Best 'Star Trek' episodes

Stacker ^ | July 20, 2023 | Chris Compendio

[where's_the_Outrage?]

It's hard to think of a more everlasting and impactful science fiction property than "Star Trek." In 1966, what is now known as "Star Trek: The Original Series" premiered on NBC, the brainchild of creator, writer, and executive producer Gene Roddenberry. What made "Star Trek" unique for its time was its devotion to an optimistic vision of society, one where human civilization has moved past war and poverty, boldly going "where no man has gone before."

This utopian future was reflected by a diverse cast, with the crew of the USS Enterprise including a woman of African descent (Nyota Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols) and an Asian man (Hikaru Sulu, played by George Takei). Starting in Season Two, "Star Trek" added a Russian character (Pavel Chekov, played by Walter Koenig) during a real-life period of tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.......

Read on to see if your favorite "Star Trek" episodes made the cut.

#25. Day of the Dove (1968)

#24. A Piece of the Action (1968)

#23. Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)

#22. This Side of Paradise (1967)

#21. The Naked Time (1966)

#20. Tomorrow Is Yesterday (1967)

#19. Arena (1967)

#18. The Tholian Web (1968)

#17. The Ultimate Computer (1968)

#16. A Taste of Armageddon (1967)

#15. The Corbomite Maneuver (1966)

#14. All Our Yesterdays (1969)

#13. Errand of Mercy (1967)

#12. The Menagerie: Part II (1966)

#11. The Menagerie: Part I (1966)

#10. The Devil in the Dark (1967

#9. The Enterprise Incident (1968)

#8. Journey to Babel (1967)

#7. The Doomsday Machine (1967)

#6. Amok Time (1967)

#5. The Trouble with Tribbles (1967)

#4. Space Seed (1967)

#3. Balance of Terror (1966)

#2. Mirror, Mirror (1967)

#1. The City on the Edge of Forever (1967)

[Waverunner]

..

[Varsity Flight]

LAL:” You cannot use our powers to change what is happening.

KIRK: You must save the life of our friend!

LAL: No. We will not. Her instinct must be developed to the fullest. The test must be complete.

SPOCK: It is complete. Gem has earned the right of survival for her planet. She offered her life.

LAL: To offer is not proof enough.

KIRK: If death is all you understand, here are four lives for you.

KIRK: We will not leave our friend. You’ve lost the capacity to feel the emotions you brought Gem here to experience. You don’t understand what it is to live. Love and compassion are dead in you. You’re nothing but intellect.

(Lal goes over to McCoy and heals him, then picks up the unconscious Gem.)

LAL: Farewell.”
(They recede into the darkness.)

——The Empath

[chud]

#4. Space Seed (1967)

I watched this one again today.

For those who don't know, there's a Star Trek channel on PlutoTV which is free.

[tumblindice]

Not sure, but she had to turn back. I suspect they threatened to shoot.
Remember when that madcap landed a Cessna 4 seater in Red Square?

[Catholic and Conservative]

One of my brothers liked to word that “to boldly go where no gender-indeterminate individual has gone before”.

[nopardons]

BTTT

[minnesota_bound]

Star Trek Scotty
The ONLY red shirt to ever survive.

Scotty: Blasted by an alien god and survives, check.
Possessed by a malevolent spirit to murder women and survives, check.
Able to drink an andromedan under the table, check.
Killed by an alien probe and brought back to life, check.
Throwing himself at a pack of Klingons with nothing but hands and fists because his ship was insulted, check.

Scotty was the man.

[minnesota_bound]

Q: Why did Captain Jean-Luc Picard throw out his cup of Earl Grey tea?
A: Because there was a Borg in it.
_____________________

I can’t remember the set-up, but the punchline is “And then the Andorian says ‘That’s not my antenna!’

Okay, okay... Dad Joke: I went to the Star Trek Convention dressed as Chewbacca. It was a wookie mistake.”

[rxh4n1]

“Harcourt! Harcourt Fenton Mudd!”

Ha, ha. She reminded me of Hillary Clinton.

[minnesota_bound]

Picard was always doing the wrong thing.
He did not wipe out the Borg when he could have. Costing billions of lives. Oops...

He had the tech downloaded on a tricoder for instantaneous travel thru a portal gateway but had it destroyed by Worf who then took Data and used the portal to get back to the Enterprise.

He revealed to the Romulans that Star Fleet had a ship that could cloak like a Romulan Warbird because it was not fair or something. Millions to die later.

He blew up an ancient starship of a lost civilization instead of sending a unmanned ship in to retrieve it after hardly exploring it after he got the Enterprise caught in the trap the other ship was caught in. He was embarrassed.

Data rescues a group of 20th century survivors from freeze now thaw you later as their ship was breaking down. Picard told Data that this was the wrong time and besides they were dead already so what did it matter. He later forced them to take another ship the long way home adding months to their journey to Earth because he thought they would learn something or other.

He let everyone die on a planet that he could have been rescued and scolded Worf’s brother for rescuing some.

He was going to let another planet full of aliens die but Data made contact with a little female alien and persuaded Picard to fix the volcanic eruptions.

Picard rescues Wesley Crusher / Wil Wheaton ....!

[alexander_busek]

Thanksgiving night-’66 or 67. Susan Oliver with those sultry eyes and Jeff Chandler Jeffrey Hunter. She played a beautiful sad character.

Regards,

[Political Junkie Too]

I think the best DS9 episode was "The Visitor."

-PJ

[Palio di Siena]

Thank you

[Political Junkie Too]

#1. The City on the Edge of Forever (1967)

Star Trek was filmed at Desilu Studios, where The Andy Griffith Show was also filmed.

-PJ

[dp0622]

i liked a piece of the action :)

[Shqipo]

Tholian Web & Doomsday Machine need more love.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

What? No “ Spock’s Brain?”
But seriously…
I would moved “Arena” higher, it otherwise, a solid list.

[aomagrat]

Great list!

But I would add “Patterns of Force” just for the line that Spock said to Kirk, “You should make a very convincing Nazi.”🤣

[GreenLanternCorps]

“Who Mourns for Adonis?” formed the basis for one of the best Fan Fiction crossovers I have ever read:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3396972/1/Going-Native

It ties in Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Battlestar Galactica (2003) together very nicely using the Classic Greek culture of the 12 Colonies and the Greek Goods from “Who Mourns for Adonis?”.

[exPBRrat]

Our entire family loved Star Trek it was a main event for us.