Ranking Star Trek Pilots From Every Series Worst To Best
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00:00Ranking the various Star Trek pilots is tricky, and it's now something that has to be done with slightly more regularity.
00:08How does one define a pilot episode?
00:11Does a man-trap count, as it was broadcast first?
00:15Does Runway fit in, or do we count the Short Treks as part of their respective series?
00:20Arguably Q&A and Arsenal could be seen as pilots for Strange New Worlds.
00:25In the end though, this video focuses on the main televised series and their pilots.
00:30A future list may expand on, but for now, Where No Man Has Gone Before will be the pilot in question for James R. Kirk.
00:38Although, following that logic, perhaps a man-trap is the pilot for James T. Kirk.
00:44Ranking the newest pilots against the older ones may seem somewhat unfair.
00:49There is no competition when one compares the stunning visuals of The Vulcan Hello against the less stunning visuals of The Cage.
00:56And yet, it's surprisingly easy to compare them all to each other.
01:00Because for all the arguing online, they are all Star Trek.
01:05With that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, ranking Star Trek pilots from every series from worst to best.
01:1311. Encounter at Farpoint
01:16With the success of the movies kicking Star Trek into warp speed, it was time for the franchise to return to its roots.
01:24Star Trek The Next Generation was conceived as a continuation of the show.
01:28And to say that it was met initially with lukewarm reactions is underselling it.
01:33The original cast were not entirely on board to begin with.
01:36George Takai, James Duhan and even DeForest Kelly, the seemingly nicest man who ever lived,
01:41were not thrilled to hear that they were being replaced in the eyes of Trekkies everywhere.
01:46Kelly was the first to come around, appearing in the pilot in one of the most heartwarming scenes of The Next Generation's seven-year run.
01:53The rest of the cast eventually came around, although Encounter at Farpoint is very rarely voted by fans as the best episode of the show.
02:01While there is a lot to like, the visuals and the introduction of Q serve as highlights for the premiere,
02:07it suffered from that common ailment of not quite knowing what it is as it came out the door.
02:12Although it's safe to say, as time went on, The Next Generation did okay.
02:1710. Beyond the Farthest Star
02:20This episode might come as a surprise to viewers who may not be overly familiar with Star Trek's first animated series.
02:29It has thrills and chills as the Enterprise is trapped in the gravity well of a dead star,
02:35where they encounter a ship that has been trapped there for 300 million years.
02:40On board this ship is a malevolent being, intent on escaping and using the Enterprise to do it.
02:46This episode has a lot going for it. The cast returns to play the characters they've originated and the story itself is gripping and intriguing.
02:55The episode is let down by the animation and dialogue, which has a whiff of a studio that's still learning how to adapt to the medium.
03:03But these are small complaints. Star Trek was back and ready to keep on travelling to strange new worlds,
03:10keeping the show alive while the convention circuit began to really take off.
03:159. Where No Man Has Gone Before
03:18The second pilot of Star Trek acts as a spiritual sequel to The Cage, but it does reflect what Star Trek's first incarnation would embody best.
03:28It has action, it has mystery, and it has Kirk's shirt being almost completely torn off.
03:34If anything, Where No Man Has Gone Before is the epitome of Star Trek's first 20 years summed up in an hour.
03:42Spock was now the cold Vulcan that we could come to know and love, as opposed to the more emotional man of The Cage.
03:49He had also received a promotion, ousting Barrett's Number One to the position of First Officer.
03:54We got an iconic scene where James R. Kirk faces off against the superhuman Gary Mitchell,
04:01who was recently name dropped in Lower Decks, and it also features the only appearance of the original series' phaser rifle.
04:09A very solid start to what would become Star Trek The Original Series.
04:158. Lost and Found
04:17Lost and Found has the task of introducing not only established fans of the franchise to an entirely new frontier to boldly enter,
04:26but also has to extend that welcome to a new, younger audience.
04:30So, does it manage to quite do that? Well, arguably, yes.
04:35The visuals are a spectacular treat, and the voice acting is on point from all and sundry.
04:41Those hoping for an Easter Egg-heavy opening might leave a little disappointed, but that's effectively the point.
04:47Star Trek Prodigy makes a mission statement out of creating something new, yet managing to exist in the wider world.
