The Best Original Star Trek Episode

[GrayHare]

As for the worst episode IIRC that was Season 3.

 

[sengsational]

Descriptions

[TABLE="head]Title|Description
A Piece of the Action|The crew of Enterprise struggles to cope with a planet of imitative people who have modeled their society on 1920's gangsters.|
A Taste of Armageddon|Kirk and Spock must save their ship's crew when they are declared all killed in action in a bizarre computer simulated war where the actual deaths must occur to continue.|
Amok Time|In the throes of his Pon Farr mating period, Spock must return to Vulcan to meet his intended future wife, betrothed from childhood.|
Arena|For bringing hostility into their solar system, a superior alien race brings Captain Kirk in mortal combat against the reptilian captain of an alien ship he was pursuing.|
Balance of Terror|The Enterprise must decide on its response when a Romulan ship makes a destructively hostile armed probe of Federation territory.|
The City on the Edge of Forever|When a temporarily insane Dr. McCoy accidentally changes history and destroys his time, Kirk and Spock follow him to prevent the disaster, but the price to do so is high.|
The Corbomite Maneuver|After the Enterprise is forced to destroy a dangerous marker buoy, a gigantic alien ship arrives to capture and condemn the crew as trespassers.|
Day of the Dove|Both humans and Klingons have been lured to a planet by a formless entity that feeds on hatred and has set about to fashion them into a permanent food supply for itself.|
The Devil in the Dark|The Enterprise is sent to a mining colony that is being terrorized by a mysterious monster.|
The Doomsday Machine|The USS Enterprise encounters the wrecked USS Constellation and its distraught commodore who's determined to stop the giant planet-destroying robot ship that killed his crew.|
The Enterprise Incident|An apparently insane Capt. Kirk has the Enterprise deliberately enter the Romulan Neutral Zone where the ship is immediately captured by the enemy.|
The Galileo Seven|The Galileo, under Spock's command, crash-lands on a hostile planet. As the Enterprise races against time to find the shuttlecraft, Spock's strictly logical leadership clashes with the fear and resentment of his crew.|
Journey to Babel|The Enterprise hosts a number of quarrelling diplomats, including Spock's father, but someone on board has murder in mind.|
The Menagerie: Part I|Spock kidnaps the crippled Capt. Pike, hijacks the Enterprise and then surrenders for court martial.|
The Menagerie: Part II|At Spock's court martial, he explains himself with mysterious footage about when Capt. Pike was kidnapped by powerful illusion casting aliens.|
Mirror, Mirror|A transporter accident places Captain Kirk's landing party in an alternate universe, where the Enterprise is in the service of a barbarically brutal empire.|
The Naked Time|The crew is infected with a mysterious disease that removes people's emotional inhibitions to a dangerous degree.|
Space Seed|While on patrol in deep space, Captain Kirk and his crew find and revive a genetically engineered world conqueror and his compatriots from Earth's 20th century.|
The Tholian Web|With Capt. Kirk and the derelict USS Defiant apparently lost, the Enterprise grapples with an insanity causing plague and an attack by the Tholians.|
The Trouble with Tribbles|To protect a space station with a vital grain shipment, Kirk must deal with Federation bureaucrats, a Klingon battle cruiser and a peddler who sells furry, purring, hungry little creatures as pets.|
Where No Man has Gone Before|The flight recorder of the 200-year-old U.S.S. Valiant relays a tale of terror--a magnetic storm at the edge of the galaxy!|
[/TABLE]

 

[O2Bfree]

I like the intensity and focus of "The Doomsday Machine". Kirk really shows his mettle while waiting to be beamed back to the Enterprise as the Constellation gets pulled closer and closer to maw of the planet killer: Gentlemen, I suggest you beam me aboard.

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

No one was better than Captain Belushi

 

[6miths]

So many good ones but I think of all my favourite is 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' with Frank Gorshin (The Riddler) and Lou Antonio (Cool Hand Luke and many, many others). I think that the moral of the story is just as apropos today as it was less than a year after the assassinations of MLK and RFK.

