Support NeoGAF

[Dougald]

I had to separate the seasons for VOY and ENT, it's almost like completely different shows with how bad they are.

I was so pissed off the first time I saw ENT Series 3. It was great, but we'd all given up watching the show long before then so it got cancelled. Though they still couldn't resist boring us all to death with the snoozefest temporal cold war stuff even then

I guess Stargate Universe is comparable, though I've never been able to make it through the first season of that show to find out if it really did get good after everyone stopped tuning in.

TOS series "ending" sucked (and was a horrible misogynistic mess), but the true end was Star Trek VI. Best trek movie ever with a great ending. Second star to the right and straight on till morning. Cast Signatures. Was awesome.

I like you

 

[Pagusas]

1. Star Trek Original Movies (1-6, Undiscovered Country is one of my favorite films ever made), I consider these a series of their own. These are Star Trek at its best. Various stories all linked together and lots of great scripting (yes there are some bad ones, but that goes for any and all things)

2. DS9 ( I love it, its an alternate take on Star Trek and feels the most human and real of all the shows. Its also the only one that feels like a universe instead of a bunch of set pieces).

3. Next Generation (Love it, though season 1 and 2... how did it not gen canned before Season 3?... Regardless 3 - 7 I adore and are classic classic television. )

4. Voyager (You know what, the first few episodes of Voyager are head and shoulders above any of the other series first few episodes. Pitty the middle and end was so bad)

5. 2009 Star Trek Alternate Universe Films (2009 is a good fun film, the rest are forgettable nothings)

6. Original Series (Unwatchable for me, its like watching children make believe star trek)

7. Enterprise (Complete and worthless trash)


Fun Extra:

SeaQuest DSV Season 1: I always liked to pretend SeaQuest was in the same universe as Star Trek. It felt like it fit. Season 1 was fun and I'd put it at # 4.1 on the list.

 

[owasog]

I had to separate the seasons for VOY and ENT, it's almost like completely different shows with how bad they are.

Great idea. Post-Kes VOY and TNG season 1 are completely different from the rest.

It worked sometimes, Rapture was an super episode and Dukat sealing the wormhole was awesome. But all the Pah-Wraith stuff that followed that was pretty cringe

That's why I don't like the later DS9 seasons. Too much war and religious stuff.

1. TNG S2-7
2. VOY S4-7
3. DS9 S1-5
4. VOY S1-3 (Weaker than the rest because of the awful Kazon and meh Kes)
5. TOS S1-2
6. DS9 S6-7 (No gamma quadrant, only War, Pah-wraiths and way too much Vic Fontaine)
7. ENT S3-4
8. TNG S1 (Almost as bad as TOS S3. It's a miracle the show wasn't cancelled)
9. TOS S3 (Spock's Brain. Space Hippies. Need I say more?)
10. ENT S1-2 (Most boring TV you'll ever see)
11. TAS

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Only TNG has given me episodes that I consider classics when measured against other TV shows, not just Star Trek.


"There are four lights"

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Only TNG has given me episodes that I consider classics when measured against other TV shows, not just Star Trek.


"There are four lights"

"The Visitor" on DS9 is better then "Chain of Command" imo

Best TNG eps are Q Who, Measure of a Man and The Survivors.

Extended bluray cut of Measure of a Man makes me appreciate it even more.

 

[Schlorgan]

TNG had this so it wins.

 

[Pagusas]

Only TNG has given me episodes that I consider classics when measured against other TV shows, not just Star Trek.


"There are four lights"

How do you feel about the DS9 episode "The Visitor"? I'd dare put that up there with any show from any time period.

 

[borghe]

DS9
TNG
last season of Enterprise
TOS
Voyager
First seasons of Enterprise
the worst dreg you can think of
more shit
Berman's finale of enterprise

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

TNG had this so it wins.

That was hilarious.

They were supposed to be the Borg.

 

[TheExodu5]

TV:

DS9
Enterprise
Voyager
TNG
TOS

Movies:

Wrath of Khan
The Undiscovered Country
First Contact
The Voyage Home
Star Trek (2009)
The Search for Spock
Beyond
Into Darkness
Insurrection
Generations
The Motion Picture
Nemesis
The Final Frontier

As much as I want to like TNG, and as many good episodes that it has, the low points really bring it down for me. There are so many stinkers. Enterprise S1-S2 are pretty boring, but still better than the early TNG seasons. S3-S4 are pretty great.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Gonna have to re watch The Visitor as I dont remember which ep it was. As it goes, Chain of Command has the line but the episode is only good, Inner Light however....

