"Duet" isn't just one of the best Star Trek episodes of all time, it's one of the best Bottle Episodes of any TV show of any genre of all time. It should be included in TV screenwriting classes.
I decided to rank the first season of each Trek show by its adherence to OSHA safety standards 1. Picard 2. Lower Decks 3. ENT 4. DS9 5. Short Treks 6. Discovery 7. TNG 8. VOY 9. TAS 10. TOS
At last, a ranking by the standards that matter most! :D I’m not sure how much I agree, but I love that you used this metric at all. Bless you, and LLAP. 🖖🏻
Given the fate of Bruce Maddox, I'm not sure I can agree with your #1. However, given how little Bruce Maddox cared about safety (Measure of a Man), I guess his fate is nothing more than Just Desserts.
I dont hate him at all but i totally get how he can get really annoying to many people. But...i mean, without Wesley we woulnt have the "SHUT UP WESLEY"
The animated series gets so much hate from Trekkies, but I honestly love that goofy show. Now that Anton Yelchin has passed, Lieutenant Arex is the only suitable replacement(provided we get another film in the Kelvin series).
Replacing the Yelchin Chekov with Arex is utterly BERILLIANT!! i'd like to hope that Arex. BTW, is interpreted using the Peter David written, long-lived variant, whenever/however he appears...
@@posindustries I wish others could take over the Harry Potter franchise. Rowling may have created it just like Roddenberry created Trek but the HP franchise has outgrown her and it needs others to continue it now.
@@trekjudas Whole heartedly agree. Whatever is said about Rowling I feel that there isnt anything wrong or bad about the universe she created. High time new blood take over or get more involved. Heck that upcoming Hogwarts Legacy game, they said that Rowling was involved only in a small capacity.
"Duet" is probably one of my favorite episodes. I still haven't finished Picard, but there's some sadness associated with it right now. I'll probably go back before S2 and rewatch S1. I think my bottom four are TNG, TAS, Short Treks and Picard. My middle four are VOY, ENT, DISO and DS9. My tops are TOS and LD. If I had to rank in order probably TNG, TAS, PIC, ShT, VOY, ENT, DISCO, DS9, TOS and LD. However, I understand why each season is like that. I feel like Discovery's biggest problem is being almost two seasons in one. Perhaps if they'd either jettisoned the Terran storyline (which they could have done) or split them into two different seasons. In fact, I think it would have been better if they had done that, shifted S3 to S4 and S2 to S3. They also never coherently explain Burnham's relationship to Spock. Maybe her father or mother were Amanda's half-sibling, but I don't remember it being explicitly stated. Regarding Picard, I think they could have jettisoned the story arc with what's-his'-name seducing Soji and focused more on more character development among the other characters. Even jettisoning the flashbacks and either show them earlier (such as Commodore Oh's mindmeld with Agnes. That should have come right after Picard leaving. It would have built up the tension for later. As would have showing Seven earlier on in the season and laying the possibility that the Artifact was being used for not-so-great reasons. I'll stop there. I tend to do this exercise whereby I think of how I would have written something I find weak or not so strong. It has helped me as a writer.
"Duet" is probably my favourite episode of Star Trek ever. DS9 also had the best pilot, in my opinion, with "Emissary," and the finale, "In the Hands of the Prophets" is such a good episode.
“There’s this episode where they meet the alien race and then blah thing happens” Jessie I think you just described a massive amount of Star Trek episodes across all series
TOS was such a radical departure from anything that had ever been done on TV before, that even today I still feel the thrill of watching this series for the first time. All the elements were so well blended that I have watched each episode dozens of times and it still feels fresh and new and still has something important to say to us today. Balance of Terror is so deep with so many brilliantly mixed underlying themes that have rarely even been discussed that it is still to me among the greatest writing accomplishments in TV history. And even though the Alternative Factor is generally ranked among the worst first season episodes and episodes overall, that gut-punch of an ending with the two Lazarus's at each other's throats for eternity is still hard for me to watch. Not all TOS episodes ended up with happy endings. Kirk: And what of Lazarus...😭 In some ways, humanity never really advanced, which keeps everything relatable but also kind of sad. In the first season episode Court Martial, we see that Commodore Stone is ready to bury Kirk's "certain" guilt and sweep his "crime" under the rug so as not to potentially embarrass Starfleet. Not unlike what we see today in all levels of society. And in Space Seed, Khan makes the remarkable observation that he is surprised at how little man himself has changed. Coming from Khan, that is a powerful message. I did not watch the other various series. At a glance, I could tell they would never capture the old magic. That's ok. Their popularity pushed Star Trek beyond anything I ever thought would happen. So even though nothing could ever touch TOS for me, I nevertheless salute all Star Trek series and those who loved them.
The Star Trek: Lower Decks trailer seemed a bit off to me, but you've spoken so highly of the series that I want to check it out. Whenever it actually reaches the UK that is.
Lower Decks is worth it if you take it for what it is. Some people were super annoyed by all the Star Trek jokes (like "how would those characters know that reference?"), but that's not the point. Lower Decks is half serious Star Trek show, half parody Star Trek show, and all comedy show. For example, one of the best jokes in the show: they make a "movie" in the holodeck in one episode, and one character threatens that another character will end up like Xon. The other character says "who's Xon?" and the first character says "exactly." It's such a good joke, but it requires the characters to have meta-knowledge that Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a movie, that Star Trek: Phase II was a proposed Trek TV show, and it requires the audience to have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything Star Trek. If you accept the fanservice, meta-references, and absurdist comedy, you'll have a good time.
I hated the trailer and loved the series. The trailer made me think it was either not ridiculous enough to be good satire or too ridiculous to be serious trek. In the end it actually was both outrageously ridiculous in a good way while being serious in the ways it needed fo be.
it is interesting that Deforest Kelly did not get added to the main credits until season 2. However we see this first season how important he is to the triumverant.
Though I never really understood the "crediting Rules"(contract and payment-stuff I think), I feel star Trek has a tradition of being off there: Diana Muldaur as a whole season special guest, Cirroc Loften as regular in S6/S7 when Aaron Eisenberg had more screen time. But disco has a new set of main characters nearly every episode - especially poor wilson cruz dropping in and out of the set...
At first, all of TOS meshed together for me because I grew up watching it on reruns, but when I discovered Wikipedia/Memory Alpha, I was impressed by how so many of my favorite episodes were in the first season; they really hit the ground running in a way few other shows have.
Great job! Thank you. Really enjoyed that. Whether we agree or not on the rankings - and for the most part, we do - your reasoning, fairness, and the presentation in general, were right on the money. Now I'm going to binge the rest of your YT uploads 👍
I'd like to point out that the episode featuring the L'Gonians is a fairly accurate repeoduction of many African tribal cultures' concepts of marriage (women being holders of property, for example); I happen to be an anthropologst.
TOS for sure, but I when binge watch always watch the first 4 episodes in the correct order not NBC's. The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone before, The Man Trap and Charlie X.
Oooh this is gonna be fun. I personally cant rank them, but here’s how I feel about them overall: TOS Season 1: Can be a little forgiven for being awkward and dated with a mix of good, bad and OK. Favorites include The Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror, The Consience of the King and Space Seed. TAS Season 1: The bulk of the entire show as a whole with some good, but was mostly just weird. Can be enjoyed ironically. Favorites include Yesteryear, One of Our Planets is Missing, More Tribbles More Troubles, The Terratin Incident, The Slaver Weapon and the Jihad. Unfortunately includes my worst TAS episode, The Infinite Vulcan. The Motion Picture: Slow, plodding, motionless and dull. Completely smothers the interesting ideas that were there. TNG Season 1: IMO the worst 1st season overall with a lot of bad and few good. One wonders how TNG got to where it was when it started so awful. Favorites include 1001001, Heart of Glory and Conspiracy. Unfortunately includes my worst TNG episode, Code of Honor. DS9 Season 1: Not bad with one true high note, but can be difficult to enter because of its radically different premise. Favorites include The Nagus, Progress, Duet and In the Hands of the Prophets. Voyager Season 1: Started off with potential to properly use its unique setting before becoming just the same old, same old with little to get me invested. Favorites include Faces and Jetrel. Enterprise Season 1: Sticks to its premise a whole lot better but is bogged down by poor characterizarion, with some truly, truly awful episodes on top of that. Favorites include Breaking the Ice, Acquisition and Fallen Hero. Discovery Season 1: Had some interesting ideas and engaging characters, but I felt had trouble keeping focus on what it wanted to do, poor character balance, and didn’t seem that fun to watch. Favorites include Context is for Kings, Choose your Pain, Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad, and Vaulting Ambition. Short Treks Season 1: Not sure if can count because of its short, anthology nature, but I feel that it did its job as a companion series well. I liked all 4 of its episodes. Picard Season 1: Starts off very strong but goes weaker and more depressing. Favorites include Maps & Legends and Nephente. LD Season 1: IMO The best 1st season overall as I felt no episodes were outright bad, just weaker than others. Stuck to its premise consistently that starts off on OK footing and got better and better by the end. Favorites include Cupid’s Errant Arrow, Veritas, Crisis Point and No Small Parts.
To me personally the only show that started off strong was the Original Series. However regardless of what I just said I think everyone can agree that every other show never started off that good. Every TV show in the franchise just needed more time in order to really make it a unique installment in the franchise.
