Best Star Trek Episode

[Shady]

WWWTT got me thinking. What's the best original Star Trek episode?

Now, this one is definitely up there...

I also like the parallel universe episode as well...

[bush_cheney2004]

Oooooo...FUN! And it meets CanCon rules because of William Shatner!

The consensus best original Star Trek episode is Balance of Terror, but I also favor Doomsday Machine and The Tholian Web. I preferred the technical aspects of Star Trek fiction over lengthy character development and relationships, of course.

Edited February 19, 2012 by bush_cheney2004

[cybercoma]

Only the original series? Because I think the best Star Trek episode of all time was "The Best of Both Worlds". Although technically two episodes, since it was the season 3 finale and the season 4 premiere, it not only is the best Star Trek episode, but definitely has a place amongst the best episodes of any show to air on television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsUHVuCNmXY

[WWWTT]

Good thread pick Shady!

Kudos for you!

Let this be your last battlefield is my favourite.

Maybe not everyones fav. but it was definetely a Star Trek signature episode that was often imitated but never really duplicated.

Check out the full episode and look for the depth of how this episode was written!

WWWTT

[Moonlight Graham]

Only the original series? Because I think the best Star Trek episode of all time was "The Best of Both Worlds". Although technically two episodes, since it was the season 3 finale and the season 4 premiere, it not only is the best Star Trek episode, but definitely has a place amongst the best episodes of any show to air on television.

Big STTNG fan, not so much the original series (except the movies). I agree with above, also "Chain of Command", the one where Picard is captured and tortured by the Cardassians:

[TheNewTeddy]

TOS did not age well at all and I dislike it for that. TNG, at least starting in the 3rd season, has aged very well. The 1st and 2nd seasons have not.

Some good episodes (reviews)

Tapestry

http://sfdebris.com/startrek/t241.asp

Darmok

http://sfdebris.com/startrek/t202.asp

Waltz

http://sfdebris.com/startrek/d535.asp

In the Pale Moonlight

http://sfdebris.com/startrek/d543.asp

Other goodies:

Voyager:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Living_Witness_(episode) Living Witness

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Blink_of_an_Eye_(episode) Blink of an Eye

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Counterpoint_(episode) Counterpoint

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Year_of_Hell_(episode) Year of Hell (both parts)

Enterprise

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/ENT_Season_4 (pretty well any of them)

TNG

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Who_Watches_The_Watchers_(episode) Who watches the watchers

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_(episode) The inner light

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Chain_of_Command,_Part_I_(episode) Chain of Command

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gambit,_Part_I_(episode) Gambit

DS9

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Duet_(episode) Duet

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Siege_of_AR-558_(episode) Siege of AR-558

This entire arc - http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/In_the_Cards_(episode) The DuKat on the Station arc

This entire arc - http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Inter_Arma_Enim_Silent_Leges_(episode) The final arc

And of course, the above mentioned entry from TNG.

My favs of these would have to be the group that includes the first 4 with link reviews, as well as Watchers, Inner Light, and Living Witness, but the latter for the ending (as that could be a whole entire show on to itself)

It's hard to pick between those 7, but the Voyager episode would be 7th for sure. The TNG entries are all very strong and individually beat the DS9 entries I think (DS9 was stronger as a whole however, as TNG had some very very weak episodes, and, weak seasons, while DS9 had no such thing) which leaves us with Darmok, Light, Watchers, and Tapestry. I think part of the reason I like Tapestry is seeing Picard in blue, which leave us with 3. Of those, Watchers, while an amazing episode, clearly is in third IMO, and in a head to head of Darmok and Inner Light, I say the latter wins, and so, I suppose it's my single fav episode of Trek.

Edited February 19, 2012 by TheNewTeddy

[bush_cheney2004]

TOS did not age well at all and I dislike it for that. TNG, at least starting in the 3rd season, has aged very well. The 1st and 2nd seasons have not.

Alas, this is truly a battle between generations. There is only one true Star Trek. The others are over-produced extensions that continued but never displaced the original magic of NBC's production under Gene Roddenberry.

Testament to this is the silly "retronym" The Original Series (TOS).

[TheNewTeddy]

Star Trek went though a refining process that ended when Riker grew his beard, and began to rot during Voyager.

[bush_cheney2004]

Star Trek went though a refining process that ended when Riker grew his beard, and began to rot during Voyager.

