The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery premieres Thursday in the U.S. After compiling the Top 10 Episodes of Star Trek Lower Decks, in Chronological Order, I struggled with how to do something similar for Discovery. The series is a puzzle-box show, with season-long story arcs where episodes collect puzzle pieces to assemble. (Alas, sometimes the final picture doesn’t match what was on the box.)
Given the show’s structure, I don’t think it would make much sense to watch the Top 10 episodes of the show in chronological order: too much would be omitted. So instead, I decided to recommend the top-rated season.
I might have guessed it was Season 4 or Season 2, but–to my surprise–it was clearly Season 1, which has the highest IMDB ratings and 6 of the Top 10 episodes.
| Average Rating of Each Episode | Average Rank of Each Episode | Number of Top 10 Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 7.53 | #13 | 6 |
| Season 2 | 7.35 | #16 | 4 |
| Season 3 | 6.67 | #30 | 0 |
| Season 4 | 6.56 | #32 | 0 |
Chronologically in the Star Trek universe, Season 1 of Discovery takes place long after Star Trek: Enterprise and around the time of “The Cage.” Of course, modern production values being what they are, the ship Discovery NCC-1031 looks far higher tech than Enterprise NCC-1701. And, it has a unique jump drive, which… well, spoilers.
So, if you want to watch Discovery, start at the beginning!
And here’s hoping Season 5 becomes the new highest-rated season…
Update: As of June 2, 2024, season 5 is the lowest-rated season, with an average episode rating of 6.3. My hypothesis was that the biggest fans would watch first, inflating the ratings from their long-term average. We’ll see.
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