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00:00 Ranking the various Star Trek pilots is tricky.
00:04 And it's now something that has to be done with slightly more regularity.
00:08 How does one define a "pilot episode"?
00:11 Does a man-trap count? As it was broadcast first.
00:15 Does "Runaway" fit in or do we count the Short Treks as part of their respective series?
00:20 Arguably Q&A and Arsenal could be seen as pilots for "Strange New Worlds".
00:25 In the end though, this video focuses on the main televised series and their pilots.
00:30 A future list may expand on, but for now,
00:33 "Where No Man Has Gone Before" will be the pilot in question for James R. Kirk.
00:38 Although, following that logic, perhaps a man-trap is the pilot for James T. Kirk.
00:44 Ranking the newest pilots against the older ones may seem somewhat unfair.
00:49 There is no competition when one compares the stunning visuals of the Vulcan "Hello"
00:53 against the less stunning visuals of "The Cage".
00:56 And yet, it's surprisingly easy to compare them all to each other.
01:00 Because for all the arguing online, they are all Star Trek.
01:05 With that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture,
01:07 ranking Star Trek pilots from every series from worst to best.
01:12 Number 11. Encounter at Farpoint
01:16 With the success of the movies kicking Star Trek into warp speed,
01:20 it was time for the franchise to return to its roots.
01:23 Star Trek The Next Generation was conceived as a continuation of the show.
01:27 And to say that it was met initially with lukewarm reactions is underselling it.
01:33 The original cast were not entirely on board to begin with.
01:36 George Takai, James Duhan and even DeForest Kelly,
01:39 the seemingly nicest man who ever lived,
01:41 were not thrilled to hear that they were being replaced in the eyes of Trekkies everywhere.
01:46 Kelly was the first to come around, appearing in the pilot in one of the most heartwarming scenes
01:51 of The Next Generation's seven-year run.
01:54 The rest of the cast eventually came around,
01:56 although Encounter at Farpoint is very rarely voted by fans as the best episode of the show.
02:01 While there is a lot to like, the visuals and the introduction of Q serve as highlights for the premiere,
02:07 it suffered from that common ailment of not quite knowing what it is as it came out the door.
02:12 Although it's safe to say, as time went on,
02:15 The Next Generation did okay.
02:17 Number 10. Beyond the Farthest Star
02:20 This episode might come as a surprise to viewers who may not be overly familiar
02:26 with Star Trek's first animated series.
02:29 It has thrills and chills as the Enterprise is trapped in the gravity well of a dead star,
02:35 where they encounter a ship that has been trapped there for 300 million years.
02:40 On board this ship is a malevolent being,
02:42 intent on escaping and using the Enterprise to do it.
02:46 This episode has a lot going for it.
02:48 The cast returns to play the characters they've originated,
02:51 and the story itself is gripping and intriguing.
02:54 The episode is let down by the animation and dialogue,
02:58 which has a whiff of a studio that's still learning how to adapt to the medium.
03:03 But these are small complaints.
03:05 Star Trek was back and ready to keep on travelling to strange new worlds,
03:10 keeping the show alive while the convention circuit began to really take off.
03:15 Number 9. Where No Man Has Gone Before
03:18 The second pilot of Star Trek acts as a spiritual sequel to The Cage,
03:23 but it does reflect what Star Trek's first incarnation would embody best.
03:28 It has action, it has mystery, and it has Kurt's shirt being almost completely torn off.
03:35 If anything, where no man has gone before is the epitome of Star Trek's first 20 years summed up in an hour.
03:42 Spock was now the cold Vulcan that we could come to know and love,
03:46 as opposed to the more emotional man of The Cage.
03:49 He had also received a promotion, ousting Barrett's number one to the position of first officer.
03:54 We got an iconic scene where James R. Kirk faces off against the superhuman Gary Mitchell,
04:01 who was recently name dropped in Lower Decks,
04:04 and it also features the only appearance of the original series' phaser rifle.
04:09 A very solid start to what would become Star Trek the Original Series.
04:15 Number 8. Lost and Found
04:17 Lost and Found has the task of introducing not only established fans of the franchise to an entirely new frontier to boldly enter,
04:26 but also has to extend that welcome to a new, younger audience.
04:30 So, does it manage to quite do that?
04:33 Well, arguably, yes.
04:35 The visuals are a spectacular treat, and the voice acting is on point from all and sundry.
04:41 Those hoping for an Easter egg-heavy opening might leave a little disappointed, but that's effectively the point.
04:47 Star Trek Prodigy makes a mission statement out of creating something new, yet managing to exist in the wider world.