I actually really love the first season of DS9. I love how even early on it has a heavy focus on continuity in the impact of the station over a period of time that the other shows just did not have in their first season. I love almost all of the characters right from the beginning, it has some amazing episodes, and it's just comfort television for me. Also like the darker tone compared to some of the other Star trek shows. I still would probably put the original series above it, but it would be a very close second for me
I never thought that an animated Star Trek would make 2nd best of anything. Another 2020 blessing! Agree that TOS season 1 belongs near the top, it was unabashedly itself.
Excellent rankings! I'm so glad to see the love for ST:LD. So many of the other Trek channels just dump on it, which tells me that they are just missing the point. LD is fun!!
TAS is great if you just listen to it while doing housework. It's a fantastic audio drama with the full (minus George) TOS cast, along with a solid soundtrack.
Conclusion: If the show has Picard in it, it's going to have the worst first season. All joking aside, I suffer through TNG season 1 because Tasha is actually my favorite TNG character. Despite all the missteps with Picard (use my sweet Romulan murder baby Elnor more, cowards!), I was just bawling like a baby at the end. Data is my second favorite TNG character and when I realized I was going to have to watch him die again I just could not. The only thing I take away from TAS is Johanna McCoy getting mentioned, and I take this character and create my own version of her in my fan fic that I've never written. I barely remember that first season of Voyager. There is so much potential there, but sadly they didn't take advantage of it. Man, I barely remember ENT season 1 also. I did hear that the original idea of the first season was to set it all on earth and be about finding the crew and then season 2 be going into space and honestly, that fan fic idea lives in my head rent free. *GASP* How dare you not say that DS9 has the best first season of almost any show ever! I am down the middle on S1 of DSC. I think it's more memorable than VOY or ENT's first seasons, but like you said, it's still pretty messy. Although the characters are pretty well established, we don't really get to spend a lot of time with most of them and that really throws me off for the show. TOS season 1 exists for me to set up Spirk in all my fan fics.
The Klingons in Discovery season 1 deserve a mention. I know they weren't quite canonical in many ways, but they were so much richer and complex than any other Klingons, anywhere. I wish they hadn't been dropped, and I hope that they get reclaimed in a future season. Heck, I would even watch a whole series based on the Disco Klingons.
My understanding is that the alien race in "Code of Honor" were supposed to be lizards, but the director of the episode chose to use African-American actors instead.
The best reveal of season 1 Picard was Kestra. It was a nice touch Deanna and Will naming their child in memory of Deanna's sister. A truly emotional episode Dark Page, Deanna learns the truth her traumatized mother had hidden for decades. This little moving easter egg was gratifying to this Trekkie
Well done, nicely measured list. Don’t agree with all the choices but I totally understand why you have them in the order you do have them in given your breakdown on each series. Well considered 👍🏻
Hi Jessie! Love your videos! I agree mostly with your list, I’d put Picard a bit higher, but I’m one of the few that adored that season (I definitely think you’re right, there’s a lot of potential with the new characters, like Rios, Rafi and Elnor, that just wasn’t explored). I also loved Disco season one, and enjoyed their portrayal of the mirror universe better than DS9. You’re spot on about lower decks, and while I wanted it to be first, the great episodes in the first season of TOS are true greats that still hold up well today. Looking forward to the next video! Live long and prosper!
TOS and TNG both have first seasons that ramp up in quality as they go on, especially with TOS having some of the standout iconic episodes of that show come in the latter half of the first season
I didnt get exposed to Star Trek tv series until I was a young adult. I did enjoy the 2009 movie, but the ideas and themes of Trek hadn't stuck on my mind until rather recently. Still, my experience as a recentish Trek fan has been soo fulfilling. The world right now is full of pain and injustices, but the Trek series somehow offers a form of heart-warming escape AND a poignant commentary on our deep-rooted issues and how we might evolve from them. Trek makes me smile and reminds me that every positive action I take has positive impacts on the world. Tiny shuffles toward a bright Trek-like future. I love imagining myself doing science aboard an exploration ship with crewmates from allover the galaxy. And I am so glad that even with all the horrid discrimination going on, I as a Southeast Asian still has a shot to experience a microcosm of this in our reality. Time to go back to cleaning turtle poop and washing petri dishes ~
Lower Decks is such nice love letter to us... We already had self referencing , so we have glimpse how it would be... Take last episode: Badgie, or Tendi showing ship to Peanut Humper... etc. Most of all, first season makes so excited to see more... For sure, I am not big fan of Discovery season 1, but I recently re-watched it, and it was better than I remembered... Season 2 is another story... Yes, there is some damage control, but it was much better, and I feel season 3 will be great... I see why you appreciate more and I give it a plus for trying to grow... In some shows from the past you can clearly find moments or whole seasons where writers wrote episode just to fill the space... Discovery is not such show - at the risk to be hated by some folks, but with payoff by others... So, first season, by me not such high ranked like by you, but higher than by some other people... I already see how in the future people will curse some other Star Trek show defending Discovery... 🌝 Same as it was with TNG, for example... "How dare they bring this British bald man?" 🌝 And it was lost a little bit, but now we all love it... I don't see Short trek as show. For me it is more as additional material. Replacement to extra DVD stuff... So, I see it as part of show that episode references. But OK, it is Star Trek, and it has seasons... I like this Saru episode much (don't remember name too) and Tilly and Po episode is OK... And being first one is more than that... Right, those do setting up for Discovery, but it is good way to do it... Let us see does it Calypso too as really long shot... However this is indication that it cannot be taken apart of Discovery... For me is DS9 S01 little bit higher, but haven't watched it recently, so, maybe it is just my imagination... I liked Enterprise instantly. Yes, I saw some flaws in first 2 seasons too... but it was somehow for fans... And it is such waist that it has not at least one season more, at least, especially after great 3rd and 4th season... But OK... this is not the theme here... Have you done movie ranking too? LLAP P.S. Nice that it comes right with Steve's Lower Decks season 1 review... 🌝
Nothing to do with this list, but... I love that you "sang" Faith of the Heart in the chat during @Steve Shives Octobre 12 live stream and that he commented on it! 😂
I personally think feelings about Discovery will mello out in a decade or two. When TNG released the Galaxy Class design was disliked as a drastic departure of design but is now what many define the franchise as. DS9 "wasn't trek" because they didn't go anywhere. I see Enterprise as a 90s series with a halfway passable cgi polish. Effectively it had been twenty years since a series was released when Discovery premiered. Just being in a quality that could be aired on a main network today required a drastic departure. Hindsight will allow people to see the good in it.
I think there was some strong emotional response to the tone of Disco S1 being so far off from the ideal of star trek that will fade without the context of time. But the episode and character writing in S1 is just so far down from what other modern treks offer. I'm in the middle of rewatching S1 right now to catch a friend up on the show so they can watch S3 with us and its just such a poorly handled season. It has a much stronger start than I remember with the first two episodes and the promise offered by Georgio as a captain was impressive. The writing of this setup was really good, and the structure great. The problem goes with the shift to Lorca, the pacing is just really off from this point, too fast in some ways and too slow in others. A lot of really forced situations that are hard to watch. The mudd replaying time episode was just so poorly written its angering. Jumping into the mirror universe was just miserable and frustrating. It did set up some.really good characters though and the promise of the spore drive and redemption arc of Michael is really fitting in S3. Its just the episode writing in particular that really hurts the show overall. Compared to Picard which has its own pacing issues, it just isnt able to tap into the same emotional resonance, and the overall plot arc comes together much better than discovery rush to complete the klingon war.
I think I agree with almost all of your reasoning, a lot of the points I would have made you make here. I recently rewatched s1 and 2 of TNG, except I only watched a select number of episodes, I think I watched maybe just under half of the total number of episodes from those two seasons, and more from s2 than s1, but I did find myself enjoying the s1 stuff more than I expected. It was all mostly from the latter half, that is also worth mentioning, but yeah, there is some good stuff in there. Particular props to the music, TNG s1-3 incidental music is so much better than the music in the entire rest of that run of star trek, the rest of TNG all the way through voyager, possibly enterprise too, I haven't seen it, it's just kind of wallpaper music, TNG s1-3 it's distinctive and characturful and just really good. but yeah, although I agree with pretty much all your reasoning I would still rank the shows slightly differently. excluding Entrprise and Picard, since I've not seen those yet, from worst to best I'd go: TAS TNG VOY DIS LDS DS9 TOS I think that looks about right for my take on them. I don't think I can really count short treks as its own series, it's kind of a series of footnotes and vignettes. Even though I really did love calypso and had a great time with the harry mudd one.
"Picard has a lot of storylines that go nowhere." There are Space Rangers and no Tom Paris mention!? I mean come on, he'd have an eye-patch for no reason, drag Harry with him who left Starfleet still an ensign. Harry is a Commodore now.
Hearing how, you ranked each first season only Star Trek TV show was outstanding. It is always, great to hear just what parts of each Star Trek TV series we enjoy. Just as you ranked, for myself the 1960's TV show was the best. In addition, it is even better when you also add in the pilot episode "The Cage" where Spock has emotions and the first officer is female.
Yeah, TOS wins because it's the *only* Trek show that doesn't conform to the "Quality Arc" as explained by Jessie in another more recent video. TOS is the first series that actually contains most of the best episodes, whereas for all the other series there was some kind of teething issues of the show and characters finding their way.
Best to worst first seasons: TOS, DS9, Enterprise, Picard, Voyager, Discovery, TAS, TNG Unfortunately, I haven't seen Lower Decks yet. I do not count Short Treks as a standalone show.
