Best and Worst Star Trek Episodes, Original Series

Agreed that the romance was better handled than in other Star Trek episodes. I just don't see how that's enough to make it the #1 fan favourite episode of the entire series. I suppose I don't especially look for or care about romance in Star Trek. I'm more into the science, exploration and, yes, space battles. Maybe Trekkies are a more romantic bunch than I'd always assumed?

It is indeed ironic, MWagner, that "City," as a Star Trek favorite, is more a time travel story than a space adventure.

TV time travel stories are almost always duds, IMO.

It's funny that Harlan's sole ST teleplay has to be largely a time travel story rather than a space adventure. Similarly, his two Outer Limits shows ("Demon with a Glass Hand," "Soldier") were rare OT ventures in that neither of them had a monster. Both involved main characters from the future.

MWagner said:

Agreed that the romance was better handled than in other Star Trek episodes. I just don't see how that's enough to make it the #1 fan favourite episode of the entire series. I suppose I don't especially look for or care about romance in Star Trek. I'm more into the science, exploration and, yes, space battles. Maybe Trekkies are a more romantic bunch than I'd always assumed?

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I don't know that it's that. While the episode has many virtues, I think the key thing is the tragic concept (kind of turning the "go back in time and kill Hitler" thing on its head) that this good woman who is doing the "right" thing has to die in order for untold misery and death and destruction to be unleashed because it's "better" in the long run and the way this big abstract concept is given such a small, personal human depiction (which, yeah, is the McCoy/Keeler romance thing). This is an episode which costs, in other words. Some of the other virtues are that its very well shot and has a good sober tone, yet is full of quips and humor, yet doesn't interfere with final mood or tone. It took me years to really "get" Star Trek IV, which I wasn't crazy about at first, but this ep probably inspired a lot of that movie in terms of the time travel and handling of Earth and IV was also a big hit with the fans. The movie, of course, is not a tragedy, so that's completely different, but I still get some whiffs of the two. And, while a big part of ST is the technobabble, other than Spock rigging up the communicator, this was a very non-tech non-babble show, which can be a nice break and also makes it more accessible to more people. I dunno - I like "Balance of Terror" more, for instance, but I see "City" as a great one, too.

Finished watching our 'best of TOS' with the kids. Watched about 20 episodes over the three seasons. Our favourites of Seasons 2 and 3:

Amok Time - Spock is the kids' favourite character, and we learn more about him and the Vulcans. Great Spock-Kirk-Bones interraction.

Mirror, Mirror - My favourite episode in the entire series. A fantastic premise that's executed with tremendous relish. My daughter remarked how similar the Mirror world Spock was to the real Spock.

The Doomsday Machine - Classic monster-of-the-week episode. The mania of the captain who lost his crew creates a powerful feeling of tension and dread.

Overall, my kids (aged 9) quite enjoyed TOS. They like the action, the relationships between the three principals, and the moral quandaries Spock presents with his reliance on logic. However, even though we're watching the remastered HD version on Netflix, they do complain about the special effects.

For my part, I feel the series has held up better than I'd feared. Yes, there's little depth to the characters beyond Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The settings and behaviour are dated and sometimes outright goofy. But there's also something compelling about it's sheer pulpy energy. The score is tremendous, with the familiar 8 or 9 dramatic themes really enhancing the drama. Pounding bass drums. Exotic piping. Eerie strings. And there's something appealingly lurid about the sets. The use of weird purple and pink and green lighting effects really helps foster a feeling of exotic adventure.

Now, on to TNG.

Since I went to college for electrical engineering I find Spock's interfacing his tricorder to 1930's technology truly "Fascinating"! LOL Especially when it blew up! Stone knives and bear skins.

Then there is the whole Depression Era/WWII setting of the story. I really think we do not explain enough about the importance of that period to the history and evolution of this country.

I just discovered that Robert Heinlein gave a speech at a science fiction convention in July of 1941. That would have been 2 months after the sinkings of the Hood and the Bismark, which he would have been very aware of as a former naval officer, and 5 months before Pearl Harbor.

psik

Spocks brain is definitely the worst for me. Best is much harder. Maybe the immunity syndrome or balance of terror. I also always liked conscience of the king.

Just saw "Spock's Brain" again. Yeah, bad, but not the very worst. There was no cringe-making romance element (for example, Kirk didn't trick Kara into revealing the vital truth by romancing her). There was no Enterprise crew-forced-to-do-humiliating-things-by-super-powered aliens element as in "Plato's Stepchildren," etc. The potential for a talk-down-a-sovereign-computer-into-self-destructing element was avoided. It isn't a cringe-makingly Obviously Relevant episode.

But yeah, it is a bad one. Pretty obvious camp elements and dialogue.