04:54The inclusion of a solitary Kazon is enough for seasoned Trekkies to know that we're located in the Delta Quadrant,
05:00without anything else being overly telegraphed.
05:03The design of the USS Protostar is an absolute treat, while the rapidly cobbled together crew seem to have genuine chemistry.
05:11The main villain of the pilot, Dreadnought, may be Star Trek's take on General Grievous, but is effective nonetheless.
05:18That character's appearance in the pilot's closing moment pays off, without being the sole point of the story.
05:24It may not have the gravitas of some of the other entries on this list, but it is a strong start for Star Trek Prodigy,
05:31and a whole new generation of fans.
05:34Number 7. The Cage
05:37It 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.
05:46It's an hour of what Star Trek would come to be known for.
05:49Cerebral exploration of their dealings with alien races, action, and equality across genders and species.
05:57Starring Geoffrey Hunter as Captain Pike, Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett, with guest star Susan Oliver as Vena,
06:04this show would take viewers on a special journey into the heart of the unknown,
06:09serving as the perfect introduction as to what Star Trek would become.
06:13However, it failed to sufficiently impress the network.
06:16They felt that while there was a good idea and good imagination here, the episode itself was too cerebral,
06:23and that it would fail to grab viewers.
06:25They did however decide that there was something there worth saving.
06:29Roddenberry was given some notes and told to write a new pilot.
06:33The notes were to drop the woman from the bridge, lose the satanic-looking fellow, and punch up the action a bit.
06:40At least one of those notes was ignored.
06:42And for the love of Spock, we thank him.
06:45Number 6. The Vulcan Hello
06:48Star Trek Discovery has been dividing fans since the first news broke that another prequel was on the way.
06:55The first images of the show confused fans as to where and when it would be set.
07:00If, like the producers claimed, it was to be set before Kirk and Spock, why then did the technology look so modernised?
07:08What on earth were those demon-looking creatures that seemed to be speaking Klingon, and Spock has a sister now?
07:15Discovery dared to do something new with The Vulcan Hello.
07:18It opened on the Klingons planning to unite to fight the Federation,
07:23then focuses on Michael Burnham and her disastrous attempt to save the lives of her ship and crew.
07:29The episode is beautiful.
07:31The effects team took every dollar they were thrown and handed it back to the audience in every shot of the episode.
07:37Everything is rendered to look so realistic that the ho-hum graphics of some of Enterprise are immediately forgotten.
07:44The pilot does stumble though. It's told at a breakneck pace,
07:49screaming through the plot rather than offering the audience any time to swallow what's happening.
07:54We're given compelling characters with no time to be compelled.
07:58The second pilot comes two episodes later, though Discovery does ask a lot of its audiences in the first season.
08:06As pilots go, it's a tough one to follow.
08:095. Second Contact
08:12It might seem a bit mean to say this, but nobody expected Star Trek Lower Decks to be great.
08:18Good, certainly.
08:20It had some excellent talent lined up for behind the scenes,
08:23and the show was thankfully not hindered by the lockdown with actors able to record remotely.
08:29At best, some hoped this would be a fun addition to the franchise.
08:33It has become so much more.
08:36While there are moments of comedy that seem more at place in Rick and Morty,
08:40the show is treating the franchise not just with respect, but with reverence.
08:45In the pilot, we are greeted with a shot of space dog, followed by the surprisingly lovely USS Cerritos.
08:52The animation is superb, and the voice talent nails it.
08:56The show is, to quote a famous Trek culture voice,
08:59piss funny. It absolutely smashes the comedy while honouring what came before.
09:05The pilot closes by name-dropping not just Kirk and his crew,
09:09but also Gary Mitchell, who hasn't been heard from since 1966.
09:14Yet none of it feels tacked on.
09:17And the relationships established seem as real as any we've seen before.
09:22The future of Star Trek seems to be in good hands at the moment,
09:25and as Trekkies, that's a good place for us to be.
09:294. Remembrance
09:32For that image alone, Star Trek Picard could have done nothing else
09:35and still made its way into the hearts of audiences.
09:39However, and thankfully, it did a lot more than that.
09:42The opening shot, similar to Discovery in its stunning use of visuals,
09:46becomes a scene between John Luke and Data,
09:49offering us a hint of what was to come in the first season of Star Trek Picard.
