"The first season of a TV show is a tricky thing. It has to convince people to watch it and justify the show's existence to the network (or streaming service) execs. It has to deal with actors and writers who may not have fully dialed into the characters and world yet."
"Star Trek is not immune to this phenomenon. The Original Series had a decent first season, with classic episodes like "The City on the Edge of Forever." But the next four shows all have rather weak beginnings, with even fan-favorite The Next Generation stumbling badly with episodes like "Code of Honor.""
"This trend unfortunately continued into the current era, with 2017's Star Trek: Discovery delivering a first season with an overwhelmingly dour tone and a lot of franchise changes that didn't sit well with fans. The show made some tweaks in season two and showed a lot of improvement with season three."
"Things started looking up after that, with shows like Strange New Worlds all posting strong outings with their first go-arounds. While episodes like "A Quality of Mercy" and "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach" may not make the list of all-time classics, there are no outright stinkers."
First seasons of television shows face unique challenges in establishing characters, worlds, and audience engagement while satisfying network expectations. Star Trek has historically struggled with this pattern, from The Next Generation's rocky start to Discovery's overwhelmingly dour tone and controversial franchise changes. Picard similarly faltered with an uneven first season that alienated fans. However, the franchise has recently reversed this trend. Strange New Worlds delivered a notably strong first season with consistently solid episodes, avoiding the typical pitfalls that plagued earlier Star Trek series. This marks a significant improvement for the franchise in the streaming era.
Read at Engadget
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