Spock and Number One, singing in the elevator. It actually brought tears to my eyes. And, every episode of SNW I've watched since, I'm conscious of this sweet, profound, silly secret they share.
I love SNW. It actually finally made me realise what people see in TOS, the one Trek show that has never really clicked with me. It's older than my parents and that makes a lot of the badly aged things really hard to watch (I mean content wise, I can deal with the aged visuals). Watching SNW... I teared up in the very first episode because it felt so relevant. If this is how TOS was when it aired, then it no longer surprises me how much people love it. SNW feels like TOS for the 2000s kids :D
I finally caught Lower Decks a few weeks ago and now I get why you say it's your favorite Star Trek show. It's really good, so funny and so rewarding if you've watched a lot of Trek and can pick up on the references. And yeah, Wej Duj is definitely the one I keep coming back to as such a fun one, but the episodes that really cemented for me my love for the show were I, Excretus and First First Contact. Especially First First Contact, the level of cooperation and heroics involved, it was legendary.
I think you hit the nail on the head concerning Discovery and Picard. All of their episodes are part of the big story arc, and I feel they suffer - as episodes - because of it. Very few episodes of either series stand well on their own. Meanwhile Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds give full stories each time. Star Trek has always been at it's best with the small story, and that is something that is lost with Disco and Picard. For that reason, I would put Nepenthe and Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad on the list as they are some of the few episodes I can watch independently. As for "Forget Me Not", I love the episode, but I have one major problem with it. While I'm not a Burnham hater, Michael should not have accompanied Adira down to the planet. It wasn't her story. It should've been Stamets and/or Culber that went with.
It's this stupid "mystery box" storytelling influenced by Lost. Except they forget every Lost episode was self-contained WITH a seasonal overarching "mystery box" storyline.
I agree with you Aaron. IMO one of the BIGGEST problems of TOS, TAS, VOY (& to a FAR LESSER degree TNG & DS9 seasons 1 & 2) is that they leaned TOO HEAVILY into the episodic format. IMO the biggest problem of ENT season 3, DSC, & PIC is that they go to the opposite extreme of being too serialized. For me the BEST Trek series are to one side or the other of the midline. ENT seasons 1-2 & 4, LD, & SNW are midline whilst leaning towards the episodic end of the graph & it makes them shine. DS9 seasons 3-7 & PDGY are midline whilst leaning towards the serialized end of the graph & it makes THEM shine. I find the fully-episodic series to be a problem due to having little to tie them together & an excessive use of the Episodic Reset Button, whereas the fully-serialized series are problematic because they are so closely tied-in together that 1 or 2 bad apples spoils the bunch.
@@danboyle7165 I think DS9 hit the sweet spot perfectly. The last 3 season were basically one big war story, but they were able to step away from that arc completely and tell really powerful one offs like The Visitor or Far Beyond the Stars, great homages like Trials and Tribbleations, and even had time for a baseball game in the holosuite (still trying to figure out how you can cram 20+ people into one of Quarks suites).
@@danboyle7165 agreed. I mean they were trying to find the balance early on, but there’s only so much you can do with Kira’s loyalty being torn, “Bajor for Bajorans”, and make O’Brien suffer. Yet even as rocky as those early seasons are, there are some real gems in there that play out down the road.
love love love your choices. It's so difficult to choose favourites from the ones with running plots, even though they frequently have really great moments and really satisfying arcs. Every episode of Lower Decks knocks it out the park for me, but i think my favourite is We'll Always Have Tom Paris - A nice cameo (from a plate, no less), and one of my favourite storylines in Mariner and Tendi's girls trip together.
Really enjoyed this, especially the reminder of how Unification III really encapsulated so much of what I love about Discovery. It'd be real hard for me to rank any of these, honestly. Even just within Strange New Worlds it's like a tie between The Serene Squall and Spock Amok for my favorite. And I don't even know how you were able to pick between Lower Dekcs episodes. This does make me want to fit in a rewatch of the first two seasons before Lower Dekcs S3 begins.
My favorite Discovery episodes are the Groundhog day episode with Mudd, Vaulting Ambition, the final battle with Control from s2, and Unification part 3.
One of the things I love in Prodigy (a series I expected to loathe but ended loving) was that it did it's mission with exceptional success. To be clear: introducing to younger viewers (10 and less, I assume) to all the lore of the franchise. It's easy for us, old hands, to forget how much lore there is - vulcans, transporters, Prime Directive and all those things that we take for granted but that are bound to confuse and alienate the newbies that are oh so necessary for the continued health of the franchise. For Discovery, I must say that I love that the crews' bosses were all decent and competent people. Valued allies and friends, interesting characters in their own right, and not only plot devices and obstacles to be overcome. For the record, ST V had some of my favorite moments in the franchise, specially the movie section of it. Sybok's monologue about how the impossible was one success away, him being a good (but mistaken) man. The fact that it was the only movie I saw about space exploration - Sybok returning controle of the Enterprise after crossing the barrier, because he was confident that Kirk couldn't turn back from exploring this new part of space. The Elysian Kingdom deserves a spot in this list just for the two seconds of Christine Chong singing. A Quality of Mercy also deserves a place too, for the fantastic use of "What if" to expand the ST universe as a whole.
Always appreciate your aggressive positivity in these things. (I mean this in a good way and hopefully it comes across like that) It is refreshing to see such a positive take on all the new stuff, and to see someone approach all the new stuff from the perspective of “I love Star Trek and want to enjoy the new content.” Also, congratulations on the new face! (Obligatory shilling because I think you’d love it: If you haven’t yet, now may be the perfect time to get in to The Sojourn Audio Drama! New episodes are going to be released soon and the official discord server is hosting free listening parties of the currently released episodes!)
Love the list! The one snub to me is Ghosts of Illyria. Everything about Una's story hit me really hard, most of all her final scene. To me, it's the best Strange New Worlds episode outside of Memento Mori.
Haven’t made my own list yet, but this one will do!👍. Whole heartedly agree this a great list of Star Trek favorites! And I love that we get to see so much diversity SNW and Disco., literally contributing to Spock! Great job!
I love the positivity and the energy! That said, the Trouble with Edward has no business being an honorable mention, it's so callous and mean. It feels like a sore thumb among an otherwise fantastic set of picks!
I’m just glad to see you back sweet girl❣️ lists will always draw argument but I just enjoy having a guidepost from someone I trust, so thanks so much🥰
Ni'Var and the unification is one of my favorite things in Discovery, and I love T'Rina and her friendship with Saru (a very romantic friendship, I think).
it's so good to see your beautiful face again, Jessie! 💜💜💜 Thanks for the list! All great picks. I had a feeling you would pick that as your number 1. It's such a fun episode 😸
Honestly I had to give it to Forget Me Not for that scene at the end where Adira is able to fully embrace the symbiote and state their names. Gives me chills just thinking about.
