Star Trek The Next Generation: Every Season Ranked

7. Season 1

While it goes without saying that the first season of the Next Generation is its weakest, that is not to say that there weren't strong entries here. Stories like Conspiracy, The Neutral Zone and Datalore are all excellent examples of the earliest outings of the new Enterprise crew. While many of the stories were unpolished, there was a keen earnestness to this freshman year that helped it rise above several of the issues dogging the production.

An excellent exploration of the early years, Chaos on the Bridge, shows that the Next Generation had anything but a smooth ride in the beginning. The producers and Roddenberry were often at loggerheads and the studio wasn't entirely sold on the show's success.

Encounter at Farpoint was originated by D.C. Fontana and then re-written by Roddenberry, stretching it out into an extended pilot. It is among the worst examples of the Next Generation, which is admittedly not the worst scenario - rather have the bad behind you than ahead. The effects, created by ILM, were however stunning and would be reused in countless episodes to follow.

Though it took time for the show to land on its feet and it would result in two of the main cast departing in the forms of Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden, the first season of the Next Generation does succeed in offering enough of a positive view of the future that they were given the greenlight for a second year, though this too would come with its own issues.