Haven't done one of these in quite a while... so be kind. 28 seasons of Star Trek. 3 Star Trek. 4 Enterprise. 7 each for Next Gen, Deep Space Nine & Voyager. One countdown. The idea here, is to cross compare what each fan considers to be the better years of Star Trek overall, by placing them in chart. For me, the rule would be... if you can't even think of 5 great stories that year, then that's a below average season.... so a lower position in the chart. The more it hurts to shortlist down to just 5 in a single year, then the higher up it goes... Here's my placement, in reverse order. I'll put some highlight episodes in brackets, but bear in mind just five amazing stories can't sustain a whole season... It has to be really hard to make cuts. For instance, I've could've gone to 10 or more from Season 1 of Star Trek (TOS) alone. Which is explains why it sits at the top. Only my opinion mind, you will all have different opinions. I'll leave it up to the individual where and if they place The Animated Series. I've nothing against it. I just found it easier to focus on live-action. If you don't want to give a chart number for seasons you've never seen much of, then just go with what you know. Maybe a Top 10 or 15. - - - - - 28. Voyager, Season 1 (Caretaker, Eye of the Needle) 27. Next Generation, Season 1 (Datalore, Heart of Glory, Skin of Evil, Conspiracy, The Neutral Zone) 26. Voyager, Season 7 (Endgame, Critical Care, Shattered, Homestead) 25. Star Trek, Season 3 (The Enterprise Incident, Spectre of the Gun, Day of the Dove, The Tholian Web, All Our Yesterdays) 24. Voyager, Season 2 (The '37s, Cold Fire, Meld, Death Wish, Basics) 23. Next Generation, Season 2 (Elementary Dear Data, The Measure of a Man, Contagion, Time Squared, Q Who?) 22. Voyager, Season 6 (Dragon's Teeth, One Small Step, Blink of an Eye, Memorial, Good Shepherd) 21. Enterprise, Season 2 (Minefield, Dead Stop, Regeneration, First Flight, The Expanse) 20. Voyager, Season 3 (Flashback, Future's End, Unity, Distant Origin, Scorpion) 19. Next Generation, Season 7 (All Good Things..., Parallels, The Pegasus, Lower Decks, Preemptive Strike) 18. Enterprise, Season 1 (Broken Bow, The Andorian Incident, Cold Front, Shuttlepod One, Shockwave) 17. Deep Space Nine, Season 1 (Emissary, Captive Pursuit, Dax, Vortex, Duet) 16. Deep Space Nine, Season 2 (Necessary Evil, Blood Oath, The Maquis, Crossover, The Jem'Hadar) 15. Voyager, Season 5 (Timeless, Gravity, Dark Frontier, Relativity, Equinox) 14. Next Generation, Season 4 (Family, Brothers, Reunion, The Wounded, The Drumhead) 13. Deep Space Nine, Season 3 (The Search, Past Tense, Visionary, Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast, The Adversary) 12. Next Generation, Season 5 (Darmok, Ensign Ro, Cause and Effect, I Borg, The Inner Light) 11. Deep Space Nine, Season 5 (The Ship, Trials and Tribble-ations, For the Uniform, In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light, Call to Arms) 10. Deep Space Nine, Season 7 (The Siege of AR-558, Inter Arma Silent Leges, Strange Bedfellows/The Changing Face of Evil, When it Rains.../Tacking into the Wind, What You Leave Behind) 09. Next Generation, Season 6 (Relics, A Fistful of Datas, Chain of Command, Tapestry, Frame of Mind) 08. Voyager, Season 4 (Nemesis, Year of Hell, Concerning Flight, The Killing Game, Living Witness) 07. Deep Space Nine, Season 4 (The Way of the Warrior, The Visitor, Hippocratic Oath, Little Green Men, Homefront/Paradise Lost) 06. Enterprise, Season 3 (Twilight, Similitude, Azati Prime/Damage/The Forgotten, Proving Ground, The Council/Countdown/Zero Hour) 05. Enterprise, Season 4 (In a Mirror Darkly, Demons/Terra Prime, Babel One/United/The Aenar, The Forge/Awakening/Kir'Shara, Borderland/Cold Station 12/The Augments) 04. Deep Space Nine, Season 6 (A Time to Stand/Rocks and Shoals, Favor the Bold/Sacrifice of Angels, Far Beyond the Stars, In the Pale Moonlight, Tears of the Prophets) 03. Next Generation, Season 3 (The Defector, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Offspring, Sins of the Father, The Best of Both Worlds) 02. Star Trek, Season 2 (Amok Time, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, The Trouble with Tribbles) 01. Star Trek, Season 1 (The City on Edge of Forever, Errand of Mercy, Space Seed, Balance of Terror, The Corbomite Maneuver) - - - - -
I haven't watched ENT past the pilot and have only seen S1 of VOY so far, so I can't make the list, but I know I'd put TNG seasons 4 & 5 and DS9 season 5 higher. I certainly would not put DS9 season 5 lower than DS9 season 7 (which had a rather lame first part) or so much lower than seasons 4 and 6 (I think they were pretty much on par in quality).
I think the OP is a big Enterprise fan, I really can't understand how Enterprise S3 + S4 are considered better than TNG 4,5 + 6 :S
I should also add that I wouldn't put TOS season 2 at #2. It had some great episodes - in fact, I loved about half of the episodes - but it also had quite a lot of lameness and silliness in the other half. Season 2 is in-between 1 and 3 in that respect: season 1 had many greats and 2 or 3 lame ones, season 3 had a few great or good ones and many lame ones, season 2 was about 50-50%.
Fair points all. I make no bones about liking both DS9 and ENT more than TNG. I don't know, somehow it focused way too much on family melodrama for my taste... which was fine when I first watched it back in the '90s but now I find them tedious to rewatch. I'm more a big picture, story arc fan. Don't mind relationships thrown in, so long as they're epic and galaxy shattering. For every Worf dishonor story, there was 5 times the dullness elsewhere... endless romantic liasons for Riker, seemingly everybodys mother or father coming out of the woodwork to fill up a pretty inconsequential bottleshow all told. Several plots tweaked slightly for a sci fi setting but not only possible to tell in the Star Trek universe. The way I approached this, is how I always compile lists of my favourite seasons. How many episodes stay with you from one year? How many from the next? As I thought about it, the more difficult it got to name just five. The more I had to leave off, the higher I had to place that year. The original Season Two has many legendary episodes and I think it's number two position is well deserved. Although I expect some inter-series rivalry, I'm not promoting bashing between them. Simply to place the seasons where each poster sees fit. Your favourite series can play into your choice. That's entirely up to you. What excites your imagination certainly will. Believe it or not, I tried hard not to let my appreciation for ENT influence me. But I do actually think their later seasons were great, and squeezed in more action/adventure episodes with a major event and consequence for future weeks.