Your favourite thing about each show

[Starflight]

Similar to the "What makes you adore Star Trek" thread, I thought this'd be interesting, since I don't think there's many people who unreservedly like every Star Trek series, and saying something positive about something you don't wholly like is more fun than tearing it down.

TOS - the entire first season, especially from around Conscience of the King through to City on the Edge of Forever, is the best single run of episodes Star Trek has ever had.

TNG - in its best moments, the utopian-humanism stuff really did shine through and make the show feel far warmer and more compassionate than a great deal of other genre fiction.

DS9 - I really like the first two seasons and the uneasy mood in post-occupation Bajor, and the Federation's inability to really get a handle on any of it.

VGR - this is probably my favourite Star Trek overall, but to pick one thing, I love how willing it is to swing between comedy and drama, often several times within a single episode.

ENT - the whole third season was a gamble that paid off brilliantly.

DSC - the first half of the second season is genuinely good, and has a really fresh tone - it feels recognisably Star Trek but with a modern twist. I also think the actors on this show are great, SMG and Doug Jones especially.

PIC - this is gonna sound like backhanded praise, but it isn't - the second season has honestly given me more enjoyment than any other piece of nuTrek. Yes, it's almost entirely ironic, but either way it's just an absolute joy to watch. Robo-Picard being run over by Brent Spiner still cracks me up just thinking about it, as well as the flashbacks to Picard's mother being locked in the attic. Literally every scene is just mindblowing.

SNW - I love Uhura, Kirk, Chapel, and T'Pring; all are extremely successful reimaginings of the original characters. Spock's writing's gone a bit wonky but you can't fault Ethan Peck, who for me is easily a better Spock than Quinto (no offence to Quinto). It took a little while, but I think I really can see Paul Wesley as Kirk.

SFA - Lura Thok. Also, the first half of the season was actually pretty solid, the back half is where it wavered for me.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

These aren't necessarily my absolute favourite things about each series, but they rank pretty highly:

TOS - The three lead characters.
TAS - They didn't bring in kid sidekicks.
TNG - The intelligence and thoughtfulness of its stories, with characters always considering the morality of what they're doing.
DS9 - The Defiant cutting loose with its pulse phasers. Pew pew pew.
VGR - The design of Voyager itself.
ENT - The fourth season's shift to three-episode arcs showing the journey towards the Federation.
DSC - When everything goes nuts and there's fist fights while Discovery's shooting phasers outside.
PIC - It showed that the 24th century hadn't been retconned away.
LDS - It feels like it was made by people who know Star Trek better than I do.
PRO - The well-paced serialised storylines.
SNW - The props.
SFA - The corridors.

 

[TheAdmiralty]

TOS- The Kirk/Spock/Bones dynamic was magic and as a result there are almost no bad TOS episodes because at least you're watching them

TAS- Yesteryear is classic Star Trek and towers above the rest of the show

TNG- Data

Ds9- It was uneven but they were willing to "go there" with the war storyline and do things that hadn't been done on Trek previously

Voy- The EMH

Enterprise- T'Pol looked good in the catsuit

Discovery- Saru

SNW- Agree with the OP that they got the casting on the original characters really well

Picard- N/A

 

[CoveTom]

TOS: It set the standard. Defined the genre. And had some of the best characters in sci-fi history.

TNG: I grew up on this one. This is my Trek. I just love virtually everything about it.

DS9: The complexity of the characters. The writing was just brilliant. Plus, IMHO, "Way of the Warrior" has the best action sequences in all of Trek even to this day and even including the films.

VOY: I really love Kate Mulgrew as Janeway. I think she did an excellent job and is a fantastic actress.

ENT: I never got into Enterprise, but Scott Bakula is just never bad casting. And he seems to be a great guy in real life as well.

PIC: Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes together again, in both seasons 1 and 3. Just magical.

TOS Films: The refit Enterprise. The most gorgeous ship ever put on film. And Goldsmith's score for TMP, which is his ultimate masterpiece, IMHO.

TNG Films: I know there are many criticisms, but I just adore First Contact. I think it is easily the best of the TNG films and one of the best of the entire film series.

I am not going through the other series because, quite frankly, I have never watched enough of them to be able to.

 

[camdudetenger2018]

well for star trek strange new worlds because most of the episodes each has a i guess a gimmick theme via genre

and as for star trek starfleet academy well its the same what i said about strange new worlds

 

[Qonundrum]

TOS: It's the 1960s and easier to get away with anything if played out with utter sincerity and that is what they do, drawing me into the realm of impossibility (no relation to the Atari 800XL/C64 video game from the early-1980s but check that one out, too).

TNG: Refined and fixed issues TOS did wrong (e.g. captain doesn't leave the ship, room for meetings, took old plot ideas but improved on them (save for "The Naked Now" but they had to start somewhere), still explore the galaxy while exploring other facets of humanity other than the macrosocietal but not too often getting too micro or navel-gazing)

DS9: The most spiritual successor to TOS, even if they didn't explore the Gamma quadrant - it's the mix of character archetypes that makes and keeps this going.

VOY: The Janeway/Seven show with the latter reclaiming humanity was the big anchor,m but a handful of older episodes kept me watching just enough.

LDS: A mixture of finding new venues (e.g. second contact) while elevating disposable baddies (Pakleds) and all while doing both macro- and micro- human condition exploration (the Doopler episode is a modern day classic...)

For all of them, the one thing in common is also the cast - a good cast can make almost anything watchable. Hell, I've even rewatched "The Naked Now" when by no means nobody should even see it a first time, but before I digress...