 

[jb1234]

I've seen every Star Trek episode.

DS9
TNG
TOS
VOY
ENT

Of the bottom two, Voyager edges out Enterprise because I find it more generally entertaining. It's always been a bit of a guilty pleasure. Enterprise was getting better by the end but generally at the expense of its characters, who were going through the plot-heavy motions.

 

[Sotha_Sil]

1. TNG - the highest highs of all the ST shows, though the show can be quite inconsistent
2. DS9 - easily the most consistently-good of the shows (once you get to season 4). Lots of good episodes, but the best of TNG is enough to put it higher for me.
3. ENT - I actually don't hate this one, but there's not much good I can say about it.
4. VOY - the second most consistent ST show, but it's consistently awful. The few highs that are here don't even compare to the highs of TNG and DS9.
5. TOS - the only reason I put this last is that it's hard for me to watch old science fiction shows. The effects, acting, cinematography - it just isn't there. I know that is shallow of me, but it's how I feel. Obviously the biggest of the shows from a historical viewpoint as it started the entire thing.

That being said, Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home is a fantastic trilogy minus a dubious final 10 minutes on Vulcan (Search for Spock). For me, the trilogy defines what Star Trek is and serves as a reminder of why it's good that both Star Trek and Star Wars exist (and why they should be kept different).

There's probably more combat run-time in the Throne Room of RotJ than the entire ST trilogy. WoK has surprisingly little fighting (two ships fights that are more a battle of wits and one fist fight that lasts about 10 seconds). SfS has one brief fist fight and one brief ship battle. The Voyage Home has no combat, but two comic-relief scenes.

 

[Hilbert]

I like Voyager.

I also like Star Trek 5, which I think has some interesting stuff in it. Star Trek 3 is the real horrible dud of the TOS movies. I hate that movie.

Let's not talk about TNG movies, none are worthwhile.

 

[pulsemyne]

I guess Stargate Universe is comparable, though I've never been able to make it through the first season of that show to find out if it really did get good after everyone stopped tuning in.

It did get good and thanks to it's cancellation has a final episode cliff hanger that I would have loved to see resolved. Such a shame it never got a third series.

 

[kunonabi]

DS9 (My favorite cast and strikes the best tone of the bunch)
TNG (First 2 seasons are poor but TNG has my favorite Trek episodes)
TOS (Doesn't hold up, but has some classic episodes)
Voyager (Middling, but I like Janeway a lot)
Enterprise (Becomes good very late in the series when it no longer matters)

Pretty much mine only I'd take Enterprise over Voyager. I was so psyched for Voyager before it came out too.

 

[Memory]

"The Visitor" on DS9 is better then "Chain of Command" imo

Best TNG eps are Q Who, Measure of a Man and The Survivors.

Extended bluray cut of Measure of a Man makes me appreciate it even more.

Recently re-watched DS9 and this episode gave me the feels, its a real great and touching story. I really love the relationship between Sisko & Jake, it was always very inspiring to me.

The writers nailed relationships in general. Oh and Quark, Quarks writing was on another level. Sometimes he would steal the whole episode with a single line.

 

[broncobuster]

Star Trek TNG
Star Trek Deep Space 9
Star Trek TOS
Star Trek Voyager
Star Trek Enterprise

And for clarity, TNG and DS9 are on a whole different level from the other three. I often put on a random episode of TNG and DS9 because they're so very good.

 

[Costa Kid]

Which Star Trek series I feel like watching totally depends on my mood but if I were to rate them;
1. DS9
2. Voyager
3. TNG
4. Enterprise
5. TOS

I think I like voyager so much because it is the first Trek I watched and one I grew up watching. Of course I can recognise its flaws but I love it.

 

[Sephzilla]

TNG had this so it wins.

from what i remember, this almost got TNG cancelled

 

[Previous]

TNG had this so it wins.

Thank you, I've been looking for a high quality gif of that.

Fun facts:

A mold of Paul Newman's face was filled with raw meat and then blown up to create the effect used when Picard and Riker fire on Remmick, but both Rick Berman and Peter Lauritson were concerned that it was too graphic. Dan Curry invited his six-year-old son to watch the episode in order to test how children would react to it; the boy reportedly liked it so much that he suggested the creation of a Remmick action figure whose head would blow up by pressing a button.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation

 

[MC Safety]

The original series, the animated series, Enterprise, Next Generation, DS9. Voyager doesn't rank at all.

