So with everyone saying Discovery is one of the better first seasons, I decided let's examine if that is indeed the case, so let's examine each first season, episode by episode. Basically say which pilot episode, episode 3, 4, and so one was your favourite. We're going in airdate order, though for TOS in the pilot episodes, I'll include the two actual pilots plus the first two episodes of the series to actually air. This is going to mean Where No Man Has Gone Before will show up twice. So to review, these are the episodes we're comparing: Pilot Episodes: The Cage Where No Man Has Gone Before The Man Trap Charlie X Encounter at Farpoint Emissary Caretaker Broken Bow The Vulcan Hello/Battle at the Binary Stars Episode 3: Where No Man Has Gone Before The Naked Now Past Prologue Parallax Fight or Flight Context is for Kings Episode 4: The Naked Time Code of Honor A Man Alone Time and Again Strange New World The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry Episode 5: The Enemy Within The Last Outpost Babel Phage Unexpected Choose Your Pain Episode 6: Mudd's Women Where No One Has Gone Before Captive Pursuit The Cloud Terra Nova Lethe Episode 7: What Are Little Girls Made Of? Lonely Among Us Q-Less Eye of the Needle The Andorian Incident Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad Episode 8: Miri Justice Dax Ex Post Facto Breaking the Ice Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum Episode 9: Dagger of the Mind The Battle The Passenger Emanations Civilization Into the Forest I Go My choices: Emissary Context is for Kings Butcher's Knife Choose Your Pain Captive Pursuit The Andorian Incident Latin title Forest. Huh, well what do you know, out of the first nine episodes it seems Discovery did come out on top for five of them, at least IMO. So how do the rest of you assess these episodes?
I haven't seen Disco yet, but it would be pretty easy to beat S1 of TNG. TOS has some pretty decent episodes right out of the gate IMO. DS9 starts out fairly rocky except for "Emissary" (which in some ways is easier to appreciate in retrospect) and "Captive Pursuit". I can't even remember what happens in a couple of the ENT episodes based solely on title, sorry to say.
Wow...this is hard. Let's see... I'll give my top 3 in each category. Pilot: 1. The Cage 2. Emissary 3. Encounter at Farpoint Episode 3: 1. Where No Man 2. Context Is For Kings 3. The Naked Now Episode 4: 1. The Butchers Knife 2. Naked Time 3. Strange New World Episode 5: 1. The Enemy Within 2. Chose Your Pain 3. The Last Outpost Episode 6: 1. Lethe 2. Where No One Has Gone Before 3. Captive Pursuit Episode 7: 1. Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad 2. What Are Little Girls Made Of? 3. Eye of the Needle Episode 8: 1. Dax 2. Miri 3. Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum Episode 9: 1. Into The Forrest I Go 2. Dagger of the Mind 3. The Battle Very interesting exercise. If you now assigned weighting (5 points for 1st choice, 3 for second, and 1 for third) my series rankings by episode 9 are: TOS 30 DSC 27 TNG 10 DS9 9 VOY 1 ENT 1 It's actually pretty amazing how lackluster the first seasons of DS9, VOY and ENT were. For all the heat it gets, TNG was far better.
Well, I think the consensus is that DS9 doesn't really start to escape from under TNG's shadow until late S2 or later. I've always felt that both shows started off badly, but that DS9 improved at a faster rate.
Emissary Where No Man Has Gone Before Time and Again Choose Your Pain Captive Pursuit Eye of the Needle Miri Dagger of the Mind So I picked 3 TOS, 1 TNG, 1 DS9, 2 Voy, 1 DSC To me TOS first several episodes were weak and Miri is about when it picked up, I suspect if we continued this exercise, TOS would end season 2 with a huge lead, then TNG would catch up in season 3. If I extended this all the way to the end, I suspect TNG would win, DS9 would come a very respectable second, TOS next because it didn't play as long, Voyager would end up with maybe 10-15 points, Ent would only pick up a handful in season 3-4.
DS9 was a great series, but it's first season was almost unwatchable. Like TNGs worst seasons, but on a static location of a space station. DSCs first 9 blow DS9s first 9 away.
I tried this idea on the Discovery board a few weeks ago and it bombed hard, so I'm a little jealous that people are responding here. Emissary (DS9) Where No Man Has Gone Before (TOS) The Naked Time (TOS) Choose Your Pain (DIS) Where No One Has Gone Before (TNG) Eye of the Needle (VOY) Breaking the Ice (ENT) Into the Forest I Go (DIS) TOS - 2 TNG - 1 DS9 - 1 VOY - 1 ENT - 1 DIS - 2
Emissary Where No Man Has Gone Before Naked Time Phage Captive Pursuits Magic to Make the Most Insanely Contrived Title Ever Breaking the Ice Civilization
Don't forget these nine episodes: Beyond the Farthest Star Yesteryear One of Our Planets is Missing The Lorelei Signal More Tribbles, More Troubles The Survivor The Infinite Vulcan The Magicks of Megas-tu Once Upon a Planet Yesteryear seems the clear winner in the Ep1/2 matchup. I also enjoyed More Tribbles slightly more than The Enemy Within or Unexpected.
^^I debated including TAS I wasn't really sure it would properly match the set up, particularly with the pilot episode. But sure, anyone who wants to choose one of the first nine TAS is free to do so.
Emissary Past Prologue The Naked Time The Enemy Within Captive Pursuit What Are Little Girls Made Of? Dax Dagger of the Mind That's 4x TOS and 4x DS9, I'm kinda surprised. I'm not even a great fan of TOS, I much prefer TNG, but that of course had a very slow start. In some cases it was difficult to decide, especially 5-7 where I didn't really like any of them.