Farthest Star" would take the half hour division.

I went back & forth over how to vote. If I did buckets instead of merit, then ENT would screwed out of a vote. I am not screwing ENT.

1. Emissary
2. Caretaker
3. Broken Bow

Have at. Will do one for finales soon.

 

[1001001]

I couldn’t decide between Broken Bow and The Vulcan Hello.

Luckily we get more than one vote.

 

[Tallguy]

That's funny because I was just thinking that the only shows where the premier was not one of the best episodes of the show were Disco and arguably Star Trek. (Unless you count the TOS pilots, which I'm not.)

I don't have an opinion on Enterprise since it didn't blow me away and I didn't think it was terrible.

But Farpoint, Emissary, Caretaker, and Strange New Worlds are all some of my favorite episodes of Star Trek, period. I probably think Emissary is the best of the TNG premiers, but Caretaker was really good.

 

[1001001]

Who voted for TAS?

 

[Tallguy]

Who voted for TAS?

I would have, but I couldn't put it above DS9, VOY, or SNW.

 

[1001001]

It takes all kinds, I guess…

 

[Tallguy]

It takes all kinds, I guess…

Well, we HAVE all kinds.

If TAS had premiered with One of Our Planets is Missing or Yesteryear then yes, I would have voted for it. But I didn't pick TOS either for the same reasons. Man Trap is not high on my list.

 

[1001001]

I think TAS is so bad it’s unwatchable. So that was never going to be on my list.

Caretaker was pretty good. The Emissary too.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Since we could count pilots, I went with

"Where No Man Has Gone Before"​

"Strange New Worlds"​

"Beyond the Farthest Star"​

Since we could not choose four, "The Cage" didn't make the cut. I guess that means, Samuel A. Peeples for the win?

Inevitably someone will insist to ask, "Why TAS?"

• BTFS proved that Star Trek could be rebooted.
• The ancient starship is one of the most imaginatively depicted ships in the franchise.
• There are some tense moments, including inside the alien control center and when Scotty is getting crushed by the core hatch.
• Disabling the main warp drive controls so that manually-operated controls have to be used was a far more interesting solution than all the tech-to-the-tech solutions from the 1980s onward combined.

 

[tomalak301]

Broken Bow and Caretaker

 

[Lord Garth]

My four favorites are:

• "The Cage"
• "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
• "Emissary"
• "Remembrance"

The poll only allows for three, so I chopped off "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

Bubbling underneath those, but they don't quite make it are:

• "Caretaker"
• "Context Is for Kings" (a pilot is an interesting context to think of it in)

 

[BillJ]

"The Man Trap". Just such a great premise, with fairly decent execution for a show still trying to get on its feet production wise.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

My top series premieres are:

1. Picard: Remembrance
2. DS9: Emissary
3. LDS: Second Contact

With the TOS pilots coming right after them.

I was really surprised by how good Remembrance was and it got me hyped to see where the series was going. And then I found out where it was going. Still, it had a much better first season than Deep Space Nine, which had very few highlights. Fortunately Emissary was one of them, and it did a good job of setting up a much more complicated situation than most Trek shows have to deal with, while also taking the time to give the lead character an arc. And Second Contact may not be one of Lower Decks' highlights, but it did hint at the greatness the series would reach.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I voted for:

1. DS9: Emissary
2. TOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before
3. DSC: The Vulcan Hello + Battle at the Binary Stars

If we got a fourth vote, it would have been VOY: Caretaker.

 

[NCC-73515]

TNG, PIC, SNW

 

[Nyotarules]

DS9 The Emissary
SNW - Strange new worlds
DSC - The Vulcan hello/Battle of the Binary stars

 

[Farscape One]

I was going to pick every single one except the DISCO and SHORT TREKS episodes, because with the exception of those, they all were good to excellent.

So I went with DS9, VOY, and TNG. DS9 edges out slightly over VOY for two reasons... the characters already felt alive, and the series lead actually grows within the same episode. (From a man stuck in the moment of pain to starting to move forward with his life.)

 

[Lord Garth]

When I think of my top three picks: "The Cage", "Emissary", and "Remembrance", they all have some commonalities. Pike, Sisko, and Picard are each at a crossroads.

They're coping with loss, they're coping with death. Pike and Sisko don't know if they want to be in Starfleet anymore. Picard doesn't even know if he wants to be alive anymore. "I haven't been living, I've been waiting to die." Pike thinks about other types of lives he could be living. Sisko thinks about other types of careers he could be having. Picard is living a life besides the one he wants by tending to the Family Vineyard.

Pike is frustrated with his life. The losses the Enterprise took on Rigel VII have taken a toll on him. It might've even been the straw that broke the camel's back. Pike thinks about resigning. Sisko focuses all of his frustration and grief from the Battle of Wolf 359 on Locutus and turns Picard into a scapegoat. Sisko also thinks about resigning. Picard has had a falling out with Starfleet over the Romulan Evacuation and bitterly says that Starfleet is no longer Starfleet. And Picard actually did resign. He's also still feeling grief over the events of Nemesis and losing Data.

During each of these three episodes: Pike rediscovers that he really wants to be in Starfleet as the illusions the Talosians put him through put things in perspective for him. Sisko protecting Bajor, Deep Space Nine, and the Wormhole from the Cardassians gives him something to focus on besides what happened to his wife, and communicating with the Prophets gives him a new perspective on his life. Dahj coming to Picard for help, and Picard finding out about Soji after Dahj is ambushed, gives Picard something to live for. Deciding to save Soji without Starfleet's help gives Picard a new perspective since he's working outside of the net he's used to.

As Pike, Sisko, and Picard gain a new perspective, it gives them a renewed sense of purpose in life.

"The Cage", "Emissary", and "Remembrance" happened to be made almost 30 years apart from each other, so they're really "once in a generation" stories for Star Trek.

EDITED TO ADD: I can't believe I forgot this! A sense of unreality. "The Cage" obviously has Pike and everyone else going through multiple illusions. They look at what Pike expects to see, what the Talosians and Vina think he wants, and then finally what he actually wants. His deepest desires being what he can't have. Only for him to find out that's not really what he wanted after all.

In "Emissary", Sisko sees several avatars representing different aspects of his life while he's interacting with the Prophets. In a sense, those are illusions that give insight into his mind. They show where Sisko has been but also where he really exists in his mind. Not being over to get over losing Jennifer at the Battle of Wolf 359 and confessing that he was ready to die with her.

In "Remembrance", Picard dreams about the Enterprise and playing poker with Data, saying he doesn't want the game to end. That's the life he misses. And his mind is still on the loss of his comrade and friend. But it's also an illusion. The circumstances in his actual life are completely different. But like with Sisko in "Emissary" and the Battle of Wolf 359, this is where Picard really exists, on a mental level. This is what he wants back. In trying to help Dahj, in wanting to save Soji, it's his way of saving a part of Data.

To one degree or another, I think Pike, Sisko, and Picard all felt Survivor's Guilt.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Broken Bow, all the way.

 

[Frontis]

I think some series didn't start perfectly but got better with time.
SNW impressed me from the beginning so it got my vote.
I would give 2nd place to The Man Trap and 3rd place to The Emissary.