It's so easy to calculate an average over a mere five episodes, but here I am, having lazily used Chrome's address bar anyway.
From an average episode rating of 8.2, I wholeheartedly bump this show to a 9/10. It's well deserved by the latter four episodes. The most Star Trek thing about this miniseries is that the "pilot" (not really) pales in comparison to the quality of what follows.
The biggest shortcoming of the whole production is Shatner's decision to sort of interview himself for his own feature episode. Sure, he used clips of other captains asking him questions to fill in some of the time, but a lot of 1x01 is contained in Bill's first-person voiceover. It doesn't serve his story the same way as it does the other four actors, and it's unfortunate just how underwhelming that makes the opener. In a perfect world, someone the likes of Gene Roddenberry would have been able to interview Shatner for his segment, but our world is far removed from that ideal.
For any future viewers who might look here before watching any of the show: None of the segments reference each other; they're all self-contained. Because of that, I can advise you to start with William Shatner (as one normally would), to get the abnormal episode out of the way first—then decide the order of the rest based on your preference. It might be best to start with your "least favorite" captain of the remaining four, if you choose to take this advice. If not, you'll still have a great ride watching in the intended order.
(Note: Cross-posted in the comments for both Season 1 and the series as a whole, for visibility, since they are essentially the same thing.)
Review by dgwVIP 9BlockedParent2017-11-09T10:03:21Z
It's so easy to calculate an average over a mere five episodes, but here I am, having lazily used Chrome's address bar anyway.
From an average episode rating of 8.2, I wholeheartedly bump this show to a 9/10. It's well deserved by the latter four episodes. The most Star Trek thing about this miniseries is that the "pilot" (not really) pales in comparison to the quality of what follows.
The biggest shortcoming of the whole production is Shatner's decision to sort of interview himself for his own feature episode. Sure, he used clips of other captains asking him questions to fill in some of the time, but a lot of 1x01 is contained in Bill's first-person voiceover. It doesn't serve his story the same way as it does the other four actors, and it's unfortunate just how underwhelming that makes the opener. In a perfect world, someone the likes of Gene Roddenberry would have been able to interview Shatner for his segment, but our world is far removed from that ideal.
For any future viewers who might look here before watching any of the show: None of the segments reference each other; they're all self-contained. Because of that, I can advise you to start with William Shatner (as one normally would), to get the abnormal episode out of the way first—then decide the order of the rest based on your preference. It might be best to start with your "least favorite" captain of the remaining four, if you choose to take this advice. If not, you'll still have a great ride watching in the intended order.
(Note: Cross-posted in the comments for both Season 1 and the series as a whole, for visibility, since they are essentially the same thing.)