That is my personal rank order, also! It's not that I don't also love the later seasons in their own ways, but first season brings me so much that I want from fiction; it feeds my soul and impresses my brain to this day, no excuses, no decline, no "for its era."
I was weirdly lucky to meet the series in reverse order. I discovered it during third season's first airings. Some kind ForKni-L people then shared second-season tapes with me, and then first season. There were still a number of first-season episodes I had yet to see for the first time when the final third-season episodes aired.
I'm sure that my "backward viewing" played some factor in my preference, but... first season is objectively brilliant. IMO. ;-)
no subject
I was weirdly lucky to meet the series in reverse order. I discovered it during third season's first airings. Some kind ForKni-L people then shared second-season tapes with me, and then first season. There were still a number of first-season episodes I had yet to see for the first time when the final third-season episodes aired.
I'm sure that my "backward viewing" played some factor in my preference, but... first season is objectively brilliant. IMO. ;-)