Oooh I love this! Ok, my ranking, worst to best, is a little different, and therefore I'm going to share it! XD TNG, ST, VOY, DISCO, PIC, DS9, TOS, ENT. I just watched the first season of Enterprise for the first time recently and oh my goodness I have no idea where it got the reputation for not being good. I have had so many people tell me it isn't worth my time, but that season was so solid, I'm sad now that I know the show is so short-lived. Like seeing the origin of starfleet, and all the little references to races and first contacts, as well as the design of the sets and costumes feeling so in universe and real... I'm just really impressed and can't wait to see where it goes so nobody spoil it for me! XD
Oh, so much I want to say! Lol I'll be brief. I agree that Lower Decks is a great series ( 3 season s at this writing), and I also love that you and Steve Shives can completely disagree on opinions and still SHARE your love for Trek, and respect for each other. THAT is what Trek fandom means to me. ❤️🤘😁😔🇨🇦
Hi, Jessie, found this interesting and in lighting to what you think Star Trek is and what you hope to see in a Star Trek series. Looking forward to your review of Discovery season three, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Are you guys going to throw stones at me if I admit my favorite first season is ST:Picard? I've never been a big fan of that Roddenberry concept, that the federation is the good guy by default, not really corrupt, etc. Every group has bad apples and can turn bad. I like that kind of space opera, I like having a group of not so perfect characters to work with. Other than that Picard is darker, I like the idea that characters don't necessary get an happy ending when the show is over : Seven for exemple is far more interesting to me as she is in that show than as she was in the ending of Voyager (with a relationship with Chakote coming out of nowhere). Every first season is a challenge for me, I kinda hate most of them but I can admit all the good things in them.
I have to go on record right here and state that I personally feel that Picard does NOT deserve the hate that I have seen for it here in the comment section. The season felt exactly how I would have wanted it to feel...like a novel presented on the small screen. We see what is happening through Picard's now much older eyes and I find every bit (if you'll excuse the Spock phrase) fascinating. We've seen on several previous occasions in previous series'...and movies...that the Federation has its bad actors within it and that's brought to the forefront here. One thing that everyone seems to miss though...this...isn't actually Picard's story! Yes, he is the central focus character and his name is in the title...however, this is really DATA'S story, first and foremost. Specifically, it's the story of how Data finally gets the humanity that he had sought all through TNG via his complete and full death. Star Trek:Nemesis really botched this point by attempting to have Data reincarnated through B4. Picard makes the perfect correction to this by showing that the attempt to place Data's positronic matrix (read soul) into B4 had been a complete and total failure as it SHOULD be. That said...Dr. Soong's human son decided to keep Data alive via a holographic program, basically trapping Data in a cube. Obviously a wrong choice for Data as well as it AGAIN robbed him of a full death, the one thing that connects ALL living things together. Ultimately, everything Picard experiences this season is bringing him to this very point...giving Data his well-deserved and long-delayed final send-off which allows Data to finally share fully in this one binding, ultimate truth...that everything that is alive DIES, thus finally establishing Data as a fully sentient, formally living being...the one thing he sought to attain throughout all of TNG! My only real complaints would have to be with the rushed "robotic tentacle invasion" and Picard's resurrection into an android body...if a Season 2 does happen (which I have doubts on but not for any bad reasons, believe me...I just don't see how they top Season 1 tbh! 😅) and this somehow gets reasonably resolved, cool...but those events did throw me off a bit and keep Picard Season 1 out of my top spot... That said, it's an easy number 2 season for me, topped really only by TOS Season 1...
I think a lot of people don't really consider the damage that a constant state of war does to a population or government, too. The Federation had been a actively at war for decades, and not a distant front either. The Borg attacked Earth. The Dominion infiltrated Earth. That takes a toll on a society. Seeing the natural consequences to an increasingly militarised Federation was fascinating. I think people that complain were looking at past Trek with nostalgia glasses and hoping for something familiar and comfortable like TNG, not speculative science fiction that makes uncomfortable commentary on our own current world. They're the people that didn't consider DS9 proper Trek because it wasn't a shining beacon of utopia like TNG or TOS.
@@christopheralthouse6378 I wonder if people were dissapointed because they expected that show to be the next TNG season or something like that. I think it would have been a mistake for so many reasons : we live in a different era, the actors are aging, etc. As far as I'm concerned I think there will be at least a season 2
@@sanityisrelative DS9 is my favorite ST show, with TNG just behind. I think utopia should be a goal but expecting to achieve and maintain that without conflict is unrealistic. I understand the need for comfort too, but we can never go back to childhood.
Far as the top three go, spot on. 4-10 feels pretty accurate, but it's been so long since I've watched a lot of the various first seasons that I wouldn't trust myself to argue.
I heart Discovery. I mean, right out the gate, our protagonist is committing mutiny. Whaaaat? Then the spore drive, and the mirror universe, and social issues not touched before. Disco grabbed me early. This is not like the others, and I'm here for it.
I pretty much agree with the entire list as stated, though there are some caveats that I feel you missed: - Lower Decks was almost torpedoed by its pilot episode, because it was so off-the-wall, it could easily turn off a number of fans, myself included. But then it got better. And better. And better. And OH MY GOD WOW! In short, the Pilot completely missed the tone of the rest of the series, which made it go from a Star Trek parody in the Star Trek universe, to a Star Trek show with some clever slapstick and comedy on the side. - Discovery Season 1, I totally agree. I fell in love with the first season. And it took the second season for me to not want to watch Season 3 whatsoever. If you ever decide to do a list of "Best second seasons of Star Trek", this should totally be in the list. In fact, I REALLY hope you do, because there's quite a few series that "grew the beard" in their third seasons, and, like I suggested, Discovery really messed itself up in the second season. - Although I agree that DS9 was still feeling itself out in the first season (heck, Rene hadn't figured out Odo's gravelly voice at that point), I still think it belongs in the upper tier, because even though it was rehashing *some* plots, it was also trailblazing a huge amount in its own right despite it, "Duet" being the classic example you mentioned. - If you include the Short Treks into this list, I must say that they should be rated a bit lower, by virtue of the fact that, as you said, they felt more like deleted scenes. I didn't really need to watch them. Good list! :)
I think that I read somewhere that in SHADES OF EVIL it was a _deliberate_ decision to send an established character to the kind of denise usually reserved for red-shirts. The source that I read (in a magazine I think, ages ago) said that it was too drive home the point of how apace exploration of dangerous. Granted, emphasizing that point is anyway what red-shirts are for --- but they apparently decided that since Denise Crosby _anyway_ wanted to leave the show, they could drive that point even stronger by doing so with an established character.
I'm a Voy apologist through and through and IMO season 1 had a lot of gems: Phage, Eye of the Needle, Faces and Jetrel(Jetrel is basically Voyager's Duet, and has the same quality).
1. TOS, the 3 main stars just worked and the rest are so remembered and loved for a reason, the episodes are just charming in their age and effects, and overall the morals still holds up in their stories. 2. Lower Decks, had a bit of a focus problem with Mariner and Boimler forcing the rest of the cast to often fade into the jokes then be characters but beside that it was know what it was and that was a great comedy and love letter to Trek. 3. Voyager/DS9/Enterprise just dumping them together, stealing what you said "they all are kind of standard" they all have good points and bad but it takes the series a few seasons to find their footing. 6. Disco, honestly the hardest one to place because so much of what I dislike is more on the subjective side, but we didn't know some of the characters' names, it lose the thread for a bit like you said, and it did used the Bury Your Gays trope so down (the list) it goes. 7. Picard was honestly too short and makes the season far apart in the second half and even in the first half you have some weird pacing of some things tacking their time while other things being weirdly rushed, plus having the Reapers guest star was weird. It's highs and a lot of it's setting IS also built off your investment to TNG. 8. TAS yeah it's just a weird to place, like I love it but yeah. 9. TNG, mirror what you said, the Writers pet, some old views that just didn't work, so on. not ranking short treks because it's more just a collection.
You might have rated TAS a bit higher had you lived at the time it came out and until it appeared there seemed to be absolutely no hope at all that there would be any new Star trek material ever again. TAS was the first sign outside of a comic book series and a few novels that the voyages of the Star Trek franchise were just getting started. It brought us fans new hope. It was a wonderful feeling to have back in 1973.
TAS as a whole is actually a pretty good season 4 of TOS in my book. And season 1 of TOS has aged really quite well and is a classic slice of archive TV for a reason. Season 1 of Discovery is pretty representative of the show as a whole, actually. It does some genuinely interesting (if not intriguing things) but often falls short in the execution. Either way, I can understand both love AND hate and the show gets. I just happened to finish a rewatch of season 1 of DS9 and it's one of those "Much better than you remember" type of cases. I haven't seen any ENT since it aired, so my recollections are fuzzy at best. However, I feel that it's one of the worse opening seasons. No matter good the show got near its end, it felt like at this early stage it mostly just offered retreads of what we already had seen before. Kinda like "more of the same", just in a new aspect ratio.
Agree about STP. I would reverse your order for the 3 middle series, as I think the acting in Voyager is superior and helps the episodes be more engaging. But yes, “Duet” is a masterpiece.
