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This video dives deep into the Star Trek universe to rank every series pilot. We analyze the storytelling, character introductions, and overall impact to determine which inaugural mission truly went where no one has gone before.
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00:00Ranking the various Star Trek pilots is tricky and it's now something that has to be done with
00:06slightly more regularity. How does one define a pilot episode? Does a man trap count as it was
00:13broadcast first? Does runway fit in or do we count the short treks as part of their respective series?
00:20Arguably Q&A and Arse Not could be seen as pilots for Strange New Worlds. In the end though this
00:25video focuses on the main televised series and their pilots. A future list may expand on but for
00:32now where no man has gone before will be the pilot in question for James R Kirk. Although following
00:39that logic perhaps a man trap is the pilot for James T Kirk. Ranking the newest pilots against the
00:46older ones may seem somewhat unfair. There is no competition when one compares the stunning visuals
00:52of the Vulcan hello against the less stunning visuals of the cage. And yet it's surprisingly
00:57easy to compare them all to each other. Because for all the arguing online, they are all Star Trek.
01:04With that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, ranking Star Trek pilots from every series from
01:10worst to best. Number 11, Encounter at Farpoint. With the success of the movies kicking Star Trek
01:19in two warp speed, it was time for the franchise to return to its roots. Star Trek The Next Generation
01:25was conceived as a continuation of the show. And to say that it was met initially with lukewarm reactions
01:31is underselling it. The original cast were not entirely on board to begin with. George Takai,
01:37James Doohan and even DeForest Kelly, the seemingly nicest man who ever lived, were not thrilled to hear
01:42that they were being replaced in the eyes of Trekkies everywhere. Kelly was the first to come around,
01:47appearing 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
01:58voted by fans as the best episode of the show. While there is a lot to like, the visuals and
02:04the
02:04introduction of Q serve as highlights for the premiere, it suffered from that common ailment of
02:09not quite knowing what it is as it came out the door. Although it's safe to say, as time went
02:14on,
02:15The Next Generation did okay. Number 10, Beyond the Farthest Star.
02:21This episode might come as a surprise to viewers who may not be overly familiar with Star Trek's first
02:27animated series. It has thrills and chills as the Enterprise is trapped in the gravity well of a dead
02:34star, where they encounter a ship that has been trapped there for 300 million years. On board this
02:40ship is a malevolent being, intent on escaping and using the Enterprise to do it. This episode has a lot
02:47going for it. The cast returns to play the characters they've originated and the story itself is gripping
02:53and intriguing. The episode is let down by the animation and dialogue, which has a whiff of a studio
03:00that's still learning how to adapt to the medium. But these are small complaints. Star Trek was back
03:06and ready to keep on travelling to strange new worlds, keeping the show alive while the convention
03:12circuit began to really take off. Number 9, Where No Man Has Gone Before. The second pilot of Star Trek
03:20acts as a spiritual sequel to The Cage, but it does reflect what Star Trek's first incarnation would embody
03:27best. It has action, it has mystery, and it has Kurt's shirt being almost completely torn off. If anything,
03:35Where No Man Has Gone Before is the epitome of Star Trek's first 20 years, summed up in an hour.
03:41Spock was now the cold Vulcan that we could come to know and love, as opposed to the more emotional
03:47man of The Cage. He had also received a promotion, ousting Barrett's number one to the position of first
03:53officer. We got an iconic scene, where James R Kirk faces off against the superhuman Gary Mitchell,
04:00who was recently name-dropped in Lower Decks, and it also features the only appearance of the original
04:07series, Phaser Rifle. A very solid start to what would become Star Trek The Original Series.
04:15Number 8, Lost and Found. Lost and Found has the task of introducing not only established fans of the
04:22franchise to an entirely new frontier to boldly enter, but also has to extend that welcome to a
04:28new, younger audience. So does it manage to quite do that? Well, arguably, yes. The visuals are a
04:36spectacular treat, and the voice acting is on point from all and sundry. Those hoping for an easter egg
04:43heavy opening might leave a little disappointed, but that's effectively the point. Star Trek Prodigy makes
04:49a 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
04:59the Delta Quadrant, without anything else being overly telegraphed. The design of the USS Protostar
05:05is 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,
05:15but is effective nonetheless. That character's appearance in the pilot's closing moments pays
05:21off, without being the sole point of the story. It may not have the gravitas of some of the other
05:26entries on this list, but it is a strong start for Star Trek Prodigy, and a whole new generation of
05:33fans.
05:34Number 7. The Cage
05:36It is no secret that here at What Culture Towers, we are big fans of the very first pilot of
05:43Star Trek,
05:44named The Cage on release. It'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 Madjell Barrett, with guest star Susan Oliver as Veena,
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,
06:20the episode itself was too cerebral, and 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
06:39a 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,
07:05why then did the technology look so modernised?
07:08What on earth were those demon-looking creatures that seemed to be speaking Klingon, and...
07:13Spock 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.
07:28The episode is beautiful.
07:30The effects team took every dollar they were thrown and handed it back to the audience in every shot of
07:36the 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.
07:46It's told at a breakneck pace, screaming through the plot rather than offering the audience any time to swallow what's
07:54happening.
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.
08:05As pilots go, it's a tough one to follow.
08:09Number 5, 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.
08:28At 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 Doc,
08:48followed 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, piss funny.
09:00It absolutely smashes the comedy while honouring what came before.
09:04The pilot closes by name-dropping not just Kirk and his crew,
09:08but 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.
09:21The 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.
09:28Number 4. Remembrance
09:31For that image alone, Star Trek Picard could have done nothing else
09:35and still made its way into the hearts of audiences.
09:38However, 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.
09:53This was not going to be a rehash of The Next Generation,
09:57and 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,
10:06being 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 ball cube,
10:31stands out as one of the moments of the season,
10:35and 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.
10:43Number 3. Broken Bow
10:45To be fair, the franchise was headed into the fatigue that would put it on ice for several years,
10:52when Enterprise, later retconned to be named Star Trek Enterprise, was conceived.
10:57The 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 doing the rounds for a while.
11:06With the completion of Voyager, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga created Enterprise,
11:11a series about the first ship named Enterprise. It 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,
11:36a theme that is yet to go away from Star Trek, and 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.
11:57Number 2. Caretaker
11:59Star 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 civilisations.
12:17Caretaker is an excellent opener to the series.
12:20The action kicks off almost immediately with the Marquis on the run from the Cardassians,
12:25only to end up on the wrong side of the Badlands.
12:27After a welcome stop at Deep Space Nine,
12:29Voyager launches and finds itself thrown to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker,
12:34a powerful being who is trying to save the Acampa,
12:37a people he inadvertently devastated.
12:40The series villain, the Kazon, are introduced, as well as Neelix and Kess,
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, and 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.
13:05Number 1. 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.
13:21The pilot Emissary is quite possibly the most re-watchable of all the pilot episodes on this
13:27list. It, 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,
13:46while 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.
13:59The greatest villain of Star Trek, Gol Dukat, was introduced in the pilot as well,
14:05meaning that in a single stroke,
14:07we 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.
14:30You can also head over to Twitter to follow us there,
14:33and I can be found across various social medias, just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
14:37I'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.
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