I'm always optimistic. Fascinated to see the cross over between Lower Decks and SNW. If they genuinely make a Who Framed Roger Rabbit version, I'll excited as hell. SNW shows that the potential future can always be brighter. They're unwritten, and still in our hands.
Stellar ranking. ''Forget Me Not'' is the episode that made Discovery important in my mind. You look fabulous after that surgery...and really happy too.
It is so frustrating. I found your channels and they convinced me to jump back into Trek; to either start at the beginning, with ToS which I've only seen random episodes of or to jump in with one of the new series, either the Lower Decks or Disco/Strange New World's. And I don't have any money. And they are all only on Paramount now, lol. So frustrating. Can't wait till payday so I can jump back in to The Final Frontier with you all!! Great work as always Jessie! Loved the facial harmonization interpersonal dialogue video as too.
My whole top 11 modern Trek episodes are... all Lower Decks for me 11) I, Excretus 10) Where Pleasant Fountains Lie 9) Temporal Edict 8) Envoys 7) We'll Always Have Tom Paris 6) The Spy Humongous 5) No Small Parts 4) An Embarrassment of Dooplers 3) Crisis Point 2) First First Contact 1) Wej Duj And I'd be very hard pressed to say any of these would miss my top 40 (I haven't made that list yet) If Lower Decks season 3 is as much better than the first 2 as other season 3's tend to be I'm genuinely concerned for the state of my top 10 list But if I were to exclude Lower Decks for fairness 10) Rubicon 9) Kobayashi 8) Spock Amok 7) An Obol for Charon 6) Time Amok 5) Species Ten-C 4) Project Daedalus 3) Momento Mori 2) The Elysian Kingdom 1) Far From Home New Trek is so good, but Lower Decks is in a whole different weight class A lot of Picard and Discovery episodes are held back by their serial structure So many times they'll drop an amazing scene in the middle of an episode that just can't stand alone.
Wej Duj is possibly the best episode of Nu-Trek so far for me. Whilst its confirmed for T'lyn to reappear in season 3, its been openly stated that she doesn't appear much as it was all written before the fan response to seeing that episode, so i hope her infrequent appearance(s?) are well used!
Very Nice List! I would have substituted ST:SNW “A Quality of Mercy” for “Momento Mori”. To me, “A Quality of Mercy” is an Instant Classic for going literally *inside* a ST:TOS episode. And, of course, there’s the whole Christopher Pike meets James T. Kirk thing! From “Discovery”, I *love* the first season episode “Into the Forest I Go” where Burnham takes revenge for the death of her Prime Universe captain. The ep also does a great job in wrapping up the plot threads of the first half of Season 1 in an exciting and satisfying way just prior to the Mirror Universe jump. In my mind, it was the first really good ST:DISCO episode. Other than that, I pretty much agree with your List! Live Long and Prosper! 🖖
1. Love the Darmok intro reference. 2. I am bookmarking this now to watch later, as I work through the new Trek. Thus far I have seen Discover seasons 1-2, Picard 1, SNW, and none of the animated shows. I have only enjoyed SNW, and didnt like the others at all, so I would love to see your perspective before I dive into the animated shows. (I dont know if I will ever finish Discovery or Picard, I really did not care for them).
Gonna have a pedantic moment here: it's pronounced "wage doge." I do appreciate that you correctly picked the best episode, and appropriately included LD's 2nd best episode as well.
It was nice that you included Calypso and The Trouble with Edward. I rank them highly. Magic to Make the Sanest Man is my favorite Disco episode. I would give an honourable mention to the escape artist, because Rainn Wilson is great and because it's McMahan's introduction to star trek. Also I would shout out the pilot of picard, which I feel is it's strongest episode to date.
I really do love the redesign of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). It's faithful to the 1960s original but just updated enough to look cool 😎 and futuristic.
A great list and honourable mentions Jessie. Personally I enjoy modern Star Trek as much as I enjoy older Trek (from TNG onward, most of TOS (except the movies) is too dated for me). I definitely find SNW and lower decks to be my favourite shows. I like a lot of Discovery but its season long story arcs do hurt the show sometimes with the burn story being a bit dull and the 10C/DMA story being better but too stretched out in its latter half especially. Picard I don’t love and unlike most people I liked season 2 a little better than 1 because for some reason I couldn’t care about any of the characters in that first season. But it’s still a bit of a mess. Always seems to start strong but then degrade quickly.
So, for my personal tastes...if I was to make a list of favorite (or best) episodes of the modern series, I would separate the live action series of Discovery, Picard, Shorts and SNW from the animated series LD and Prodigy. Mainly for 2 reasons: 1. Being a huge fan of anime and other forms of animation/CGI series myself, there's really so many unique angles which animation can get away with which live action series won't be able to perform. The expressiveness of the characters can be portrayed much more fluidic, different settings are a bit easier to transition vs live action which can make that type of quick screen changes will appear more choppy and rush or the opposite could happen and it could come out more slow pace. Story wise, you can capture a lot more in an animated series vs live action too. 2. People might disagree with me on this one, but I think there's a huge creative continuity difference between the live action vs animated series. The live action series started off as prequels, with some changes to lore of the past, and with the time jump arcs, it's a bit more unique thing of its own. The animated series just follows after whatever the 90s shows of TNG/DS9/Voyager did. I know people can tie everything together, but for me, there's a bit too much creative continuity nuances. That's my opinion.
Time Amok. God. I had tears in my eyes during the: Janeway: "Why did you need me?" Rok: "No one told me where it goes." By the time we got to: Gwyn: "how long was she alone?" Janeway: "Too long." Literal rivers of tears .
Unlike Spock and T’Pring, I love hijinks. That’s why Spock Amok is easily my number one for SNW. A lot of people have it in their heads that comedy lowers the quality of a piece of media and that “real art” has to be serious. Media that inspires joy is just as valuable as media that promotes introspection. Wej Duj, I, Excretus, Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad, and Time Amok are other stand out New Trek episodes for me. Putting serious characters in crazy situations is my most favorite trope ever.
I love coming back to this list from time to time and thinking about which later episodes would make this list if it was made now. As of my writing this, we have 175 episodes, which I think is close to the classic 7-season shows, so I feel now is as good a time as any to do that again. And I have a feeling the main list would *have* to now include Those Old Scientist and No Win Scenario. And I guess Ad Astra Per Aspera for an honourable mention? As well as the DS9 episode of Lower Decks 3.