OK, but I think the rot started much earlier. Picard was tolerable because of Patrick Stewart, but the ensemble cast never achieved the chemistry of the original show. LCDR Data was a very poor substitute for one dimension of Spock, and it seemed to be a cheesy rip-off of Ash from the film Alien.

[DogOnPorch]

Quark and Odo...now that was a fun mix.

[Guest Manny]

I only liked the original series with Shatner and Nimoy, not TNG etc. My favorite episode is "Day of the Dove", in which the Enterprise crew must battle with Klingons aboard the ship. But it's hard to say, there were so many excellent episodes. In fact I can't think of any episodes I don't like!

[cybercoma]

As far as TOS goes, the best episode has to be "Trouble With Tribbles"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igiQoi0ZOQU

[bush_cheney2004]

... But it's hard to say, there were so many excellent episodes. In fact I can't think of any episodes I don't like!

Oh, there were some stinkers especially in the third season. The writing went south and the Elizabethan acting went overboard. Some of the worst had story lines that revolved around events in Earth's world history.

Edited February 20, 2012 by bush_cheney2004

[bush_cheney2004]

As far as TOS goes, the best episode has to be "Trouble With Tribbles"

Yes, this is a one of the very watchable episodes, especially the way it ends.

[WWWTT]

Oooooo...FUN! And it meets CanCon rules because of William Shatner!

James Doohan was Canadian aswell.

I think I heard he landed at Normandy or something like that

WWWTT

[WWWTT]

Oh, there were some stinkers especially in the third season. The writing went south and the Elizabethan acting went overboard. Some of the worst had story lines that revolved around events in Earth's world history.

Like human rights in the US?

WWWTT

[Smallc]

The Chase. The best TNG episode ever, the best episode ever. Oh, and pretty much the entirety of DS9.

[Smallc]

How can conservatives like Star Trek anyway?

Edited February 20, 2012 by Smallc

[DogOnPorch]

Quark explaining why he didn't get into weapon sales.

[bush_cheney2004]

James Doohan was Canadian aswell.

Sure, but he died as an American...just like Fay Wray and Mary Pickford.

I think I heard he landed at Normandy or something like that

Yeah...something like that.

[Bonam]

I'd be hard pressed to name any episode of Star Trek from any of its series that was better than The Best of Both Worlds.

In general, TNG and DS9 were by far my favorite series. Besides the 1st season of TNG, their plots were generally far more complex and interesting than a large proportion of TOS. TOS definitely deserves a huge amount of credit, for creating the Star Trek franchise, for envisioning a number of technologies that later came to be developed, for becoming a cultural icon, etc. But if someone previously entirely unaware of Star Trek was to sit down today and to watch the various series, it would be hard for me to imagine how that person could find TOS to be better than TNG or DS9.

TNG and DS9 were packed full of awesome in almost every season. A few other high points of TNG:

The Measure of a Man

Samaritan Snare

Who Watches the Watchers

The Defector

Redemption (I & II)

Darmok

The Inner Light

Gambit (I & II)

Voyager and Enterprise were definitely huge steps down from the greatness of Star Trek. Both had some isolated strong episodes, but I didn't find the characters and major story arcs that interesting. One of my favorite Voyager episodes was "Nemesis". It's about the only one I can still remember any lines from. The Krenim arc was also pretty good. But Janeway was just plain annoying.

Edited February 20, 2012 by Bonam

[Smallc]

Schisms. That was an amazingly creepy episode.

[eyeball]

How can conservatives like Star Trek anyway?

No kidding, I think the class warfare between the upper crust of Stratos and the Troglite rebels in the episode Cloud Minders probably crippled my capacity to suffer authority gladly at an early age, and who knows what effect The Way to Eden with the space hippies had.

[TheNewTeddy]

Quark explaining why he didn't get into weapon sales.

Cut it down.

The best single minute in all of trek history.

[Boges]

http://www.pitch.com/imager/daily-briefs-discontiniuties-in-wolverine-and-pathologies-of-nerd-s/b/original/2573536/372c/nerds.jpg

I like the one where The guy from Shaun of the Dead plays Mr. Scott and Harold from Harold and Kumar plays Sulu. Spock comes back from the future and watches Vulcan get blown up from the guy from Munich.