04:54 The inclusion of a solitary Kazon is enough for seasoned Trekkies to know that we're located in the Delta Quadrant,
05:01 without anything else being overly telegraphed.
05:03 The design of the USS Proto Star is an absolute treat,
05:07 while the rapidly cobbled together crews seem to have genuine chemistry.
05:11 The main villain of the pilot, Dreadnought, may be Star Trek's take on General Grievous, but is effective nonetheless.
05:18 That character's appearance in the pilot's closing moment pays off, without being the sole point of the story.
05:24 It may not have the gravitas of some of the other entries on this list, but it is a strong start for Star Trek Prodigy,
05:31 and a whole new generation of fans.
05:34 Number 7. The Cage
05:37 It is no secret that here at What Culture Towers, we are big fans of the very first pilot of Star Trek, named The Cage, on release.
05:46 It's an hour of what Star Trek would come to be known for.
05:49 Cerebral exploration of their dealings with alien races, action and equality across genders and species.
05:57 Starring Geoffrey Hunter as Captain Pike, Leonard Nimoy and Magell Barrett, with guest star Susan Oliver as Vena,
06:04 this show would take viewers on a special journey into the heart of the unknown,
06:09 serving as the perfect introduction as to what Star Trek would become.
06:13 However, it failed to sufficiently impress the network.
06:16 They felt that while there was a good idea and good imagination here, the episode itself was too cerebral,
06:23 and that it would fail to grab viewers.
06:25 They did however decide that there was something there worth saving.
06:29 Roddenberry was given some notes and told to write a new pilot.
06:33 The notes were to drop the woman from the bridge, lose the satanic-looking fellow and punch up the action a bit.
06:40 At least one of those notes was ignored.
06:42 And for the love of Spock, we thank him.
06:45 Number 6. The Vulcan Hello
06:48 Star Trek Discovery has been dividing fans since the first news broke that another prequel was on the way.
06:55 The first images of the show confused fans as to where and when it would be set.
07:00 If, like the producers claimed, it was to be set before Kirk and Spock, why then did the technology look so modernised?
07:08 What on earth were those demon-looking creatures that seemed to be speaking Klingon and...
07:13 Spock has a sister now?
07:15 Discovery dared to do something new with The Vulcan Hello.
07:18 It opened on the Klingons planning to unite to fight the Federation,
07:23 then focuses on Michael Burnham and her disastrous attempt to save the lives of her ship and crew.
07:29 The episode is beautiful.
07:31 The effects team took every dollar they were thrown and handed it back to the audience in every shot of the episode.
07:37 Everything is rendered to look so realistic that the ho-hum graphics of some of Enterprise are immediately forgotten.
07:44 The pilot does stumble though.
07:46 It's told at a breakneck pace, screaming through the plot rather than offering the audience any time to swallow what's happening.
07:54 We're given compelling characters with no time to be compelled.
07:58 The second pilot comes two episodes later, though Discovery does ask a lot of its audiences in the first season.
08:06 As pilots go, it's a tough one to follow.
08:09 Number 5. Second Contact
08:12 It might seem a bit mean to say this, but nobody expected Star Trek Lower Decks to be great.
08:18 Good, certainly.
08:20 It had some excellent talent lined up for behind the scenes,
08:23 and the show was thankfully not hindered by the lockdown, with actors able to record remotely.
08:29 At best, some hoped this would be a fun addition to the franchise.
08:33 It has become so much more.
08:36 While there are moments of comedy that seem more at place in Rick and Morty,
08:40 the show is treating the franchise not just with respect, but with reverence.
08:45 In the pilot, we are greeted with a shot of space dog, followed by the surprisingly lovely USS Cerritos.
08:52 The animation is superb, and the voice talent nails it.
08:56 The show is, to quote a famous Trek culture voice, "piss funny".
09:00 It absolutely smashes the comedy while honouring what came before.
09:05 The pilot closes by name-dropping not just Kirk and his crew, but also Gary Mitchell,
09:11 who hasn't been heard from since 1966.
09:14 Yet none of it feels tacked on.
09:17 And the relationships established seem as real as any we've seen before.
09:22 The future of Star Trek seems to be in good hands at the moment,
09:25 and as Trekkies, that's a good place for us to be.
09:29 Number 4. Remembrance.
09:32 For that image alone, Star Trek Picard could have done nothing else
09:35 and still made its way into the hearts of audiences.
09:39 However, and thankfully, it did a lot more than that.
09:42 The opening shot, similar to Discovery in its stunning use of visuals,
09:46 becomes a scene between John Luke and Data,
09:49 offering us a hint of what was to come in the first season of Star Trek Picard.