I would have a hard time ranking the new shows. Lower Decks has been surprisingly impressive. My only two complaints are, it zips by too fast and frenetic and needs a little more time to breathe; and I wish the char. art style was more realistic. (I know they're not going to change the art style, and many people like it.) -- Prodigy impressed me with a good story; I just wish the two big beds were a little less stock. -- Strange New Worlds was very good, a little uneven for a few episodes, but overall, back to the best of Star Trek. -- I wish we had a date for the rest of Prodigy. I'm looking forward to more Lower Decks on Aug. 25th, and rewatching to refresh my memory. -- The music by Nami Melumad for Prodigy and SNW is fantastic.
Hi Jessie YOU ARE LOOKING WONDERFUL as always and I like your choice of uniform this video. I like most of the list and I always like all Lower Decks and Prodigy
What has been lovely watching these top ten lists is how it's revealed just how closely the things that make episodes matter to you align with what makes them matter to me (not always but mostly). I think this shows up particularly in the choice of 'controversial picks'. There's things in Trek that resonate *DEEPLY* and have an almost overwhelming emotional impact that often have that 'am I the only one feeling it this way?' aspect... turns out the answer's nope, and that (and the reasons for the feeling itself) is actually quite validating - not what you'd necessarily expect to get from a fun series of top ten lists. So, thanks for that accidental and unexpected extra. And on this, 8/8 - Neuro Pride Day 2022 - allow me send much love and thanks for being a fine role model of no-fuss normalisation of Neurodivergent people and Trans people just... existing. You bring happiness, pride and validation with panache. Thanks.
I'm not going to bother sorting the top 10, except to say that "Wej Duj" is number 1, "Species 10-C" is number 2, and "Calypso" is number 3, but my picks would include "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie," "No Small Parts," "The Impossible Box," "Assimilation," "Unification III," "Strange New Worlds," and "Children of the Comet." I'm afraid that Prodigy really hasn't done much for me as yet, and, while Picard has had quite a few writing missteps, I really only care about Agnes Jurati and the Borg, so I'm quite satisfied with it.
Yes! (Fist punch in the air like Data's). Yes. 'wej Duj'. The show that was 'only a cartoon comedy' to many, comes out on top! An underestimated facet of the Gem that is Star Trek, gets to shine brightest...
Lower Decks! Lower Decks! Lower Decks! Great list though! Yeah, guess you guessed my fav ST of the moment. Then again, love ‘em all. The good and the bad :P
Excellent choice for top episode! I must admit, I was getting worried when it hadn't been mentioned by the Honourable Mentions (especially after First First Contact appeared there.)
From Modern Trek I've only seen Strange New Worlds, the first 2 seasons of Discovery, and the first 1.5 seasons of Picard, so making a top 10 list would maybe be too easy, but it would probably include: 1. Spock Amok - Finally, a true downtime episode. I love every single plotline. 2. Et in Arcadia Ego - I really like Picard season 1. It might even be my favorite season of Modern Trek. Because it's a serialized show, though, most episodes have parts I love and parts I don't care for. I think the finale has the highest percentage of awesome. 3. All those who Wander - Love La'an, and it's a great episode for Uhura as well. Still disappointed that Hemmer is gone, but that's more an issue with the season than the episode (ie. The episode still works if he came back through parallel world shenanigans later, and the episode would have been a great farewell to the character in the show's last season.) From what I've heard, at least a few episodes from Discovery season 3 and Lower Decks would make a top 10 list once I watch them.
For some reason, UA-cam didn't want to let me watch this video (just would not start loading after repeated attempts, though I could skim through for a visual preview), so my excitement may have built up along with my frustration with YT. Eventually, I was able to watch, and I'm happy I was able to do so! I was a little surprised when you initially announced all of Modern Trek would be grouped together, but I understand the reasoning. It has certainly become my most anticipated out of curiosity (would certain shows take up a lot of the list, etc.), whereas we've already seen some Top 10 lists for the other shows over the years. I was surprised by many of the choices, as I found many of the lower ranked episodes to be "fine" but not amazing, though some of that is definitely experience and preference-influenced (I don't have the attachment to certain elements) so I certainly wouldn't argue with anyone choosing them. I think the bigger surprise for me, however, isn't necessarily what was included but what was left out because of that. I think I'd've included Picard's "Nepenthe" somewhere low (and nothing else from the show, even if I enjoyed moments of Picard). While I am sad to see the best 1st season Discovery episode, "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", to an honourable mention, I don't know if it would've cracked my Top 10, either. I might've put "Children of the Comet" or "All Those Who Wander" in instead of "The Serene Squall", but that's me. There's a lot of Lower Decks I'd consider, like "Envoys" (I just love how welcoming and supportive is as Rutherford bounces around divisions) and "Much Ado About Boimler" (I love Dog), but I appreciate the choices included in here. I am not sure I'd've put Lower Decks' "Wej Duj" at #1, but it definitely belonged on this list. I am glad that Prodigy's "Time Amok" is in here - I think it was the best episode the series has delivered, especially for the best character on the show, Rok-Tahk. Honestly, I'm not sure I could really analyze this further without actually re-watching every episode of these shows and I'm simply not up for that any time soon.
I see what you're saying about how hard it would be to rank modern Star Trek. Especially with Discovery, which I love, I don't know that I could separate the episodes out well enough in my head to rank them, let alone compare them to episodes from other shows.
That’s cause Star Trek isn’t episodic anymore, and every season needs to tell a single story. Arguments could be made as to whether this is good or bad, but it does make all the episodes blend together.
I'm not a member of the community, but I also ranked Forget Me Not very high. It was a statement on gender, possibility, and loss. And, they finally did it with representation that wasn't simply tokenism. A helluva love story. Maybe I cried.
This would be a difficult one for me as I'd have to try to avoid filling the list with Lower Decks episodes. I haven't seen any of the Short Treks and I was hoping they'd be on Paramount+ in the UK. The Lower Decks you choose would have been at the top of my list as well as Memento Mori and A Quality of Mercy from Strange New Worlds. I haven't worked out which Discovery episodes would be on the list and the finale of Prodigy was great.
Your list is great. Though, I know my pick for favorite episode from the current era of Trek actually belongs to Discovery: Stormy Weather. I think I've watched it three times now.
I just don't get the problems people have with Picard. Maybe I'm just a sucker for nostalgia, but I enjoyed season 1, and absolutely loved season 2. I would put Farewell in my top 10 just for the beautiful culmination of the relationship between Q and Picard..
I rag on Picard, but I don't hate it, and I also did love the conclusion to Season 2. I liked not only the Picard / Q stuff, but the new Borg was sort of inspiring. It was a kind of culmination of everything Trek has done with the Borg thus far. It makes perfect sense that the Collective could be consensual and that people would choose to join it.
I don't get the hate either. I enjoyed both seasons. There were episodes I loved and others I didn't care as much for, but I don't think the series is as bad as some claim.
