The S.O.S. (Spoiler-free Opinion Summary) is an online survey of the fans designed to gauge the quality of both new and old episodes of Star Trek in its many incarnations.

It is not statistically sound, nor does it claim to be. About all you can reasonably deduce from these numbers is that one episode with a substantially higher average than another episode from the same series is probably better. There are too many problems with the method of vote collection to support any stronger statistical argument. Remember, this is just a fun, informal measure of fan opinion, and it should not be interpreted as anything more.

First, you need to make sure you've registered. Then, visit any season page (including "All Seasons" pages). At the bottom, you'll find a "Rate" button. Click it. If you are asked for your user name and password, give the same values you used when you registered. Once you have logged in, the "Votes" column will be replaced by a "Rating" column, with your score for each episode displayed in the text field. Make whatever changes you like, then click the "Submit" button.

Alternatively, click the "User Tools" button on the front page and sign in. The menu on the left will change, and you'll see a series of buttons linking to the "All Seasons" ratings forms for each of the S.O.S. series. Just click on these buttons to quickly view/modify all your ratings for all of the shows!

Click the "User Tools" button on the front page and sign in. The menu on the left will change. Click on the "Change Password" button. This will bring up a new form with blanks for your old and new passwords. Just fill out the form, then submit it.

The problem is that few people seem to view a 10 scale as linear with 5 as an average. Far more people see it in the context of the typical American grading scale where an "average" score (C) is around 75%, and a "failure" (F) is anything below 60%. Thus, the votes tend to skew to the upper end of the spectrum. For this reason, I often wish I'd chosen a different scale as the basis for the S.O.S., but it's a bit too late to change now.

And yes, there are some people who repeatedly give almost every episode a 10. But by the same token, there are people who always give zeros. Trying to police these individuals is almost impossible. Fortunately, they tend to cancel each other out in the long run, so their effect is relatively minor.

I get this question a lot. There are many reasons, not the least of which is that it's extremely difficult for one person (me) to keep up with all the new episodes of all the science fiction programs on television, especially ones that I don't watch on a regular basis. So I've chosen to narrow my focus to just Trek. Might I change my mind someday? Of course. And if I do, you'll be sure to read about it here first!

That would be me, Joe Reiss. Pleased to meet you!