"Skin of Evil" was the turning point for TNG. They had to let this main character die, and the show at this point already tried to have some overarching plots and consistency, so they made it impact the other characters. It's one of the first if not *the* first episode in which we see genuine emotion in a lot of main characters. I wish they'd made Tasha's death more meaningful, but apart from that, I believe it's a very solid episode and probably the one that led the way to how great TNG would become later on. I can't do a ranking because the only first seasons I've watched so far are TOS, TAS, TNG and DS9, but I overall share your views about those. Though I find it really hard to rewatch TAS because of all those recycled animations. As a fan of modern cartoons, the visuals of that show physically hurt my eyes. I want to spread some love for "The Terratin Incident" though, it's a very interesting story that used the show's potential, even the animations look okay in this one - a true gem in my eyes, but I feel it gets too little love.
Skin of Evil being a disappointing way for Tasha to go out gave us Yesterday's Enterprise, at least, and it's the first chapter in the "Deanna Troi crashes every ship she pilots" mega arc, so it's got that going for it.
I haven't rated every single episode of every series yet (almost there), but here is how I rank the "Season 1's". I'm including STP, STD, and STLD in here because Jesse did, but I'm not sure you can really compare a 10-13 episode first season with the others fairly. I'm not including the Short Treks. I was surprised Jesse ranked ENT so low and DS9 so high. S1: TOS/STLD/ENT/VOY/TAS/STD/DS9=TNG/STP Jesse, 'Duet' is my #2 overall DS9 episode. That's how good I think it is. TOS had 30 episodes in it and I would say that 27 of them are above average. Truly the best ST season and set the standard for all others to follow. Simply put, Star Trek S1 and S2 are the reason we have 8 spin-off series and 13 movies. (and more to come) I really didn't know where VOY and ENT were going to score out before I rated all the episodes, but I was certain they would be higher than DS9 and TNG. The saddest revelation here is that STP is so low... really disappointing. This all said, I really love them all and have (aside from the new stuff) watched them all multiple times.
My Ranking of 1st Seasons 8. Enterprise 7. The Next Generation 6. Discovery 5. Picard 4. Deep Space Nine 3. Lower Decks 2. The Original Series 1. Voyager
I think Picard season one needed ten more episodes to get through everything. It was a kitchen sink sort of season. Unfortunately season two suffered from the exact opposite problem. Lol Voyager season one had a few good episodes like Faces, Eye of the Needle, and Jetrel. But it also had way too much time travel episodes, and the gross Neelix and Kess relationship. I think Voyager becomes more TNGesque latter on when Berman gets more directly involved. Voyager was never really allowed to be fully serialized like it was clearly designed to be from its very concept. A lot of that was Berman's influence over the show. Voyager was also prime time on a new network so they were less risk adverse. Voyager season one also suffered from a shortened season. But I agree with your list overall. And now that SNW season one is done, where would you put it? I would put it at the top of my list. It just does everything right.
TOS apart (mostly due its historical importance) I agree with most of your list. Disco. I love Disco, but I tried to rewatch season 1 recently and I failed. Skipped to season 2 and was happy. I would probably place it near Voy.
I actually agree with almost every part of this list aside from the obvious Discovery sticking point. As someone who was still willing to give each show its fair shake and quite enjoyed DSC S2 for the most part, I really couldn't put DIS S1 any higher than between TNG and Picard. While you make a great point about how DIS really took chances and swung for the fences to try to do something new and different, I really feel like almost all of those big swings were misses. Don't get me wrong, it had its hits (like Tilly and Saru), and an excellent cast doing the best with what they had, but the creative direction just felt like it wanted to be anything BUT Star Trek, which was especially unfortunate for a show that was the first Star Trek TV series in over a decade. I think the (apparently forced) departure of an executive producer and both showrunners going into S2 might have made a world of difference. S2 was hardly my favorite season of Star Trek, either, but at least I didn't have to drink to get through it anymore.
This is something I don’t recall any reviewer having done yet, but it would be really interesting to see which series had the best sophomore season. I still would rank TOS right near the top, but TNG was trying harder and VOY and DS9 were there too, but it seemed like DS9 didn’t really take off till season 3 or 4 and VOY? Well it always seemed lukewarm to me with some good episodes mixed in.
Hey Jesse, any chance you might sometime give your thoughts about why Supergirl's season 5 didn't work? You're really good at breaking down everything and taking a fair look alongside your own opinions, and I've yet to see a fair review. I really love the characters and actors in Supergirl, but the writing and management of the show seems like it's always been very troubled esp in that season. Cheers
Loved this! The only thing I disagree on is the low ranking of PIC. If you rank DSC so high for ambition (and rightly so!), I think PIC deserves a little more credit (even if it didn't quite stick the landing). I think it was ultimately a lot more interesting than the pretty 'play safe, TNG-style' first seasons of DS9, VOY and ENT. By your own logic, I think it's ranked TOO low. Apart from that, great video like always!
Cool - I like your ranking - I would only switch Voyager and DS9. I'm gonna watch Yesteryear now - it's on CBS all access so I can now - I saw it last when I was a kid!
My list before watching your video: 1. Lower Decks 2. Picard 3. Discovery 4. TOS 5. Voyager 6. Deep Space Nine 7. Enterprise 8. Next Generation (can't rank Animated Series cause I never watched it, and TOS could really be anywhere on the list because TOS just isn't my jam so I can't really compare it objectviely)
Thank you for ranking Discovery fairly highly, it's not controversial for me. I was 8 when TNG premiered and it made me an instant Star Trek fan. But, by the time DS9 was in its final seasons and Voyager was taking off, I got burned out on Trek. I caught up with episodes of DS9 I missed and watched the final season when I could (being in college I was, at times, without a TV). I tuned in once in a while with Voyager and was not impressed after this and tried Enterprise, but it wasn't to my liking. I really enjoyed Nemesis, but I think some of that was a last grasp at "my Trek." During this time, I got back into DS9 through the post-series books and Netflix DVDs allowing me to go back through the series. But a few years in, my interest waned. In the lead up to '09, I wasn't that excited, until the teaser came out. It was great, but my love of Trek wasn't fully rekindled. The wait for movies and the disappointment of Into Darkness further caused me to focus on other interests. I found more enjoyment out of Battlestar Galactica and Stargate, turning to Netflix streaming to watch Trek here and there. Beyond was also great, but the dearth of new Trek made it difficult to continue my interest. However, Discovery season 1 rekindled my love of Trek in full. Instead of episodes here and there, I was devouring TOS episodes with connections to Discovery (including diving into the Animated Series for Mudd). That lead me to start re-reading the DS9 post-series novels from the beginning and recently pushing myself to finish watching seasons 3 & 4 of Enterprise (sorry, it still doesn't hit right for me). Then I started re-watching TNG and DS9. I stopped TNG early in season 3 so my 12 year old and I could watch it together when we finish our watch of Babylon 5 (we might watch Doctor Who in-between) and I slowed down on my DS9 re-watch to 1 episode a week so I synch up with "The 7th Rule" podcast and discuss episodes with peers every weekend. Discovery season 1 will always have a special place in my heart for reminding me of how great Star Trek is!
I wanted to argue, but yeah, TOS is a really good first season. And it did really set the tone for, you know, the next 50 years of Trek...
"Duet" isn't just one of the best Star Trek episodes of all time, it's one of the best Bottle Episodes of any TV show of any genre of all time. It should be included in TV screenwriting classes.
I decided to rank the first season of each Trek show by its adherence to OSHA safety standards
1. Picard
2. Lower Decks
3. ENT
4. DS9
5. Short Treks
6. Discovery
7. TNG
8. VOY
9. TAS
10. TOS
This made me laugh so hard.
At last, a ranking by the standards that matter most! :D
I’m not sure how much I agree, but I love that you used this metric at all. Bless you, and LLAP. 🖖🏻
Given the fate of Bruce Maddox, I'm not sure I can agree with your #1. However, given how little Bruce Maddox cared about safety (Measure of a Man), I guess his fate is nothing more than Just Desserts.
“Now I’m not hating on Wesley Crusher”
Me: I am
I dont hate him at all but i totally get how he can get really annoying to many people. But...i mean, without Wesley we woulnt have the "SHUT UP WESLEY"
The animated series gets so much hate from Trekkies, but I honestly love that goofy show. Now that Anton Yelchin has passed, Lieutenant Arex is the only suitable replacement(provided we get another film in the Kelvin series).
Replacing the Yelchin Chekov with Arex is utterly BERILLIANT!! i'd like to hope that Arex. BTW, is interpreted using the Peter David written, long-lived variant, whenever/however he appears...
@@bobmathis-friedman6742 We can only hope. Thank you for your kind response ;)!
"Just me being weird in a room."
My lawyer will be in touch about my intellectual property claim, you thief.
It's gonna have to be a class action law suit. Lol
It's actually so much a part of the human condition that it's public domain. ;)
@@macguffinmuffin1156 **checking Ferengi Rules of Acquisition**
What's "public domain?"
@@mpjedi212
Some useless hew-mon concept. Don’t pay attention to it.
The first season of TNG is pure Roddenberry and unfortunately, we get all of his bad tendencies unfiltered in that season.
Sadly, GR did not have a Gene Coon for TNG's first season.
I think you're letting Maurice Hurley off a little too easy, but his being there was also entirely Roddenberry's fault.
@@posindustries I wish others could take over the Harry Potter franchise. Rowling may have created it just like Roddenberry created Trek but the HP franchise has outgrown her and it needs others to continue it now.
@@trekjudas Whole heartedly agree. Whatever is said about Rowling I feel that there isnt anything wrong or bad about the universe she created. High time new blood take over or get more involved. Heck that upcoming Hogwarts Legacy game, they said that Rowling was involved only in a small capacity.