In terms of films:
Wrath of Khan
Undiscovered Country
Voyage Home
Star Trek 3
The Motionless Picture
Star Trek 2009
Star Trek Into Darkness
I can't even bother with the crappy Next Generation films
And Star Trek: Magic Blood Wrath of Khan lite

 

[Sotha_Sil]

TNG had this so it wins.

I believe these guys were originally going to be the Borg. The end of Conspiracy certainly points to future encounters. When that flopped, they created what we now know as the Borg.

 

[Joeytj]

TNG will always be on top for me, mostly because it was the one I grew up with, its humor and could watch it without having to follow season long arcs like DS9. I'm very much a fan of the "teach a lesson each episode" Trek.

DS9 comes next, despite my complaint about season long arcs. I guess, as an adult I recognize its quality, but it actually kind of bored my as a kid, at least until the Dominion War really kicks in.

TOS, I only really saw until a few years ago on Netflix, having only seen bits and pieces during the years, but there's something to value in what it represents for TV and in the series.

Voyager is my third favorite, but I can actually binge on old Voyager episodes more easily than DS9. Again, I saw all of these Treks as a kid in the 90s, so the aspects a lot of you like about DS9 wasn't really that appealing to me, until later.

Enterprise, well, I'm never a huge fan of exploring that era of Trek lore, at least not like they did it in the first season and I also hated how they tried to make Archer's story in the Trek universe relevant by introducing the Temporal Cold War.

 

[Kimaka]

DS9 - Amazing ensemble cast and some of its side characters are more developed than other Trek shows main characters. Most of my favorite Trek episodes are from DS9.
TNG - Pretty good cast although some clearly were given more attention than others. After getting through the first two seasons, it turns into a fantastic show.
TOS - Good for an old show, but it was inconsistent. Spock was the only character I genuinely liked beyond their cultural relevance.
VOY - The show abandoned its own premise in its pilot episode which was indicative of what was to come. Huge missed opportunity. Still haven't finished it because most characters and episode plots are so boring.

 

[Nemesis121]

Might have some folks who haven't seen TNG so i will spoiler this even though it happen LONG TIME AGO lol..

But TNG is the best for me when they Made

Spoiler

Picard Borg that was so fucking hype..

TNGicard, Riker, Data made this show, plus they had the best Villain from Episode 1.
DS9: Sisko is probably a better Captain than Picard, but DS9 had too much politics..
ToS The original series is fun..
Voy:Seven of 9 saved this show from being worse than ENT
ENT:It took too long to get good, the first 2 season most brutal shit ever watched..

 

[Sephzilla]

I believe these guys were originally going to be the Borg. The end of Conspiracy certainly points to future encounters. When that flopped, they created what we now know as the Borg.

From what I remember The Borg basically ended up being the end result of a couple of failed "big villain" ideas, which included those guys from that gif as well as The Ferengi.

 

[owasog]

And for clarity, TNG and DS9 are on a whole different level from the other three. I often put on a random episode of TNG and DS9 because they're so very good.

Random? Dangerous with winners like Sub Rosa, The Outrageous Okona, Profit and Lace, Let He Who Is Without Sin, Shades of Gray, Meridian, Manhunt, Melora, Code of Honor and Haven.

 

[mrjohill]

ill have to check out deep space 9

 

[- J - D -]

Pretty much mine only I'd take Enterprise over Voyager. I was so psyched for Voyager before it came out too.

I thought Voyager started out okay. Certainly a better start than TNG (and in some ways DS9 as well), but the decline started FAST.

 

[broncobuster]

Random? Dangerous with winners like Sub Rosa, The Outrageous Okona, Profit and Lace, Let He Who Is Without Sin, Shades of Gray, Meridian, Manhunt, Melora, Code of Honor and Haven.

There are stinkers for sure, but I'm entertained by the likes of Our Man Bashir, and I'm told it's not a well liked episode.

 

[jb1234]

There are stinkers for sure, but I'm entertained by the likes of Our Man Bashir, and I'm told it's not a well liked episode.

Really? I don't know anyone who isn't entertained by that one.

 

[NastyBook]

Religious savior garbage.

Eh...

Spoiler

"See a God, Punch a God, BE a God"

was a good ending for Sisko, but bad for Dax and Dukat.

But there was also that old punk ass heifer that was always so FAKE in front of Kira that got her just desserts. I would say that this balances everything out, but that particular arc was only like half a season, so there's really no need to put it that low.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

I think TNG and DS9 is an obvious 1/2 for me.

