Rank the first seasons of each show?

[JRoss]

So for the purposes of this thread we're looking at only the first season of each show. As a clarification, I'm not bothering with TAS (just calling that season four of TOS). You can add Prodigy or not. It's not done yet, so I'm not sure if that's fair.

For me, in descending order:
1. SNW. They just hit it out of the park.
2. TOS. Not just because it introduced us to the world, but because so much of it was fantastic.
3. LD. Started off rocky, but it got consistently better.
4. VOY. Yeah, it's on the lower end of Trek shows overall, but it started fairly well.
5. DS9. It only got good, really, in season 2 or 3. But this one did give us Duet.
6. ENT. Not as bad as I remember.
7. TNG. Just not good.
8. PIC. Not very coherent.
9. DIS. Natch.

 

[Lord Garth]

Season 1:
PIC (this is what I call Star Trek as Prestige TV)
DSC (yeah, yeah, I know... )
TOS (would be higher if not for episodes like "Miri" or "The Alternative Factor")
SNW (for every 8, 9, or 10 out of 10, I also gave a 6 or 7)
-- gap --
VOY (it did have a better start than any of the other '80s & '90s series)
DS9 (all it had going for it was really "Emissary", "Dax", "Duet" and "In the Hands of the Prophets")
ENT (good when focusing on stuff specific to the 22nd Century, bland everywhere else)
TNG (when I make a list of episodes I give below a 5 out of 10, and half of them come from this season: that's a Red Flag)

So it looks like we agree about Old Trek and disagree about New Trek.

 

[JRoss]

Season 1:
PIC (this is what I call Star Trek as Prestige TV)
DSC (yeah, yeah, I know... )
TOS (would be higher if not for episodes like "Miri" or "The Alternative Factor")
SNW (for every 8, 9, or 10 out of 10, I also gave a 6 or 7)
-- gap --
VOY (it did have a better start than any of the other '80s & '90s series)
DS9 (all it had going for it was really "Emissary", "Dax", "Duet" and "In the Hands of the Prophets")
ENT (good when focusing on stuff specific to the 22nd Century, bland everywhere else)
TNG (when I make a list of episodes I give below a 5 out of 10, and half of them come from this season: that's a Red Flag)

So it looks like we agree about Old Trek and disagree about New Trek.

Not bad, Garth.

 

[donners22]

DSC - The most exciting and compelling Trek has been since DS9 S6.
TOS - Uneven, but some classics.
ENT - A bit bland, but generally solid.
VOY - Surprisingly interesting on a rewatch, as much for a taste of what might have been if it lived up to its premise.
PIC - Pacing is off and it falls flat at the end, but the middle portion is strong.
LDS - Average to decent.
DS9 - Characterisation is very rough, and it's rather sluggish.
TAS - Entirely forgettable.
TNG - Painfully bad for the most part.

Haven't seen SNW or PRO.

 

[dupersuper]

TOS
SNW
PROD
DS9
VOY
LD
ST
TNG
TAS
ENT
DISCO
PIC

 

[brandnewfan]

1. Prodigy
2. Picard
3. Lower Decks
4. The Original Series
5. Strange New Worlds
6. Voyager
7. Enterprise
8. Discovery
9. Deep Space 9
10. The Next Generation
11. The Animated Series

...far different from how I would rank all shows overall.

Let's do a Season 2 ranking next!!

 

[Annorax849]

TOS
SNW
PIC
DIS/LD
DS9/VOY
ENT
TNG

TAS would be close to Discovery or LD

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I've actually seen all of these fairly recently (aside from Discovery, DS9 and Short Treks) so I'm pretty comfortable with this ranking:

1. Lower Decks - Season 2 was better, but this was still pretty good!
   
2. Picard - A long way from great, but just doesn't have any terrible episodes.
   
3. Discovery - Kind of ridiculous, but actually pulls it off at times.
   
4. Original Series - Should be #1 but episodes like The Alternative Factor drag it right down.
   
5. Prodigy - A bit too childish for me, but it's solid television.
   
6. Strange New Worlds - Great cast, middle of the road stories, continually annoys me.
   
7. Voyager - It's alright, but doesn't have any great stories to raise the average.
   
8. Short Treks - Very hit and miss for me.
   
9. Next Generation - A disaster behind the scenes and in front of them.
   
10. Deep Space Nine - Doesn't improve on a rewatch.
    
11. Animated Series - Like watching the worst TOS episodes on fast forward.
    
12. Enterprise - The worst season of all Star Trek. The opposite of SNW when it comes to enthusiasm.

I wonder if it's a coincidence that my two top seasons continue on from the Berman era and show what happens next. The episodic series are definitely struggling here because there's far more chance of them hitting a Code of Honor or Move Along Home that drops the average down. But they're part of the season too, so they have to be included! Unless they don't...

If I only count the best 50% of each series, the order becomes 1. Lower Decks, 2. Disco, 3. TOS, 4. Picard, 5. Prodigy, 6. Voyager, 7. DS9, 8. Short Treks, 9. TNG, 10. Enterprise, 11. SNW, 12. TAS. Culling the trash allows Emissary, Duet and In the Hands of the Prophets to lift DS9 up, while the very consistent SNW drops like a rock.