McMurphy said:

For such a short lived stint, the original Star Trek series sure had great high points and horrible pitfalls. What do people feel were the best and the worst episodes in the original Star Trek series?

For the best, I must go the popular route and vote for the "Trouble with Tribbles" (episode 44, season 2). It was nice to see a change from landing on planets mirroring Earth's past, Kirk seducing female aliens in short skirts, and the crew engaging in wrestling matches with cheap rubber costumes. This episode's conflict was, instead, a humorous annoyance. Note: Ever notice that Klingons looked exactly like a human back then? It was the whole premise of the episode and the final payoff for dealing with the Tribbles.

For the worst, the dishonor must go to "The Way to Eden" (episode 75, season 3). The crew encounters a band of space hippies determined to reach the planet Eden. The braindead ponderings of the misfits and their absurdly moronic guitar plucking made me eager for their untimely deaths at the end of the episode when they finally got what they asked for.

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Not even close!

Tribbles is a mediocre episode at best. "Mirror Mirror" is excellent, but it requires knowledge of the series to truly appreciate. "Balance of Terror" is excellent, but has a little bit of early show clunkiness. "City on the Edge of Forever" is excellent, but its first act is pretty lousy.

So, I think I'd go with "Journey to Babel" because not only is it excellent, but it features the ship, the scope of the Federation, and family backstory for Spock.

For the worst, Way to Eden is pretty bad, but it has the prettiest guest star (Mavig, the bicycle-wheel player) and a bunch of fun songs. It's also very very very much of its time. I generally choose The Alternative Factor, even though it features Lt. Masters, a woman of color, in a senior role. It's just incomprehensibly put together.

For me, and I probably already said this, perhaps about some other series, best & worst episodes should be judged by our enjoyment or dislike of them. For me, I usually laugh at all of them, but the one with the kids "Tell them, Jim, Tell them, Jim" was the least enjoyable. Somebody use a paddle on them, already!

Miri is pretty bad! I tend to forgive it for the excellent cinematography and it being one of the few episodes with Yeoman Rand. And McCoy being lovably illogical.

The "Miri" children can be annoying, but I'd rate this episode fairly high. For one thing, it's one of the episodes in which you really get the feeling that the problem has to be solved by just doggedly working it out. The show could have been written with, say, a resolution in which Miri tells Kirk that there's a secret tunnel the kids avoid because they associate it with the grups; she leads him there, and wheee! there they find the antidote that the adults had figured out but hadn't been able to manufacture in time....or something like that.

The "alternate earth" element is problematic. Watching it now as an adult, it seems obvious that a big reason was the convenience and cost savings of being able to use existing studio lots. One could also say that the planet's victims have to be very like earthpeople in order for the disease to transfer so readily to the Enterprise crew. But it's unsatisfactory to have these "extraterrestirals" live on an alternate earth with a wave of the hand. On the other hand, if the script had had it that the victims are descendants of a forgotten earth colony, one could object that the ruins shouldn't look like late-19th-century/early-20th-century structures.

Bottom line is that it does work, or did work, for some viewers, like me, for the first viewings. I'd give it a "B" and if I were winnowing down the series into, say, 25 keepers, would expect this one to make the cut.

Extollager said:

The "Miri" children can be annoying, but I'd rate this episode fairly high. For one thing, it's one of the episodes in which you really get the feeling that the problem has to be solved by just doggedly working it out. The show could have been written with, say, a resolution in which Miri tells Kirk that there's a secret tunnel the kids avoid because they associate it with the grups; she leads him there, and wheee! there they find the antidote that the adults had figured out but hadn't been able to manufacture in time....or something like that.

The "alternate earth" element is problematic. Watching it now as an adult, it seems obvious that a big reason was the convenience and cost savings of being able to use existing studio lots. One could also say that the planet's victims have to be very like earthpeople in order for the disease to transfer so readily to the Enterprise crew. But it's unsatisfactory to have these "extraterrestirals" live on an alternate earth with a wave of the hand. On the other hand, if the script had had it that the victims are descendants of a forgotten earth colony, one could object that the ruins shouldn't look like late-19th-century/early-20th-century structures.

Bottom line is that it does work, or did work, for some viewers, like me, for the first viewings. I'd give it a "B" and if I were winnowing down the series into, say, 25 keepers, would expect this one to make the cut.

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That's fair. As annoying as it can be, there is gravity to it. It feels like a movie. And you get to see Shatner's kid!

Galactic Journey said:

That's fair. As annoying as it can be, there is gravity to it. It feels like a movie. And you get to see Shatner's kid!

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Oh yeah... the kid.

Hmm... what was being said about a Spock sister in the new series, again?

Without watching it again to be sure, I agree with you, Extollager; but it was still among the least enjoyable episodes that come to mind.