With Lower Decks Season 3 coming and this being your most recent Lower Decks-related video, this would be a good place to mention that Lower Decks mobile game. At the time of this comment, it's not available in the US yet but is available in certain iOS Asian regions, and I've been taking a crack at it. While it is an obvious Simpsons: Tapped Out clone, its set up is very similar to I Excretus to the point that the story involves the LD cast going through their own Holodeck renditions of past Trek adventures ranging from the Search for Spock to the Ba'ul episodes of Discovery, to even effing Threshold from Voyager. You can watch the story portions from the YT channel Dashell Rock if you don't wanna bother with the actual game portion. Also, September will see the release of Lower Decks comics from IDW, so yeah good time to be a Lower Decks fan.
Whew, you had me going for a second. I couldn't believe that SNW misspelled a title AND that I somehow missed it. They didn't. It's actually called "Memento Mori", which roughly translates as "remember that you must die". That's much less exciting than "Momento Mori", which I assume means "You're going to die in a moment". 😁
I'm terrible at this and would have to give it a good think. But Unification III would need to be there. That gut punch on the feels of a life long Trekkie is something that isn't surpassed. I remember seeing I and II as a kid and the feeling of history and this big weight as soon as Spock walked into frame. And that story which has run through TNG and the movies and then this and how it was done and seeing original Spock from II just killed me. It's like the next part of the longest running Trek story arc.
I can’t believe you didn’t separate the shows just so you can do all 10 episodes of SNW anyways 🤣🤣 that would have been hilarious!! For me personally, Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Make is so hard to top because it’s just so perfectly on point - it not only stands alone as a story but also plays into so many characters’ arcs and the season long story. It juggles so many things yet smoothly blends them all into one well crafted story that really showed the cleverness of the crew working together. Also Ephraim and Dot would have totally been on my list somewhere because when a story is told so well that you don’t even need dialogue to connect with it, it just shows how powerful it is, and Michael Giacchino so expertly used music as the language to tell the story!
Unification 3 was wonderful because it actually progressed the universe in a really interesting way. I'm sick of Sci fi and fantasy worlds where hundreds of years pass and every place and people are utterly unchanged. Makes me hope for some other radical changes for the far future. Maybe the Klingons gave up on war after getting battered by everyone and thing in the TNG era and became an economic super power? Could the ferrengi have had a spiritual awakening after Rom introduced the concept of unions? Being striped off its resources could Bajor have became an expansionist power into the Gamma Quadrent? Now Star Wars has been doomed to jog in place for all eternity I think Trek needs to be bold in its lore shake ups.
If I were to do such a list, it would just end up with a mix of SNW + LD episodes. And maybe one episode from Prodigy. But that just speaks to me as I am a serious person who enjoy Trek for delving into deep topics and episodes of personal growth. So stuff like SNW's "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach", LD's "wej Duj" and Prodigy's "Kobayashi" resonates stronger with me.
You did a great job with this video even though I don't nearly agree with your list due to just not liking cartoons. But I am willing to give your list a watch cartoons and all.
I haven't made any favourite lists for the new series' yet; I am waiting until they finish before I make a definitive list. I have, however, been scoring each episode individually, and several of the episodes you mentioned also ranked amongst my highest. If pushed to pick my number one episode so far, 'Time Amok' would probably come top, but I would have to watch everything again to form a definitive answer.
Short Treks seems to be in limbo now, how about one where Rios has waited the long way around 39 years to see the birth of Interstellar Warp flight in Bozeman, Montana. He is more than slightly taken aback when he waits in the metaphorical wings so as not to be seen by Cochran and Spock’s great grandad, but gets to see JL again (but not interact)
I disagree with your honorable mention of PIC: Stardust City Rag for one simple reason. The way the character of Icheb was handled. I don't want to think about it too much because that scene (you know which one) still haunts me. But SNW: Serene Squall... Jesse James Keitel just makes me *swoon* every time I see her on screen. I'm with you on her over-the-top-ness of her portrayal of Captain Angel. Love. It.
All your top ten episodes are great my top 3 episodes of strange new worlds you chose are my favourite episodes but would have put your number 2 as my number 1 😊
If everyone agreed the world would be boring. I’m just happy to be able to watch Star Trek without having to convince the rabbit ear antennas to pick up a very weak UHF channel and catch a late night rerun like I did for DS9.
If anyone wants a breakdown of how many episodes from each series made it on to the list… Lower Decks: 3 SNW: 3 Discovery: 2 Prodigy: 2 Picard: 0 Short Treks: 0
Wej Duj was such a brilliant episode, and that CLIFFHANGER has left me confused and worried for months. I've really only watched Lower Decks (and might not be able to even watch more of that because of streaming service fuckery) and this has gotten me even more hyped for Strange New Worlds.
It's OK if you have to wait for a box set, or try subscribing through a third party source like Amazon Prime Video to get Paramount+. Either method is how I'm likely to do it, unless my budget crashes again. -- I really liked Prodigy and Strange New Worlds was great, although it is a slightly alternate timeline than TOS/TAS. Lower Decks is great, both fun and quirky, but with heart and story and character development. Good luck for LD season 3.
I thought you had a great face before, but you still look great. I'm not a real fan of Lower Decks, but some of the other episodes are my favorites of the newer Star Trek.
Not even a little 7of9 becoming Borg Queen! Best scene it all of Star Trek!!! And also a waist because they should have turn 7 into the bridge between the Federation and the Borg.
Jessie Gender, her smile radiant. Gozer the Gozerian, their soul delighted.
Darmok and Jalad At tanagra
Spock and Number One, singing in the elevator.
It actually brought tears to my eyes.
And, every episode of SNW I've watched since, I'm conscious of this sweet, profound, silly secret they share.
"I know how a door works" Ooh, body swapped T'Pring is SALTY!
I love SNW. It actually finally made me realise what people see in TOS, the one Trek show that has never really clicked with me. It's older than my parents and that makes a lot of the badly aged things really hard to watch (I mean content wise, I can deal with the aged visuals). Watching SNW... I teared up in the very first episode because it felt so relevant. If this is how TOS was when it aired, then it no longer surprises me how much people love it. SNW feels like TOS for the 2000s kids :D
Not only am I really looking forward to Lower Decks season 3, but I'm excited to see what Jessie thinks of the episodes. This is gonna be so cool!
I finally caught Lower Decks a few weeks ago and now I get why you say it's your favorite Star Trek show. It's really good, so funny and so rewarding if you've watched a lot of Trek and can pick up on the references. And yeah, Wej Duj is definitely the one I keep coming back to as such a fun one, but the episodes that really cemented for me my love for the show were I, Excretus and First First Contact. Especially First First Contact, the level of cooperation and heroics involved, it was legendary.
I knew Wej Duj would be number one. It's one of my favorite episodes of star trek ever, maybe in my top five.