 

[Koogie]

None of the above. Had to look up the title but it was called "Gamesters of Triskelion"

Kirk, Uhura and Chekov fight in an arena while aliens bet on the outcome of the matches. That episode slightly beats out Arena for me. I think maybe because it was the first one I might have ever seen.

Saturday mornings as a kid were spent in front of the tv watching ToS, Hogans Heroes, Rat Patrol, Get Smart and Gilligans Island reruns. Then I would be kicked outside, in all weathers, and told not to come back in before dinner time. I rarely did.

 

[6miths]

Rat Patrol with that lovable loser Victor Newman. And Klink and Schultz... all the Germans were so nice.

 

[Alan]

Many good ones. The one that stands out most for me is the one with Joan Collins. Not necessarily because of her (though she was great in that episode). But great plot.

Another that stands out is "The Menagerie" where the show goes back to before Kirk. Oh, and "Spock's Brain" was good too.

Those were the 2 that I voted for as well.

 

[razztazz]

How do you people actually remember the plots just based on the title

HA! Probably because we're old. Eight, nine, and ten year olds tend to remember this level of detail in things they thought were cool, "groovy."

Forever

 

[Car-Guy]

My favorite was The Tholian Web. Although if they would have made an episode without William Shatner, it would have been at the top of my list. He's such a bad actor he cracks me up in some of the old shows he was in. (e.g. Twilight Zone) Even when he got older he wasn't very good. I watched TJ Hooker sometimes but not because he was in it.

 

[DrRoy]

My fifth choice was not on the list, but "Errand of Mercy" introduced the Organian Peace Treaty between the Federation and the Klingons.

I also like "Errand of Mercy" a lot, but it did not get on the other surveys I used to build the list.

One episode that is conspicuous by its absence in the poll is "Charlie X."

This was in my top 30, but I was only allowed to put 20 in the poll. Had to cut something. It reminds me of Twilight Zone's "It's a Good Life."

How do you people actually remember the plots just based on the title
LOL

Real Trekers just know. We've had 50+ years of reruns. Want me to repeat the dialogue?

 

[DrRoy]

Besides "The Doomsday Machine," my next favorite is "Balance of Terror."

These are also my top 2, but I put "Balance of Terror" 1st.

And, please, please, please, Why do they have to blow up or seriously cripple the Enterprise in the first 20 minutes of every movie? Just once I would like to see the Captain of a fully functioning Enterprise, say to his crew "I've have enough!

Picard does just that in "First Contact": "NO! NOOOOOOOOO!!! [smashes a display case in anger] I will not sacrifice the Enterprise! We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats. They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them PAY for what they've done!"

Oh, and "Spock's Brain" was good too.

Forgive me, but "Spock's Brain" is considered by nearly all Star Trek fans as the worst original episode ever. That or "The Way to Eden." Maybe a new poll?

 

[Texas Proud]

+1 scrabbler1

My favorite episode is the one where the Enterprise confronts the Romulan warship that is cloaked and heavily armed - Balance of Terror. Mark Lenard, later Mr. Spock's father and also a Klingon in the 1st movie, played the Romulan commander.

FWIW, I hope the movie franchise finds a producer who understands Star Trek. The last two movies were sub-par. The third was just awful.

And, please, please, please, Why do they have to blow up or seriously cripple the Enterprise in the first 20 minutes of every movie? Just once I would like to see the Captain of a fully functioning Enterprise, say to his crew "I've have enough! Let's show those arrogant b@*#!#ds what the flagship of the fleet can do". And proceed to blow the heck out of the evil guys.

Another for the Balance of Terror.... it is #1 to me...

 

[HFWR]

so many good ones but i think of all my favourite is 'let that be your last battlefield' with frank gorshin (the riddler) and lou antonio (cool hand luke and many, many others). I think that the morale of the story is just as apropos today as it was less than a year after the assassinations of mlk and rfk.

+1

 

[easysurfer]

These are also my top 2, but I put "Balance of Terror" 1st.



