The Star Trek Pilot Cage Match — Seriously for Serious

Pilots are admittedly tough to do. The writers have a short period of time to hook new viewers, appease fans if its part of a franchise, and set the stage for the series. And at the same time, the writers are still feeling the series and characters out. It’s a rough gig.

Nevertheless, in the past week I have rewatched the pilots for all of the Star Trek series except one and ranked them. I’m excluding Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) from the pilot cage match because it had two different pilots (one with Christopher Pike and the other with James T Kirk) and the first episode to actually air was yet another episode entirely. So it’s far too complicated. Also I think that as it was the first, and from long before I was born, it’s inherently an outlier.

I’m much more about enjoying Star Trek as a fan than being critical about it but, here goes. In order from best to worst, all of the Star Trek pilots (except TOS).

Deep Space 9 (DS9) – Emissary Pts 1 & 2

DS9’s Emissary does everything a pilot is supposed to do. It lays the groundwork for the coming series and its major conflicts – namely the Cardassians/Bajoran conflict, the Wormhole, and the Prophets/Sisko as their emissary. All of these things are introduced in the pilot and drive the series literally until the finale. Emissary also introduces us to all of the key characters, who are compelling aside from the extremely annoying Dr. Julian Bashir. And Bashir gets taken down a peg literally in his second scene.

But what truly takes DS9 above and beyond is that it is the only pilot in which there is a clear character arc. Benjamin Sisko starts the pilot not wanting his job and questioning even being in Star Fleet, all the while being consumed with grief over the death his late wife. By the end, he embraces his new role and takes his first steps towards emotional healing. That is a serious arc to watch happen in an hour and a half. Major Kira also goes through some minor character development, going from an anti-Federation position to at least acknowledging they are potentially useful allies at the end.

Emissary has its rough and plodding bits, and I definitely want to acknowledge that Sisko is a commander and not a captain when the series starts. I understand the whole “he’s leading a star base not a ship” argument, but ST: The Next Generation (TNG) has a captain in charge of a star base in its season two, several years before DS9 aired, so the decrease in rank for the first black lead in Star Trek isn’t canonically necessary and is rather questionable to be honest.

DS9 gets a bonus point for using baseball as a metaphor for linear existence. That’s brilliant.

Baseball = wibbledy-wobbledy, timey-whimey stuff

Voyager (VOY) – The Caretaker, Pts 1 &2

I forgot how much I liked this pilot and Voyager in general before I rewatched it. Specifically, how much I liked Tom Paris. Not because of the “bad boy” artifice, and certainly not because he’s a womanizer (he hits on two different women in the pilot alone), but because he’s wounded and cynical and I feel for him. I also loved the quick-forming Harry Kim/Tom Paris friendship. Honestly, one of the standout things that I remember fondly about Voyager is that relationship. The Captain Janeway/Tuvok friendship is also pretty great, and is highlighted nicely in the pilot.

Aside from that, the pilot has a coherent, tight plot (probably the tightest of all the series), and it introduces all the key characters, although several get an extremely short shrift, particularly Chakotay and The Doctor.

All in all, the pilot was the best flowing and very enjoyable to watch.

Enterprise (ENT) – Broken Bow Pts 1 &2

The hate for Enterprise is real and almost as intense as the hate for Discovery, but the pilot is pretty dang good. Confession – Enterprise is the first pilot I saw in real time. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV on school nights when most of Star Trek aired, but my parents made an exception for this pilot. So I do have a soft spot for it. But even rewatching it now, the story is mostly coherent, and I still like the Temporal Cold War and Suliban set up. There was the extremely unnecessary and silly detour to Rigel 10 about 2/3rds of the way through the episode, and it’s related stupid “T’Pol and Trip in their underwear” scene, but aside from that it holds together well. I also could have done with the flashback sequences of Jon Archer and his dad, and the heavy-handed “fulfilling his father’s dreams” subplot but that’s a me thing.

There is some character development, mostly with T’Pol coming around to the value of humanity’s desire to explore and stand on their own two feet, and Archer getting over some of his prejudice and anger towards the Vulcans. Also, all of the main characters are introduced and given some characterization.

ENT gets a bonus point for Archer’s pet dog Porthos. I love dogs and not only is he super cute, but he makes it easier to identify with Archer.

TNG – Encounter at Farpoint Pts 1 & 2

My goodness was this a lackluster pilot. I think I blocked out how bad it was over the years. Actually, I just focused on the best thing about the pilot, which is Q and his intellectual battle with Captain Picard. The pilot has actually a fascinating underpinning, which is a debate about Gene Roddenberry’s vision for humanity. Star Trek was supposed to show that humanity gets better. We’d moved past the things that divided us in the 20th - and admittedly 21st – century. And in the TNG pilot Q comes along and says “prove it.” Q’s description of humanity, “a dangerous savage child race,” is still depressingly valid, even 30 years later.

It’s a great premise, and absolutely sets the tone for what makes TNG great. Unfortunately, the execution is less than impressive. Partially because the Q plot and the Farpoint plot seem awkwardly squashed together. And the Farpoint plot by itself is pretty meh. If there was an episode just about that, I doubt anyone would remember it.

But what is really annoying is the characterizations. The most egregious is the acting by Counselor Deanna Troi, which is absolutely cringe-worthy. But beyond that, the pilot focuses on characters that don’t have any real purpose. Why do we care about a random redshirt named Geordi or Worf who is just sort of there to be a Klingon? Remember, Worf doesn’t replace Tasha Yar as security chief until late in season one and Geordi doesn’t become chief engineer until season two. So in the pilot those two are just sort of there for no reason.

TNG gets a bonus point because men also wore miniskirt uniforms a few times in the pilot. Score one for dress equality!

In the future, everyone can wear a dress uniform. And no, I'm not sorry for the pun

Discovery (DISCO) – The Vulcan Hello/Battle of the Binary Stars

*Spoilers*

This project started from my defense of DISCO, so it hurts me a little that its pilot is the worst of the lot. Because while it sets up the arc for the series, and is visually a lot of fun to watch, it had a very limited relationship with the series as a whole. The entire pilot takes place on the USS Shenzhou, and really only makes you care about two characters, Michael Burnham and Phillipa Georgiou. And Georgiou dies at the end. You don’t see the USS Discovery, or meet its crew – aside from Saru who was also on the Shenzhou – until episode three. And Saru is seriously underutilized and mostly there to act as a foil or to meet snark for snark with Michael.

The story that it tells is coherent, and, again, despite some clunky dialogue and rough moments, pretty solid. It also shows, while not a character arc exactly, a why someone’s good intentions (and personal baggage) takes them down the road to hell.

If the series was “Michael Burnham and the Klingon War” then the pilot would make somewhat more sense. But, although it is probably the least ensemble series, it still isn’t the Burnham show. If they had started with episode 3 and worked the first two in over 5 or six episodes as flashbacks that would have worked much better.