Which Star Trek series had the best second season?
There were some interesting similarities with the second seasons. Three of the series’ made a bold introduction to a new ongoing story, and a new villain: The Next Generation with the Borg, Deep Space Nine with the Maquis and the Jem’Hadar, and Enterprise introduced the expanse and the Xindi. While these three were starting something new, Voyager was starting to wrap up an ongoing story, with Seska and the Kazon. We liked the method employed by Voyager in telling an ongoing story, with their “traitor” plot, but we actually didn’t really like the result. For us, the main highlight in Voyager season two was Suder. Enterprise also ends the Klingons arc for now, and for the most part brings an end to the crew’s function as explorers.
The Original Series never really had ongoing stories like the newer shows, which is completely fine, but they did seem to spend more time doing really foundational universe-building episodes that the rest of the franchise builds from. The Klingons show up a lot more, we get an episode showing more about Vulcans, and we learn more about the federation.
The second seasons were harder to rank than the first seasons. We tried to look at it from a few different angles: we looked at the average rating, the top episodes, the worst episodes, as well as the ever-present consideration of the characters and their development.
Average Rating
1. Deep Space Nine: 2.73
2. Enterprise: 2.62
3. The Original Series: 2.42
4. The Next Generation: 2.36
5. Voyager: 2.27
The average rating tells us something about the consistency of a season, but we also compare the top episodes, since we might think of the best season as having the best highlights.
Top Episodes
These are the episodes that really stood out to us. We include our rating (out of 5) and a link to a more thorough review.
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The Original Series
1. The Doomsday Machine (4)
2. Journey to Babel (4)
3. Amok Time (4)
4. The Trouble with Tribbles (4)
5. Mirror, Mirror (3)
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The Next Generation
1. Q Who (4)
2. A Matter of Honor (4)
3. Contagion (4)
4. Peak Performance (4)
5. The Measure of a Man (3)
6. Pen Pals (3)
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Deep Space Nine
1. Necessary Evil (4)
2. The Maquis Part II (4)
3. Blood Oath (4)
4. The Wire (4)
5. The Jem’Hadar (4)
6. The Maquis Part I (3)
Voyager
1. Basics, Part 1 (4)
2. Meld (4)
3. Maneuvers (4)
4. Alliances (3)
5. Deadlock (3)
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Enterprise
1. The Expanse (4)
2. Dead Stop (4)
3. Judgment (4)
4. Cogenitor (4)
5. Future Tense (4)
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This section of our season one comparisons was the main determining factor in our ranking because TOS had so many great episodes. Season two was not as clear cut. All of the series’ had a handful of very good episodes. If we take a look at the worst episodes of each show, the ranking becomes easier.
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Worst Episodes
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The Original Series
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Who Mourns for Adonais (1)
Catspaw (1)
Wolf in the Fold (1)
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TOS had three episodes that we thought were particularly bad. They tended to have lame premises and were carried out in a silly or repetitive way.
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The Next Generation
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The Outrageous Okona (1)
The Dauphin (1)
Shades of Gray (0)
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In retrospect, The Dauphin doesn’t seem so bad as far as 1s go. The same can’t be said for The Outrageous Okona, which is a painful episode. Shades of Gray has nothing good about it, and its only defense is that it was produced during a writer’s strike, barely seeming like a real episode.
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Deep Space Nine
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Second Sight (1)
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Second Sight is the only DS9 S2 episode that got a 1 rating from us, and it’s not even obnoxiously bad. It’s mainly just really boring.
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Voyager
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Elogium (1)
Threshold (1)
The Thaw (1)
Tuvix (1)
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We know some of these episode are liked by many Voyager fans, but for us these are solid 1s, with a couple of them verging on getting 0s. In particular, we know there are some “Tuvix” fans out there, but you guys are crazy. That episode blows. In addition to these four, some fans would throw Tattoo and Twisted in there. We didn’t really like those either, but they still got a (low) 2 rating from us.
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Enterprise
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A Night in Sickbay (1)
Singularity (1)
Vanishing Point (1)
Precious Cargo (1)
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Enterprise’s worst episodes range from just being very boring (Vanishing Point) to being legitimately annoying (Precious Cargo), and in the case of A Night In Sickbay, both.
Conclusion
Here’s our final ranking:
5. Voyager
Even though Voyager had some episodes we really liked it still is at the bottom of the list for us. Think of your five least favorite Voyager episodes. There’s a good chance most of the episodes you’re thinking of are from the second season. In fact, Threshold and Tuvix probably rank pretty high for all time worst of any of the Trek series.
4. The Next Generation
Season Two of TNG is still a pretty formative, wobbly group of episodes for the franchise. Like the first season, it has a lot of charm, but there’s still a lot of growing to do. Some of the (at this point) secondary characters like Worf and Geordi are just starting to be fleshed out, but their real development doesn’t get rolling until later. There’s a decent amount of good episodes, but overall this is still one of the worst seasons of The Next Generation.
3. Enterprise
Like TNG, Enterprise’s second season is very similar to its first. However, it’s more consistent overall, and coupled with their emphasis on adventure makes it a fairly entertaining season, even if it’s sort of treading water until the end. Like DS9 and TNG, Enterprise is about to get more ambitious, but for now season two is merely a pleasant chunk of the series.
2. The Original Series
Many regard the second season of Star Trek as the series’ peak. We don’t really think so, as most of our favorites are in the first season, but it’s true that everything goes downhill in the following season. There are some clunkers in this season, but in many ways it’s the most consistently entertaining of Star Trek’s run. Season two has a lot of great moments, and most of all, Kirk, Spock and Bones are in fine form throughout.
1. Deep Space Nine
We were actually a little surprised when we realized that season two of Deep Space Nine was our favorite of all the second seasons. It always kind of seemed like TNG’s season two: better than the first, but still one of the “bad ones”. That still might be the case when compared to other DS9 seasons, but it has a lot going for it. As mentioned above, it only has one kinda bad episode, and it’s not even that bad. What it also has is two sizable runs of good episodes. Five in a row at the start of the season, and six in a row near the end, which is pretty rare for any of the shows.