Which show had the best first season? There are three things we used to determine how we rank the first seasons: average rating, top episodes, and themes.
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Average Rating
The average rating can tell us if a season was consistently good. Here’s how the series’ ranked in terms of the average rating we gave them set out of 100:
LWST’s Average Ratings
1. The Original Series: 51.03
2. Enterprise: 46.4
3. Voyager: 44
4. The Next Generation: 41.6
5. Deep Space Nine: 41.05
We also wanted to see how other reviewers rated the first seasons. Keep in mind that they may not have intended the ratings from the different shows to be compared to each other. For example, they may prefer a “bad” episode of TNG to a “good” episode of Voyager. At any rate, here’s the average ratings from some different reviewers set out of 100:
Jordan Hoffman’s Average Ratings (jordanhoffman.com)
1. The Original Series: 76.20
2. Enterprise: 60.8
3. The Next Generation: 55.2
4. Deep Space Nine: 52.63
5. Voyager: 48
Jammer’s Average Ratings (jammersreviews.com)
1. Deep Space Nine: 72.10
2. The Original Series: 71.12
3. Voyager: 68.33
4. Enterprise: 67
5. The Next Generation: 55
Kethinov’s Average Ratings (kethinov.com)
1. The Next Generation: 48.8
2. Voyager: 48.66
3. Enterprise: 47.4
4. Deep Space Nine: 47.36
5. The Original Series: 43.79
And if you put all our scores together and averaged those, here’s how they would rank:
1. The Original Series: 60.53
2. Enterprise: 55.4
3. Deep Space Nine: 53.28
4. Voyager: 52.24
5. The Next Generation: 50.15
Have a graph:
If you’d like to see how these reviewers rated each episode, we have a post covering each series: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT
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Top Episodes
Average ratings tells us consistency, but that’s not always how we determine how much we love a season. Sometimes we love seasons if they have enough really great episodes, even if they also had really bad ones that lowered the average rating. So let’s take a look at the top episodes from each season. We included our ratings set out of 100 in parenthesis.
The Next Generation
There was one episode we thought was great, which was Conspiracy (80).
We also really liked The Neutral Zone (60), and there were parts of Encounter at Farpoint (60) we really liked.
Some people really like 11001001 (40) but we just thought it was okay.
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Deep Space Nine
We thought Duet (80) and Emissary (80) were great.
We really liked Past Prologue (60).
Some people also really like In the Hands of Prophets (40).
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Voyager
We thought the great episodes from Voyager season one were Caretaker (80), Eye of the Needle (80) and Prime Factors (80).
We also really liked State of Flux (60).
Other popular episodes among the fans are Faces (20) and Jetrel (20) although we didn’t care for them.
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Enterprise
We thought The Andorian Incident (80), Silent Enemy (80), and Shockwave Part 1 (80) were great.
We really liked Cold Front (60), Sleeping Dogs (60), and shamefully Unexpected (60).
Some fans also really like Broken Bow (60), Detained (40), Dear Doctor (20) and Shuttlepod One.
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The Original Series
Great: Balance of Terror (100), The City on the Edge of Forever (100), Space Seed (80), Errand of Mercy (80), Where No Man Has Gone Before (80), The Corbomite Maneuver (80).
We also really liked Arena (60) and The Menagerie Part 1 (60).
Other fan favorites are The Devil in the Dark (40), The Galileo Seven (40), The Enemy Within (40), and The Naked Time (40)
In our opinion the first season of The Original Series not only had our favorite episodes out of any of the first seasons, but it also had the most great episodes.
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Themes/Story Arcs
Sometimes the themes covered or over-arching stories make a season great. Ongoing story arcs aren’t a requirement, but it set some of the seasons apart. Let’s take a look at the themes covered in the different series’. We’re leaving out general getting-to-know-characters themes because all of them had that in common.
The Original Series
TOS didn’t really have any ongoing themes like some of the more modern shows, but it did have the general theme of exploration, which is both a cool theme, and done well.
The Next Generation
TNG also incorporated the theme of exploration, but again, not in the same way modern shows have season long arcs. The only recurring story lines were the build up to the Romulan encounter, and a conspiracy inside the Federation. We thought both of these themes were interesting although they only produced two really good episodes.
Deep Space Nine
The major theme in the first season of DS9 is introducing the relationship between the Cardassians, Federation, and Bajorans, along with generally getting to know what the Bajoran and Cardassian cultures are like. These themes are appropriate but only half of the episodes with these themes were good and the other half were fairly dull.
Voyager
Voyager had a lot of great premises, such as getting thrown into completely unknown space far from home, and mixing a Maquis and Federation crew. We felt like these themes were mostly wasted. We saw very little Maquis/Federation conflict, and what we did see wasn’t that great. Our delta quadrant themes were mainly about the Kazon, which had some good episodes but not because of the Kazon. The Vidiians had potential, but we didn’t really like the episodes. The first season of Voyager also had the theme of finding a way home. While we don’t really like that the crew is teased with possible ways home so many times during the first season, these were really good episodes. Maybe they should’ve just happened in later seasons.
Enterprise
Enterprise, being the most recent show, follows the trend of having a lot of ongoing story arcs. We’re reminded of their role as explorers in almost every episode, even if the episode isn’t really about exploring. They begin a Klingon story arc, which is fun. They introduce Andorians and their conflict with the Vulcans which is also really fun. They introduce the theme of Vulcans being different in this time period, which at this point in the show is a little annoying, but we like the way it turns out. There’s a temporal cold war, which we liked at this point, but falls apart later in the series. We’re also introduced to the Suliban which seem like mediocre villains.
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Conclusion
Alright. So here’s the final ranking:
5. Deep Space Nine
Compared to what DS9 becomes, the first season isn’t good. While some TNG episodes are so bad they can be watched ironically, DS9 had some episodes that aren’t fun to watch at all. They did cover some themes that needed to be covered in the first season which produced some good episodes.
4. The Next Generation
The first season of TNG isn’t great by most standards, but it has it’s own kind of charm. Even the really bad episodes can be entertaining if you don’t take them too seriously.
3. Voyager
Voyager had a short first season, and had some good episodes giving it a relativity decent average rating. What puts it below Enterprise is that it dropped the ball on some great premises.
2. Enterprise
Enterprise had some fun themes in the first season, a decent average rating, and produced a few really good episodes, putting it at our number two spot.
1. The Original Series
What made it plain to see that this was our favorite first season was the number of great episodes. If you don’t like any of the great episodes of TOS mentioned earlier, then you probably won’t like TOS. It also had the best average rating, making it the most consistently good, which was tough given its long season.