And I guess I’m in a minority because I thought ST: Enterprise was really good – and (for the most part) getting better all the time. I think the renewed sense of wonder (wow! we’re actually IN SPACE!) and a certain naivety added to my enjoyment.

I would have agreed with your statement about skipping the second season until I found out that “The Measure of a Man” is a season two episode. Based on the question you posed for “The Offspring” I’m surprised you didn’t at least mention anything about it since this episode explored that area to its entirety.

As far as the first season goes, I can think of one episode worth watching. “Home Soil” poses a big question, “What is life?” Although TNG covers this question a few times throughout its life. I also thought “11001001″ was an interesting episode, it doesn’t really pose any questions, but it definitely opens my eyes to something I hope does NOT happen to Humanity…

And quickly going back to the second season, I love “Contagion” and thought it was a cool plot. Even though they didn’t come out and say it, the fact that Geordi had to “reboot” the Enterprise is simply classic!

I don’t really believe in God either, so in my opinion, Picard’s reaction was normal.

But I rate The Outcast as the second worst episode. It is obviously contrived to smear an ugly political message in our faces with relatively little SciFi to entertain us. Who Watches The Watchers? gets the title of worst because of Picard’s emotional outburst against anything resembling the worship of God.

I agree that First Contact is one of the best. I think it captured probably current-day reactions excellently.

My favorites are all the episodes that touch on the nature of time, like Timescape in which time was fractured by attempting to help a Romulan ship that had some odd species using their quantum well as an incubator. The Next Phase gets special mention for uniqueness.

Regarding DS9, however – I should note that when it was on at first, I quickly gave up on it, as early on it was dark and somewhat directionless. However, when I came back to it later via Tivo (and ultimately DVDs), I was surprised to find that as it got rolling, it actually turned into a great show, and one that was very different than TNG, in that it was *much* more of a running story, a la a show like Buffy (or, sigh, poor Firefly), versus TNGs more episodic nature (a la the original series). When watched en masse, it’s actually quite a rousing space opera. Plus, “Sacrifice Of Angels” from season six may contain the finest space battles of any sci-fi show *or* movie ever made, imho.

Anyway, just saying that I think DS9 gets a bit of a bum rap, and is worth another viewing that really d pays off once you get into the second half of the series. (Plus, always a plus: more Worf.)

And: I concur on “Inner Light” – one of the Patrick Stewart’s finest performances on any screen. However, I have always thought that “Inner Light” also formed an amazing sort of “inner world” trilogy across the three series, along with “Hard Time” from DS9, and “The Thaw” from Voyager, which were each some of the best episodes that the respective series’ had to offer.

Voyager was very so-so, thankfully the introduction of Seven saved the later seasons.

ST:Enterprise was boring.

I’m currently trying to get into DS9 since I mostly ignored it . I don’t think it will ever come close to TNG. I’m on the second season and could really take it or leave it.