What Season Of The Orginal Series Was The Best?

[AxelFoley]

I haven't seen season 3 yet, but it's on the horizon. I have an extremely hard time choosing a favorite between 1 & 2, despite having graded every single episode from the two seasons and done other calculations (yes, I take this very seriously).

I've seen season one four times now, maybe when I'm finished with season two a fourth time I wll have a winner on my hands.

I suspect season two may grab the win, due to the fact that it takes a while for season one to hit its stride whereas season 2 starts off with a bang and stays consistent.

 

[maneth]

Season two is my favorite, although season one's a pretty close second. Season three had far too many almost-repeats from other seasons, and loses a lot of points for Spock's Brain and Turnabout Intruder. The only two episodes I really like from season three are The Tholian Web and The Enterprise Incident.

 

[Warped9]

All three seasons have good and bad. But I like the overall feel of Season One with Season Two a close second.

 

[Cap'n Caveman]

Season Three was definitely the weakest (and I think Season One is the best, with Season Two just a hair behind Season One), but you know what? I would rather watch a third season episode than any episode of any season of any of the later series. Hell, I would rather watch STV than any of the TNG movies. Just sayin'

 

[Vonstadt]

I went with Season Two, it has a 'feel' to it for me. Season one comes in a very very close second.

Though I liked a lot of season three, there was a lot there even as a kid that made me cringe. Still even at its worst I still enjoyed it. So for me its

Season Two
Season One - so close its almost a tie
Season Three

Vons

 

[Moopsy]

Season 2 was, I think, the best overall. Season 1 had its growing pains, and Season 3 was...Season 3.

 

[Neutral Zone]

I like all three seasons, they all have good episodes and their bad ones. If any season three is the weakest and perhaps that's why they pulled the plug.

 

[ToddPence]

I would rank the seasons the way most people would: 1, 2, 3 in order - although with the qualification that the difference between the three was not nearly as drastic as people make it out to be.

 

[AxelFoley]

The votes here sure are different from the one at the Swedish Star Trek forum. At the moment, the standings are as follows:

Season 1: 2 votes
Season 2: 7 votes
Season 3: 5 votes

 

[EEE]

I am shocked (and pleased) that season one is preferred.

Ditto!

Season two's first half is very, very good and has many classic episodes, but doesn't have the charm, atmosphere and intangible sense of mystery that season one does.

Thank you... for articulating that for me. In 44 years of TOS, I could never explain what season 1 was for me. I was missing the word "mystery," often using "exploration." But in either case, it was an intangible something.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Season one, especially those first 13 episodes. There was a more naturalistic approach to the series then. The Enterprise and her crew weren't a special ship, but just another ship doing a job in the far reaches of space. The dialogue was much more naturalistic not the pretentious pontificating that would become associated with ModTrek. The ship looked lived-in with tapes and coffee cups littering the tables. In those episodes, the turbolifts had an inner and outer door like a real elevator.

There was also a danger and mystery to space that seemed to vanish in later seasons and series. As much as I love the new Abrams movie, I wish Trek would return to the more naturalistic style in those early season one episodes.

 

[pookha]

really my favorite period is the gene coon period.
i sorta like the first and second seasons over all equally well.

there are some really great episodes early on..
corbomite maneuver and balance of terror but also some lesser ones.
and the quality started to go down toward the end of the second season.

 

[scotpens]

. . . as well as the gradual evolution from the original high science fiction concept towards Coon's vision of the show, resulting in some episodes which just don't work (hello <i>The Armageddon Factor</i>) . . .

Do you mean "The Alternative Factor"? Or did some fans do a mashup video of "The Alternative Factor" and "A Taste of Armageddon"?

Meh.. The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web, All Our Yesterdays, The Paradise Syndrome, Last Battlefield, For the World is Hollow... Hardly crappy episodes..

IMHO, all the eps you list are mediocre at best -- except "Battlefield." That one was crap. Dull, preachy, and about as subtle as a medieval morality play.

Roddenberry hired Freiberger rather than turn the show over to someone like Justman who understood it and wanted to produce it. Roddenberry was responsible.

And Fred "Kiss of Death" Freiberger's oft-quoted idea of what Star Trek was about, was "tits in space."

 

[plynch]

The longer I own my DVDs, the better 3 gets and the more mediocre 2 gets. 2 is too often "Kirk and Spock on the _______ planet; then they escape." ZZZZ. 2 does have some great ones, of course. 3 is definitely coming from behind in my mind, though.

 

[Orcus]

. . . as well as the gradual evolution from the original high science fiction concept towards Coon's vision of the show, resulting in some episodes which just don't work (hello <i>The Armageddon Factor</i>) . . .

Do you mean "The Alternative Factor"? Or did some fans do a mashup video of "The Alternative Factor" and "A Taste of Armageddon"?

The Armageddon Factor is a Dr Who title...

 

[buckeyenation]

Season two for me. 'The Doomsday Machine', 'Amok Time', 'Journey to Babel', and a host of other too numerous to mention announced that if the series wasn't here to stay, the legacy was. It is the season in which Star Trek came of age and cemented the promise of the first season. Of course, Season two also gave us 'Catspaw', 'Who Mourns for Adonis', and 'The Gamesters of Triskelion'. Well, nothing in life is perfect, I guess.

 

[Zakk]

id say season 1&2 or the best of the orignal series.

 

[MANT!]

Season 2 seems to take the prize for me.. the consistency factor is better..

Episodes such as Amok Time, Doomsday Machine, Ultimate Computer, Trouble with Tribbles are amongst the classics of Trek...

But Season 1 was good too...just not as consistent..

 

[Valin]

Every seasons has its gems, but for me, the first 1/2 of season one is my favorite for many of the reasons others have stated.

You felt like you were watching a group of professionals on a mission in space. The characters seemed the most real; each mission had its sense of exploration and mystery.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Every seasons has its gems, but for me, the first 1/2 of season one is my favorite for many of the reasons others have stated.

You felt like you were watching a group of professionals on a mission in space. The characters seemed the most real; each mission had its sense of exploration and mystery.

There was also a sense of verisimilitude in that first half, as I stated above post, with the lived-in future. The characters really seemed to inhabit the Enterprise whereas in later seasons and series, they seemed to just exist there.