I think you hit the nail on the head concerning Discovery and Picard. All of their episodes are part of the big story arc, and I feel they suffer - as episodes - because of it. Very few episodes of either series stand well on their own. Meanwhile Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds give full stories each time. Star Trek has always been at it's best with the small story, and that is something that is lost with Disco and Picard. For that reason, I would put Nepenthe and Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad on the list as they are some of the few episodes I can watch independently.
As for "Forget Me Not", I love the episode, but I have one major problem with it. While I'm not a Burnham hater, Michael should not have accompanied Adira down to the planet. It wasn't her story. It should've been Stamets and/or Culber that went with.
It's this stupid "mystery box" storytelling influenced by Lost. Except they forget every Lost episode was self-contained WITH a seasonal overarching "mystery box" storyline.
I agree with you Aaron. IMO one of the BIGGEST problems of TOS, TAS, VOY (& to a FAR LESSER degree TNG & DS9 seasons 1 & 2) is that they leaned TOO HEAVILY into the episodic format. IMO the biggest problem of ENT season 3, DSC, & PIC is that they go to the opposite extreme of being too serialized. For me the BEST Trek series are to one side or the other of the midline. ENT seasons 1-2 & 4, LD, & SNW are midline whilst leaning towards the episodic end of the graph & it makes them shine. DS9 seasons 3-7 & PDGY are midline whilst leaning towards the serialized end of the graph & it makes THEM shine. I find the fully-episodic series to be a problem due to having little to tie them together & an excessive use of the Episodic Reset Button, whereas the fully-serialized series are problematic because they are so closely tied-in together that 1 or 2 bad apples spoils the bunch.
@@danboyle7165 I think DS9 hit the sweet spot perfectly. The last 3 season were basically one big war story, but they were able to step away from that arc completely and tell really powerful one offs like The Visitor or Far Beyond the Stars, great homages like Trials and Tribbleations, and even had time for a baseball game in the holosuite (still trying to figure out how you can cram 20+ people into one of Quarks suites).
@@aaronsugar7228 I agree when it comes to DS9 seasons 3-7. I just think seasons 1 & 2 didn't quite get it right.
@@danboyle7165 agreed. I mean they were trying to find the balance early on, but there’s only so much you can do with Kira’s loyalty being torn, “Bajor for Bajorans”, and make O’Brien suffer. Yet even as rocky as those early seasons are, there are some real gems in there that play out down the road.
100% with you on Wej Duj. I can't believe they fit all that stuff in in that teeny tiny running time. Unbelievable writing right there.
love love love your choices. It's so difficult to choose favourites from the ones with running plots, even though they frequently have really great moments and really satisfying arcs. Every episode of Lower Decks knocks it out the park for me, but i think my favourite is We'll Always Have Tom Paris - A nice cameo (from a plate, no less), and one of my favourite storylines in Mariner and Tendi's girls trip together.
I love all the new Star Trek plus all the old Star Trek! L0L! I love all "TREK" !!!!!!!
Really enjoyed this, especially the reminder of how Unification III really encapsulated so much of what I love about Discovery.
It'd be real hard for me to rank any of these, honestly. Even just within Strange New Worlds it's like a tie between The Serene Squall and Spock Amok for my favorite. And I don't even know how you were able to pick between Lower Dekcs episodes.
This does make me want to fit in a rewatch of the first two seasons before Lower Dekcs S3 begins.
My favorite Discovery episodes are the Groundhog day episode with Mudd, Vaulting Ambition, the final battle with Control from s2, and Unification part 3.
One of the things I love in Prodigy (a series I expected to loathe but ended loving) was that it did it's mission with exceptional success. To be clear: introducing to younger viewers (10 and less, I assume) to all the lore of the franchise.
It's easy for us, old hands, to forget how much lore there is - vulcans, transporters, Prime Directive and all those things that we take for granted but that are bound to confuse and alienate the newbies that are oh so necessary for the continued health of the franchise.
For Discovery, I must say that I love that the crews' bosses were all decent and competent people. Valued allies and friends, interesting characters in their own right, and not only plot devices and obstacles to be overcome.
For the record, ST V had some of my favorite moments in the franchise, specially the movie section of it. Sybok's monologue about how the impossible was one success away, him being a good (but mistaken) man. The fact that it was the only movie I saw about space exploration - Sybok returning controle of the Enterprise after crossing the barrier, because he was confident that Kirk couldn't turn back from exploring this new part of space.
The Elysian Kingdom deserves a spot in this list just for the two seconds of Christine Chong singing.
A Quality of Mercy also deserves a place too, for the fantastic use of "What if" to expand the ST universe as a whole.
Always appreciate your aggressive positivity in these things. (I mean this in a good way and hopefully it comes across like that) It is refreshing to see such a positive take on all the new stuff, and to see someone approach all the new stuff from the perspective of “I love Star Trek and want to enjoy the new content.”
Also, congratulations on the new face!
(Obligatory shilling because I think you’d love it: If you haven’t yet, now may be the perfect time to get in to The Sojourn Audio Drama! New episodes are going to be released soon and the official discord server is hosting free listening parties of the currently released episodes!)
Ranking all these is some serious emotional labor. Thanks for doing the work.
Looking good there Jessie , god love you going thru all that surgery and recovery . Nice to see you back
Love the list! The one snub to me is Ghosts of Illyria. Everything about Una's story hit me really hard, most of all her final scene. To me, it's the best Strange New Worlds episode outside of Memento Mori.
forget me not is one of my favorite discovery episodes too, i definitely cried during that one. i remember my family making fun of me for crying lol
Haven’t made my own list yet, but this one will do!👍. Whole heartedly agree this a great list of Star Trek favorites! And I love that we get to see so much diversity SNW and Disco., literally contributing to Spock! Great job!
I love the positivity and the energy! That said, the Trouble with Edward has no business being an honorable mention, it's so callous and mean. It feels like a sore thumb among an otherwise fantastic set of picks!
I’m just glad to see you back sweet girl❣️ lists will always draw argument
but I just enjoy having a guidepost from someone I trust, so thanks so much🥰
Unification III, The Serene Squall, and wej Duj are my favorites episodes of modern Star Trek.
Ni'Var and the unification is one of my favorite things in Discovery, and I love T'Rina and her friendship with Saru (a very romantic friendship, I think).
it's so good to see your beautiful face again, Jessie! 💜💜💜
Thanks for the list! All great picks. I had a feeling you would pick that as your number 1. It's such a fun episode 😸
Honestly I had to give it to Forget Me Not for that scene at the end where Adira is able to fully embrace the symbiote and state their names. Gives me chills just thinking about.
I'm always optimistic. Fascinated to see the cross over between Lower Decks and SNW. If they genuinely make a Who Framed Roger Rabbit version, I'll excited as hell. SNW shows that the potential future can always be brighter. They're unwritten, and still in our hands.
