So that’s season one of the eighth Star Trek series. I’ll try and keep this brief (and spoiler free).
This felt to me like a show that found its feet over the course of the season. It’s a little tricky to know how much was planned evolution, but the early episodes were quite shaky on character and striking the balance between fan service and story. But by the final episode of the season everything had come together strongly and coherently.
There’s still some room to improve, and the fundamental ‘joke’ nature of the show is going to keep it just out of the top bracket. But it’s the strongest ‘episodic’ first season yet (not counting Picard – that was really a single story broken up into 10 parts), and future seasons can build on a very strong foundation.
Most importantly, it is actually keeping to the philosophy of Trek, grappling with the ideas around first contact, the prime directive, and the way Star Fleet works. Only in as much depth as 22 minutes allows, but it’s still there.
Overall I’m going to put this one at the top of the Strong Performers bracket, losing a little bit of standing because of a few shaky bits in early episodes of the season (particularly around the Captain just being a bit too one note at times).
The very best of Trek:
– PIC Season 1
– TNG Season 6
– DS9 Season 2
Strong performers:
– LD Season 1
– DS9 Season 5
– TNG Season 3
– TNG Season 5
– TOS Season 2
– DIS Season 2
– ENT Season 3
– TNG Season 4
– VOY Season 4
Mixed bag:
– TOS Season 1
– DS9 Season 4
– DIS Season 1
– ST Season 2
– DS9 Season 1
– ENT Season 4
– ST Season 1
– VOY Season 5
– ENT Season 1
– VOY Season 1
– TNG Season 7
Not good:
– DS9 Season 3
– DS9 Season 6
– VOY Season 6
– VOY Season 3
– TNG Season 2
– ENT Season 2
– TAS Season 1
Really just awful:
– VOY Season 7
– VOY Season 2
– DS9 Season 7
– TOS Season 3
– TAS Season 2
– TNG Season 1
36 seasons of Trek down, on to the 37th with Discovery Season 3 (and episode 800 of the whole shebang in a few weeks).