I haven't watched all of TOS or VOY but right now I think I like Voyager better. For some reason people hate Janeway, but I think she's great, even though the surrounding cast barring Chakotay and the Doctor are kinda bland. TOS is worth it for Kirk, Spock and the occasional great episode but man oh man are there some awful, awful, difficult to get through episodes.

 

[watership]

I'm a huge nerd so I think about this ever few weeks. Onward!

TOS
DS9
TNG
VOY
ENT

TOS is 1st. It was and still is, revolutionary. Outside of production that from the 1966 TV, and various other social/cultural oddities from that time, it's still brilliant storytelling. A lot of what makes Star Trek special started here. Like most people, you love what came first or at least, what you saw first. I grew up watching Star Trek on Sundays on CBC reruns in the 70s. There were few shows that burned into your mind like this one. People who start with TNG feel this, and I understand it. TNG after all is made in the image of the original.

DS9 is 2nd. Probably the best Star Trek overall. The best characters, the best emotional impact and the best writing. The writing really does holds up, and while the show is showing some age, it's aged far far better than all the others because of the writing.. I still hold it up as one of the best SCI FI shows of all time. I could go on about characters, story, acting, writing, scope, until you'd be sick of reading.

TNG is 3rd, and it's still great. While it's episodic nature actually made it easily watchable when on the air, it's lack of overall arcs and connected tissue seems to have been a missed opportunity in retrospect. Some episodes are timeless classics. The first two seasons and the last ..are rough. Best final episode in Trek history however.

VOY is 4th, and I'm still mixed about it. Hands down the best concept in Trek. And the fact that in many cases the concept was blown. There was a great cast there, that seemed to be ignored after a few years. While DS9 went for a serialized storytelling format, Voyager went episodic again. My theory for this is that at the time, DS9 was disliked. Paramount didn't like it, and wanted just more TNG. Instead they created Voyager for the new network PSN, and ignored DS9. This helped DS9 as they did whatever the F they wanted, and Voyager had to be "as popular as TNG". While it was still worth watching and they reached some highs.. the lows were too much and overwhelmed the show.

ENT is 5th and is a show that also seems a little doomed from inception. If you were a writer and was given a tv show, told it was sci fi, you'd probably feel pretty good. Pure creativity, go out and push the limits. Wait. It's Star Trek. Okay.. so you have to play in that sandbox with establish universe. No probably I can do it. Wait. It's Star Trek, and it's set before all the other tv shows and movies. Well, fuck. It had moments, it had some interesting stories, but it never had a chance. You can imagine how I feel about Star Trek: Discovery's chances.

 

[shawnbuddy]

With all the DS9 love I want to ask the DS9 Vs. Babylon Five question.

 

[lastplayed]

TNG - only above DS9 because it's what made me fall in love with Trek
DS9 - keeping it real
TOS - still fun to watch
ENT - love the design, enthusiasm and general "what the fuck are we doing" vibe
VOY - meh
AS - not seen much of it

 

[ShirAhava]

Perfection:
TOS....The Blueprint
DS9.....The Masterpiece

Mid-Tier:
TNG (For all the love this show gets I'd say about 40% of it doesn't hold up)
ENT (I loved the first season...fell off after that LMAO@THE ENDING)

SHIT:
VOY....Other than about 10 great eps...this is a waste of time...worst crew everrrr other than the Doctor and Seven

 

[watership]

With all the DS9 love I want to ask the DS9 Vs. Babylon Five question.

Babylon 5 was a tv Show as well.

 

[Sad Affleck]

First place: Star Trek TNG. While I do respect TOS I feel that TNG was a much stronger show and Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard is THE starfleet captain.

Second place: Star Trek DS9. It won over TOS because of its multi-season story arc that kept me engaged and because of its plethora of really strong characters, including quite a few of the show's villains or anti-heroes.

Third place: Star Trek TOS. An iconic show that does feel dated today but is still well worth a watch for the multitude of well-written episodes.

Fourth place: Star Trek VOY. The show more or less squandered its potential and most of the cast was rather boring but it did have its moments and the occasional excellent episode.

Fifth place: Star Trek ENT. This show also squandered its potential but it also committed the cardinal sin of having a cast of utterly boring characters that I didn't give a shit about. Deathly boring cast, stupid main villains and at least two and a half seasons of bad scripts sealed its fate, sadly just as it seemed to have found its footing as a show.