So happy to see you talk about Forget Me Not and Unification III :)
I have watched Picard and Strange New Worlds. Now you have convinced me that I should try watching the other modern ones.
Stellar ranking. ''Forget Me Not'' is the episode that made Discovery important in my mind.
You look fabulous after that surgery...and really happy too.
It is so frustrating. I found your channels and they convinced me to jump back into Trek; to either start at the beginning, with ToS which I've only seen random episodes of or to jump in with one of the new series, either the Lower Decks or Disco/Strange New World's. And I don't have any money. And they are all only on Paramount now, lol. So frustrating. Can't wait till payday so I can jump back in to The Final Frontier with you all!! Great work as always Jessie! Loved the facial harmonization interpersonal dialogue video as too.
Thank you Jessie. Your thoughtful enjoyment of Trek is fun to watch
My whole top 11 modern Trek episodes are... all Lower Decks for me
11) I, Excretus
10) Where Pleasant Fountains Lie
9) Temporal Edict
8) Envoys
7) We'll Always Have Tom Paris
6) The Spy Humongous
5) No Small Parts
4) An Embarrassment of Dooplers
3) Crisis Point
2) First First Contact
1) Wej Duj
And I'd be very hard pressed to say any of these would miss my top 40 (I haven't made that list yet)
If Lower Decks season 3 is as much better than the first 2 as other season 3's tend to be I'm genuinely concerned for the state of my top 10 list
But if I were to exclude Lower Decks for fairness
10) Rubicon
9) Kobayashi
8) Spock Amok
7) An Obol for Charon
6) Time Amok
5) Species Ten-C
4) Project Daedalus
3) Momento Mori
2) The Elysian Kingdom
1) Far From Home
New Trek is so good, but Lower Decks is in a whole different weight class
A lot of Picard and Discovery episodes are held back by their serial structure
So many times they'll drop an amazing scene in the middle of an episode that just can't stand alone.
Wej Duj is possibly the best episode of Nu-Trek so far for me. Whilst its confirmed for T'lyn to reappear in season 3, its been openly stated that she doesn't appear much as it was all written before the fan response to seeing that episode, so i hope her infrequent appearance(s?) are well used!
Very Nice List!
I would have substituted ST:SNW “A Quality of Mercy” for “Momento Mori”. To me, “A Quality of Mercy” is an Instant Classic for going literally *inside* a ST:TOS episode. And, of course, there’s the whole Christopher Pike meets James T. Kirk thing!
From “Discovery”, I *love* the first season episode “Into the Forest I Go” where Burnham takes revenge for the death of her Prime Universe captain. The ep also does a great job in wrapping up the plot threads of the first half of Season 1 in an exciting and satisfying way just prior to the Mirror Universe jump. In my mind, it was the first really good ST:DISCO episode. Other than that, I pretty much agree with your List!
Live Long and Prosper! 🖖
It would have been funny if you had the top ten episodes from the first season of Strange New Worlds!
1. Love the Darmok intro reference.
2. I am bookmarking this now to watch later, as I work through the new Trek. Thus far I have seen Discover seasons 1-2, Picard 1, SNW, and none of the animated shows. I have only enjoyed SNW, and didnt like the others at all, so I would love to see your perspective before I dive into the animated shows. (I dont know if I will ever finish Discovery or Picard, I really did not care for them).
Gonna have a pedantic moment here: it's pronounced "wage doge." I do appreciate that you correctly picked the best episode, and appropriately included LD's 2nd best episode as well.
Congratulations, Jesse! I'm so happy for you and your new face!
It was nice that you included Calypso and The Trouble with Edward. I rank them highly. Magic to Make the Sanest Man is my favorite Disco episode. I would give an honourable mention to the escape artist, because Rainn Wilson is great and because it's McMahan's introduction to star trek. Also I would shout out the pilot of picard, which I feel is it's strongest episode to date.
I really do love the redesign of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). It's faithful to the 1960s original but just updated enough to look cool 😎 and futuristic.
I love the serene squall ❤️
Good morning! So excited to see your list of episodes
A great list and honourable mentions Jessie. Personally I enjoy modern Star Trek as much as I enjoy older Trek (from TNG onward, most of TOS (except the movies) is too dated for me).
I definitely find SNW and lower decks to be my favourite shows. I like a lot of Discovery but its season long story arcs do hurt the show sometimes with the burn story being a bit dull and the 10C/DMA story being better but too stretched out in its latter half especially.
Picard I don’t love and unlike most people I liked season 2 a little better than 1 because for some reason I couldn’t care about any of the characters in that first season. But it’s still a bit of a mess. Always seems to start strong but then degrade quickly.
So, for my personal tastes...if I was to make a list of favorite (or best) episodes of the modern series, I would separate the live action series of Discovery, Picard, Shorts and SNW from the animated series LD and Prodigy.
Mainly for 2 reasons:
1. Being a huge fan of anime and other forms of animation/CGI series myself, there's really so many unique angles which animation can get away with which live action series won't be able to perform. The expressiveness of the characters can be portrayed much more fluidic, different settings are a bit easier to transition vs live action which can make that type of quick screen changes will appear more choppy and rush or the opposite could happen and it could come out more slow pace. Story wise, you can capture a lot more in an animated series vs live action too.
2. People might disagree with me on this one, but I think there's a huge creative continuity difference between the live action vs animated series. The live action series started off as prequels, with some changes to lore of the past, and with the time jump arcs, it's a bit more unique thing of its own. The animated series just follows after whatever the 90s shows of TNG/DS9/Voyager did. I know people can tie everything together, but for me, there's a bit too much creative continuity nuances.
That's my opinion.
Time Amok. God. I had tears in my eyes during the:
Janeway: "Why did you need me?"
Rok: "No one told me where it goes."
By the time we got to:
Gwyn: "how long was she alone?"
Janeway: "Too long."
Literal rivers of tears .
The Borg lower decks in their alcoves was hilarious!
Unlike Spock and T’Pring, I love hijinks. That’s why Spock Amok is easily my number one for SNW. A lot of people have it in their heads that comedy lowers the quality of a piece of media and that “real art” has to be serious. Media that inspires joy is just as valuable as media that promotes introspection. Wej Duj, I, Excretus, Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad, and Time Amok are other stand out New Trek episodes for me. Putting serious characters in crazy situations is my most favorite trope ever.
I love coming back to this list from time to time and thinking about which later episodes would make this list if it was made now. As of my writing this, we have 175 episodes, which I think is close to the classic 7-season shows, so I feel now is as good a time as any to do that again. And I have a feeling the main list would *have* to now include Those Old Scientist and No Win Scenario. And I guess Ad Astra Per Aspera for an honourable mention? As well as the DS9 episode of Lower Decks 3.
