The first two seasons of Enterprise were a disaster with "A Night In Sickbay" being the coup de grace. And then they continued with the stupid clunkers (Lone Star aka planet cowboy) and even in the fourth season with the alien nazi two-parter. What a waste!!! They did some good in season four but by then it was too late. The public already hated the series.
Well, I think Voyager started out surprisingly strong. Of the 80s/90/00s Trek series, Caretaker might be the best pilot episode. Unfortunately, the level of quality dropped quickly after that (and some premises were dropped along with it).
I've thought most Trek series began well with their premiers. I might be one of the few people who liked Farpoint. I can't actually think of a bad premier episode, actually. But many series had a rough first season, or at least you can tell easily now there were problems. (exceptions for TOS, DS9, and LD in my own opinion. ) . I love season 1 of Discovery despite its problems. Worst lines of dialogue are either "what is brain" or, speaking of premier episodes, the cringey "first hand, second hand, third hand" knowledge of Draylaxian women. you had one line, Mayweather, for 4 seasons.. one line..
The only Trek series that really started well are TOS and DS9, imo. If we're talking about the premieres, specifically, that is (DS9 had a fantastic opening but a somewhat uneven first season). Third place goes to DSC because I do like a lot of what is there in the Vulcan Hello, but to spend a whole pilot episode establishing an interesting opening status quo and then immediately (literally) blow it all up ultimately did not work for me well in the long run. I would rate that episode higher if we actually got to see the series about Georgiou, Saru and Burnham having adventures on the Shenzhou. LDS' opening episode was fine, but clearly a step down from most of its other episodes. Broken Bow and Caretaker are two of the most boring and least effective episodes in the franchise and Encounter at Farpoint is actively dire.
The only weird thing about the Lower Decks pilot is how callous and dismissive the Senior Officers are portrayed as, starting by the next episode they become a lot more sympathetic and seem on friendlier terms with the main characters.
I think we have a new contender with "That was some Picard-level diplomacy. Maybe they'll give you an Enterprise."
Caretaker has a somewhat dubious honor... the characters were most like the way they were for the bulk of the series. On the one hand, that suggests that the actors had a good head on their characters. On the other, it suggests that they evolved very little.
That's more on the writers, not the actors. Had the Temporal Cold War not been part of it, "BROKEN BOW" would be the best pilot.
From ENT: "Fallen Hero": TRAVIS: They're right on top of us. ARCHER: How long? T'POL: Eight minutes. (Big bang.) REED: That's a direct hit to our starboard nacelle. TRAVIS: We're dropping to impulse. HOSHI: They're hailing us. ARCHER: How long now? T'POL: If they received our message, another ten minutes. ARCHER: I thought it was down to eight. T'POL: That was before we dropped out of warp. A starship captain who doesn't understand that when you go from warp to impuse it will take longer to get places...
I'd say that is the 'honor' of the bulk of the series, not Caretaker, the initial strokes with which these characters were painted were fine. They just should have been developed further after that. On the other hand, the math in the dialog actually checks out this time, which is a nice touch. Assuming the cube formula, warp 5 would be about 125c, the Vulcans could reach about warp 7 which is 343c. So if their sum velocities of 125+343c=468c would take about 8 minutes to cover the remaining gap, with the 343c of the Vulcans alone (now that the Enterprise has stopped, impulse speed is negligible) the distance would be covered in about 468/343 * 8 = 10.9 minutes (So, that actually would have been 11 minutes, but we also have to allow about 30 seconds for the dialog and events happening and such). OK, that's enough nerd mode from me for this morning, I have to get to work
Sad but true. Compare the utterly transformed Ben Sisko to the essentially static Kathryn Janeway, or the surprisingly matured Julian Bashir to the largely stagnant Harry Kim. On the other hand, you didn't get the pure cringe of "Encounter at Farpoint" Troi, or the stilted dialogue of many of the other TNG characters in that same episode. So you do have to give "Caretaker" some credit.
"If anything happens to Porthos, I'll be the one watering their (sacred) Alvera Trees!" ~ Trained Diplomat Captain Archer
Some day we’ll have some sort of directive, a prime one, to tell us that not letting millions of people die interferes with the grand will of the universe!