09:54 This was not going to be a rehash of the next generation,
09:58 and many people found that jarring.
10:00 Captain Picard was always the most reasoned and calming force,
10:03 yet here he is, fighting with a reporter, being blown backwards by explosions,
10:08 and, for all intents and purposes, showing his age.
10:11 And that is exactly the point.
10:14 Many of us would have loved the next-generation season 8,
10:18 but that was never what was on the table.
10:21 There is both action and moments of calm here,
10:23 with enough to hook new viewers while offering tidbits to the returning viewers.
10:28 The closing shot of the episode, revealing the immensity of the Borg Cube,
10:32 stands out as one of the moments of the season,
10:35 and in fact Trek in general, from the last 20 years.
10:39 Remembrance was an excellent pilot for what would become a mixed bag of a season.
10:44 Number 3. Broken Bow
10:47 To be fair, the franchise was headed into the fatigue that would put it on ice
10:51 for several years when Enterprise, later retconned to be named Star Trek Enterprise,
10:56 was conceived.
10:58 The idea of a prequel series had been bandied about for almost a decade,
11:01 with the idea of doing a movie on Kirk and Spock at the Academy doing the rounds for a while.
11:06 With the completion of Voyager, Rick Berman and Bran and Braga created Enterprise,
11:11 a series about the first ship named Enterprise.
11:14 It came out at entirely the wrong time.
11:17 The pilot Broken Bow was quite an interesting episode,
11:20 but suffered from a sense of the audience having seen it all before.
11:24 The visuals, while very nice, were also still slightly jarring.
11:28 Enterprise is the first series to rely entirely on CGI to depict the ship.
11:33 There were canon and continuity issues from the start,
11:37 a theme that is yet to go away from Star Trek, and this served to put audiences off.
11:42 While the pilot does the necessaries of introducing the crew and the ship,
11:46 the timing of it all, just after 9/11, was against it.
11:50 It does seem to be having a second life in recent years,
11:53 something that is very welcome to fans of the show.
11:57 Number 2. Caretaker
11:59 Star Trek's first series to be led by a female captain,
12:03 Voyager broke the mould on its arrival.
12:06 The ship, beautifully designed by Rick Sternbach,
12:09 was hurled into the Delta Quadrant in a new-ish take
12:13 on seeking out strange new worlds and civilisations.
12:17 Caretaker is an excellent opener to the series.
12:20 The action kicks off almost immediately with the Maquis on the run from the Cardassians,
12:25 only to end up on the wrong side of the Badlands.
12:28 After a welcome stop at Deep Space Nine,
12:30 Voyager launches and finds itself thrown to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker,
12:35 a powerful being who is trying to save the Ocampa,
12:38 a people he inadvertently devastated.
12:40 The series' villain, the Kazon, are introduced, as well as Neelix and Kes,
12:44 the first friends that the crew makes on the far side of the galaxy.
12:48 Caretaker is a strong opener for the show,
12:50 and is up there with Emissary for "Best Pilots of Star Trek".
12:54 It knows when to hit, when to hold back, and when to show off some gorgeous visuals.
13:00 Star Trek Voyager had arrived, and it looked like it was going to be a good one.
13:05 Number 1. Emissary
13:08 Star Trek's Deep Space Nine burst onto screens in 1992,
13:13 and although it started slow in the ratings,
13:16 it's now enjoying its long-awaited status of some of the best Star Trek ever made.
13:22 The pilot Emissary is quite possibly the most rewatchable of all the pilot episodes on this list.
13:28 It, unlike many of the others, was instantly sure of what it was going to be.
13:33 This was a story about a lonely facility out in the wilds of the Alpha Quadrant,
13:38 with a crew who not only had conflict with each other,
13:41 they outright disliked each other for the first year.
13:44 Welcome characters returned like Chief O'Brien,
13:47 while Avery Brooks as Commander Sisko offered what is potentially the best single performance
13:52 of any leading cast member in a pilot of Star Trek.
13:55 This was a new journey, albeit one where the adventures came to them.
14:00 The greatest villain of Star Trek, Gol Dukat, was introduced in the pilot as well,
14:05 meaning that in a single stroke we were offered some of the best characters to be created for Star Trek.
14:12 There is no understating just how good Star Trek Deep Space Nine is,
14:17 all wrapped up in its excellent pilot.
14:20 And there you have it, every Star Trek pilot ranked from worst to best.
14:24 If your ranking is different, then please let us know in the comments below.
14:27 And while you're there, like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
14:31 You can also head over to Twitter to follow us there,
14:33 and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
14:38 I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day,
14:41 and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.