Let's compare the first nine episodes of each modern series

[The Wormhole]

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?

 

[DonIago]

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.

 

[Vger23]

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.

 

[DonIago]

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.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

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.

 

[Vger23]

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.

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.

 

[BlueStuff]

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

 

[Bad Thoughts]

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

 

[Tim Thomason]

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.

 

[The Wormhole]

^^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.

 

[Gul Sengosts]

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.