I do love the whole ship vs ship debates. Like any thing in the Star Wars universe could even touch the Enterprise E.
A light saber sans the Force would be junk. But, give me the Force AND a light saber and I would call it a day.
There are real world equivalents. The batlith is easily countered by a swordsman, and the other was a throwing weapon in sub Saharan Africa that is actually pretty effective in hand to hand combat.
Little late to this thread, but here's where I rank them. 1. DS9 2. TNG 3. Voyager 4. TOS I don't even consider Enterprise to be worthy of a ranking, even if its last.
There's potential for this absolutely ruining what will likely be a thin story to begin with, but I don't care. Star Trek: The Search for Kirk Or Star Trek: The Search for...what was that again? My dentures?