09:54This was not going to be a rehash of the next generation,
09:58and many people found that jarring.
10:00Captain Picard was always the most reasoned and calming force,
10:03yet here he is, fighting with a reporter, being blown backwards by explosions,
10:08and, for all intents and purposes, showing his age.
10:11And that is exactly the point.
10:13Many of us would have loved the next-generation season 8,
10:17but that was never what was on the table.
10:20There is both action and moments of calm here,
10:23with enough to hook new viewers while offering tidbits to the returning viewers.
10:27The closing shot of the episode, revealing the immensity of the Borg Cube,
10:31stands out as one of the moments of the season,
10:34and in fact Trek in general, from the last 20 years.
10:38Remembrance was an excellent pilot for what would become a mixed bag of a season.
10:46To be fair, the franchise was headed into the fatigue
10:49that would put it on ice for several years
10:52when Enterprise, later retconned to be named Star Trek Enterprise,
10:56was conceived.
10:58The idea of a prequel series had been bandied about for almost a decade,
11:01with the idea of doing a movie on Kirk and Spock at the Academy
11:04doing the rounds for a while.
11:06With the completion of Voyager,
11:08Rick Berman and Brannon Braga created Enterprise,
11:11a series about the first ship named Enterprise.
11:14It came out at entirely the wrong time.
11:17The pilot Broken Bow was quite an interesting episode,
11:20but suffered from a sense of the audience having seen it all before.
11:24The visuals, while very nice, were also still slightly jarring.
11:28Enterprise is the first series to rely entirely on CGI to depict the ship.
11:33There were canon and continuity issues from the start,
11:37a theme that is yet to go away from Star Trek,
11:40and this served to put audiences off.
11:42While the pilot does the necessaries of introducing the crew and the ship,
11:46the timing of it all, just after 9-11, was against it.
11:50It does seem to be having a second life in recent years,
11:53something that is very welcome to fans of the show.
12:00Star Trek's first series to be led by a female captain,
12:03Voyager broke the mould on its arrival.
12:06The ship, beautifully designed by Rick Sternbach,
12:09was hurled into the Delta Quadrant in a new-ish take
12:13on seeking out strange new worlds and civilizations.
12:17Caretaker is an excellent opener to the series.
12:20The action kicks off almost immediately with the Maquis on the run from the Cardassians,
12:25only to end up on the wrong side of the Badlands.
12:28After a welcome stop at Deep Space Nine,
12:30Voyager launches and finds itself thrown to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker,
12:34a powerful being who is trying to save the Ocampa,
12:37a people he inadvertently devastated.
12:40The series' villains, the Kazon, are introduced, as well as Neelix and Kes,
12:44the first friends that the crew makes on the far side of the galaxy.
12:48Caretaker is a strong opener for the show,
12:50and is up there with Emissary for Best Pilots of Star Trek.
12:54It knows when to hit, when to hold back,
12:57and when to show off some gorgeous visuals.
13:00Star Trek Voyager had arrived, and it looked like it was going to be a good one.
13:061. Emissary
13:08Star Trek's Deep Space Nine burst onto screens in 1992,
13:13and although it started slow in the ratings,
13:16it's now enjoying its long-awaited status of some of the best Star Trek ever made.
13:22The pilot Emissary is quite possibly the most rewatchable of all the pilot episodes on this list.
13:28It, unlike many of the others, was instantly sure of what it was going to be.
13:33This was a story about a lonely facility out in the wilds of the Alpha Quadrant,
13:38with a crew who not only had conflict with each other,
13:41they outright disliked each other for the first year.
13:44Welcome characters returned like Chief O'Brien,
13:47while Avery Brooks as Commander Sisko offered what is potentially the best single performance
13:52of any leading cast member in a pilot of Star Trek.
13:55This was a new journey, albeit one where the adventures came to them.
14:00The greatest villain of Star Trek, Gol Dukat, was introduced in the pilot as well,
14:05meaning that in a single stroke we were offered some of the best characters to be created for Star Trek.
14:11There is no understating just how good Star Trek Deep Space Nine is,
14:16all wrapped up in its excellent pilot.
14:19And there you have it, every Star Trek pilot ranked from worst to best.
14:23If your ranking is different, then please let us know in the comments below.
14:27And while you're there, like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
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14:38I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day,
14:41and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.