@@myriadmediamusings YES!!!
"Boldly Going Nowhere" I Actually laughed out loud, well done!
"Duet" is probably one of my favorite episodes. I still haven't finished Picard, but there's some sadness associated with it right now. I'll probably go back before S2 and rewatch S1.
I think my bottom four are TNG, TAS, Short Treks and Picard. My middle four are VOY, ENT, DISO and DS9. My tops are TOS and LD. If I had to rank in order probably TNG, TAS, PIC, ShT, VOY, ENT, DISCO, DS9, TOS and LD.
However, I understand why each season is like that. I feel like Discovery's biggest problem is being almost two seasons in one. Perhaps if they'd either jettisoned the Terran storyline (which they could have done) or split them into two different seasons. In fact, I think it would have been better if they had done that, shifted S3 to S4 and S2 to S3. They also never coherently explain Burnham's relationship to Spock. Maybe her father or mother were Amanda's half-sibling, but I don't remember it being explicitly stated.
Regarding Picard, I think they could have jettisoned the story arc with what's-his'-name seducing Soji and focused more on more character development among the other characters. Even jettisoning the flashbacks and either show them earlier (such as Commodore Oh's mindmeld with Agnes. That should have come right after Picard leaving. It would have built up the tension for later. As would have showing Seven earlier on in the season and laying the possibility that the Artifact was being used for not-so-great reasons.
I'll stop there. I tend to do this exercise whereby I think of how I would have written something I find weak or not so strong. It has helped me as a writer.
"Duet" is probably my favourite episode of Star Trek ever. DS9 also had the best pilot, in my opinion, with "Emissary," and the finale, "In the Hands of the Prophets" is such a good episode.
Burnham is adopted. Her parents were killed in some attack I think… or I’m conflating with Worf’s backstory
“There’s this episode where they meet the alien race and then blah thing happens”
Jessie I think you just described a massive amount of Star Trek episodes across all series
TOS was such a radical departure from anything that had ever been done on TV before, that even today I still feel the thrill of watching this series for the first time.
All the elements were so well blended that I have watched each episode dozens of times and it still feels fresh and new and still has something important to say to us today.
Balance of Terror is so deep with so many brilliantly mixed underlying themes that have rarely even been discussed that it is still to me among the greatest writing accomplishments in TV history.
And even though the Alternative Factor is generally ranked among the worst first season episodes and episodes overall, that gut-punch of an ending with the two Lazarus's at each other's throats for eternity is still hard for me to watch. Not all TOS episodes ended up with happy endings.
Kirk: And what of Lazarus...😭
In some ways, humanity never really advanced, which keeps everything relatable but also kind of sad.
In the first season episode Court Martial, we see that Commodore Stone is ready to bury Kirk's "certain" guilt and sweep his "crime" under the rug so as not to potentially embarrass Starfleet. Not unlike what we see today in all levels of society.
And in Space Seed, Khan makes the remarkable observation that he is surprised at how little man himself has changed. Coming from Khan, that is a powerful message.
I did not watch the other various series. At a glance, I could tell they would never capture the old magic. That's ok. Their popularity pushed Star Trek beyond anything I ever thought would happen.
So even though nothing could ever touch TOS for me, I nevertheless salute all Star Trek series and those who loved them.
Oh, and poor Wil Wheaton, he was so vilified for a character he had little control over in term of the writing, and also he was just a kid back then.
The Star Trek: Lower Decks trailer seemed a bit off to me, but you've spoken so highly of the series that I want to check it out. Whenever it actually reaches the UK that is.
Lower Decks is worth it if you take it for what it is. Some people were super annoyed by all the Star Trek jokes (like "how would those characters know that reference?"), but that's not the point. Lower Decks is half serious Star Trek show, half parody Star Trek show, and all comedy show.
For example, one of the best jokes in the show: they make a "movie" in the holodeck in one episode, and one character threatens that another character will end up like Xon. The other character says "who's Xon?" and the first character says "exactly." It's such a good joke, but it requires the characters to have meta-knowledge that Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a movie, that Star Trek: Phase II was a proposed Trek TV show, and it requires the audience to have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything Star Trek.
If you accept the fanservice, meta-references, and absurdist comedy, you'll have a good time.
I hated the trailer and loved the series. The trailer made me think it was either not ridiculous enough to be good satire or too ridiculous to be serious trek. In the end it actually was both outrageously ridiculous in a good way while being serious in the ways it needed fo be.
it is interesting that Deforest Kelly did not get added to the main credits until season 2. However we see this first season how important he is to the triumverant.
Though I never really understood the "crediting Rules"(contract and payment-stuff I think), I feel star Trek has a tradition of being off there: Diana Muldaur as a whole season special guest, Cirroc Loften as regular in S6/S7 when Aaron Eisenberg had more screen time. But disco has a new set of main characters nearly every episode - especially poor wilson cruz dropping in and out of the set...
@@PmmGarak Diana Mulder didn't want to be added to the main credits and asked to be credited as a guest star the entire second season.
At first, all of TOS meshed together for me because I grew up watching it on reruns, but when I discovered Wikipedia/Memory Alpha, I was impressed by how so many of my favorite episodes were in the first season; they really hit the ground running in a way few other shows have.
Great job! Thank you. Really enjoyed that. Whether we agree or not on the rankings - and for the most part, we do - your reasoning, fairness, and the presentation in general, were right on the money. Now I'm going to binge the rest of your YT uploads 👍
After seeing the Titan in Lower Decks, I can safely say that Lower Decks is now officially my favorite 21st century Trek show.
I'd like to point out that the episode featuring the L'Gonians is a fairly accurate repeoduction of many African tribal cultures' concepts of marriage (women being holders of property, for example); I happen to be an anthropologst.
True, but I'm convinced they made that episode so Yar as a security officer could fight someone hand to hand.
I’m not even a big fan of Discovery season 1 but up until lower decks it was the best first season to me maybe it’s a horse race with TOS
The first clip from the Animated Series was my favorite plotline of that whole show. Man that Cartoon was wild.
TOS for sure, but I when binge watch always watch the first 4 episodes in the correct order not NBC's.
The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone before, The Man Trap and Charlie X.
Oooh this is gonna be fun. I personally cant rank them, but here’s how I feel about them overall:
TOS Season 1: Can be a little forgiven for being awkward and dated with a mix of good, bad and OK. Favorites include The Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror, The Consience of the King and Space Seed.
TAS Season 1: The bulk of the entire show as a whole with some good, but was mostly just weird. Can be enjoyed ironically. Favorites include Yesteryear, One of Our Planets is Missing, More Tribbles More Troubles, The Terratin Incident, The Slaver Weapon and the Jihad. Unfortunately includes my worst TAS episode, The Infinite Vulcan.
The Motion Picture: Slow, plodding, motionless and dull. Completely smothers the interesting ideas that were there.
TNG Season 1: IMO the worst 1st season overall with a lot of bad and few good. One wonders how TNG got to where it was when it started so awful. Favorites include 1001001, Heart of Glory and Conspiracy. Unfortunately includes my worst TNG episode, Code of Honor.
DS9 Season 1: Not bad with one true high note, but can be difficult to enter because of its radically different premise. Favorites include The Nagus, Progress, Duet and In the Hands of the Prophets.
Voyager Season 1: Started off with potential to properly use its unique setting before becoming just the same old, same old with little to get me invested. Favorites include Faces and Jetrel.
Enterprise Season 1: Sticks to its premise a whole lot better but is bogged down by poor characterizarion, with some truly, truly awful episodes on top of that. Favorites include Breaking the Ice, Acquisition and Fallen Hero.
Discovery Season 1: Had some interesting ideas and engaging characters, but I felt had trouble keeping focus on what it wanted to do, poor character balance, and didn’t seem that fun to watch. Favorites include Context is for Kings, Choose your Pain, Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad, and Vaulting Ambition.
Short Treks Season 1: Not sure if can count because of its short, anthology nature, but I feel that it did its job as a companion series well. I liked all 4 of its episodes.
Picard Season 1: Starts off very strong but goes weaker and more depressing. Favorites include Maps & Legends and Nephente.
LD Season 1: IMO The best 1st season overall as I felt no episodes were outright bad, just weaker than others. Stuck to its premise consistently that starts off on OK footing and got better and better by the end. Favorites include Cupid’s Errant Arrow, Veritas, Crisis Point and No Small Parts.
To me personally the only show that started off strong was the Original Series. However regardless of what I just said I think everyone can agree that every other show never started off that good. Every TV show in the franchise just needed more time in order to really make it a unique installment in the franchise.
The art for that thumbnail is awesome and I'd love it as a desktop wallpaper
I actually really love the first season of DS9. I love how even early on it has a heavy focus on continuity in the impact of the station over a period of time that the other shows just did not have in their first season. I love almost all of the characters right from the beginning, it has some amazing episodes, and it's just comfort television for me. Also like the darker tone compared to some of the other Star trek shows. I still would probably put the original series above it, but it would be a very close second for me
I never thought that an animated Star Trek would make 2nd best of anything. Another 2020 blessing! Agree that TOS season 1 belongs near the top, it was unabashedly itself.
Excellent rankings! I'm so glad to see the love for ST:LD. So many of the other Trek channels just dump on it, which tells me that they are just missing the point. LD is fun!!
