Ranking Star Trek Pilots From Every Series Worst To Best
Star Trek has had 10 pilot episodes to date - where does your favourite rank?
Ranking the various pilots of Star Trek is tricky, and it is also something that now has to be done with slightly more regularity. Alex Kurtzman, we thank you for the content! However, what does one define as a pilot episode?
Does The Man Trap count, as it was broadcast first?
Does Runaway fit in, or do we count Short Treks as part of their respective series? (Arguably, Q&A or Ask Not could be seen as pilots for Strange New Worlds).
In the end, this article focuses on the main televised series and their pilots. A future list may expand out, but for now, Where No Man Has Gone Before will be the pilot in question for James R. Kirk (although in that same logic, perhaps The Man Trap really is the pilot for James T. Kirk....)
Ranking the newer pilots against the older ones may seem somewhat unfair. There is no competition when one compares the stunning visuals of The Vulcan Hello against the....less....stunning visuals of The Cage. And yet, it is surprisingly easy to compare them all to each other because, for all of the arguing online - they are all Star Trek, and they all do their job well!
10. The Captain Is The Most English Frenchman Ever, And The Pilot Is Blind - What Could Go Wrong?
With the success of the movies kicking Star Trek back into warp speed, it was time for the franchise to return to its roots. Star Trek The Next Generation was conceived as a continuation of the show and to say that it was met, initially, with lukewarm reactions is underselling it.
The Original Cast were not entirely on board to begin with. George Takei, James Doohan and even Deforest Kelley (the seemingly nicest man who ever lived) were not thrilled to hear that they were being replaced in the eyes of Trekkies everywhere. Kelley 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.
The rest of the cast also eventually came around, though Encounter at Farpoint is rarely voted by fans as the best episode of the show. While there is a lot to like - both the visuals and the introduction of Q serve as highlights to the premiere - it suffered from that common ailment of not knowing quite what it was as it came out the door.
Although, it's safe to say that, as time went on - The Next Generation did kind of ok!