It stands up well compared to the more recent series, and the 90s ones as well. It doesn't quite hold a candle to TOS, however. My rough ranking: TOS PRO LOW PIC DIS DS9 VOY ENT TNG
Ok my first season rankings (and I have already admitted my bias against animated shows): TOS Picard DS9 Discovery VOY TNG ENT Short Treks TAS Prodigy LD
Prodigy would be the least tied to anything that came before than any other series (excepting TOS), so they have more freedom to just tell good stories.
My ranking would be: TOS PRO DS9 VOY DIS PIC TNG I can't fairly rank ENT since I never watched the whole first season and LDS I only saw the first episode. TOS is still a remarkable achievement in that it not only starts really strong, but at least half the season 1 episodes are all time classics.
For me, it is TOS and it isn't even close. Comparing shows with 22-26 episodes a season to ones with only 10 is tricky. As is episodic vs serialized and live action vs animated. And 1 hour vs 30 minutes. For me, I tend to think the serialized shows have less clunkers, but also less superior episodes. There is rarely closure after the episode. And a lot rides on the finales, which have mostly fallen kind of flat. I tend to like live action & episodic better, and seasons with more episodes rather than less. And tend to give more points for excellent episodes rather than deducting for poor ones. 1. TOS. By a mile. There are easily 15 classics in there. No way a 10 episode season can compete with that. Don't think so? Give or take a couple based on personal preference. 1. City on the Edge of Forever, 2. Space Seed, 3. Arena, 4. Balance of Terror, 4.-5. The Menangerie Pt. 1 & 2, 6. A Taste of Armaggedon, 7. The Corbomite Manuever, 8. Where No Man Has Gone Before, 9. The Devil In The Dark , 10. Dagger of the Mind, 11. The Enemy Within, 12. Tomorrow Is Yesterday, 13. Shore Leave, 14. This Side of Paradise, 15. The Galileo Seven, 16. Errand of Mercy, 17. Mudd's Women, 18. The Return of the Archons, 19. The Naked Time. ----------------- 2. SNW 3. DISCO(So happy Trek was back, the fact that it was not great at first bothered me not one iota). 4. PROD ------------ 5. PIC 6. LD 7. DS9 8. TNG (So happy Trek was back that it not being great at first did not bother me one iota). 9. VOY 10. ENT 11. TAS
I just rewatched season 1 and enjoy it even more. It should be noted that I grew up in the TNG Era. Never really had any interest to watch TOS or TAS.
Chill. I think everyone with a brain knew what I meant. You would think someone with a "Rear Admiral" under their name would be smarter. Guess not.
At halfway through its own season 1 SNW is now in contention for the title and may have taken the lead.
I want to do an updated season 1 list now that I've seen some of SNW and most of The Animated Series: Lower Decks - The most effortlessly 'Star Trek' of any series since the 90s. Discovery - The least 'Star Trek' in feel perhaps, but has some real highlights. Picard - Few bad episodes and some really good ones. Original Series - Some people can't get into the oldest series but I've been loving it on my rewatch. Prodigy Strange New Worlds - The most consistently 'okay' of all of them so far. Voyager - Typically alright, but occasionally flawed. Short Treks - All over the place in quality. TNG - Even people who've never seen Trek know this is often really bad. TAS - Hits maximum sincerity and insanity at the same time. Spoiled by the limited animation. DS9 - This season is the long wait before they get to the firework factory. Enterprise - Trying to do half-assed character drama with the blandest Trek cast. Man there's a lot of Star Trek series now. But Prodigy's still sitting really high in my rankings, so it must be doing something right.
I will say this, I think Prodigy ranks a clear #1 in terms of exceeding expectations. LD would be #2.
The first season isn't over yet. I don't know when it will be over, but i would say it had a pretty good start. My rankings: DS9 Lower Decks Prodigy Star Trek Discovery Strange New Worlds (So Far) Enterprise Picard Voyager TNG