Balance of Terror is easily a Top Five Trek episode
TAS is great if you just listen to it while doing housework. It's a fantastic audio drama with the full (minus George) TOS cast, along with a solid soundtrack.
Conclusion: If the show has Picard in it, it's going to have the worst first season.
All joking aside, I suffer through TNG season 1 because Tasha is actually my favorite TNG character. Despite all the missteps with Picard (use my sweet Romulan murder baby Elnor more, cowards!), I was just bawling like a baby at the end. Data is my second favorite TNG character and when I realized I was going to have to watch him die again I just could not. The only thing I take away from TAS is Johanna McCoy getting mentioned, and I take this character and create my own version of her in my fan fic that I've never written. I barely remember that first season of Voyager. There is so much potential there, but sadly they didn't take advantage of it. Man, I barely remember ENT season 1 also. I did hear that the original idea of the first season was to set it all on earth and be about finding the crew and then season 2 be going into space and honestly, that fan fic idea lives in my head rent free. *GASP* How dare you not say that DS9 has the best first season of almost any show ever! I am down the middle on S1 of DSC. I think it's more memorable than VOY or ENT's first seasons, but like you said, it's still pretty messy. Although the characters are pretty well established, we don't really get to spend a lot of time with most of them and that really throws me off for the show. TOS season 1 exists for me to set up Spirk in all my fan fics.
Nice waking up and having a new video from you. Though it is now your fault I didn't take my trash out and missed the garbage truck. I'll get over it.
Jessie, please don't ever stop doing your fun and goofy openings
The Klingons in Discovery season 1 deserve a mention. I know they weren't quite canonical in many ways, but they were so much richer and complex than any other Klingons, anywhere. I wish they hadn't been dropped, and I hope that they get reclaimed in a future season. Heck, I would even watch a whole series based on the Disco Klingons.
My understanding is that the alien race in "Code of Honor" were supposed to be lizards, but the director of the episode chose to use African-American actors instead.
Duet is such a good episode that I often forget it's a season one episode.
With or without you being weird in a room, Humanity IS fucking weird!
Most Trek shows rarely hit the ground running in their first season, the sole exception being the original series.
The best reveal of season 1 Picard was
Kestra. It was a nice touch Deanna and Will naming their child in memory of Deanna's sister. A truly emotional episode Dark Page, Deanna learns the truth her traumatized mother had hidden for decades. This little moving easter egg was gratifying to this Trekkie
Well done, nicely measured list. Don’t agree with all the choices but I totally understand why you have them in the order you do have them in given your breakdown on each series. Well considered 👍🏻
Totally nailed it, Jessie!
TOS S1 might not just be the best first season but the best season of Star Trek in general!
Hi Jessie! Love your videos! I agree mostly with your list, I’d put Picard a bit higher, but I’m one of the few that adored that season (I definitely think you’re right, there’s a lot of potential with the new characters, like Rios, Rafi and Elnor, that just wasn’t explored). I also loved Disco season one, and enjoyed their portrayal of the mirror universe better than DS9. You’re spot on about lower decks, and while I wanted it to be first, the great episodes in the first season of TOS are true greats that still hold up well today. Looking forward to the next video! Live long and prosper!
TOS and TNG both have first seasons that ramp up in quality as they go on, especially with TOS having some of the standout iconic episodes of that show come in the latter half of the first season
I didnt get exposed to Star Trek tv series until I was a young adult. I did enjoy the 2009 movie, but the ideas and themes of Trek hadn't stuck on my mind until rather recently. Still, my experience as a recentish Trek fan has been soo fulfilling. The world right now is full of pain and injustices, but the Trek series somehow offers a form of heart-warming escape AND a poignant commentary on our deep-rooted issues and how we might evolve from them. Trek makes me smile and reminds me that every positive action I take has positive impacts on the world. Tiny shuffles toward a bright Trek-like future. I love imagining myself doing science aboard an exploration ship with crewmates from allover the galaxy. And I am so glad that even with all the horrid discrimination going on, I as a Southeast Asian still has a shot to experience a microcosm of this in our reality. Time to go back to cleaning turtle poop and washing petri dishes ~
Lower Decks is such nice love letter to us... We already had self referencing , so we have glimpse how it would be... Take last episode: Badgie, or Tendi showing ship to Peanut Humper... etc. Most of all, first season makes so excited to see more...
For sure, I am not big fan of Discovery season 1, but I recently re-watched it, and it was better than I remembered... Season 2 is another story... Yes, there is some damage control, but it was much better, and I feel season 3 will be great... I see why you appreciate more and I give it a plus for trying to grow... In some shows from the past you can clearly find moments or whole seasons where writers wrote episode just to fill the space... Discovery is not such show - at the risk to be hated by some folks, but with payoff by others... So, first season, by me not such high ranked like by you, but higher than by some other people... I already see how in the future people will curse some other Star Trek show defending Discovery... 🌝 Same as it was with TNG, for example... "How dare they bring this British bald man?" 🌝 And it was lost a little bit, but now we all love it...
I don't see Short trek as show. For me it is more as additional material. Replacement to extra DVD stuff... So, I see it as part of show that episode references. But OK, it is Star Trek, and it has seasons... I like this Saru episode much (don't remember name too) and Tilly and Po episode is OK... And being first one is more than that... Right, those do setting up for Discovery, but it is good way to do it... Let us see does it Calypso too as really long shot... However this is indication that it cannot be taken apart of Discovery...
For me is DS9 S01 little bit higher, but haven't watched it recently, so, maybe it is just my imagination...
I liked Enterprise instantly. Yes, I saw some flaws in first 2 seasons too... but it was somehow for fans... And it is such waist that it has not at least one season more, at least, especially after great 3rd and 4th season... But OK... this is not the theme here...
Have you done movie ranking too?
LLAP
P.S. Nice that it comes right with Steve's Lower Decks season 1 review... 🌝
Peanut "Hamper" :-)
agree about TOS - even constrained by a ridiculously small budget, writers and actors delivered many memorable episodes
Let's go:
LD, DS9, TOS, TNG, ENT, VOY, TAS, DIS, PIC.
I loved the first season of enterprise! But I really agree with what you said about Voyager. You actually captured how I felt while watching it
Nothing to do with this list, but... I love that you "sang" Faith of the Heart in the chat during @Steve Shives Octobre 12 live stream and that he commented on it! 😂
When is that "Code of Honor" episode happening? I had somehow completely forgotten that happened until you brought it up, and damn daniel.
I personally think feelings about Discovery will mello out in a decade or two. When TNG released the Galaxy Class design was disliked as a drastic departure of design but is now what many define the franchise as. DS9 "wasn't trek" because they didn't go anywhere. I see Enterprise as a 90s series with a halfway passable cgi polish.
Effectively it had been twenty years since a series was released when Discovery premiered. Just being in a quality that could be aired on a main network today required a drastic departure. Hindsight will allow people to see the good in it.
I think there was some strong emotional response to the tone of Disco S1 being so far off from the ideal of star trek that will fade without the context of time. But the episode and character writing in S1 is just so far down from what other modern treks offer. I'm in the middle of rewatching S1 right now to catch a friend up on the show so they can watch S3 with us and its just such a poorly handled season. It has a much stronger start than I remember with the first two episodes and the promise offered by Georgio as a captain was impressive. The writing of this setup was really good, and the structure great. The problem goes with the shift to Lorca, the pacing is just really off from this point, too fast in some ways and too slow in others. A lot of really forced situations that are hard to watch. The mudd replaying time episode was just so poorly written its angering. Jumping into the mirror universe was just miserable and frustrating.
It did set up some.really good characters though and the promise of the spore drive and redemption arc of Michael is really fitting in S3. Its just the episode writing in particular that really hurts the show overall.
Compared to Picard which has its own pacing issues, it just isnt able to tap into the same emotional resonance, and the overall plot arc comes together much better than discovery rush to complete the klingon war.
I think I agree with almost all of your reasoning, a lot of the points I would have made you make here. I recently rewatched s1 and 2 of TNG, except I only watched a select number of episodes, I think I watched maybe just under half of the total number of episodes from those two seasons, and more from s2 than s1, but I did find myself enjoying the s1 stuff more than I expected. It was all mostly from the latter half, that is also worth mentioning, but yeah, there is some good stuff in there. Particular props to the music, TNG s1-3 incidental music is so much better than the music in the entire rest of that run of star trek, the rest of TNG all the way through voyager, possibly enterprise too, I haven't seen it, it's just kind of wallpaper music, TNG s1-3 it's distinctive and characturful and just really good.
but yeah, although I agree with pretty much all your reasoning I would still rank the shows slightly differently. excluding Entrprise and Picard, since I've not seen those yet, from worst to best I'd go:
TAS
TNG
VOY
DIS
LDS
DS9
TOS
I think that looks about right for my take on them. I don't think I can really count short treks as its own series, it's kind of a series of footnotes and vignettes. Even though I really did love calypso and had a great time with the harry mudd one.
"Picard has a lot of storylines that go nowhere." There are Space Rangers and no Tom Paris mention!? I mean come on, he'd have an eye-patch for no reason, drag Harry with him who left Starfleet still an ensign. Harry is a Commodore now.
Hearing how, you ranked each first season only Star Trek TV show was outstanding. It is always, great to hear just what parts of each Star Trek TV series we enjoy. Just as you ranked, for myself the 1960's TV show was the best. In addition, it is even better when you also add in the pilot episode "The Cage" where Spock has emotions and the first officer is female.