Picard does just that in "First Contact": "NO! NOOOOOOOOO!!! [smashes a display case in anger] I will not sacrifice the Enterprise! We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats. They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again! The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them PAY for what they've done!"



Forgive me, but "Spock's Brain" is considered by nearly all Star Trek fans as the worst original episode ever. That or "The Way to Eden." Maybe a new poll?

I liked "Spock's Brain". Though must admit, the part where Bones fixes his brain was a bit hokey.

Everyone has their favorites and least favorites and I respect different opinions. Hope I don't get jumped on as I know the Tribbles one was a classic and great for cute and clever but for me, definitely not one of the top.

 

[audreyh1]

Which was the episode or I think it was a movie where there was a “genesis probe” that would land on a planet and make it habitable for humans?

My all time favorite episode was the original with Kahn, and when they come out with the “Wrath of Kahn” movie I was delighted. What a great repeat!

I don’t know the name of the original Kahn episode.

OK - thanks so much for the list of episode descriptions! I now know the episode was called Space Seed - had no idea!

Space Seed: While on patrol in deep space, Captain Kirk and his crew find and revive a genetically engineered world conqueror and his compatriots from Earth's 20th century.

Yeah - I only voted for one too as I took favorite literally.

 

[easysurfer]

The battle scene in "Balance of Terror" reminds me a lot of the battle scene in "Wrath of Khan".

 

[Souschef]

One of my favorites that was not on the list was Metamorphasis.

 

[harley]

I only voted for one because I can't read directions, so it was City on the Edge of Forever. Had I voted for more, I would have voted for Mirror, Mirror and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. My other two favorites weren't on the list - Charlie X and I, Mudd.


As far as the comment about Shatner being a lousy actor, you obviously haven't seen "Dodgeball, A True Underdog Story". He was robbed by not getting an Oscar for that one. And a similar Role in "Miss Congeniality".

 

[Gumby]

So many good ones but I think of all my favourite is 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' with Frank Gorshin (The Riddler) and Lou Antonio (Cool Hand Luke and many, many others). I think that the moral of the story is just as apropos today as it was less than a year after the assassinations of MLK and RFK.

My favorite as well.

 

[Chuckanut]

If you want more ST:TOS you might check out this site on YouTube. They are not bad, IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/user/StarTrekContinues

 

[scrabbler1]

To me, "Spock's Brain" was the second worst episode. "Shore Leave" was the worst, and one I refuse to watch whenever it airs, and that goes back 30 years.


I know Tribbles and City on Edge are two big favorites, but for me they aren't. Middle of the pack, maybe. Last Battlefield I don't care for very much, either. although I did like Frank Gorshin; I kept expecting him to say, "Riddle me this, Captain Kirk....." LOL


As for how we know the plots from the episode titles so well, perhaps some of you happen to own a book I own about the series. "The Star Trek Compendium" is a large, paperback book I bought at a Star Trek convention back in the 1989 which has descriptions and some back-stories about all the episodes. (They have one for TNG, too.)

 

[easysurfer]

I also like the episode where everyone on the landing party rapidly gets old except Chekov.

 

[Texas Proud]

I liked "Spock's Brain". Though must admit, the part where Bones fixes his brain was a bit hokey.

Everyone has their favorites and least favorites and I respect different opinions. Hope I don't get jumped on as I know the Tribbles one was a classic and great for cute and clever but for me, definitely not one of the top.

I agree that the Tribbles was a very weak show. I would be placing it as one of the worst 5 on my list.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I favor the ones most mentioned as well.
Don’t know the title, but the one with Apollo wanting the crew to worship him was silly. But there’s a line where he introduces himself as the god Apollo. And then Checkov yells ‘and I am the czar of all the russias’. That always cracked me up.

Another one that wasn’t great but had one interesting notion. When Dr Daestrom has his new supercomputer take over the Enterprise. I think the notion that computers could control things at that level and replace the need for humans on a starship was fairly forward thinking for its time.