So I've been playing since a week after release, and my favorites are :

Apocrypha - Release date March 10, 2009

There was just so much good stuff in this release, it's hard to pin down everything I enjoyed. Training queue (omg!), T3, Wormholes... yeah, it's my favorite.

Retribution - Release date: December 4, 2012

Retribution was amazing, and was the first deployment I saw as a Dev rather than as a player. It's unbelievable how many people were staying late at the office, or working their fingers to the bone to make sure that things were polished and set for release. So much goes on behind the scenes, it's unbelievable.

I think my two worst as a player were :

Quantum Rise - Release date November 11, 2008

This was mainly backend stuff and didn't bring a lot of new game play to the table other than a speed overhaul. For me, I would have just called it Empyrean Age 1.1, but I can understand why it was labelled as its own expansion, as the backed stuff that was done was massive, and has really paved the way for providing a larger, more solid foundation to grow EVE on.

Incarna - Release Date June 21, 2011

From a player point of view, a lot of the people I used to fly with labelled this one "Incarnage" - Enough said I think. On a more serious note, even joining the company so long after it, it's plain to see that even though a high price was paid, we learned a lot of very valuable and humbling lessons that have really allowed us to re-organize, push forward, and grow.

It's difficult to imagine how anyone could have a viewpoint different to this. Personally, I'm struggling with the 'push forward, and grow' bit as the vision & effort seems directed to areas other than EVE. That Sci-Fi simulator feels further away than ever.

What was so bad about Incarna?

I think the following post probably covers it best:

http://blog.beyondreality.se/NeXCQResponse

Dominion < but the trailer give me ghostbumbs one of the best trailler the ever made.

It's worth noting the trailer because it was indeed quite epic, in contrast to the actual content.

I wonder.. What happened inside ccp after apocrypha ? Why they were able so good job and after that it wasn't soo cool ? They growth up too much ?? Too much corpo corpo corporation stuff ? Interesting

I think the following post probably covers it best:

http://blog.beyondreality.se/NeXCQResponse

I started 3 months after dominion was released. what was soo bad about it. As a new player, when tyranis nerfed the loot table, that killed me.

I might add that Red Moon Rising (December 16, 2005) will be always in my heart, because that was the expansion I started with. Until Retribution, I thought that the login screen music of RMR was one of the best (along with "Stellar Shadows" from The Second Genesis). But Retribution's login screen managed to beat RMR.

Only joined late 2010, so I have not seen that much of the game. Of the five expansions I've seen, Crucible and Retribution were easily the best with Crucible coming out at the head.

Worst was Incarna.

But Incursion is lacking in many ways too. CCP almost completely missed the many chances this expansion offered for both immersive and emergent gameplay. It really is a pity. And it showed, that CCP is somewhat lacking in capabilities to design PvE gameplay and to integrate it with all the rest of EVE.

surprised not to see tyrannis being mentioned as one of the worst. easily second to incarna

Best expansions:
Red Moon Rising (Gimmeh Supers - That is all)
Incarna (Space Boobies - Nuff said)
Tyrannis (PI !!!!)

Worst expansions:
Everything after Incarna (Shelving of WiS, no planet gameplay, no avatar gameplay, no more boobies, empty CQs, 6 years of now empty promises regarding ambulations, rehashed same old FiS crap over and over again... no new Jesus features.. and so on.)

Notice how Apocrypha is leading in the best choice, hint hint CCP.

So I've been playing since a week after release, and my favorites are :

Apocrypha - Release date March 10, 2009

There was just so much good stuff in this release, it's hard to pin down everything I enjoyed. Training queue (omg!), T3, Wormholes... yeah, it's my favorite.

Retribution - Release date: December 4, 2012

Retribution was amazing, and was the first deployment I saw as a Dev rather than as a player. It's unbelievable how many people were staying late at the office, or working their fingers to the bone to make sure that things were polished and set for release. So much goes on behind the scenes, it's unbelievable.

I think my two worst as a player were :

Quantum Rise - Release date November 11, 2008

This was mainly backend stuff and didn't bring a lot of new game play to the table other than a speed overhaul. For me, I would have just called it Empyrean Age 1.1, but I can understand why it was labelled as its own expansion, as the backed stuff that was done was massive, and has really paved the way for providing a larger, more solid foundation to grow EVE on.

Incarna - Release Date June 21, 2011

From a player point of view, a lot of the people I used to fly with labelled this one "Incarnage" - Enough said I think. On a more serious note, even joining the company so long after it, it's plain to see that even though a high price was paid, we learned a lot of very valuable and humbling lessons that have really allowed us to re-organize, push forward, and grow.

Well, they said it's the prototype of the expansion they don't want to deliver any more.
Imagine that.

Were any reason provided? I would like to read something on this one.
Because well, the only reason I can come up with is that Apocrypha had some actual content while many others were iterations of polishing stuff. And bringing something like that means much more work to do...