Yeah, TOS wins because it's the *only* Trek show that doesn't conform to the "Quality Arc" as explained by Jessie in another more recent video. TOS is the first series that actually contains most of the best episodes, whereas for all the other series there was some kind of teething issues of the show and characters finding their way.
Best to worst first seasons:
TOS, DS9, Enterprise, Picard, Voyager, Discovery, TAS, TNG
Unfortunately, I haven't seen Lower Decks yet.
I do not count Short Treks as a standalone show.
This is much closer to my own personal tier list Id put Picard ahead of enterprise and call it a day in the same order otherwise.
Oooh I love this! Ok, my ranking, worst to best, is a little different, and therefore I'm going to share it! XD
TNG, ST, VOY, DISCO, PIC, DS9, TOS, ENT.
I just watched the first season of Enterprise for the first time recently and oh my goodness I have no idea where it got the reputation for not being good. I have had so many people tell me it isn't worth my time, but that season was so solid, I'm sad now that I know the show is so short-lived. Like seeing the origin of starfleet, and all the little references to races and first contacts, as well as the design of the sets and costumes feeling so in universe and real... I'm just really impressed and can't wait to see where it goes so nobody spoil it for me! XD
Oh, so much I want to say! Lol I'll be brief. I agree that Lower Decks is a great series ( 3 season s at this writing), and I also love that you and Steve Shives can completely disagree on opinions and still SHARE your love for Trek, and respect for each other. THAT is what Trek fandom means to me. ❤️🤘😁😔🇨🇦
Hi, Jessie, found this interesting and in lighting to what you think Star Trek is and what you hope to see in a Star Trek series. Looking forward to your review of Discovery season three, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Are you guys going to throw stones at me if I admit my favorite first season is ST:Picard?
I've never been a big fan of that Roddenberry concept, that the federation is the good guy by default, not really corrupt, etc. Every group has bad apples and can turn bad. I like that kind of space opera, I like having a group of not so perfect characters to work with.
Other than that Picard is darker, I like the idea that characters don't necessary get an happy ending when the show is over : Seven for exemple is far more interesting to me as she is in that show than as she was in the ending of Voyager (with a relationship with Chakote coming out of nowhere).
Every first season is a challenge for me, I kinda hate most of them but I can admit all the good things in them.
It is my favourite first season of Star Trek as well.
I have to go on record right here and state that I personally feel that Picard does NOT deserve the hate that I have seen for it here in the comment section. The season felt exactly how I would have wanted it to feel...like a novel presented on the small screen. We see what is happening through Picard's now much older eyes and I find every bit (if you'll excuse the Spock phrase) fascinating. We've seen on several previous occasions in previous series'...and movies...that the Federation has its bad actors within it and that's brought to the forefront here.
One thing that everyone seems to miss though...this...isn't actually Picard's story! Yes, he is the central focus character and his name is in the title...however, this is really DATA'S story, first and foremost. Specifically, it's the story of how Data finally gets the humanity that he had sought all through TNG via his complete and full death. Star Trek:Nemesis really botched this point by attempting to have Data reincarnated through B4. Picard makes the perfect correction to this by showing that the attempt to place Data's positronic matrix (read soul) into B4 had been a complete and total failure as it SHOULD be. That said...Dr. Soong's human son decided to keep Data alive via a holographic program, basically trapping Data in a cube. Obviously a wrong choice for Data as well as it AGAIN robbed him of a full death, the one thing that connects ALL living things together. Ultimately, everything Picard experiences this season is bringing him to this very point...giving Data his well-deserved and long-delayed final send-off which allows Data to finally share fully in this one binding, ultimate truth...that everything that is alive DIES, thus finally establishing Data as a fully sentient, formally living being...the one thing he sought to attain throughout all of TNG!
My only real complaints would have to be with the rushed "robotic tentacle invasion" and Picard's resurrection into an android body...if a Season 2 does happen (which I have doubts on but not for any bad reasons, believe me...I just don't see how they top Season 1 tbh! 😅) and this somehow gets reasonably resolved, cool...but those events did throw me off a bit and keep Picard Season 1 out of my top spot...
That said, it's an easy number 2 season for me, topped really only by TOS Season 1...
I think a lot of people don't really consider the damage that a constant state of war does to a population or government, too. The Federation had been a actively at war for decades, and not a distant front either. The Borg attacked Earth. The Dominion infiltrated Earth. That takes a toll on a society. Seeing the natural consequences to an increasingly militarised Federation was fascinating.
I think people that complain were looking at past Trek with nostalgia glasses and hoping for something familiar and comfortable like TNG, not speculative science fiction that makes uncomfortable commentary on our own current world. They're the people that didn't consider DS9 proper Trek because it wasn't a shining beacon of utopia like TNG or TOS.
@@christopheralthouse6378 I wonder if people were dissapointed because they expected that show to be the next TNG season or something like that. I think it would have been a mistake for so many reasons : we live in a different era, the actors are aging, etc.
As far as I'm concerned I think there will be at least a season 2
@@sanityisrelative DS9 is my favorite ST show, with TNG just behind. I think utopia should be a goal but expecting to achieve and maintain that without conflict is unrealistic. I understand the need for comfort too, but we can never go back to childhood.
what about a video where you take your favorite episode of every star trek show, then rank the best episodes
Far as the top three go, spot on. 4-10 feels pretty accurate, but it's been so long since I've watched a lot of the various first seasons that I wouldn't trust myself to argue.
I heart Discovery. I mean, right out the gate, our protagonist is committing mutiny. Whaaaat? Then the spore drive, and the mirror universe, and social issues not touched before. Disco grabbed me early. This is not like the others, and I'm here for it.
I pretty much agree with the entire list as stated, though there are some caveats that I feel you missed:
- Lower Decks was almost torpedoed by its pilot episode, because it was so off-the-wall, it could easily turn off a number of fans, myself included. But then it got better. And better. And better. And OH MY GOD WOW! In short, the Pilot completely missed the tone of the rest of the series, which made it go from a Star Trek parody in the Star Trek universe, to a Star Trek show with some clever slapstick and comedy on the side.
- Discovery Season 1, I totally agree. I fell in love with the first season. And it took the second season for me to not want to watch Season 3 whatsoever. If you ever decide to do a list of "Best second seasons of Star Trek", this should totally be in the list. In fact, I REALLY hope you do, because there's quite a few series that "grew the beard" in their third seasons, and, like I suggested, Discovery really messed itself up in the second season.
- Although I agree that DS9 was still feeling itself out in the first season (heck, Rene hadn't figured out Odo's gravelly voice at that point), I still think it belongs in the upper tier, because even though it was rehashing *some* plots, it was also trailblazing a huge amount in its own right despite it, "Duet" being the classic example you mentioned.
- If you include the Short Treks into this list, I must say that they should be rated a bit lower, by virtue of the fact that, as you said, they felt more like deleted scenes. I didn't really need to watch them.
Good list! :)
I think that I read somewhere that in SHADES OF EVIL it was a _deliberate_ decision to send an established character to the kind of denise usually reserved for red-shirts. The source that I read (in a magazine I think, ages ago) said that it was too drive home the point of how apace exploration of dangerous.
Granted, emphasizing that point is anyway what red-shirts are for --- but they apparently decided that since Denise Crosby _anyway_ wanted to leave the show, they could drive that point even stronger by doing so with an established character.
SKIN OF EVIL! Why is everyone here calling it SHADES of evil? It's SKIN of evil for the love of all...😣😣😣😣
@@christopheralthouse6378 - my bad. I stand corrected.
@@RedAngelSophia 😅😁
As an inhabitant of planet Epson, yes I will say that humanity is f*cking weird.
I've always thought humanity was weird. Then again, I probably would fit in on Vulcan more than on Earth.
I love he bits of Lower Decks I've seen on RUclips so far. As a German, I probably won't see the whole thing for a while!
I'm a Voy apologist through and through and IMO season 1 had a lot of gems: Phage, Eye of the Needle, Faces and Jetrel(Jetrel is basically Voyager's Duet, and has the same quality).
Now that we've got the first half of the first season of Prodigy, any ideas about where you'd rank Prodigy on the list?
Would the order of your ranking be the same if you were ranking just the first EPISODE of each show?
1. TOS, the 3 main stars just worked and the rest are so remembered and loved for a reason, the episodes are just charming in their age and effects, and overall the morals still holds up in their stories.
2. Lower Decks, had a bit of a focus problem with Mariner and Boimler forcing the rest of the cast to often fade into the jokes then be characters but beside that it was know what it was and that was a great comedy and love letter to Trek.
3. Voyager/DS9/Enterprise just dumping them together, stealing what you said "they all are kind of standard" they all have good points and bad but it takes the series a few seasons to find their footing.
6. Disco, honestly the hardest one to place because so much of what I dislike is more on the subjective side, but we didn't know some of the characters' names, it lose the thread for a bit like you said, and it did used the
Bury Your Gays trope so down (the list) it goes.
7. Picard was honestly too short and makes the season far apart in the second half and even in the first half you have some weird pacing of some things tacking their time while other things being weirdly rushed, plus having the Reapers guest star was weird. It's highs and a lot of it's setting IS also built off your investment to TNG.
8. TAS yeah it's just a weird to place, like I love it but yeah.
9. TNG, mirror what you said, the Writers pet, some old views that just didn't work, so on.
not ranking short treks because it's more just a collection.