I would have a hard time ranking the new shows. Lower Decks has been surprisingly impressive. My only two complaints are, it zips by too fast and frenetic and needs a little more time to breathe; and I wish the char. art style was more realistic. (I know they're not going to change the art style, and many people like it.) -- Prodigy impressed me with a good story; I just wish the two big beds were a little less stock. -- Strange New Worlds was very good, a little uneven for a few episodes, but overall, back to the best of Star Trek. -- I wish we had a date for the rest of Prodigy. I'm looking forward to more Lower Decks on Aug. 25th, and rewatching to refresh my memory. -- The music by Nami Melumad for Prodigy and SNW is fantastic.
Hi Jessie YOU ARE LOOKING WONDERFUL as always and I like your choice of uniform this video. I like most of the list and I always like all Lower Decks and Prodigy
What has been lovely watching these top ten lists is how it's revealed just how closely the things that make episodes matter to you align with what makes them matter to me (not always but mostly). I think this shows up particularly in the choice of 'controversial picks'. There's things in Trek that resonate *DEEPLY* and have an almost overwhelming emotional impact that often have that 'am I the only one feeling it this way?' aspect... turns out the answer's nope, and that (and the reasons for the feeling itself) is actually quite validating - not what you'd necessarily expect to get from a fun series of top ten lists. So, thanks for that accidental and unexpected extra.
And on this, 8/8 - Neuro Pride Day 2022 - allow me send much love and thanks for being a fine role model of no-fuss normalisation of Neurodivergent people and Trans people just... existing. You bring happiness, pride and validation with panache. Thanks.
I'm not going to bother sorting the top 10, except to say that "Wej Duj" is number 1, "Species 10-C" is number 2, and "Calypso" is number 3, but my picks would include "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie," "No Small Parts," "The Impossible Box," "Assimilation," "Unification III," "Strange New Worlds," and "Children of the Comet." I'm afraid that Prodigy really hasn't done much for me as yet, and, while Picard has had quite a few writing missteps, I really only care about Agnes Jurati and the Borg, so I'm quite satisfied with it.
Yes! (Fist punch in the air like Data's).
Yes. 'wej Duj'. The show that was 'only a cartoon comedy' to many, comes out on top!
An underestimated facet of the Gem that is Star Trek, gets to shine brightest...
I really missed seeing your happy face geeking out on star trek!
Wow im still stunned by how pretty you are, i cant wait to get my ffs. Awesome video as well! I'd love to see you talk more the trek movies!
Lower Decks! Lower Decks! Lower Decks! Great list though! Yeah, guess you guessed my fav ST of the moment. Then again, love ‘em all. The good and the bad :P
The Trouble with Edward is my favourite 😂
Excellent choice for top episode! I must admit, I was getting worried when it hadn't been mentioned by the Honourable Mentions (especially after First First Contact appeared there.)
From Modern Trek I've only seen Strange New Worlds, the first 2 seasons of Discovery, and the first 1.5 seasons of Picard, so making a top 10 list would maybe be too easy, but it would probably include:
1. Spock Amok - Finally, a true downtime episode. I love every single plotline.
2. Et in Arcadia Ego - I really like Picard season 1. It might even be my favorite season of Modern Trek. Because it's a serialized show, though, most episodes have parts I love and parts I don't care for. I think the finale has the highest percentage of awesome.
3. All those who Wander - Love La'an, and it's a great episode for Uhura as well. Still disappointed that Hemmer is gone, but that's more an issue with the season than the episode (ie. The episode still works if he came back through parallel world shenanigans later, and the episode would have been a great farewell to the character in the show's last season.)
From what I've heard, at least a few episodes from Discovery season 3 and Lower Decks would make a top 10 list once I watch them.
Absolutely nailed number one, its the best Trek episode in 20 years.
For some reason, UA-cam didn't want to let me watch this video (just would not start loading after repeated attempts, though I could skim through for a visual preview), so my excitement may have built up along with my frustration with YT.
Eventually, I was able to watch, and I'm happy I was able to do so! I was a little surprised when you initially announced all of Modern Trek would be grouped together, but I understand the reasoning. It has certainly become my most anticipated out of curiosity (would certain shows take up a lot of the list, etc.), whereas we've already seen some Top 10 lists for the other shows over the years.
I was surprised by many of the choices, as I found many of the lower ranked episodes to be "fine" but not amazing, though some of that is definitely experience and preference-influenced (I don't have the attachment to certain elements) so I certainly wouldn't argue with anyone choosing them. I think the bigger surprise for me, however, isn't necessarily what was included but what was left out because of that.
I think I'd've included Picard's "Nepenthe" somewhere low (and nothing else from the show, even if I enjoyed moments of Picard). While I am sad to see the best 1st season Discovery episode, "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", to an honourable mention, I don't know if it would've cracked my Top 10, either. I might've put "Children of the Comet" or "All Those Who Wander" in instead of "The Serene Squall", but that's me. There's a lot of Lower Decks I'd consider, like "Envoys" (I just love how welcoming and supportive is as Rutherford bounces around divisions) and "Much Ado About Boimler" (I love Dog), but I appreciate the choices included in here. I am not sure I'd've put Lower Decks' "Wej Duj" at #1, but it definitely belonged on this list. I am glad that Prodigy's "Time Amok" is in here - I think it was the best episode the series has delivered, especially for the best character on the show, Rok-Tahk.
Honestly, I'm not sure I could really analyze this further without actually re-watching every episode of these shows and I'm simply not up for that any time soon.
Love this channel. Love this list!
Wej Duj... not only all of that, but it gave us the awesome T'lyn! 🖖😑💚
I see what you're saying about how hard it would be to rank modern Star Trek. Especially with Discovery, which I love, I don't know that I could separate the episodes out well enough in my head to rank them, let alone compare them to episodes from other shows.
That’s cause Star Trek isn’t episodic anymore, and every season needs to tell a single story. Arguments could be made as to whether this is good or bad, but it does make all the episodes blend together.
I'm not a member of the community, but I also ranked Forget Me Not very high. It was a statement on gender, possibility, and loss. And, they finally did it with representation that wasn't simply tokenism. A helluva love story. Maybe I cried.
That smile was worth every dollar
This would be a difficult one for me as I'd have to try to avoid filling the list with Lower Decks episodes. I haven't seen any of the Short Treks and I was hoping they'd be on Paramount+ in the UK. The Lower Decks you choose would have been at the top of my list as well as Memento Mori and A Quality of Mercy from Strange New Worlds. I haven't worked out which Discovery episodes would be on the list and the finale of Prodigy was great.
Your list is great. Though, I know my pick for favorite episode from the current era of Trek actually belongs to Discovery: Stormy Weather.
I think I've watched it three times now.
One of the best episodes of modern Trek involves Boimler's taint. Just saying. 🤣
As soon I saw which episode was missing from honorable mentions, I knew what #1 was going to be.