With all the DS9 love I want to ask the DS9 Vs. Babylon Five question.

B5, hands down. I actually cried during the finale of B5.

 

[Elandyll]

DS9
TNG
TOS-VOY
ENT

 

[Beren the Empty-Handed]

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

It looks like I'm nowhere near alone on this either.

Deep Space 9 is just better as television show than the others. The structure, the cast, the writing, the themes, the focus on characterization, the overarching plots. It handily beats the rest.

I could honestly switch Next Generation and Original Series depending on how I felt, but Patrick Stewart does a whole lot for Next Generation and gets some great character growth. Sadly, plenty of other characters don't or get it too late, and it kind of just finds a place where it's comfortable and doesn't really try to better itself after that. On the other hand the Original Series isn't afraid to chuck crazy shit at you and as long as you can roll with it, it's pretty entertaining. The core three of that show also do a lot to help ground it. The interplay between them is fantastic. Yeah it's dated, but all of the series are at this point. It doesn't really make a difference to me how much more its dated.

Voyager and Enterprise are both trash tier, and Voyager only comes out ahead because of the Doctor and Seven of Nine. Enterprise doesn't have any character on their level so it takes bottom automatically. They both suffer from terrible writing, characters (aside from the two mentioned), design and just some really terribly bad decisions. Both captains should never have been captains in the first place going by a lot of their actions. Watch Voyager for the doctor and seven episodes, and just skip all of Enterprise. The good points aren't worth the bad.

 

[Pluto]

I believe these guys were originally going to be the Borg. The end of Conspiracy certainly points to future encounters. When that flopped, they created what we now know as the Borg.

It wasn't so much them flopping, the season 1 finale of TNG with the attacks on both sides of the neutral zone was originally going to start an arc of the federation and romulans working together and would have introduced the borg as an insectoid species (which those parasites would have been part of). The writer's strike between seasons 1 and 2 scuttled those plans and the criticism of the gory nature of the scene above and the realization that an insectoid species would be very expensive to portray on a tv budget let to the production team reinventing them as cyborgs.
The initial insectoid idea is still present in the borg consisting of drones making up a hive, even the eventual introduction of the borg queen fits, it's not as much of a retcon as some fans seem to believe.


My ranking:

TNG: The one I grew up with, great cast, great stories, so many memorable moments. I can rewatch random episodes and still enjoy them even after seeing them a dozen times.
DS9: A close second, the serialized story hurts it's rewatchability factor. I still liked the characters a lot.
VOY: It should have been a lone ship trying to survive instead it was mostly TNG2, I still liked it for Janeway, Seven and the Doctor.
TOS: Some memorable episodes but I never really got into it that much.
ENT: Meh

 

[JustSomeone]

I've only watched DS9, but i consider it to be the best sci fi tv show i've ever watched, so I doubt any other trek show can beat it.
It had Quark, after all.

 

[finowns]

TNG is the my favorite but I used to watch Voyager everyday when it was on. Did they have a new episode daily, am I misremembering?

 

[aravuus]

Wow, I never realized DS9 was so loved too, I thought it was mainly TNG and to a slightly lesser extent, TOS, that get the love.

I've watched 4 or 5 seasons of TNG and really enjoyed it. I gotta check DS9 out soon.

 

[kinoki]

1. The Next Generation
2. The Original Series
3. ... there is no third. None of the others are watchable.

 

[water_wendi]

DS9
TNG
TOS
ENT
VOY

I got the sense from ENT that they were at least trying to be fresh, VOY had 7 full seasons of playing it safe and boring, all the while it never approached the quality of TNG or DS9 story telling or character development. That being said I do think VOY has a some great episodes, but they are few and far between.

This is my feeling as well.

 

[Jimnymebob]

I'd rank it:
TNG
DS9
Enterprise
Voyager

I've never really watched TOS, although I have watched a few of the films for it (definitely the original and Wrath of Kahn).

TNG was the only one I really liked, as it had my favourite characters, and while a couple of them were in DS9 too from what I remember (I've not watched them since the mid 90s, so my memory is a bit hazy on that), I didn't like Sisko as much as Piccard.

With Enterprise and Voyager I only really like one character from each (Scott Bakula and the Doctor), but I absolutely couldn't stand Janeway, so Enterprise is better due to that sole fact.

 

[ErasureAcer]

Only watched TNG and DS9 in their entirety. Both shows are great, some of my favs, with DS9 being the best.