That was a great list. I may rejig a couple of your choices, but overall I agree.
You might have rated TAS a bit higher had you lived at the time it came out and until it appeared there seemed to be absolutely no hope at all that there would be any new Star trek material ever again. TAS was the first sign outside of a comic book series and a few novels that the voyages of the Star Trek franchise were just getting started. It brought us fans new hope. It was a wonderful feeling to have back in 1973.
I love the monologue of duet
TAS as a whole is actually a pretty good season 4 of TOS in my book. And season 1 of TOS has aged really quite well and is a classic slice of archive TV for a reason.
Season 1 of Discovery is pretty representative of the show as a whole, actually. It does some genuinely interesting (if not intriguing things) but often falls short in the execution. Either way, I can understand both love AND hate and the show gets.
I just happened to finish a rewatch of season 1 of DS9 and it's one of those "Much better than you remember" type of cases.
I haven't seen any ENT since it aired, so my recollections are fuzzy at best. However, I feel that it's one of the worse opening seasons. No matter good the show got near its end, it felt like at this early stage it mostly just offered retreads of what we already had seen before. Kinda like "more of the same", just in a new aspect ratio.
Agree about STP. I would reverse your order for the 3 middle series, as I think the acting in Voyager is superior and helps the episodes be more engaging. But yes, “Duet” is a masterpiece.
"Skin of Evil" was the turning point for TNG. They had to let this main character die, and the show at this point already tried to have some overarching plots and consistency, so they made it impact the other characters. It's one of the first if not *the* first episode in which we see genuine emotion in a lot of main characters. I wish they'd made Tasha's death more meaningful, but apart from that, I believe it's a very solid episode and probably the one that led the way to how great TNG would become later on.
I can't do a ranking because the only first seasons I've watched so far are TOS, TAS, TNG and DS9, but I overall share your views about those. Though I find it really hard to rewatch TAS because of all those recycled animations. As a fan of modern cartoons, the visuals of that show physically hurt my eyes. I want to spread some love for "The Terratin Incident" though, it's a very interesting story that used the show's potential, even the animations look okay in this one - a true gem in my eyes, but I feel it gets too little love.
Skin of Evil being a disappointing way for Tasha to go out gave us Yesterday's Enterprise, at least, and it's the first chapter in the "Deanna Troi crashes every ship she pilots" mega arc, so it's got that going for it.
On Discovery, I usually recommend new viewers watch the pilot episodes as the season one finale
I haven't rated every single episode of every series yet (almost there), but here is how I rank the "Season 1's". I'm including STP, STD, and STLD in here because Jesse did, but I'm not sure you can really compare a 10-13 episode first season with the others fairly. I'm not including the Short Treks.
I was surprised Jesse ranked ENT so low and DS9 so high.
S1: TOS/STLD/ENT/VOY/TAS/STD/DS9=TNG/STP
Jesse, 'Duet' is my #2 overall DS9 episode. That's how good I think it is.
TOS had 30 episodes in it and I would say that 27 of them are above average. Truly the best ST season and set the standard for all others to follow. Simply put, Star Trek S1 and S2 are the reason we have 8 spin-off series and 13 movies. (and more to come)
I really didn't know where VOY and ENT were going to score out before I rated all the episodes, but I was certain they would be higher than DS9 and TNG.
The saddest revelation here is that STP is so low... really disappointing.
This all said, I really love them all and have (aside from the new stuff) watched them all multiple times.
My Ranking of 1st Seasons
8. Enterprise
7. The Next Generation
6. Discovery
5. Picard
4. Deep Space Nine
3. Lower Decks
2. The Original Series
1. Voyager
Couldn't even make it to the theme song for Lower Decks lol. DS9-TOS-VOY-ENT-TNG-DIS-PIC-AS-LD
Im actually on board with you list for the most part. Id probably switch out the original series as number one and put lower decks.
I think Picard season one needed ten more episodes to get through everything. It was a kitchen sink sort of season. Unfortunately season two suffered from the exact opposite problem. Lol
Voyager season one had a few good episodes like Faces, Eye of the Needle, and Jetrel. But it also had way too much time travel episodes, and the gross Neelix and Kess relationship. I think Voyager becomes more TNGesque latter on when Berman gets more directly involved. Voyager was never really allowed to be fully serialized like it was clearly designed to be from its very concept. A lot of that was Berman's influence over the show. Voyager was also prime time on a new network so they were less risk adverse. Voyager season one also suffered from a shortened season.
But I agree with your list overall. And now that SNW season one is done, where would you put it? I would put it at the top of my list. It just does everything right.
TOS apart (mostly due its historical importance) I agree with most of your list. Disco. I love Disco, but I tried to rewatch season 1 recently and I failed. Skipped to season 2 and was happy. I would probably place it near Voy.
Female Character = Mary Sue
Male Character = Gary Stew
I actually agree with almost every part of this list aside from the obvious Discovery sticking point. As someone who was still willing to give each show its fair shake and quite enjoyed DSC S2 for the most part, I really couldn't put DIS S1 any higher than between TNG and Picard. While you make a great point about how DIS really took chances and swung for the fences to try to do something new and different, I really feel like almost all of those big swings were misses. Don't get me wrong, it had its hits (like Tilly and Saru), and an excellent cast doing the best with what they had, but the creative direction just felt like it wanted to be anything BUT Star Trek, which was especially unfortunate for a show that was the first Star Trek TV series in over a decade.
I think the (apparently forced) departure of an executive producer and both showrunners going into S2 might have made a world of difference. S2 was hardly my favorite season of Star Trek, either, but at least I didn't have to drink to get through it anymore.
Have you seen Star Trek New Voyages phase 2 and continues fan series? Maybe you can discuss them or rank them?
also TOS, especially in the first season, has the most comfortable looking uniforms period (well, for the men at least).
Having completed DS9 season 1 holy shit it’s fantastic
This is something I don’t recall any reviewer having done yet, but it would be really interesting to see which series had the best sophomore season. I still would rank TOS right near the top, but TNG was trying harder and VOY and DS9 were there too, but it seemed like DS9 didn’t really take off till season 3 or 4 and VOY? Well it always seemed lukewarm to me with some good episodes mixed in.
Can you do a movie ranking?
Hey Jesse, any chance you might sometime give your thoughts about why Supergirl's season 5 didn't work? You're really good at breaking down everything and taking a fair look alongside your own opinions, and I've yet to see a fair review. I really love the characters and actors in Supergirl, but the writing and management of the show seems like it's always been very troubled esp in that season. Cheers
I find myself in agreement with you on Trek. That's nice. :) Except I haven't seen Lower Decks yet and I don't like TOS overall that much.
Loved this! The only thing I disagree on is the low ranking of PIC. If you rank DSC so high for ambition (and rightly so!), I think PIC deserves a little more credit (even if it didn't quite stick the landing). I think it was ultimately a lot more interesting than the pretty 'play safe, TNG-style' first seasons of DS9, VOY and ENT. By your own logic, I think it's ranked TOO low. Apart from that, great video like always!
Very respectable list, dont think I would have it exactly the same but its close enough :P
Cool - I like your ranking - I would only switch Voyager and DS9. I'm gonna watch Yesteryear now - it's on CBS all access so I can now - I saw it last when I was a kid!
My list before watching your video:
1. Lower Decks
2. Picard
3. Discovery
4. TOS
5. Voyager
6. Deep Space Nine
7. Enterprise
8. Next Generation
(can't rank Animated Series cause I never watched it, and TOS could really be anywhere on the list because TOS just isn't my jam so I can't really compare it objectviely)
Jessie in blue is just so cute
Thank you for ranking Discovery fairly highly, it's not controversial for me. I was 8 when TNG premiered and it made me an instant Star Trek fan. But, by the time DS9 was in its final seasons and Voyager was taking off, I got burned out on Trek. I caught up with episodes of DS9 I missed and watched the final season when I could (being in college I was, at times, without a TV). I tuned in once in a while with Voyager and was not impressed after this and tried Enterprise, but it wasn't to my liking. I really enjoyed Nemesis, but I think some of that was a last grasp at "my Trek."
During this time, I got back into DS9 through the post-series books and Netflix DVDs allowing me to go back through the series. But a few years in, my interest waned.
In the lead up to '09, I wasn't that excited, until the teaser came out. It was great, but my love of Trek wasn't fully rekindled. The wait for movies and the disappointment of Into Darkness further caused me to focus on other interests. I found more enjoyment out of Battlestar Galactica and Stargate, turning to Netflix streaming to watch Trek here and there.
Beyond was also great, but the dearth of new Trek made it difficult to continue my interest. However, Discovery season 1 rekindled my love of Trek in full. Instead of episodes here and there, I was devouring TOS episodes with connections to Discovery (including diving into the Animated Series for Mudd). That lead me to start re-reading the DS9 post-series novels from the beginning and recently pushing myself to finish watching seasons 3 & 4 of Enterprise (sorry, it still doesn't hit right for me). Then I started re-watching TNG and DS9. I stopped TNG early in season 3 so my 12 year old and I could watch it together when we finish our watch of Babylon 5 (we might watch Doctor Who in-between) and I slowed down on my DS9 re-watch to 1 episode a week so I synch up with "The 7th Rule" podcast and discuss episodes with peers every weekend.
Discovery season 1 will always have a special place in my heart for reminding me of how great Star Trek is!
My vitriol, the escape artist was directed by Dwight Schrute not mike mchmahon.
I’ll be watching this after work lol.