 

[Disco]

1. LDS
2. PRO
3. VOY
4. PIC
5. TOS
6. TNG
7. TAS
8. DS9
9. ENT
10. DIS

Still to watch SNW

 

[BillJ]

TOS, LD, TNG, SNW… the rest.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Not gonna lie, Prodigy is WAY better than it has any right to be. I breezed through those episodes in a couple of days.

SNW? I've got episode 5 here in the UK but in no rush. I thought after the 1st episode I'd found my dream series I imagined spinning off of the 2009 movie but... it's just The Orville again. Warmed over nostalgia and plots we've seen before.
Disco S1 was great until the Lorca twist. Picard S1 was amazing until they actually went into space. TNG, ENT, VOY and DS9 were all snooze fests in their first seasons. TOS was pretty awesome, but a lot of it has aged like milk, although has the virtue of being "first"

So... Prodigy. Watch it if you haven't.

EDIT: Forgot Lower Decks existed for a sec. Took a few episodes but once I loved the characters, I loved the show. Decent first season but not the best.

 

[Paul755]

TOS (by a wide margin)
Lower Decks
SNW
Prodigy
DS9
TNG
PIC
ENT
VOY
DISCO

 

[Nyotarules]

SNW
DISC
TOS
LD
ENT
PIC
DS9
VOY
TNG

 

[1001001]

Okay, after giving it some thought:

TOS
SNW
DSC
LDS
VOY
DS9
TNG
ENT
PIC

 

[Qonundrum]

TOS - this one had the hardest job to do, and - despite being rough around the edges at times with so much character building (especially before The Big Three take over), and misfires (Kirk gets a few eyebrow-raisers early on)
DS9 - it's the most consistent, with Emissary and Duet setting high bars.
LDS - I didn't expect what could be perceived as a parody be so thoughtful with its content, along with everything else. It's an impressive balance.
TNG - it's not the worst... but it is the most uneven and inconsistent in feel, not to mention the cheesiest yet there's no pizza, what with going from kid-friendly schmaltz such as "When the Bough breaks" to hard sci-fi like "Home Soil" to diving intro Klingon lore with "Heart of Glory" to appeasing the kids again with after-school specials like "Symbiosis" to NC17 garbage such as "Justice", never mind pandering to kids wasn't needed since Trek - always appealed to them anyway... but enough good episodes kept audiences returning...
VOY - from recollection, it tries to be harder-edge sci-fi but doesn't quite pull it off. Add in a concept that they ditch right away...

I have not seen the entire first seasons of ENT, DSC, PIC, SNW, and PROD. (In most cases, they weren't "my proverbial cup of tea" either, but I sat through a few episodes to be sure then waited out on audience reviews... Haven't seen SNW and PROD at all yet.)

 

[Vger23]

Hmmmmmmmmm………

TOS




SNW
DSC


PIC
TNG
PRO
DS9

VOY


ENT




LD

 

[1001001]

SNW
DISC
TOS
LD
ENT
PIC
DS9
VOY
TNG

Our top 4 are the same, just a little different order.

Great minds, and all that.

 

[Eddie Roth]

I exclude TAS and Prodigy, both of which I still haven't seen in their entirety.

TOS - perhaps the best season Trek has made overall, so...
PIC - if you give this a second chance and binge-watch it, it becomes surprisingly moving
VGR - a highly consistent season, sadly truncated in its US airing, would've been even better if the last four episode hadn't become season 2 episodes
DS9 - some early great ones in this (Duet, Progress, Emissary), but it's still looking for its pacing yet. The show was so much improved in season 2 that 1 looks worse by comparison than on its own
TNG - I still have a soft spot for the early TNGs and how TOS they still sometimes felt. Hit-and-miss season? Sure, but like TOS, these are so classic that I'll even watch the bad ones and enjoy something in them.

After this, it becomes difficult:

I suppose SNW did many things right, but I was also so annoyed by certain things and out of ten episodes, there were 3 or 4 that couldn't honestly be rated much more highly than some of the weird ones from, say, TNG Season 1 (Spock Amok, Elysian Kingdom, Serene Squall... all guilty pleasure episodes at best). DSC becomes better on a second viewing, and especially knowing who abysmally bad this show gets later, Season 1 is a masterpiece of cohesion and excitement by comparison. ENT had me excited back in the day, and I appreciate many of its early episodes for introducing a new flavor of discovery and sense of wonder, but there were also many rather dull episodes. LD took some getting used to, and it got so much better in its second season, that I hardly remember anything about season 1 other than thinking "if it weren't a comedy, it would be a solid Trek show" & "who is this actually made for?/If this weren't streaming, it would be off the air in minutes because ratings would suck".

 

[suarezguy]

1. Original series Despite a few missteps pretty masterful, great success
2. Deep Space Nine Solid, impressive
3. TNG Mixed bag but kind of fun
4. Voyager Mixed bag
5. Enterprise Very lacking

 

[Dee1891]

1. "Original Series"
2. "Deep Space Nine"/"Voyager"
3. "Enterprise"
4. "Next Generation"