I just don't get the problems people have with Picard. Maybe I'm just a sucker for nostalgia, but I enjoyed season 1, and absolutely loved season 2. I would put Farewell in my top 10 just for the beautiful culmination of the relationship between Q and Picard..
I rag on Picard, but I don't hate it, and I also did love the conclusion to Season 2. I liked not only the Picard / Q stuff, but the new Borg was sort of inspiring. It was a kind of culmination of everything Trek has done with the Borg thus far. It makes perfect sense that the Collective could be consensual and that people would choose to join it.
I don't get the hate either. I enjoyed both seasons. There were episodes I loved and others I didn't care as much for, but I don't think the series is as bad as some claim.
No love for "The Elysian Kingdom"?
My favorite Trek species are also the Trill, followed by the Andorians!
With Lower Decks Season 3 coming and this being your most recent Lower Decks-related video, this would be a good place to mention that Lower Decks mobile game. At the time of this comment, it's not available in the US yet but is available in certain iOS Asian regions, and I've been taking a crack at it.
While it is an obvious Simpsons: Tapped Out clone, its set up is very similar to I Excretus to the point that the story involves the LD cast going through their own Holodeck renditions of past Trek adventures ranging from the Search for Spock to the Ba'ul episodes of Discovery, to even effing Threshold from Voyager. You can watch the story portions from the YT channel Dashell Rock if you don't wanna bother with the actual game portion.
Also, September will see the release of Lower Decks comics from IDW, so yeah good time to be a Lower Decks fan.
Whew, you had me going for a second. I couldn't believe that SNW misspelled a title AND that I somehow missed it.
They didn't. It's actually called "Memento Mori", which roughly translates as "remember that you must die". That's much less exciting than "Momento Mori", which I assume means "You're going to die in a moment". 😁
I'm terrible at this and would have to give it a good think. But Unification III would need to be there. That gut punch on the feels of a life long Trekkie is something that isn't surpassed. I remember seeing I and II as a kid and the feeling of history and this big weight as soon as Spock walked into frame. And that story which has run through TNG and the movies and then this and how it was done and seeing original Spock from II just killed me. It's like the next part of the longest running Trek story arc.
I totally dig your positive attitude. Even though I personally don't like modern Terk
I can’t believe you didn’t separate the shows just so you can do all 10 episodes of SNW anyways 🤣🤣 that would have been hilarious!!
For me personally, Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Make is so hard to top because it’s just so perfectly on point - it not only stands alone as a story but also plays into so many characters’ arcs and the season long story. It juggles so many things yet smoothly blends them all into one well crafted story that really showed the cleverness of the crew working together.
Also Ephraim and Dot would have totally been on my list somewhere because when a story is told so well that you don’t even need dialogue to connect with it, it just shows how powerful it is, and Michael Giacchino so expertly used music as the language to tell the story!
hey jessie..i would love to see you do an updated version of this, maybe when season 5 of discovery ends..
always cool..peace..
rocky
Unification 3 was wonderful because it actually progressed the universe in a really interesting way. I'm sick of Sci fi and fantasy worlds where hundreds of years pass and every place and people are utterly unchanged. Makes me hope for some other radical changes for the far future. Maybe the Klingons gave up on war after getting battered by everyone and thing in the TNG era and became an economic super power? Could the ferrengi have had a spiritual awakening after Rom introduced the concept of unions? Being striped off its resources could Bajor have became an expansionist power into the Gamma Quadrent?
Now Star Wars has been doomed to jog in place for all eternity I think Trek needs to be bold in its lore shake ups.
If I were to do such a list, it would just end up with a mix of SNW + LD episodes. And maybe one episode from Prodigy. But that just speaks to me as I am a serious person who enjoy Trek for delving into deep topics and episodes of personal growth. So stuff like SNW's "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach", LD's "wej Duj" and Prodigy's
"Kobayashi" resonates stronger with me.
You did a great job with this video even though I don't nearly agree with your list due to just not liking cartoons. But I am willing to give your list a watch cartoons and all.
I haven't made any favourite lists for the new series' yet; I am waiting until they finish before I make a definitive list. I have, however, been scoring each episode individually, and several of the episodes you mentioned also ranked amongst my highest. If pushed to pick my number one episode so far, 'Time Amok' would probably come top, but I would have to watch everything again to form a definitive answer.
Woops! Time to bookmark this til I've seen the rest of SNW season 1.
Short Treks seems to be in limbo now, how about one where Rios has waited the long way around 39 years to see the birth of Interstellar Warp flight in Bozeman, Montana. He is more than slightly taken aback when he waits in the metaphorical wings so as not to be seen by Cochran and Spock’s great grandad, but gets to see JL again (but not interact)
I loved all these episodes!
I disagree with your honorable mention of PIC: Stardust City Rag for one simple reason. The way the character of Icheb was handled. I don't want to think about it too much because that scene (you know which one) still haunts me. But SNW: Serene Squall... Jesse James Keitel just makes me *swoon* every time I see her on screen. I'm with you on her over-the-top-ness of her portrayal of Captain Angel. Love. It.
I love Lower Decks, but I keep forgetting Prodigy exists.
I'm watching this in the future.
All your top ten episodes are great my top 3 episodes of strange new worlds you chose are my favourite episodes but would have put your number 2 as my number 1 😊
Logically I must concur. 🖖😊
If everyone agreed the world would be boring. I’m just happy to be able to watch Star Trek without having to convince the rabbit ear antennas to pick up a very weak UHF channel and catch a late night rerun like I did for DS9.
If anyone wants a breakdown of how many episodes from each series made it on to the list…
Lower Decks: 3
SNW: 3
Discovery: 2
Prodigy: 2
Picard: 0
Short Treks: 0
Wej Duj was such a brilliant episode, and that CLIFFHANGER has left me confused and worried for months.
I've really only watched Lower Decks (and might not be able to even watch more of that because of streaming service fuckery) and this has gotten me even more hyped for Strange New Worlds.
It's OK if you have to wait for a box set, or try subscribing through a third party source like Amazon Prime Video to get Paramount+. Either method is how I'm likely to do it, unless my budget crashes again. -- I really liked Prodigy and Strange New Worlds was great, although it is a slightly alternate timeline than TOS/TAS. Lower Decks is great, both fun and quirky, but with heart and story and character development. Good luck for LD season 3.
I thought you had a great face before, but you still look great. I'm not a real fan of Lower Decks, but some of the other episodes are my favorites of the newer Star Trek.
Looking Good Jessie
Not even a little 7of9 becoming Borg Queen! Best scene it all of Star Trek!!! And also a waist because they should have turn 7 into the bridge between the Federation and the Borg.
I sure wish they'd announce when the next bunch of Prodigy eps will be out.
Meeee too
Yes friend! Face card NOT declined!